Let's Make a Deal

Several kilometers outside the cave, at a temporary campsite.

Hina and her two female teammates sat around a campfire, expressionlessly staring at the charred seabird beside the flames.

Without seasoning, and with the heat poorly controlled, it was dry and tough to eat, with a lingering fishy stench.

But on this deserted island, it was already the easiest source of protein to find.

Just then, an evening breeze carried over an incomparably rich, domineering aroma of meat.

"Hmm?" A short-haired female soldier abruptly stopped chewing. She sniffed the air hard and looked at Hina in confusion. "Hina, did you... did you hide some secret seasoning? Why does it suddenly smell so good?"

The other female soldier also stopped, a blissful expression appearing on her face. "Yeah... what is that smell? Just smelling it makes me feel like I'm about to drool."

Hina herself had long since stopped moving.

Her eyes, always carrying a hint of languid calm, widened slightly for once.

She slowly raised her head, her nostrils twitching faintly as she followed that seemingly magical scent toward a certain direction in the jungle.

The fragrance, a blend of pure meat and the charred aroma of roasting fat, was like an invisible hand that domineeringly seized all their taste buds.

The three women's gazes coincidentally fell upon the blackened, nearly inedible "charcoal" beside the fire.

Silence.

The next second, the three of them tacitly threw the "food" in their hands into the fire at the same time.

"I can't take this anymore!" The short-haired female soldier was the first to stand up, her face full of craving and indignation. "I have to go see! Who on this deserted island can make food this divine?!"

"Hina thinks it is necessary to investigate." Hina also stood, extinguishing the campfire as unprecedented curiosity flashed in her eyes.

Like three cheetahs lured by the scent, the three women followed the fragrance drifting through the wind and plunged into the pitch-black jungle.

They crossed streams and climbed over ravines, until the sound of a waterfall finally blocked their path.

And the source of the scent that had consumed their thoughts seemed to lie behind that waterfall.

The three exchanged glances, then carefully circled to a patch of high ground beside the waterfall. They pushed aside the damp bushes and looked down.

Then they saw a sight that shattered their worldview—

Behind the giant curtain of water was a dry, brightly lit cave, where a warm campfire burned.

Beside the fire, three figures sat together. Two of them were frantically tearing into enormous slabs of grilled meat, golden and glistening with oil, as though they had been reincarnated from starving ghosts.

The third figure lounged against a camp cot that had appeared from who knew where, unhurriedly cutting a small piece of roast meat with a knife and fork. There was even a drink set beside him!

Hina recognized the three of them.

Smoker, Rosinante, and Rayne, the one who had scored only 101 points in the Doriki Value test.

After calmly weighing the situation for a moment, Hina led her teammates out from the front. They passed through the roaring curtain of water and appeared at the edge of the firelight in the cave.

"Who goes there?!"

Smoker and Rosinante were startled by the three figures who had suddenly appeared, nearly springing to their feet on instinct.

Rosinante frantically tried to find a weapon, only to trip over his own foot and nearly fall.

Smoker, meanwhile, stepped in front of the campfire. With his mouth still stuffed with meat, he struck a muddled fighting stance, his eyes instantly turning incomparably fierce.

Rayne did not even raise his head.

His Observation Haki had already caught everything.

After noticing the newcomers, he simply continued cutting his roast with knife and fork at an unhurried pace, as though he had expected this all along.

Just as the atmosphere was about to explode, Smoker got a clear look at the newcomers' faces. His tense fighting stance immediately relaxed, replaced by an irritation mixed with annoyance and a headache.

"Tch, it's you, Hina," he mumbled through his mouthful, though he did not completely lower his guard.

"Relax. Hina has no hostile intentions."

Hina raised one hand to indicate that they meant no harm.

Her languid eyes swept over the wary Smoker, then the clumsy Rosinante beside him, before finally settling on the excessively relaxed figure.

"Hina only followed a scent that should not exist on this deserted island. Hina has no intention of stealing your dinner."

She paused, the corner of her mouth curving into a teasing smile as she finally revealed what she really thought.

"Still, Hina is indeed surprised. It seems some people are living more comfortably during survival training than they did at Marineford."

"What are you looking at?!" Smoker finally swallowed the mouthful of roast meat. He grabbed a huge rib still dripping with grease and waved it like a spiked club. "This is our barbecue!"

Rayne did not even look at him. He merely calmly raised a hand, making a gesture that told him to stay calm.

Yet that simple motion forcibly choked back Smoker's rising fury.

Hina's gaze did not linger on Smoker. Instead, it slowly swept across the tent, cooking utensils, and sleeping bags on the ground before finally landing on the unremarkable little backpack beside Rayne.

"We originally came here following the smell of good food, but now, Hina is more curious about something else." She withdrew her gaze and locked onto Rayne again. "How did you move an entire supply warehouse onto this deserted island?"

Rayne used the same old trick, pointing at the backpack with an innocent expression and offering an explanation that sounded like an insult to their intelligence. "I'm just... good at packing."

This answer, as if meant to fool idiots, made Hina's brow crease almost imperceptibly. The two teammates behind her wore expressions that clearly said, Are you kidding me?

"Grrrrrrr~~~~"

An extremely loud, prolonged growl of hunger, complete with an echo, abruptly rang through the silent cave.

The atmosphere instantly became incomparably awkward.

The two female soldiers behind Hina flushed bright red, wishing they could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it on the spot.

Yet their eyes still betrayed them, staring fixedly at the sizzling, grease-dripping roast meat over the fire as they swallowed hard.

Rayne picked up his Skillful Grade Blade. Under Smoker and Rosinante's tense "Mine! Mine!" gazes, he proactively sliced a large, fragrant, fat-rich rack of ribs from the roast pig.

The crack of the blade slicing through the crispy skin, along with the sizzle of juices being squeezed out, seemed at that moment like the most wonderful music in the world.

He placed the piece of roast meat, enough to drive anyone mad, onto a "plate" made from a giant leaf. But he did not hand it over. He merely held it and calmly looked at Hina.

"Want some? If you do, make a deal with me."

However, Hina's reaction completely exceeded Rayne's expectations.

Not only did Hina not step forward, she even took a somewhat flustered step back. A strange look flashed through her usually languid eyes, and an almost imperceptible blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Hina has to remind you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest in an extremely subtle tone, "even if your cooking is amazing! And you are... admittedly very handsome, don't think you can trade a mere piece of roast meat for Hina's..."