Pirate's Swordsman

The temperature in the East China Sea in early summer is not very high, so even though it is noon, the slight heat brought by the sun is largely dissipated by the passing sea breeze and the occasional waves.

puff puff~

In the sky, a black shadow suddenly flew past. Looking from a distance, it was a strange seagull with a wide wingspan, a sailor hat on its head, and a green cloth bag hanging around its neck, which was filled with newspapers.

One of the unique creatures in the pirate world, the news bird.

After flying over a vast and deserted sea, the seagull flapped its wings, swooped down slowly, and landed on the stern of the Barati restaurant. After pecking hard at the railing next to it, it folded its wings and waited silently.

This series of movements is extremely skillful, as if... it passes here every day.

And this is indeed the case. Almost immediately after the Newsbird landed, with a soft "squeak" sound, a little boy with blond hair and curly eyebrows walked out of the back door and held a coin in his hand. I threw it to it, then took out a newspaper from the green cloth bag, opened it and read it while walking back to the road.

"Oh, I can't understand it all. The comic below is also finished. It's really boring..."

The little guy with blond hair and curly eyebrows was of course Sanji. After a cursory glance at the front page of the newspaper, he showed an expression that was just as expected, shook his head, and closed the newspaper with a bored look on his face.

Ever since Zep ordered the newspaper for the first time not long after the opening of Barati Restaurant, Newsbird has delivered the newspaper on time every day in the past six months, rain or shine, but most of the time, Sanji has been the one to pick it up. After reading it myself, I gave it to Xia Nuo or Zhepu.

Of course, Sanji is basically not very interested in the news in the newspaper. The reason why he rushes to get the newspaper every time is just to see the last page of the Prologis Northwest newspaper he subscribed to earlier. It's just a comic strip.

However, starting last week, as a comic strip that Sanji had always been obsessed with came to an end, his enthusiasm for newspapers was greatly reduced. Every time he bought a newspaper, he usually just browsed the catalog to see if there was any. There were no new comic strips to take over. As a result, every time he got the answer these days, he was disappointed.

tread, tread, tread...

At this moment, there were slight footsteps in the corridor, coming from far and near. Sanji just raised his head and looked at the person, then handed the newspaper over with a murmur: "Here, today's newspaper , News Bird just sent it, I picked it up for you."

"Well, okay, thank you."

A gentle and diluted voice sounded, and soon a figure in a dark blue sweatshirt was gradually approaching in the corridor. From darkness to light, facing the warm sun that was approaching, his long and strong hands gently pulled the pocket on his head. The hat slipped off silently, revealing a delicate face with black hair and black eyes.

It was Xiano.

Compared with half a year ago, his body is obviously much stronger now, and his height is more than ten centimeters taller. The tough lines on his face that originally had a youthful air began to gradually become prominent.

The most eye-catching change was the long hair on the back of his head that was tied up with a light blue strip of cloth. Half a year later, this bunch of black hair was almost shoulder-length. Whenever the sea breeze blew by, a black hair appeared. Then it flicked slightly, adding a bit of elegance and maturity to Xia Nuo.

"It seems like something big happened..."

After taking the newspaper from Sanji and briefly glancing at the title, Xia Nuo frowned slightly. However, facing the curious look from Sanji, he didn't say anything more and put it away first. The newspaper said calmly: "You go in first. The old man was calling you everywhere just now. It's probably something urgent. Don't delay."

"Tch, Brother Xia Nuo, you lied to me again."

Sanji glanced at him sideways, curled his lips and said, "If you don't want me to watch you practice swordsmanship, just say so.

You have to be better at finding reasons. It's noon, and it's just after dinner. The old man should have gone to his room to sleep at this time. How could he come to me for anything? "

"you sure?"

Xia Nuo narrowed his eyes and suddenly smiled and said: "Don't blame me for not reminding you. Today you were hiding from smoking on the third floor. When you threw the cigarette butt downstairs, it seemed that you just threw it on the old man's hat..."

"..."

Sanji immediately stayed where he was. After a long time, he raised his head blankly and said with disbelief: "You...you saw it all?"

"Ah, I did see it."

Xia Nuo stretched and said casually, "Speaking of which, I only noticed yesterday that you little brat actually started to learn to hide and smoke secretly. I originally wanted to find time to chat with you this morning. In the end, this happened. Well, I guess the old man will definitely deal with you anyway. If you kick him, the effect will be much better than me trying to persuade you to die. I might as well not bother to look for you anymore. Just saves your worries."

The expression on Sanji's face became stiff, and the corners of his mouth kept twitching, as if he was trying to force out a difficult smile, but ultimately failed. After gritting his teeth, he suddenly raised his head, a pair of pitiful His eyes immediately fell on Xia Nuo:

"Xia...Brother Xia Nuo, you will help me, right?"

"Go away and stop bothering me. Are you still reasonable if you learn to smoke at a young age? Besides, the old man just happened to be a little unhappy when he saw that I spent a lot of money these days. I don't want to go over and scold him."

After Xia Nuo waved his hand angrily, he simply ignored Sanji who was in a petrified state, passed by him, and walked lazily through the sunshine to the opposite railing.

"Don't delay. You can have a good time if you go early. Otherwise, I probably won't be as simple as being beaten up by Fatty like you did when you set the kitchen on fire last time."

Without looking back, before opening the newspaper, Xia Nuo lazily dropped such a sentence, and suddenly stabbed the desperate Sanji in the heart...

........................

The sun was a little bright, making the fonts on the newspaper look a little blurry. However, for Xia Nuo, who has been practicing kendo for many years and has extremely outstanding eyesight, this is nothing at all. He just turned his back like an ordinary person and used the shadow of the railing to block the sun, which was a perfect solution. All this.

His fingers rested on the edge of the newspaper, and as his fingertips turned slightly, news and reports quickly flew past Xia Nuo's eyes:

"The Four Emperors Kaido went to the base of the Whitebeard Pirates alone and escaped unharmed after fighting for three days and three nights..."

"The navy's warship transformation plan is advancing, and warships with sea towers and stone bottoms may be promoted in the future..."

"The case of Tianshangjin being robbed two years ago has surfaced, and it may be related to a certain current king, Shichibukai..."

………………

"Well, there are really a lot of big things happening..."

Xia Nuo frowned slightly, especially after seeing some familiar words between the lines, a hint of speculation and contemplation appeared on his face.

But generally speaking, the expression on his face remained unchanged. After all, even if the news in these reports was connected to some events in his memory and represented some important significance, it did not have much relevance to him now. relationship. The big shots mentioned here and him, who is still the unknown swordsman of the East China Sea, are basically living in two different worlds.

At least, that's true for the time being.

Then, when his eyes fell on the bottom of the fifth page and saw the title clearly, his expression suddenly changed. His pupils shrank, the fingers holding the newspaper tightened slightly, and a strange color appeared in his eyes. Come:

"Has this guy finally arrived in the East China Sea..."