Chapter 18: Grandpa Ryu

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　the dragon was in the middle of eating the pork buns which Apis brought with difficulties, seeing Apis didn't noticed him, Rei felt like to tease her a little, he silently went behind her and poked at her head.

　"HYAAA....!" Apis jumped in fright and with quick movements she turned around only to see someone with white hair covered face unknowingly stood there.

　Apis face paled in instant as she saw the figure grinned menacingly,

　"g, g, g, gho...gho..." Apis stepping backwards slowly as she stammered while pointing her small finger towards Rei.

　"....A~PI~S...." Rei spoke with ghastly voice and raised both of his hands forward.

　"HIYAAAA!!! GHOOOOOOST!" Apis couldn't help but screamed in fright, only to heard Rei exploded into maniacal laughter a second later.

　Rei throw his head back while holding his stomach laughing so hard it hurts, after seeing her reaction,

　"HAHAHHAHHAHAHA, AH! auch...!"

　his laughter suddenly interrupted by a sudden kick towards his shinbone! it turns out after noticing who it was, Apis face turned red like cooked shrimp and with a stomp she kicked Rei leg right on its shinbone.

　Rei kneeled while rubbing his shin, he tried his hardest to held his laughter when he saw red faced Apis folding her arms and tapping her small feet to the ground.

　however it was all futile, Rei begun to rolling on the ground and laughing as hard as he could forgetting his pained leg, Apis realy couldn't hold it anymore seeing Rei behavior, she pounced towards Rei and began to attack him by every means possible.

　however what could a little girl possibly do other than pulling his hair or biting his hand? even her punch felt like a tickle to Rei. after a few moments of fooling around, Apis letting go of Rei's long white hair with a harrumph.

　"aha, ahaha, sorry Apis, i realy can't help it.." Rei asked for forgiveness while wiping away his tears.

　"HMPPH...!" Apis harrumphed her face away for answer.

　adjusting his breath, Rei turned his focus once more towards the dragon, which since Rei came and tussled around with Apis, it hasn't stopped eating his meal.

　"so, this is your secret?" Rei said in interest.

　Apis jolted awake when he realized Rei had found out about her secret! Apis suddenly jump in front of the dragon trying to shield it away from the curious Rei.

　just when she wants to gave Rei an excuse, the dragon nudged towards her back gently with his huge snout, Apis was surprised with the dragon action, she loked back and forth between the dragon and Rei.

　until finaly she throws her hands down and sighed in resigned manner, she looked straight into Rei's eyes and said,

　"sigh*, yes. his name is grandpa Ryu, and he said 'nice to meet you moon dweller'...."

　even though Rei already knew about who was this dragon, he rised one of his eyebrow when he heard what Apis had just said.

　'moon dweller?' Rei thought in surprise while rubbing his chin.

　Apis wanted to ask more about what the 'moon dweller' was, however Rei beat her to it by asking another question,

　"grandpa Ryu? grandpa?" Rei didn't mentioned about 'moon dweller' any longer as it wasn't his main interests.

　Apis nodded as she explained, "grandpa Ryu is old dragon, even he don't remembers exactly how old he currently is."

　"how did you know he is old Apis?"

　"because of his age grandpa Ryu can't fly anymore, and i heard his voices resemblance with older folks in the village." she said while rubbing the old dragon's snout.

　Ryu the old dragon seems quite like it when Apis rubbed his snout gently, he licked Apis small face which made the little girl giggled.

　"so, when did you meet with grandpa Ryu, Apis?"

　Apis began to tell Rei about her story, it begins when she played on the field at that faithful day. when playing, she heard someone voice coming from the mountain cave, feeling curious she searched the source of the voice and finaly met with the old, sick, and weakened Ryu inside the cave.

　Ryu lost all of his energy after searching his friends which of course also the dragon. Ryu told Apis that he got separated from other dragon in their way finding the dragon's nest in Lost Island.

　his long quest inevitably failed to find a single dragon and lost all hope, helpless and exhausted Ryu could only stayed inside the cave for quite a long time until Apis found him.

　the little girl and the old dragon find each other companionship pleasant, so they keep their contact to each other a secret from everybody else. that last until Apis were captured by Eric a few days ago, now the marines and Nelson especially had great suspicion towards her.

　after hearing Apis naration, Rei asked, "Lost Island? what is Lost Island."

　Apis answered, "grandpa Ryu told me that Lost Island were somewhere underwater. it is a place for dragon nesting."

　"underwater? are you sure?"

　"grandpa Ryu told me that the Lost Island will resurfaces once in a thousand year. but he can't remember where the place exactly is."

　Rei frowned, "thousand year? thats long."

　Apis shook her head and added, "the cycle actualy getting closer and closer, and grandpa Ryu himself actualy had lived for around that long."

　Rei with his knowledge about the story from anime, felt so surreal hearing it right from its source, he glanced towards the now sleeping old dragon.

　"anyway, i just realized that you can speak with dragon?" Rei already knew about Apis ability to comunicate with animals actualy came from a devil fruit, however he asked her about it anyway, in case Apis had suspicion on him in the future.

　after several exciting encounters together, Rei thought fondly of her, akin to newly found little sister.

　Apis paused for a little, yet she nodded and answered him anyway, "i think i ate a devil fruit before."

　"devil fruit? what kind of devil fruit?" Rei raised his eyebrow.

　Apis shrugged her shoulder and said, "i don't know the name, but i think i found it when grandpa harvested apple trees in the backyard."

　"then, why did you eat it? and how did you know if its a devil fruit?"

　"it looks interesting and i think because of its pattern, it has apple shape but its skin was wriggly spiral, it was so strange."

　hearing her explanation Rei could only smiled wryly, eating devil fruit because it looked interesting? what a brat!

　albeit rare, the devil fruit knowledge was common in the world of onepiece, however it was considered blessing or even curse to the one who ate it. the one Apis eat was called Hiso Hiso no Mi or Whisper-Whisper Fruit.

　Apis continued, "after eating the fruit i can hear and understand any animals thought, i also can comunicate with them. but because of it i can't swim. i fell to the river once, usualy i can swim just fine, but at that time i can't move my body, it feels like my body were made of stone, thankfully some villagers saw me and i was saved. at that moment, i knew i ate devil fruit."

　"so the orca yesterday also your doing?"

　nodded she said, "the orca was kind one, if its bad one i don't think i can comunicate with it."

　Rei felt his interests surging and asked for more, "i see, every animals mean you can comunicate even with bugs too right?"

　Apis nodded yet shook her head soon, "smaller animals usualy only has simple thought, normaly its hard to comunicate with them."

　Apis and Rei were silence for a brief moment, however a second later she looked towards the later with gleaming eyes,

　"Rei, Rei! what kind of devil fruit you eat? to have the ability to stand on water! it was so cool!" she asked full of excitement.

　Rei stunned for an instant, then he laughed while stroking the excited Apis's head.

　"i didn't eat any devil fruit."

　"huh? then, how can you?" asked Apis with blank face.

　"it's one of my abilities, i learned it, do you want to learn it too?" blurted out Rei, he simply thought if he could absorb nature chakra in this world, doesn't that mean other people can learn chakra kneading technique too? if so, there was no harm to teach her about it.

　Apis were speechless, you can learn to stand on water? if that so...

　"you can teach me? then, i want to learn it!"

　for the devil fruit user, water was their bane. the ability to walk on water was too much of temptation one could handle.

　seeing her excitement, Rei smiled gently. however just when he wanted to reply,

　「Ding! 1 promising disciple detected. Apis wants to learn the 'Ninshu' (Ninja Way) from you, do you accept?」

　the system voice abruptly appeared, almost giving Rei a fright. thankfully he adjusted his breath in an instant, if he suddenly jumping out of fright without any warning, it would be so uncool to look at in front of Apis.

　Rei didn't immediately accepted the system notification, he weighed the pros and the cons first, and yet when he saw Apis looked at him in hopeful and gleaming fashion, he relented in the end.

　'accept.' Rei thought simply.

　「Ding! congratulations for accepting the first disciple, activating 'Master & Disciple Panel'. Ding! you got x1 disciple pack.」

　Rei ignored the subsequent system voice, he just nodded at Apis and said,

　"sure, i can teach you. but i'm quite a harsh teacher you know?"

　"okay! okay! i understand! thank you Rei!" Apis nodded her head hard and smiled widely.

　seeing the night getting late, Apis became quite tired and sleepy, so Rei asked her to go home, which Apis reluctantly agreed.

　after saying goodbye towards the sleeping old dragon, both of them trailed back from where they came. Apis nodded her head often due to her feeling drowsy, so Rei just carried her on his back.

　Apis didn't struggle and just complied, feeling Rei's warm and broad back, Apis fell asleep immediately, her head nested comfortably on Rei shoulder.

　on the tranquil night road, Rei thought hard about his previous conversation with the little girl regarding the dragon nest, he were conflicted whether or not to tell Apis and Ryu about the Lost Island whereabouts and the Mural depicting thousand year dragon within it.

　feeling Apis head rested on his shoulder, Rei just threw all of it to the back, he would think about it tomorow. for now, let's just go home.

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