17 Lucky Ring
When I left the captain's cabin, I went straight to the storage room as they are usually empty most of the time. After checking twice to make sure the room is empty, I locked the door and grabbed the Pan'ku box from my belt. When I open the box, the demon orb is now glowing bright blue and trigram of the sky (☰) pop out from the top side of the box. 'This confirms my theory that Dragon is indeed devil fruit user and I need to be near certain devil fruit users to open the demon portal.' I place the box back into inventory and open the shop to buy a few things.
Finishing my purchase, I went back to the sleeping quarter and placed my backpack in the bed. When we arrive in Cocoyashi village, I can't use the inventory system as Kuma will be watching over my every move. I pull out 2 more backpacks from the inventory and summon 2 Ninja Khans, "Two of you have a mission when we arrive in the village. Take these and wait for my instruction, no one can see you." Two Ninja Khans grab the backpacks and disappear into the shadows after I gave an order. With preparation done, I got into my bed and took out the letter from sister Betty.
"Dear David, I can't believe you challenge our leader and survive the fight in one piece. After the fight, Dragon was impressed with your ambition to get stronger, so he decided to take you to the Grand Line to train you. Next time I see you, I hope you grow up to be stronger and less stupid to do something crazy. From: Betty
P.S: If you slack off, I will personally come to the headquarter and bring hell upon you.
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Next Day, near Cocoyashi Village, Mid Afternoon,
Cocoyashi village is one of the 20 communities in the Conomi island. People there lived a peaceful life until Arlong pirates came and extorted the island for protection money. The island has a marine base in command of Marine Captain Nezumi, but he is corrupt and greedy to the core that he made a deal with Arlong to look the other way for a small portion of extortion money. All this will happen in the future when Arlong pirates invade the island and ultimately bring death to Bellemere. I can't intervene or Nami won't join the Straw Hat but at least I can prevent the death of Bellemere, easing Nami and Nojiko's pain.
When we docked at the Cocoyashi Village, Kuma and I were the only one got out of the ship. As we walk toward the village, many of the villagers stare at us with curiosity and suspiciously. 'It makes sense that they would be alert since outsiders rarely come to remote villages such as this.' I gave a smile to villagers as I walked past them, hoping it would ease the tension, but thanks to Kuma's silent and stone face it was pointless in the end.
Soon, a man with a police uniform and pinwheel in his hat approached us, "Hello, my name is Genzo and I'm the sheriff here. What brings you to our humble village?" Genzo asked us as he greeted me and Kuma. Before I could say anything, Kuma spoke first, "We heard from sailors that tangerine from Cocoyashi Village is rich with vitamin c. We are here to purchase large quantities of tangerines for our travel." There was no pause or emotions from Kuma's voice.
'Dude, are you a cyborg already? What was that?' I thought, but fortunately, Genzo didn't mind Kuma as he understood that we are customers, so he pointed his finger at a house in the distance. "That is the home of Bellemere, owner of tangerine grove. She will be willing to sell you some tangerines." We thank Genzo and walk toward the tangerine grove.
By the time we arrived at Bellmere's home, there was a loud activity ahead. Two little girls, one with orange hair and the other with blue hair, were arguing about something. Suddenly, a woman with red hair came outside of her house and smacked both of their heads. "Why in the world are you guys arguing about?" The woman asked the girls.
With tears in her eyes, a girl with orange hair spoke first. "I want to get a book for my birthday but Nojiko said I can't because we are poor." "Because we are Nami and books are expensive. Do you think Bellemere can afford that?" The blue girl made her point as she also had tears in her eyes.
I could tell Bellemere was hiding her sadden face for a moment when Nojiko spoke about how poor they are. Before this conversation becomes a bigger problem, I clear my throat to get their attention. "Sorry to bother you, but we are here for business. My name is David and this is…" "I'm William Malihnus, David's father, we are here to purchase large quantities of tangerines. We have the money." Moment Kuma mentions money, Nami and Nojiko change from sad to happy mood as customers just walk into their homes. Meanwhile, Bellemere couldn't believe their financial situation just solved itself and I maintained my posture while facepalming my imaginary face. 'I can't believe he just said we have money like it's a normal thing .'
Few awkward moments later Bellemere welcomes us to her home and offers us tangerine tea. While Kuma and Bellemere talk business, I saw Nami and Nojiko staring at me with curiosity. Thinking it's a better time than never, I went to two girls to start a conversation, by the time Kuma was done with negotiation, I befriended both girls and exchanged stories. "Nami, Nojiko, why don't you girls take Mr. Malihnus outside and show him the tangerines?" Bellemere told them as she stood to clean the teacups. Nami, Nojiko and Kuma left the house, while I stayed behind to look around the home.
The home itself is average but there are colorful drawings on the wall and decorations all over the place. Just then, I saw something I would never expect to see, a yellow dog-like mask on the wall of the bedroom. 'An Oni mask, why is this here of all places?' I approached the mask to see it closely, and suddenly a hand came from behind me and touched my shoulder. I turned around to see Bellemere looking at me seriously, "Kid, do not enter the lady's room without permission, or else you won't get any girlfriend in the future." She started to push me to get me out of her room, so I quickly asked her a question, "Where did you get that mask, Mrs. Bellemere? It looks just like the one I was looking for."
Peaked with interest, she stopped pushing me and explained to me how she bought the mask when she was stationed in the South Blue as a marine. She decided to keep the mask as it scares the girls from entering her room.
While explaining, she giggled a little bit when she mentioned scaring the girls. "You mentioned you are collecting masks, are they some kind of a rare artifact or something?"
"It is more of a hobby, I already collected two masks and have a long way to collect all 8 of them. If you don't mind, would you sell this mask to me?"
Bellemere was a bit hesitant, but she decided to sell the mask after she destroyed me with her bargaining skill. 'No wonder Nami is street smart, she learned it from Bellemere.' In the end, I bought the mask for 50,000 berries and a few books from my backpack. I didn't mind because I was going to give Nami books related to mapping and navigation. I put the yellow mask (Kiiro) into my backpack and took out a ring of substitute from the inventory to give it to her.
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Bellemere's POV
Bargaining is my specialty when it comes to trade and business deals. So, when a giant businessman and his son came to us to purchase my tangerines, I won the negotiation without breaking a sweat. Then, the kid wanted to buy my old mask for his collection, so I sold it off for 50,000 berries and books that he was willing to give up. I was lucky enough to obtain the books that Nami wanted for so long.
When the deal was over, I panicked when I saw him pull out a fancy blue ring from his backpack, "Kid, you are too young to ask me out, come back with you turn 18." I scorned him for having the nerve to ask 'The Question' to me.
The kid blushed when I told him, "Where I came from, the masks represent different things. The yellow mask presents bad luck, I know it's a superstitious thing to say but I wanted to give you the ring for good luck." He explained and handed me the ring. Realizing that I misunderstood, I accept the ring due to my embarrassment. David told me to wear it all the time and went outside to look for his father.
When the kid left, I wanted to hide in a small mouse hole but I ended up turning bright red. I placed the ring in my right finger and inspected the craftsmanship. The ring itself is a deep blue color with small white stars around. I was never a jewelry girl as I couldn't afford it, but now hearing that it could bring me good luck, I decided to keep it on. Who knows? Maybe the ring will change my life for the better in the future.
