Full of questions, Xie Wen left the inn and headed to the dock where the Toot Toot Forward was moored. Then he saw a large number of pirate ships on the distant sea, closing in on Torrance with an aggressive air.
Xie Wen scanned them from afar but saw no particularly familiar pirate flags.
So...
How had these guys gotten here? How had they dared to come here?
The Sapphire Star could not make sense of it.
In fact, if Xie Wen had opened the dynamic map in the Hunter's Notes, he would have discovered that, compared to their starting point, Torrance was not only closer to the Red Line but also nearer the Calm Belt, practically at the very edge of the Grand Line.
And if he had paid a little more attention, he would also have noticed that, on their way to Torrance, they had almost always chosen the direction indicated by the most unstable of the Log Pose's three needles.
In other words, not only was Torrance remote, but the route leading there was inherently unlikely to be a navigator's first choice. This was also the main reason the islanders did not recognize Xie Wen at all and News Coos rarely visited.
Yet now, for some inexplicable reason, large numbers of pirates had appeared in Torrance at the same time...
There was no question about it. They had followed Xie Wen here.
As for why these pirates dared to follow Xie Wen, one of the "Five Emperors," and even openly posture as though they intended to fight him, the reasons were somewhat complicated.
First, it still had to do with Vegapunk-or rather, with Xie Wen's "shit-stirrer" tendency to have something major happen wherever he went.
After failing to seize Vegapunk, those pirates had turned their attention to