Chapter 60
"We arrived at this island around a week ago." Urouge said while drawing a simple crescent on the sand, with a stick in his hand. "Up until now, we didn't manage to get much information. No village, town, whatsoever. All that laid out there was a vast forest that seemed endless."
Rowan and his crew were seen to be listening intently, except for Dan, who was tied to the nearby tree, screaming "Adventure!!!" over and over.
"What does this supposed to represent?" Carmen deadpanned at Urouge, while pointing her finger towards the crescent moon-like shape drawn on the sand.
"The route we traveled in," Urouge grinned in response, "we left Hanjomaru at this point over here, and began to cut through the forest straight-ward. After few days, we found and chased after your horse, Farul, and met you guys, before moving back to where we began off from, right here.
'So... they didn't sight anything special but a continuation of forest.' Rowan thought as he listened to Urouge's explanations. Turning to his back, Rowan looked at the site of the corpses, where the flies were flying around. 'Where did they come from?'
Some Fallen Monk pirates were seen to be lingering around the dead body of Gertrude, with bounty posters in their hands.
"Ah, found it!!" One of the Fallen Monk pirates, Kamazo, cried as he held out one particular bounty poster. "Crantin 'Goliath' Gertrude, 64 million Beli, wanted dead or alive!"
Another member cried out in disappointment, "I can't find any single thing worth of value... just how poor were these dudes??"
Carina snickered hearing that; she had already taken everything the night before.
"So why didn't you go deeper into the forest?" Cavendish asked curiously while munching onto a rose.
"We weren't interested after sighting nothing but forest." Urouge grinned. "Between the Vearth that we've seen numerous times before and the fascinating Blue Sea, our choice is obvious, no?"
"Fair enough." Cavendish shrugged and returned his attention to the rose in his hand.
Carmen abruptly stood up with her right-hand blazed in fire, "Why don't I just burn the whole forest down to the ground? Problem solved!"
"""Whattt?!! You can do that?!!""" Urouge and his crew said with excitement, rendering Rowan and Carina to facepalm.
"I think eating the Flame Flame fruit overloaded her brain." Carina muttered, and Rowan couldn't agree more.
Rowan shivered thinking about the hell that Carmen unleashed in Sixis, and having her recreate such a scene on an island of a much larger scale... dreaded him. He had to stop her from acting impulsively.
"Carmen, have you ever heard of global warming? Due to excess carbon dioxide and other emissions produced, the world is getting warmer day by day. The trees are very environmental-friendly, as they are able to convert the carbon dioxide back to oxygen! What does this mean? When you burn those trees, a huge amount of carbon dioxide will be released, and..." Rowan started to blabber non-stop, causing Carmen's eyes to spin comically.
"What the hell is global warming?" Cavendish remarked with a rose sticking out of his mouth, "Carbos diosoda? What? From trees? Trees fart??"
Carina facepalmed once more, tiredly rubbing her eyes, "I think Rowan has gone weird since last night."
"Heyyy!!! Don't ignore me!!!" From the back, tied Dan screamed, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to him, except for Alfred, who was staring at Dan with sympathy. "Adventure!!! My hands are all itchy from not writing the journal for two days!!!!"
"How unfortunate to witness you in such a state, monsieur Dan," Alfred sighed, "please wait here, I will bring you another cup of tea. It will help you to sober up faster."
Dan's face turned green hearing that. "P-please, no more tea... I had more than ten cups already!!"
'Hold on, global warming isn't a thing here.' Rowan paused and realized his error.
Clapping his hands together, Urouge gained everyone's attention.
"Well, there's the information," Urouge grinned as his eyes flashed in anticipation, "now tell us what happened last night!"
All the Fallen Monk pirates leaned in, heavily interested in the words that were about to come out of Rowan's mouth,
"They were going to launch a sneak attack on us...." Rowan lowered his tone and spoke dramatically.
The Fallen Monk pirates leaned in even further.
"...so I killed them all." Rowan finished dully, causing the Fallen Monk pirates to fall comically.
Urouge jumped back on his feet and brought his grinning face closer to Rowan, "Where is the detail?! Give us the juice!!"
"There was no juice. It was a one-sided massacre." Carina's said while twirling her hair, which seemed to have notably grown longer. Her words led the Fallen Monk pirates to slouch down in disappointment.
"Anyway, thanks for sharing your information with us," Stretching his body, Rowan stood up, 'although it was useless.'
Urouge's grin widened, "No problem at all! I presume that you are planning to remain on this island for some more time?"
Rowan nodded in response.
"If so, I am afraid that this is where we part, Grimheart pirates!" Urouge held out his huge hand, "It has been enjoyable to spend time with you guys, but the adventure to the Blue Sea awaits ahead of us!!"
Rowan smiled as well and grabbed one of Urouge's fingers, shaking their hands, "I see. It has been a pleasure to get to know you, Fallen Monk pirates. Don't die out there, okay?"
"Hahaha, that's a nice joke!!" Urouge laughed, while Rowan froze on his spot, "Although not as potent as you, my crew and I are quite formidable!!"
'He didn't jinx himself, did he?' Rowan thought with a slight worry but quickly shook off such a thought.
The Fallen Monk pirates got aboard Hanjomaru and began to sail away. Rowan and his crew waved their hands to the Fallen Monk pirates.
Urouge was seen crossing his arms as he faced the island with a grin on his face. With a final thumbs-up, he turned around, looking forward to him and his crew's next journey.
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"Alright, this is how it goes," Rowan said as his crew all gathered around the table, "Carmen, Alfred, and Farul will defend Prominence. With his Haki and her ability, I doubt that any consequence will pose a problem. However, if you do encounter difficulty, simply signal a flare up in the sky."
Carmen and Alfred nodded with seriousness. Farul raised his foreleg in agreement.
"The rest of us will explore the forest for one purpose only: to check if there exist any unknown dangers that we should be aware of. If all is clear, I plan to have us stay here for some time—until we gain a proper grasp in this Haki."
Cavendish tilted his head, "But this is just the early part of the Paradise! What's there to fear?"
"Am I the only one who still don't get why they call this sea 'the Paradise?'" Dan said in exasperation, "What part of here is so 'paradise?!'"
Carina shook her head hearing Cavendish, "Trust me, we almost died facing off a very powerful Rear Admiral before recruiting you, Alfred, and Farul. Better be prepared than to face another consequence like that."
"Ah yes, the infamous destruction of the marine base G-11." Alfred spoke out calmly, "It has been less than a month, yet the news spread out like wildfire due to its absurdness."
"Oh, that one!" Cavendish said in a realization, before frowning, "Tch, Morgans out-shadowed me by writing something as bold as that, completely disregarding the Marine and the World Government."
"Pff," Carmen stared at Cavendish with a look of ridicule, "out-shadow? Please, no one knows you at all."
Cavendish angrily growled and pulled out a folded bounty poster from his pocket, pointing at it. "Don't you see this?! Cavendish, 75 million Beli, Wanted Dead or Alive!"
Carmen crossed her arms and leaned her head back haughtily, "You are witnessing the Flame Empress, an infamous pirate wanted for 200 million Beli!! Bow, puny mortal!!"
Dan let out a lone tear at the reveal of Cavendish's bounty, "10 million here…"
Carina was seen giggling as she spectated how the conversations went.
"Alright, that's enough chitchat." Rowan intervened, bringing the group back to the main topic, "Pack up, we are leaving immediately."
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[Sabaody Archipelago, Grand Line]
Next to the large mangrove labeled by the number 19, a small two-story house was seen to be situated out of nowhere; its surroundings were full of junks and corpses. On a balcony on the second floor of the house, two individuals were seen.
"Granny, did you read this?" A man, puffing on a cigarette, said with half-closed eyes as he held out a newspaper on his hand. He was around 230cm in terms of height with a lean body frame, coupled with black hair and black-coloured eyes.
Another hand weakly grabbed onto a short, old-aged woman with black hair herself. Although she looked senile, her black-coloured eyes contained a trace of wisdom.
"Hm? This one is already quite old!" The old woman exclaimed. "Marine base G-11 destroyed... what's so special about this? Just a mere G-11. Bring me news about the destruction of Marineford, and I may be surprised."
"Read after that." The man puffed out smoke while leaning on a rail.
"Dumbass, you think I didn't?! Just some rookies getting confident because of their devil fruit abilities, and nothing more!"
Hearing the old woman's reply, the man sighed. "One of the so-called rookies, Rowan the 'Grimheart.' His real name is Youchiha Bob."
The old woman froze.
"...WHAT?!!!" She shrieked in disbelief and tightened her grip on the newspaper. "Youchiha... haha... how?" Lifting her head up, the woman snatched the cigarette from the man's mouth to his dismay, before stomping on it.
"Come on Job, we literally found another member of our family, and you act like nothing happened?!!" The old woman shouted out and pulled on the hem of the man's cloth, causing him to gain a tickmark on his forehead.
"You friggin granny!!" Job shouted, "I told you to call me Sebastian!!!"
The old woman abruptly placed her eyes back on the newspaper, intently looking at Rowan's bounty poster, "I can't believe it... I thought we were the last one." Her eyes were full of excitement as if a new hope budded from within.
"Can you be the one who inherited the Eyes of Gorgon?" She whispered.