Chapter 120: Gathering Wishes (part 1)
That night, it was still that ship graveyard.
“Come again?”
The old pirate leaning on a tattered deck chair was still puffing on his pipe, greeting without looking back.
“Yeah, came again.”
“If you’re here, take another look, then get going after you’re done. Don’t disturb this old man while I’m smoking.”
Fulaihai’er didn’t reply, just staring at his own battered pirate ship.
It was still fixed by a rusty chain, bobbing up and down on the sea surface, but it looked even more dilapidated than yesterday.
In the dark night, both were silent, with only the sea breeze and waves making sounds.
……
“I want, I want to pull him out.”
After a long silence, Fulaihai’er finally spoke with difficulty.
“What?”
The old pirate paused his pipe-smoking action, seemingly not having heard clearly.
“I said, I want to pull my ship out and renovate it!”
“Get lost! Coming to mess with this old man in the dead of night!”
“What’s there to renovate on that wreck of yours? In a few more days, it’ll probably fall apart on its own.”
“The keel and main mast are still good. As long as the other parts are repaired, it can still…”
“Heh!”
Fulaihai’er’s words were interrupted by a cold laugh before he finished.
“Repair? What will you repair it with? Who’s going to repair it for you?”
“Go find Tang Li. Didn’t he come from the Seven Water Capital? He has the skills…”
“Do you have the money? That greedy guy Tang Li won’t even hammer a single nail without triple the price.”
“Don’t forget how he was driven out of the Seven Water Capital back then.”
“…”
Fulaihai’er fell silent again.
A single coin can stump a hero; even one Belly can dash a man’s hope of chasing his dream anew.
“Go back.”
The old pirate waved his hand.
“Don’t come again.”
“…”
Fulaihai’er clenched his fists tightly, then released them powerlessly, repeating this several times.
“Phew~”
“I get it, then that’s it—”
“If there are ready materials, that guy Tang Li should give a discount, right?”
A familiar voice suddenly rang out.
“Hm?”
Fulaihai’er and the old pirate both turned their heads toward the direction of the voice.
“Shopkeeper?”
“You, brat?”
A figure limped out from the shadows; it was the tavern shopkeeper from earlier that day.
“How did you end up here too, brat?”
“What kind of wind has been blowing lately? One after another?”
“Did you get advance notice that this island is sinking, so you’re planning to run ahead of time?”
The old pirate teased, clearly very familiar with the tavern boss.
“Hahaha! Old pipe, put your heart at ease. Gaya Island won’t sink.”
“Hmph! Whether it sinks or not isn’t up to you!”
“And even if it won’t sink, it might get swept to the sky by those sea currents someday.”
『I think those Skyward Sea Currents probably don’t have that much power…』
Fulaihai’er muttered inwardly.
The sea area near Gaya Island, due to being in a seabed volcanic zone, often has massive sea currents shooting straight to the clouds formed by geothermal effects.
Locals generally call this kind of sea current “Skyward Sea Current.”
Ships sailing on the sea that encounter this kind of sea current will basically be shattered to pieces by the huge impact force, so people on the island generally time their voyages to avoid it.
Of course, there’s another legend in the town…
“Boss, do you two know each other?”
Watching the tavern boss and the old pirate chat back and forth so familiarly, Fulaihai’er couldn’t help asking.
“Of course we know each other. Who on the island doesn’t know this old pipe?”
The tavern boss pointed at the old pirate puffing on his dried tobacco.
This wasn’t exaggeration; any pirate on the island who decided to stay here basically knew this skinny old man who had been watching ships here since who knows when.
“You still have the nerve to say that, brat! When you arrived on the island back then, you stirred up quite a storm.”
“A great pirate with a fifty million bounty suddenly coming to such a remote small island, loudly claiming to find the legendary Sky Island…”
“The waves you caused back then weren’t any less than a seabed volcano erupting.”
A fifty million Belly bounty was basically the pinnacle for pirates in the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line in this era.
As long as you didn’t go to the New World, you could strut across the sea; even the Navy would have to steer clear upon sighting.
“Heh~ That was all youthful folly. Why bring it up?”
“I’m just an ordinary tavern boss now.”
“Yeah. If not for that incident back then, you…”
The old pirate’s words were full of regret for something that happened twenty years ago.
Meanwhile, Fulaihai’er, who had been listening to their conversation beside them, was already dumbfounded.
He hadn’t expected this unremarkable middle-aged tavern boss he knew to have such a huge background.
Fifty million Belly! Exactly ten times his own bounty!
No wonder he could run the biggest tavern in a lawless place like Magellan Town.
“Alright, no more on that.”
“Old pipe, I’m here this time to pull my ship out too.”
“Hm? You’ve been idling here so long, why are you suddenly thinking of setting sail again now?”
The old pirate’s line of sight switched back and forth between the two opposite him, as if trying to discern something.
“It’s not me setting sail, but…”
The tavern boss said, looking up at the sky.
The night sky at this moment was clear with sparse stars, as if one could see to the end of the firmament.
“I want to try one last time. Entrust my ship, my last partner, to someone who can take him to the future.”
“Phew~~~ I see…”
Hearing this, the old pirate took a deep drag from his dried tobacco, his tone carrying a hint of undisguisable regret and pity.
“So that’s it. You’ve found that person, huh?”
“But it’s too late. Your old ship—Liboli’s Wing—can no longer sail.”
“Its mast and keel are too rotten; even a slightly big wave would snap them.”
The old pirate looked toward the bay, at the largest—and also the most dilapidated—ship there.
The hull, covered in scars and patches, faintly showed its original feather-like decorations.
The deck was raggedly pocked with pits of all sizes.
The eagle carved on the ship’s prow was now broken, leaving only half its body.
At a glance, the whole ship had only the specially made wing-like protective plates on the ship’s railing still intact.
These damages weren’t something natural decay could cause; this ship had already suffered considerable impact damage before being abandoned here!
“Then…”
“My! My ship! My ship’s keel and mast are good!”
Before the tavern boss could say anything, Fulaihai’er hurriedly spoke first, as if being any slower would make him miss something irreplaceable.
“Use my ship as the skeleton, plus the usable materials from your ship, Senior, and we can definitely piece together a complete ship!”
“Hm…”
The tavern boss neither agreed nor refused upon hearing this; instead, the old pirate spoke first.
“The usable parts on his ship are just that bit on the ship’s railing; it’s nowhere near enough for a complete hull.”
“Then—”
Before Fulaihai’er could say more, another voice rang out from the dense forest behind them.
“If it’s not enough, add my ship too!”
The newcomer was a familiar face: the middle-aged pirate who had asked Aoxi questions earlier that day.
Right after him, another voice followed.
“And mine!”
“You can dismantle my ship too.”
“Please make sure to include my ship.”
……
One voice after another rang out in this quiet little bay.
The pirates who had witnessed Aoxi’s bold words in the tavern that day gathered here in the night at the burial ground of their dreams.
“You all…”
Fulaihai’er stared dumbly at these familiar or strange faces.
“You can’t just leave us behind~ I want to see if that legendary Sky Island really exists too.”
“Exactly, sneaking off alone would be too despicable!”
“I heard that brat is a big shot from the New World. I want to give it one last try.”
……
