I'll Give You a Big Surprise

"Alice, hearing you say that really breaks my heart. I came all this way specifically to see you and Teach."

John spread his hands aggrievedly, his expression so mournful that he looked on the verge of tears.

Alice was utterly unmoved. If anything, she curled her lip in disdain.

"Believe you? Like hell I would!"

After all, John had just fooled the entire world into thinking he was dead.

You couldn't trust a single punctuation mark out of that man's mouth!

John did not care whether Alice believed him and continued indulging himself.

"Rocks entrusted you mother and son to me, so to some extent, I'll offer you support. Who asked me to value my companions so much?"

"Godfather, are you going to stay and live with us?"

Teach believed every word. He raised a hand to clutch the hem of John's clothes, his eyes shining with anticipation.

If his godfather stayed, he would not have to go looking for those companions who only knew how to bully people.

John looked down at the little hand clutching his coat, then shifted away in distaste and freed the hem from his grasp.

That ugly little brat's hands had just been covered in rum, and the rum he drank was distilled from molasses with lemon added to supplement vitamin C.

Sweet and sticky!

I'm a damn germophobe. I'll have to change this outfit later.

John grumbled inwardly, then forced out a smile.

"No, Teach. I came to formally say goodbye to you two. I'll be lying low for a long time after this."

"You're not staying..."

Teach lowered his head dejectedly, tears welling in his eyes.

Looking at Teach, John somehow felt that the little brat was ugly in an endearing way.

Ugly, but kind of cute.

Honestly, if he had gone through the things Teach experienced as a child, he probably would have developed severe self-destructive tendencies right away.

He would have dragged the entire world down with him!

So, in a sense, grown-up Teach might have been somewhat despicable, but compared to him, Teach was still far too kind.

At that thought, John softened his tone.

"Still, I can keep you company here for a while."

And take the opportunity to figure out what exactly your body is made of.

"Really? That's wonderful!"

Teach's mood instantly brightened, and he danced around in delight.

Over the following days, John settled down on Drum Island. To avoid suspicion, he even rented a house near Alice's home.

They were not living under the same roof!

Yet rather than stopping the rumors, his efforts to avoid suspicion only made them spread more fiercely.

Several consecutive days of brilliant sunshine melted the snow, revealing the vigorous life that had been buried beneath the ground year-round and lending a touch of green to Drum Island, a land of eternal winter.

John sat indoors, looking through the clear window glass at the group of children roughhousing in the open space outside.

Among them, a curly-haired child covered his eyes and played the "ghost," stumbling around helplessly as he tried to catch the "people."

But the "people" were not afraid of the "ghost." Instead, they deliberately made noises to draw the "ghost" over, while the others stretched their legs into his path.

They tripped the "ghost"!

Or the "people" would stand behind the "ghost" and shove him hard to the ground.

Whenever the "ghost" fell, piercing laughter broke out one after another.

Even the adults watching from afar were among those laughing.

And amid that shrill laughter, the "ghost" merely stretched his thick lips into a foolish grin and laughed along with them.

It was a heartbreaking smile!

"At this rate, an eruption is inevitable."

John shook his head and lit a cigarette, narrowing his eyes through the curling smoke.

The abnormal climate on Drum Island was caused by him secretly altering the magnetic field. Taking advantage of the sunny weather, he had also brought Teach into the mountains to soak in hot springs and thoroughly examine the brat.

At such a young age, he already had excessive body hair. He was practically a chimpanzee.

Other than that, he was no different from an ordinary person.

"Either I failed to find it, or something happened later that caused the mutation."

John took a deep drag, and the tip of his cigarette flared bright.

He did not want to waste any more time here.

It did not matter anyway. It was only curiosity, after all. He had never planned on eating a second Devil Fruit.

John crushed the cigarette butt into the ashtray, took a black trench coat from the hanger and draped it over himself, then opened the door and walked outside.

"Hey!"

A fat, bald middle-aged man happened to brush past John. He carelessly slammed into him with enough force to make it deliberate, letting out a loud, provocative grunt at the same time.

Then the bald man stopped and turned around, hoping to see John knocked aside by the collision.

"Mr. Host, why aren't you watching where you're go—ugh."

The last word caught in his throat because the other man stood perfectly straight, completely unaffected.

John turned around and smiled warmly at the bald man.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Village Chief. I accidentally bumped into you. As an apology, I'll give you a big surprise tonight."

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Just look forward to it. You'll find out when the time comes."

John raised an eyebrow at him meaningfully, then strode away without giving him a chance to question further.

"Host" was the nickname the village chief had taken the lead in giving him during this time. Just as the word implied, it suggested that he was a man who had made enough money in a place like the Pleasure District before returning to live a quiet life.

Likewise, Alice had been branded a "barmaid," supposedly another woman who had retired from the Pleasure District.

The village chief had even vividly concocted a story for the "host" and the "barmaid."

He claimed they were cut from the same cloth, having run off with their customers' money in the Pleasure District before fleeing to Drum Island to hide away.

As for why the village chief did this...

Toward John, it was jealousy—jealousy that he was tall, handsome, and popular with women.

As for Alice, he had tried to take advantage of her, only to get beaten up instead, and he had held a grudge ever since.

And there was another common reason: both of them were close to that witch, that crone Kureha...

Inside the warmly furnished little wooden house, Alice sat on a small stool beside the fireplace, carefully studying a medical book.

The iron pot on the stove puffed out steam, filling the room with the rich scent of medicinal herbs.

To support herself and Teach, Alice had learned medicine from Kureha. She could now brew medicine on her own.

The door creaked open. Alice looked up and saw John swaggering in.

She merely glanced at him before looking away and lowering her head to continue reading.

To her, that man's logic was even harder to understand than Rocks's, so she could not be bothered to care.

"I'm leaving."

John took out a Den Den Mushi and placed it on the small round dining table in the room.

"Don't call me if something happens, and especially don't call me if nothing happens. Of course, if there's truly something you can't handle, you can still call me."

"If I come, then everyone will be happy. If I don't, then you'd better pray for your own luck."