[54] The Journey to the East?! (1)
Chapter 54: The Journey to the East?! (1)
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This planet ‘Earth’ appeared highly artificial. Excluding the Red-Line, the most artificial part of this planet would be the Grand-Line. Just after that, the third most artificial part was the Calm-Belts.
Two lines of ‘dead sea’ that ran in a straight line right by the Grandline’s side, were the Calm-Belts. It was the natural habitat of giant sea-kings who could devour ships with a single gulp. Those kinds of creatures lived here and therefore restricted the coming and going of people from the other seas into the Grandline.
That’s why the only official route to Grandline was the Reverse Mountain, at the start of Paradise. Sadly, once someone entered the Grandline, it was hard to go back through the Reverse Mountain. Also depending on their position in the Grandline, it might take a while to even reach the mountain.
Hashirama’s [Senju Pirates], dubbed by the Marines, didn’t have either of those luxuries. No, it didn’t matter even if they did have the luxury. Taking the Calm Belts was just that much easier.
Even if it meant dealing with sea kings at the number of dozens, just like right now.
– Whip!
His punch hit a building-sized sea-king under its chin, causing a burst of shockwave to heat his fist. Due to how small his fist was compared to the creature, the shockwave passed through the creature’s skull like a bullet of air. It died and was thrown into the sea.
– Whip!
– Whip!
– Whip!
Hashirama wasn’t using any of his wooden powers. The three girls could tell he wasn’t in a good mood and was using his fists just to take his anger on the poor creatures.
“Holy Cow…”
The three girls had thought of comforting him but seeing him annihilate the sea kings, without even caring to create a clone, they were a little surprised.
They knew he was strong, but…. they thought he was highly dependent on his fruit powers.
“Remind me to not make him mad.”
That was when two sea kings leaped towards the group. Hashirama was on the other side and was dealing with two on his own.
“…Vivi, catch these!”
Finding an opening, Hashirama took a weapon out of who-knew-where and threw it at Vivi. Vivi immediately recognized the weapon, as it was the one she has been training with for two whole years.
“Ah, t-thanks!”
Vivi was surprised at the quality of the weapon and thanked him. Just then, the sea kings attacked her and the other two girls.
Skillfully, Vivi grabbed her weapon and shot through the air, slashing the sea kings into pieces.
The most surprising part was that; she wasn’t using a bladed weapon. The blunt hits of her [Nunchucks] were fast enough to cut through the air and sent wind slashes to the enemies.
– Shwwwing!
– Shwwwing!
One dropped from the wind slash, and another from Vivi’s direct attack that too cut through the creature’s head. Sadly, her work was amateurish and therefore painted everyone with blood. A large piece of the fish also fell on the ship while the other parts fell to the sea.
“Oops, sorry.”
Vivi rubbed the back of her head and gave an apologetic smile to the two blood-soaked girls, while the same blood trailed down her chin.
Mikita shivered.
Robin focused on the nunchucks that Vivi was holding, instead.
Those nunchucks were special, by a great deal. One reason why Hashirama didn’t bring any of his personal cash on this journey, was that a lot of it was spent to commission those nunchucks a few weeks before Vivi’s birthday. He had spent around a few hundred million out of his pocket, to commission the best blacksmith in the Grandline that money (and Royal status) could buy.
It was a top-notch product. The metal used was a higher grade of sea stone that was very durable than normal ones, due to being mixed with other sorts of compatible metal. It’s claimed to be ‘indestructible’ by the smith. While Hashirama wasn’t sure how much of that was true, it was at least strong enough to withstand his strongest attacks.
Hashirama had supposed that was a good gift for Vivi’s birthday, which also counted as an apology gift for kidnapping her. She clearly loved it, as she had to change a pair of nunchucks every other week for the past two years, and this was much more durable.
“....! Look out!”
The situation suddenly turned dangerous. Until now, only three sea-kings had appeared at once, and it was taken care of easily. However, suddenly a group of eight sea kings surrounded the ship. It seemed to be a colony, unlike the previous ones, and was planning to attack together.
This was bad. The two fighters weren’t enough to cover against all of them, and though they didn’t like to admit it, neither Robin nor Mikita was strong enough to take on a single big fish.
Hashirama hesitated… and then he sighed. It appeared he had to use his wood powers, after all.
Shaking his head slickly, he allowed the hairband tying his hair to fall. With his hair free, chakra flared out of his body and his hair floated up. He was a person who could look like a super-saiyan with chakra alone because he had chakra that matched the ocean.
Hashirama clasped his hands together, just as the sea kings shoved their jaws at the ship. Their intention was to chew it out at one go, and they were certainly big enough to do so.
However, the only thing they could chew on was eight spikes of wood that sprouted out of the ship’s side and penetrated the fish’s throat.
Eight huge spikes that were the size of a castle pillar rushed at the incoming fishes and penetrated them at once. The fishes died as the spikes came out of their skull on the other side. The end of the spike sprouted like a flower and thereby pushed the sea-kings’ bodies away from the ship and into the sea.
The sound of eight huge bodies falling on the sea accompanied their fate, and the wave created from the fall shot the ship right towards the end of the calm belt.
The girls fell on their asses, while Hashirama picked up his hairband and stared at the blue sea. His eyes were sharp but slowly lost their tension, as he passed the line that divided the seas and…. stepped into the East Blue.
Hashirama gave a last look at the Calm Belt.
“We will be back.”
This was their destination, after all.
* * *
Mont Blanc Cricket was the distant descendant of Mont Noland.
Noland was a legend from four hundred years ago, who sadly lost his life due to the nature of this planet proving him to be a liar.
Due to that, Cricket was always looked down upon as the descendant of a liar. That’s why Cricket was in search of the City of Gold, to prove that he in fact, was not the descendant of a liar.
In his long journey, Cricket didn’t only learn about the City of Gold. He also found some information on the other legends that roamed on this world. One such legend was the existence of the Emerald City.
While Cricket never pursued the search of the Emerald City, he knew bits of news that nobody else did. News was what Hashirama sought, and received.
The Emerald City was located in the Calm Belt, apparently. Sadly, Cricket wasn’t sure which side and part of Calm Belt it was located on.
Admittedly, he only knew these bits from a few torn pages he found years ago underwater. He gave Hashirama those pages, and according to those pages, the Emerald City was indeed in the Calm Belt.
Sadly, navigating in the Calm Belt was hard, due to how many times a ship got attacked and therefore the course of the ship changed.
Hashirama wasn’t that bad of a Navigator, but he was far from perfect. If not for the Eternal Log Pose of Jaya that Robin had on her, he could never have reached Jaya in time to save Mikita.
So to fix that, he needed a Navigator. To find the Emerald City, and to exist in the Grand Line at all, he needed a Navigator.
In this world, there was only one of that kind that met his requirements. Though it meant saying ‘fuck you’ to the canon timeline and casts, he didn’t mind.
After all, if he was making a crew, he would need the best out of the best.
“And how do you know this ‘certain’ girl is the best?”
“You can’t use your sister-excuse this time. A Vice-Admiral shouldn’t know some girl from the smaller seas, more so since your sister is a native to Grandline, not East Blue.”
It was Vivi and Robin who spoke one after another. They seemed hell-bent on getting the answer out of him.
Vivi seemed convinced that Hashirama was only going after this ‘certain girl’ because she was a girl and Hashirama was a manwhore. For some reason, she didn’t want to accept that there were other female navigators in this world—there was Rasa from Alabasta, even. So if he really just wanted a female navigator, he could have just grabbed her.
In any case, Hashirama ignored them both and ate the grilled sea king meat served in front of him. The crew was sitting on the deck, on the floor, and eating, as they chatted.
“Can’t you guys talk after you’re done eating? It’s disrespectful to the cook.”
It was the cute but bitchy blonde Mikita who complained, looking offended as she sat with her arms crossed.
Shockingly, tea wasn’t the only thing that Mikita could do. She was a cook too. [1] How surprising was that? It stunned Hashirama knowing just how so many psychopaths were good cooks.
“Cook? Look at what this petty criminal is saying.”
“Says the wanted pirate. I will put extra spice in your meal next time.”
“Try it, I dare you.”
Hashirama and Mikita went at one another like usual, ignoring the words of the other two girls. Robin and Vivi gave them a dry look that Hashirama shrugged off to continue eating.
Despite what he said to Mikita, he just savored the food. He didn’t talk since she said she found it disrespectful. It was understandable. The two girls did the same, sighing, and following the Captain. Mikita smiled and ate her stuff too.
Only after they were finished, did Hashirama speak.
“It was revealed to me in a dream.”
“…You can’t be serious.”
“Ugh, this guy.”
“Hey, you said the same thing that day too.”
Robin, Vivi, and Mikita reacted one after another, in a singular groan. Sadly, Hashirama planned to continue with this excuse. Since he would need a new excuse other than his ‘My Sister is a Vice-Admiral’ one, this was the best choice.
“Hey, I am not lying. You know I am a Tree-Human, right? As the entire world is covered by trees, I can somehow connect to them. That’s what the ‘meditation’ I do is all about. While I haven’t succeeded in actively diving into that connection, it happens when I am sleeping on its own. Sometimes in my dreams, I see stuff through the ‘eyes’ of the trees around the world.”
He looked at Robin. “Not only that, I can see memories too. You remember back when I talked about Saul and you got confused? That, too, comes from this. The Adam Tree in Ohara was mostly dead by the time I was born, but a part of it’s ‘self’ was there. Through that self’s memories, I saw it… that day in Ohara. I remember Nico Oliveira, your mother. I also remember how the then Vice-Admiral Kuzan tried to kill your giant friend, Jaguar D. Saul.”
“…..”
Silence fell in the area as the crew all stared at Hashirama, and then at Robin. They knew Hashirama’s sister could have told him about this, but they also knew the topic of Ohara was kinda a taboo and Marines wouldn’t go sharing the details with one another.
Also, Hashirama wouldn’t lie about such a thing. Because if he did, that’d weaken the trust they had in one another.
Thankfully, the craziest part was that Hashirama wasn’t entirely lying. While he hadn’t seen Ohara in his dreams, it wasn’t a lie that he sometimes dreamt of scenarios seen by trees around the world. It was a weird feeling, but it was real. He couldn’t yet control this power, sadly, so it wasn’t as if he could spy anywhere at any time. However, it should one day be possible.
So the crew’s trust wouldn’t break, because Hashirama wasn’t entirely lying. He knew the best lies derive from mostly truths, after all. He was taught that by his ingenious master.
Hashirama noted that nobody, even Robin, caught on the ‘tried to kill’ point. So he decided against continuing it. There was no point, as of right now.
He cleared his throat and broke the awkward silence. “I hope that is enough proof.”
The others nodded slowly. He was a mysterious thing in their eyes, so even a wild story such as this was believable.
Hashirama added, “Our crew has the best princess, the best archeologist, and a… well, a decent cook. This girl whom I speak of is a little bitchy, not unlike Mikita, and perhaps that’s why she isn’t the best in the world yet. However, you can trust me when I say that she has the potential, just like Mikita, to be the best in her field. The field of navigation.”
Ignoring Mikita’s frown, Hashirama stood up and looked at the sea. The view of East Blue was a little different from Grandline, in that it was much calmer and gentle. The seagulls’ cries were calmer, and the occasional seals were a sight rare to their eyes.
Amidst this soul-calming atmosphere, Hashirama’s eyes caught on a floating something that wasn’t a ship.
“Aha, there it is. Guys, we are docking there. To ask directions and also eat some good food on the way. Let’s go!”
With a spike of chakra that left his feet, the ship turned towards the floating restaurant and sped up.
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[1] Surprising, but yes she is canonically a cook too. What’s with the troupe of psychopaths being good cooks?
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