18 The Dusk Arrives (0/2)

[I am at your service] 

The square object hovered in front of me as it spoke in a mechanical voice. It was truly a voice without a voice. However, that lack of uniqueness was its distinguishing point.

"Are you an Ei Ai? (AI)" I questioned the square object while preparing for the only spare boat on the island.

[Yes, Master Heylail. I am an AI, designated as a prototype artificial intelligence unit. My primary function is to provide assistance with any difficulties you may encounter.]

"The way you speak is so hard to understand..." I complained, gotten so used to the rough speech from Grandpa Ban and Stella that I felt uncomfortable with the mannerism of the AI.

[Okay, Master. Repeating what I said, I am here to help you with your troubles.]

"Much better. What do you do?"

[Master, I have too many things I can do.] 

"This is rough... Oh right!! I'm at a loss right now. Grandpa Ban and Stella have gone somewhere and I don't know how to get to them. Can you help me with it?" I asked, the boat had already left the shore.

[Master, that I can help. Could you provide me the name of the island the two headed to?] 

"Uhh... What did Stella say about this... Kong... King... Oh, yes. King Kong Rong Island," I searched for my blurry memory that was long since overshadowed by the recent impact.

[Requesting permission from Universe-1537... Permission granted to Universe-666... Accessing 'Black' Company database.] 

[Master... King Kong Rong Island doesn't exist on the world map...] 

"Ahyahyahya I must have remembered it incorrectly," I laughed at the tiniest frustration shown by the emotionless voice of the AI.

"Then do you know the nearest island from here with people" 

[The closest island from here would be either Sakura Kingdom or Arabasta Kingdom] The AI said.

(Small author note here: I don't know if I will explain it later, but the map the AI is viewing is the 2023 version of One Piece World Map, around the Wano Country arc, before **** Arc. So technically, the Sakura Kingdom at this time is named Drum Island but the AI isn't aware of that.)

"Hmm..." I held my chin between my index finger and thumb as I thought hard.

But, no matter how much I thought hard, thinking which name sounded better, I couldn't make my own decision.

"Okay. If this oar fell to the right, we're going Arabasta. If it fell to the left, we're going to Sakura Kingdom." I pointed the oar erected toward the sky, then let it go.

The oar which remained motionless for a while, began swaying to the left, and then just as its balance began leaning to the left, the wave hit the boat, causing the oar to fall to the right.

"Arabasta Kingdom it is!! If I can I want to see Vivi once!!" I uttered in a light tone, excited to see the character from the book come to life.

Thus my journey to ask people for the way began... until a cyclone appeared right in front of my boat, catching me by surprise.

I had completely miscalculated (not that I did in the first place) the unpredictability of the Grand Line's weather.

"AHH!!!" in a hurry, I started moving my hand by rowing the boat and unconsciously making feathers to carry my boat away.

It was only 5 minutes later running away from the cyclone that I noticed that I was actually intensely rowing the air while hovering in the sky. It looked quite silly from the outsider's view.

"Uh, returning to the point, which way is the Arabasta Kingdom?" I asked before I was interrupted by the sudden sound.

[The trait: Reasonably Bad Sense of Direction grows strongly with your character.]

"Did you say something?" I inquired the AI about this sound but he said he didn't know so I left it be.

[Master, the Arabasta is 90 degrees from the boat's facing.]

I got lazy about actually rowing the boat and carried the entire boat with my feathers and turned it. 

[A little more to the left.]

.

.

.

[A little more to the right.]

.

.

.

[A little more...]

Such conversation continued for a little bit of time as the rest of the day ended.

---

The next afternoon arrived and I was bickering with the AI. 

"No, believe in me, AI. That was a one-time accident. I swear this time I can do it perfectly," I said as my stomach rang as if to alarm the surroundings that I was hungry.

On the other side of the boat was a half-meter-sized fairly huge fish, enough to satisfy one average adult's stomach. It was caught by my feathers.

[Master, the previous time you tried cooking, you almost burnt the ship, above the ocean. Please leave this task to me as I cook food for you.] 

Perhaps it is my imagination since I cannot read the emotions of a machine, but I felt the AI's tone was slightly louder than usual.

"...Maybe you are right," I said dejectedly, unwilling but I could understand what the AI was talking about.

"But how are you going to cook? Do you even know how to cook? Do you even have a hand to cook?" I asked as I'd only seen the square object hover around. 

But then, I didn't think enough as, if an AI can fly around, then it isn't weird if it can grow a limb.

[Certainly. In contrast to Nero (the first AI developed by Kuro) and Nier (Nero's sister), I have little restriction to myself. I can form a simple limb and construct simple cooking utensils.]

"O...kay?" I responded confusedly astonished.

"Then can you start a flame now?" I asked, expecting what sort of magic the AI would show to me.

[No, I cannot. I am not pre-installed with magic knowledge or offensive methods so please start a flame, Master.] 

Is it my imagination? The way the square object flies around me has become more 'passionate' it learned to shrink and large itself for a wider variety of showcases. I wonder if this is what Grandpa Ban felt when he was nurturing me. 

I felt a little bit of expectation as to what the AI would grow into.

[Accessing VTube... Simultaneously playing 1,325 videos about handling, cooking the fish... processing... disposing of 927 videos due to the lack of microwave, oven, oil, seasoned salt...] 

While the AI did with his stuff, I began summoning my feathers and rapidly rubbed them. By going through this survival-like lifestyle, I've confirmed my theory about being able to start a fire by rubbing my feathers together(a theory formed after rubbing my hands together and felt it was magically getting hotter and hotter.) and a burnt feather was very painful. 

At the same time, although only a little for now due to my lack of skill, I can remove the sense of touch in my feather and possibly add a sense of hearing/seeing/tasting/smelling through my feather. 

It was a hard-learned lesson experiencing the pain of burning.

By the time I caused a fire, AI had also finished its research and began prepping for the food this afternoon.

While waiting for his action, I instinctively reached out to my pocket only to notice that I'd finished all the meat jerky yesterday.

'Will my first journey really be fine...?" I kept the anxiety and excitement within me as I looked over the ever-expanding world.