Boom!
With a blinding flash of lightning, the night sky lit up as bright as day.
A deafening peal of thunder rolled across the sea.The wind howled. The rain came down in sheets.
Waves slammed again and again against the hull.
The raging currents tossed the ship up and down, making the entire cabin shake as if caught in an earthquake. Dishes, bottles, and small items fell from shelves and crashed to the floor.
"Is this the Grand Line…?"
In the room on the third floor of the cabin, the four of them watched the outside world through the window as it flickered between pitch-dark and daylight-bright.
Carina, still wearing the thick cotton coat she hadn't even had time to take off, let out a wry sigh.
"It was a blizzard just now, and now it's turned into a thunderstorm… This kind of crazy weather is exactly what that clerk at the sailing tools shop warned me about."
"Fortunately we changed ships," Nami muttered, steadying herself with a hand on the wall. "If we were still on the old one, seawater would be pouring into the cabin and we'd have nowhere to sleep."
"It's been a busy day," El said.
He slipped the Log Pose off Nami's wrist, fastened it onto his own, then looked at the three slightly tired girls.
"You all go rest. I'll keep watch tonight. If something goes wrong, I'll wake you."
"Haaah… then I'll leave it to you, Nii-san," Carina yawned.
None of the three tried to act tough.
After another yawn, Carina shrugged off her coat, threw herself onto the bed, buried her face in El's pillow, and let out her signature laugh.
"Uhhehehe… I'm sleeping in Nii-san's bed tonight."
"Hehe… me too."
Nami, who had been about to head back to her own room, immediately dove onto the bed as well, hugging El's blanket with a satisfied grin.
Seeing this, Kuina's face turned slightly red. She quickly bowed her head and slipped out of the room, her movements almost comically stiff—like she was afraid someone might see through her thoughts if she so much as made eye contact.
Unlike Carina and Nami—who were still only eight and had been sharing a bed with El ever since they joined him—Kuina was already eleven and understood far more than they did.
El had grown early. When they first met, the eight-year-old El had already been about as tall as Kuina, and now he was a few centimeters taller, standing at about 1.55 meters.
Unfortunately for her…
Not only was El the same size as her, his demeanor and thought process were far more mature. When Kuina stood in front of him or spoke with him, she never once felt like an "older sister". Just like Carina and Nami, she always ended up feeling like El's younger sibling.
Under El's constant doting these past months, if she didn't have at least some self-control, Kuina would have completely joined Carina and Nami by now—piling into his bed as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Even though she desperately wanted to run in, grab his pillow and blanket, and cling to them, Kuina still couldn't quite work up the courage.
She had no idea that this shy contrast of hers looked very cute in El's eyes.
Under his passive ability to read people's hearts, Kuina's thoughts and hesitations were completely exposed to him.
But he didn't tease her about it, and for now, he wasn't going to push.
Once I get that ability… he thought, amused, none of the three of you will escape my clutches.
The Grand Line's "baptism" lasted all the way until dawn.
Blizzards. Thunderstorms. Hail that hammered the deck. More than once, the ship was blown off course and almost carried back toward the starting point.
Fortunately, El had already read Nami's memories and absorbed a decent amount of sailing knowledge. With the Log Pose and her notes, he was able to keep correcting their heading and bring the ship back on track each time.
Only when their small ship fully merged into one of the seven regular routes, and drew close to the first island, did the raging sky and sea gradually settle down.
The clouds thinned. The rain eased. The waves turned from wild to merely choppy.
"Nii-san… good morning…"
Almost as soon as the sea calmed, Carina and Nami stumbled out of their room, still half-asleep.
They greeted El through sleepy eyes, then immediately shuffled back to wash up, yawning the whole way.
"Am I really that reliable?" El pinched his chin, a little amused at himself.
It wasn't hard to figure out the answer.
With the ability to read their hearts, he knew very well why Carina and Nami could sleep so soundly in such insane weather.
In the six months they had been together, the two girls had developed a deep, almost absolute dependence on El.
As long as he was there, it felt like nothing—even the sky collapsing—could scare them.
That kind of trust gave El an indescribable sense of satisfaction.
After a quick wash in the bathroom, El headed down to the lower cabin.
Kuina, who always woke at six, was already there, preparing breakfast for everyone.
"Breakfast will be done soon. What about Nami and Carina?" she asked, smiling as she flipped the last fried egg and ham.
"They'll be down in a minute," El replied.
He sat at the head of the dining table, rested his cheek in his hand, and watched her move around the kitchen.
"You didn't sleep much last night, did you? And you still got up this early to cook for us. That's rough on you."
"Idiot, don't use your ability to peek at a girl's private life."
Kuina's hand paused for a moment. Still facing away from him, her ears turned slightly red.
"I was just checking the sea every now and then to make sure there wasn't any danger," El said with an unapologetic grin. "Even if it annoys you, I'm not changing that. It's for your safety."
"Do whatever you want…"
Kuina came over holding a plate in one hand and a cup of hot milk in the other, setting both in front of him. She gave him a helpless look.
"Drink your milk already, you peeper."
Looking at the Kuina who no longer had the icy seriousness from when they first met, El took a sip of the milk, and that sense of accomplishment welled up again.
Don't call me "Young Swordsman El" anymore, he thought smugly.From now on, it's "Master of Girl Cultivation", El.
Just as he was silently basking in his own joke, Carina and Nami came down from the upper cabin, freshly washed and much more awake.
After the four of them finished the breakfast Kuina had prepared, they slipped back into their familiar daily routine.
Carina took her place above deck, watching the wind and recording the Log Pose's movements, while El led Kuina and Nami into the training room—
—to begin another round of hellish training.
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