Somewhere on the East Blue, Tom and the others aboard the Going Merry were still on their way to the Grand Line.
Two days had passed since Tom caught the two giant birds from the sky.
Today, Tom was training with Zoro. Tom stood about twenty meters away from Zoro, a thick rope tied around his waist. The other end of the rope was tied to Zoro.
The reason these two were tied together was Tom's idea. Yesterday, while practicing the move "Shakushi" he had learned from Kuro, Tom, moving too fast and unable to control it properly, had unfortunately crashed right through the ship's railing and fallen into the sea. This had nearly scared Nami, who was leaning on the railing enjoying the sea breeze at the time, into falling in after him.
After Zoro jumped into the sea to rescue Tom, Usopp, who loved the ship as much as his own life, had given Tom a beating.
Thus, Tom had approached Zoro and, while Zoro was also training, tied them together with a rope. This way, he wouldn't have to worry about falling into the sea again.
Tom had originally wanted to ask Usopp for help, but Usopp had immediately refused, saying he was busy developing some things. Smelling a foul odor in the air, Tom initially thought it was Luffy, having eaten so much, polluting the atmosphere with stinky farts. He had yelled at Luffy to be more civilized, but he soon realized he was wrong.
It turned out Usopp was preparing rotten eggs to use as "Rotten Egg Stars." This made Tom feel exasperated while also admiring Usopp's ability to work without changing expression in such a foul-smelling environment. No wonder no one goes near Usopp, Tom thought, quickly distancing himself from Usopp, who was calmly handling the stinky eggs.
"Shakushi" could be considered an enhanced version of "Silent Step," faster but also harder to master. Tom could now use Silent Step proficiently, but with Shakushi, like Kuro, he couldn't freely lock onto a target or control his direction. After being hypnotized, Kuro could use Shakushi without leaning forward, arms dangling and swinging side-to-side, and had even eliminated the drawback of indiscriminate attacks.
Tom thought that if he could become stronger, he should be able to master Shakushi completely. But until his body fully adapted to the move, he needed to practice, ideally reducing the margin of error in his movement by half. Success would increase his chances of hitting a target when attacking.
Tom had set up several chairs in a Z-shaped pattern. His goal for this practice session was simple: to reach the other side without touching any of the chairs.
After practicing continuously for over two hours, Tom's legs were jelly, but he would always knock over the last two chairs at the final moment. Though not entirely satisfied, this was better than at the start, where using Shakushi would make him crash into the very first chair.
"Huff! Huff!" Tom lay limply on the deck, covered in sweat, panting heavily, and untied the rope from his waist.
"You're done already?" Zoro, who was continuously swinging his sword in the same motion not far away, spoke up seeing Tom collapse.
Damn, you can persist for several hours swinging with the same motion and consistent force, that's impressive. But what I'm practicing is a move that requires concentrating maximum strength in the legs and moving at full speed. If you can sprint full power for two hours straight without even panting, then I'll admit defeat.
Tom put an arm over his forehead, looking at the white clouds in the sky, lacking even the energy to respond to Zoro.
"Tom! I want fish!" Luffy, who had been sleeping comfortably on the figurehead all afternoon, woke up and yelled Tom's name.
Damn it, I just started resting; my butt hasn't even warmed the deck. Can't you let me rest properly?
Tom was speechless, but he still stood up, pressed his aching thighs a few times, and swung his arms. "Stop shouting! Be quiet and wait. You're scaring all the fish away."
"What's that on your arms?" Luffy asked curiously, seeing Tom wearing sheaths on both his upper arms.
"Arm sheaths. I use them to carry the fishing rods," Tom said, pulling out the less-than-twenty-centimeter-long fishing rod from the sheath on his arm and extending it.
Nami had made these arm sheaths for him. The day before yesterday, Tom had asked her if there was a convenient way to carry the two rods on his person. After all, Nami used a three-section staff, and Tom thought the rods could sometimes be used like staffs, similar to her weapon, so he went to ask for advice.
After hearing Tom's question, Nami had very naturally pulled her three-section staff out from her chest. Tom was so shocked that he was completely dumbfounded.
Glancing at his own flat, firm chest and then at Nami's voluptuous curves, Tom realized for the first time just how different Nami really was from him. While Tom was still pondering how Nami managed to keep those three short staffs in her chest, she had punched him flat.
The next day, Nami, with bloodshot eyes, handed the two arm sheaths to Tom. Seeing her faint dark circles, Tom knew she had probably stayed up all night sewing these sheaths for him. So, Tom kindly told Nami to go get some proper sleep.
Then Nami punched him again.
Idiot! I spent a whole night making this for you, and you don't even say a few words to me before telling me to go away. I really wasted my feelings!
Nami huffed lightly, glanced at Tom lying on the deck with a lump on his head, and walked away without looking back.
Time passed quickly. More than half a month after leaving Syrup Village, aside from occasionally encountering storms, nothing special happened. Though the storms were ferocious and carried the risk of sinking the ship, with Nami commanding from the deck, Tom and the others managed to handle them calmly.
Today, Tom wasn't practicing Shakushi anymore. He found that no matter how much he trained, the best result was the same as three days ago—he would crash into the last two chairs. Tom figured it might be because his own strength hadn't increased enough to fully adapt to this mode of movement and decided not to force it.
This time, Tom was wearing the line launchers on both wrists. He was trying to shoot the line and have it adhereprecisely and accurately to the ship's mast twenty meters away, but so far, he hadn't succeeded once. Within a range of over ten meters, Tom could aim accurately, but beyond twenty meters, it was hard to say.
The line shot from these launchers had a special adhesive that could stick firmly to anything. However, if the line came into contact with even a tiny bit of electrical current, the adhesive property would disappear. Simply put, the line launcher contained something similar to the piezoelectric ceramic in a lighter. By lightly pressing a button on the launcher that extended to his palm, Tom could electrify the line, causing it to retract back into the launcher for repeated use.
Usopp had also told Tom that after his research over the past few days, the line inside the launcher seemed to be actual fishing line stripped from some kind of fish, not a man-made product. Hearing this, Tom was shocked. Usually, having lines on a fish wasn't strange, but what kind of fish had lines that could be peeled off to make this thing? He truly didn't know.
Alright, aim!
"I'll shoot!" Tom aimed the line launcher on his left hand at the mast over twenty meters away and fired.
Seeing the line about to stick onto the mast, Tom felt a surge of joy. Unfortunately, at that moment, Zoro, training on the other side, swung his sword fiercely with his eyes closed. The disturbed air flow in front of him blew Tom's fired line off course.
That alone wouldn't have been a big deal; Tom would have just cursed Zoro a few times. But his off-course line ended up, as if fate had it, sticking onto another person's body. To be precise, Tom's fired line was now stuck onto Nami's perky butt as she happened to walk by. Tom was instantly stunned, his jaw nearly hitting the deck.
"What's wrong? You don't look so good. You should rest more often," Zoro said, wiping sweat from his head with a towel. Seeing Tom's strange expression, he thought it might be from overtraining recently and patted Tom's shoulder kindly reminding him.
After speaking to Tom, Zoro walked away, wiping the sweat from his body, and went to rest. It had to be said Zoro had been training fiercely lately. Firstly, being on the Going Merry allowed for such high-intensity training. Secondly, he was more or less stimulated by Tom. Seeing Tom train persistently and push himself desperately, how could he, with his goal of becoming the world's greatest swordsman, fall behind? So, these two training lunatics, whenever they had free time lately, would as if by agreement train like mad, ignoring everything around them, neither wanting to stop before the other, showing signs of mutual competition.
Zoro, unaware he had just severely screwed over Tom, soon walked away, leaving Tom standing there embarrassed.
If he just retracted the line now, it would inevitably lift Nami's skirt as it retracted, causing her to flash everyone. But leaving the line stuck to Nami's butt also didn't seem right. For a moment, Tom was extremely conflicted.
"What are you doing?!" Nami turned her head, looking very displeased at Tom.
"Hold your skirt down. I'll retract the line first," Tom said, knowing now wasn't the time to argue with Nami. If it attracted Luffy and the others to gather around and watch, that would be "fun."
"Give me your shirt," Nami said, her pretty brows twitching, face reddening, her right fist already clenched, looking like she was about to punch someone at any moment.
Tom threw his shirt to Nami. She tied it around her waist as cover before letting Tom retract the line.
Whoosh!
Tom successfully retracted the line, and Nami had taken sufficient protective measures, avoiding any exposure. However, as the line retracted, a small piece of yellow cloth fell from between Nami's legs onto the deck, looking very eye-catching.
"Is that from your skirt?" Tom asked blankly, looking at the small piece of cloth.
Hearing Tom's words, Nami instantly turned to stone. Then a blush flashed across her face, extremely alluring. Her face turned so red, half from anger, half from embarrassment.
Indeed, there was a hole in the back of the skirt Nami was wearing. When Tom retracted the line, the huge tearing force had torn off a small piece of the skirt's fabric. Though Nami had used Tom's shirt to cover her lower half, avoiding any exposure, the fact that her skirt had been torn by Tom was true. And Tom had insensitively asked about it directly, making her filled with shame and anger.
Pfft!
The thought of the hole in Nami's skirt made Tom want to laugh.
Unfortunately, before Tom could even laugh out loud, Nami, with her anger level maxed out, quickly walked over to him and raised an iron fist.
Thump! Bam! Thump! Bam!
"WAAAAAH!!!!!!"
Tom's miserable screams echoed across the Going Merry, lingering for a long time.
Just as Tom was being beaten senseless by Nami, a loud cannon blast rang out.
BOOM!
Luffy and Usopp were playing with the cannon on the other side of the ship. When Tom let out his earth-shattering scream, Usopp aimed the cannon at a reef dozens of meters from the ship and fired. Usopp, having scored a direct hit, was about to start bragging to Luffy, but before he could finish, Luffy hurriedly ran toward Tom.
"What are you lying here for? You screamed so loud, I thought something happened to you," Luffy said, seeing Tom lying on the deck bruised and battered and looking pathetic, feeling a bit confused.
"Hey, you didn't do something to make Nami angry, did you?" Usopp said, arriving and whispering quietly to Tom, seeing his miserable state. "Nami is terrifying when she gets angry. Even I, the man people call the brave and matchless Captain Usopp, dare not provoke her. Remember what I say: don't go near her for no reason in the future."
Usopp sneakily glanced around, not seeing Nami, and continued in a lower voice. "Next time, I'll make you some anti-beating underwear. That way, when Nami hits you, it'll be a bit more comfortable. I've tallied it up: in the past few days, Nami has hit me once, Zoro twice, Luffy three times, and you, including this time, four times. You get hit the most by Nami, so I'll give you the anti-beating underwear first."
Hearing Usopp's words, Tom completely sweatdropped. How bored was Usopp to remember how many times Nami had hit everyone? He really had too much free time on his hands. And Usopp made it sound like Tom enjoyed being hit by Nami. That was just ridiculous!
Tom thought to himself that he should try to keep a distance from Nami in the future to avoid suffering.
"Nami, why did you change clothes? Was the previous one uncomfortable?" Luffy asked, seeing Nami walk out of the cabin in different clothes.
Bam!
Luffy was instantly sent flying by Nami, who had a blackened face, leaving Usopp completely stunned. That guy, like Tom, has been hit four times now. Who should I give the anti-beating underwear to first?
"So, was your training effective just now? Let's do some special training together next," Zoro said, walking over and speaking to the lying-down Tom.
Thud!
Before he could finish, Zoro was punched flat by Nami. Zoro's words reminded Nami that if Tom hadn't been training there earlier, she wouldn't have encountered that embarrassing incident. Thus, Zoro also suffered a tragic fate.
Great! I'm the only one safe and sound. Usopp thought, very relieved, seeing that in moments, Tom, Luffy, and Zoro had all been hit by Nami's fists in succession.
"You damn pirates! All of you, come out! I'm going to kill every last one of you!" A loud and furious voice reached their ears, accompanied by the sound of someone kicking and smashing the barrels on deck.
"Enemy attack!" Usopp immediately showed a panicked expression, saying to Tom and Zoro lying on the deck, "Aren't you going to get up and fight?"
"Isn't Luffy there? There seems to be only one enemy. Let him handle it," Tom said to Usopp after exchanging a glance with Nami while lying spreadeagled.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but don't break our ship!" Luffy said. As he spoke, Tom and the others heard a loud crash.
The person who had attacked the ship was slammed hard onto the deck by Luffy, taken out in one move.
"That voice just now... it sounded kind of familiar," Zoro said, shaking his head, got up, and walked toward Luffy.
Soon, Zoro discovered that the person who had attacked their ship was someone he knew from his days as a pirate hunter: Johnny.
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T/N :
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