By the time Nami and the others aboard the White Pearl woke up, dusk had already fallen.
"Hey! You're awake!"
As everyone sat up, clutching their groggy heads, Norton was sitting by the rail with a fishing rod in hand, looking perfectly refreshed.
"What happened? Why did we... suddenly pass out?"
Nami asked Norton.
"That old man did it. His fists were coated in Conqueror's Haki. You couldn't withstand it, so you passed out," Norton said.
"Coated in Conqueror's Haki... what's that?" Nami looked bewildered. She had never even heard the term before.
Norton smiled and explained, "It's a kind of Haki you're born with."
Zoro, Sanosuke, Kuro, and the others were equally confused, but Norton offered no further explanation.
It was still too early for Zoro, Sanosuke, and the others to start learning about Haki. Besides, Norton only knew the basic concept himself; he had yet to grasp it.
"So... we escaped Garp the Hero? Even that legendary marine couldn't catch us?" Funing stood up with a hand against her forehead, still feeling a little dizzy.
Garp's Conqueror's Haki was too powerful. Never mind those with weak wills-even someone with strong willpower would pass out beneath that overwhelming Haki without a sufficiently powerful body to withstand it!
"Escaped? You could say that. Big Black capsized the old man's ship, so he couldn't chase us," Norton said with a smile.
"What?!" Everyone was stunned.
"But that does make sense! When you think about how enormous the Mist Whale is, capsizing a warship at sea really wouldn't be difficult!" Kuro adjusted his glasses.
Even a legendary marine would be helpless against a huge Sea King out at sea!
That was what Kuro thought.
Having been unconscious, Kuro had missed the sight of Garp punching a huge lump onto the Mist Whale's head.
"Anyway, we're safe now, right?" Nami patted her delicate chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
Norton nodded. Then, as though remembering something, he put away his fishing rod and asked Nami, "Speaking of which, Nami, how much longer until we reach Loguetown?"
"We should get there tomorrow!" Nami checked her compass before answering.
"Great!" Zoro perked up. He could finally buy new swords!
Despite being a bounty hunter, Zoro had little money, thanks to constantly getting lost and his fondness for alcohol. But Nami had already agreed to lend him some, so he was eagerly awaiting their arrival.
"Wait! King! I need to talk to you!" Funing suddenly moved closer.
"What is it?" Norton turned to the shipwright.
"Our crew has thirty-three whole ships! Over three thousand people! If that many people land all at once, it'll definitely cause a panic, won't it? The local marines will notice, too!" Funing said quietly.
"That old man Garp destroyed one of our ships. We only have thirty-two now," Norton corrected her.
"Thirty-two ships are still pretty terrifying!" Nami stuck out her tongue.
Their ships weren't ordinary merchant vessels. They were pirate ships flying skull flags! Any one of them could cause panic in a town!
"We're pirates! Why worry about all that? If we don't go ashore, the boys aboard will go stir-crazy!" said one of the seven pirates formerly from the Redbeard Pirates.
"No! We have to limit how many people go ashore!" Funing frowned. "We can't cause trouble for the island's residents!"
Born into nobility, Funing had received a good education. Although she had become a pirate, she still had basic moral principles and refused to bring disaster upon ordinary people.
"Our fleet is so large that we can't keep forbidding our men from going ashore," Kuro said, adjusting his glasses. "Otherwise, they'll grow dissatisfied and become difficult to manage."
Pirates didn't set sail to spend their entire lives at sea. They needed to stretch their legs on land.
"We need to lay down some rules!" Nami said after a moment's thought.
Sanosuke stood quietly behind Norton. Zoro had no interest in the discussion either and leaned beneath the mast in the shade, thinking of nothing but buying swords in Loguetown.
Once I get new swords, I can beat Sanosuke and officially challenge Norton!
At that thought, Zoro's gaze burned with eagerness, sending a chill down Sanosuke's back.
After sailing at increased speed for half an hour, the White Pearl caught up with the fleet that had fled ahead of them: the Black Cat Pirates, the Baratie, the Buggy Pirates, and the twenty-nine ships of the former Don Krieg Fleet.
When the pirates noticed there was no sign of the Dog-Head Warship behind the White Pearl, they were first astonished, then burst into cheers.
"Admiral Norton really is the strongest!"
"He actually escaped Garp the Hero!"
An enormous black shadow rose from beneath the sea. As Big Black the Mist Whale breathed, mist spread over the water once more.
This time, however, the mist wasn't thick. It was just dense enough to conceal the fleet's sails and the skull flags upon them.
From a distance, only the silhouettes of a vast fleet could be seen, looming faintly through the mist.
The White Pearl gradually moved to the center of the fleet, surrounded by thirty-one ships, with the Baratie to its left and the Buggy Pirates' ship to its right.
"Buggy!"
"Who are you calling a big, round nose?!" Buggy suddenly flew into a rage.
Only when he turned and saw that Norton was calling him did he rein in his temper.
"What do you want?" Buggy asked Norton irritably.
The surrounding pirates couldn't help admiring Buggy's nerve.
He actually dares to talk to Admiral Norton like that! The admiral is the strongest man in the history of the East Blue!
"I'm planning to let all three thousand of our men go ashore. What do you think?" Norton asked, resting one foot on the bulwark.
"Bad idea! We need people to stay behind and guard the ships! Otherwise, if the marines take the chance to destroy them, we'll all be stranded in Loguetown! Even Captain Roger... even the Pirate King died there!"
When it came to sailing experience, Buggy was unquestionably the most seasoned member of Norton's group. Not even Nami, their navigator, could match him in that regard.
Buggy had traveled far and wide with Pirate King Roger, crossing the Grand Line!
Norton found that reasonable. "Then what do you think we should do? We can't just ignore all these men, can we?"
Even if they weren't allowed ashore this time, they would have to go ashore next time.
They couldn't keep these pirates aboard forever.
Buggy rubbed his chin in thought, then slapped a fist into his palm. "Leave a group aboard each ship to stand guard and let the others go ashore! As long as they don't cause trouble and split up, they won't attract the marines' attention!"
"Aside from our well-known officers, none of the small fry in our crew have bounties. The marines won't recognize them!"
"We just need to anchor the fleet farther away! Or hide it!"
Norton nodded slightly. An old hand really was different.
As a sailing novice, there was still much he didn't understand. At times like these, an experienced subordinate like Buggy was invaluable.
Buggy had truly seen the world. He had even seen the Golden Lion Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates at their peak.
Even Zeff couldn't have given such a thorough answer to this question.
After all, Zeff had only sailed the Grand Line for a year, commanding a single ship. He had no experience with this sort of thing.
Just then, Zeff leaped over from the Baratie as well. The White Pearl stood nearly three times as high as the floating restaurant, but that height was no obstacle to someone of Zeff's skill.
"Norton, there's something I need to discuss with you..." Zeff said gravely.
"Go ahead." Norton nodded.
"Sanji, Patty, and I need to buy ingredients in Loguetown. It would be best if the other cooks came along, too..." Zeff began laying out his request.
"Our crew has too many people. Stocking enough food for over three thousand people until we reach the next island is no easy task. We need to prepare early."
Although the floating restaurant only provided free meals to the White Pearl, while those aboard the other pirate ships had to pay, it still needed enormous food reserves.
Three thousand people eating two meals a day meant six thousand portions of food every day.
And on these seas, voyages between islands generally took more than a week.
That meant they needed to stock at least forty-two thousand portions of food!
It was a staggering number.
Even fishing to make up the shortfall would only solve part of the problem.
That was why large pirate crews usually looted everything they could once they reached shore.
Food, women, treasure... they took everything! They would even kill people to relieve the stress of life at sea!
That was the fundamental reason people of this era feared pirates.
They were a pack of devils!
"Understood." Norton nodded, granting Zeff's request.
"If you're going to let these pirates ashore, you'd better keep them in line!" Zeff added after some thought.
"I'll certainly keep them in line. This is a perfect chance to see how many of them pretend to obey my rules while breaking them behind my back!" Norton replied confidently.
Everyone knew his rules.
First, no indiscriminate killing.
Second, no robbing the poor.
Third, pay for what you buy and be a civilized, polite pirate.
Fourth, no harassing women!
Norton would not go easy on anyone who broke these rules. He intended to establish a country, and the pirates under him would eventually become its citizens.
He didn't want citizens with no decency!
Big Mom had built a country around blood ties. Norton couldn't give birth to as many children as Big Mom, so he had to lay the groundwork from the beginning!
"Kuro! When the time comes, you and Sanosuke will deal with anyone who breaks my rules!"
"Understood, King!"
Dusk gave way to night. As darkness fell, the pirates sank into deep sleep. After the exertions of the past few days, almost everyone was exhausted.
As the sky began to brighten, Zoro opened his bleary eyes in the lookout under the first rays of sunlight.
The silhouette of an island appeared in the distance.
"Hey! I think I see an island!"
Zoro leaned over the railing and shouted down to everyone below.
Norton emerged from the captain's cabin, stretching. Behind him, Nami and Funing followed him onto the deck in their pajamas.
"Are we almost there? Get ready to dock. Everyone going ashore, come aboard the White Pearl!"
Thirty-two pirate ships docking together would undoubtedly cause a huge uproar. But if only the White Pearl docked, the commotion would be much smaller. At least it wouldn't throw all of Loguetown into panic.
"Should we lower the pirate flag, Admiral Norton?"
"No need!"
Before the fleet drew close to Loguetown, all the pirates planning to go ashore crossed the gangways onto the White Pearl.
Fortunately, the White Pearl was large enough to hold over two thousand people.
Before leaving, Norton made sure to have Big Black release mist to conceal the fleet.
By the time daylight fully broke, the White Pearl had officially docked at Loguetown's harbor!
The arrival of the hundred-meter-class White Pearl immediately drew plenty of attention.
"What an enormous ship!"
"You don't see that every day! That streamlined hull and the statue of a girl on the bow are so beautifully crafted!"
"Hey! That's a pirate flag flying on that ship, isn't it?!"
Amid the chatter, Funing stepped ashore with a smile. Praising the White Pearl was no different from praising her directly.
Norton and his officers were the first to disembark.
The other pirates remained aboard, preparing to go ashore in successive groups.
"Sanosuke, I'll leave the surveillance to you. If anyone gets out of line, you know what to do." Norton turned to Sanosuke.
"Nami! Lend me some money! I'm going to buy swords!" Zoro called out to Nami, who was about to look for a clothing shop.
"Sure!" Nami flashed a sly grin. "But remember, I'm charging triple interest!"
Zeff, Sanji, and Patty had also changed into casual clothes and were preparing to browse the nearby food shops.
Returning to familiar ground left Buggy feeling rather nostalgic, and he planned to visit the Execution Platform.
Kuro had nowhere in particular he wanted to visit, so he chose to remain aboard.
"Hey! Norton! Look!" Funing suddenly grabbed Norton and pointed at a pirate ship beside the White Pearl. "That looks like the Spade Pirates' ship!"
Norton followed her finger and saw a skull flag with a spade behind it. It was indeed the Spade Pirates' flag that Funing had shown him.
That meant Fire Fist Ace was on this island!
A smile spread across Norton's face. "Excellent! I'll go find him right now!"
Meanwhile, the marines at the harbor spotted the docked White Pearl.
"A silver skull flag with a scepter crossed with a king's chess piece! That looks like Norton's crew's flag!"
"The criminal with a two-hundred-million bounty who killed a king has landed on this island! Notify headquarters immediately!"
As Norton left the harbor and entered the town, he didn't notice the marines lurking in the shadows.
Or perhaps he noticed them and simply didn't care.
At that moment, Norton had only one thought: to find Fire Fist Ace, who was somewhere in Loguetown!
He was the Pirate King's son, heir to what the world called the most evil bloodline, and also the most promising rookie of the new generation.
Recruiting him would be a tremendous boon!
Norton remembered that in the original story, Ace had ultimately joined Whitebeard and become his son.
That meant Ace's resolve wasn't firm enough at all!
He had set sail because he wanted to prove to the world that he was stronger than his father, Roger!
Deep down, he was lost.
Otherwise, Whitebeard would never have been able to take advantage of that opening!
If Whitebeard could win Ace over, why couldn't I, Norton?