The amphibious transport turtle was a giant turtle large enough to carry human passengers.
It could move freely on both land and water.
When Nico Robin first appeared, this was the kind of transportation she used.
That said, it had one obvious flaw: it offered no protection from wind or rain.
It was fine for traveling between nearby islands, but using it to cross the Grand Line was unrealistic.
So if they wanted to go from Alabasta to the sea restaurant Baratie in the East Blue, riding the transport turtle the whole way was out of the question. They would still need a proper ship.
Because of that, once the three of them arrived in the port city of Nanohana, Robin planned to stable the transport turtle and go find a ship.
"There's no need for that."
Rowan stopped her and pointed at Hashirama.
"With him around, why would we need to worry about getting a ship?"
Hashirama laughed and thumped his chest.
"Leave it to me."
Once they reached the shore, Hashirama clapped his hands together.
"Wood Release: Shipbuilding Jutsu!"
In an instant, a small wooden sailboat rose straight out of the ground and appeared in front of the three of them.
There wasn't actually any official Wood Release technique called Shipbuilding Jutsu, but Hashirama had long since pushed Wood Release to absurd levels. Building a ship with it was about as easy for him as eating or drinking.
If Yamato could use Wood Release to build houses, then Hashirama could obviously use it to build ships.
Rowan figured that if Hashirama ever opened a shipyard, he'd drive every competitor out of business.
A normal shipyard had to gather raw materials, process them, assemble everything, and then launch the finished ship. That took at least a month, usually longer.
But Hashirama? As long as he had a blueprint, building a massive ship would be an instant job.
Who could compete with that? Bankruptcy would only be a matter of time.
Fortunately, no matter how much of a lovable idiot Hashirama was, there was no way he'd ever give up being a ninja to become a shipbuilder.
Every shipyard in the world should be grateful for that.
With their sailboat ready, the three of them set out to sea and headed for Reverse Mountain.
This was Rowan's first time ever going out to sea, and on top of that, he was riding a wooden sailboat, so the experience meter was instantly maxed out.
But before long, dizziness and nausea started hitting him one after another, and Rowan made a shocking discovery.
He seemed to be… maybe… possibly… kind of seasick.
Yeah…
That was definitely not something he had expected.
He actually got seasick.
"It's normal the first time you're on a boat," Nico Robin said calmly. "Eat some fruit."
Rowan couldn't help grumbling, "You really think this is something fruit can solve?"
Robin shrugged. "Then what else can we do? There's no medicine on board."
That reminded Rowan of something.
There was no seasickness medicine on the ship, but his world had plenty of it.
So he hurried back to his own world and bought a box of motion sickness pills from a pharmacy.
After taking the medicine and waiting half an hour for it to kick in, Rowan went back through the bedroom door and returned to the ship.
But the moment he pushed open the cabin door and stepped onto the deck, an icy chill swept over him.
It came so suddenly that he sneezed hard on the spot.
He looked up—and went completely blank.
Just a moment ago, the sea had been under clear blue skies.
Now it was snowing.
Not just snowing, either—huge, heavy flakes.
The entire deck was already covered in a thick layer of snow, turning everything white.
Robin had already changed into thick winter clothes and said calmly, "That's just how the Grand Line's weather works. Clear skies and a blizzard can be separated by a single line."
"Didn't the manga mention that?"
Rowan: …
Fine. He admitted the manga really had mentioned it.
The problem was, he had completely forgotten.
It was such a tiny detail in such a long story that it hadn't stuck in his mind at all.
Who could've guessed that he'd actually wind up on the Grand Line and personally run into this kind of insane weather?
For a moment, Rowan didn't even know where to start complaining.
In the end, all he could do was rush back to his own world and come back wearing a thick down jacket.
As for Hashirama, he was in an Edo Tensei body and didn't feel anything at all. Extreme heat and extreme cold meant nothing to him, so he didn't need to change clothes.
And so, the group sailed across the Grand Line for several days, enduring its absurdly unpredictable weather.
And, unsurprisingly, Rowan caught a cold.
Looking at Rowan lying in bed with a fever, Robin couldn't help saying, "Your body is way too weak."
Rowan rolled his eyes. Was that really his fault?
If anyone was to blame, it was the Grand Line's insane weather.
No wonder so few pirates from the Four Blues ever returned home after entering the Grand Line.
It wasn't that they didn't want to.
It was that ninety percent of them probably died on the Grand Line before they ever got the chance.
The weather there was just brutal.
Truly unbearable.
"I'm not going back to the Grand Line for the next few days," Rowan said after thinking it over. "I'm giving up. You can come get me once you've made it to the East Blue."
Robin looked at his fragile condition and sighed.
"That's probably for the best."
So Rowan stayed home and recovered in peace.
Two days later, his cold was completely gone, and he pushed open his bedroom door to check on the One Piece world.
The sailboat was still traveling through the Grand Line.
So he came right back, stayed home, played games, and read manga.
Over the next few days, he checked in on the One Piece world once a day. As long as the sailboat was still on the Grand Line, Rowan would turn right back around and go home to play games.
Every now and then, he also visited the Naruto world and dropped by Orochimaru's secret base to ask about the progress of their experiments.
Tobirama smiled and told him things were going smoothly. If nothing unexpected happened, they'd crack the secret of Devil Fruits soon, maybe even create entirely new Devil Fruits.
But when Rowan curiously asked, "How soon is soon?" Tobirama immediately stopped talking.
Even the smile disappeared from his face.
Maybe the man was just born incapable of smiling for long.
The moment Rowan saw that expression, he understood everything and wisely decided not to push any further.
Looks like the Devil Fruit research still had a long road ahead of it.
And so Rowan loafed around for about four more days.
Then one morning, he got up, went downstairs for breakfast, grabbed an extra meal for Robin, and returned to the One Piece world.
When he found Robin on deck, she smiled and told him,
"We've reached the East Blue."
Rowan turned and looked.
Sure enough, there stood a towering mountain.
Reverse Mountain.
So it turned out that while Rowan had been sleeping soundly in his own world the night before, Robin and Hashirama had already sailed the ship over Reverse Mountain and into the East Blue.
~~~
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