章節 50: 00050. Shimotsuki village.
The boys spent about a week as they sailed to their first destination. They passed a couple more ships along the way, but no one stopped them and the boys didn't go out of their way to meet anyone else. It was early in the morning when they finally arrived at the island. Unfortunately they needed to traverse around half of it before they found a proper dock they could use. The only problem was the dock was half broken.
Marcus took in the immediate area as they worked to tie down the ship and noticed that it wasn't just the dock that was damaged. Marcus wasn't the only one to notice though, as Ace asked, "What do you think happened here?"
Sabo finished with his line before he said, "Kinda looks like storm damage, but it must have been a massive storm to cause this much damage."
"I had the same thoughts… But even then, this is a little ridiculous." Marcus said as he looked out over the destruction.
The dock itself was still standing but was missing a bunch of boards along the walkway. Some were broken, but most were completely missing. Someone did a quick patch job on it though as there were boards patched together on it so people could still walk on it. Past the dock was where the foundation for a couple buildings should be. Currently only the bottom masonry of the buildings stood there.
Past that were a bunch of houses that were half destroyed, but still standing. There were even a few boats and a larger single mast ship that crashed into some of the buildings. The farther inland you went the less damaged everything looked, which was lucky since it meant the storm only kissed the island. People were already in the process of cleaning up the wreckage, but it would definitely take a little while to accomplish.
As Marcus and the others finished tying down the ship, an older man with a slightly hunched back from the village approached them. He carefully walked along the dock to avoid the missing planks and once he was close he asked, "Hello and welcome to Shimotsuki village. I'm one of the village elders, Kazuyumi but most people just call me Kazu."
Kazu gestured to the state of everything around him as he said, "I'm sorry about the lackluster welcome. But as you can see we are in the middle of cleaning up after a disaster."
Marcus smiled down at the man as he said, "It's fine, we never expected someone to greet us in the first place."
Kazu glanced at the boys for a moment before he asked, "Sorry for being rude, but would it be possible to talk with your ship's captain?"
As Marcus turned to look at the others, Luffy leaned over the railing as he excitedly said, "I'm the captain!"
Ace punched Luffy in the head as he said, "Like hell you are!"
Luffy rubbed his head as he said, "I'm going to be the pirate king, so I have to be the captain!"
Ace punched Luffy again as he said, "Shut up idiot! You can be the captain when you go out to sea alone. Right now Marcus is the captain."
Marcus turned to Ace in surprise as he asked, "Me?"
"You're the one who came up with this whole idea, so you're the one responsible for it." Ace said as Sabo nodded in agreement.
"No fair, I should be the captain!" Luffy said before everyone else punched him over the head to shut him up.
After a moment Marcus glanced back over the railing of the ship before he said, "Looks like I was put in charge… What can I do for you?"
Kazu had a skeptical look as he asked, "Is there no one else on your ship?"
"Nope. Just us… Is that a problem?" Marcus asked with a smile.
Kazu shook his head before he asked, "Would it be possible to borrow your ship for the day?"
"What do you need our ship for?"
Kazu waved his hand to the empty dock as he said, "The hurricane that came through here a few days ago destroyed not only our homes, but also all of our fishing boats."
Kazu glanced towards the village as he said, "Luckily it only touched this side of the island and we have food stores that should last until the harvest season and we replace our fishing boats. But it would be best if we could secure more food just in case."
Marcus glanced at his brother's who nodded at him before he smiled and said, "We would be glad to help out. Gather whoever you need and we will take them out to help collect fish for the village."
Kazu smiled as he said, "Thank you…"
Kazu bowed as he said, "Apologies, I never asked your names."
"I'm Marcus and these are my brothers. This is Ace, Sabo and the idiot picking his nose is Luffy." Marcus said as he pointed at Luffy.
Kazu smiled as he said, "It's a pleasure to meet you all."
Within a few hours the ship was back out in the water with Kazu and a handful of fishermen from the village. Before they set out, the villagers attached a piece to the back of the ship to help pull a drag line type fishing net behind the ship. They also added an extension off the back of the ship to help pull up the net.
It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world but it would work for what they needed it for. Kazu glanced at the modification made to the ship as he said, "I'm sorry about modifying your ship. We will do our best to properly fix it."
Marcus who was at the helm said, "It's fine… We were planning to get some type of fishing net anyways."
"Really? Do you boys plan to become fishermen?" Kazu asked with interest.
Marcus shook his head before he pointed at Luffy up in the crows nest as he said, "My brother eats more than his weight in food each day or close to it. On the trip here we almost ran out of food because of him."
Kazu glanced up at Luffy with widened eyes before he chuckled and asked, "If that's the case, how about we just leave it on the ship after you help us out?"
"Won't you guys need it back?"
Kazu gave a helpless shrug as he said, "We would need a ship to use it on first. All of these parts were salvaged from a fishing boat that landed on a house."
"Besides, when we get a new ship, it will come with everything we need to fish properly, so there is no need to keep this stuff around." Kazu said before he patted Marcus on the back and added, "Plus we wouldn't want you boys to starve."
Marcus smiled as he said, "We appreciate it, but we'll at least pay for the equipment anyways. Whoever owns that boat can use the money towards a new one."
Kazu patted Marcus on the shoulder as he said, "You're a good kid Marcus."
Over the next couple hours Marcus and the others helped Kazu and his men work the fishing net. The batches of fish they collected were a little small each time, but after doing that over ten times, Kazu was satisfied. Afterwards they headed back to the village to unload and prepare most of the fish for storage.
Once they were back and in the process of unloading the ship, Marcus turned to Kazu and asked, "How long ago did that storm roll through?"
"Almost a week at this point. It was so large that it took over a day for it to pass by this side of the island."
"Over a day? That's big… I wonder where it came from?" Marcus asked as he looked out over the wrecked houses.
"The hurricane itself came from the Southwest. As for how one formed that big coming from the calm belt… I have no clue." Kazu said with a shake of his head.
Ace who was a few feet away helping to unload turned towards Marcus as he said, "What are you doing? Come help us unload."
"Is unloading cargo something a captain is supposed to do?" Marcus asked with a smirk.
Ace gave a flat look before he said, "Come help before we mutiny and get a new captain."
Marcus shook his head before he headed over to help unload all the fish. Once they were finished, they were treated to a meal by Kazu and some other villagers. As they were eating Kazu said, "If you plan to stay here for a few days, you boys can stay at my house if you like. It's a little crowded but it would be better than sleeping on your ship."
Marcus nodded in thanks before he said, "We actually came here to visit a sword dojo and were planning to stay there for a little while if they had room."
"Oh, you came to visit Isshin Dojo? Did you come to learn swordsmanship from that boy Koushirou or challenge him to a duel?" Kazu asked with interest as he glanced at the sword that rested next to Marcus.
"A little bit of both. The real goal is exploring East Blue and getting proper sailing experience. But since we're here, we might as well check out the dojo and do some training." Marcus said as he smacked Luffy's hand that was trying to steal food from his plate.
Kazu chuckled at the boys as he watched Luffy try to steal food from the other boys who blocked his attempts. He then reached for his own plate and his eyes widened as he found it empty. He glanced up to see Luffy swipe food from another man's plate as he was distracted talking to someone else. Kazu shook his head as he realized Marcus wasn't joking about Luffy eating his own body weight in food. The boy just stuffed things in his mouth and barely took the time to chew or even swallow before he shoved more inside.
"Can he even taste his food eating like that?" Kazu asked while he quickly refilled his plate and made sure to guard it this time.
Marcus gave a shrug as he said, "He always says it tastes delicious, but I've seen him eat week old moldy bread and say the same thing."
Ace nodded in agreement before he said, "I don't think I've ever seen him waste food… Even when we had a food fight, he was eating things off the floor when we finished."
Kazu eyed Luffy with a bit of disgust and respect as he said, "After we're done with lunch, I'll have someone guide you to the dojo. I would do it myself, but the dojo is about six miles inland just past all the farms."
After lunch, the boys headed back to the ship to collect their stuff. While they didn't bring a ton of stuff with them, they didn't want to leave it on the ship while they were gone. It was mostly their training weapons, training harnesses and the money they brought with them. Marcus also brought extra training harnesses and the weights to give to people. They had extra, so Marcus figured he could help out Luffy's future crew and make them stronger.
With everything packed up, the boys met their guide to the dojo and bid farewell to Kazu and the others. While it wasn't that far away, most people near the port didn't normally head towards the dojo that often, since they had no reason to. A few of the village kids went there each day to train though.
As they walked towards the dojo, they passed by a rich farmland full of different types of crops. The fields were currently empty of people since most of the work was done and they were helping out in the village with reconstruction efforts.
After a little over an hour or so, a compound appeared in the distance. It was large, with a wall that surrounded the whole thing. The architecture was Japanese inspired, with the buildings having elongated curved roofs, covered in a blue tile. Large pieces of exposed timber supported the bigger buildings, while rice paper windows could be seen throughout the place.
It was the afternoon when the boys arrived at the entrance gate and the sounds of people practicing swordsmanship could be heard from outside the wall. Marcus glanced at Luffy for just a moment, thinking about how he was going to meet his future first mate soon before he knocked on the gate.
每周推薦票狀態
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榜單 
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