Voyage Log

January 13, 1506, Sea Calendar.

I boarded the Sea Bream, becoming a member of the Sun Pirates. The first thing we did after "joining" was to get branded with the red sun, just like the sun tattoo on Boss Tiger's chest.

Although Boss Tiger didn't say it explicitly, everyone understood. This was to cover up the Celestial Dragon brand on the slaves, including myself, who had come from slavery.

Actually, I knew that Boss Tiger himself had been captured and enslaved by the Celestial Dragons. After escaping, he resolved to free all the slaves on the sea...

This was a deep wound in Boss Tiger's heart, something he wouldn't let anyone know about, and I pretended not to know either.

In terms of resentment towards humans, Boss Tiger surpassed Arlong. However, Boss Tiger had seen both Celestial Dragons, slave traders, and human slaves, so he kept his resentment in check.

January 14, 1506, Sea Calendar.

Today it was my turn to get a tattoo. The branding still felt as intense as ever, but... the feeling in my heart was completely different from when I was in Mary Geoise!

The Celestial Dragon brand on my back was replaced by the red sun.

And on my left bicep, I tattooed the flag of the "Sword of Freedom"—although it only flew for less than two hours, this was the first pirate crew I joined, and it was the beginning of "freedom."

Holy crap... Hachi really put the branding iron to his head? This octopus is a tough guy!

January 15, 1506, Sea Calendar.

I signed up to be a combatant. Although my combat skills were lacking, my physique stood out during my combatant test. However, unlike the other elite combatants, several of the minor bosses looked at me in silence.

Just after Kuroobi's test, Willy had tried to poach Arlong. But Kuroobi was Arlong's subordinate and didn't pay Willy any mind.

Kuroobi was a cartilaginous Fish-Man, with large fins on his forearms. He had attained thirty dans in Fish-Man Karate. I didn't know what thirty dans meant, but it sounded very impressive... However, in terms of raw strength, I wasn't lacking either!

But when they looked at me... they clearly still held some grudges about my "mixed blood."

Fortunately, Boss Jinbe noticed the awkward situation and decisively stated that I was strong, assigning me to be a helmsman under him. Hachi was also chosen along with me.

Boss Jinbe's role in the crew was Chief Helmsman, or Head Helmsman. Although not explicitly stated, everyone considered Boss Jinbe to be the First Mate.

The Second Mate was the burly Mermaid ship's doctor, Aladdin, a man of few words but fierce action. Below them... were Arlong, Willy, Makoro, and the others. Willy was a large fellow, comparable to Boss Jinbe in size, a Tiger Shark Fish-Man who wielded a hammer. He didn't get along with Arlong, and the two of them initially fought over the position of Quartermaster, but were eventually scolded by Boss Jinbe.

Now, Willy was in charge of deck combat, while Arlong handled underwater combat. Willy was more popular among the older Fish-Men, while Arlong was the big brother to the younger generation of Fish-Men.

Makoro's presence was much less noticeable than Willy's or Arlong's. I didn't have any particular impression of him from the original work, as I had only skimmed through the "two years later" parts.

Since Makoro was a Gulper Eel Fish-Man, his jaw width was considerable, and his appearance was rather indescribable. He had a yellowish-brown complexion, a mop-like hairstyle, and arms like hammers. Perhaps due to his downturned eyes, he usually looked somewhat lazy. He was probably disciplined by Willy in the past and didn't dare to compete with Willy or offend the new generation like Arlong. He ended up with the duty of protecting the ordinary crew members, which could be considered a minor boss role.

January 15, 1506, Sea Calendar.

Today, Hachi and I learned steering from Boss Jinbe. Perhaps because of my "Sailor" and "Wrathful People" path, I had excellent talent in this area.

Ordinary helmsmen might just need to steer according to orders, but Boss Jinbe didn't hold back, teaching me and Hachi everything about judging wind direction, controlling currents, and more.

Hachi, with the sun branded on his head, also showed great talent. Perhaps this was the innate talent of Fish-Men in this regard...

If I could reach Sequence 7, "Navigator," after "Wrathful People," I should be able to elevate my "very good" to "Nami" level.

January 18, 1506, Sea Calendar.

On the fifth day after leaving Fish-Man Island, we arrived at our first target island.

Thanks to the covert assistance of the Ryugu Kingdom, we set sail with several "Eternal Pointers" pointing to different islands in the first half of the Grand Line. Although the Ryugu Kingdom was relatively isolated, pirates often passed by, so they had some resources.

The Sun Pirates had no interest in the "One Piece" or the "Pirate King." Our voyage was primarily to escape and to rescue slaves everywhere!

However, Captain (crossed out) Boss Tiger didn't let us land. At the port, we saw a tall gallows with several dried-out corpses hanging from it, along with some tattered pirate flags.

I had heard in Mary Geoise that this situation usually meant pirate corpses, symbolizing that the island was extremely unwelcoming to pirates, and that entering the port with a skull flag meant war.

There was another situation: an empty gallows, symbolizing that the island welcomed pirates and had special facilities and services for them. As long as you had money, you could get plenty of supplies.

Of course, both of these situations were rare in the first half of the Grand Line. They both implied that the island had strong military power to support it; otherwise, the former would have been destroyed by angry pirates long ago, and the latter would have been plundered by greedy pirates...

The most common situation was not to set up gallows at the port, meaning they went with the flow, only offering limited defense, hoping that the pirate lords wouldn't cause too much trouble.

Arlong and the others were a bit displeased and wanted to make a big score. But Boss Tiger wasn't intimidated into not landing. Seeing the pirate corpses hanging on Shindra Island, he understood that the island should be peaceful.

This was good; Boss Tiger didn't want to disturb them.

January 20, 1506, Sea Calendar.

On the seventh day of our voyage, we encountered the first unavoidable Marine encirclement...

"Southeast, there's a Marine fleet!" Talissgo shouted from the crow's nest, shaking the large bell above him.

Talissgo appeared to be holding the telescope tube with his hand, but in reality, those were his eyes. Talissgo was an Eye-Tube Fish-Man, skilled at long-distance observation.

"One, two, three... it's a standard fleet of six warships," Talissgo confirmed.

It should be one armored main ship and five sailing frigates.

Jinbe then nudged Zig, who was at the helm, and took the wheel himself, sometimes closing his eyes to feel the currents, and sometimes looking at the sails.

"There's a Marine fleet in the northwest as well, another standard fleet!" Talissgo shouted again.

"Jinbe," Tiger said, looking over.

"The Marines have planned a pincer attack, which is unfavorable for us. We can only escape by diving," Jinbe stated his assessment.

The Sea Bream had many functions, it could even dive—all of them were Fish-Men, so diving was relatively simple, without needing to worry about water barriers. However, diving would cause significant damage to the hull, and supplies, including gunpowder, would get damp, as the Sea Bream was only made of some "Eve Tree" material, unlike Roger's ship, which was entirely made of "Adam Tree."

"Boss Fisher Tiger! Let's do this!"

"Damn humans... cough cough, I mean damn Marines, do you really think we're afraid of them?"

"Kill Marines, seize warships!"

Arlong and the others clamored to fight.

Seeing this, Fisher Tiger's expression turned serious. "Prepare for battle!"

They had managed to escape the Marines twice before, but not because they couldn't win. Fisher Tiger simply didn't want to engage in meaningless fights; he would only initiate combat against slave traders.

However, since they couldn't shake them off and the Marines were deliberately surrounding them, he had no choice but to teach the Marines a lesson