Now she had also received this gift.
Vivi was very moved. This showed that her position in Luffy's heart was at the same level as Nami's.
She didn't care about Rokushiki, but she cared about Luffy's intention.
Without saying any words of thanks, she hugged Luffy gratefully and boldly gave him a kiss.
In response, Luffy smiled inwardly and hugged her, returning the kiss.
Meanwhile, outside the door, on the wall, an eye and an ear silently disappeared.
Inside the house,
Robin smiled slightly, pretending not to have seen or heard anything.
In the forest,
Bartolomew, full of enthusiasm, walked in front while Mr. 1, Mr. 5, and Mr. 9 followed him.
Mr. 2 and Mr. 3 were back there as well.
[A/N: I will keep calling them like this most of the time; for some reason, I can't remember their names.]
"Why do I have to come get a bird... A single person would be enough for this kind of thing," Bentham said without enthusiasm, walking on tiptoe and doing ballet steps.
Looking at him, Mr. 3 snorted and said, "What an idiot."
"What are you saying, Mr. 3!"
"Mr. 2, I admit that your strength is indeed 'a little' greater than mine, but when it comes to intelligence, you are much inferior to me," Mr. 3 said, pushing up his glasses.
"It's been many days since you joined the Straw Hat Pirates, and you still don't understand? In this pirate crew, what determines your position is not strength!"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"That Usopp, the long-nosed guy — his fighting ability is among the worst in the crew, but do you think there's a big difference between his position and that of runner-up Roronoa Zoro?"
Hearing this, Bentham couldn't help but think.
It seemed that there wasn't much difference.
They fought and made noise every day; it was impossible to say who had a higher or lower position.
If we had to say, the scary one was the woman named Nami.
"So what are you trying to say?"
"You still don't understand? To integrate into this group, what you need is not a huge amount of strength, but..."
At that moment, Mr. 3 pushed up his glasses again, and the lenses reflected a bright light of wisdom.
"What is it?"
"It's pretending to be an idiot!"
Mr. 3 said decisively, "As long as I pretend to be stupid like them and have fun with them every day, my position will eventually increase. I won't be limited to just a second-division member!"
Mr. 2: "..."
"HMPH, it looks like you don't understand, Mr. 2! I, Galdino, will become the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates!"
Galdino revealed his ambition.
Unlike the dangerous missions he often had to do at Baroque Works, in the Straw Hat Pirates, as long as he pretended to be stupid and got along with everyone, promotion and a salary increase were not just dreams!
"You being an idiot... That part I already understood completely."
"Huh?"
Galdino said, dissatisfied, "I haven't finished yet. To pretend to be foolish, one person is not enough. Didn't you notice something more important?"
"What?"
"A partner! Understanding the importance of a partner! Look, Usopp and Chopper are a pair, Zoro and Sanji are also a pair, Johnny and Yosaku are also a pair!"
Patting Bentham's shoulder, Galdino smiled and said:
"Join forces with me and let's climb up the hierarchy together, Mr. 2!"
Bentham was a little moved. Although he didn't know why this idiot wanted his help, they were companions who went from unemployment to reemployment. It would be great to become partners!
"Mr. 3!"
"Mr. 2!"
The two looked at each other, suddenly feeling a sense of camaraderie.
At that moment, Bartolomew's dissatisfied voice sounded in their ears:
"Hey, hey, don't relax, you two."
Night.
Bartolomew and his team returned, not only capturing the guide bird but also capturing many strange things.
"Luffy-sama, this is the king of rhinoceros beetles!"
He ran up, as if waiting for compliments, and said, "I caught a hundred of them. After a rigorous selection process, this one stood out and became the 'king'! Only the king of rhino beetles is worthy of being delivered to you, Luffy-sama!"
Who wants this thing?!
Luffy's mouth twitched when he saw Mr. 3 next to him with his face swollen.
"What happened to him?"
"He stumbled on a tree trunk."
It looks like he was beaten.
Luffy waved his hand.
"Give it to Usopp, I'm sure he'll like it."
After a break, he called Chopper to treat Mr. 3's injuries.
At this point, Cricket approached and confirmed that it was really the guide bird, then nodded.
"Now do we need to make the final preparations?"
"What else?" Nami blinked her eyes.
"Let's reinforce the ship! Your Thousand Sunny is sturdy, a very powerful ship, but the other, the Going Merry... To be honest, I don't know if it can handle it."
The power of the Knock-Up Stream is huge and can push the ship up to a height of 7,000 meters in an instant.
Common ships would disintegrate at the moment of impact.
This is really a problem.
Luffy nodded and immediately called the male crew members to start reinforcing Merry's hull.
Amid the rush of everyone, two pirate crews arrived one after the other.
The first was the Masira Pirates, led by Masira. They, along with the Shoujou Pirates, form the Saruyama Alliance.
The Saruyama Alliance is an alliance formed between three pirate captains: Mont Blanc Cricket and his substitute children, "Salvage King" Masira and his brother "Sonar King" Shoujou.
With their union, the work was much smoother.
The next to arrive were the Bellamy Pirates, led by Bellamy. Of course, they weren't there to steal or cause trouble, but to wait for the match and go to the Sky Island along with the others.
Luffy didn't care; he just moved on, regardless of the consequences.
Seeing everyone reinforcing the Going Merry, Bellamy also began to reinforce his own ship.
This continued until the early hours of the next day, around four or five o'clock in the morning. When the female crew, who had slept deeply, woke up, they all had finally finished reinforcing the Going Merry.
At this point, Merry had already been completely transformed. Now it had many iron plates and was equipped with a pair of wings.
Especially the most critical part of a ship — the keel — underwent extensive construction at the bottom of the ship, regardless of cost, to ensure that it would not disintegrate in the Knock-Up Stream.
"This should do it."
Cricket was on the beach, looking at the morning sun, and smiled: "Luffy of the Straw Hat, I wish you a safe trip."
"Thank you, Mont Blanc Cricket."
Luffy was on the deck of the Merry, smiling. "By the way, know that your ancestor was not a liar. The island in the sky above our heads is real, just like the golden city. Wait, you'll see soon!"
Cricket stood in the same place, watching the ship gradually move away from the coast.
The fleet, made up of five pirate ships, sailed toward the area where the Knock-Up Stream was.
They were respectively:
Thousand Sunny, commanded by Nami!
Going Merry, with Luffy in charge!
Spring Hopper, led by Bellamy!
Victory Hunter, belonging to the Masira Pirates!
The Uton Detection, belonging to the Shoujou Pirates!
(End of Chapter)
Give me some power stones there you go~😉
The reason I didn't update yesterday is quite simple.
I needed to travel to another city for a relative's birthday, and with my infinite wisdom, I forgot to transfer the files to my cell phone, much less to Google Drive.
It was only after I got there and opened the phone to do the updates that I noticed this problem.
A small observation is that none of them were complete yet, especially MLS and MMS, I intended to finish there but because of my fit of stupidity I couldn't do anything.
Anyway, when I got home it was already past 2 in the morning, so I just lay down and slept like a log.