After buying the Eternal Poses, the four of them went around town to restock food.
Once all the supplies were hauled back to the ship and neatly stowed away, it was time for the real work to begin.
Even though they had finally entered the Grand Line, their main profession hadn't changed: they were still a bounty hunter crew.
As long as they weren't forced by circumstance to change sides, the four of them had no intention of passing up any chance to shake money out of the Marines and Mary Geoise.
Compared to becoming pirates and robbing innocent people, how could that compare to plundering pirates instead—emptying their treasure rooms and cashing in their heads for bounty money? That was the true money-printing machine.
El's current plan was straightforward:Head to Drum Island, find the best doctors in the Grand Line, and obtain the method for producing powerful nutritional supplements.
Unless those doctors flatly refused to teach him, El fully intended to pay whatever price was needed. Only if there was absolutely no other choice would he consider using his heart-reading ability to forcibly rip the knowledge out of their minds.
Because every move he made would shape the values of the three young girls by his side.
El didn't want to turn into the kind of villain who seized whatever he couldn't obtain legitimately, only to wake up one day and find that the three girls—who right now were pure, bright, and completely free of any "stench" in his perception—had turned into something repulsive in his eyes.
That would be unbearable for someone with a heart-reading ability who aspired to become the "world's number one master of girl cultivation."
Even if he did want to do something morally gray in the future, he would at least hide it from the girls. Until he had complete control over his ability to read hearts, he wouldn't casually cross that line in front of them.
Buying the formula and the equipment to make nutritional supplements was going to require a lot of money.
El liked having a strong sense of security, and the cash they'd made from the Loguetown hunts just didn't feel like enough.
So, it was time to earn more—and deepen that sense of safety.
And so…
Barely had they set foot on the Grand Line before the first pirate crew at this starting island ran into a streak of terrible luck.
Because they were pirates—And pirates, if they wanted to avoid losing their only supply channels, didn't dare stir up trouble in any town protected by the black market.
El, on the other hand, had no such scruples.
With Observation Haki, he quickly locked onto several strong, hostile presences scattered around the island and pinpointed the location and numbers of each pirate group.
Then, just as he'd done in East Blue, he brought the three girls with him and walked straight up to his targets.
On one of the town streets—
A pirate crew was heading toward the hidden black market entrance, planning to browse for more powerful firearms befitting their new life on the Grand Line.
Suddenly, a few children blocked their way.
"Brats, don't stand—gah!"
The man at the front of the group, easily two and a half meters tall, reached out with one hand, intending to grab El by the head and toss him aside like trash.
But the "kid" in front of him vanished in an instant, turning into a blur.
At the same time, the pirates in the crew who had sharper instincts or decent dynamic vision all saw a dark shadow whip past them.
Someone had moved. Fast. Too fast.
It wasn't their imagination.
By the time El reappeared, he was already standing behind the entire group, sword halfway drawn—and slowly sliding it back into its sheath.
Click.
The soft sound of the blade seating itself in the scabbard was followed by the ripping of fabric.
Bloody lines suddenly appeared on the arms and legs of every pirate in the group. A heartbeat later, blood erupted from their limbs in thin red sprays.
"AAAHHHHH!"
With their tendons and hamstrings severed, they all crashed to the ground at once, writhing in agony and screaming in pain.
El crouched beside one of them, grabbed the pirate's head, and calmly read his memories.
In a few seconds, he had everything he needed:Which crew they were from, who their captain was, the captain's bounty, and where their ship was docked on this island.
Then he went to the captain, skimmed his memories as well, and checked whether the man had any hidden private stashes besides the treasure in the ship's hold.
Only after digging through their minds did El stand up and wave for the girls to come over. He pointed at the captain and two other pirates who had been carrying large crates.
"Hit the jackpot," he said lightly. "This is a pirate crew from West Blue. The captain's bounty is 45 million Belly. Those two over there each have a bounty of a little over 21 million Belly. The crates they brought are full of cash they were planning to use to buy weapons."
"Whoa…" Carina and Nami both sucked in a breath.
"The captain alone is at 45 million Belly, and the other two officers add up to about the same. That's almost 100 million Belly just for these three?" Carina said, eyes sparkling. "This is the Grand Line, huh?!"
Up until now, the strongest pirate they'd seen in East Blue had been Arlong. Because Arlong hadn't yet fully dominated East Blue in this era, his bounty hadn't reached 20 million Belly. None of the pirates they'd hunted so far had crossed that threshold either.
And now, on their very first stop in the Grand Line, they'd taken down a West Blue crew worth nearly 100 million Belly—Not even counting the cash in those crates and the treasure on their ship.
Just one hunt on the Grand Line was worth almost everything they'd earned in over a month back in East Blue.
The sense of happiness really was overwhelming.
"Pirates with a bounty over 40 million are this weak?" Nami asked, frowning as she stared at the captain at El's feet. "He doesn't seem as strong as Arlong."
"Y–You—"
Thud!
The pirate captain, face twisted with pain, was about to curse back through gritted teeth.
El's black boot stomped down on his face first, crushing it into the street and snapping several of his teeth. Blood spattered as the man choked, his words dying in his throat.
Looking down at him without a shred of emotion, El said flatly:
"This guy couldn't survive in West Blue. He was pressured by his enemies and forced to flee into the Grand Line."
He glanced at the girls.
"And you three need to remember this: never judge someone's strength by their bounty."
"Even though I don't like badmouthing my birthplace, East Blue is officially recognized as the weakest of the Four Seas. The Arlong Pirates are also unusually cautious and low-key."
"If Arlong hadn't picked East Blue and had instead gone to one of the other three seas, with his physique—ten times stronger than a human's—his ability to fight in the water, and the strength of his crew, his bounty would almost definitely be higher than this trash right here."
"…I understand, Nii-san."
Nami, who had just been "corrected," nodded obediently, looking properly chastised.
She knew exactly why El was lecturing her.The Grand Line was an ocean where underestimating someone based on numbers alone could get you killed.
PS :
Belly (a.k.a. Berries)The standard currency of the world.
Eternal Pose / Log Pose :
Log Pose: Records an island's magnetic field, then points to the next island in sequence on that route. Resets each time.
Eternal Pose: Permanently records one island's magnetic field and always points to that island.
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