"I'll be leaving first. We'll meet again someday."
Shirakawa had no plans to stay the night on this island. It was beautiful, certainly, and a fine place as well, but the current Shirakawa was not suited to it.
"How are you leaving?" Haredas asked in confusion.
"The same way I came, of course."
Shirakawa walked to the edge of the island and looked down, but he could not see anything at all. Maybe the island was just too high up.
"You're not planning to jump off, are you?" Haredas seemed to have guessed what Shirakawa intended to do.
"That's right."
"No, you can't. If you want to go down, we have special flying tools for that."
Haredas sounded worried. If something happened to Shirakawa, then would their future research funding not be gone as well?
"Don't worry."
With that, Shirakawa faced Haredas, leaned backward, and let his body fall straight down.
Startled, Haredas hurried to the edge to see what had happened. He lay over the rim of the island, but by then, Shirakawa was already nowhere to be seen.
"Where did that kid go?" At that moment, the other meteorologists finally arrived. Seeing only Haredas there, they immediately asked him.
"He fell down," Haredas said gloomily.
He believed that once Shirakawa had gone over the edge, his chances were slim at best.
"He fell down? I still wanted to ask him what kind of house he wanted built."
"What? Fell down?" Only now did the speaker fully process what had been said. "Don't tell me you pushed him off because you got less money than the others."
"How could that be, you idiot?" Haredas snapped angrily. "But he said he'd be fine. He flew up here when he came."
"That still doesn't rule out the possibility that he fell and died."
"Then what do we do? Are we still supposed to build that house for him?"
"Of course we are. He gave us a huge amount of research funding. Even if he's dead, we still have to fulfill his wish."
"That's right. If only to commemorate him, we have to build the house."
"Yeah, and we should make it even more luxurious."
And just like that, the meteorologists started discussing it among themselves, as though they were already arranging Shirakawa's funeral.
But Shirakawa himself was perfectly fine.
As usual, he was simply enjoying the feeling of flying.
At some point, he had come to love this sensation of free fall. Back in the past, he had been an extremely timid person. There were barely any rides at amusement parks that he dared to try.
But now, whenever he was in the sky, he felt an indescribable sense of peace.
Of course, every flight eventually had to end on solid ground.
Directly below Shirakawa was an island. It did not look particularly small. From above, he could roughly make out more than a dozen towns of various sizes scattered across it.
There was even a Marine branch base on the island.
"This island will do."
Shirakawa made his decision. If he was going to head out to sea, then he definitely needed a big ship. There should be some decent ones on this island. And if not, he could always just steal one from the Marines.
A Marine base like this usually did not have especially powerful fighters stationed there. Shirakawa believed that with his current strength, he could easily tear through the whole base, so long as nothing unexpected happened.
He landed on the coast.
It was evening by then, so most people should have been at home eating dinner. There was barely anyone on the shore, and Shirakawa's arrival did not alarm anyone. No one noticed him at all.
Sensing the nearest town, Shirakawa started walking in that direction.
Luckily, he still had a bit of money left and had not given it all to those meteorologists. Otherwise, he would not even have enough for dinner and lodging tonight.
Once he entered the town, he found that while it was not as prosperous as the royal capitals he had visited before, it was still brightly lit, with people coming and going. Most of them had likely just finished dinner and come out for a walk, and there were Marines patrolling in regular shifts as well.
"Looks like the security in this town is pretty good."
Perhaps because Shirakawa was not famous enough, even when those Marines saw him, none of them recognized who he was. To Shirakawa, that was honestly a bit of a blow.
Or perhaps, deep down, those Marines simply assumed that with all of them around, no pirate would dare openly wander the streets.
Little did they know, Shirakawa was exactly that kind of person.
After looking around, he found a tavern that seemed fairly lively and walked in.
The Shirakawa of the past had not even liked alcohol much, but after spending so much time with Shanks, he had been thoroughly led astray.
That was just how it worked.
For a good person to reform a bad one was incredibly difficult.
But for a bad person to corrupt a good one, it was effortless.
And so, Shirakawa had become the one Shanks led astray.
"Hello, welcome, young man. What would you like to eat?"
The owner behind the counter was a bald man. Even though he was bald, he did not look fierce at all. On the contrary, when he smiled, he gave off a very kind and gentle feeling.
"One fried rice, one serving of roast meat, and a bottle of beer."
Shirakawa ordered while looking over the menu. The prices were fairly reasonable.
"Got it. Please wait a moment. It'll be ready right away."
"Mm."
Shirakawa nodded, then sat down at the counter. Since he was alone, there was no need to take up an entire table.
The food came quickly. In about ten minutes, all of Shirakawa's dishes had been served, while the owner stood in front of him polishing an already spotless wine glass.
Maybe that was just a habit shared by every tavern owner in this world. Some liked polishing glasses, others liked wiping plates, but whether it was glasses or plates, they were all already sparkling clean.
"Young man, you're not from this island, are you?" the tavern owner asked while Shirakawa was eating, after studying his face for a moment.
"That's right. I just arrived on this island."
"That's what I thought. Someone who looks like you, I'd definitely remember after seeing once. But I keep feeling like I've seen you somewhere before."
The tavern owner fell into deep thought.
"Maybe you're remembering wrong. Or maybe you've seen someone who looks a lot like me."
"No, that's not it. I've definitely seen you somewhere."
The tavern owner seemed to have gotten stuck on the thought, continuing to rack his brain over where he had seen Shirakawa before.
Even when customers came to pay, he dealt with them absentmindedly, not even checking whether the money they gave him was the right amount.
After finishing his meal, Shirakawa settled the bill and left.
But even after he was gone, the owner was still thinking about where he had seen him before.
"Where was it...?"
Looking at Shirakawa's departing back, the owner tilted his head and sank into thought.
Then all at once, he had a flash of realization.
He hurriedly flipped through the stack of wanted posters sitting at the corner of the table, rifling through them as fast as he could, until he finally found the face that matched his memory.
"That's right, it's him."
Looking at the photograph on the wanted poster, the tavern owner became more and more certain that the person who had just eaten there was that very man.
"A bounty of 150 million Beli..."
Seeing that number, the owner felt a wave of relief, like he had just escaped disaster.
After all, pirates with bounties over 100 million were usually vicious criminals.
Though Shirakawa appeared gentle, refined, and well-mannered on the surface, who knew what he was really like inside?
That was what the tavern owner was thinking.
Still, he did not go directly to the Marines.
Better to avoid extra trouble than invite it. What if that pirate found out he was the one who tipped them off and came back to kill him?
Even so, he burned Shirakawa's face deeply into his memory.
After all, that pirate was still in town.
What if he came back to the tavern again?
Thanks to Competitive Sword and Four Emperor Whitebeard for the tips. Thank you to both bosses!
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