Under the light caress of a slightly salty ocean breeze, a head of refreshing, beautiful short orange hair fluttered with the wind.
"I really wonder when we'll finally reach our destination," Nami murmured to herself, leaning against the railing as she looked at the Turtle Compass in her hand.
BANG!
The cabin door suddenly burst open, and a figure holding a tray came twirling out like a whirlwind.
Even though his movements and expressions were exaggerated to the extreme, the drinks on the tray didn't wobble in the slightest—a testament to his extraordinary balance and leg skill.
"Nami-san~ Here's your juice! Robin-chan~~ Your coffee! And Miss Maya, this one is yours, please enjoy!"
"Thank you very much," Maya thanked him, taking the juice and taking a small sip. Her beautiful eyes instantly lit up; it seemed the flavor of the juice suited her taste perfectly.
(So delicious! Even though their ship's cook has a bit of a strange personality, his culinary skills are truly beyond words!)
Looking at the smitten curly-browed cook who was currently fawning in front of Nami, Miss Maya thought silently in her heart.
Next, she turned her gaze toward the other members of the Straw Hat Pirates.
The Straw Hat captain, Luffy, was sitting on the edge of the ship holding a fishing rod. However, looking at how his head hung low without moving, he had probably already fallen asleep.
The green-haired swordsman was engaged in his daily training, swinging a massive dumbbell as if it were a mere toy, making the blue-haired girl click her tongue in secret astonishment.
On another side, the intellectual and beautiful female archaeologist sat quietly on a lounge chair, holding a thick book in her hands with a deeply focused expression.
She read very quickly, her long, slender fingers sliding across the pages and making a soft, rhythmic rustling sound.
And on the lounge chair beside Robin, a certain man with glasses who had chatted with her for a long time last night was catching up on his sleep. Curled up in his arms was a small kitten with shiny black fur, looking as though it too had fallen asleep.
"Um... why doesn't Sherlock go back to his room to sleep?" Maya asked in confusion.
"Heheh, you could say that's one of his habits," Robin said softly with a smile, closing the book in her hands and taking a small sip of her coffee. "He seems to really enjoy the feeling of being blown by the sea breeze."
"Yeah, sleeping on the deck during the day can be a very pleasant thing," Zoro, who had temporarily paused his training, said while wiping the sweat from his face. When it came to sleeping in broad daylight, this moss-head could be considered quite knowledgeable.
"Besides, this guy's sleep quality is ridiculously good," the green-haired swordsman raised an eyebrow as he looked at Sherlock, who was fast asleep. "Last time Usopp caused such a violent explosion, he actually slept like a log through it, without the slightest reaction."
"I really don't know how anyone is supposed to wake him up..."
"Hey, hey, hey! What kind of stupid thoughts are you having, moss-head?" Hearing the conversation over here, Sanji walked over briskly and said, "If I'm not mistaken, Sherlock currently has a very severe case of 'morning grumpiness'! You'd better let him sleep a bit longer."
"Morning grumpiness?" xN
Everyone froze in unison; this was the first time they had ever heard of such a thing.
"How can that be? I remember Chopper checked Sherlock's body before and said everything was completely normal," Nami walked forward in confusion. "His blood pressure isn't low either, so how could he have morning grumpiness?"
"It might be a problem he's developed recently. I only suddenly noticed it a few days ago myself," Sanji lit a cigarette with a serious face. "None of you were up back then, and his morning grumpiness lasts for a very short time, so none of you noticed."
Aside from a certain Straw Hat idiot who ate five meals a day, ate whenever he was hungry, and slept whenever he was tired, the rest of the crew on the Going Merry had very regular sleep schedules.
Sherlock was an even more classic case—barring any accidents, he was always the first one to wake up among the Straw Hats.
And the one who woke up after the glasses-guy was Sanji, because he needed to prepare a nutritious and hearty breakfast for his crewmates.
However, after escaping from G-8 Fortress, Sherlock's wake-up time had inexplicably been delayed.
Waking up later wasn't a big deal for ordinary people, but for Sherlock, whose biological clock was extremely regular, it was exceptionally unusual.
In the impression of Nami and the others, Sherlock would only wake up late if he was injured or mentally exhausted.
Although Sherlock's wake-up time over the past few days was still quite early, it was later than Sanji's, which was why the curly-browed cook managed to see what the glasses-guy looked like when he woke up.
Even though Sherlock's so-called morning grumpiness only lasted for a brief moment, it left a fresh and vivid impression in Sanji's memory.
After all, it differed far too much from his usual calm and elegant demeanor.
"Even though Sherlock looked the same as usual back then, the feeling he gave me at that moment was..." Sanji scratched his hair and took a deep drag from his cigarette. For a moment, he couldn't come up with the proper words to describe how the glasses-guy looked then.
"Ah, got it!" A flash of inspiration struck the blonde cook's mind, and his expression turned strange.
"Do you guys still remember what Sherlock was like when he got drunk?"
The expressions of Nami and Zoro changed drastically. Even Robin, who was usually calm, furrowed her brows tightly as if recalling something particularly terrifying.
And this unusual attitude from the others left Maya, who didn't know the truth, utterly baffled.
"Um... is Sherlock really that terrifying when he gets drunk?" the blue-haired girl asked.
Everyone nodded their heads in unison.
"After G-8 Fortress..." Robin lowered her head and pondered for a moment, analyzing, "Speaking of which, after G-8 Fortress, Sherlock seems to have developed a new application for his Devil Fruit ability. He can even fly now."
"So, could his late wake-up time recently and his morning grumpiness when waking up early be related to him developing his Devil Fruit abilities?"
After listening to Robin's speculation, Nami and the others exchanged glances.
They all knew that although the Sorcerer's Devil Fruit ability was mysterious, unpredictable, and weird to the extreme, it consumed immense amounts of physical energy and mental power.
Otherwise, this elegant glasses-man wouldn't have become a glutton second only to Luffy...
"In short, we should just let him rest well," Nami said, glancing at Sherlock's peaceful sleeping face.
It had to be said, after getting used to seeing Sherlock with his glasses on, seeing him sleep without his glasses did feel a bit strange.
"Still, he's sleeping so soundly, so there's no need for us to worry about anything, right..."
"Aaaaah, my fishing rod! Haha! A fish actually took the bait!"
Just as Nami's words fell, on the other side of the deck, a certain Straw Hat idiot who was dozing off just a moment ago suddenly started shouting and yelling.
After flustering for a moment, Luffy tightly gripped the fishing rod that almost slipped out of his hands, his slightly naive face full of excitement.
And looking at the exaggerated bend of that fishing rod, this fish was definitely not small!
"Come... ON UP!!!"
Luffy let out a loud shout and pulled up with brute force.
SPLASH—
Splattering water droplets reflected a charming sparkle under the sunlight. A huge fish, fully over three meters long, was hoisted straight up by Luffy's raw strength, tracing a beautiful parabola through midair.
"What a huge fish!" Maya covered her small mouth in surprise, exclaiming subconsciously.
"Heheh, looks like the quality of the fishing rod made by Mr. Long-Nose is pretty good," Robin's focus was unique as usual.
"Wait, the landing spot for that giant fish can't possibly be..." Nami's mouth twitched violently.
"Holy... crap..." The cigarette butt slipped from the corner of Sanji's mouth.
Under normal circumstances, the curly-browed cook would probably give Luffy thirty-two thumbs up for catching such a big fish, but now...
Gazing at a certain glasses-guy who was already completely covered by a shadow, Sanji's heart sank straight to the bottom.
In that instant, time seemed to slow down countless times.
Everyone looked at that excitedly silly captain, looked at that unlucky fish about to fall in midair, and then looked at that Sorcerer who hadn't noticed the danger descending from above at all. The same thought rose in unison within all their hearts.
(We're totally screwed now!)
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