After attending the so-called "Curse Lifting" celebration banquet on Amazon Lily—which was in truth a thank-you feast Hancock had prepared for the Felynes—Sherwin planned to leave the next day.
After all, while Haibara Meow and Purah Meow had been figuring out how to remove the mark of the Dragon Hoof, Robin archaeological work and the Felyne exploration had already been completed. There really wasn't any need to remain on the island any longer…
Of course, if they truly wanted to stay a few more days, it wouldn't have been hard to find an excuse.
Haibara Meow had been busy this whole time dealing with the removal of the mark. Although she had asked the other Felynes and the Kuja to help gather medicinal ingredients, her research into why this island only gives birth to girls hadn't made the slightest progress.
However, Haibara Meow already had a pile of research projects on her hands. Something like why Amazon Lily only produces women—an issue that had little to do with them—wasn't important enough to make the rest of the investigation team stay behind just to accompany her.
Moreover, the investigation team and Amazon Lily were now allies, and the Dodo Advance possessed top-tier mobility in this world. Haibara Meow could always return to continue her research when she had the time in the future.
Mm, it was definitely not because a certain Hunter had been overwhelmed by the island "enthusiastic" women and wanted to make a quick escape.
Definitely not!
When they heard that the Felynes were leaving, Hancock and her two younger sisters were naturally reluctant to see them go. However, the Felynes—and that Hunter—had already made up their minds. Not even the world most beautiful woman could persuade them to stay.
So Hancock decisively exercised her authority as the ruler of Amazon Lily, ordering the Kuja warriors to prepare a large quantity of food. She also withdrew a substantial sum of treasure from the national treasury and had it all transported onto the Dodo Advance.
And so, with a ship full of spoils, Sherwin and his group departed from Amazon Lily—the island known to the outside world as the "Land of Men Dreams."
A certain Hunter could only respond with a dry laugh.
…
Amazon Lily location lies even closer to the Grand Line than Water 7. If the Grand Line is treated as a vertical axis, then Amazon Lily "latitude" falls between Jaya and Water 7, roughly along the same line as Saint Poplar—the City of the Spring Queen.
So when Sherwin and the others left the Calm Belt and took out the Log Pose used for the first half of the Grand Line, the direction indicated by the needle corresponded to a vast stretch of gray fog on the Hunter Handbook map.
Of course, for Sherwin—who needed to continuously uncover map areas to unlock summon ticket fragments—this wasn't a bad thing.
Although judging from the current situation, the map card pool fragments of the Grand Line were probably not that easy to obtain, since they were already here, they might as well open up some new territory.
And then see if they could obtain an Eternal Pose to the Drum Kingdom along the way.
Mm, and even if they couldn't, they could always ask Morgans for one.
"So we're not going to look for that moving island, meow?"
(=ω=)
Klee Meow tugged at Sherwin ear and asked curiously.
Right! There also that place suspected to be the City of Gold!
If not for the little doll reminder, Sherwin would have completely forgotten about it. He immediately flipped open the Hunter Handbook to take a look…
Only after staring until his eyes began to ache did Sherwin finally find that tiny patch of island slowly moving across the map.
It couldn't be helped. Back then, they had only brushed past it, lighting up an extremely small portion of the map. Even when limiting the view to just the Grand Line, it was still far too inconspicuous.
"We won't go for now," Sherwin said, pointing at the small island he had finally managed to locate. "It too far away from us at the moment. We'll wait until we happen to run into it along the way in the future."
Then he continued, "Anyway, we've already been to Fish-Man Island, Zou, and Punk Hazard. There nowhere in particular we urgently need to rush to. Now that we're back in the first half, it a good chance to take some of the other routes we didn't travel before."
Sherwin paused slightly. After thinking for a moment, he looked at Robin and Shirahoshi and added, "Of course, if there anywhere you especially want to go, we can change our destination at any time."
When it came to matters like this, the Felynes naturally followed him, the Hunter, but Robin and Shirahoshi wishes still had to be considered.
"What I'm searching for are the Poneglyphs, so I don't really have a specific destination. If I had to name one, it would probably be Laugh Tale, where all the Poneglyphs Roger collected are kept."
Robin smiled and had no objections.
As for Shirahoshi, she had even less reason to disagree.
"I'll follow Boss Sherwin! And besides, it the same no matter where we spread goodwill on behalf of Fish-Man Island!"
Once everyone had confirmed they had no objections, Sherwin directed the Dodo Advance to sail according to the Log Pose.
However, the Dodo Advance had only been sailing for a short while when a cannon shot sounded from the distance—
"Boom!"
A round cannonball whistled toward the Dodo Advance, and then…
It missed.
The cannonball fell into the sea more than thirty meters away from the Dodo Advance, exploding into a splash that was… utterly ordinary, even somewhat feeble.
After all, what Sherwin and the others usually saw were the splashes caused by Klee Meow and Jinx when those two little ones blasted fish.
With most of the cannons in the pirate world still at a medieval level, it was impossible to stir any emotions in Sherwin and the others. Even Shirahoshi remained completely calm.
However…
Sherwin, who had been petting a Felyne, stood up and looked in the direction the cannonball had come from.
As expected, it was a pirate ship, and the Jolly Roger flying above it was completely unfamiliar.
Then the nameless pirate crew fired another cannonball at the Dodo Advance.
And missed again.
This time it was even farther off. The Dodo Advance hadn't even bothered to maneuver.
Oh?
Sherwin raised an eyebrow in surprise.
With that rate of fire and that level of accuracy, where did they get the confidence to attack the Felyne Investigation Team?
He looked up at his own mast.
Wasn't the Felyne Sea Mobile Restaurant paw-print flag hanging there perfectly fine?
Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since he'd run into pirates who dared to make the first move against them.
Of course, he wasn't counting the crews of the Four Emperors.
He hadn't expected that just after returning to the first half of the Grand Line, some blind pirates would already dare to open fire on the Dodo Advance.
But thinking about it carefully, pirates were lawless to begin with, so… it was normal, in a way.
"It the Bublin Pirates," Huamei said after flipping through a stack of bounty posters for a moment.
"They seem to be a crew that only recently made a name for themselves. Their captain, Bublin Deya, has a bounty of twenty-seven million Berries, meow."
So just some rookie small fry. That made even more sense.
Sherwin rolled his eyes speechlessly. Only newcomers like this would dare to poke at anyone they came across—just like Luffy in the manga, fearless and reckless. Only, this Bublin obviously didn't have the protagonist halo, nor the strength to provoke the Hunter.
Most importantly…
He didn't have a Marine hero for a grandfather or a Revolutionary Army leader for a father.
Originally, Sherwin had planned to casually slash once and send those ignorant fools straight into the sea to feed the fish. It wasn't like he lacked that bit of bounty money.
Not to mention Hancock had just given them a large amount of treasure—the gold from Skypiea hadn't even been spent yet!
However, Jinx, acting as the responsible big sister, stopped him.
"The pirates around here aren't very strong. They're perfect for Shirahoshi to practice on, meow!"