[69] New Recruit?!
Chapter 69: New Recruit?!
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When Clone-rama-1 dispersed, his memories had traveled at the speed of light to reach Hashirama the main.
Clone-rama-2 was also affected by the chakra and received the memory, that's why he could continue the conversation with Nojiko from earlier.
The Main knew that as long as Clone-2 was present, nothing would go wrong in Cocoyashi Village. However, he knew he had to go there himself.
"So we were planning to stay for four days, but an emergency happened. Well, at least we spent three here."
Hashirama stood beside the three girls of his crew. Before them, the cooks of Baratie stood with a smile on their faces as they heard him talk.
"Ahhh, a pity. These few days were one of the more fun days in this restaurant. Not only was our ship renewed, I even got to teach a person like Mikita. I feel proud just thinking about the heights that she would reach."
Jeff the head chef spoke, smiling at Mikita like a master profound.
Three days here affected Mikita's skills more than the two years she spent in the Grandline with Robin. It's how some things were in life. If you have a base to something, you can reverse engineer it and then copy it. Her special tongue made that an easy thing to do for a cook.
Mikita bowed a little to show respect to the old cook.
"I'm so thankful for your guidance these few days. I will remember everything I learned here."
"Haha, it's all right."
Jeff smiled with his eyes closed and stroked his beard.
Sanji wept on the side, heartbroken that they were leaving, as the other two girls exchanged some words as well.
Soon afterward, the crew hopped on their ship and took off. Waving their hands at the restaurant, they drifted towards the moon in the far.
A few days later, Baratie will finally learn whom they had housed for three days. That the ones they thought were adventurers, were actually wanted Pirates all along. After a short silence of shock, the cooks will just laugh it off.
* * *
The moon was quite high in the sky; it was nearly midnight. Yet the citizens of Cocoyashi Village were awake.
Arlong ruled all of the Conomi Islands. It’s an archipelago located in the northwestern region of East Blue. The Cocoyashi village was just one of the smaller islands of this large area. Now, the entire archipelago was in a festival-like state.
In Cocoyashi Village, tables were placed outside the bar. Drinks were served outdoors, under the moon, as people drank to their heart’s contents.
“Gahahaha! That’s a funny one- ah, can I tell you a joke?”
Genzo and Hashirama sat nearby, the older man looked much happier than usual. No, he looked happier than seen in the last decade. He felt free right now, and he was free, that sentiment was further increased by his drunk state.
“Sure, go ahead.”
Hashirama raised the glass of booze before him and said. He was finally feeling the drink on his head. It was starting to feel good since he was running low on chakra.
“What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing, it just let out a little whine.”
Hashirama had just taken a sip, as he choked and coughed. The nearby people who heard the joke also coughed, taken off-guard by the dad joke.
Hashirama cleared his throat while the drunk Genzo was busy laughing at his own joke.
“All right, you got me good. I got one too.” Hashirama said the joke, “Why don't skeletons fight each other? Because they don't have the guts.”
There was a loud ‘boo’ from somewhere that Hashirama couldn’t quite pinpoint, but Genzo did chuckle. The two continued enjoying drinks and throwing jokes at one another, as the night grew until a hot breath fell on Hashirama’s neck.
“I got a joke for you,”
Hashirama turned his head to the side to find Nojiko leaning over on his back and whispering in his ears. Her plump lips smiled as she spoke.
“Baby, are you a fruit?”
“Uh?”
“Because you’re such a fineapple.”
Hashirama stared at the smiling girl in silence, while his ears started to catch the hushed whispers of people around them. Was she flirting? They asked.
Either she couldn’t hear them, or she didn’t care, Nojiko tilted her head to the side and questioned.
“Not funny?”
“Oh my, that was just a joke? And here I was planning our grandchildren just now.”
“Oh.”
Nojiko blinked, a faint hue of red appearing on her cheeks. Hashirama turned around in his chair and chuckled softly.
“Anyway, anything you need?”
“Erm… Not me. Just that, the people left Nami alone finally. She asked me to call you. Can you come?”
Naturally, when the islanders learned that Nami was healed somehow and had woken up, they rushed to meet her. It was a sight to see as they picked her up and whirled her around the air. Her smile was wide and wild when she giggled like a child.
It seemed finally everyone had seen her. Now, they were here drinking and focusing on him and Nojiko.
Nami didn’t come to drink since Hashirama told her not to, it wasn’t good for her health right now, so she was calling for him instead.
Hashirama’s smile faltered as he sighed and got up.
“I assume it’s about the captured fishmen?”
“I… Yeah, it’s about that. Come on, follow me.”
Nojiko nodded slowly; Hashirama chewed on his lips and followed her.
* * *
Nami was actually in the garden when Hashirama and Nojiko reached home. She was wielding a shovel and digging up the ground of this garden where tangerines grew.
“Uhh? Nami? What are you doing?”
“Nojiko! Come help me.”
Nojiko looked confused as she approached Nami.
“We need to dig up the money. It’s 88 million berries, right? We should pay him for his help.”
Nami pointed at Hashirama who looked puzzled. Nojiko, who somehow had already grabbed the shovel, stopped too. She gave Nami a weird look.
“I don’t think he did that for money,”
“Yeah, I don’t need the money.”
“Huh?”
Nami somehow managed to look more puzzled than him. Nami almost asked him what he meant by that, but Hashirama’s next words shut her up.
“I am here to, uh, recruit you. I really need a navigator.”
Hashirama stood calmly and stared into her eyes. Nami paused on her spot while Nojiko stared at the both of them.
“You heard what I explained to your sister right? I saw the day Arlong killed Bellemere. From a few more of my plant friends, I know your skills in navigation surpass the mass by far. Same with your mapping skills. I heard you want to map the entire world? I can help with that.”
Nami and Nojiko exchanged glances. Nojiko sighed, gulping softly, as she spoke.
“There are no good navigators on the Grandline?”
“Nami is a genius. You both know that.”
Hashirama didn’t let them argue on that point any longer.
Nami looked shaken out of place hearing that. She was finally freed, and finally, people stopped misunderstanding her. How could she accept his offer to leave the island now that everything was so good?
Hashirama waited for the two girls to finish talking with their eyes and reach a decision.
In the end, Nami looked at Hashirama and smiled. “I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I? Will you kidnap me if I refuse?”
“Hey, how did you know?”
“Pfft-”
Nojiko laughed and hugged Nami. The three of them broke into a small laugh, as it was just confirmed that Nami accepted his offer. A wild and adventurous life at the sea sounded fun.
As the group laughed, Hashirama would have called Nojiko onboard too if she was the one who took the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. But without that, she wasn’t really anything special. He would still have accepted her if she asked to hop on, but it didn’t seem like she had any plans for that.
In either case, a sister-in-law-like figure suited her well too. Hashirama looked forward to meeting her after his journey for the One Piece ended.
“On that note, Captain – ah, do I call you Captain – anyway, about the remaining fishmen. I heard you had them tied up? What… are you going to do with them?”
The conversation finally took that turn, as the group was now sitting on boxes found in the garden. Hashirama plucked a tangerine and took a bite, without peeling off anything. The girls flinched in alarm and waited for him to speak.
Hashirama knew what usually occurred in this kind of situation. Once a weak person gains unimaginable power, they’d want revenge against their enemies. If they successfully pull it off, without any reputations, they would want the same for their other enemies.
Nami killed the biggest fish.
Now, why must she not kill the smaller fish?
Hashirama from the past life would agree with that sentiment. It was only natural. However, if anyone, he would know killing mindlessly was not the answer. At one point, you’d grow numb to it, as certain candles in your heart would lose their light.
Some edgy-teenager on the internet might disagree, but then the most those kids killed would be chickens. Their opinion never mattered.
Hashirama sighed. “The whole point of this was racism, you know? I know telling you to ‘be the bigger person’ is kinda disrespecting you since their leader did kill your mother, but that’s the thing. They didn’t kill her personally, Arlong did. Arlong is dead. Let’s… end the cycle and leave them to the marines.”
Nami’s hands twitched slightly. All things considered, she currently had the power to blow him up and he would be helpless. As low of a chakra as he had right now, he wasn’t really a match.
However, her hand only came up to rub her face as she sighed.
“I… understand. No, it’s better this way too. I want them to feel what it feels like to see someone you care about die in front of you, and live with the guilt until their death. It’s a good idea.”
That was a sick way to see it, but Hashirama could entertain it since it did the job.
Nami sighed softly, seeing him smile at her decision. Nojiko also was happy that her sister hadn’t become a crazed murderer.
The three of them chatted after that, as the moon started to go down and the sun started to peek out. The morning was here, and Hashirama the main was just nearby.
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Master4thWall Note: Sad, no horny in 69. At least the Ginger is finally in!
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