"Ah, I'm hungry." Luffy gave Morgan one more punch, then jumped off him. He turned and shouted to Tom, who was still vigorously beating Helmeppo. "Stop messing with them! Let's go get something to eat!"
Damn it, I was just getting into it.
Hearing Luffy, Tom looked at Helmeppo, who was pinned beneath him and taking a beating. This once-arrogant, spoiled brat was now completely unconscious, his features twisted together into an even uglier mess.
Whatever. I'll hit him a few more times, then stop.
Thinking this, Tom delivered a few more solid punches to Helmeppo. After thoroughly beating him, Tom felt a sense of clarity. His previously somewhat gloomy mood vanished completely, replaced by incredible satisfaction.
Just as Tom drew his fist back again, Morgan suddenly stood up behind Luffy. His face, having been beaten by both Tom and Luffy, was now completely unrecognizable. Covered in bloodstains, it looked monstrous and terrifying.
"I am a Naval Captain! Axe-Hand Morgan!" Morgan panted heavily, his face dark. He raised the giant axe on his right arm and swung it viciously at Luffy's exposed back.
Luffy seemed completely unaware of the danger behind him, continuing to walk toward Tom. When Morgan's axe was less than a centimeter from the straw hat on his head, Koby, watching from afar, turned pale and screamed, "Luffy-san! Watch out!"
Just as Koby's shout rang out, a figure flashed past Luffy at incredible speed.
"Oni Giri!"
Zoro, a sword clenched tightly in his teeth and two more crossed in his hands, used a single move to slash the seemingly large and sturdy Morgan. Morgan's eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness completely, a large X-shaped wound carved across his body.
"Zoro." Luffy pressed down on his straw hat and turned to speak to Zoro.
"A small matter, Captain." Zoro, wearing his dark green bandana with a sword in his mouth, replied calmly.
"The C-Captain lost! Captain Morgan has been defeated!"
The surrounding Marines stared dumbly at the fallen Morgan and Helmeppo, many faces still showing disbelief.
Clang!
Zoro sheathed his three swords. He swept a cold gaze over the Marines. "If anyone still wants to capture us, step forward now!"
Hearing Zoro, the Marines looked at each other, but not one dared to step forward.
"Great! We're finally free!"
"We're free from Morgan's control! Long live the Navy!"
After a moment of silence, the Marines erupted into loud cheers.
"What's going on? Their Captain was just beaten, and they're this happy?" Luffy looked curiously at the celebrating Marines, quite perplexed.
"They must have been acting against their conscience out of fear of Morgan." Koby realized these Marines weren't the evildoers he had previously imagined. They had committed many acts contrary to naval justice only under Morgan's tyrannical authority. Koby, who had been deeply disappointed in the Navy, now felt hope rekindled. He looked much more spirited than before.
Thud!
Just as Koby was regaining his faith in the Navy, Zoro suddenly collapsed to the ground.
"Whew. I'm hungry." Zoro, lying on the ground, looked at the blue sky. He had been tied to that post for three whole weeks without food. It would be weird if he weren't starving.
Luffy gave the prone Zoro a look of understanding, then said to Tom, who had just finished beating Helmeppo, "You carry Zoro back."
"Why me? You could carry him too, couldn't you?" Tom shook out his hands. He'd beaten quite a few people today and was genuinely a bit tired.
"Because we're both hungry! We'll meet up at the eating place." Having said this, Luffy rubbed his slightly empty, growling stomach and walked out of the Marine base without looking back. Seeing this, Koby bowed to Tom, said "Please take care of Mr. Zoro," and hurried after Luffy.
For heaven's sake! Did you all forget I'm injured?!
Tom complained inwardly, then walked over to Zoro, helped him up, and the two of them walked out of the Marine base at a leisurely pace.
As they left, Tom noticed the Marines made no move to stop them. Instead, their gazes held a hint of gratitude.
This made Tom feel secretly pleased. He'd beaten up plenty of people here today, and in the end, not only were they not seeking revenge, they were thanking him. Life really is strange.
Some time later, in a restaurant in Shells Town.
"Whew. That hit the spot. Not eating for three weeks really takes it out of you." Zoro patted his slightly full belly, let out a satisfied burp, and spoke contentedly.
"What? You're full already? If I went that long without food, I'd be done for." Luffy said this while frantically shoving food into his mouth.
"Why are you eating more than me?!" Zoro was astonished to see that even though he couldn't eat another bite, Luffy still looked ravenous.
"Because the food here is just too good! Right, Koby?" Luffy swallowed a mouthful of meat and spoke to Koby, who was helping bandage Tom's wounds.
"I'm really sorry. I ended up eating quite a bit too." Koby scratched his head apologetically, addressing the restaurant's proprietress.
"It's no trouble at all. You saved us, after all." The proprietress, holding a large stack of plates emptied by Luffy and the others, said with a smile.
"By the way, why did it take you so long to get back here? I'd been eating for over an hour before you showed up." Luffy, still continuously stuffing meat into his mouth, asked Tom, who sat beside him looking frustrated.
"If I told you we got lost, and that's why we're so late, would you believe me?" Tom popped a piece of meat into his own mouth as he asked Luffy.
"You must be joking! Getting lost in a town this small would make you a super-duper directionally-challenged person! Ahahaha!" Luffy laughed heartily, swallowing a huge chunk of meat in one gulp. He completely failed to notice Zoro's face darkening.
It was true. When Tom left the Marine base with Zoro at a leisurely pace, he realized he had no idea where this "eating place" Luffy mentioned was.
So Tom asked Zoro for directions. Zoro confidently swore he knew the way.
In fact, Zoro had eaten at that restaurant before.
Seeing Zoro's confidence, Tom was both trusting and skeptical. But he figured the town's roads weren't complex—just a few main streets. Surely Zoro wouldn't forget such simple routes.
Thus, Tom carried the weak, starving Zoro and followed his directions.
To his dismay, under Zoro's guidance, Tom carried him into a dead-end street. Twenty-nine times in a row.
Staring at the trash can at the end of yet another dead-end, Tom, his forehead covered in cold sweat, genuinely considered tossing the man on his back into it.
This is utterly ridiculous.
On his very first day knowing Zoro, Tom gained a profound understanding of what a true "directionally-challenged person" was.
Every time Zoro gave directions, it was a different route. By the time Tom realized what was happening, they were already in a dead-end.
The most exasperating part for Tom was that, twelve times in a row, without him realizing it, Zoro had guided them to the same dead-end.
Tom clearly remembered taking different turns each time, yet they always ended up at that same dead-end. He nearly lost his mind.
Fortunately, they later ran into little Rika, who was out shopping. Otherwise, Tom and Zoro might have wandered the town until dark without finding Luffy.
At that moment, seeing Rika felt like seeing a holy angel. Looking at the cute little girl with her twin ponytails, Tom could almost see pure white angel wings on her back.
The green-haired demon on his back, however, was utterly terrifying!
On the way back to the restaurant with Rika, Tom kept thinking: Heavens, I'm finally free!
Earlier, Tom had suggested asking a passerby for directions. But Zoro kept pleading, "Trust me one more time!" getting so worked up he even started choking Tom.
Thus, Tom tragically trusted Zoro twenty-nine times in a row, carrying him almost all over Shells Town. The result was twenty-nine dead-ends, and even Tom got completely turned around.
"See them? I heard they're the pirates who defeated Captain Morgan."
"I saw them walking back and forth many times. What are they doing?"
"Who knows? They're pirates. Maybe they're doing some special training. Look at the guy carrying the other one, sweating buckets. Seems like the training is very effective."
As Tom carried Zoro back and forth through Shells Town, the nearby residents' comments reached his ears, making him feel utterly embarrassed and unnatural. This isn't training; it's getting completely lost! As for the sweat on his forehead, it was all from the fright Zoro's sense of direction gave him.
From then on, Tom swore a silent oath: he would never trust Zoro to navigate again. If anyone claimed this guy wasn't directionally-challenged, Tom would be the first to argue!
"Just eat your food and talk less!" Zoro said with a dark expression to Luffy, who was still laughing about the "super directionally-challenged" person.
"Big brother, you're so amazing! Koby told me you taught that nasty Helmeppo a lesson. Where's that pretty orange-haired sister who was with you? Did you listen to her and go teach Helmeppo a lesson? I knew that sister wouldn't lie to me." Little Rika helped Koby tend to the wound on Tom's back, speaking to him happily.
Hearing Rika, Tom's previously stern face immediately broke into a warm, kindly smile for the little girl who had saved him from the misery of being lost. "That's right. I charged into the Marine base and gave that bully Helmeppo who picked on you a proper thrashing. He won't dare do evil anymore."
Tom remembered meeting Rika for the first time with Nami. When Nami learned someone was bullying a little girl, she had boasted to Rika that she'd take care of it.
But when Nami found out the bully was Helmeppo, son of Captain Morgan, she passed the task of standing up for Rika to Tom. At the time, Tom hadn't given her the time of day.
Now, Tom had thoroughly beaten Helmeppo at the Marine base. Nami wasn't here anymore, and for some reason, it left him feeling strangely empty.
"Why were you so late coming out? If you'd been any later, we'd all have been finished." Tom shook his head, adjusted his mood, and asked Luffy the question weighing on his mind: why had it taken Luffy so long to find Zoro's swords?
"What could I do? I had to search the entire Marine base. It took a lot of time to find Zoro's three swords." Luffy said this after swallowing some food.
"You mean you didn't know where Zoro's swords were from the start? So you searched the whole base?" Tom asked, somewhat puzzled. "Didn't that Helmeppo guy tell you where the swords were?"
"You mean the guy with the receding hairline?" Luffy ate as he recalled. "I remember seeing him on the upper level of the base. He was already unconscious, as if he'd been knocked out by that guy called Morgan."
At this, Luffy looked apologetically at Tom. "That's also where I accidentally broke your statue! I'm really sorry!"
Good grief! I already said that wasn't my statue! It was Morgan's!
Luffy's words killed Tom's appetite. He asked Luffy, "Do you know why that guy with the receding hairline was unconscious?"
"Let me think... I jumped up to the top of the base from below. I heard some Marines say someone had broken into the Captain's room to steal something. Then the guy with the axe on his arm got really angry and slapped Helmeppo unconscious with one blow. That's probably what happened."
Luffy's casual remark sent Tom's mind reeling.
Could it be that when Nami and I were stealing the Grand Line map from Morgan's room, Luffy's unexpected arrival exposed our presence? Then the hot-tempered Morgan, upon learning someone had broken into his room to steal, flew into a rage and accidentally knocked Helmeppo out?
Then Luffy couldn't get the information about Zoro's swords being in Helmeppo's room from the unconscious Helmeppo. That forced Luffy to search the entire Marine base, wasting precious time before finally finding the swords?
Tom hadn't expected that his and Nami's failed theft of Morgan's Grand Line map would have a chain reaction: causing Luffy to take nearly ten extra minutes to emerge from the Marine base, which nearly cost Tom, Zoro, and Nami their lives.
"Were you... actually trying seriously to find Zoro's swords?" Tom asked Luffy with a mixture of belief and doubt.
"Actually, I was really surprised! Because Zoro's swords were in the very room where I was eating snacks! Ahahaha!" Luffy's words made Tom's face fall.
"What do you mean by that?" Tom asked through gritted teeth.
"It was like this. While searching for Zoro's swords, I went into a room that looked nice. I saw a table with lots of snacks on it. I was a little hungry, so I went in and had a good meal. But they weren't meat, so I didn't get full." Luffy said regretfully, completely missing how Tom's face was growing darker by the second.
"After finishing the snacks in that room, I kept searching for Zoro's swords. I turned over every room in the Marine base and couldn't find them. Later, I went back to the first room where I'd eaten the snacks, and only then did I see three swords lying there. I was really too careless! Ahahaha!"
Luffy was cut off mid-laugh as Tom, his face now as dark as charcoal, leaped to Luffy's side under the stunned gazes of Zoro and the others. He grabbed Luffy by the neck and began shaking him violently. "You jerk! If you hadn't been so focused on eating, you would have noticed the swords in that room right away! You wouldn't have wasted all that time finding Zoro's swords, and I wouldn't have had to fight so desperately outside! Do you have any idea how dangerous the situation was out there?!"
Tom was genuinely furious now. If something unexpected had happened while Luffy was searching for the swords, that would be understandable. But this guy had simply been too busy eating to notice the swords in the very room he was in. That reason made Tom's head ache.
While it was true Helmeppo hadn't told Luffy the swords were in his room, and Luffy didn't know where Helmeppo's room was, preventing him from focusing his search there from the start... But your eyesight is terrible! You accidentally walked into Helmeppo's room where the swords were, and all you noticed was the food!
Because you were eating, Zoro, Nami, and I were hanging by a thread! That feeling of having our lives in someone else's hands is something I'll never forget!
Tom shook Luffy so hard he started coughing, and Luffy ended up spraying chewed meat all over Tom's face.
For a moment, Tom and Luffy seemed to be in a tense standoff, looking like they might come to blows at any second.
"What does it matter? I knew you were out there, so I could search for Zoro's swords without worry. Because you're a reliable person. See? In the end, everyone was fine, wasn't they? I knew you were a trustworthy partner." Luffy grinned widely at Tom, his face breaking into a bright, sunny smile—a pure and genuine one.
Hearing Luffy's words and seeing his incredibly infectious, sincere smile, Tom was stunned. His hands, which had been gripping Luffy's neck, slowly loosened. A tingling warmth spread through him, followed by an indescribable sense of elation.
Seeing the tense atmosphere between Tom and Luffy, Zoro was about to tell Tom to calm down. But before he could speak, he saw Tom promptly release his grip on Luffy's neck.
Then, to Zoro's astonishment, Tom threw a friendly arm around Luffy's shoulders with great enthusiasm and said with a laugh, "Of course I am! I'm very reliable. Next time something like this happens, just brew yourself some tea and enjoy the snacks slowly. I can handle it all by myself. After all, I'm a trustworthy guy! Ahahahaha!"
For a moment, the restaurant was filled with Tom's triumphant, boastful laughter and Luffy's carefree, hearty guffaws.
"Two idiots." Zoro sat back down in his chair. Watching Tom and Luffy with their arms around each other, a faint smile touched the corner of his mouth.
Beside them, Koby and the little girl Rika stared wide-eyed at Tom and Luffy, completely unable to understand how the two could change so dramatically in an instant.
"What are they doing?" the little girl with twin ponytails asked the pink-haired boy with thick glasses beside her, utterly confused.
"Maybe... this is what they call friendship between men. Possibly. Probably." The boy pushed his thick glasses up his nose, hesitated for a moment, and gave the little girl a very uncertain answer.
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T/N :
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