Twenty minutes later.
Still at the port.
Roger was sprawled over the railing of the Oro Jackson, looking listlessly at the jungle not far away on the island.
Before long, Spencer was seen walking out from within, biting down on a cigarette.
"Huh? What about Viking?" Roger asked out of curiosity.
As he drew closer to the port side, Spencer casually exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "We found a few locals to ask and cross-verified things—the Knock Up Stream won't appear for about another month at the earliest. With such a long time, we obviously can't all stay living on the ship, right? So I came to brief you on the situation first; Viking is cleaning up the town."
"Cleaning up the town?" Roger blinked for a moment, but quickly seemed to understand something as he smacked his lips and said, "A month at the earliest? Then it looks like we'll have to settle in and recuperate properly here for a bit."
Gaban, who was nearby sharpening his axe blade with an iron stone, heard this and smiled as he said, "In other words, all these ships in the port right now are ownerless, right?"
"Then what are we standing around for?" Nozdon laughed aloud as he spoke. "Go on and sweep through these ownerless ships already, don't let them go to waste!"
At Nozdon's call, some members of the Roger Pirates cheerfully began disembarking to carry various supplies off other people's ships.
Once they finished bustling about, they left Eye Dragon behind to watch the ships, and the rest swaggered off in the direction of Mock Town.
When Spencer and Vikengam had first come to the town earlier, they had heard the bustling noises coming from within before they even got close.
Yet now this town was clearly much quieter.
Only, even from far away, the smell of blood hung thick in the air.
"You call this cleaning up the town? I can smell the blood from this far away..." Roger muttered as he walked.
"I certainly don't want to live inside a pile of corpses, and besides, if we left it alone with current temperatures, by tomorrow this place would stink enough to make you retch..." Rayleigh said, waving a hand at the air with some distaste.
"Spencer, I suggest you don't let Viking act alone next time. That guy looks refined on the surface, but he's actually a man-cutter; it was the same last time in South Blue..." Gaban said with a smile.
Dalanis Island, the Roger Pirates' final stop in South Blue previously.
Because of some trivial matters, the Roger Pirates had erupted into conflict with the local nobility.
The consequence was that their crew had butchered over three hundred people in that noble estate clean out...
Even though everyone had taken part together, from Gaban's mouth, it sounded as though Vikengam had hacked them all down by himself.
The group bantered back and forth as they walked into the town.
They saw that Vikengam fellow sitting atop a corpse mountain piled high with at least sixty or seventy bodies, the battleaxe in his hand still dripping thick, viscous blood, while out in the street, mangled flesh and blood chopped into tiny chunks was scattered everywhere.
Fortunately, though, there was still a batch of locals whose wits had been scared out of them by Vikengam, and they were currently using various tools to clear away this flesh and gore.
"You guys are so slow. I killed all the useless trash in the entire town and only left these ones who know how to work. Even though these fellows don't seem like good things either, they're still somewhat useful—at least they can clean up the trash..." Vikengam sat atop the corpse mountain and spoke offhandedly.
Shakky looked at this scene, broke into a smile, and said, "You shouldn't be a pirate, you ought to be a Marine instead."
"Hey, you've got it wrong. He's a Celestial Dragon, after all; doing this sort of thing is completely reasonable," Rayleigh added.
Vikengam jumped down from the corpse mountain, beckoned to a trembling figure not far away, and then said to Gaban, "This fellow is the town shipwright, specially responsible for repairing ships for these pirates. Previously there was no shortage of pirate crews wanting to challenge the Knock Up Stream either, but according to him, they all snuffed it. Of course, that has nothing to do with us, but he says that if we want to ride the Knock Up Stream, we need to make some modifications to the ship..."
Hearing this, Gaban immediately asked, "What modifications are needed?"
Bulmarin, the shipwright of the Roger Pirates, also inquired, "Are there blueprints? Do you mean to say many pirate crews try challenging this Knock Up Stream?"
The shipwright dared not conceal anything, terrified that he would be killed for being useless, and hurriedly began to explain.
It was roughly about adding a pair of wind wings to the ship, with some also requiring paddle banks and external power wheels.
Over the next few days, the Roger Pirates began modifying the Oro Jackson.
Mock Town—no, the entirety of Gaya Island—had returned to peace, becoming a temporary base for the Roger Pirates.
The locals, who could originally be described as utterly lawless, appeared so meek and docile before this group of murderous thugs from the Roger Pirates, sweeping the streets clean every day and preparing all kinds of fresh ingredients for them.
Every now and then a few days, pirates drawn by Mock Town's reputation would visit.
Their end result was contributing all their wealth and then rolling out of these waters in tears.
If any stubbornly refused to yield, they would be used by Vikengam to practice his axework.
Just like that, time slowly drifted into January of the year 1487 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
Along the coast of the Gaya Island port.
Vikengam was stripped to the waist, Armament Haki condensed in his hands, as he continuously pounded against the chunk of iron before him.
It looked like this iron chunk had "shrunk" a bit compared to last time; he should have taken another step forward toward the Iron Hat.
And on the beach not far away.
That fellow Roger was lying beneath a beach chair, a straw hat covering his face, as the morning sunlight slowly spilled over him, bringing a trace of warmth and making one feel utterly comfortable.
Judging from the scattered wine bottles beside his hand, this fellow had probably gotten dead drunk last night and fallen asleep right here.
Before long, two figures emerged from the rolling waves—they were none other than Rayleigh, the one with the best swimming ability in the Roger Pirates, and his girlfriend Shakky.
These two came down to the seaside to frolic in the water and show affection early in the morning.
"I could swim straight from here to Amazon Lily!" Rayleigh stood up from the sea, slicked back his wet blonde hair, and made a bold declaration.
"Then you're really amazing... Could it be that you're even stronger than Fish-men?" Shakky played along from the side.
A short while later, that fellow Gaban walked down from the modifying Oro Jackson holding a newspaper.
"Hey, hey, there's an interesting piece of news today," Gaban called out casually.
Vikengam did not reply, still panting heavily as he continuously squeezed out his physical strength, landing every single punch solidly as he hammered fiercely against the iron chunk.
Roger didn't hear it at all, still fast asleep.
So it was Rayleigh who caught Gaban's words, flaunting his fine physique as he said, "What news?"
"That Shiki fellow found Redfield in the New World and wanted to invite him to join up, but talks fell through, and the two of them had a massive battle in the Sbarana Sea," Gaban said with a chuckle.
"Red?" Shakky looked a bit puzzled, seemingly unsure who this person was.
"Redfield," Rayleigh explained to her. "The Lone Red."
"Ah, it's him. It sounds like you guys have a pretty good relationship with him?" Shakky said with a smile.
"So-so, Roger gets along pretty well with him. You could say they became friends after a fight. That happened before we reached Lodestar Island..." Rayleigh found a reef to sit down on and began to recount the tale.
Patrick Redfield.
A rare oddity of a pirate in the New World. His strength was exceptionally formidable, and he possessed the ability to hear people's hearts with exceptionally powerful Observation Haki, earning him the titles "The Lone Red" and "The Red Count".
His personality was exceedingly reclusive, and he never traveled with anyone else, having not a single companion.
Yet he dearly loved seeking out powerful opponents to challenge; Shiki, Newgate, Garp, and Sengoku had all crossed swords with the Red Count before.
Six years ago, he had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Rocks, after which he dropped out of sight for a long time, only to become active upon the seas once more shortly before the Roger Pirates reached Lodestar Island.
Because he could hear people's hearts, he had witnessed far too many dark and sinister things, but coincidentally, that fellow Roger had an extremely simple and pure mindset, allowing the two of them to establish a fairly decent relationship after exchanging blows.
Back then, Roger had even invited Redfield to board his ship, though he had been refused.
He just hadn't expected that Shiki fellow to have tracked him down as well.
The New World really was getting more and more interesting.
Before you continue