Chapitre 41: The Night on The Ship
( ??? POV )
As I gaze around the magnificent ship we've been touring, a sense of awe envelops me. Even my younger sister, standing beside me, has eyes full of stars as she takes in the sights. It's been a challenging day for us, but seeing her smile and enjoy her time here brings me a sense of relief.
"And this is the music room! This room is full of equipment for a musician, like piano, guitar, drum, and even things I don't know about but still sound cool. There's even a stage right there for Uta-chan's singing practices." I'm brought back from my reverie as the woman with white hair and red horn in front of me introduces this room.
"Wow, it's so cool. We've never seen something like this before," my little sister comments while looking around, touching a piano beside her.
"Thank you for the tour, Miss...?" I trail off, uncertain whether to address the cheerful lady directly or with formal titles.
"Just call me Yamato. I don't care about titles and things like that, and I can also see that you are probably older than me." She waves her hands casually at me while continuing our tour to the other rooms. I just nod with a smile as my reply. She's a good kid.
As time passes and she guides us to almost every used room in this massive ship, my sister and I are actually getting tired. Don't get me wrong, the tour was good, it has been informative, and we managed to see some cool things, but there are just too many rooms...
Both of us can only follow the energetic Yamato around for now. My sister is also getting drowsy. I can only smile wryly seeing this.
"For the last, I'll show you your bedroom. You and your sister can take some sleep there; it's been a rough day after all. I'm sorry for the disaster that hit your town..." Yamato says while opening the door to the supposed temporary quarters.
"It's fine, Yamato. It's not your guys' fault. In fact, both of us really appreciate what you guys did for us. If not for Azel-san and you guys, I really doubt that we sisters could come out alive from those people's hands. So, thank you for saving us." I guide my little sister to the giant bed in the center of the room while expressing what I've always wanted to say to our benefactors.
"Umu, thank you, big sister!" My little sister also expresses her gratefulness even though she is struggling not to doze off.
After hearing our sincere thanks, I can see that Yamato is a bit embarrassed. She scratches her flushed cheeks with her finger. "Umm, I guess it's fine...? Anyway, if you want to express your thanks, just wait for tomorrow and say it to the others later. I'm gonna leave you guys here, see you tomorrow." After that, she heads out and leaves our room.
"Yawn... Onee-chan, I'm sleepy." My sister nudges me. I just smile at her while helping her set the pillows on the bed.
"Come here, Sugar, let's get some sleep." I beckon my sister to lay down next to me on the bed, and she snuggles close, seeking comfort. I hug her back while caressing her head.
I'm left thinking about what these people might want from us by letting us stay on their ship. Remembering the kind man who saved us with his flamed sword, I hope his other companions are also reasonable people.
With our town in ruins and few survivors left, I worry about our future. But as I drift off to sleep, I can only hope that tomorrow brings us a better day.
.....
( Vanze POV )
"So, is this the outcome of your experiment?" Robin inquired, scrutinizing the new Devil Fruit I had just extracted today, holding it delicately in her hand.
"Yes, that's Pica's Devil Fruit. And the one in Yamato's possession is Machvise's Devil Fruit, known as the Ton-Ton no Mi," I replied, gesturing towards the fruit Yamato held.
After a long day of harvesting, we gathered once again in the lounge. This time, only the core members of our group were present. The kids were already asleep, accompanied by Reiju. Dory was somewhere on the deck, lost in thought as usual, and the clown was isolating himself in his room.
Yamato was lying on the sofa, tossing the Devil Fruit in her hand like a toy. My heart urged me to smack her after seeing that.
"Isn't there more than two Devil Fruit users? Why did you only take two of them?" Robin asked before handing the fruit back to me.
"Do you want the one with mucus all over it?" I deadpanned.
"Ew!" Yamato recoiled in disgust. I could understand her sentiment; I myself would never want to touch Trebol if I had the chance, and it's not like his fruit is a good one.
"Anyways, most of them are non-users, and some of the users got killed by you and Azel," I explained. Lao G is not a user, Senor Pink didn't have his DF yet, and Diamante got split in half.
"Fair point..." Robin flushed, trying to avoid eye contact with me after hearing my words. She pretended to be calm while sipping wine from her glass in an elegant manner, cute.
"How about Doflamingo's fruit?" Azel's voice cut in as he emerged from a bar, holding a big glass filled with cold beer, before taking a seat near us.
"He can't. He still has some value left to be squeezed by us. By the way, how is his condition, Robin?" I inquired, shifting the conversation to the pink guy. It's not that I can't take it; it's more like I don't want it. Let him keep it.
"Well, how should I put it... he's hanging on by a thread. Thanks to your power slowing down his wounds, Reiju and I can still manage to treat him somehow," she explained, her face showing difficulty.
I could imagine; the dude was in bad shape. Several parts of his body were petrified, his internal organs badly damaged, and his left hand and shoulder were gone. I wondered how he still managed to breathe. Is it because of his heritage as a Celestial Dragon, or is he just built differently? Damn.
"Hm, how's the call?" I asked her.
"Already done," she replied with a knowing smile.
"Oh please, spare us with both of your cryptic words," Yamato groaned, voicing her frustration with our secretive conversations. I just rolled my eyes after hearing her. She doesn't like puzzling talk and prefers to talk with her fists. Like father, like daughter...
"Alright, alright."
"We also found a lot of treasures on their ship, and I already moved all of it to our warehouse with my power. The real valuable ones are inside that crate. You can check it for yourselves; they've got some really nice stuff, fufufu."
"You've piqued my interest..." I slowly shifted my attention toward the crate beside our sofa that Robin pointed to. I walked toward it before opening it with excitement in my heart.
As the lid lifted, revealing its contents, I couldn't suppress the grin that spread across my face. "As expected from Joker of the underworld."
What a rich harvest. Not only the success of my experiment and the reward from today's quest, but we also got a lot of things from Doflamingo's pirate crew.
'Doflamingo, you are truly a good guy,' I thought, praising the pink guy.
[ A proper young master, he is. ]
While still immersed in my thoughts, Yamato suddenly arrived at my side, curiously looking at the things inside the crate.
"Ehhh... I thought it would be something interesting like a treasure map or a map to an unknown island, but it's just the usual loot," she said with a hint of disappointment before returning to her favorite sofa and lying down. This girl... I think I need to talk to Robin about adding another day for her study class.
"At dinner, I saw Law being occupied by a girl in a maid's dress. He seemed troubled by it. Isn't she one of Doflamingo's crew?" Azel inquired while I busied myself with the loot.
"Yes, she is, and I can guarantee she's fine. From the information I've got, she's an outlier in their crew, and Law seems to be the only one who cares about her when she's caught. He asked me if I could free her, and he guaranteed that she would not run away or help her previous crew to escape. Anyway, I believe she's not a bad girl; she just got entangled with bad people," Robin said to Azel.
Hmm? A girl in a maid outfit? Baby 5?
"But why would he bother doing that? It seems bothersome to me..." Azel commented, drinking his cold beer.
"You're really clueless about it, huh? That's why you don't have much luck with women. It's obvious that the tsundere kid likes the maid girl, right Robin?" Yamato replied, casting a disappointed look at Azel.
Robin, who heard Yamato's words, could only chuckle, wondering how her brain works. "Fufufu, maybe."
Naruhodo... Maybe he is afraid that I will kill Baby 5 or throw her to the marines after our talk that time, so he decide to act.
"See? Even a kid has his own crush. Maybe you should learn from him, hahaha," Yamato said, teasing Azel about his love life.
"No thank you. Women will only affect my grind," Azel replied with a deadpan face before downing the rest of his beer.
"Ehh... You're boring." Seeing Azel unbothered by her provocation, she also stopped her teasing.
"You love seeking a fight, don't you, Yamato? Don't always tease Azel about his loveless life," I said before taking a seat beside Robin after storing the loot in my inventory.
"Fufufu, it's either Azel or Hancock. She always loves teasing them," Robin said with a lot of amusement in her tone. Sometimes when those two got baited by her, they ended up in a fight, and I got a headache because of it.
We continued to talk all night long about various things we could think of before heading to our own rooms to rest. I myself was deep in thought, thinking that some matters need to be handled by me tomorrow.
Now that I'm thinking about it, our guild really lacks people. There are only 6 people who can contribute on this ship, and the rest are still kids.
Robin is basically the brain of this guild; every piece of information needs to go through her first. Hancock handles the kids' training, from combat to manners and even survival skills. Yamato is... well, Yamato. She sometimes helps with the kids' training or watches over them. Reiju is our temporary doctor, even though she is a poison master and her medical knowledge could only serve as a nurse at best. Azel handles the heavy work on the ship and is a part-time helmsman. And lastly, there's me, who sometimes becomes a cook, a navigator, a tutor, and anything else our guild needs me to be.
Sigh, it would be nice if we had more people helping around here. Hmm, should I do a summoning...?
.....
( 3rd POV )
On a pleasant morning aboard the luxurious Pearl, several people were already busy in the kitchen. Two girls could be seen carrying various dishes on plates, placing them carefully on the table.
"It'd be much easier with Robin's power..." the white-haired girl mused to herself.
"Come on, Yamato, Vanze is almost done cooking breakfast. Robin will be here later," the pink-haired girl said, overhearing Yamato's words and gesturing for her to return to the kitchen to help Vanze.
"Fine... But, before that, let me taste this one first, hehe." Yamato turned her attention to a plate of grilled sea king meat in garlic crisps and oyster sauce, a drool forming on her face. Just as her hand was about to grab a piece, a loud voice echoed from the other side of the room.
"Ladies, the food is piling up here! Come and take it out to the table! And Yamato, I'll forbid you from eating dessert if you eat that dish alone!"
Hearing Vanze's voice, especially directed at her, Yamato quickly abandoned her previous idea and rushed back to the kitchen. "Nooo! Not the dessert! My puddings and ice cream!!!"
Watching the usual banter among the residents of the ship, Reiju shook her head and displayed a wry smile. "What a lively morning," she remarked, walking in the same direction as Yamato, intending to help.
.....
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone