"Huh? What's this?"
Luffy's attention was instantly drawn away.
He'd always thought the covered picture frame in Nami's room looked strangely out of place.
Before Nami could react, his hand had already reached over.
By instinct, he flipped the frame around.
There were three people in the photograph, all smiling brightly.
One was a little Nami with two tiny pigtails and round cheeks.
Beside her was a slightly older girl with short blue hair.
And standing between them, with both girls tightly clinging to her arms, was a woman in a Marine uniform.
She had a warm, sunny air about her and was grinning widely.
Luffy still hadn't realized anything.
Nami snatched the picture frame away!
Then Luffy saw all the color instantly drain from her face.
"Nami, what's wrong?"
Even someone as dense as Luffy could tell that Nami was angry.
He started fumbling around helplessly.
And at exactly that moment, that deadly voice sounded again.
One hour of sleep.
One minute to eat.
How much break time could there possibly be in between?
Nami's body trembled uncontrollably.
Her teeth clenched tightly against her lower lip, hard enough for a faint metallic taste to seep into her mouth.
"Get out!"
"Huh? Nami..."
Luffy was startled by her sudden, intense reaction and instinctively took a step backward.
"Sorry. I'm not in the mood to teach you right now. Can you leave me alone for a while?"
Nami took a deep breath.
With one hand, she forcefully turned the picture frame face-down again.
Luffy scratched his head.
He had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
Were women really this difficult to understand?
Luffy was completely confused.
But he knew one thing.
There was definitely something going on with Nami.
The problem was that he didn't have time right now.
Bang—!
The door slammed shut behind him so hard that the entire cabin wall vibrated.
"Nami! We're companions..."
Inside the room, Nami leaned against the cold door and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor.
She could no longer hear whatever came afterward.
For her, there was only one place where she could cry...
And it obviously wasn't this room.
On deck, Usopp was fiddling with the cannon, aiming it toward the endless sea in the distance.
Then he heard something and turned around.
"You actually lasted that long before getting kicked out?"
Usopp stopped aiming and looked at Luffy.
"What happened?"
"Nami's in a bad mood."
That life-threatening voice was already sounding in Luffy's ears again.
He didn't have time to chat with Usopp.
Before all this, he'd still had plenty of time and energy to mess around with Usopp.
Like sticking a pair of chopsticks up his nose, then grabbing a dustpan and doing some bizarre dance.
But his scheduled time to learn from Usopp conflicted with his other training.
So right now, Luffy was thinking about developing his Devil Fruit abilities.
The Gum-Gum Fruit could be developed into all kinds of strange techniques.
Slingshot.
Whip.
Battle Axe.
Bazooka...
Luffy had already thought of everything he could.
What else was there?
He casually asked,
"Usopp, what do you want to do now that you've become a pirate?"
Usopp grinned and planted his hands on his hips.
"I'm going to become a brave warrior of the sea! Then I'll travel to the land of giants and see the strongest race in the world..."
Giants?
Luffy's eyes instantly lit up.
That's right.
He lowered his head and looked at his fist.
【Pirate King Training Plan: Day Two.】
【Automatically adjusting the plan according to the executor's current physical condition. Sleep duration: thirty minutes. Requirement fulfilled. Wake up immediately and begin morning training... Countdown: thirty seconds.】
It hadn't been long since midnight when the warning sounded beside Luffy's ear.
Luffy seriously wanted to go to Nami's room right now, wake her up, and ask exactly what time "morning training" was supposed to start.
When he'd been studying theory with Nami yesterday, the material seemed to have mentioned something about specific periods of the day.
Of course, the consequences of actually doing that would be severe.
Luffy's fists clenched.
At this hour, even the training maniac Zoro had only just finished showering and gotten into bed.
"This thing's seriously messed up."
Habits were terrifying things.
Luffy got out of bed, left the room, and headed onto the deck.
Life was like...
Well, if you couldn't resist it, you might as well silently enjoy it.
Under Garp's oppression, Luffy had gradually learned to adapt.
Now this voice was basically the same as Garp's fists.
At least when facing Grandpa, Luffy could resist a little and talk back.
Against this voice?
There wasn't even the slightest chance of resistance.
Being forced to spend all day on the toilet was one of the lighter punishments.
Those socially devastating punishments were something even someone as shameless as Luffy didn't dare test casually.
He definitely didn't want his companions calling him something like the Spraying Warrior or Mr. Several-Times-a-Day from now on.
Moonlight barely illuminated the deck, and the sea breeze carried a slight chill.
Luffy stood in the center of the deck, both hands tightly gripping a barbell.
This was the simplest form of physical training.
He'd already experienced plenty of it under Garp a long time ago.
"Nine hundred ninety-seven... nine hundred ninety-eight..."
"This is enough already. I really wanna fight someone."
Luffy thought physical training was way too boring.
What kind of Pirate King spent every single day hiding aboard a ship and training?
Weren't pirates supposed to soar to greater heights through battles against other pirates and Marines?
Then Luffy remembered.
This was the East Blue.
Garp often picked his nose while saying the East Blue was the weakest sea.
And after setting out to sea, Luffy had certainly experienced that for himself.
Forget pirates.
He'd barely even seen any Marines.
There wasn't a single decent opponent around!
The moon quietly narrowed its eyes.
One look at the sky, and it was practically time to clock out.
Creak.
The cabin door leading onto the deck opened.
Zoro stepped outside with a yawn and habitually stretched his muscles, preparing to begin his unwavering morning training.
It was a habit he'd maintained since childhood.
When it came to talent, he wasn't as gifted as many others.
But when it came to effort, there shouldn't be anyone who worked harder than—
The next instant, his movements froze.
His jaw practically lost all support and nearly smashed into the deck.
"Hey, Luffy. When the hell did you wake up?"
Zoro instantly became wide awake.