Halfway up the hillside.
Luffy and Zoro ran for quite a while. Seeing no Marines pursuing them, the two finally came to a stop.
"Strange, where are the Marines?"
A question mark practically popped up over Luffy's head. He looked back, completely bewildered.
"Luffy, look at that boat. Doesn't it look a lot like ours?"
As if noticing something, Zoro suddenly spoke up in a calm tone, raising his hand to point at the sea below.
Luffy followed his gaze and soon spotted a small boat slowly pulling away from the coast. After staring at it intently for a few seconds, he realized that Allen was on board, waving right at them.
"Eh!!" Luffy's eyes practically bugged out of his skull in shock. He pointed furiously at Allen and yelled,
"To actually steal a pirate's ship... you despicable Marine!!"
"Idiot Marine! Stupid Marine! Sink! Sink to the bottom! Sink!"
Luffy flailed his arms wildly, shouting curses at Allen.
Watching from the side, Zoro looked utterly speechless. "Yelling at him isn't going to do anything. A boat isn't just going to sink for no reason. If I had known, we should have just fought him."
...
Meanwhile, on the small boat drifting away from the coast.
Allen rested his head against the boat's railing, lying leisurely on the deck as he pulled a sea chart from his backpack to study.
Unlike a certain idiot who relied on drifting in a wooden barrel, he had long since prepared all the necessary supplies for navigating the East Blue.
Although the 153rd Branch was just a small base, they still had things like a complete sea chart of the East Blue.
After studying the chart for a while, Allen observed the current wind direction and quickly determined his sailing route and destination.
Heading southwest from here would lead to the Twin Cape.
Along the way, he would first pass through the Gecko Islands, the area where the Black Cat Pirates used to be active. After that was the sea region home to the ocean-going restaurant Baratie, the establishment run by Red-Leg Zeff.
Allen's primary destination was right there.
Before entering the Grand Line, he definitely needed to acquire a proper ship and gather a crew.
When it came to companions worth recruiting in the East Blue, Zoro and Sanji were undoubtedly in the top tier.
Whether in terms of current combat power or future potential, both of them were SS-rank in Allen's mind.
Especially Sanji. He had the culinary skills, the combat power, the tactical brilliance, and an unparalleled level of perverted lust.
Once his beautiful-woman radar was turned on, it was practically on par with Enel's island-wide Observation Haki.
If he could pull it off, Allen felt that recruiting Sanji to be his right-hand man would be a pretty good move.
Next was Nami. Although her combat power was average, her navigation skills were absolutely top-tier.
If he was going to enter the Grand Line, his own shallow knowledge of navigation wouldn't be nearly enough. A professional navigator was indispensable.
Furthermore, if he could find a weather-related Devil Fruit, there was plenty of room for Nami's combat power to improve.
More importantly!
Having such a gorgeous, busty, and curvy beauty on board would be great, even if she was just there as eye candy.
If his crew expanded in the future and formed a grand fleet, it would be necessary to establish a dedicated navigation department. After all, that was how Marine fleets were equipped when they set sail.
Gazing up at the boundless azure sky, Allen gradually immersed himself in his beautiful fantasies, completely ignoring the prerequisite of whether he could actually recruit them in the first place.
Aside from those two, the other people in the East Blue worth his attention...
Kuro lacked ambition, so Allen had no interest in him. Alvida... a hot-tempered, fat old hag. Hard pass.
As for Arlong...
If he wanted to recruit Nami, Arlong could only be used as a sacrificial pawn.
After thinking it over, the only character he could remember seemed to be the man known as the King of Luck.
God Buggy.
Although he was weak and cowardly, Buggy actually had some ambition. Plus, he was highly knowledgeable and experienced, having sailed the Grand Line with Roger for a time.
However...
Allen thought about it. The benefits of bringing Buggy on board weren't actually that great. Luck was just something people talked about; he couldn't truly rely on such a thing.
On the contrary, he had a feeling that Buggy would only bring him a lot of trouble.
*'Even if I dragged a guy like that onto the ship, it might not be a good thing. Forget it.'*
Allen shook his head, dismissing the thought of trying to recruit Buggy.
After checking his course one more time and confirming everything was fine, Allen closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep while basking in the sun.
...
At the same time.
On an uninhabited island at the edge of the Gecko Islands, a dark red pirate ship was anchored in the sea by a cliff.
A man wearing red heart-shaped glasses and a blue trench coat jumped down from above, landing on a small rowboat next to the pirate ship.
"Yo, I'm leaving the ship to you, Sham, and you too, Buchi."
Jango adjusted his hat and called out, looking upward.
On the pirate ship, a row of pirates leaned against the railing, looking down. The two men leading them were one fat and one skinny. The skinny one had conspicuous green hair, while the fat one wore a calico cat hood.
The two were Buchi and Sham of the Nyaban Brothers, the ship guards of the Black Cat Pirates.
"Leave this place to us and just go. Remember to give us the signal quickly."
Sham licked his cat-claw glove like a feline, a cold glint flashing in his eyes as he chuckled darkly.
"The boys are getting impatient..."
"Don't worry, I won't keep you waiting long."
Jango pulled down the brim of his hat, a cold smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Three whole years. This moment had finally arrived.
Soon, he rowed the small boat away from the coast, heading toward the other end of the Gecko Islands—a small island dotted with a few villages.
...
Meanwhile.
"1688, 1689, 1700..."
A small boat drifted on the calm sea, the water level along its sides rising and falling in rhythm with the voice coming from above.
Shirtless, Allen was doing one-handed handstand push-ups on the deck.
Sweat rolled down the lines of his muscles, sliding past the single arm supporting his body, all the way down to the lone index finger pressed against the deck.
Sailing alone was incredibly boring. Aside from sleeping, the only way left to pass the time was training.
After finishing 2,000 single-finger handstand push-ups, he switched to his other hand and continued exercising.
Then came weighted squats with his backpack, followed by shadowboxing at the stern of the boat, and then eating...
For now, he could only make do with these dull and tedious basic exercises. The space on the boat was cramped, and he had no equipment, especially nothing for weight training.
A backpack weighing around a hundred pounds was better than nothing for his current strength. He even started contemplating the feasibility of tying the boat to his back and swimming across the sea, dragging it behind him.
Literally carrying the boat to travel.
...
In the end, he decided against doing something that looked so incredibly stupid.
As the stars shifted and time passed, Allen experienced two full cycles of day and night on the open sea.
Until noon on the third day.
The silhouette of an island finally appeared on the unchanging azure horizon!
"Land—!"
Allen grabbed the oars in excitement, his eyes burning with fervent enthusiasm as his hands blurred into afterimages, rowing madly toward the nearest island.
*Splash! Splash!* The oars churned up the water, and the small boat sped across the sea, leaving a white wake behind it. In the blink of an eye, it crashed onto the sandy beach.
Allen's figure separated from the boat as he leaped high into the air. He executed a two-and-a-half mid-air twist under the sun, finally landing perfectly with his legs together!
From beneath a rock, three hermit crabs simultaneously raised scorecards, giving him a supreme rating of 2.5 points!