A week had passed since Aiden and the others escaped from Ohara.
The sea breeze was salty, and it carried a sense of freedom.
The large refugee ship sailed steadily across the West Blue.
The professors had finally calmed down. Under Professor Clover's guidance, they did not let themselves drown in grief.
They were the "seeds" of Ohara.
On the deck, dozens of surviving professors had gathered on their own. They took out the paper and pens stored on the ship and began writing from memory. They were recreating the rare books that had been burned inside the Tree of Knowledge.
The wind rustled the pages, but it could not cover the scratch of their pens.
They were going to rebuild the "Tree of Knowledge" with their own minds.
"Gahaha..." Saul sat at the bow of the ship, using his giant body as a shield against the wind. He laughed in his usual open-hearted way while watching over the hard-working professors.
Smoker stayed by himself at the stern, smoking one cigar after another.
He was frustrated. As a Marine, he was now on the same ship as a group of "enemies of the World Government." There was even a former Marine Vice Admiral with them.
That "traitorous" position made his whole body feel uneasy. And yet, he felt no regret. The contradiction was driving him close to madness.
Elsewhere on the deck, in the sunniest corner, Olvia's condition had stabilized. She leaned against a lounge chair by the rail with a blanket draped over her.
For the first time, eight-year-old Nico Robin no longer had to hide behind anyone. She sat quietly beside her mother, holding the adventure notebook Olvia had given her.
"Mom, is this the talking elephant you told me about?"
"Yes... It was enormous. As tall as several mountains..." Olvia's voice was still weak, but it held more warmth than ever before. She stroked Robin's black hair. "My companions and I walked on its back for an entire week..."
"Then... did you really see the underground people? The ones drawn in the notebook..." Robin pointed at a rough sketch on the page, her small face full of curiosity.
"I did," Olvia said with a smile. "They're not as scary as the legends make them sound. They're just very shy, and they really like shiny things..."
Robin stared with the same large eyes as her mother, completely absorbed in the stories.
Olvia smiled as she spoke about her adventures across the world over the past six years. She told Robin about the strange places she had seen while searching for the Poneglyphs.
This was the childhood Robin had missed for eight years, the childhood that should have been hers from the beginning.
Everyone else on the deck moved more quietly whenever they passed by, afraid of disturbing the mother and daughter who had suffered so much.
Aiden stayed alone in the captain's room, counting what he had gained from the battle at Ohara.
He opened the system panel.
In the mission list, the mission called "The Tree of Knowledge's Dying Wish" still showed a gray "Incomplete" status.
"As I thought..." Aiden mused. "To finish it, I probably have to wait until they're fully settled on Sky Island. Only then will the mission truly be complete."
He was not in a hurry. To be honest, even without the mission, he would still have done everything he could to save them.
He then looked at his Sin Points.
[Sin Points: 835,420]
"Thanks to the 'donations' from Spandine and those CP agents... that really was help when I needed it most."
Aiden opened the system shop.
His gaze passed over the many skills and landed on two items side by side. Both cost one million:
[Skill: Peak Swordsmanship] (Upgraded from Top-tier) — Cost: 1,000,000 Sin Points[Haki: Peak Armament Haki] (Upgraded from Top-tier) — Cost: 1,000,000 Sin Points
Aiden frowned slightly. He felt torn.
He wanted both. But even if he had never spent a single point since obtaining the system, he still would not have enough to buy them together.
He let out a sigh.
"Forget it... I don't even have a million right now. There's no point thinking about it."
His thoughts drifted back to the battle with Kuzan.
His attacks had been able to injure Kuzan. Still, he could clearly feel the gap between them.
"That guy's body has probably reached the Peak level," Aiden concluded. "If we fought to the death, I probably wouldn't be the one left standing. But if all I wanted was to leave, he couldn't stop me either."
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
"Right now, aside from the system, there's another way for me to grow stronger. Devil Fruits."
"Speaking of that... Sky Island..."
"If history hasn't changed... then that fruit, one that easily ranks among the top ten in the pirate world... the [Rumble-Rumble Fruit]... has most likely not been eaten by Enel yet!"
Once the thought appeared, he could no longer suppress it.
"If I can get that fruit... and combine it with Peak-level Armament Haki or Swordsmanship..."
Aiden suddenly wished he could fly straight to Sky Island and secure the Rumble-Rumble Fruit for himself.
Unfortunately, he had no way to get there yet.
He forced himself to calm down and buried the thought in the back of his mind for the moment.
"One step at a time. First, I need to reach Sky Island."
Just then, a sudden commotion broke out on deck, interrupting Aiden's thoughts.
It was a News Coo. The professors gathered around it excitedly. They had been cut off from the outside world for a week and badly needed news.
One of the professors took out 50 Berries and bought a newspaper.
The moment he opened it,
"This... this..." The professor's hands began to tremble.
"What is it?" Professor Clover asked with concern.
"Let me see..." Saul leaned over curiously as well. But the moment his giant eyes focused on the front-page headline, his signature laugh froze on his face.
"What... what is this?!" Saul's voice was full of shock and confusion.
Smoker walked over too, wanting to see what was written in the paper.
The instant he saw the front-page headline, the two cigars in his mouth dropped to the deck with a clatter.
Aiden heard the noise and stepped out of the cabin.
"What's all the noise about?"
Smoker looked up sharply. For once, he did not look at Aiden the usual way. Instead, he stared at him with a complicated expression, as if he were looking at a ghost.
Aiden frowned at the look on his face. "Are you constipated?"
Smoker said nothing.
All the professors had gathered on the deck.
The newspaper's front page was filled by a newly issued bounty poster.
The photo showed a cold-faced young man. Behind him were the towering flames of Ohara and the frozen river that had been split open.
That face was exactly the "Arise" disguise Aiden had used when he stood before Kuzan wearing plain glasses.
Below the image were three terrifying lines of text:
[DEAD OR ALIVE]
[DEMON · ARISE]
[BOUNTY: 500,000,000 BERRIES]
"Units... tens... millions... tens of millions..."
"Five... five hundred million?!"
"Berries?!!"
A collective gasp erupted from the professors on deck.
"What... what exactly did he do?"
One of the professors pointed at the small print and shouted,
"It says here... that this man named Arise... destroyed Ohara!!"
"What?!"
"Lies!!"
The professors were instantly furious. "It was clearly the Marines! It was the World Government!!"
Professor Clover took the newspaper with trembling hands. He saw the photo clearly, and he saw the small print beneath it.
"'Demon · Arise'... clashed with CP agents at Ohara... and..."
The professor's voice trembled.
"...and... defeated... Marine Vice Admiral Kuzan..."
Aiden: (ꐦ°᷄д°᷅)
"I... I only used that disguise once."
"And just like that, I became a wanted criminal with a 500 million Berries bounty?!"
On the other side, Smoker still said nothing.
He stared fixedly at the bounty poster. His eyes moved back and forth between Aiden's face and the photo in the newspaper.
He remembered it clearly. Three days ago, when he and Rosinante had been escorting the Ohara professors to the port, the moment Aiden turned around, Smoker had seen him take a pair of identical plain glasses out of his pocket.