Rainstorm

Time passed, and before they knew it, October had arrived. The autumn air was crisp, and it was also orange-ripening season.

In the Orange Orchard, Nami and Nojiko stood beneath the orange trees, picking oranges and continually placing them into the Wooden baskets beside them.

"Let's see how many we've picked."

Not far away, a woman with magenta hair, a cigarette dangling from her lips and a Wooden basket on her back, walked over. She set down her basket and looked at theirs. "Nami, Nojiko, you two little brats are pretty capable."

"Aunt Bellemere, you haven't picked as many as the two of us."

Blue-haired Nojiko glanced at the Wooden basket Bellemere had set down, crossed her arms, and spoke somewhat proudly.

"That's because there are two of you."

Bellemere crossed her arms and smiled. "I'm picking alone, so of course I'm a little slower."

"But we're only kids, and Aunt Bellemere is an adult."

Nami said sulkily from the side, "Looks like Aunt Bellemere was slacking off."

"I was not slacking off."

Bellemere looked at them and said, "All right, it's almost noon. Carry both baskets into the room, sort the oranges, line them with Fir needles, and wrap them up. Then I'll go cook, and once it's ready, we'll eat."

"Both of them?"

Nami and Nojiko exchanged glances, both looking reluctant.

"Go on."

Bellemere patted both of them on the shoulders.

"Okay."

Nami and Nojiko nodded. They first carried their own baskets into the room where the oranges were stored, but as soon as they set them down, they discovered that there were many more oranges in the room—and they had already been sorted.

"What is this?"

Nami's eyes widened. She exchanged a look with Nojiko, and both of their faces reddened.

So Aunt Bellemere had not been slacking off. She had already picked a whole basket and sorted them.

The two slowly returned to the Orange Orchard, too embarrassed to face Aunt Bellemere. But when they got there, they found that Aunt Bellemere had already gone back inside to cook.

"Let's carry it back."

The two carried the oranges back into the room, sorted them, and wrapped them in Fir needles. That way, they could be kept for one or two months.

By the time they finished sorting them, it was already noon. They wiped the sweat from their foreheads and returned to the dining room, sitting down at the table.

The food had already been prepared: Grilled fish, Tempura, and rice.

"Today's meal is so lavish." Nami's eyes widened at the sight of the dishes. Usually, most of what they ate was vegetarian, with meat only once in a while.

But today, there was not only Grilled fish, but even fried Tempura.

"You two have been working for so long, so of course I had to give you something good to eat." Bellemere smiled. "Go on, eat."

"Okay."

Nami and Nojiko immediately picked up their chopsticks and began eating.

Nojiko picked up a piece of fish and put it into her mouth. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately shoveled a large mouthful of rice into her mouth.

Nami, meanwhile, picked up a piece of Tempura and put it into her mouth, slowly biting down with a crunching sound.

As they ate, Nojiko looked at Bellemere, who was only eating rice, and could not help asking, "Aunt Bellemere, why aren't you eating?"

"I'm trying to lose weight, so I can't eat things like that."

Bellemere smiled as she spoke, a grain of rice still stuck at the corner of her mouth.

Seeing her smile, a trace of sadness appeared in Nami's eyes. She said nothing and lowered her head to continue eating.

After the meal, Nami and Nojiko helped clear away the dishes and clean up.

That was the rule in their home. Bellemere was responsible for cooking, while Nami and Nojiko washed the dishes and swept the floor.

After the two finished, Bellemere waved her hand. "Go get some rest."

"Aunt Bellemere, when are we going to pick oranges again this afternoon?" Nojiko asked as she looked at Bellemere.

"You won't need to this afternoon."

Bellemere smiled. "I can handle it by myself. There aren't many oranges left, and some still need to be left on the trees."

"Okay." Nojiko nodded and returned to the bedroom with Nami.

Their bedroom was shared, with a bunk bed. Nojiko slept on the top bunk, while Nami slept on the bottom.

Nojiko climbed straight onto the bed, lay down, and took a nap.

But Nami did not take a nap. Instead, she took out a telescope, a notebook and pen, a ruler, a somewhat old and strange device with fan blades, and a watch from beneath the table.

"Nami, what are you going to do?" Nojiko asked curiously.

"I got a wind meter, so I'm going to test a new way of measuring wind speed." Nami smiled as she packed the items into a worn little backpack.

Nojiko asked curiously, "Did you buy that wind meter? How much did it cost?"

"This is something I stole."

Nami stuck out her tongue and said, "Don't tell Aunt Bell-mere. She'll scold me."

"I know."

Nojiko nodded and asked, "When are you planning to come back?"

"I don't know either."

Nami said, "Two ships are coming this afternoon. I want to observe their sails and draw a dynamic diagram under the boundary-layer surface effect. At the very least, I'll wait until the ships reach shore, but I'll be back before dinner at the latest."

"Be careful. Don't go anywhere dangerous."

Nojiko said, propping her chin up as she lay there.

"I know."

Nami nodded, slung her schoolbag over her back, and rushed out of the house.

"Nami, where are you going?"

Bellemere's voice came from behind her.

"The beach." Nami waved her hand.

Bellemere said helplessly, "Don't go into the water, and don't go south. There's a Shark Group there."

"I know!"

Nami shouted as she disappeared into the distance.

After arriving at the West Coast, Nami went to the shore on the right side of the harbor. A flagpole stood there, its flag continuously fluttering in the wind.

Nami first took out her pen, notebook, and ruler.

The wind was rather strong, making Nami's clothes flap loudly. Her notebook was blown open, its pages flipping one after another.

Holding down her notebook, Nami looked at the flag beside her and measured the angle between it and straight ahead. She multiplied that angle by 1.6 and divided it by four, obtaining a value.

Thirty-three.

That was the speed in kilometers per hour—33 km/h. She then converted it into meters per second, which came to roughly 9 m/s.

A level-five wind.

It wasn't considered a strong wind, but its force could already be felt clearly.

Nami eagerly took out her watch and wind speed meter.

She placed the wind speed meter beside her, and the fan on top immediately began spinning in the wind.

Nami took out her watch and set it to the correct time. Then, with her right hand holding down the switch on the counter beneath the wind speed meter, she pressed it when the second hand pointed at twelve.

The wind speed meter's count reset to zero, then began counting again.

Nami stared fixedly at her watch. Second after second passed, and when the second hand completed one full rotation, she pressed the counter switch again.

Using the number of rotations on the counter, she applied a curve formula to calculate the distance the fan had turned, then divided it by sixty seconds to get the speed per second.

"9.7 m/s."

It was actually 0.7 m/s higher.

Nami recorded the result, then measured the wind again with both the Flag method and the wind speed meter, taking the average over several trials.

The Flag method measured the wind speed at 9.1 m/s, while the wind speed meter measured it at 9.7 m/s.

The difference between the two reached 0.6 m/s. That was no small discrepancy.

It was probably due to the wind direction, as well as the inherent inaccuracy of the Flag method.

It seemed that measuring wind speed required professional equipment after all.

Nami thought as she looked at the wind speed meter, a smile appearing at the corner of her lips.

This was the first piece of sailing equipment she had obtained.

Nami went to several more locations, continually measuring the wind speed. It could generally be narrowed down to a certain range.

But as time passed, the wind grew stronger and stronger, even reaching 11 m/s. That was already a strong wind, the standard for a level-six wind.

The clouds were dark and low, while fish beneath the sea poked their heads out and opened their mouths to breathe.

"It's going to rain."

Nami looked at the sky, then at the sea, unable to stop herself from saying it.

The clouds spoke for themselves. As for the fish surfacing, it was because the low pressure had forced dissolved oxygen out of the water, leaving them no choice but to come to the surface.

And judging by the height of the clouds and the changing wind, the rain would not be light.

By then, the wind would be at least level seven, along with a storm.

Not only that, Nami also saw a column of water shooting high into the air in the distance, nearly ten meters tall.

"Is that a whale?"

Nami raised her binoculars and saw an enormous head beneath the water column.

When a whale surfaced to breathe, it expelled gases such as carbon dioxide. As the airflow burst from its blowhole, it drove the surrounding seawater upward, forming a column of water.

A water column ten meters high meant the whale concealed beneath the surface had to be at least thirty meters long.

What a huge whale.

Nami watched the distant water column, but at that moment, it vanished with a thunderous crash, and the entire whale was knocked over.

A black shadow appeared beside the whale and bit down on the blue whale.

The shadow was smaller than the whale, yet the blue whale was utterly incapable of resisting. It tried to flee, but was caught, brutally killed bit by bit, and vanished beneath the surface.

Before long, blood spread through the water, turning the sea a dark crimson.

"That fish?"

Nami recalled the nameless Black Fish she had seen eight months ago hunting dolphins. It had possessed tremendous attack power.

The one that had just hunted the whale seemed to be it too.

What a vicious fish.

Nami looked at the gloomy sky, packed up her things, slung her schoolbag over her back, and ran toward home.

As she ran, she shouted, "It's going to rain! Bring in the laundry! Bring in the laundry!"

Following Nami's shouts, many households brought in the clothes they had hung outside.

Everyone in Cocoyasi Village knew that although Nami was a little brat who liked stealing and causing trouble, she had never once misjudged the weather.