When Nami returned home carrying the study manual Arlong had given her, Belle-mère was standing in front of the stove making marmalade. The wooden spoon kept stirring inside the copper pot, while the sweet fragrance of mikans and sugar, mixed with the slight bitterness of mikan peel, filled the house.
After all, mikans could not serve as a staple food. Cocoyasi’s vast mikan groves produced huge quantities of mikans every year, and there were always some with poor appearances that were difficult to sell. Those would usually be eaten at home or processed a little.
“Why are you back so early? Did those Marines buy all the mikans?”
Belle-mère did not turn around and continued cooking her marmalade. Her two adopted daughters had made enough noise when they came in that she could tell what was happening without looking.
“Those Marines weren’t good people. They wanted to take things without paying. Those Fish-Men uncles helped us get the money back.”
That answer made Belle-mère feel that something was off. It was Nojiko who had answered her, not Nami. Normally, when it came to anything involving Berries, Nami should have been the more enthusiastic one.
Belle-mère then turned off the stove and went into the living room. At this moment, Nami was sitting at the table, completely engrossed in the book.
“What are you reading?”
The smile was still plastered across Nami’s face. It was rare to see her child looking this happy.
“That Fish-Man named Arlong gave it to her. He said it’s a Navigator’s study notes.”
Once again, it was Nojiko who answered. Hearing that, Belle-mère came over as well. There was not much text on the book’s cover.
Aside from the clearly printed words “Navigator Study Manual,” there was the emblem of the Ryugu Kingdom and a hand-drawn image of a moon and bat.
This kind of book was also used as teaching material by the Ryugu Kingdom on Fishman Island. The copy Arlong had given away actually contained some knowledge passed down by senior students as well.
The pages contained sea charts drawn with precision instruments, their lines as fine as strands of hair, covered with symbols Belle-mère had never seen before. Even the sea charts she had seen during her time as a Marine were not as detailed as the one in Nami’s hands.
Nami was not studying it carefully yet. Instead, she was quickly flipping through the entire book, apparently wanting to get a rough understanding first and see just what Arlong had meant when he said it was different.
“Reverse Mountain… Belle-mère, does seawater really flow up a mountain? Isn’t water supposed to flow from high places to low places?”
“Well… I’ve heard about it before. There really is a mountain where the current flows upward, but I’ve never been there.”
Nami continued flipping through the pages. Some of the notes even had pictures pasted onto them, showing reverse-flowing sea currents and majestic Sea Clouds, all clearly labeled.
“So the sea outside… is really like this?”
Ordinary methods could not be used to determine direction, and a Navigator had to trust their Log Pose. Many similar matters were heavily emphasized. These bolded notes were all experiences countless people had accumulated over the years on the Grand Line.
Nami immersed herself in the book while Belle-mère looked toward the coast.
Arlong and the others had already been here for some time. Aside from the first few days, they had been carrying out large-scale construction almost every day.
The framework of the Ferris wheel they had erected, the roller-coaster tracks they had laid, and even the statue under construction on the nearby mountain peak were all things Belle-mère could not understand.
“What exactly is he trying to do…?”
He had given Nami a book for studying, helped them recover payment from the Marines, and was handing out money here to build things.
Although she could not understand why these people were doing all this, an idea had already begun to form in Belle-mère’s mind: these people were extremely friendly. They were not bad people.
Afterward, Arlong did not come around to bother them much. Instead, once Belle-mère’s household funds became plentiful, she took the initiative to seek out Arlong and the others and bought a set of professional tools for drawing sea charts from the Fish-Men.
Those came through commercial channels brought over from the Ryugu Kingdom. Tesoro was currently responsible for part of the foreign trade, and as personnel like Arlong were dispatched abroad, the trade routes naturally followed them.
Specialties from the Grand Line sold quite well in the Four Seas.
And changes were taking place all the time. Nojiko stopped having her younger sister go out with her to sell goods. She could handle the business on her own anyway, allowing Nami to devote more of her energy to studying.
A Navigator had to learn more than just the direction of sea currents. They also had to pay attention to the weather. As time passed, Nami even became the village’s weather forecaster.
She could even accurately predict the exact minute an afternoon thunderstorm would reach the village.
Even Arlong had not expected her to possess such talent.
Two months later, Arlong brought the Navigator from his ship to Belle-mère’s house, intending to check on Nami’s studying progress.
“So you’re the talented little Navigator girl Governor-General Arlong mentioned.”
Just like Tiger and Otohime, the Governor-Generals of North Blue, Arlong’s official title was Governor-General of East Blue for the Ryugu Kingdom. He simply did not care about such formalities when hanging around with his subordinates.
But in front of outsiders, when matters of appearances were involved, Arlong still had his subordinates address him by his official title.
“He’s my Navigator. He was also an outstanding graduate of the Ryugu Kingdom back in the day. He’s sailed the Grand Line for four years without a single accident.
If you haven’t studied properly, I’m taking that book back.”
Arlong sat on the sofa in Belle-mère’s house like a guest, holding two mikans in his hands.
“By the way, are you two married? How come every time I come here, I see you?”
Arlong looked toward Genzo nearby. Whenever he came here, this sheriff was always around, to the point that Arlong even wondered whether the sheriff was somewhat neglecting his duties.
“Mr. Arlong, please don’t talk nonsense! Our relationship is completely pure!”
Before Belle-mère could say anything, Genzo’s face turned slightly red as he hurriedly raised his voice in protest.
“Shahahaha! A completely pure relationship between an adult man and woman? Fine, I’ll believe you for now. I’ll take the little girl with me. We’ll bring her back after the test. She should still make it home in time for dinner.”
After giving them a heads-up, Arlong took Nami toward the coast. Their examination was not going to be mere theory on paper.
The knowledge described in textbooks could only provide a general outline. Never mind an unpredictable place like the Grand Line, even when sailing the relatively calm Four Seas, ships still had to take actual conditions into account.
After casually borrowing a fishing boat, Arlong hoisted the sail and headed out to sea.
“Uncle Arlong, do you know how to navigate too?”
“I’m not a Navigator, but I know how to handle a ship. Fish-Men are all natural-born helmsmen. Controlling a little boat like this is child’s play for us.
And don’t think I’m joking. If you haven’t learned properly, I’m not letting you keep that book.”
As he spoke, Arlong gestured toward his subordinate. His Navigator tossed a small buoy into the surging tide.
Nami was required to calculate the current tidal range and flow speed without using any instruments, relying solely on visually observing the frequency at which the buoy rose and fell.
Nami leaned over the side of the boat, staring at the red dot bobbing up and down while occasionally calculating some numbers. A few minutes later, she gave them a set of figures.
After several rounds of testing, Nami’s results far exceeded expectations. She did not seem at all like a child who had only been studying for a few months.
Even the mistakes she made were merely due to a lack of experience. As long as someone took her along on a few voyages, it would not be long before she became a qualified Navigator.
After she passed the test, Arlong gave Nami an exquisite sextant and decided to focus on nurturing her.
According to Arlong’s Navigator, this little girl might as well have been a navigational instrument that had eaten the Human-Human Fruit. She possessed an extraordinary natural sensitivity toward anything related to navigation.
She could even sense changes in atmospheric humidity through her skin, allowing her to predict the weather for the coming period more accurately. Even among Fish-Men, very few people could accomplish such a thing.
Having someone teach you was usually much faster than studying from books alone. By April of Sea Circle Calendar Year 1528, roughly half a year had passed since Arlong arrived in East Blue.
During this period, Nami had made excellent progress in her studies, and most of the people in Cocoyasi and the surrounding villages and towns had also grown accustomed to the presence of Fish-Men and Merfolk.
Meanwhile, the Ryugu Park that Arlong had been building had largely taken shape, and its various attractions had begun trial operations.
Supposedly for safety reasons, Arlong personally inspected the safety of every attraction. To put it another way, he spent an entire day playing in the amusement park by himself and tried every single attraction.
His stated reason was that many of the attractions carried some degree of danger, and if anything unexpected happened, his greater strength would allow him to handle the crisis more effectively.
Jack was too large and did not count as a normal guest, so he could not effectively test the attractions.
As the attractions were completed, the opening date was gradually finalized. Arlong also began sending people out to promote the finished park and even placed an advertisement with Morgans.
When the News Coo delivered newspapers, they would occasionally distribute some amusement park flyers along with them.
At this very moment, in Foosha Village of the Goa Kingdom in East Blue.
Several enormous balloons were floating through the sky, with a constantly screaming child tied beneath them.
“Grandpa! Hurry up and let me down!!”
“Luffy! You’re going to become the strongest Marine! Figure out how to get down by yourself!”
The person in the sky was none other than the six-year-old Luffy, who was currently undergoing Garp’s hellish training.
Being thrown into ravines, abandoned in monster-infested jungles at night, and tied to balloons before being sent soaring high into the sky—the whole idea was to make sure he wouldn’t die while still making his life absolutely miserable.
“AAAAAHHH!!! Ugh…”
A strong gust of wind blew past, causing the rope tied to Luffy to sway, making his screams even more miserable. It was at that moment that a flyer slapped onto Luffy’s face.
“What’s this?”
Luffy pulled the flyer off his face and stared at the pictures.
He could not read the words on it, but the interesting-looking attractions and beautiful pictures of food made him temporarily forget his fear of being high in the sky and filled him with intense interest.
“Grandpa! I want to go play here!”
“What? You’ve decided to keep training and become a proper Marine? Keep it up, Luffy! You’re my grandson, after all!”
“Grandpa!!! AAAAAAH!!!”
At the same time, on a sea chart in 16th Branch, two pencil marks along the sea route west of Cocoyasi Village had been erased. They had originally marked patrol points.
“Lieutenant Commander, is it really okay to do this?”
Nezumi did not look up. He merely stared at the warship docked outside the window.
“Pirates have been very active lately. Our forces are limited, so we can only protect the more important routes.”
He heavily emphasized the word “important,” then tore a flyer on his desk to pieces.
“Let the wild dogs of the sea catch the scent of blood. If civilians die and the Fish-Men lose face, what does that have to do with us?”
Nezumi did not dare make any major moves, but he was still willing to play a few dirty tricks in secret. The Marines possessed a certain degree of deterrence in the Four Seas, so naturally, pirates were more active in areas that lacked Marine patrols.
The opening of the park would attract plenty of visitors. Places packed with tourists might provide an opportunity for a huge score, and some pirates were thinking exactly that. At this moment, one pirate ship was sailing toward Cocoyasi.
A pirate flag bearing an enormous red nose fluttered in the wind, and its captain was none other than Buggy the Clown.
While Shanks had been struggling to make a name for himself on the Grand Line, Buggy had remained in East Blue the entire time, recruiting a group of subordinates and forming his own pirate crew.
Buggy’s current bounty was seven million Berry, making him a somewhat noteworthy figure in East Blue.
“Men! Are you ready to make a huge score?!”
“We’re ready!”
“According to reliable information, the Marines haven’t gone anywhere near that place for a long time! An amusement park that big has got to be full of valuable stuff! We’re going to rob the whole place clean!”
“Yeah!”
Before setting out, Buggy had been brimming with confidence. But once his ship approached Cocoyasi, everything changed.
Buggy was currently observing the situation ahead through the binoculars. The very first thing that entered his sight was the enormous statue atop the mountain.
“N-Nereus’s statue?!”
“Captain Buggy! That’s one huge statue! Why don’t we use it as a target and blast it apart with a cannon to spread our reputa—”
“Stop! Idiot! Stop right now! Get that thought out of your head!!!”
Unlike the other pirates in East Blue, Buggy possessed knowledge far beyond theirs. At the very least, he knew what all the major figures in the New World looked like.
Having passed through Fishman Island several times, he naturally knew what Nereus looked like. The moment he saw that statue, he realized something was wrong.
After all, why would a place with no connection to him suddenly erect a statue of him for no reason?
“What’s this amusement park called?!”
“Ryugu Park.”
“…”
At this moment, Buggy was starting to regret things. He really should have looked into the relevant information before taking action. With a name like that and a statue like this, even if someone beat Shanks to death, Buggy still wouldn’t believe this place had nothing to do with Fishman Island.
“Operation canceled!!”
“Huh? But Captain, it looks like they’ve already spotted us.”
“Then there’s no helping it… Men! From this moment onward, all of you follow my orders! Starting now… we’re not the Buggy Pirates! We’re… the Buggy Circus! We heard this amusement park was opening and came here to put on a performance!”
As he spoke, Buggy detached both hands from his body, directly took down the pirate flag and put it away, then tidied up his makeup until he looked like a genuine “clown.”
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