Consciousness slowly surfaced from exhaustion.
Giyu opened his eyes to the familiar ceiling gently swaying with the ship's movement.
He sat up, trying to regulate his breathing.
Cough, cough, cough—
The pressure in his chest had mostly subsided. The tremendous strain from activating the Mark was gradually being processed by his resilient body, though breathing remained somewhat difficult from inhaling too much of that man's wax.
A faint sense of weakness, different from post-injury fatigue, lingered around him, though the feeling wasn't particularly strong.
He pushed aside the thin blanket, intending to go to the deck to tell everyone he was fine and they needn't worry about him anymore.
Just as he pushed open the door and stepped into the small dining area connected to the kitchen, he saw Sanji by the counter talking with Vivi, who was seated at the table where a newspaper lay.
Hearing the door open, both turned their heads simultaneously.
"Oh? Giyu, you're awake?" Sanji raised an eyebrow, putting down the kitchen knife he'd been wiping before walking over. He naturally pressed the back of his hand against Giyu's forehead.
The next moment, Sanji's brow furrowed as he quickly withdrew his hand.
"That's strange," his tone clearly puzzled, "why is your forehead so hot too? Your temperature had dropped somewhat when we first brought you back to the ship."
Too?
Giyu was momentarily stunned by Sanji's action. Hearing the question, he instinctively assessed his own condition.
"I'm perfectly fine now, not feeling unwell at all."
Cough, cough, cough—
"Just still coughing a bit."
As if to prove something to himself, Giyu firmly clenched his left hand, feeling the flow of strength between his fingers. Yet he could indeed sense his grip was slightly weaker than usual.
Catching that word in Sanji's statement, he asked: "What did you mean by 'too'... when you said 'so hot too'?"
Just as he finished speaking, suppressed coughing sounds came from the corridor leading to the girls' cabin.
Worry immediately appeared on Vivi's face. She looked at Giyu and explained softly: "Actually... not long after you returned to your room to rest, Nami... suddenly became very weak and developed a high fever." She paused before adding, "Quite similar to your temperature now."
Sanji had already turned back to the counter and begun taking out some easily digestible ingredients, his tone growing somewhat heavy: "Ah, seriously, one after another... Miss Nami is still sick, need to prepare something nutritious yet light."
Vivi also approached Giyu, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead and finding it burning hot too. She gently advised:
"Giyu, even if you say you don't feel unwell, such a high temperature can't be good. Why don't you return to your room and rest a bit more?"
Giyu remained silent for a moment.
His gaze traveled past Vivi to that tightly shut door—Nami's room.
"Hmm..." he responded quietly, but instead of turning back to his room, he walked toward that door, "I'll go check on her too."
Reaching the door, he raised his hand and lightly knocked with his knuckles. Nami's somewhat hoarse, weak voice came from inside: "...Come in."
Giyu pushed the door open.
The room was slightly larger than his, but equally spartan. Nami lay on the bed, her cheeks flushed with an unnatural redness, a damp cloth resting on her forehead. She seemed listless and weary.
Surprised to see Giyu enter, she managed a weak smile. "Giyu... you're awake? You look... slightly better than I do..."
She pressed the back of her hand against her burning forehead, then glanced at him and quipped lightly, "How strange... did your high body temperature transfer to me?"
Giyu listened intently, raised his hand to feel his own forehead, and after a moment of serious contemplation, replied with equal earnestness, "Hmm... I don't think so. It's odd, but I'm actually running a fever too, just like you."
Nami, still lying down, was taken aback by his seriousness and couldn't help but laugh, though it triggered a faint cough. "Cough... I really can't with you monsters... running fevers like it's nothing..."
Just then, familiar lines of text materialized in Giyu's vision, hovering beside Nami.
[Manual of Interpersonal Relationships (Trial Version)]
[Subject: Nami]
[Status: Unwell, Fatigued]
[Likes: Oranges, Treasure]
[Suggestion: Provide attentive care]
Giyu's eyes skimmed over the text, then shifted slightly to a fruit bowl on the bedside table containing several plump, round oranges.
Oranges... likes... attentive care... Hmm, she probably wants an orange right now?
He walked over silently and picked up an orange.
"Would you like some fruit?" he asked, his tone as flat as ever.
Nami looked at him and smiled. "Sure... thanks. But with one hand, peeling might be tricky, right? Maybe—"
Before she could finish, Giyu tossed the orange lightly into the air.
In the next instant, two blue streaks traced through the air as his Nichirin Blade left its sheath.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Surface Slash, Double Strike!"
Swish! Swish!
Two crisp, almost imperceptible sounds.
The tossed orange landed steadily back in Giyu's hand, its smooth peel now bearing two precise cross-shaped cuts. Four evenly segmented sections of the fruit blossomed open, releasing a fresh, citrusy fragrance.
Giyu took a small plate from the table, placed the neatly cut orange on it, and offered it to Nami.
Nami stared wide-eyed at the perfectly prepared orange, stunned for several seconds before bursting into laughter, though weakened by her condition.
"Ha... haha... Giyu, you're really something... haha..."
Tears welled in the corners of her eyes from laughter, as if the discomfort of her fever had momentarily eased because of the spectacle.
She accepted the plate, picked up a segment, and placed it in her mouth, her eyes closing contentedly.
"It doesn't taste as sweet as usual..." she murmured softly, then looked at Giyu, who remained silently standing by the bed. "You know, Giyu? Oranges are my favorite fruit."
Giyu nodded. "I know."
It seems this manual is really quite useful!
Nami was momentarily speechless, looking at him with a mix of exasperation and amusement. Her tone carried a hint of helplessness as she said, "Are you an idiot? Normally, you should ask 'why' at a time like this, right? Honestly..."
She shook her head, seeming more willing to open up than usual, her gaze drifting toward the blue sea outside the window with a nostalgic tinge.
"Actually, I could tell that when you first boarded the ship, Giyu, you were resistant to us, weren't you? You thought we were just... pirates."
"Yeah."
Giyu didn't deny it—that had indeed been the case at first.
"You really... don't hold back at all." Nami sighed, her expression growing complex, tinged with pain, hatred, and finally, a sense of relief.
"But, actually... I was the same. I used to... hate pirates the most, and I still think that now. Pirates are just a bunch of plunderers."
Giyu watched her quietly, not interrupting.
"In Cocoyashi Village, where I grew up... a group of Fish-Men arrived. They called themselves the Arlong Pirates, and their leader was a guy named Arlong." Nami's voice was soft, but there was a barely noticeable tremble in it.
"They destroyed that wonderful place and took away many important things from me..." She glossed over the countless details, summarizing it simply.
"...A lot happened. But in the end, Luffy and the others came."
At this point, her tone finally warmed. She looked at Giyu with a serious expression: "It was Luffy—he beat Arlong to a pulp! He saved Cocoyashi Village!"
"So."
Nami took a deep breath, trying to make her smile brighter. "During your time on the Merry, you must have realized it by now, right? Luffy and the others... no, we—we aren't the kind of pirates you imagined."
Her gaze was gentle and sincere, carrying a warm feeling: "If you're still searching for a way home, if you can't find it for now... you can treat this place, the Merry, as your temporary home. It's okay."
Home...
Hearing that word, Giyu's heart skipped a beat...
He looked at Nami's sickly yet earnestly smiling face, and his mind flashed with images: Luffy's carefree laughter, Zoro's persistent training, Sanji's carefully prepared meals, Usopp's exaggerated captain speeches, Vivi's silhouette burdened with concern for her country...
The word "home" still felt a bit distant. But at least, in this moment, surrounded by these people, he felt something called happiness—perhaps it was their liveliness, or maybe it was the fact that Muzan was finally gone, lifting the weight off his shoulders.
Giyu remained silent for a long time, and in the end, he only murmured very softly.
"Yeah."
.........
In the dining room outside, Sanji carefully placed the washed vegetables and fruits to the side. His movements were still skilled, but there was a trace of solemnity in his brow.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Vivi still sitting at the table, staring at the newspaper, unconsciously clutching the hem of her clothes, her eyes distant—clearly still worried about far-off Alabasta.
He sighed helplessly, turned off the faucet, and meticulously dried his hands with a clean towel.
Then, Sanji also made up his mind and walked over to Vivi by the dining table.
"Vivi."
He spoke softly, his voice quieter than usual.
Hearing Sanji's voice, Vivi looked up, her eyes still carrying a trace of lingering worry.
Sanji didn't explain immediately. Instead, he fumbled in his trouser pocket and pulled out the Log Pose he hadn't retrieved earlier, handing it to Vivi. It was an Eternal Pose with a classic design, the needle inside the glass dome steadily pointing in a fixed direction.
"Actually..." Sanji's voice carried a mix of complex emotions, as if tinged with apology yet also relief, "I picked this up back in Little Garden."
Vivi's gaze was instantly drawn to the Eternal Pose, her eyes filled with astonishment as she immediately stood up to look at it.
"Just now, when I told you all about being in that wax cabin in Little Garden... After speaking with Mr.0—that is, Crocodile—I found this on one of his subordinates." Sanji took a drag from his cigarette, slowly exhaling the smoke.
Seemingly using that breath to organize his thoughts, he continued, "According to that guy, this is an Eternal Pose for Mr.3 to return to Alabasta."
He paused, his gaze sweeping toward the direction of Nami's room, his tone growing somewhat somber:
"But at that time, everyone had just finished the battle, and we were all in a hurry to get to the next island to treat Giyu's injuries... Under those circumstances, it wasn't easy for me to bring this up. But..."
His eyes fell back onto the newspaper on the table reporting on Alabasta's turbulent situation, and he said, "Just now at Miss Nami's place, I also saw the contents of the newspaper... The situation in Alabasta right now is probably even more severe than we imagined."
He reached out and gently placed the lightweight yet heavy Eternal Pose into Vivi's palm.
"So, I'm handing this over to you." Sanji looked at her with a serious expression. "Whether to discuss changing our course with Luffy now... the decision is yours."
Vivi was completely stunned, staring incredulously at the small Eternal Pose in her palm, her fingertips trembling slightly.
"So there was already..." she murmured, her voice so soft it was barely audible to others, "a way to reach Alabasta immediately..."
Her eyes grew somewhat vacant, her gaze blankly fixed on the newspaper reporting Alabasta's news on the table. Then she looked toward the direction of Nami's closed door, before finally returning to the Eternal Pose in her palm—a symbol of "choice."
The pressure named "choice" almost visibly enveloped her.
Seeing her like this, Sanji felt a pang of sympathy. He took another drag from his cigarette, attempting to comfort her in a lighter tone: "It's alright, Vivi. Don't overthink it. If you feel we should go immediately, just go talk to Luffy. That guy might usually be unreliable, but in situations like this, he'll understand you."
He paused, as if offering a reason to comfort himself, then added somewhat uncertainly: "After all, Alabasta is such a large country—they must have good doctors there, right?"
However, Vivi didn't seem swayed by this reasoning.
She slowly sat back in her chair, her expression not easing but instead growing even gloomier, as if she had encountered an even more difficult decision to make.
"I don't know..."
Vivi's voice was very low, filled with confusion and struggle. "If we change course immediately and head directly to Alabasta... it would still take at least a week to get there, right?"
She lifted her head, her eyes filled with concern for her companions: "As for Mr. Giyu, with his strong physique, he might be able to hold on... but what about Nami? She's burning up so badly right now, her condition looks terrible... I really don't know if she can last that long..."
As she spoke, she suddenly stood up, clutching the Eternal Pose tightly in her hand, and turned toward the direction of her room. Her steps were somewhat hurried - she needed a private space to process everything.
After taking a couple of steps, Vivi seemed to remember something. She stopped and said softly: "Oh, that's right. Thank you, Sanji... for something this important..."
"...But please give me some time... let me think about it a bit more on my own..."
After saying this, she quickened her pace, almost fleeing the dining room as she left.
She left Sanji standing alone where he was, watching her back disappear around the corner. He could only helplessly exhale a long puff of smoke.
The princess... really has it tough...
-
Vivi chose to prioritize treating Nami's illness, which made all the Straw Hats truly consider her one of their own.