"The World Fighting Tournament? Interesting."
The mysterious man with short purple hair closed his eyes.
An image of another stretch of sea surfaced in his mind.
A crow stood on a rooftop, using its astonishing eyesight to read a newspaper discarded on the ground.
It was a clone derived from his cells, possessing intelligence of its own, and Kaz could share its vision.
There were hundreds of similar crows scattered across the surrounding waters and the wider sea.
After the Swordsmanship Tournament ended, Kaz continued his solitary journey across the sea.
He sailed almost aimlessly.
He carried neither sea charts nor an Eternal Pose.
Kaz had discarded all those things, leaving only himself.
Only then did it feel like an adventure. Kaz liked exploring the unknown.
Still, he needed to avoid getting lost or losing touch with the wider world.
Whenever Kaz left an island, he left behind a crow clone to help him keep track of his location.
There were hundreds of these crows across the sea.
Through them, Kaz could still keep abreast of everything happening out at sea.
That kept his information from falling too far behind.
He sat upon a stone throne.
The sky was utterly dark.
Elsewhere in the same waters, the other islands Kaz had visited still enjoyed clear weather.
But this island's environment was very unusual.
Its peculiar magnetic field kept thick, dark clouds blanketing the entire island.
The light was so dim that it seemed night had already fallen.
There were quite a few such islands across the sea, known as night islands.
Spring islands enjoyed spring all year round, while winter islands remained wintry throughout the year.
Islands like this one were called dark-night islands, or night islands.
As the name suggested, they spent most of the year in darkness.
Only