Three whole days had passed since the Straw Hats escaped from the Navarone Fortress.
To ensure the safety of his Marine soldiers, Vice Admiral Jonathan had ultimately chosen to compromise, opening the final floodgates.
Having narrowly escaped, the Going Merry sailed at a breakneck pace like a mad dog for a full day and night before completely throwing off the pursuing Marine warships. As for whether the Baroque agents who also fled had successfully escaped, that remained unknown.
By the way, once the Merry had sailed a certain distance away, Sherlock lost his connection to that giant time bomb. It seemed that in addition to a time limit, the Sorcerer's mirror entities would instantly vanish if they wound up too far from the user himself.
Thus, the G-8 Fortress managed to dodge a bullet.
The weather was clear, the sun was shining bright, and fluffy clouds torn by a gentle breeze drifted across the azure sky. It was the perfect kind of day for a nap.
On the calm, glassy sea, an old-fashioned caravel with a goofy sheep figurehead sailed slowly along, the Straw Hat Jolly Roger fluttering proudly in the wind at the top of the mast.
Inside the galley, a blonde cook with curly eyebrows stood by the stove in an apron, waiting patiently. A mouth-watering aroma filled the air, making anyone's mouth water.
"Hmm, it should be just about done."
Sanji glanced at the wall clock inside the cabin, then used a spoon to ladle a bit from the pot onto a small saucer. After savoring it carefully, he nodded with satisfaction.
"Perfect!"
Taking off his apron, the blonde cook lit a cigarette, took a satisfying drag, and yelled out to his crewmates outside the galley:
"Hey! Lunch is ready, come and get it!"
Around the dining table, the Straw Hat crew dug in.
"What a miscalculation. When we left the G-8 Fortress, I really should have raided the Marine cafeteria for some ingredients."
Downing the grape juice in his glass, Sherlock wiped his mouth and glanced across the table at the Straw Hat glutton devouring everything like a whirlwind. With a helpless sigh, he said, "With such a bottomless pit around, I honestly don't know if our food supplies will last until the next island."
(Cough, cough... You're really not one to talk, Sherlock!) x 4
Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Usopp casually glanced at the towering stack of empty plates in front of the four-eyed man, silently deadpanning in their minds.
To be honest, they had shared meals with the Sorcerer countless times, but Sanji and the others still couldn't wrap their heads around how Sherlock managed to polish off so much food so quickly despite eating in such a refined, elegant manner!
"That's not the only thing you botched, Sherlock!"
The navigator slumped lifelessly over the dining table, a stark contrast to her usual bright and cheerful self. She didn't even bat an eye when Luffy swiped a piece of food straight off her plate.
"My sack of gold... how could you fail to bring it back???"
In truth, according to the Sorcerer's original plan, there had been a window to retrieve that sack of gold. What the four-eyed man hadn't anticipated, however, was that the "Enemy of Nature" would hunt him down and tie him up for so long, leaving him with no choice but to abandon the gold.
"I surrender..." Having endured Nami's deeply resentful glares for three whole days, Sherlock finally reached his limit. Pushing up his glasses, he gave in with a sigh.
"I will compensate you double the loss out of my own personal wealth. Will that satisfy you?"
(That's exactly what I was waiting for!) The money-grubbing navigator instantly bounced back to full health. Her radiant, blooming smile made her look like an entirely different person compared to a second ago—a shift in mood so rapid it rivaled the erratic weather of the Grand Line.
"Deal! You said it yourself, Sherlock, so no backing out! Tee-hee~"
(This woman is as greedy as ever...) Perhaps reminded of his own past experiences of being squeezed dry by Nami, the green-haired swordsman downed his alcohol with a vein popping on his forehead.
Robin covered her mouth with a light chuckle. Seeing the Sorcerer suffer a rare defeat was a sight that this dark-humored woman thoroughly enjoyed.
"By the way, why didn't Chopper come to lunch today?" Usopp looked over at Chopper's empty seat and asked curiously, "What's he doing?"
"Oh, Chopper?" Sanji blew a smoke ring. "He's currently analyzing the medicinal properties of those red apples. He's at a critical breakthrough point right now and said he'd eat later."
To some extent, the blue-nosed reindeer who could engineer a forbidden drug like the Rumble Ball truly possessed the makings of a "mad scientist."
"Don't worry, I already set aside a bento for Chopper... Wait, where's the bento I made?" Sanji glanced back, stunned to find that the boxed meal had mysteriously vanished.
Whoosh!
Simultaneously, everyone's eyes locked directly onto Luffy.
"¥%@...%$^$&" His mouth crammed to the brim with food, the gluttonous captain let out a string of completely unintelligible gibberish.
"Oh, so you weren't the one who snuck it." The curly-browed cook nodded solemnly, looking entirely understanding.
Usopp looked completely dumbfounded. "Hey, Sanji, I'm seriously dying to know how you understood a single word of that."
"Well, don't forget that the Merry has an extra 'passenger' on board right now." Sherlock pointed downward, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "Take a look under the table."
Intrigued, everyone leaned down to peer underneath the table.
There, a little black-furred kitten was huddled over the bento box, happily devouring the food. Sensing their gazes, the little black cat turned its head, its crimson eyes flashing with a beautiful, eerie light.
"..." The Straw Hats stared, each wearing a different expression.
That's right—this red-eyed black kitten was the exact same one that had swiped Luffy's straw hat back at the G-8 Fortress.
After escaping the Marines' pursuit, a relieved Luffy and his crew had quickly discovered this little "stowaway," having no clue when the tiny creature had managed to sneak onto the Merry.
According to Chopper's analysis, this black kitten was likely a pet belonging to a Marine officer at the G-8 Fortress. However, it was obviously out of the question for the Straw Hats to turn the ship around and sail back to Navarone just to return it.
As for treating it as emergency food rations, Nami and Robin—the two soft-hearted women—naturally refused to even consider it.
And so, this kitten that had inexplicably ended up on a pirate ship became the newest "passenger" aboard the Going Merry.
"Honestly, didn't I make a separate dish of cat food just for you? What, was it not to your liking?" Sanji shook his head helplessly. Snuffing out his cigarette, he stood up and walked back to the stove to whip up another bento for Chopper.
(So cute...) Watching the little black cat devouring its meal, Robin's eyes gleamed with affection.
Although the dark-humored woman's face remained as perfectly serene as ever, her deeply buried girlish side was melting into a puddle.
"Its owner must be so worried right now," Nami murmured, resting her chin on her hand. "If I were them, I'd be absolutely worried sick by now."
"Yeah," Zoro agreed with a nod. "After all, plenty of people consider their pets to be part of the family."
"Well, if that's the case..."
Spitting out a bone, the dense captain adjusted the straw hat on his head and grinned widely at his crewmates.
"Once we hit the next island, let's go find the Marines and have them take this little kitten back home!"
"Luffy!" Usopp nearly bit his own tongue. "Go find the Marines?! We're pirates!"
"Shishishi! It's fine, it's totally fine!"
Luffy's bright smile was as carefree and thoughtless as ever. Long accustomed to his single-track, boneheaded nature, Zoro and the others could only sigh in resignation.
They knew all too well that once their captain set his mind on something, there was absolutely no changing it.
(How utterly ridiculous...) Sherlock lightly adjusted his glasses, a subtle smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
A pirate actively seeking out the Marines just to send a lost kitten home... in the entire Grand Line, a blockhead like Luffy was probably the only one capable of doing something so completely absurd.
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze