Looking back, the year on Little Garden passed in a flash.
Enough happened to keep the ship's log from getting dull, but the most noteworthy development was the strength every crew member had gained over that year. Kanata and the others were confident that, at the very least, they wouldn't be taken down easily by the Navy. The crew members themselves, however, were slightly disheartened as they looked at Kanata's group, whose strength was clearly in another realm entirely.
Kanata believed that the foundation of Haki was to never doubt one's own power, and she worried that at this rate, it would be difficult for them to ever master it.
"Gababababa!! You're setting sail already?! It's going to be lonely around here!"
"Gegyagyagyagya!! Why don't you just live here for another year?"
"We're not in a particular hurry, but frankly, I've had my fill of this island. I want to see all sorts of other places."
"I see! The sea is a vast place. Come back and visit if you ever feel like it! By then, our duel might be settled, and we'll be back home in Elbaf!"
"No doubt! The next time you come to this island, we might not be here!"
Neither of the two giants doubted that he would be the victor. Commenting on that would only start another duel, so Kanata deliberately kept her mouth shut. For a final farewell before their departure, she drew her weapon.
It wasn't something created from her own power, but a special spear carved from the fang of a Sea King that had appeared from time to time. The white spear was over two meters long and turned a reddish-black when coated in Armament Haki.
"Alright, I'll go first—and I'm coming with everything I've got," Dorry declared.
"Good. Come at me with the intent to kill."
Dorry raised his sword high, imbuing it with even stronger Haki before swinging it down with incredible force. The moment their weapons clashed, a sound like the very air exploding echoed across the island, and a tremendous shockwave erupted from that single exchange.
Ignoring the vast difference in their sizes, Kanata stood her ground, not moving back even a single step after taking the mighty blow.
"—Alright, my turn," Brogy said.
Dorry and Kanata each took a step back, exchanged a respectful nod, and Kanata turned to face Brogy.
Like Dorry, Brogy raised his battle-axe high, swinging it down at Kanata with enough force to shatter the earth. Once again, she met the attack, her Haki-infused spear clashing with Brogy's battle-axe, and another shockwave swept across the land. The explosive impact dissipated in an unnaturally wide pattern. After the shock and sound subsided, the two of them stepped back and exchanged nods.
"—Gababababa!! I never would have imagined a year ago that you'd become this strong!!"
"Gegyagyagyagya!! To think a little human would be able to clash weapons with us! You never know what life has in store for you!"
They plopped down on the ground and roared with laughter. To think that the girl who had arrived on this island a year ago, challenging them because she "wanted to get stronger," would one day be able to match their blows. It was something they had never imagined.
Meanwhile, Kanata, who had just blocked one attack from each of them, was taking a deep breath and checking the condition of her arms.
"...I can still only just barely block it. I'm no match for you two."
"The question is how many people in this world could do even that," Junci said.
"That's right. You should be more proud. We are the strongest warriors of Elbaf, and you can withstand our blows," a giant added.
Just the clash of their weapons created a massive shockwave. Kanata was using Ryuo to deflect it, but it was a dangerous tightrope walk where one mistake could have turned her into mincemeat. There had been times when she'd failed to block properly and been sent flying to the island's edge, and times when she'd failed to disperse the shockwave completely and cracked the very island itself.
Thanks to that training, the full-power attacks of Junci and Zen no longer fazed her, but she had come close to death more times than she could count.
"I'll be back," she promised. "Next time, I'll bring good sake."
"Oh, we'd appreciate that!"
"Your duel is nowhere near finished. You'll probably still be here for a while."
Riding on Dorry's shoulder, the three of them returned to the ship. Kanata raised a hand to the crew, who were waiting with the preparations for departure complete. She jumped down from Dorry's shoulder onto the deck and turned back to face the two giants.
From the group waiting on deck, Feiyun stepped forward.
"Um, Master Dorry! Master Brogy!"
"Oh, Feiyun!"
"You stay well, too! If you make it back to Elbaf before us, tell them not to worry about us!"
"I will… I will! You two take care!"
Waving with tears in her eyes, Feiyun finished her goodbyes. The other crew members also called out their farewells to Dorry and Brogy, who responded with broad smiles.
The goodbyes were over. All that was left was to move forward.
"Set sail! Unfurl the sails!"
The large sails billowed out, catching the wind and beginning their journey to the next island.
Watching them go from the beach, Dorry and Brogy raised their weapons high and sent them off with a final blessing.
"May your journey be a good one!!"
"May the protection of Elbaf be with you on your path!!"
"Farewell! Stay strong! Gababababa!!"
"We'll look forward to the day we meet again! Gegyagyagyagya!!"
Feiyun kept waving until the two laughing giants were out of sight. When they finally disappeared, she lowered her hand, a look of loneliness on her face. She slapped her cheeks as if to snap out of it and turned to face the front of the ship. Even if she felt a pull to look back, she had to move forward. She had known this from the start. A journey was a story of meetings and partings.
☆
They didn't know how many days it would take to reach the next island, but Dorry and Brogy had told them it wouldn't take long. Kanata had secretly worried that a giant's sense of "not long" might mean several weeks, but she was relieved to find that the distance truly wasn't that great.
Perhaps because it had been a while since they were last at sea, their steering was a bit clumsy at first as they tried to get their feel back. Gradually, they readjusted, and their voyage on the Grand Line proceeded smoothly.
Kanata had brought a beach chair onto the deck and was sitting under a parasol, occasionally checking their course while reading a newspaper delivered by a News Coo.
"I wonder what the next island will be like."
Kuro, who had been looking bored, struck up a conversation. Kanata looked up from her newspaper and answered succinctly.
"Goldfish poop."
"…Sorry, could you say that again?"
"Goldfish poop."
"I didn't mishear that, did I? Goldfish poop? What the heck is that?"
Faced with Kuro's barrage of question marks at her overly simple answer, Kanata folded her newspaper and pondered how to explain. Just then, the crew's newcomer, David the "Bomb Human" whom they had recruited on Little Garden, appeared. Humbled by his defeat to Kanata and the loss of his entire crew, he spoke politely despite his age.
"It's an island colloquially known as the 'Nothing Island.' It was called that because there is literally 'nothing' there, but, uh, according to Lord Dorry and Lord Brogy…"
"It's goldfish poop," Kanata finished.
"Yeah, I got that part," Kuro sighed.
"Apparently, before we arrived, there was a giant goldfish that the Captain froze. This is from that," David explained.
"So… it's the goldfish's… poop?"
David nodded solemnly.
Kuro clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
Kanata and David had heard the story from Dorry and Brogy. The next island, the "Nothing Island," was apparently the droppings of the giant goldfish known as the "Island Eater," which had consumed the surrounding islands. Kanata had turned the Island Eater itself into an ice sculpture in an instant, but what it had eaten and excreted in the past remained.
"I will not be landing on the next island. None of you are to land either. There's nothing there, anyway."
"Ah, my stomach hurts. I see, so that's what kind of island it is… pfft."
Kuro couldn't seem to stop laughing, still shaking with small chuckles. Knowing the circumstances, Kanata was vehemently against setting foot on the next island. The Log Pose would set even if they stayed on the ship, after all.
David managed a wry smile, but there was another issue.
"That's not the main problem, though…"
"What, there's another problem besides it being goldfish poop?"
"The problem is that it ate multiple islands."
Each island in the Grand Line has its own magnetic field, allowing travel to the next by letting a Log Pose record its log. Because the "Nothing Island" was a mixture of multiple islands' magnetic fields, even if you could get there, the next island wasn't fixed.
"Because the magnetic fields of so many islands are mixed together, the island the Log Pose points to changes depending on how long you stay. The recorded log gets overwritten again and again."
"Whoa, so it has a property like that… That means our next destination is a gamble, huh?"
"That's right. And since that's what the two who have actually been there said, it's likely credible."
The two giants had told it as a funny story, about how they mistook the enormous pile of dung for a continent and landed on it. Kanata and Scura, however, looked utterly disgusted. It wasn't a topic for dinnertime, and more than that, it was physiologically and hygienically repulsive.
But it was also true that their stories had been incredibly interesting. An island where lightning constantly fell, an island with invisible footholds, and an island with a giant tree dozens of times taller than a giant. There were also tales of Fish-Man Island, which they passed through to get to this half of the sea, and the legend of Sky Island. They had certainly lived long enough to have seen it all.
That aside…
"A Log Pose for the New World can store the logs of multiple islands. I don't mind where we go, so you all can decide."
"You sure? Anywhere sounds interesting to me, and I won't object to wherever you decide, Captain."
"Same here, Captain."
"Hmm," Kanata mused, considering their replies. She understood their thinking; as the captain, she should be the one to decide the ship's course. While she truly didn't have a preference, as the ship's navigator, it would be smoother in many ways if she made the final decision.
"...Well, you're right. I'd rather leave this island as quickly as possible, anyway. Let's just set sail as soon as any log is set."
"Hehehe, the Grand Line really is an interesting sea," Kuro cackled.
He had never imagined there could be a goldfish so huge it could eat islands, let alone that its dung would contain the mixed magnetic fields of multiple islands. It was these kinds of strange things that made adventure so interesting.
"I can't wait to see what kind of island we end up at."
☆
A few days later, the crew arrived at the "Nothing Island" and were left speechless.
Because it truly was an island of "nothing."
***
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