It had already been three months since Shakuyaku-san invited me to officially join the Kuja Pirates.
In the end... I chose to leave the ship.
The time I spent with everyone on the pirate ship was fulfilling and fun, and they really took care of me in so many ways.
But I never wanted to become a pirate in the first place. If I could have just lived peacefully and leisurely with my parents and everyone in the village, that would have been enough. Even though that was already a wish that could never come true.
I didn't want a dangerous, thrilling daily life. I didn't want to live in the midst of battle.
And besides, the Kuja are pirates through and through.
They're not what you'd call Peace Main in One Piece World terms. They're not righteous outlaws, the kind of noble thieves who only prey on evildoers. They raid legitimate merchant ships, towns, and villages too.
This was still before they'd joined the Shichibukai, which made it even worse. They had an attitude of "who cares if the Government has it out for us," so they went about plundering civilians without any restraint or consideration whatsoever.
...That sort of thing happened several times while I was aboard, too. I was always staying behind on the ship during those raids, so I never actually witnessed any of it. And because I never saw it directly, my heart didn't ache as much as it probably should have.
I didn't want to willingly take part in that kind of piracy. I couldn't.
After thinking long and hard about all of that and everything else, I decided I would not become a pirate.
Shakuyaku-san respected that decision and didn't blame me at all.
The crew was disappointed, but they understood that forcing me to stay wouldn't lead to anything good. Nobody tried to stop me.
Though, to be fair, quite a few of them were simply disappointed that their own workload was about to increase again.
Sorry about that. From now on, you'll have to do your own cleaning, your own laundry, and read the newspaper by yourselves.
As planned, I was dropped off at the next port town they stopped at. Shakuyaku-san put in a word with the town's officials on my behalf and arranged a job and a place to live for me.
She took care of me right down to the very last detail.
And so, three months had passed since I said goodbye to everyone in the Kuja Pirates.
I was living peacefully on this island, which fell under Kuja territory.
My work was mostly odd jobs, similar to what I'd been doing on the ship. I could do a lot of different things but didn't have any specialized skills to speak of, so I was dispatched wherever extra hands were needed at any given time.
A jack-of-all-trades, basically. A general handywoman.
As for housing, people balked at the idea of letting a five-year-old girl live on her own, understandably, so I ended up boarding with a family.
There happened to be an elderly couple whose daughter had recently married and moved out, leaving them lonely, so I was taken in by them.
Sorry for disrupting your quiet retirement. Oh, I remind you of your daughter when she was little? You love taking care of children so it's no problem at all? In fact, it makes you happy?
I was grateful to hear that.
They told me they'd actually dislike it if I were too formal with them, so I called them Grandpa and Grandma, and they let me treat them like real family.
Of course, I kept up my training alongside work and helping around the house.
I'd properly memorized all the techniques I'd been taught on the ship, so I continued both the basic physical training for building strength and endurance, and the weapons drills.
Practice makes perfect. I believed that training diligently from an early age would definitely pay off in the future.
On the subject of weapons, while I was aboard the Kuja ship, the crew had me try out every single weapon they had on board.
The one I turned out to be best with was a regular sword. It just felt the most natural to me.
Well, maybe it was simply that I was too clumsy to handle the more complicated weapons, but by the time I left the ship, I'd gotten good enough to take down an adult male pirate with a surprise attack, so... I don't think it was a bad fit.
So for now, I was focusing my training exclusively on the sword.
Aside from solo practice like swinging drills, I occasionally joined the town's Self-Defense Corps for their training sessions.
At first, plenty of adults were reluctant to put a weapon in the hands of such a small girl, even if she was someone entrusted to them by the Kuja. But just like on the ship, once I earned the assessment that I had "more talent than expected," they shifted to properly teaching and developing me while keeping the pace appropriate. That was a big help.
As for Haki, though, they hadn't taught me that.
Apparently, Haki is something that a full-fledged warrior, someone who can already fight properly through conventional means, then spends years learning on top of that.
For an inexperienced novice like me, it wasn't just "too early." It was far, far too early. They told me to first grow up properly and become able to fight satisfactorily, and then we'd talk.
Once I'd acquired the skill worthy of a full-fledged Kuja warrior, they said, then they'd teach me.
Of course, since I'd turned down joining the Kuja, that opportunity was probably never going to come.
Oh, but even though I wasn't going to be a pirate, I'd probably still have chances to see everyone from the Kuja Pirates.
This town was Kuja Pirates territory and served as a waypoint and resupply location during their expeditions, so their ship stopped by frequently.
It would only be once every few months, but everyone would visit this port, and I could see them then.
On top of that, they'd told me, "We're gonna come check that you haven't been slacking on your training, you know!"
When they docked to rest, they'd occasionally look after my training for me. Even though I'd said I wouldn't join them as a crewmate... I was truly grateful.
...And maybe, just maybe, they'd teach me a thing or two about Haki while they were at it... Nah, probably not.
Anyway, that was how I started my new life in this peaceful town. For the time being, at least. In this era, you never knew what might happen.
...And so, time passed...
Five years had already gone by since I left the Kuja ship.
I was turning ten this year.
Ten is still very much a child, but in this world, there were kids out there who were mowing down adults in combat or hunting enormous beasts at that age, so I figured ten probably counted as "old enough to have a decent physical foundation."
And in fact, though it's a bit self-congratulatory to say so, I'd become considerably capable of moving and fighting.
Over these five years, I'd officially joined the Self-Defense Corps, gotten to where I could beat the adult men I trained against, and built up enough arm strength to wield a real sword without difficulty.
It made me happy when not just the adults in town but also the Kuja members who visited from time to time told me I was "talented" and "getting strong." They lamented even more that I hadn't officially joined up.
Still, by the standards of professional Kuja warriors, I was apparently only half-baked.
Well, of course. All of them had been seriously training to become warriors since childhood, and when the time came, they'd learn Haki on top of that.
Plenty of other things had changed over those five years too.
First of all, well, obviously, I'd grown.
This was directly tied to the combat ability I just talked about. I'd gotten taller, and my strength and stamina had increased.
The signs had been there since I was five, but it seemed I was developing well. I was taller than other kids my age, even compared to boys, by about a full head.
When meeting someone for the first time, they'd often mistake me for around fourteen.
Along with that, my body had been developing as a girl's would, and I'd started occasionally catching certain looks from men.
Boys I used to play with normally were gradually hanging around less and less, and I could feel the way they looked at me changing. When I noticed, I just thought, 'Oh, these guys...' with a complicated sort of feeling.
Well, I figured it couldn't be helped, so I didn't say anything. I didn't mind, so look all you want. But if you try anything, I'll fight back.
...To be honest, being looked at that way didn't feel bad either, as long as there was no actual harm done.
Not to toot my own horn, but I was aware I'd grown into a fairly pretty girl. I kind of liked the attention.
Also... the Grandfather and Old Woman who'd been letting me board with them had passed away. Recently.
Not from a pirate attack, or injury, or illness. They'd simply lived out their natural lives.
I was there at the end for both of them, gave them a proper funeral, and laid them to rest. Now they sleep side by side in the cemetery behind the house.
I inherited the house and still live there.
I'd assumed that sort of thing would go to blood relatives, but their daughter and her husband themselves gave me their blessing.
'We're the ungrateful children who left our aging parents behind and moved out. We're in no position to make such a presumptuous claim now. We already have a new home, so we're not in need of housing.'
'Rather, we'd be happy to pass it on to you, the one who stayed with them until the very end.'
'We'd like you to continue taking care of this house, in your own hands.'
That was the gist of it.
When someone says all that to you, refusing isn't really an option, is it?
I was grateful they were letting me keep living there. If I'd been turned out, I would've had to find an empty house and renovate it or something, so it was a real lifesaver.
And then there was one more thing. Personally, I think this was the biggest, or rather, the most dramatic change of all.
Over these five years, I'd developed a hobby. One I was a little, no, considerably engrossed in.
I'd always liked books, or rather, the written word in general, and I'd read tons of newspapers and books.
Even back when I was on the Kuja ship, I'd read through plundered books every day. And after I left the ship and settled in this town, whenever I helped out at the bookstore as part of my odd jobs, they'd let me read books in lieu of payment.
Of course, whenever I had money to spare, I'd buy the books I wanted and read them thoroughly at home. I was especially fond of adventure novels and the like, reading them over and over.
That love of books, or rather the written word, eventually led me to start writing my own books, my own stories.
I wanted to give shape to the stories I'd been building in my head. I bought manuscript paper and started writing them down.
And it turned out to be surprisingly fun. I was hooked. I started wanting to write more and more.
Back when I was on the ship, I'd been doing the Sue-chan Newspaper, so I'd always been pretty good at putting words together, and I'd enjoyed it.
Once I'd written to my heart's content, I wanted someone to read it. But when I thought about it calmly, having other people read stories you'd come up with yourself takes quite a bit of courage, so at first I was embarrassed and hesitant.
After all, unlike modern Japan, there was no internet here. No Na〇u, no Kaku〇mu, no Har〇lun. This wasn't a world where you could easily show your work anonymously to a vast, unspecified audience.
So for starters, I had the Grandfather and the Old Woman, who were still alive at that point, become my first readers.
...It was an adventure novel aimed at younger readers, so it might have been a bit difficult for elderly people, but they told me, "It's good." That made me so happy.
They were absolutely biased, and honestly, I wasn't even sure they fully understood the content. (No offense.)
After repeating that process several times, one year ago, I entered a New Writer's Novel Contest held by a publisher I'd found mentioned in a newspaper article.
And I actually won a prize.
It wasn't the grand prize or anything close. It was a lower-tier award, more like an Effort Award, but I was still incredibly happy. It felt like my work had been acknowledged in a tangible way.
The critique included not just praise but plenty of harsh opinions too, but that didn't bother me at all. If anything, it made me think, 'All right, I'll try even harder next time!'
And there was one more thing that pushed me forward when it came to writing.
Well, not so much "there was" as "it's happening right now."
"Okay everyone, settle down and take your seats! Story time is starting again today!"
"Yaaay!"
"What story is it today?"
"I wanna hear that adventure one from last time again! That one was great!"
"Ahaha, today's story is a different one from last time. Some kids get bored hearing the same thing every time, you know. Today's story is about a brave knight who stood up for the girl he loved!"
If I had to explain it simply, it was something like a volunteer Read-Aloud.
Reading books to little kids, showing them picture-story shows, that sort of thing.
This turned out to be surprisingly popular. Twice a week during these sessions, nearly every small child in town showed up.
Originally, the Read-Aloud had been once or twice a week, but the kids kept asking for more every single time. The problem was, we had a limited supply of stories to read.
Children's Books that came in as trade goods were scarce, so we'd end up reading the same ones every few sessions, and the kids would complain: "Again?" "We heard that one already!"
I wondered if there was a way to fix that, so I tried telling them an original fairy tale I'd improvised on the spot. It was a hit.
Not just from the children, but their parents also asked me to "please do that again."
In the end, I filled the gap left by the shortage of Children's Books with original stories of my own, and we were able to increase the number of Read-Aloud sessions.
Now, I should mention that some of those "original" stories were actually fairy tales from my past life, remade so they'd work in this world. B-but, well, please cut me some slack on that front.
Even if they're for children, coming up with enough fairy tales for twice-weekly Read-Aloud sessions is pretty demanding.
When I thought about it that way... the authors in Weekly Shonen Magazines who put out nineteen pages of manga every single week were truly incredible. They're drawing pictures, not just writing words.
So yes, that was how I'd taken up "writing" as my hobby, creating novels and fairy tales.
As long as it didn't interfere with my training or work, I happily ran my pen across manuscript paper every day, using the fancy pen I'd splurged on.
Ahh, this was so much fun. Was this how Kishibe Oban-sensei felt when drawing manga?
"I draw manga so that people will read it." Maybe this was that feeling.
Building a story in my head, giving it form through the written word, and then imagining the people who read it smiling and enjoying themselves... just thinking about it made me unable to sit still.
Had I always loved writing this much? Could I have been a novelist in my past life or something?
Oh, to hell with it, I was going all in!
If possible, I wanted to make it my actual profession, but even if that didn't work out, I wanted to keep it up as a hobby forever.
I wanted to write stories that entertained people, that lifted their spirits!
I wanted lots of people to read them! I wanted them to enjoy it and be happy!
With this pen as my partner, I would keep living peacefully in this town! In this world! Cherishing my own happiness as I went!
And then, more time passed... two years later.
The year I turned twelve.
It finally happened.
"My treasure? If you want it, it's yours! Go find it!! I left everything this world has to offer there!!!!"
The execution of Gold Roger, the Pirate King.
The words he spoke at the moment of his death became the spark that finally raised the curtain on the Great Pirate Era.
And at the same time, I would come to learn something.
That peace, whether you let your guard down or not, could be blown away in an instant by the slightest trigger, easily and without warning.
A cruel truth I should have known all along was driven home once more.
To be continued...