Nighttime.
Kalmande pressed his pillow against his head, tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep.
“Bastard.”
“How long has it been?
Can’t they let a guy sleep?”
Logically, the noise Kazi and Makino made in the room at night shouldn’t be audible to ordinary people.
After all, Kalmande’s room wasn’t very close to Kazi’s.
However, Kalmande had recently awakened his Observation Haki, and his five senses had been enhanced, so he could always vaguely hear some of their frantic sounds.
“We need to dock soon.
I’m going to go out and party for three days and three nights, no matter what.”
Kalmande welcomed the dawn of the sun amidst agony and torment.
“Ha~ ah!”
“Morning, Kalmande.”
Early in the morning, Kazi walked out wearing just a pair of boxers, shirtless.
Kalmande ignored Kazi, his eyes dark with fatigue, feeling both depressed and miserable.
“Kazi, let’s not go straight to Loguetown.
Let’s stop at a nearby island.”
“I think this Almus Island looks pretty good.”
Kalmande took out a map and found the closest island on their current route.
The island wasn’t very big, but it was inhabited; it was one of the so-called non-affiliated countries.
Kazi didn’t understand what Kalmande was doing.
Yesterday, they had agreed to head straight to Loguetown to see the place where the Pirate King was executed, and then head straight to the New World.
He didn’t expect him to change his mind today and insist on wandering around nearby.
“Alright, alright.
Although I don’t know why, I’ll listen to you.”
Hearing Kazi’s words, Kalmande finally felt much better.
This bastard was still quite reasonable after all.
Kalmande went to the helm, adjusted the course slightly, and headed straight for Almus Island.
Letting the sea breeze clear his sleepy head, Kazi hurried into the kitchen to cook for the first time in a while.
There was no helping it; he didn’t know what had gotten into Makino yesterday, but she had become very proactive, which put Kazi in a very passive position.
A man can’t say he can’t do it.
Kazi had kept her company until the end, and they didn’t fall asleep until late into the night.
The result was that Kazi, with his ox-like physique, was fine the next day, but Makino couldn’t get out of bed.
Kazi hurried to the kitchen to prepare a loving breakfast to reward Makino, and incidentally, to replenish his own energy.
“So, there’s no portion for me?”
Kalmande saw Kazi carrying two breakfasts back into the room, and there was nothing left on the kitchen table except for a mess.
“Hmph, I have hands and feet, do you think I’m going to starve to death?”
After some clattering, Kalmande found a jar of jam and two bags of bread in the refrigerator, paired it with a bottle of red wine, and had a feast.
The next morning, Kalmande landed on Almus Island as he had wished.
“I’m going to go look around by myself.
Bye!”
Leaving those words behind, Kalmande ran towards the town.
It wasn’t big, consisting of only one town and a dozen or so villages.
The villages and town combined had a population of over a hundred thousand, but the environment was quite nice, with dense vegetation and plenty of farmland and orchards outside the villages.
“Let’s go, let’s go walk around the streets too.”
Makino had no objections.
After drifting on the sea for so long, one always misses the stability of being on land.
“That man is…”
“Pirates are here!
Run!”
“It’s actually a big pirate with a bounty of two hundred million Berries.
Our town is doomed.”
Kazi and Makino had only been on the street for a few minutes when the townspeople recognized them.
Kazi saw a newspaper dropped on the ground; it was the newspaper from a couple of days ago, and the wanted posters for Kazi and his crew were on it.
No wonder these residents remembered them so clearly; people were still reading it today.
“Looks like we can’t go shopping.”
Makino put her hands on her hips.
Although she had expected this, she still felt a bit helpless.
“That’s easy to fix.”
Kazi took a couple of quick steps.
There was a stall selling masks, and the owner hadn’t even had time to pack up; it was good enough that they had managed to run away.
With a wave of his hand, Kazi swept all the masks into his Independent Space.
“Here’s one for you.”
Kazi put on a dragon-shaped mask, and Makino put on a fox-shaped mask.
“Let’s go back to the ship and change our clothes.
After all, the residents saw what we were wearing earlier.”
“Mm.”
Makino thought this method should be more reliable; besides, there was no other way.
It was hard to finally get ashore, but to find no one around was just too boring.
The two changed their clothes and spent half the day sunbathing on the ship.
Sure enough, after half a day passed, the residents realized that the group of pirates was no longer in town, and they all started getting busy again.
Not all towns were so welcoming to pirates.
This island might have been attacked by pirates before, which is why they avoided them like the plague.
Kazi and Makino came into town in the afternoon.
Although their style was a bit peculiar, the residents didn’t associate them with pirates.
“That’s great, Kazi.”
“This method really works.”
Makino happily started shopping, dragging Kazi along to buy, buy, buy.
Although they weren’t lacking in food or drink, she just wanted to buy things.
“Kazi, Makino, I finally found you.”
Kalmande, who was wearing a neck warmer over his face, saw Kazi and Makino and ran over, as if he had just seen his own kin.
Kalmande’s entire neck warmer covered his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.
You didn’t need to look to know he had also been recognized.
Kalmande, who had come out to relax, was also very depressed.
The residents of this island seemed very afraid of pirates.
“Hahaha, Kalmande, look at how pathetic you look.”
Kalmande was mercilessly mocked by Kazi, and he immediately glared, pointing at the mask on Kazi’s face, saying: “You have the nerve to talk about me?
If you’re not pathetic, why are you wearing a mask?”
Kazi touched his dragon-shaped mask, struck a pose, and said: “This is called fashion.
It’s an accessory.
Do you even understand?”
“Tch, then mine is an alternative style.”
Kalmande didn’t want to argue with Kazi about this anymore; he was very anxious now.
He had come to the island with great enthusiasm just to relax, but now he couldn’t even see anyone.
How was he supposed to relax?
Was he going to go back to the ship and rely on his five fingers?
Then his changing the route was all for nothing.
“Stop messing around, Kazi.
Hurry up and think of a way for me.”
“Emergency!
Save me!”
Kalmande pulled Kazi to the side and asked for his advice in a low voice.
After all, Kalmande had some self-awareness.
When it came to coming up with bad ideas or shady tricks, he was no match for Captain Kazi.
For those kinds of crooked ways, he had to ask his Captain.
After all, going openly was already impossible, unless they went to an island that received pirates next time.
Kazi rubbed his chin, staring at Kalmande, as if he had come up with a good idea.
“You’re in luck, kid.
I have a plan!”
Maybe it’s not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”