Robin let out a light, melodic laugh as she stepped up beside Li Ke, her eyes gleaming with a hint of mischief.
"But what if this girl backs out? Your deal was just a verbal agreement, after all. When it comes to the dead, a lot of people don't actually care as much as they claim once the threat is gone. From the looks of it, she seems way more relieved about Arlong being dead than anything else."
"You really can't help yourself with the constant instigating, can you?"
Li Ke rolled his eyes and gave Robin a sharp rap on the head. That was just her way—always dropping little seeds of discord.
"No, I'm just pointing out the risks," she countered smoothly.
"If she does back out, then I won't be acting nearly this 'refined' anymore."
"Ooh, the true nature comes out at last."
"Keep talking and I'm locking you in the dark hold," Li Ke said, looking at her with total seriousness.
"Hey now..."
Robin's lip twitched. She really hadn't expected him to be so blunt about it.
"That's actually surprising. I thought you were playing the part of the 'pure-hearted hero' this whole time."
"That's just your delusion."
Li Ke folded his arms. He wasn't in the mood for games right now because he could still feel it—Roger's strike was vibrating inside his body.
It wasn't some mystical residual energy or anything that abstract. It was simpler: his body had memorized the strike. The whole reason Roger had told him to crank his Observation Haki to the max was so he could burn every detail of that move into his mind.
He knew exactly how the Armament Haki was reinforced and exactly how the Conqueror's Haki was coiled around the blade. As long as his raw Haki stats reached the required threshold, he'd be able to unleash Divine Departure with just a bit of practice.
Li Ke traced a hand over his chest. A single thought of that strike brought back every detail—no gaps, no fading. It was a complete, perfect blueprint. It felt like a total cheat code.
Then again, if an idiot like Oden could leave a permanent scar on Kaido, it wasn't that far-fetched that his body could memorize Roger's signature move under that kind of pressure. He preferred to think of it as his survival instincts kicking in and recording the ultimate technique during a near-death experience.
"And... when he unleashed his Conqueror's Haki... did I...?"
Feeling a faint, flickering power within his own body, Li Ke's expression turned strange.
From a purely pragmatic standpoint, he hadn't actually planned on bothering with the "Three Colors" of Haki. He already had too many tools in his kit. Functionally speaking, using Mana or Blood Energy to reinforce his body wasn't that different from Armament Haki—and honestly, the ceiling for those two was much higher.
Besides, Haki progression in this world felt tied to your overall "level" and grit; it wasn't something you could just grind out with repetitive practice. If he remembered correctly, there were plenty of people in the One Piece world who could harden their entire bodies with Haki, only to get thrashed by Luffy, who couldn't even manage a full-body coat at the time. In this world, ultra-refined technique almost always lost to raw, high-stat brawling.
"And yet, here I am, with the full set."
He looked down at his hand. Wisps of black aura began to pool around his palm. It felt clunky and unrefined, but he could tell that Haki was the kind of thing you mastered by getting into high-stakes scraps, not by meditating in a cave.
Still, his overall stance didn't change much.
Haki drained stamina—stamina he'd much rather spend on Mana or Blood Energy. The primary draw of Haki in this world was its ability to bypass Devil Fruit defenses and actually land a hit on Logia users. Since he couldn't multitask forever, balancing Blood Energy and Mana was already pushing his limits. Trying to juggle a third power system would be a massive drain and would likely just interfere with his primary energy flows.
Under these circumstances, obsessively training Haki didn't make much sense. He still had plenty of abilities he hadn't even fully integrated yet. Roger leaving him the blueprint for Divine Departure was a nice gesture, but realistically? Not that useful.
While he was lost in thought, the villagers of Cocoyasi finally arrived. After hearing Nami's explanation and seeing the crater where Arlong Park once stood, the place erupted. Li Ke and Robin were instantly treated like local legends.
However, despite the "hero" treatment, the villagers had almost nothing to offer. They were so dirt-poor they couldn't even scrounge up fresh meat for a proper banquet. All they had were piles of fruit and some old, tough jerky. Even the booze was just the stock they'd been forced to hoard for Arlong's tribute; there wasn't a drop of personal liquor left in any of their homes.
None of that mattered to them, though. The villagers were radiant, overwhelmed with a joy they hadn't felt in a decade. They immediately began dispatching runners to the neighboring towns to spread the word: The Fishmen were gone.
While there were still a few stray fishmen lurking about, the numbers were stacked heavily against them. A fishman might have the strength of ten humans, but when five or six enraged villagers swarm one at once, there isn't much room for a struggle.
As for their fate...
Let's just say it wasn't pretty. These villagers didn't share Luffy's "good-natured" mercy, but then again, the fishmen were only getting what they deserved.
"Whoo! Cheers!!"
Nami held up a glass of orange juice spiked with rum, clinging to Li Ke's arm. She let out a boisterous laugh, and under the watchful eyes of the entire village, she planted a loud kiss on Li Ke's cheek before slamming her drink back.
Li Ke didn't notice, but Nojiko's expression turned slightly uneasy.
The banquet dragged on late into the night, but Li Ke excused himself early. He understood their joy, but it wasn't exactly a monumental event for him. Under Nojiko's lead, he headed back to their house, where he was shown to a spare room.
But just as Li Ke pulled out his phone, intending to get some studying and cultivation in, Nojiko leaned against the doorframe, her gaze lingering on the distant glow of the party.
"What did Nami have to pay to get your help?"
Her tone was flat, but there was a hard edge of conviction behind it.
"Oh? What makes you think she paid anything?" Li Ke asked, opening a language app on his phone to brush up on some vocab.
"I'm not an idiot. Not even the Marines could take down Arlong. His bounty was obviously a joke compared to his actual strength, not to mention his ties to the Warlords... For people like us, monsters like that are impossible to fight. And for you to bring in someone powerful enough to wipe him out..."
Nojiko trailed off, her mind flashing back to the crater where Arlong Park used to be. She couldn't even fathom what kind of person could erase a fortress with a single swing of a sword. To her, Arlong had been the ceiling of power—a freak who could catch cannonballs with his teeth and shatter warships with his bare hands. He was practically a god in her eyes.
"...I haven't seen you fight personally, but you're clearly not some ordinary traveler. So I'm curious what Nami promised you. And don't give me any jokes about her hiring you with her savings; we both know that's bullshit."
"Arlong Park is a literal hole in the ocean. There's no treasure left to find," Nojiko continued, her voice steady. "Nami wouldn't have used the money she saved to buy back the village, either. If she gambled that and lost, she'd have no fallback left. She'd never take that risk."
So, money was off the table. As for what she had left to offer...
"You've already guessed it, haven't you?" Li Ke shot back.
Nojiko stayed silent for a long beat. Then, with a quiet sigh, she reached out, grabbed the handles, and pulled the bedroom door shut.
"How far have you two gone?" she asked, her gaze unwavering.
"Just her mouth."
"Really?"
"Do I have a reason to lie to you?"
Li Ke found the situation pretty entertaining. Nojiko was clearly preparing to offer herself up to spare her sister, but her intuition was impressive. Without him saying a single word, she had already pieced together almost the entire arrangement.
Nojiko let out a soft, bitter laugh. Nami had already sacrificed so much to keep her alive; how could she, as the older sister, just stand by and watch her keep paying the price?
She reached back, locked the door with a quiet click, and began walking slowly toward Li Ke.
She had no idea if Li Ke would even be interested in a country girl like her, but she was out of chips to play. This was her last move.
Under Li Ke's amused gaze, she reached down, grabbed the hem of her short-sleeved shirt, and slowly pulled it over her head. She exposed her chest—already a bit fuller and more developed than Nami's.
She casually draped the shirt, still warm with the scent of her skin, around Li Ke's neck. Pressing her knee firmly against his lower abdomen, she tossed her hair back and took his hand, guiding it directly onto her breast. It was definitely larger than Nami's, though it still couldn't compare to the mature curves of someone like Robin.
Li Ke noticed that Nojiko's skin felt smoother than Robin's current rougher state. Her hands were calloused from years of hard labor in the orchards, but her body was free of scars, and the feel of her was a massive improvement over Nami's bony frame.
Even so, he could still see the faint outline of her ribs beneath her skin—another grim reminder of the malnutrition they'd suffered.
Arlong, you really were a piece of shit, Li Ke thought for the hundredth time.
Nojiko had no clue what was going through his head. She just wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered into his ear.
"Don't you think Nami is still a little too... scrawny for your tastes?"
She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a low, suggestive hum.
"How about making a deal with me instead?"