"Hmm, this is trouble. Which way should I go, really?"
Tom sat alone on the ground, scratching his chin as he voiced his trouble.
A few minutes earlier.
Just as Tom and the others had the Sea Cow tow their small boat closer to the territory ruled by Arlong, the beast had suddenly gone berserk, thrashing and charging, nearly destroying their ship and drowning them all.
Seeing that even beating it with a stick wouldn't calm the Sea Cow, Tom had jumped onto the massive creature's head, intending to teach it a harsh lesson with his fists.
But just as Tom was about to strike, Zoro, seeing their ship was about to be dashed against the reefs by the charging beast, decisively cut the rope tethering the ship to the Sea Cow.
Thus, Tom, still standing on the Sea Cow's head, was separated from Zoro and the others on the boat.
"Hey, he's a Devil Fruit user! Isn't it too harsh to just ditch him in the open sea like that?" Usopp yelled at Zoro, clutching his head. He watched as the frantically charging Sea Cow swam swiftly into the distance with Tom. If Tom accidentally fell into the water, what then?
"Our ship can't sink yet. It couldn't be helped. He's on his own now. He doesn't seem like the type to go down easy anyway. Forget about him," Zoro replied coolly, sheathing his sword.
"How can you say that? It's so irresponsible! Just because our ship can't sink, you sacrifice Tom?" Usopp's eyes welled up with tears. He finished shouting at Zoro, then looked toward the distant figure of Tom standing on the sea beast. "Don't worry! I'll tell Luffy you died bravely, battling a ferocious monster at sea! If you can, please... stay strong and live!"
Zoro didn't respond further. His expression remained cold from start to finish, as if Tom's predicament had nothing to do with him.
Johnny, seeing Usopp's concern for Tom, was deeply moved. Witnessing Tom's apparent sacrifice also saddened him greatly.
However, before Johnny could voice his heartfelt feelings, he saw Usopp's expression change completely. The previous grief-stricken look vanished as if it had never been there. "Alright! We're almost at Arlong Park. Time for a strategy meeting!" Usopp declared with great enthusiasm.
"Usopp-nii… were you really concerned about him?" Johnny stared dumbfounded at Usopp, whose face had changed so quickly, genuinely doubting the earlier display of worry had been an act.
While Zoro and the others on the boat discussed how to proceed upon entering Arlong's territory, Tom was pondering which direction to take to find Nami.
Shortly after separating from the boat, the Sea Beast had tried to dive and escape. Tom, with quick reflexes, had used his fishing line to haul it back out of the sea and, mustering all his strength, hurled the massive Sea Cow high into the air.
Then, as his feet touched the seawater, Tom used the line shooter on his wrist to fire a line that stuck to the Sea Cow plummeting from the sky. Using it as an anchor point, he swiftly grabbed the line and swung through the air.
Fortunately, only the soles of Tom's feet had touched the water, so he still had some strength. If his whole body had been submerged, it would have been over.
Swinging from the line attached to the falling Sea Cow, Tom soon spotted land. Gripping the line, he used the Sea Cow above him as a pivot, arcing through the air in a semi-circle to land on top of the beast.
He then stomped hard on the Sea Cow's head, using the force to jump upward, putting distance between himself and the sea below. As he fell, he hurriedly took out the fishing rods from the sheaths on his arms, combined them, extended them to about forty meters, and plunged them into the soil on the shore.
Just as he was about to fall into the sea, Tom, clutching the rod, planned to retract it at top speed to reach the opposite shore. But the Sea Cow, which he had stomped into diving, suddenly breached the surface and snapped its massive jaws at him.
Seeing the danger, Tom acted decisively. He shortened the fishing rod, narrowly avoiding the beast's gaping mouth.
"Its breath smells weird, who knows what it's been eating! Good thing I'm alert. Stupid cow wants to eat me? In your dreams! Hahahaha!"
While Tom laughed triumphantly after his narrow escape, the Sea Cow, falling back toward the sea, swung its huge tail at him.
"WAAAH!!!"
Seeing the broad tail sweeping toward him, Tom let out a sky-shattering yelp. Before he could react, a thunderous boom sounded. He and the fishing rod in his hand were sent flying into the sky by the Sea Cow's tail, vanishing like a speck of starlight.
The calm sea still echoed with Tom's earth-shaking cry, but he was completely gone.
It must be said, for a complete landlubber like Tom, his first maritime clash with a Sea Beast, while he survived, ended with him slightly at a disadvantage.
"Son of a banana pineapple... Next time I see that beast, I'm gonna give it a proper beating," Tom muttered. As he spoke, he extended the fishing rod in his hand, firmly planting it in the ground. Shortening the rod, he landed safely.
He also privately felt fortunate. Luckily, there was no one else on the sea to witness the Sea Beast swatting him away. If that got out, especially if Luffy and the others found out, they'd probably laugh at him for the rest of his life.
Thinking this, Tom grinned, feeling his luck was actually pretty good.
While descending along the shortening rod earlier, Tom had scanned the surroundings from the air. He found the area nearby was completely empty, with nothing in sight. This troubled him—he had no idea which way to go.
In other words, Tom was lost.
In fact, the place Tom currently occupied was a village destroyed by the Arlong Pirates many years ago. It had long been deserted, devoid of people, birds, or beasts.
"To think I'd end up in a lost predicament like that super-lost Zoro. But I'm much smarter. To tell direction, you either look at tree rings or the stars."
Tom sat on the ground, arms crossed, thinking very seriously.
"But it's daytime. No stars. And there are no trees around. So what do I do?"
"The more troublesome it is, the simpler the solution should be. Otherwise, you easily make things more and more complicated."
Tom slapped his thigh, deciding then and there what to do.
First, Tom found four stones of different sizes, marking them as East, South, West, and North.
Next, he held the four stones in his hand, closed his eyes, shook them a few times, and scattered them on the ground.
Then, still with eyes closed, Tom randomly grabbed one stone from the ground. Opening his eyes, he saw it was the pointed, small one. "Hmm, decided. We go East."
Tom stood up, dusting off his clothes.
"But which way is East?"
After thinking for less than three seconds, Tom had another idea.
"Haven't I always heard, 'North is up, South is down, West is left, East is right'?"
"Too simple. East is just to the right. Think you can stump me? Think I'm a directionally-challenged lost cause like Zoro? What a joke."
Saying this, Tom marched off without hesitation to the right.
If Nami were here and knew this was how Tom determined direction, she would have given him a thorough education on what a true sense of direction really was.
Some time later, Tom, panting heavily, arrived outside a house. He had smelled the strong, sweet-and-sour scent of oranges wafting from it from far away.
Tom was actually quite thirsty now. He had walked leisurely to the right for nearly ten minutes but saw nothing. It felt like he was the only person left in the world, which was depressing.
So, Tom started running desperately to the right. After a full-speed sprint for about fifteen minutes, he finally saw trees and what looked like inhabited houses. He felt relieved at last.
Didn't that woman Nami say she only liked oranges and money? With so many orange trees here, maybe she was around?
Thinking this, Tom walked toward the house and called out, "Nami! You in there? I'm coming in!"
"Who are you? Do you know Nami?"
With a click, the door opened. A woman with blue hair, wearing a red hairband, stood in the doorway, her keen eyes fixed on Tom. She even seemed a bit cool.
Seeing this tattooed woman wasn't Nami, Tom felt a little disappointed. But her tone clearly indicated a connection to Nami. He immediately said, "And who are you? Yes, I know Nami. We're on good terms. Tell me, where is she? I need to see her."
"You and Nami… are on good terms?"
Nojiko's expression turned somewhat strange at Tom's words as she asked.
"Of course. My relationship with her is at least better than yours with her."
Tom reckoned that, in a way, he and Nami had been through life and death together. That kind of relationship had to be better than an ordinary friendship, right? So he said this with great confidence.
In Tom's view, this good-looking blue-haired woman was most likely a friend of Nami's.
"Hah, that's really funny."
Nojiko stared at Tom blankly, stayed silent for a moment, and then suddenly burst out laughing, clutching her stomach in a rather boisterous manner.
"What's so funny? If you keep being this rude, I won't be polite," Tom said to the still-laughing Nojiko. As he spoke, he casually picked and ate an orange from a tree beside the house. It was sweet, sour, and very thirst-quenching. He couldn't help but pick another.
"What are you doing? Who said you could touch those oranges?!"
Nojiko, who had seemed fairly amiable until now, had her expression suddenly change upon seeing Tom touch the orange tree. She charged right up to Tom, grabbed his collar, and shouted angrily,
"Tell me clearly, just who are you?!"
"Daring to say, in front of her sister, that your relationship with her is better than mine… What exactly is your relationship with Nami? Why are you looking for her?!"
Facing Nojiko's fierce questioning, Tom—who had been about to punch this woman flying for grabbing his collar—was now completely dumbfounded. He swallowed the orange in one gulp and mumbled,
"D-don't get worked up... I'm just here to take Nami back..."
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T/N :
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