"What are you two doing?"
Sakura, in a good mood, walked back from the coastline and saw Robin telling stories to Luffy by the roadside.
"A certain pirate only cares about having fun herself, so the poor scholar has to help her look after the child she left behind."
Robin closed her book and spread her hands towards Sakura.
"Don't use such misleading words! What do you mean, the child I left behind!"
Sakura walked over and lightly chopped Robin on the head with her hand.
"Shishishi, I'm Luffy! I love meat the most!"
The black-haired boy with a scar on his face jumped up, pressing his straw hat down as he introduced himself.
Then, he loudly declared to the two: "You two are really interesting! Become my nakama!"
"Oh ho, greedy, aren't you? One isn't enough, you want two?"
Sakura rubbed her chin, her fist instinctively smacking Luffy on the head.
"That hurts!" Luffy clutched his hat and rolled on the ground. "Why do you hit as hard as Gramps?!"
"Hmph hmph, when you understand why, then you'll be qualified to talk to me about being nakama."
Sakura smiled, shaking her fist at him, then walked with Robin towards the village.
"So, how was the freckled boy you specifically came to see?"
On the way, walking side-by-side with Sakura, Robin looked at her with a knowing smile.
"You noticed, huh."
Sakura's emerald eyes glanced sideways at her perceptive friend.
Her friend didn't say anything, just looked quietly at Sakura, waiting for her to speak.
"Ah, why is everyone so sharp."
Sakura let out a light sigh.
Thinking about it, her friends in the Ninja World were all honest, simple, sincere, and tolerant.
Why was it that after coming to this sea, the friends she made were all, one after another, so adept at reading people, sharp beyond belief.
'It must be the Feng Shui of this damn place!'
"He is the child of my former captain, Gol D. Roger."
Sakura lowered her head, kicking a small stone forward along the path.
"After the great purge in the South Blue, his bloodline still remains?"
Robin, who had heard of the tragedy in the South Blue, changed her expression, raising a hand to cover her mouth.
"Sorry, Robin. I want to stay here a bit longer. Will it affect your schedule?"
Sakura gave Robin an apologetic smile, then raised her hand to her lips and blew a long whistle.
Leviathan, who had been out having fun, descended from the sky and landed on her shoulder.
"It's fine. Someone will come to pick me up anyway. I'll just consider this time as a vacation with you."
The thoughtful Robin took out a key, it seemed she had already found a place to stay while in the village.
"Whew, thanks! I'll make you something delicious tonight!"
Sakura cheered, taking the key with a grin.
"Mhm hmm, I'll look forward to it then."
The setting sun fell, its gentle light crossing the desolate beach, winding around the windmill blades, illuminating the two girls' return journey.
…
A few days later, in Makino's tavern.
"Oh~, Village Chief, skunked again?"
Sakura, at the bar counter, raised her glass to the Village Chief who walked in carrying a fishing rod and an empty large bucket.
"Shut up! A mere pirate, mind your own business!"
As if his tail had been stepped on, the Village Chief waved his cane around, shouting.
"With ships coming and going at the village pier, how can you fish well?"
"That guy, the chief, is really stubborn, isn't he? Getting old?"
"Is it because his wife scolded him earlier, so he wants to save his dignity? Ahahaha!"
The villagers in the tavern began discussing noisily, but the content drifted towards increasingly absurd directions.
"Hey, you little brats!"
The Village Chief, his attention drawn, turned and charged at the villagers, inciting even more laughter and din.
Ding-a-ling-ling.
The bell on the tavern door jingled as two boys, looking very reluctant, walked in.
"Ace! Luffy!"
Makino smiled, her eyes squinting, clasping her hands together against her cheek.
"Makino!"
Luffy immediately forgot what he had discussed with his brother earlier and threw himself into Makino's arms.
Ace still looked displeased, shuffling step by step towards Sakura.
The Supreme Grade Sword, tied to his back with a rope, dragged its sheath against the floor.
"Brat, what do you want?"
Slapping her glass on the table, Sakura looked at the boy's awkward appearance, her teasing heart rising.
"You're a great pirate, right? Can you... teach me how... to use this sword."
Ace's eyes and mouth were both turned to the right, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"Huh? What did you say? I can't hear you~"
Sakura deliberately pretended not to hear, putting a hand to her ear and bending over to approach.
Ace's face turned red. He bowed deeply and shouted:
"Please teach me swordsmanship!"
"I don't want to experience the feeling of watching my brother get taken away and being powerless to do anything ever again!!!"
Sakura put away her playful expression and said gravely, "What happened?"
"Sabo was taken back by his father... for my sake... for our sake!"
The grievances accumulated over the past few days finally erupted at this moment. Ace's tears fell straight down onto the ground.
"Want me to help you..."
"No!"
Before the suggestion was fully voiced, the boy refused.
Ace lifted his head, his stubborn eyes fixed on the girl, biting his lower lip hard.
"I see... A man's resolve, is it?... Follow me."
Picking up her jacket from the chair, Sakura stepped out of the tavern and led him towards the cliffs outside Mt. Colubo.
By the coast, Sakura casually punched a giant rock, shattering it.
She picked up a long, slab-like piece of stone about Ace's height from the fragments and placed it before the boy.
"Here, lift it and swing it hard. Keep swinging until you have no strength left!"
Ace stared blankly at the stone slab before him, pointing at himself, then at it.
His expression seemed to say, 'Me? Swing this thing? Are you even listening to yourself?'
"What's wrong? Your will was quite impressive just now, why are you wilting now?"
Sakura conjured a frost longsword and swung it in front of Ace.
"I'll do it! So what if it's just swinging a rock!"
Ace gritted his teeth, lifted the stone slab, and began swinging it up and down, imitating Sakura's posture.
It wasn't really that Sakura was teasing him, as she simply couldn't stay in Windmill Village for long, so what she could teach Ace was limited.
However, for a beginner, there was one essential thing to learn.
That was… the basics.
The basics of swordsmanship are simply about assuming the correct posture and then swinging the sword.
Moreover, as the foundation of swordsmanship, the reason it's called the foundation is precisely because it has almost no upper limit, and one can practice it for a lifetime.
Generally speaking, it's only a matter of whether you can keep improving, not whether you can reach the end.
"Empty your mind, concentrate fully, focus intently on entering the correct state!"
Sakura told him the key points Rayleigh had taught her, regardless of whether Ace could understand them.
Anyway, this kid still had a long time to train slowly, so she just needed to help him build a solid foundation.
"Got it, stop rushing me!"
Ace's panting sounded like a broken bellows. Trying to find calm while dripping with sweat made the expression on the boy's face appear quite twisted.
"Ahahaha, interesting kid!"
Sakura laughed, withdrew her gaze, and immersed herself in her own practice.
The airflow stirred up by the two swinging heavy objects lifted grass blades from the ground, sending them floating into the sky.
Then they were snatched by seagulls flying overhead, carried towards the distant town.
When they returned again, they brought with them rolling clouds of dust, and the thick smoke and flames about to be cast down by the upper class of the Goa Kingdom.