When deciding where to go for "research" or "adventure," I mainly use two methods.
The first is to look through newspapers and magazines for interesting places or fun events, then go check them out. The Fireworks Festival in Fireworks that I went to recently falls under this category.
The second is to visit places I know about from my knowledge of the original plot of One Piece.
If it's an island that appeared in the Original Work, I figure the experience would be nothing short of thrilling. But the flipside is that these places tend to carry significantly higher risk in all sorts of ways.
Little Garden would be a prime example. It's the kind of place that really feels like an "adventure," but the danger level is off the charts. There are dinosaurs, there are wild beasts, there are bugs carrying terrifying pathogens, and above all else, there are the two who live there.
The twin Symbols of the Giant Warrior Pirates, both Captains: Red Ogre Brogy and Blue Ogre Dorry. Each one a big-name head with a Bounty of 100 million Berry.
They probably wouldn't do anything as long as I didn't pick a fight, but Giants are still terrifying.
...Though I do want to try eating dinosaur meat, so I plan to go someday.
And besides, most of the islands from the Original Work are simply too far away to reach. Solo travel on the Grand Line over long distances is still too dangerous given my current strength and navigation skills. So the second approach, visiting places from the original story, is something I've barely ever actually done.
But this time, for the first time in a while, I decided to go on an "adventure" and "research trip" to an island, or rather a country, that appeared in the One Piece Original Work. It just so happened that a fairly large trade caravan had a ship heading to that country and was recruiting guards for the round trip, so I figured, alright, let's go.
The destination: the Great Nation of the desert, the Arabasta Kingdom.
***
So, I arrived. First, one word for my honest impression.
'It's so hot...!'
That was all I could think about as I walked through the desert, guarding the caravan.
Seriously. I knew it would be. I'd braced myself for it. But this country really is hot!
The desert lives up to its reputation. Heat from above, heat from below. Not just warm, but scorching. The direct sunlight, the desert sand baked beneath it, heat haze rising from the ground. It felt like being roasted alive.
On top of that, the ground was loose, shifting sand that made every step difficult, draining my stamina even faster. This job was turning out to be way more Hard than I'd expected.
Let me explain the itinerary for this trip, partly looking back on things as I go.
Upon arriving at the Arabasta Kingdom, we first made port at the Port Town of Nanohana, where we unloaded cargo and organized a caravan for overland transport. Though the organizing itself was handled by the people from the Merchant Association who hired us and the laborers they'd brought on.
My impression at that point was, 'It's not as hot as I expected.'
I'd steeled myself for brutal heat since it was a desert country, but the temperature felt like maybe early summer in Japan at most. That was because it was still a Port Town, close to the ocean. The sea breeze blowing in and the higher humidity made the heat much more bearable.
But then, once the caravan was ready and we set out from Town toward the interior, it instantly transformed into a scorching hellscape. A level of heat I had absolutely never experienced before hit me the moment we left Town.
Walking through that extreme temperature while wrapped almost entirely in a hooded cloak to cover my body meant the heat got trapped inside, making it even hotter. But this is how you have to dress when crossing the desert, so I endured it.
I think they mentioned this in the Original Work too: daytime temperatures in the desert exceed fifty degrees, and the sunlight is mercilessly intense. Walk around with exposed skin and you'll get burned. It's hot, but precisely because it's hot, you have to bundle up.
My clothes underneath the cloak were drenched in sweat. Yet the air was so dry that even the moisture from that sweat felt like a blessing. It protected my skin.
I also glanced at the other hired guards, and most of them apparently hadn't anticipated heat this severe either. They were cursing under their breath, or gritting their teeth and somehow keeping their legs moving. Like me, this was probably their first time coming to this country, and of course their first time walking through a desert.
Well, whether they were first-timers or veterans, as long as they did their jobs properly there shouldn't be any problems. But their overall condition looked precarious enough to worry me. Would they actually be able to function as guards if something happened?
Since we were on land, I probably didn't need to worry about Pirates showing up. But if I remembered correctly, in the Arabasta Kingdom, the desert had its own breed of outlaws too. And there were supposed to be enormous wild beasts as well.
Just as I was thinking about all that, someone who looked like a messenger came running from the front of the caravan. Great. Already triggering a flag?
"R-Reporting! Word from the Vanguard... there are Sand Pirates up ahead! They're heading straight toward us, so contact is expected shortly! All guards, please prepare for combat immediately and intercept the Sand Pirates!"
Sand Pirates are, in a word, Pirates of the desert. They operate on sand instead of sea, hence the name "Sand Pirates." What they do is the same as sea Pirates: raid towns and merchant caravans, stealing goods and money.
On the other hand, they also take in homeless orphans and raise them, protect people from other Sand Pirates' raids, and occasionally play at being righteous bandits on a whim. Same as sea Pirates in that regard too.
Some attack on foot or riding camels, while others actually sail ships across the desert, more like sleds than ships apparently, to launch their raids.
As for how the fight actually went... they weren't that strong.
I'll grant that their familiarity with desert combat and their coordinated group attacks were worth noting, but individual fighting ability wasn't particularly high, and there were no Ability Users or anyone who stood out as exceptionally strong. Overall, they felt like a lesser version of Pirates.
The desert is certainly a harsh environment, but that's about all it is. The currents don't suddenly shift, the weather doesn't turn violent, and dangerous Monsters... well, they're not entirely absent, but there aren't that many.
And above all, there are no natural predators to speak of. No other Pirate Ships, no Marines, no Bounty Hunters. The Arabasta Kingdom's regular army, other Sand Pirates, that's about it. You can avoid running into them if you're careful, and because of that, they probably lack the sense of urgency, the hunger for strength, that comes from true danger.
To put it in a cliche: frogs in a well, I suppose. Even though they're on the same Grand Line, there's naturally going to be a difference in fundamental ability compared to Pirates who go out to sea, compete against other Pirates, and survive grueling voyages through waters where Sea Beasts and Sea Kings appear.
When I asked the local guide hired by the caravan, the answer was, unsurprisingly, that the common understanding was "Pirates are far more dangerous than Sand Pirates."
Having my footing snatched by the sand and my movement slightly hindered was annoying, but as long as I fought without letting my guard down, they weren't that formidable an enemy. I handled them with room to spare. The heat was already brutal, and the intense physical exertion made me sweat even more. The feeling of clothes clinging to my body fed my irritation. But I took all that frustration out on my opponents.
In the end, we successfully repelled them without any damage to the caravan.
After that, we walked for a while longer. Fortunately, nothing major happened. We reached an oasis along the way, and since that was as far as we'd go for the day, we set up camp.
"Whew... cold."
I'd been warned about this too, but the temperature swing between day and night in the desert is brutal. Whether you're resting or sleeping, you have to keep yourself properly warm or your body will break down.
The caravan workers had set up tents for us, so the guards took turns resting inside while rotating Watchman duty outside. Right now it was my shift, so I'd climbed up onto a slightly elevated rocky outcrop and was scanning the surroundings.
It probably hadn't dropped below freezing, but after the extreme heat of the day, the cold cut into me that much deeper. The occasional gusts of sand dust were unpleasant too. But this was well within the range I could endure.
At least the weather wasn't suddenly turning wild and dangerous like it could at sea. The desert climate itself was apparently fairly stable, for all that it was fundamentally harsh.
I drank water from my canteen, replenished at the oasis, and gnawed on jerky to quiet my stomach while gazing out across the desert. It was quiet. Nothing to hear but the sound of the Wind. That was true of physical sound, and also of "sound" in the Observation Haki sense. The only presences I could detect were the caravan members below.
The extreme temperatures were part of it, but the harsh environment with barely any plants or edible things also meant very few creatures lived in the desert. I'd heard that, and it was really true. No animal would willingly make its home in this scorching hellscape where, aside from oases, there was barely a single blade of grass, with only the occasional cactus to be seen.
I briefly wondered which was more livable: the sea, abundant in food and resources but crawling with danger, or the desert. In the end, it probably comes down to strength. Desert or sea, if you're weak, you get eaten. You get killed. That's all there is to it. And conversely, if you have strength, you can live comfortably and easily just about anywhere.
...Could this be material for a novel?
"A protagonist raised on a closed-off island, a closed-off world. Feeling stifled by life there, always boasting, 'Someday I'm gonna leave this island and live in the outside world!' But when he actually gets out, he's hit with a harsh environment that doesn't suit him, strong enemies, different cultures, types of power he'd never been asked for before... shocked and struggling against those gaps, he gradually comes to appreciate the harshness of life and the importance of his Homeland... hmm, it might be cliche, but the words would flow. Oh, maybe I should make the protagonist something other than human... hm?"
I'd gotten absorbed in plotting inside my head, as I always do, but something suddenly snagged on my Observation Haki. Looking in that direction, it was hard to make out in the darkness, but something was moving in the desert.
Animals? No, people. And quite a large number of them. Moving through this nighttime desert without a single light. That wasn't just suspicious, it was downright alarming.
I pulled out my portable telescope and took a look. From their clothing, Sand Pirates. At the same time, I deliberately extended my Observation Haki toward them, and I could sense hostility and malice directed at us from nearly all of them. Along with various other desires.
A night raid. And one many times larger in scale than the group from earlier that day. I had to warn everyone.
I leaped down from the outcrop and ran toward the tents where the merchants should be sleeping, shouting as I went.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Large number of Sand Pirates approaching from the southeast! Get up and prepare for battle!"
The camp erupted into noise immediately, people pouring out of tents one after another. Off-duty guards, sleeping merchants. More than a few people were panicking, asking "What's going on?" but they spotted me, the source of the shouting, and rushed over.
I gave a quick report of what I'd seen, and we immediately set about preparing to intercept, but honestly, this might be a tough one. The numbers I'd seen were considerable, several times what we'd faced during the day, and they were spread out across a wide area.
Not quite enough to fully encircle our oasis, but enough to form a semicircle around us.
This probably wasn't just bad luck.
Moving large numbers of people at once is harder than it sounds, whether you're an army or Pirates. You lose agility, and there's lag in transmitting orders from command to the rank and file. And to be mobilizing that many in the cold, dark, harsh desert night... normally even Sand Pirates would be sleeping. That was clearly not just "traveling" but a purposeful "march."
Better to assume they'd mobilized those numbers with the specific intention of attacking us at this oasis from the start. Their goal was obviously plunder. Or maybe retaliation for earlier? The survivors of the daytime raid might have gone crying to their Boss or a higher organization and come back for revenge.
Their individual strength probably wasn't much better than what we'd faced during the day, but the sheer numbers were daunting. I could probably defeat them, but whether I could protect the caravan from all damage was another question. Once the battle line spread out, a small number of guards simply couldn't cover everything.
Looking around, the other guards were thinking the same thing. They were furrowing their brows and grimacing, sensing the unfavorable odds. And picking up on that mood, the merchants' faces had gone pale too.
Well, worst case, I could probably manage something with the Paper-Paper Fruit's Powers, so if I used that... that was what I was thinking, when it happened.
The Sand Pirates spread wide on both flanks, kicking up clouds of sand as they charged toward us with momentum. In less than ten minutes, the oasis would become a battlefield. We steeled ourselves and braced for impact, and right before our eyes...
Sandstorm (Sables)
A sandstorm materialized out of nowhere, swallowing up and blasting away nearly half of them in one sweep.
"...Huh?!"
It happened so suddenly that our minds couldn't keep up.
The Sand Pirates were just as stunned, stopping their advance and standing frozen. They clearly had no idea what had just happened. Even through Observation Haki, I could feel their confusion.
Not that we were any different.
What was that just now? A sandstorm appearing that suddenly out of nowhere... even on the Grand Line where anything can happen, a sandstorm doesn't just spontaneously generate like that... and this wasn't even the open sea.
And unless I was imagining things, I thought I'd heard a voice right before it hit...
Confusion and silence hung over the scene. Neither side could move.
Then, footsteps crunching through sand echoed through the stillness, and a single man appeared.
A luxurious black coat with fur trim that was clearly too hot for the desert, nighttime temperatures notwithstanding. A large golden hook on his left arm that appeared to be a prosthetic. Black hair slicked back, and a scar running in a straight line across his face.
A man I recognized all too well was standing there.
...Come to think of it, I'd seen the name in the newspaper at some point. I remembered thinking, 'Oh, he's already joined.'
"Pardon me. You looked like you were in trouble, so I took the liberty of lending a hand... was that uncalled for?"
One of the Shichibukai, a Pirate. The Desert King, Sir Crocodile. The final boss of the Arabasta Arc in the Original Work, and the man who, for the first time in the story, defeated the protagonist Luffy in a head-on fight, was standing right there.
To be continued...