A Picnic for Three

Vidal also needed some time to digest what he had learned from the fight. Aside from anything else, just experiencing Byrnndi World's ultra-high-speed attacks...

...would make it much easier to fight similarly fast opponents in the future, such as Borsalino, who had only recently arrived at the G-2 Branch from the North Blue!

Borsalino couldn't possibly be stronger than Byrnndi World at this point.

"What about you, kid?" Vidal finally noticed Bullet eating fruit beside him. Bullet looked over in confusion. "What?"

"You want to fight me too, don't you?"

Bullet hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth. "Fine, let's fight!"

Although he knew he was bound to lose, Vidal had challenged him, and he wasn't one to shy away from a fight!

"Hey, what's with that attitude? You're making it sound like I'm the one picking on you." A row of black lines appeared on Vidal's forehead, and his hand suddenly itched a little.

He thought he could understand now why Garp liked using the 'Fist of Love' on Luffy so much.

"Weren't you the one who asked to fight me?" Bullet turned away expressionlessly and ignored him.

He had considered fighting Vidal before. After all, the guy kept trying to be his dad. Who could put up with that?

But after seeing that earth-shaking, sea-churning battle, he had only one thought: I haven't actually said I want to fight yet, have I?

In that case, Vidal was obviously the one asking to fight him. There was nothing wrong with that!

So he was being forced to take a beating, not overestimating himself and asking for one.

Vidal had also discovered another side to his 'eldest son.' The kid didn't seem quite as cool as he looked. He was a little sly and had a bit of a mischievous streak beneath that reserved exterior.

But that was a good thing!

If he really were as cold and cool on the inside as he appeared, it would be a troublesome obstacle to accepting the whole family.

"All right, it's settled, then. We'll find an uninhabited island and rest for a day or two. While we're there, I'll let you eat your fill of meat. Seeing you eat nothing but fruit all the time pains me as your father." Vidal reached over and ruffled his hair.

As before, Bullet tried to dodge, but he simply couldn't get away. Before his body could even react and make a move, a palm had already settled on his head.

"Damn it." Bullet gritted his teeth as he looked at Vidal's kindly face.

He really didn't understand why this man insisted on taking him as a son. Couldn't he be his disciple? Or his student?

Honestly, he would have been more than happy to accept either of the latter two roles.

At the speed the little boat flew, it would take about three or four days to get from Garuzburg Island to Navarone Fortress. Issho naturally needed to rest during that time too.

When there was no island, they landed on the sea. When there was one, they naturally spent the night on it.

Just like tonight: after finding an uninhabited island, Vidal first made a wooden cabin with three rooms by the shore, then laid bamboo sleeping mats and pillows on the beds.

Outside, he gathered a pile of wood and lit a bonfire, setting up a barbecue grill over it. Just as he was nearly finished with the preparations, Issho came over.

A beast that looked like some kind of deer, four or five meters long and three or four meters tall, floated through the air behind Issho.

"Kid, do you know how to grill meat?" Seeing Issho prepare to cut up the food by the shore, Vidal asked Bullet, who was sitting in a wooden chair beside him.

"Uh, yeah." Bullet nodded, but his eyes remained fixed on Issho as he worked in the distance.

A few flashes of the blade instantly cut the beast into reasonably sized chunks of meat. All the blood and internal organs flew to one side and gathered into a mass, which was then tossed straight into the dark sea.

The whole process was swift and clean, without dirtying the fine white sand beneath his feet in the slightest. Bullet felt envious again.

After more than a decade on the battlefield, he knew very well how troublesome it was to prepare a beast for cooking, although he hadn't needed to do it himself later on.

"Even if you do, it's no use. I don't need you to do the grilling," Vidal said with a smile. Bullet curled his lip. This man was treating him like a child again.

Soon, right before Bullet's eyes, Issho neatly arranged the chunks of meat floating in the air on the broad grill.

The moment the tender pink meat met the bamboo strips, which had long since been heated red-hot, an immensely comforting and delightful aroma of meat surrounded the three of them, accompanied by a faint fragrance of bamboo.

Issho and Vidal were fine, but Bullet could hardly wait. He was a complete carnivore.

For the past few days, he had either been hunted or eating fruit, so suddenly smelling meat was almost too much for him.

"Go on, eat. Have plenty. Once you're done, we'll go over there and get some exercise."

Vidal squeezed the fruit in his hand into the wooden cup in front of him, making himself a cup of fresh juice. Naturally, he also prepared a cup each for Issho and Bullet.

The reason he was so intent on fighting the kid before they went back was actually to trim away all the prickly bits in his heart.

Sometimes people were just like that: unless they got a thorough beating, they could never get rid of certain bad habits. That was called training.

Bullet might look rather afraid of him now, but that was only because he had been stunned by the sight of the earlier battle.

But seeing something with one's own eyes without experiencing it firsthand didn't actually leave as deep an impression as one might imagine.

So Vidal had to let the kid experience for himself what heart-wrenchingly painful paternal love was!

Under those circumstances, what happened to Bullet after he had eaten and drunk his fill was easy to imagine. His screams rang out for more than an hour in the middle of the night.

Vidal's method was simple: I won't hurt you too badly, but it definitely has to hurt enough. It had to hurt so much that Bullet couldn't help crying out. If he dared grit his teeth and stay silent, that meant Vidal was going too easy on him.

And he couldn't leave him completely uninjured, either. He had to send blood spurting from his nose and the like, and make him throw up what he had just eaten. Getting a taste was enough.

When he was nearly done, he used 'Photosynthetic Energy' to heal him quickly, then beat him up again. Only after a full three rounds did Vidal stop and leave him to rest alone on the beach.

Strangely, though, Bullet lay there panting, with no resentment or dissatisfaction on his face.

He had certainly been very angry at first, but later he realized that Vidal seemed to be teaching him something.

For example, there were those unusual physical techniques that made the body suddenly as hard as iron, or let someone vanish from right in front of him and appear behind him.

Not only that, but during the fight, Vidal hadn't simply crushed him with overwhelming power. Instead, he had taught him a lesson in a way that was almost like giving him moves to practice against.

That way, although he was getting beaten every moment, he always learned something each time. The process was just a little too painful.

So Bullet's feelings toward Vidal were complicated now, or rather, he felt a little more gratitude and warmth, because he could clearly feel the concern behind Vidal's fists.

"That wasn't a fight at all. You were teaching him," Issho said to his friend as he approached, holding a slice of meat in his chopsticks.

"Of course. How could I really stoop to his level?"

Vidal spread his hands and smiled. "I've basically demonstrated the Six Powers for him. I can teach him the details carefully once we get back."

Nearly three hundred people have now added the book to their collections, but there haven't been many more comments or chapter comments. There are basically just one or two every three or four days. Is it because there's still too little content and nothing to talk about?

Also, when do you think this book might get added to a book list? Do I actually need to go looking for someone myself?

It turns out that once more than a hundred people invest in a new book, it automatically gets discovered by the app platform and receives a new-book investment recommendation!

I was wondering why this book's collection count was growing so slowly. It turns out it was missing this important recommendation that other books from the same period had. Everyone knows app recommendations work much better than website recommendations.

The number of people who have invested in this book is currently 51. Could I ask those friends who haven't invested yet to lend me a hand? Please, I definitely won't let your investment bring you any returns. Thank you, thank you!