East Blue, a certain stretch of sea. On a small wooden boat drifting with the wind.
"509, 510, 511..."
Tom was soaked with sweat, performing one-handed push-ups on the small wooden boat while counting out loud.
Seven days had passed since leaving Shells Town. During that week, Tom had returned to his relentless routine of training day and night on the tiny vessel.
Tom's intense, non-stop drive to train even impressed Zoro—a fellow training fanatic. But it also sparked his competitive spirit, so he too began practicing his sword techniques on the boat.
However, on Zoro's first day of sword practice, he nearly sliced the small boat in half. Seeing he couldn't control his strength, Tom and Luffy had to give him a thorough beating before he calmed down and gave up the idea of rigorous sword training on their fragile craft.
While Tom pushed through his punishing workout, Luffy and Zoro, with nothing better to do, sat around chatting idly.
"You say we're going to the Grand Line, right? But you don't know the first thing about navigation. Isn't that a little ridiculous?" Zoro said to Luffy. After spending time on the same boat, he'd discovered a very unfortunate fact.
On this small boat, despite having three people, no one was willing to row. They just let the boat drift with the wind. At this rate, what kind of miraculous luck would they need to accidentally reach their destination?
Luffy had no intention of rowing from the start. Tom was solely focused on training; after a session, he was lucky to have enough energy to breathe, let alone worry about rowing.
As for Zoro, since he couldn't train properly on the small boat, he'd rather sleep than touch an oar.
Most importantly, even if they were willing to row, facing the vast, boundless ocean, they had no idea which direction to go. Better to save their strength.
So, despite having three people aboard, no one rowed. The neglected oars lay abandoned on the boat, practically gathering dust.
"What's so ridiculous about it? Tom and I got by just fine drifting before. We'll run into an island eventually." Luffy then said to Zoro, "Weren't you a bounty hunter drifting all over the place to collect rewards?"
"I don't remember being someone who made a living solely off bounties." Zoro lazily rested his arm on the side of the boat. "I went to sea to find someone. I just ended up... unable to find my way back home. I had no choice but to target pirate ships to earn a living, that's all."
Luffy listened very seriously to Zoro's explanation and reached a conclusion. "So you got lost."
"You, who don't understand navigation at all, have no right to say that to me!" The moment Zoro heard Luffy call him lost, he immediately took offense.
"Honestly, wanting to be a pirate without knowing navigation is a joke. How are we supposed to get to the Grand Line like this? I think you should find a navigator, fast." Zoro offered the suggestion to Luffy.
Luffy immediately expanded on the idea. "And a cook, and a musician..."
"We can worry about those people later!" Seeing Luffy completely miss the point, Zoro yelled at him in frustration.
"I'm so hungry." Luffy and Zoro both lay weakly on the small boat, looking like they were utterly famished.
"Tom! We're hungry!" Luffy yelled toward Tom, who was still doing one-handed push-ups.
"Didn't we just eat a few hours ago?" Tom, having finished six hundred one-handed push-ups, paused to catch his breath, panting heavily as he spoke to Luffy and Zoro. "Listen, guys. My body feels really strange."
"What? You still look like a human to me." Luffy sat up, glanced at Tom, and said something that gave Tom a headache.
For heaven's sake, if I didn't look human, would I be here chatting with you?
Suppressing the urge to punch Luffy, Tom spoke up. "I feel like I'm improving way too fast. I don't know why. If it's Devil Fruit power, I have no idea when I ever used a Devil Fruit ability."
In truth, at first, Tom was quite happy to feel himself gradually getting stronger.
Just two days ago, he could barely manage over four hundred one-handed push-ups. Today, he could complete six hundred with relative ease.
Even though Tom had been training hard all week, this progress was alarmingly fast. So fast it was almost hard for him to accept.
"What's so strange about that? It doesn't have to be because of a Devil Fruit. Maybe you're just a genius, and that's why your training is so effective." As soon as Zoro said this, Luffy chimed in. "Right! Since you don't think you've used a Devil Fruit power, that must be it."
"I had no idea you were a genius, Tom. You're amazing." Luffy's words filled Tom with immense satisfaction, making him feel a bit full of himself.
"I didn't expect it either. So I'm exceptionally talented? What a pleasant surprise." Tom let out a boastful laugh, actually letting go of his fixation on the reason for his rapid improvement.
"But you're both Devil Fruit users. If you both fell into the sea at the same time, with just me, I really wouldn't know how to save you." Zoro stroked his chin, suddenly considering the scenario. If Luffy and Tom fell into the sea far apart, he truly wouldn't know what to do.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking? Tom and I are both reliable guys. How could we both fall into the sea and cause you trouble? That could never happen." Luffy patted his chest, speaking to Zoro with great confidence.
"Exactly. We're both very trustworthy. The odds of what you described happening are lower than you finding your way home alone." Tom's remark made Luffy laugh. "Well said! It's all because Zoro has no sense of direction! Ahahaha!"
"Shut up, both of you!" Provoked by Luffy and Tom, Zoro's temper flared immediately.
"Okay, Tom. We're hungry. Hurry up and catch us something to eat." After laughing, Luffy felt his stomach growl even more and urged Tom at once.
"Maybe your stomach should be filled with stones instead. It gets hungry way too easily." Tom took out a fishing net, getting ready to fish.
"Wait. I don't want fish today. Catch something else." Luffy stopped Tom just as he was about to cast the net. Drooling, he pointed at a large bird flying overhead. "I want to eat that."
"I'm just a fisherman. I don't catch birds." Tom looked up at the large bird above. It seemed quite big; with its wings fully spread, it was at least thirteen meters wide.
"Give it a try. Maybe in the future you'll be able to catch anything from the sky or the ground to eat. Then you'd be the world's greatest hunter." Luffy's words stirred something in Tom's heart.
"World's greatest... that does sound pretty good." Tom's eyes lit up. His mind made up, he said, "Alright. I'll let you witness the skill of the future world's greatest hunter."
"Whoa! Go get 'em, world's greatest hunter!" Luffy cheered and even started clapping. His words made Tom feel incredibly pleased. So satisfying.
After carefully observing the large bird from the boat for nearly ten minutes, Tom finally figured out its flight pattern. Every three minutes or so, the bird would fly low for about twenty-five seconds. That was the perfect window to catch it.
Here it comes!
Seeing the bird gradually descend, Tom waited until it was about ten meters directly above him. Then he hurled his net with all his might.
His fishing net was about thirteen meters long. Tom put all his strength into spreading it wide, and it actually managed to snare the large bird as it flew past nearly ten meters above him.
"Ahahahaha! Did you see that? It's my prey now! This is the power of the future world's greatest hunter! There's nothing I can't catch!" The moment he caught the bird, Tom was both excited and thrilled. So catching a big bird isn't that hard after all! He couldn't help but turn his head to brag to Luffy and Zoro.
But just as Tom turned to look at Luffy and Zoro, he heard the netted bird let out a strange cry. Before he could react, he noticed that Luffy and Zoro seemed to be getting... shorter?
Wait. They're not getting shorter. I'm flying away from the boat!
When Tom finally realized what was happening, he discovered that the bird he had caught had called two other large birds. They had grabbed the net in their beaks and were now carrying him, net and all, away.
Tom was utterly dumbfounded. He was supposed to be the bird catcher. How had he, in the blink of an eye, become the one caught by the birds? This was beyond embarrassing.
Now, Tom clung tightly to the fishing net, shamefully carried off the small boat by three large birds. He flew and drifted through the air, looking down at the vast sea below. Being a Devil Fruit user, he dared not let go.
"Oh no! Tom's been captured by those birds!" Luffy, snapping back to his senses, held his head and shouted in a panic. He tried to stretch his arms to grab Tom back, but the three birds were already flying far away with Tom clinging to the net.
"What kind of pathetic world's greatest hunter is this?!" Zoro watched Tom fly farther and farther away, his face full of anxiety. He grabbed for an oar to row after them when he saw Luffy look up at a bird directly above them and yell, "I've got it! If we ride that bird, we can rescue Tom quickly!"
"Rubber... Rocket!"
Luffy stretched his arms, grabbed the boat's mast, and used his rubber elasticity to shoot straight up into the air like a rocket, speeding toward the bird above.
"I see. He can be pretty reliable in a crisis after all." Zoro looked up, watching Luffy close in on the bird in the sky. If he could really ride that bird to chase Tom, that would be perfect.
"Huh?" But after watching for a moment, Zoro felt something was off. Why wasn't Luffy mounting the bird after getting close? Instead, it looked like the bird had bitten down on his head with its beak!
Up in the sky, Luffy was truly stunned. He hadn't expected to fly up only to have the bird clamp its beak tightly around his head.
"Waaah! Help me!" Luffy, with his head in the bird's beak, let out an earth-shattering cry for help.
The bird, biting Luffy's head, began flying in Tom's direction. But at the moment, Luffy was too busy trying to save himself to have any capacity to rescue Tom.
Tom saw that Luffy had also become a bird's "captive." He yelled at Luffy, asking why he was still screaming for help—wasn't this embarrassing enough already?
Luffy yelled back that they were both Devil Fruit users. If they fell into the sea below, it would be truly over. Their only hope was to call for help from Zoro, who was still on the boat.
Clinging to the net as the birds carried him, Tom thought it over carefully and deeply agreed with Luffy's logic. So he joined Luffy, both of them shouting down to Zoro below.
"Zoro! Come save us!"
"I'm the man who's gonna be Pirate King! I can't be defeated by a bird! Zoro, think of something!"
And so, those two idiots, Tom and Luffy, continuously called for help from Zoro below. Their pleas echoed over the boundless sea, a truly touching scene.
"Shut up, you two blockheads!" Zoro rowed the oars with all his might, chasing after Tom and Luffy, who were flying farther and farther away. His eyes were practically bulging out of his head as he roared up at the distant figures in the sky.
Poor Zoro. He never could have dreamed that the two crewmates who had just recently assured him of their reliability and trustworthiness would vanish from the boat in the span of barely five seconds.
Tom, the self-proclaimed world's greatest hunter, had tried to catch a bird only to be carried off by birds. Captain Luffy was even more outrageous; he went to save his comrade in crisis and ended up getting carried off by a bird himself.
If they both fall into the sea now, how am I supposed to save them?!
Zoro was burning with anxiety, rowing with every ounce of strength he had. Staring up at Tom swinging from the fishing net and Luffy with his head in a bird's beak, a thought crossed his mind: Just what kind of crew did I join—a pirate crew, or a crew of walking disasters? These two crewmates are each more unreliable than the last...
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T/N :
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