82. Shipwright

The Clowns' sparring session has surprised Palu very much. He can't say anything and can only look at Buggy with a shocked expression. Palu isn't sure that he can even win against one of the crew members, but Buggy can defeat them easily.

"How's the ship, Palu?" asks Buggy to Palu, making him come out from his stupor.

"It's good, I just need to do a final check," says Palu.

"Alright, we'll take our belongings now," says Buggy while turning around.

"Hey Buggy, can I join your crew?" asks Palu so suddenly.

"You want to join my crew? Why?" asks Buggy back to Palu.

It's the first time for Buggy to have someone ask him to join. All 4 of his crewmates were asked by him to join. So Buggy is curious about Palu's reason for asking to join his crew.

"You know, I refused many pirates who came to me for one reason. They're not strong enough," says Palu.

Palu then tells Buggy that he wants to find his homeland. Palu isn't a native here and he wants to find out about his origin. He was stranded and found on this island when he was a baby. Now he is curious about his homeland that he never know.

He has a hunch that his homeland is in Grandline. But Grandline is dangerous, so he needs to join a strong crew. That's why he always refused any offer to fix pirate ships in the hope to make the pirates angry to test their strength.

But no one has the strength beyond his expectation. That is until he saw the Clowns' sparring. He finally find someone that surpassed his expectation.

"Why're you so sure that you're from Grandline?" asks Buggy.

"Because of this," says Palu while opening his shirt and turning around.

When Palu shows his back, Buggy can see a pair of white wings there. It is quite big white wings like the Birkans, but Palu can hide it well enough.

"Sky People," says Buggy after seeing the wings.

"You know it?!" asks Palu with a surprised and hopeful tone.

"Yeah, your wings are the trait of Sky People who live on Sky Islands. Your hunch is right, Sky Islands are located on Grandline," says Buggy.

Palu gets excited, but Buggy hasn't finished, "But there are many Sky Islands that spread over Grandline. There might even be one or some unknown Sky Islands. It might take many years to find your homeland. Even so, do you still want to find it?"

"Of course. I want to know where I came from, how could I get to this place, who my parents are, etc. I want to know everything that always makes me curious," says Palu.

"Hmm, sure. But you need to work and want to do hard training. I don't want any lazy crew members in my ship. You need to be ready for hard training because Grandline is dangerous. So we need to get even stronger and I will train you very hard. Are you ready for that?" asks Buggy.

"Aye, Captain," replies Palu.

Buggy smiles and says, "Finish your job & take your stuff! We will sail immediately after everything's ready."

Palu salute and go to the ship for final checkups. Buggy wakes his unconscious crewmates up and tells them to get ready to leave.

After half an hour, everything is ready and they get on Little Hunter that has a new look. All parts have been painted using natural wood color & red lists to make it looks fresh. Some worn-out sails & other parts also have been repaired or replaced.

Little Hunter now looks like a new ship and it looks very sturdy. It even has its name written on both sides of hulls. But the biggest change is the front part. Little Hunter now has a head figure.

The head figure is a menacing black wolf head with a red nose & eyes. There is also a pair of cutlass that crossed under the wolf's neck. Its white canines also look real and scary.

"Palu has done a very great job," says Buggy happily.

Buggy has been with Little Hunter for 2 years. But he never saw Little Hunter with such an amazing appearance. He always took care of Little Hunter, but he just did basic maintenance. He never thought to change the ship's appearance, but now he is glad that he changed it.

"You look amazing, buddy. Now it feels like you are a real member of this crew, not just a ship that I stole and used to hunt pirates," says Buggy while smiling and caressing Little Hunter's mainmast.

"CAPTAIN, EVERYTHING'S READY," shouts Cricket from the rear deck after checking everything.

"Alright, let's sail!" orders Buggy to his crew.

Palu spread the sail and the ship moves to the sea. They have a new member now and the ship has been repaired. Now they are ready to explore South Blue.

The Clown Pirates start to visit the islands on South Blue from the closest ones. They meet with some pirate crews, marines, and even bounty hunters. But they can fend them off and defeat them.

They also finally can see Palu's strength. He is quite strong, his strength is similar to Manba. He still can't compete against the other 3 old members or Buggy, but he has the promising talent to grow strong.

Still, his fear of women is quite troublesome to handle. The ship is small and they have 2 girls in their crew. So Palu will often meet & need to interact with the girls, but he always runs when getting close to them.

The others can only sigh and let Palu fix that problem himself. They don't know what to do, even Manba who can't help with a psychological problem. They can only act like usual around Palu.

Buggy also teaches Palu about haki. He still wants his crewmates to be able to use at least one type of haki before going to Grandline. Haki will be a very important factor for their survival in Grandline.

They visit the islands on South Blue one by one. They visit any island, even the inhabited ones. They even find a small island that hasn't been drawn on the map and it makes Jude very happy.

They face many troubles, but they can handle them all. There's no big trouble like a Vice-Admiral who comes after them again. Even Marine has started to stop pursuing Buggy since he never deliberately attacked them.

His presence even scared of the pirates on South Blue and reduce their piracy activity. So the Marine is quite happy by that, although they don't show it directly. They just show it by not disturbing the Clowns anymore.

The Clowns explore South Blue for 2 months and finally reach the last island on South Blue. The last island that they visit on South Blue is the famous Karate Island.

This is the place where many strong people gathered to fight & train. Buggy wants his crew to spend some months here and hone their fighting skills. There will be many opponents to fight here, so they will be able to polish their fighting skills.

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