Splash!
At the shores of Oni Island, Moses emerged from the sea, swimming ashore and smoothing back his dripping wet hair:
"This should do it."
It also served as an alibi.
After all, there were no Sherlock Holmes or great detectives here.
He wasn't sure how useful it would be, but Moses thought to himself:
"At least I think it works."
Once ashore, Moses didn't head straight to the weapons factory to forge arms.
Instead, he returned to his room on Oni Island.
The interior was completely silent.
Pushing open his bedroom door, Moses froze in place—there was a large object sprawled haphazardly across his bed.
Bathed in moonlight, the figure's gradient white hair shimmered with silvery highlights, their delicate and adorable sleeping face carrying a hint of charming foolishness.
A thin trail of drool trickled from the corner of their mouth.
They wore slightly loose pink pajamas, the hem riding up to reveal a flat, pale stomach with faint traces of abdominal definition.
Moses stared at this scene with exasperation. "Did someone occupy my nest the moment I was gone for a day? Yamato, you're really something."
Resigned, he closed the door.
Moses and Bear Cub exchanged glances.
"Moses, where do we sleep tonight?"
"You go sleep in Xiao Pei's room with him. I'll take the sofa."
Bear Cub's furry face twisted in conflict as he shook his head. "Bear doesn't want to. Bear doesn't like sharing beds."
Moses gritted his teeth. "Fine, then we'll sleep in Yamato's room."
No sooner said than done.
Yamato's room was also on the second floor, though far from Moses'—one on the east end, the other on the west.
Walking down the quiet hallway, they soon pushed open the door. Seeing the relatively tidy bed inside, Moses and Bear Cub took a quick shower before lying down and quickly falling asleep.
...
The next day,
A beam of morning light streamed through the window, soon casting warmth across Moses' face. His eyelashes fluttered as he opened his eyes.
Staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, the room filled with faint wisps of fragrance, his gaze was momentarily dazed. A few seconds later, realization dawned.
On the windowsill sat a potted plant, its emerald-green leaves adorned with tiny white blossoms, their pistils a soft yellow, exuding an endearing charm.
The room's fragrance came entirely from it.
"Murraya paniculata?" Recognition flashed in Moses' eyes. "An herb that promotes blood circulation and dissipates stasis."
He wasn't surprised by this.
Given how often Yamato got beaten up, having a medicinal herb in her room that addressed her injuries was perfectly normal.
After washing up,
Moments later, just as Moses stepped out of the bathroom, the room's door opened. Yamato, still bleary-eyed, walked in and spotted Moses.
For a moment, her face went blank. Two seconds later, she zipped over to Moses, gripping his shoulders and shaking him vigorously, tears welling in her eyes as she babbled incoherently:
"So you didn't abandon me after all! You scared me to death! I didn't see you for a whole day and night—I thought you'd run off and left me behind!"
Yamato looked at Moses and grinned goofily. "Good thing you didn't leave. Really good."
As she spoke, her lips stretched into a silly smile, arms spread wide as she tried to hug Moses.
Seeing this, Moses wordlessly reached out and pressed a hand against her face, pushing her back. "I don't break promises I make to you."
"I just had some business to take care of yesterday. Did anything happen on Oni Island?"
Yamato grabbed Moses' wrists, chuckling as she replied:
"What could possibly happen here? With that Ox-Horned Gorilla Kaido and that birdman King around, hardly anyone dares to cause trouble here.
Even if some outside pirates accidentally wander in, they either get recruited by Kaido, beaten to death, or thrown into the Udon mines as slave laborers."
Moses thought she had a point and released her face. Most people who come here probably wouldn't even make it past King.
"Then do you know if anyone came looking for me yesterday?"
Yamato shook her head blankly.
"I didn't notice. I guess it was just me.
I looked for you all morning yesterday to have breakfast together but couldn't find you anywhere. I asked Ulti and her brother, but they didn't know where you'd gone either—just that you'd disappeared early in the morning.
So I spent the whole day searching for you, too afraid to ask anyone else. By evening, I went to your place and saw you still weren't back, so I just slept in your room."
"When did you get back?"
"After you fell asleep. I came back and saw you'd taken over the bed, so I had no choice but to sleep there too."
"You could've woken me up!" Yamato said helplessly. "Or just pushed me aside—your bed's big enough."
"And then kicked you off the bed?" Moses sighed. "Bear Cub and I were already there. With you, it wouldn't have fit."
"Oh, right." Yamato chuckled sheepishly. "Thanks for not kicking me off, or I'd have woken up with a stiff neck this morning."
"Let's go," Yamato said, grinning.
"Let's get breakfast. I barely ate anything yesterday because I was too busy looking for you. I'm starving now."
Moses was exasperated. This dumb dog.
He pinched her right cheek with his left hand and tugged. "You should've eaten anyway, idiot."
Yamato just giggled foolishly, reaching out with her left hand to pinch Moses' right cheek in return. Watching his face distort slightly under her pull, she laughed:
"I wanted to eat with you. I wanted us to have meals together."
Moses sighed.
This big dog was unexpectedly clingy.
"What if I'd really run away? Would you have just starved?"
Yamato blinked. "Then I'd eat when I got too hungry."
"Dumb dog."
Moses cursed.
"You're the dumb one," Yamato puffed out her cheeks. "I'm not stupid—I'm actually super smart."
Moses massaged his temples, sighing in exhaustion.
"Let's eat. We'll stop by my place first to get Ulti and the others."
"Okay."
A few minutes later.
Back in the room, Moses fell silent when he saw Ulti and Page One, already up and washed.
Looking at the siblings covered in bandages, their faces bruised and swollen, Moses asked softly:
"Who hurt you?"
Ulti's face lit up briefly when she saw Moses, but at his question, she averted her eyes awkwardly.
"N-no one hurt us. I just... fell during training."
"You fell during training and somehow dragged Page One down with you?"
"Uh... yeah."
Ulti lowered her head meekly.
Page One muttered under his breath:
"She said it was a free-for-all, but that blond guy used his size advantage. Even after knocking her down, he kept riding her and beating her senseless."
"If King hadn't stepped in, Sis would've been laid up for a month."
"Page One!!!" Ulti's eyes flared as she yelled at him, then turned to Moses to explain:
"We're fine. That bastard isn't much older than us—he just relies on being big and thick-skinned. Otherwise, I'd have definitely bitten a chunk out of him."
Moses looked at the medicinal plaster on her face, then pinched her mouth open and lifted her lip. A front tooth was missing—no wonder her speech sounded airy. Ulti blushed and averted her eyes.
Seeing this, Moses chuckled. "From what you just said, did you actually bite him and then get your tooth knocked out?"
Ulti lowered her head and mumbled,
"I'm in the middle of losing my baby teeth. That one fell out on its own."
Ruffling her hair, Moses smiled. "Let's drop it. Come on, let's go eat first."
Ulti sighed in relief, then shot a fierce glare at Page One, mouthing silently:
"Mind your own business."
Page One curled his lip but didn't say anything more.
A short while later,
The officers' dining hall on the second floor of the mess.
The group arrived here.
Due to their status within the pirate crew, they were granted early access to this dining area, while the others had to eat in the main mess hall.
The serving counters were lined with all kinds of delicious food, allowing them to pick whatever they liked.
The spacious dining hall was furnished with over a dozen tables and chairs.
At the moment, only a few people were eating breakfast inside.
The arrival of their group instantly livened up the place.
Then—
The moment Moses stepped into the dining hall, his gaze locked with another pair of eyes—none other than Jack, the one who had beaten up Ulti and her brother.
"What are you staring at?" Moses asked flatly.
Jack, tall and burly, paused mid-bite, his fierce eyes narrowing at Moses. "What if I am?"
"You looking for trouble?"
Moses tilted his head slightly, eyelids lowering as he stared down at Jack with an expression of cold disdain.
At the sight of this, memories of being sucker-punched by this bastard two days ago surged in Jack's mind. His temper flared instantly, veins bulging in his eyes.
He slammed to his feet, the heavy chair behind him toppling over with a loud crash.
BANG!
The sharp noise cut through the quiet dining hall.
Jack's face twisted with malice as he jabbed a thick, club-like finger at Moses' face:
"You bastard, who the hell do you think I am? You wanna die?"
Just as he spoke, Moses suddenly took two quick steps forward, grabbed a chair from a nearby table, and hurled it straight at Jack's head.
WHOOSH!
The chair whistled through the air, reaching Jack's forehead in an instant.
Rage exploded in Jack's chest. With a furious roar, he swung a fist—
CRACK!
The chair shattered into pieces.
SPLINTERS FLEW EVERYWHERE.
Moses was already lunging at Jack, leaping up and delivering a full-powered punch to his chin.
THUD!
Jack's body lifted two meters off the ground.
Both landed at the same time. The moment Moses' feet touched the floor, he pivoted and launched a spinning high kick straight into Jack's gut.
THUMP!
Jack's eyes bulged, his face flushing red as his body hurtled backward—
SMASH!
He slammed into the wall ten meters away with a heavy impact.
BOOM!
The dull echo reverberated through the room.
The entire wall instantly cracked apart, shattered stones flying in all directions.
Moses snapped his fingers at Bear Cub behind him and crooked a finger. In less than two seconds, a baseball bat came whistling through the air toward him.
Raising his right hand with perfect timing, he caught the bat's handle by sound alone.
Moses then looked at Jack, who had fallen from the wall onto the ground.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Violent coughs wracked his body.
Jack's face flushed crimson as he gasped for breath, his eyes bloodshot: "Bastard, you're dead. Pah!"
After spitting out a mouthful of bloody bile, Jack's body began inflating like a balloon. Thick brown fur sprouted across his skin as he transformed into an elephant-headed humanoid, complete with a massive trunk and a pair of one-meter-long white tusks protruding from either side of his mouth.
His height now exceeded five meters.
With murderous cruelty in his eyes, he glared at Moses. "Was that supposed to tickle me?"
Moses grinned, flashing white teeth, then cracked his neck and strode toward Jack, picking up speed until he broke into a jog.
With an enraged roar, Jack charged forward with heavy stomps that shook the ground like a wild elephant gone mad, barreling straight for Moses.
In the blink of an eye, the two collided.
A massive fist came crashing down toward Moses' upper body. At the same time, the baseball bat traced an arc through the air—Wham! The heavy impact knocked Jack's fist aside.
Moses leaped up, appearing above Jack's head. Gripping the bat with both hands, he swung it down with a howling gust of wind—Thud!—striking Jack across the face and sending him staggering.
Moses landed nimbly on one of Jack's tusks.
Pushing off with his left foot, his right leg lashed out with devastating force, becoming a blur as it whipped across Jack's face again with brutal precision.
The kick sent Jack sprawling onto his back.
Dropping from midair, Moses stomped both feet onto Jack's face, slamming him back down just as he tried to rise.
Seeing the defiance still in Jack's expression, Moses coldly raised the bat and began raining down blows without mercy.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!
Crack! One of the tusks snapped clean off at the base, spinning away like a projectile.
Jack howled in pain, pressing his hands against the ground to push himself up.
But—
Moses lifted his right foot slightly before driving it down with explosive force onto Jack's skull.
Thud!
A dull impact echoed as Jack's head smashed into the pavement.
Moses jumped off, gripping the bat with both hands. He kicked Jack's body upward, then swung the bat in a swift arc—Crack!—shattering the base of the remaining tusk.
Another snap echoed through the air.
Jack had barely begun to scream in agony when Moses' bat came swinging around again—Crunch!—smashing into his mouth.
A flurry of bat strikes enveloped Jack's entire body, each impact resonating with a heavy thud. Five minutes later, Moses flicked the bat to shake off the blood and stared down at Jack, whose swollen face had reduced his eyes to slits.
"Had enough? Still itchy?"
Jack's dazed eyes struggled to focus on Moses as he let out incoherent, gurgling noises.
Moses pressed his lips together, his gaze icy. He raised the bat high once more, looking down at Jack with lowered eyelids.
"Die."
The bat descended with a shrill whistle, crashing mercilessly into Jack's temple.
Fear finally appeared in Jack's eyes.
He struggled desperately.
Inarticulate whimpers escaped his throat.
In the blink of an eye,
The baseball bat was about to come crashing down.
But at that moment,
A chair came flying toward Moses with a whoosh.
His body retreated precisely one step back, his right hand gripping the bat's head as he pointed it at King who had appeared at the restaurant entrance.
"King, what's your problem?"
Crash!
The chair shattered into pieces against the wall.
King stared into Moses's indifferent eyes, his gaze beneath the helmet unreadable as he spoke calmly:
"Jack is a genius, a future pillar of our crew. You can fight, torment, and humiliate each other, but crippling or killing is off limits."
"Yesterday Ulti's mouth was too venomous, so Jack hit her harder than usual. But with me watching, there won't be permanent damage or death."
"Beat him within an inch of his life if you want, just don't actually kill him. That's the survival baseline for talents like you in this crew."
Moses nodded.
"Got it."
His eyes then shifted to the horned girl standing behind King, only slightly shorter than him—Black Maria. Moses asked her:
"Did you call King here?"
Seeing the hostility in Moses's eyes, Black Maria instinctively stepped back.
But then she wrapped her arms around King's arm, looking up at him with pitiful eyes:
"Lord King, that boy wants to hit me! Can you make him stop?"
King impassively shook off her grip, stating flatly:
"I don't interfere in matters between peers. And don't touch me casually—this is your first and last warning."
Moses glanced down at Jack lying on the ground gasping for breath, then suddenly kicked out with his right leg, sending Jack spinning through the air to crash heavily against a wall.
He then walked toward King.
Seeing Moses approach, Black Maria's face showed panic as she subtly hid behind King.
King grew wary as Moses neared, preparing to block any sudden attacks.
After all, this kid had a history.
And King had just thrown a chair at him.
Frowning, King began: "You—"
Moses looked at the long sword at King's waist and smiled, extending his right hand:
"Give me the sword."
King's face twitched beneath his helmet, his tone turning cold:
"This is... my sword."
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