chapter 104

Three days have passed since the Artur Bacca incident, and there's still no word from Law. I can't say that I haven't expected as much. Based on what I know about him from the anime, he'll probably wait until the very last second to give a reply.

And speaking of Artur Bacca, his fate was nothing but ironic. After a brief meeting between the citizens of Pleasure town, they forced the pirate captain to become a handyman responsible for fixing any damaged building in the future while paying him the lowest possible wage.

Although some people demanded they cut off the pirate's head then and there, their respect for Wolf, along with the fact that Artur Bacca wouldn't be able to use his devil fruit powers again, calmed them down.

The citizens imprisoned the rest of his crew on the island or delivered them to the marines if they had bounties, with a few of them managing to escape.

Volcano, the Somu wrestler, and Artur Bacca's second in command was among the escapees, but no one cared about him since he wasn't a genuine threat, and that was the end of that.

I, myself, spent these days training my phasing abilities on water, and even though the process wasn't pleasant, I was able to do it in the end.

And let me tell you, the feeling of having water inside my body after my first attempt to phase through it, which failed, causing water to be inside places it shouldn't be in, wasn't pleasant.

Spending two hours getting rid of the water literally stuck inside my body because of its changed density wasn't pleasant either, but I managed to figure it out in the end, and that's all that matters.

I also finally met the mink polar bear, Pebo, and he was nothing if not top grade comic relief. I still smile every time I remember the first he met my crew and ended up profusely apologizing after Elly pointed out her surprise at the fact that he's a talking bear.

He acted just as clumsily and meekly as he did in the anime, but there was something more to him. Of that, I'm sure.

And speaking of the mink polar bear, I was actually talking to him right now after I made my way to Wolf's base inside the swallow-shaped mountain along with Charles.

"Wolf will be right with you," Bepo said while curiously eyeing Charles, who was doing the same. "I almost forgot, you guys haven't met before, right?" I asked as I noticed them eyeing each other.

"I think I'd remember meeting a talking bear if I did," Charles said while giving Bepo a once over. "I'm sorry for being a talking bear," Bepo said with a downcast expression as he lowered his head to look at the ground.

"You don't have to be sorry, you know," Charles said with twitching eyes. "I'm sorry for apologizing so much," Bepo apologized again, causing me to laugh while Charles merely looked speechless.

"I'm Charles, by the way. What's your name?" Charles introduced himself after a second of awkward silence, extending his hand as he did.

"My name is Bepo," the bear mink said as he shook Charles's hand. "Oh, it looks they're getting along," came Wolf's voice as he came out of his house.

"Do you need something from me, young man?" Wolf asked as he turned to look at me after giving Charles a greeting nod. "Kind of, It's about this guy right here," I said while pointing at Charles.

"What about him?" the inventor asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion. "Well, you see, we picked him up from Spider Miles, but we can't take him with us," I said with a sigh.

"I was hoping you can take care of him until he's old enough to take care of himself," I concluded, awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck.

"As long as he earns his keep by helping with my inventions and the farm, then I don't see why not," the inventor remarked after a couple of seconds of thought.

"There you have it, you little shit," I said as I ruffled Charles's hair. "You'll be staying here from now on, so ear your keep, and don't bother Wolf too much," I added with a smile.

"Fine," Charles said, glaring at me as he slapped my hand away from his hair. "I have something to take care of, so I'll be taking my leave, now," I said with a smile as I gave Charles one last head chop in retaliation, turning around and leaving.

-0-

Three more days passed after I left Charles with Wolf, and even though I hate to admit it, the little shit did grow on me, and his presence in just a little bit missed.

Bob, Elly, and Kozue still visited him to continue his training, but that, too, will come to an end tomorrow when we leave the island.

I, myself, spent the past days exploring the island to take a break from training, and I finally got the chance to climb all the way to the top of the swallow mountain.

And even though the animals became stronger the more I climbed, they were still weak, and I didn't come across anything interesting, but the view from the top of the mountain was at least worth it.

What really made me happy was that Laffite awakened his armament Haki while sparring with Wilson yesterday. Even if it wasn't as exciting as awakening it during a battle to the death, it still did the job.

Sparring with Wilson aside, I also had my navigator leave the island to investigate the strange weather phenomena, and he came back confirming its existence.

And with that conclusion, we confirmed our next stop, and I'm already looking forward to it. Hopefully, we'll have Law with us when we go there.

Kozue, and Byron, were making progress on their six powers training as well, and while Doc Q was interested in the techniques too, he wasn't able to train in them.

His illness was weird like that. Even though he could muster up the strength to fight equally against someone like Laffite, that's where his stamina will run out, and he didn't have enough energy to train continuously.

I also got a call from Kumadori and Fukurou informing me that they've managed to infiltrate the organization of the Baroque work, but that's not all they had to say.

They also informed us that some famous bounty hunter has gathered a bunch of his colleagues and is waiting to ambush us in the twin capes, which is hilarious since they probably expected us to arrive there a week ago.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for them, they'll have to wait for even more time, as we still have something to do in north blue before going there.

-0-

"Are you sure they'll come, fence?" Asked a man whose clothes were full of gun holsters and ammo. "We've already wasted one week of our time here," he said with a sigh.

"Maybe we should just give up and find another target," the man concluded, choking at the end of his sentence as a portal appeared in front of his face and a hand emerged from it, gripping his neck.

"Are you questioning me, Memento?" Fence, a man in heavy clothing asked in an icy tone, his hand inside a portal similar to the one that appeared in front of Memento's face.

"Of course not," Memento said while clutching the hand around his neck, trying to pry it off. "But their ship might have sunk while trying to cross the reverse mountain," he said, finally heaving a sigh of relief as Fence retrieved his hand.

"If I say they'll be here, then they'll be here," Fence said with a scowl, wiping his hand with a piece of cloth. "So keep your mouth shut and eyes open until then," he concluded, turning around leaving.

-0-

"It looks like something interesting is about to happen," said a balding old man with flower petals on his head while looking at the bounty hunter ships gathered in front of the twin capes.

"Whatever," the old man added, sitting down on a garden chair to read his newspaper as the ships began spreading in all directions to avoid a gigantic whale suddenly emerging from within the sea water.

"Oh, Laboon," the old man sighed with a troubled look on his face as he looked at the scars on the whale's head. "When will you finally give up?" he murmured, heaving another sigh as the whale began smashing its head against the red line.