He Runs, She Chases

The surprise lasted only a moment.

After that shout, Hina immediately put on a stern face again and turned her head away.

"Isn't this the youngest Historian in history?"

"Hina didn't know before!"

Jogo placed the food delivered from the kitchen through the small opening in the cage one item at a time, arranging it neatly. He cupped his fists and said:

"A pleasure, a pleasure. You must be the most promising recruit from the Marine Academy!"

Hina glared at him and said irritably:

"What does this distinguished Historian want with Hina, a Marine prisoner?"

"I wanted to ask the same thing."

Jogo looked at Hina's lovely face in confusion.

"Why did you surrender?"

"Don't tell me you didn't even have the courage to fight. You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Hina gave a huff, turned her head, and said nothing.

Jogo knew that his identity as a Historian had made Hina wary.

Although he did not yet have a bounty on his head and could be treated as an ordinary person,

as long as one was a Historian, there would come a day when a bounty would be placed on them.

That was the fate of Historians.

To the Marines, they were much like pirates—perhaps even more stable potential criminals than pirates.

And now that he appeared to be quite familiar with the Happo Navy, it was perfectly normal for Hina to refuse to say anything.

Jogo did not mind. He casually took a small biscuit from Hina's meal and, under her puffed-up glare, said to himself:

"No matter what you want to do, it probably has nothing to do with me anymore."

"Sai promised me that tomorrow, he'll dock at nearby Iris Island and let me get off the ship."

At that point, his voice paused slightly, and he shrugged.

"But I don't think he's that kindhearted."

After he had finished appraising the Happo Navy's antiques, there had been delight, greed, hypocrisy, and malice in Sai and Abu's eyes... but not a trace of gratitude.

Jogo felt that his appraisal skills had been far too astonishing, so the two of them had set their sights on him.

After all, rarity was valuable.

In this era where historical research was forbidden, he was more or less a priceless treasure.

"After I get ashore, I'll immediately find a way to get out of the Happo Navy's sight."

"We probably won't see each other again after this."

Jogo sat cross-legged on the ground, eating Hina's biscuit as he spoke to her.

"So if there's anything you want me to help you do now, like deliver a message or find someone for you, tell me as soon as possible."

"Since you taught me so much, I'll definitely help you."

Hina glanced at him. "That sounds nice. Would you help if Hina asked you to break her out of prison?"

Jogo nodded.

"I would!"

The Seastone key was on Abu.

Abu had not awakened Armament Haki, making him far easier to deal with than Sai.

And in the dead of night, with everything pitch-black, if they could seize a shuttle without Sai noticing, escaping alive was not impossible.

Seemingly not expecting Jogo to answer so decisively, Hina stared blankly at him for two seconds. Then she gave a soft snort, the corners of her lips seeming to lift a little higher than before.

"Hina was joking. Hina doesn't need your help escaping."

"But there is one thing that only you can do!"

"What is it?"

Hina leaned closer.

"The Capone Family account books, as well as the documents and evidence Hina organized, are all with you, right?"

Jogo nodded.

"They're with me."

Hina's eyes shone as she looked at him.

"After you get ashore, find a Den Den Mushi that can send faxes and help Hina fax all this evidence to Marine Headquarters!"

"And you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely have to note..."

"That it was Ensign Hina who discovered these clues!"

At daybreak, the luxury cruise ship and the Happo Navy's tiger-headed pirate ship arrived at nearby Iris Island one after the other.

As a popular tourist island, irises of every color and shape could be seen everywhere. The small ones were palm-sized and delicate, while the large ones towered over houses, hundreds of meters tall, standing around the island as one of West Blue's famous sightseeing spots.

The docks had been bustling with people, but once the Happo Navy's tiger-headed pirate ship arrived, the crowd quickly scattered.

Jogo carried a large bag on his back as he climbed down the rope ladder and jumped onto the ground.

He glanced at the silent docks, then turned and waved at the two ill-intentioned gazes aboard the ship.

"Thanks for seeing me off. I'm leaving!"

Abu leaned over the railing and called warmly to Jogo with a bright smile.

"Hey, want to join the Happo Navy?"

Jogo waved without looking back as he headed toward the distant exit.

"Not interested!"

Abu was not discouraged in the slightest. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted:

"If you don't join now, you won't get such a good opportunity later!"

Jogo said nothing. All they could see was his waving figure gradually moving farther away.

On the ship, Abu and Sai exchanged a glance, sinister smiles appearing on their faces.

Abu said, "Big Brother, I already tried to persuade him!"

"If he refuses good advice, then it's only natural that he'll be brought back as a slave, right?"

At the thought of Jogo's expression when he ran into them again later, Abu could not help wanting to laugh.

Sai stared at Jogo's receding figure with a grim face.

"Does he really think the Happo Navy is a place where he can come and go whenever he wants?"

He ordered the crew to furl the sails and dock the ship.

Then he arranged the rest shifts.

Half the crew needed to remain aboard to guard the ship, assist the shipwrights with repairing the hull, and clean up.

The other half could go ashore to relax and handle miscellaneous matters, such as buying supplies, gathering information, and sending letters to the families of newly captured slaves.

They would switch after two days.

They would set sail after four days.

Once everything had been arranged, he and Abu jumped off the ship. Bringing two trusted men with them, they hurried after Jogo in the direction he had left.

A young man carrying a large bag was still quite conspicuous among the tourists.

The four asked for directions as they pursued him.

They moved as swiftly as the wind.

Then...

Then they lost him.

"Where is he?"

Looking at the crowded crossroads, Sai and the other three fell into confusion.

In their expectations, Jogo should have been blocked by them right now, his face full of shock and anger.

But in reality, they had not even caught sight of him.

They recalled how relaxed Jogo had seemed at the docks, and how leisurely his departing figure had looked...

Damn it, they had been played!

"Damn it, he ran so fast. Did he already expect that we wouldn't let him go?"

Abu's face was full of fury.

They had run all the way here, yet they still had not caught up with Jogo.

That meant Jogo had been running the whole way too.

"After acting so relaxed back at the docks..."

"Was it all just an act?"

He could practically picture Jogo breaking into a wild sprint the instant he left their sight.

Sai's face darkened as he surveyed the surroundings.

"We can't just let this go. Split up and chase him!"

With that, the four men ran off in four separate directions.

Much later, on the other side of Iris Island, Jogo wiped the sweat from his forehead as he emerged from an alley.

"That was one satisfying escape!"

He looked back to make sure no one would catch up anytime soon, tightened the large bag on his back, asked someone for directions, and headed toward a shop that rented Den Den Mushi.

It was time to fulfill Hina's request.

An hour later...

The glass door of the Den Den Mushi outlet swung open. To the clerk's warm call of "Please come again," Jogo stepped out carrying a small bag of vegetable leaves.

As he walked, he fed the miniature Den Den Mushi on his wrist.

The Capone Family's information had been completely transmitted to the Marines.

Of course, he had not forgotten to emphasize that the clues had been discovered by Ensign Hina of West Blue 87th Branch.

As for the other questions...

What did they mean, who was he? How did he know Marine Headquarters' secret line?

Don't worry about it. He was merely an anonymous, helpful citizen of West Blue.

Marine Headquarters had not doubted him at all. At the end, they had merely added, rather meaningfully, that they would remember the major's painstaking efforts.

"What does this have to do with the major?"

Jogo walked down the street, rubbing his chin.

"Did they think the major killed the Capone Family head, then transferred the credit to the promising Hina, which was why they received this information?"

"Hey, did they fool themselves so thoroughly that even their own people believed it?"

No matter what, when he thought about soon hearing news of the Marines cracking down on Capone Family businesses everywhere, a smile crept onto his face.

"Bege should have gone back and become the family head by now, right?"

"Young people need to suffer a little more!"

The Den Den Mushi outlet was located by the sea on the other side of Iris Island.

Golden beaches stretched along the coastline, dotted everywhere with lounge chairs and parasols.

Under the brilliant sun, sea breezes laden with moisture swept into town, making the air damp and stifling.

On the straight road, countless striking figures in bikinis carried swim rings, wore sunglasses, and chatted as they headed toward the beach.

Jogo avoided the surging crowd and entered increasingly narrow alleys.

He considered what he needed to do next.

"Though I'd like to leave Iris Island immediately, it seems I'll have to wait a while longer."

"I need to observe the Happo Navy's movements before acting."

Because he had run off too quickly earlier, he did not know whether Sai and Abu had made any moves after he left.

For all he knew, they might have set an inescapable trap at the docks, waiting for him to walk right into it.

So he still needed to wait and see.

For now, it seemed that the only one in the entire Happo Navy he needed to fear was Sai, who had mastered Armament Haki.

But who knew whether they had other powerful figures hidden away?

He did not believe that the Happo Navy, which could stand toe-to-toe with the Marines, possessed only this much strength.

"Better safe than sorry. I should hide on the island for a while first."

"The Happo Navy can't stay on Iris Island forever. Once they leave, it won't be too late to continue onward."

As he thought this, Jogo could not help sighing inwardly.

"I'm still too weak!"

Less than a month after going to sea, the drawbacks of Conqueror's Haki had already begun to show.

—Before he learned coating, relying only on aura suppression meant he could merely bully trash weaker than himself.

If he did not have the "Flower-Flower Fruit" Trait, he would not even qualify to enter high-level fights.

But look at the opponents he needed to face now.

They were either Armament Haki users or Devil Fruit ability users, all with extremely strong resistance to the aura suppression of Conqueror's Haki!

Jogo himself was not even sure whether tenfold Conqueror's Haki could knock these people unconscious.

"Although I had a great harvest on Sunflower Island thanks to 'Leaving the Nest,' the returns from white Traits were still too small. The growth of my Conqueror's Haki was limited... even multiplied tenfold, it was still limited."

"When facing these people, if 'Fleur de Bloom: Tenfold Twisting' fails to achieve the expected results, then I can only rely on hand-to-hand combat..."

At that thought, Jogo could not help clicking his tongue.

Hand-to-hand combat?

Against whom?

Was it Sai's fierce, unstoppable Hasshoken? Or Hina's Cage-Cage Fruit, locking people up the moment she came at them? Or Bege's Fortress-Fortress Fruit, sucking people into his body the instant they got close?

Without Conqueror's Haki, he was only somewhat stronger than elite Marine Headquarters soldiers.

There are still far too many monsters on these seas!

Even with cheats activated, he could only scurry around like a rat, hiding here and there.

What did that mean?

It means my cheat isn't powerful enough!

Jogo looked at the [Haki Panel] in his mind, hoping it understood what he meant.

It would be great if I could awaken another type of Haki, or learn Conqueror's Haki Coating.

In fact, there was quite a bit of hope for that.

After Hina's hands-on instruction over the past few days, he had finally gotten the hang of it.

After several days of training, with his heart and body as one, he felt that he had vaguely grasped the sensation of awakening Haki!

It was not because he was some incredible genius who could surpass decades of others' training in three days.

Rather, with his experience awakening and using Conqueror's Haki, he could sense these changes in the soul more keenly than ordinary people.

But...

Yes, there was always a but.

Just as Hina had said.

There was no reliable method in the world for awakening Haki. All people could do was work hard to raise their chances of awakening it, then wait for that lucky moment to arrive.

So even if he had caught the feeling, when he would break through remained unknown.

Some unlucky people might be stuck on that feeling for their entire lives without making the slightest progress.

Jogo did not know how long he would be stuck either.

As for quickly increasing those odds, that was simple.

Go fight!

A day earlier, in the ship's cabin, Hina, dressed in a maid outfit, had lain on the bed and answered without hesitation.

"Fight like your life depends on it!"

"The closer a battle brings you to death, the more effective it is!"

Jogo placed a hand on the soft fabric of her maid outfit, his fingertips sliding it aside as he pressed against the snowy skin of her fragrant shoulder. While massaging Hina's shoulders to help her relax, he humbly asked,

"Teacher Hina, is there a way that doesn't involve dying quite so quickly?"

He admitted that there was a part of him that liked fighting, but he did not like dying.

If he could stay alive, he still wanted to live long enough to comprehend Haki.

Hina pondered for a while.

"There is, I suppose..."

"If you had an extremely powerful senior who could give you the sensation of near death without actually letting you die, that should work too."

"But do you have someone like that?"

No... but he would very soon!

In the alley, Jogo's heart flew once more toward the distant Sabaody Archipelago.

Since regaining his memories, he had never yearned to reach an island as much as he did now!

Ah~ as long as he could get there...

Then he would awaken Haki in a single day and know that his fate was his own, not Heaven's!

Master Rayleigh, wait for me!

Lost in that pleasant fantasy, he failed to notice,

that in the shadows at the entrance behind him, a young man with close-cropped white hair and sausage lips stood sideways, half his face exposed, staring expressionlessly at Jogo's back.

The insides of his fingers transformed into sharp blades, easily embedding themselves in the hard stone wall beside him and carving deep furrows across its surface.

"Your intelligence was correct. Target located."

He spoke to the Den Den Mushi clinging to the wall beside him.

The Den Den Mushi stuck out a curled, lizard-like tongue and imitated Vito's laughter.

"Then I'm looking forward to your performance, Daz Bones!"

"A captive would be best. If that isn't possible, bring me his head."

"Once you're done, find me at the underworld contact point on Dendrobium Island. There'll be no shortage of reward money for you."