"How did you manage to grow over ten centimeters in just one week?"
"What kind of body techniques are you practicing that cause such a commotion every day?"
"Do you think I still have a chance to learn?"
In the restaurant, Shano wolfed down his meal, and the plates were piled into two mountains beside him. In the gap between these mountains, an old man with a face full of wrinkles was like a curious infant, bombarding him with questions.
Shano brushed off the earlier questions with various vague reasons.
But when he heard the last one, he finally lifted his head from the plates, looking speechless:
"You're nearly seventy, right? Do you really want me to tell you the truth?"
"..." Gat sighed deeply, "Forget it, I want to live a few more years and don't want these old bones shaken apart."
"Now, on to the important stuff." The old man smacked his lips, "The voyage has gone smoothly these past few days, and in at most two hours, by sunset today, we should arrive at Asakura Island."
"..."
Shano was slightly taken aback and nodded, not surprised.
If it weren't for the trouble caused by the King of the Near Sea which led to the Gat being anchored for repairs for an entire day, they should have arrived by this time yesterday.
"Thank you for taking care of me during these days."
After swallowing the food in his mouth, he looked sincerely at Gat and said, "Without the safe environment you provided for me to train, I couldn't have made any breakthroughs in these last few days."
"What nonsense are you talking about? Compared to the life-saving grace you gave me, this is nothing!"
Gat laughed heartily, "But hearing you say that still makes this old man feel quite pleased, haha!"
"Oh, by the way, from now on, the Gat will always reserve the most luxurious room on the ship for you and your family, free of charge! All food and drinks are on us! This is a decision unanimously supported by all crew members, so you have no right to refuse!"
"Only an idiot would refuse."
Shano, never one to dampen the mood, laughed along.
"Let's settle it then. Next year when you visit Cocoyashi Village again, I'll bring my whole family to mooch off you! Luckily, my two sisters don't eat much. If they all ate like me, you'd probably go bankrupt from feeding us!"
"You're being a bit too modest. Just you alone, with what you've eaten these past few days, I'm already close to bankruptcy."
"Hehe..."
As they laughed and chatted, the young man suddenly realized it had been exactly a week since he left home.
With two hours until they dock, he could use this time before disembarking to have a good chat with his family in his room.
...
"We've arrived, this is Asakura Island!"
"You can disembark here, it's too late today. You can find a hotel in the outer city to rest for the night, and tomorrow during the day, it's not too late to enter the city and look for your ideal Swordsmanship dojo."
"We're heading to the northern dock warehouse to unload cargo, and after unloading, we must immediately continue our journey. I'm afraid the next time we meet will be autumn next year."
At the southern dock of Asakura Island, sailors crowded the railing, reluctantly waving goodbye to Shano on the shore.
Old Gat accompanied him to the end of the pier.
Shano listened carefully to his advice, while his peripheral vision caught sight of several beggars in tattered clothes squatting at the intersections extending from the harbor into the city.
Although they seemed scattered at first glance, together, they were quite a number.
He couldn't help but speak up:
"It's strange. Asakura Island is a famous commercial hub in the East Sea, it should be fairly affluent, so why are there more beggars and homeless people here than in my hometown?"
"Naive." Old Gat chuckled, "They are all professional beggars whose homes are in the city. They squat here all year round because of the high traffic of people at the port, and many wealthy folks who come to the city to spend money are duped by them."
"These guys have all become filthy rich from it. Occasionally, there are a few genuinely poor people, but they are usually those who lost all their money at the casino and were thrown out, not worthy of pity."
"Alright, this is it. I'm off!"
As they reached the end of the pier, Old Gat patted his shoulder and said no more, puffing on his dry pipe as he turned and headed for the bow of the ship.
Shano stood there silently, watching as he boarded the ship.
Only when the Gat set sail, gradually turning into a small black dot in his field of vision, did the young man turn around and choose the left path, heading towards the outer city.
At this moment, it was already dusk, and the sun was setting in the west.
Looking up, one could see the twilight enveloping the distant town, which had a rather classical charm.
The main canal ran from north to south through the town, with cherry blossom trees planted on both sides. The buildings in the town were symmetrically distributed along the banks of the canal, well-planned, and neatly arranged.
It was the season of falling petals, with millions of light pink cherry blossoms floating on the river, drifting downstream. The evening breeze brought a subtle floral fragrance over the dockside, like a soft veil.
"With its flourishing commerce and beautiful scenery, and being as warm as spring year-round, it's no wonder this place has become a tourist destination in the East Sea."
Walking in such an environment, Shano felt much more at ease.
As he was about to leave the dock, he noticed the port ship management office next door had already closed for the day.
Indeed, it was too late today. He decided to find lodging for the night and come back in the morning. He should be able to find the passenger ship information he wanted here.
Gat still thought he was on this island to practice Sword Dao, but in fact, his goal had never changed — he wanted to use this thriving shipping port to find a ship to the Goa Kingdom.
Logically speaking...
After offering Shanks' severed arm as a sacrifice, the points he currently held were plentiful, and the urgency to acquire Luffy's straw hat naturally decreased significantly.
But, after tasting crab once, who could resist the temptation of another huge sum of points?
After all, he had a month to spare.
It had only been a week, and there was plenty of free time for him to make a round trip to the Goa Kingdom.
"Please... please be kind, I haven't eaten for two days and nights. A little money would do..."
A weak moan suddenly came from the side, where a pair of dirty hands were holding out a metal box. Remembering what Gat had said earlier, Shano couldn't be bothered and directly walked past the person.
But before he could take a few steps, he heard the clinking of coins dropping into the tin box behind him.
Shano instinctively turned his head, seeing a frail young boy in a worn kendo uniform stopping in front of the beggar, who appeared to be in his fifties or sixties, and cautiously shook out all the coins from his cloth wallet.
With his vision now far surpassing that of ordinary people, even in the twilight, he could see clearly that those were all small denominations of 20 or 50 coins, totaling only two or three hundred Belly altogether.
The beggar was clearly dissatisfied, frowning and glaring at the frail young boy, while still holding out his tin box stubbornly.
"I, I only have these..."
The frail young boy looked embarrassed, suddenly remembering something, and after a brief hesitation, he still took out a large, dark loaf of bread from the pouch on his back, tearing off more than half of it and gently placing it on the tin box.
"I haven't had dinner yet, I need to save some for myself, sorry."
The frail young boy didn't dare look at the beggar, stuttering as he said, "Don't mind its appearance, or that it doesn't smell particularly fragrant, but trust me, it's very filling, enough to last a whole day."
Without waiting for the beggar to say anything, he packed up his pouch and hurriedly walked up the steps toward the city gate.
Shano looked at the beggar.
Sure enough, the old tramp just picked up the black bread and glanced at it, without even the interest to take a bite, disdainfully tossing it aside.
Afterwards, he poured out the coins from the tin box, counted them, and spat on the ground to the side with a "ptoo" sound: "What a misfortune, damn pauper!"
Shano frowned slightly, turning his head as if to call out to the lad.
Unexpectedly, the scrawny-looking boy had quite a stride, disappearing from view in the blink of an eye, having already run an unknown distance.
He stood there for a while, quietly watching the beggar, who looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"Couldn't you be a bit more arrogant, like threatening me with 'what are you looking at, kid, look any more and I'll dig out your eyeballs' or something?"
Shano suddenly remarked with a soft sigh.
"Do you take me for a fool?" The beggar rolled his eyes. "That muscular body of yours is frightening enough; I can tell you're not to be trifled with. I'd have to be full to bother threatening you for no reason."
Shano looked down, suddenly recalling that when he left the dock, feeling too hot on the island, he had sweated through his clothes and taken off his jacket.
Now he was only wearing a single shirt, his imposing physique plainly visible.
"Sigh."
What a disappointment, Shano sighed, and to the beggar's disbelief, he forcibly pried the two hundred Belly out of the beggar's hands before setting off on his way into the city.
He could only blame his own bad luck for not encountering a bigger deception scene. Having recently gone through a breakthrough, he was still adjusting to this physique, and exerting control was difficult for him.
Two hundred Belly was only enough to buy Nami two cheap hair clips, and it wasn't quite appropriate to beat someone half to death over such a trivial matter.