'Okay...things to do today..' I opened the fridge to take out the leftover noodles from the night before. 'Morning session with Barker... gotta talk to Helga and see where she's at with the list...go down to the harbor and- aw crap, I promised Dan I'd help him with the new boat didn't I..' The stove turns on and I dump the seafood pasta into a skillet. '..I could probably get out of it.. Kiwi and I do need to go on a shopping run.. maybe I can work in some [Geppo] training while we're-'
Alert! Your [Den-Den-Mushi] is ringing! An eyebrow quirks at the text screen. 'Who in the blazes would be calling this early? Sun's not even up.'
My arm reaches into the [Inventory] and comes out with the tiny blue-shelled snail in its palm. "Puru-puru-puru-puru. Puru-puru-puru-puru."
'Well lets not keep 'em waiting.'
"Puru-puru-pur-KA-CHK! Hah! Jack my boy!" The barking voice of Master Chief comes through the intercom. "Thanks for picking up. How you doing this morning?"
"Oh hey. Morning Mori." I speak through a yawn. "I'm just reheating some breakfast. I gotta say you're certainly up early."
"Hah! Don't you know the military never sleeps son?" He jokes as the snail mirrors his ear-to-ear smile. "Anyway the reason I'm calling is uh, I know you said you wanted two months to 'take care of stuff' and all that, but you see I was wondering if you might be available to hah, start a bit early?"
"Why? What you got for me?"
The sounds of ruffling papers briefly takes over. "I'm looking at a report on my desk here that's dated from about...three hours ago. Over the night there was a conflict between a Marine cruiser and a ship under the command of a pirate named Zōken. He's uh, pretty small-time. Bounty's only 1.5 million. He's raided a few-"
"I've read his poster." I interrupt. "Did the battle not go well for your side?"
Mori grunts. "Well the paper in front of me claims it was a draw with both ships retreating after they briefly engaged in close-quarters, but that's not really why I rang you up."
I give the pasta a light stir as it begins to warm. "Well what is?" "Seems this Zōken fellow somehow got his hands on the Bobcat Fruit. Cut an..." Papers shuffling again. ".. cut an 'Ensign Shurin' up pretty bad. He might lose the arm apparently. There's already paperwork being pushed through to raise Zōken's bounty up to 6 million, maybe a bit higher...but then the idea struck me. Who do I know that has experience with errant Zoan users? Plus..." Mori slowed to draw out the word. "..he's in your area."
I paused in attending to my breakfast and turned to the snail with a grin that was perhaps just a bit too predatory. "Where?"
"Well at the time our cruiser called in the report...or in other words three hours ago. 22 miles southeast of you. Bearing 131 degrees. That enough info for you to intercept? Oh..uh..should probably ask..you're still based out of Kivuruk right? Because if it turns out you're on an entirely different island then I'm gonna feel like a right pillock." "Consider it done." I poked my head out the window and whistled for Kiwi to present himself. "And Mori…thank you so much for calling. We appreciate your service."
Kivuruk Island, South Blue
What's a better word for 'productive'? Fruitful? Constructive maybe? No, those don't really fit. None of them quite encompass a broad enough description to illustrate just how much I've gotten done these past 30 days.
Because..oh ho ho..it has been significant.
Let's start with the big picture. Kivuruk itself.
The village is really coming along nicely, perhaps to the point where it can finally self-manage again. I'll admit that the new homes are a bit small for the number who have to live in them. And what limited furniture they do have is shoddy and obviously the work of people just trying to get something usable throw together. But everyone has a roof to rest under. Everyone has a bed to sleep in. There's food in the pantries. Most of the running water is back online, and Dan left just this morning on his first mercantile trip since the attack.
It'll be a long time before the village ever resembles its past self. The drastic loss of life made sure of that. But I have faith that the people here will persevere until it does. Their spirit may have been hurt but it was not broken. And considering I made sure everyone over the age of 14 now has their own rifle I rather doubt they'll let anyone hurt them in the same way again.
Barkers astonishing levels of growth have finally begun to slow. He hasn't stopped quite yet but it's obvious his first plateau is coming. Lv. 20 isn't high enough to take on a gang of invaders by himself -groups of dagger wielding fodder possibly excluded-, but it's still damn impressive. As long as he continues to push himself, finds a way through his upcoming wall, and studies the technique booklet I'm writing for him, I really don't see any reason why I'll need to worry about this place. Short of Eustass himself coming back here, he and the villagers should be able to handle anything.
Rika has recently...well...it's complicated. Before I left for Karate island she seemed..fine? I'd at least say content. She knew I was leaving, I thought I'd be gone awhile, neither of us really expected a continuation of what started that night in my cabin. But then...there ended up being no real reason to stay on Karate Island...all of my grinding was just as easily done here so...so coming back was the logical choice right? I thought she'd be happy. Instead she's just...all over the place. At first she was cold. That frosty indifference was followed by anger and her accusing me of taking advantage. Then a few nights later came her forcing herself on me combined with hours of the raunchiest most animalistic sex of my life. I thought I had finally figured out where she was emotionally...only for her to be gone before I woke up. I tried to talk to her in the village later that day but she fled at the sight of me. Tears in her eyes and hand pressed over her mouth.
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