“You’re the captain.
If your mind’s made up, then go and do it.” Gavin dropped back onto the deck and somehow produced another small wine cup as if by magic.
He picked up the flask and filled both cups.
“We don’t need to say stuff like that to each other.
We were going to the Grand Line sooner or later anyway.
If we’re lucky this time, maybe we’ll even get to see what truly powerful pirates are like.” Shanks sat down cross-legged and picked up his cup with his right hand.
The crescent moon reflected in the wine trembled lightly.
“You’re right, Gavin.
Now I’m actually looking forward to the trip to South Blue.” “And the Red Force seems to want to go play on a wider sea too.
The direction we’re sailing in now is where the dream began.” Clink.
Their cups touched lightly.
Under the moonlit night, the two men looked at each other, grinned, and shouted in perfect agreement.
“The Red Hair Pirates are setting sail!!!” The night wind blew again, chasing away the dark clouds that had tried to cover the moonlight.
With the ship swaying gently on the sea, the two drank together, and Shanks began telling stories about the fun things that had happened during his old voyages.
As he talked—whether it was the old faces and old days surfacing in his mind, or simply the wine landing at exactly the right moment—an old but timeless pirate song came drifting slowly out of his mouth.
“Yo-hohoho, yo-ho~ hoho~” “Yo-hohoho, yo-ho~ hoho~” “Gather up all of the crew, it’s time to ship out Binks’ brew.
Like the sea breeze doing as it pleases, we ride the waves…” At some point, the two had gone from sitting face-to-face to leaning side by side against the ship’s rail.
The pitiful little cups were gone from their hands too.
Each of them now held a bottle of the drink they liked, singing happily into the night.
Creak.
The door to the rest room opened.
The remaining members of the Red Hair Pirates had been woken by the singing.
When they stepped out and saw the scene, they froze for a moment.
Once they came back to their senses, they hurriedly dug bottles out of the wine barrel, ran over to sit beside their captain and vice-captain, and joined the chorus while swaying their heads.
Beyond the sea, the sunset is noisy too… The birds’ song draws circles in the sky… Their wildly off-key chorus pierced through the clouds and rose all the way to the sky.
Gavin did not know how to describe what he felt in that moment.
Happiness, joy, and a faint homesickness for a home he could no longer return to.
But it was also at that moment that Gavin fully accepted his identity.
The people and things of his previous life had scattered with the wind.
In this life, he was only Hickman D.
Gavin, a member of the Red Hair Pirates.
The waves rolled on, and the moonlight shone thick across the sea.
When the first round of the song ended, Shanks, still nowhere near satisfied, raised his bottle.
“Second round!
Start!!” “Yo-hohoho, yo-ho~ hoho~” “Yo-hohoho, yo-ho~ hoho~” …
The night passed, and morning came.
The sea was still clear, and the sun, barely showing its forehead above the horizon, cast down its first beam of light.
Their morning-training body clocks woke Gavin and Shanks.
The two looked at each other and showed the same goofy smile.
“I feel like you’re seriously contagious, Shanks.
If this keeps up, I’m going to turn into an idiot or a complete dumbass too, aren’t I?” Stepping around the Red Hair Pirates sprawled asleep all over the deck, Gavin carried several weight plates to an open space, preparing for his daily morning training.
“Don’t blame everything on me!
It’s because you, the vice-captain, set such a terrible example that Bonk and the others don’t respect rank at all!” Shanks swung his barbell to the side.
With a sharp metallic clang, Gavin looked at his slightly lowered wrist and shook his head helplessly, sighing inwardly.
This was only a two-rank difference in strength.
If one month he accidentally drew some trash Zanpakutō, who knew how weak he would become?
It looked like his training still was not insane enough.
He had to digest the strong memories attached to each Zanpakutō as quickly as possible and turn them into his own, while constantly pushing the lower limit of his original body closer to the attributes granted by the blade.
Only by merging both together could he quickly enter the top level of battle on this sea.
“Shanks, starting today, we double the training intensity!” Shanks put down his barbell and touched Gavin’s forehead.
“Weird.
You don’t have a fever, so why are you talking nonsense?” “Hah~~ Morning, you freaks.” Snake walked over with a yawn, his brows tightly furrowed and his face a little pale.
“Damn it, don’t you two feel sick?
We drank until the middle of the night!” “Isn’t a hangover supposed to be the official excuse for slacking off?” Gavin raised his chin, making no attempt to hide the contempt in his eyes.
“Only the men who can’t get the job done fall back on a hangover as an excuse.” Shanks also raised his chin, the corners of his mouth turning down in clear disdain.
“Only soft and tiny men use hangovers as a reason!” Snake’s mouth twitched.
“You two…” “Want to fight?” Gavin and Shanks asked at the same time.
“…No.
As long as you’re happy!” Snake walked back with bitter resentment.
One kick per person, he directly woke Bonk Punch, Hongo, and Yasopp, who were still sleeping.
Even the monkey was not spared!
The three men sat up with blank faces, but before they could open their mouths, Snake snapped.
“Get your asses up and train!” “This is an order from Captain Shanks!” “You three soft, useless, impotent men!
It’s only a hangover!
Has that become your excuse to give up on hard work and abandon the bright pirate life ahead of you?!” “Especially you, Hongo!
As a doctor, you should be keeping yourself clean and disciplined!” Hongo stared at him with dead eyes.
“Hey, Bonk, Yasopp.
Isn’t Snake acting way too full of himself?
He obviously just woke up too.” Bonk and Yasopp silently stood and began rolling up their sleeves.
“That works for me!
You want a warm-up match before morning training?!” Snake pulled off his shirt, revealing the red dragon tattoo on the right side of his neck, though his legs were trembling slightly.
It seemed he had not fully recovered from the hangover yet.
Seeing that the others were trembling too, Shanks’s eyes rolled, and he smiled as he pointed at Gavin.
“There’s a new order!
The vice-captain said that whoever loses first has to wash the captain’s clothes for half a year!” “Hey, hey, I never said that, Shanks!
Don’t spread fake orders, you bastard.” Gavin kicked Shanks, then turned toward Snake and the others with a bright smile.
“And as a reward for first place, Shanks plans to set an example by washing that person’s underwear for one week.” “I didn’t—mmph mmph mmph!!!” After covering Shanks’s mouth and casually suppressing his struggle, Gavin continued.
“The vice-captain keeps his word.” Watching the four men and one monkey fall into a brawl, Gavin released Shanks.
“A beautiful morning really does begin with watching your crewmates fight—” Boom!!
A cannonball exploded beside the ship.
The spray splashed all over Gavin, and the pleased smile on his face instantly froze.
“You trash pirates over there, surrender right now!
I’m the overlord of East Blue, Red-Haired Shanks, with a bounty of two hundred and thirty million Berries!” “Anyone who dares to resist will be thrown into the sea and fed to the fish by me, Red-Haired Shanks!” “Heh-heh-heh!
Boss Shanks, let me, Sword Demon Hickman D.
Gavin, with a bounty of two hundred million Berries, cut them all down!
My great blade has long been thirsty for blood!” Shanks: ?
Gavin: ?
The four men and one monkey who had been fighting also stopped instantly and gathered at the rail to look outside.
Yasopp, whose eyesight was excellent, covered his mouth and desperately held back his laughter.
“That ship, and that flag… pfft!
Cough, cough!
Sorry, sorry, Boss, it looks exactly like ours!” Shanks set down his barbell and drew Gryphon with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“Heh.
So that’s the overlord of East Blue, Red-Haired Shanks.
Snake, bring us closer.
I’d like to see what this East Blue overlord looks like!” The others wanted to see how their vice-captain would react.
“Why are you all looking at me?
I’m good to go.” Gavin produced a sheet of paper and a pen.
He had the sunny, innocent look of the friendly boy next door, his smile was warm and bright.
“I’m the president of the East Blue Overlord Fan Club!
I absolutely have to ask him for an autograph later.
Preferably signed with red paint.” “I’m colorblind, you see.
I can only see red.” ‘Damnnnn…’ Feeling the killing intent bleed off him, Hongo hastily made up a reason to be elsewhere.
“Uh, well, I need to check whether we have enough medicine in storage.
I’ll have to buy more later.” As the two ships gradually drew closer, several extremely thick ropes were thrown from the large ship across from them, wrapping around the mainmast of the Red Force.
“At least you know your place and didn’t fire back!
Otherwise, I, Red-Haired Shanks, would definitely hang you up and beat you!” A three-meter-tall man with bulging muscles and a head of bright red wavy hair jumped onto the Red Force first.
Following closely behind him was a tall, skinny man built like a bamboo pole, an eyepatch shoved up onto his forehead, trailed by a whole crowd of pirates.
“Hickman D.
Gavin” swung the genuine giant cleaver resting on his shoulder and grinned viciously.
“Welcome to the world of pirates, you rookies… Hm?
‘Snake,’ don’t pull me!
Let me finish talking!” “See this giant cleaver?
Behave yourselves, or I, Sword Demon Hickman D.
Gavin, won’t show any mer—stop pulling me, god damn it!” “Hickman D.
Gavin” turned and kicked his companion over before roaring.
“Do you want me to kill you, ‘Snake’?!”