194 To Drum Island... or not!

AN: Sorry for the delay the timer on the chapter messed up.

Jayr POV - Blue Star, Grand Line, Paradise - 20 GAP

As Kharna's Dragon Breath continued to advance after vaporizing the Island Eater until it disappeared from sight, soon after, the waters parted by Kharna's Dragon Breath returned to their normal state as they quickly moved to fill the void before returning to their calm state, but I don't care too much about that, as all my focus is mostly on a slightly tired but proud Kharna.

Seeing that, I can't help but hug her closer and rub my cheek on her while saying, "Oooh! My little Dragon Princess~ She just released her first Island Buster attack and erased her very first bad guy~ Papa is so proud of you!" which causes her to happily giggle in response.

At the same time, Tio also rushes over and starts to praise and kiss Kharna, while I glance back to everyone else, and while, Seika, Saori, and Eri are calm, Koby, Vivi, and Igaram are standing still in place with their eyes wide open almost on the point of popping out, their eyebrows rising to the top of their forehead with a "^" shape, their mouths are also wide open almost too much and there is some snot coming out of their nose, they are so shocked that they are basically producing a perfect replica of Enel's shocked face.

In fact, I can even hear a phantom "NANIIIII!!?" echoing all over the place, looking at them like that, especially Koby's reaction I can't help but internally ask myself, 'I can understand Vivi and Igaram's shock as they have never actually seen Kharna in action, but why is Koby so surprised by this? After all, Kharna did help him with his training by shooting fireballs at him from time to time, in the end, this is nothing but a much stronger version of it... Speaking of this...'

I suddenly remember something that I forgot in the euphory of Kharna's achievement, and quickly I once more release the self-imposed limits on my senses, then I lock on the still advancing Dragon Breath in a hurry, and without any hesitation, I snuff it out before it could cause some unnecessary damage and casualties, and it is good that I did so, because it was heading straight for Drum Island, and it still retained enough power to wipe out the island from this world's map, talk about a close call.

After I took care of Kharna's Dragon Breath, Vivi, Igaram, and Koby finally snapped out of their shocked state, and Vivi quickly exclaimed, "W-W-What was that!? It has completely erased the Island Eater!!" followed by Igaram who screamed, "M-M-Ma~ ma~ ma~ ma~ maybe my eyes are fooling me, but I'm pretty sure I saw a D-Dragon appear for an instant! What is going on here!?"

Meanwhile, Koby shakes a little as he mutters with a dejected expression, "Kharna-chan is already much stronger than me... as expected from Jayr-san and Tio-san child..."

Seeing that, I kiss my tired Kharna cheek and hand her over to Tio, who lulls her to sleep as she continues to gush over Kharna's Dragon Breath while whispering, "As expected from this one and husband's daughter... Our Dragon Princess can already release her Dragon Breath at such a young age, and it is already so powerful too! Mama is very happy!!" 

Then I walk toward Koby, Vivi, and Igaram and start to reassure Koby, "First of all, Koby you don't have to be so dejected about this, Kharna's starting point is just too far ahead compared to most people and that is mostly thanks to the fact that she is my and Tio's daughter. In fact, compared to me at the same age Kharna is many times stronger than I was, well not that it is that difficult as I was just a cute, smart, weak baby like everyone else. Different from her who was born with that incredible power, I, just like all of you, gained my power and strength through constant and deadly hard work. So imprint these words in your soul, nothing is impossible, no matter how far ahead or strong other people are, through hard work, you can catch up to them and even surpass them. I'm living proof of that."

Hearing that, a resolute and confident expression appears once more on Koby's face as he says "Yes, Jayr-san! I'll never forget these words!"

At this point, Vivi finally gathers the courage to ask, "What is going on here, Jayr-san? How can Kharna-chan be already so powerful!?"

Seeing no harm in telling them that, I quickly explain, "Well, it is pretty simple, she isn't human. Her mother, Tio, hails from a very rare and powerful race called Dragonman Tribe. Humanoid beings can use a special power called "Dragonification" to transform into dragons, boosting their already immense natural strength. Aside from the ability to transform, the Dragonmen are nearly identical in appearance to humans, with the only differences of having slightly elongated ears with pointed tips and their nails being longer and pointy with a darker color. They also have a very long lifespan, in fact, Tio, is over 500 years old."

This new information seems to shock Vivi, Igaram, and Koby even further, meanwhile, I continue to explain, "And the fact, that I'm her father has also a hand in her current power. You see, through my years of training and fighting, I became so strong, that I can't even be considered human anymore, especially after I was able to gain the same ability as the Dragonman Tribe... so it is natural that Kharna is a tiny little bit stronger than the common babies..."

Hearing that, Koby mutters, "You call that a tiny little bit...?" at the same time, Igaram exclaims, "Wait! I think I heard it wrong, but did you just say that you, your wife, and your child can transform into Dragons and that without the use of a Devil Fruit but as it exists a whole race capable of doing so? How is that possible!?"

I look at him and ask back, "How is it so strange for you? In this world exist races like the Giants we just met, the Fishmen who can breathe underwater and control water with their martial arts, Minks who generate electricity, races with long arms, long legs, small wings and so much more. Is it really so difficult that a race capable of transforming into a dragon truly exists in this world?" 

But before Igaram could reply, Tio appears next to me and mutters with an emotionless smile on her face, "Dear husband didn't you know that it isn't nice to reveal a woman's age?"

Feeling a shiver down my spine, I turn my head and smile at her, then I quickly apologize with a slight panic because making one of my girls angry is equal to making all of them angry as their partnership is as strong as their love for me and that could easily translate in me finding myself in a very bad spot, "Sorry Tio, it slipped out of my mind... but you know that for me age is just a number..."

But I quickly realized just what came out of my mouth and quickly tried to fix it, "Wait! Now that I've said that out loud it sounds incredibly creepy and wrong! What I mean to say is that I don't give importance to such things as I intend to spend the rest of our incredibly long and happy life together and no matter what I'll always find you as beautiful and entracing as the first day we have met."

Tio narrows her beautiful golden eyes and remains in silence for a few seconds making me even more nervous, but then she simply smiles and kisses me on my cheek before heading back inside the Athena's God Bidoof while saying, "I'll go back to Grandpa Adul, he has to know just how wonderful his great-granddaughter is. We'll be back for dinner."

Taking that as a sign that the worst dangerous situation in these two years safely passed, I let out a sigh of relief.

At the same time, I sense Tio and Kharna enter my Soulbound Territory and head toward the Seed of Culture of the Arifureta Universe, and once there, Tio touches the Seed of Culture and uses it to go back to her village on Tortus.

The only reason she can use it like that is simply because I allow her to do so, she basically can use the Seed of Culture to go back to Tortus whenever she wants, and she can also easily return back to my Soulbound Territory with a simple command.

I learned that I could give other people this authority to use the Seed of Culture a few days after Kharna was born, as we returned back to Tortus to show Adul his healthy great-granddaughter, after the visit Tio informed me that she would like to meet her grandfather more often but she also told me that she didn't want to disturb me each time she wanted to do so, and before I could tell her anything, Culture informed me that I could grant people I trusted the authority to use the Seed of Culture with a simple thought.

Since then, Tio often went to visit her grandfather with Kharna and sometimes she also brought him back with her to spend some time with us.

Of course, after Nikita became a fellow Woman of Culture, I also gave her the same privileges, so she was able to reunite with her sister and spend time with her whenever she wanted. 

After Tio went away, I looked at Koby and said, "Koby take that as an important lesson, never talk about a woman's age... Especially if that woman in question is someone very close to you, it just isn't worth it." while thinking, 'At the least, thanks to this small event, Vivi, Igaram, and Koby got over the shock of the revelation of Kharna's incredible powers, and the fact, that Tio, Kharna and I aren't human.' 

After that, we peacefully resumed our journey toward the next destination on our route, Drum Island.

Drum Island is a Winter Island in Paradise, it is the location of the Drum Kingdom, the birthplace of Tony Tony Chopper, the cute reindeer doctor of the Straw Hat Pirates, who ate the Hito Hito no Mi (Human Human Fruit), such kingdom is currently under the rule of Wapol who inherited the crown from his father who was actually a good ruler from what I remember of the anime.

Jayr POV - Blue Star, Grand Line, Paradise - 20 GAP

A couple of days passed since we left Little Garden and the weather was quite good, and thanks to that, we are getting closer and closer to our next destination, in fact, I think we are more or less halfway there. 

Currently, I'm calmly lying on the deck of my ship, the Athena's God Bidoof reading the World Economy News Paper just delivered by a News Coo, but nothing interesting or that I should take note of is written on it. 

Meanwhile, just a few meters away from me Igaram and Vivi, are teaching Koby what they know about Drum Island. 

Vivi is the one who starts the introduction, "Drum Island is an extremely snowy country, with absolutely freezing temperatures that can be felt even from the surrounding seas."

I look at Koby and see him slightly nod a sign that he is still following the lesson, so I turn back to look at the blackboard as Igaram makes a simple draw of the island as he explains, "The ground is always covered in thick snow, making locomotion difficult for those not adapted to it, and avalanches may be triggered by the local fauna, plus there's a river that cuts deep into the island and where a waterfall of snow flows into." 

Igaram calmly continues his lesson as he gives Koby a brief summary of the major landmarks of the Drum Kingdom, "The country features a series of drum-shaped mountains known as the Drum Rockies. The Drum Castle is located at the summit of the largest of the Drum Rockies, Drum Rock, at the very center of the island. The Drum Ropeway functions as a way of travel between the Drum Castle and the rest of the kingdom. Bighorn, Cocoa Weed, Gyasta, and Robelle are some of the villages found on the island. Most fast travel between towns seems to be done through animal-pulled sleds or steeds..." 

Hearing all that, I can't help but internally complain in my mind, 'Wow... this island for sure has a lot of things that are named "Drum", I won't be surprised if exist also a Public Drum Toilet...'

While thinking that, Vivi adds, "The previous monarch King Robpol was a just and kind king who wished for the well-being of his people and was well loved by them for that, and thanks to his rule this kind was the home of many of the greatest doctors of the Grand Line. Unfortunately, when Robpol died his son Wapol took his place and he never followed this type of reign, and things took a turn for the worse. Wapol issued that the twenty best doctors would work exclusively for him, while the rest of the doctors were banished or killed leaving the citizen to fend for themselves... He is the worst kind of ruler, selfish and incompetent!"

As Koby's lesson on Drum Island and Drum Kingdom continues, all of a sudden, an excited Nikita rushes out of the Athena's God Bidoof's interior while screaming at a very fast pace, "Jayr! Jayr! Big news! Truly big!! He is close! Very close!! Tell Bidi to turn around, please!" 

Hearing the urgency in her tone, I get up and quickly say, "Nikita, calm down! Just tell me what is going on! You are speaking faster than the speed of light. Just take a deep breath and tell me what is happening, after all even if it is something urgent, with Athena's God Bidoof's true speed we can quickly reach wherever you want us to go in an instant."

Nikita followed my advice and took a deep breath to calm her nerves, meanwhile, Vivi, Igaram, and Koby who heard the commotion caused by her got curious and stopped their lesson to listen to what was going on.

After a few seconds, Nikita regained her composure and started to explain, "It is like this, today started like usual, I got up, showered, had breakfast with you all, then I had some fun with Eri planning all kinds of nasty curses and pranks, after that, I visited my sister to check on her, helped her take on a necromancer, then I returned back here and had the sudden urge of checking Zandeer current position, so I asked to Seika to help me check on the Compass of Eternal Paths. But we surprisingly found out that he is a lot closer than before! His position is a little more south compared to our current destination Drum Island. Now that he is so close, I can't wait for it anymore, can we please meet up with him? After all, Arabasta should still be safe as Crocodile just started his evil plot!"

Hearing that I nod, while Igaram, who even if a little anxious about his kingdom's situation still agrees with her, comments, "She is right, we still have time to rescue Arabasta, especially if this ship can move a lot faster than what she has shown us until now."

I quickly reassure him, "That's true, in fact, if we want to, we can reach Arabasta today in just a couple of hours." while thinking, 'And that while still limiting her speed a lot... After all, at full power and connected to Cratergann, Athena's God Bidoof can reach FTL speed (Faster Than Light) using Perceptual Teleportation.'

While thinking that, Igaram reveals what he knows about our possible destination, "At the south of Drum Island, huh... if I remember well, there are a couple of islands that can be found in that direction, the first is Enkai Island, which is a densely-forested island with lush, green vegetation, no one currently lives on that island, but at one point, a civilization lived on the island. It is unknown what happened to it, but many ruins were left behind."

We all nod upon hearing that as Igaram is the most trustworthy source of information regarding all the islands in this part of the Grand Line, especially those closest to Sandy Island where the Arabasta Kingdom is located.

After that, Igaram continues his explanation, "Going further south from Enkai Island, one will find the Nanatsu Islands, an interesting place which is the connection point of three of the seven routes of the Grand Line and this can generate some quite chaotic situations. The Nanatsu Islands are a tropical archipelago of six islands of varying size. The six islands form the shape of a ring with a largely empty region of sea in the middle, I also read that in the past there was a seventh island was positioned in the center of the ring which is the main reason why that archipelago is called Nanatsu Islands, but for some reason ended up sinking leaving only six islands. The islands have volcanoes and large mountains, and the flora consists of tropical plants such as palm trees."

Igaram then concludes, "If the person you are searching for is truly somewhere south of here, those two islands are the most probable location where you will find him." 

Hearing that, I look at Vivi and ask, "Vivi, is it okay for you to help Nikita reunite with her close friend? On my side, I can promise you that even with this slight delay we will still reach Arabasta in time to save it from Crocodile."

Vivi's gaze moves between me and Nikita for a few moments, then with a warm smile on her face, she says, "It's fine Jayr-san, while it is a detour to our planned route, it isn't a big one in itself, especially if the Athena's God Bidoof is as fast as you describe her. You have my full trust."

I smile back and say, "Don't worry, she is the toughest, fastest, and most powerful ship you will ever find sailing these waters, everything the other ships can do, she can do it better. Athena's God Bidoof is simply the best!"

At this point, Athena's God Bidoof's incarnation, Bidi, appears right beside me and says, "That's right! Bidi is the best! Big Brother Jayr made sure to build me to the best of his abilities. And until now I didn't use even 1% of my full capabilities."

Bidi's sudden appearance surprises both Vivi and Igaram, especially Vivi who exclaims while trying to calm her racing heart, "Bidi-chan! When and how did you get here? And is it fine for you to leave the bridge? Who is controlling the Athena's God Bidoof right now!?" quickly followed by a calmer Igaram who asks, "What do you mean with Jayr-san built you?"

The reason why they are so surprised by Bidi's appearance despite knowing her as a person is that they don't know that Bidi is actually the Athena's God Bidoof's incarnation and not simply the person in charge of controlling the Athena's God Bidoof from the bridge as they thought, as knowing that your ship is alive and can be aware of everything you are doing on her body can be a quite concerning feeling for some, so, we decided to just avoid the possible problems by simply not telling this little piece of information to just anyone that becomes a guest on the Athena's God Bidoof.

But since Bidi already carelessly exposed something herself, and knowing that both Vivi and Igaram's character can be trusted, I let out a sigh and replied to Igaram's question in Bidi's place, "It is pretty simple, Mr. Igaram. I did build Bidi, but not in the way you think, you see, Bidi is the incarnation of the Athena's God Bidoof's spirit..."

Hearing that, Igaram's eyes open wide in shock as he exclaims, "Impoes- Ma~ ma~ ma~ ma~! Impossible! A Klabautermann!!? I thought they were only a legend told by shipwrights and some seafarers!"

Curious, Vivi looks at Bidi standing beside me and asks, "I don't understand, Igaram. What is this Klaba-Kalubertmon...? And what has this anything to do with Bidi-chan?"

Igaram also poses his gaze on Bidi and explains, "It is called Klabautermann. A Klabautermann is said to be a water spirit or fairy that dwells in ships and is essentially an incarnation of a ship that has developed a life of its own due to being well-loved and cared for. From what I have heard, they resemble a ghostly humanoid child wearing a sailor's raincoat and a pair of shoes, and carry with it a small wooden hammer..." 

Hearing that, Vivi's eyes also open wide then she exclaims, "But nothing about Bidi-chan can be matched with the word ghostly, she doesn't even wear that raincoat or small wooden hammer... she looks as real as you and me!"

Hearing that, Bidi proudly puffs up her chest and declares, "That is because Bidi is the best there will ever be! And I don't like to wear a raincoat nor do I need to carry a wooden hammer! But I can be more ghostly if it makes you feel better..."

As soon as she said that, Bidi started to slowly float around us making some silly "Wuuu~" sounds. 

Seeing that, Igaram sighs before commenting, "Now I finally understand everything. I always found it strange that you guys confidently left the command of such an advanced ship to someone as young as Bidi-chan, but after some time seeing how smooth our journey went and how good she was I thought that you did so because she was just that talented."

A wry smile forms on Igaram's face as he continues, "But now I understand that the reason she is so good at directing this ship is because she IS the ship, for her sailing is as easy as it is for us breathing, she is simply made for it. It seems that traveling with you is a constant surprise, Jayr-san..." 

At this point, I steer the discussion back to where we were before and say, "Anyway, since Vivi and Igaram are fine with the sudden change of route, we will go and help Nikita so that she can finally reunite with her lover!" 

I turn to Bidi and say, "So like you heard, Bidi. We are going to change our planned course, this time you can move faster than our usual cruise speed, but do not increase it too much, after all, we aren't in too much hurry. As always I'm counting on you to keep us safe during the voyage." in response, Bidi smiles widely and says, "Yes, big brother! You can always count on Bidi!"

Then I look at Nikita and say, "Nikita, for now on stay on the bridge and help Bidi in finding the correct route using the Compass of Eternal Paths, after all, you are the only one that can lead Bidi toward Zandeer."

Nikita nods and seriously says, "Don't worry, I'm ready to sleep there if that is what is needed to meet Zandeer again." which makes me smirk, then I say, "There isn't any need to go through such length for something like this, just be sure to check from time to make sure that we still are on the right course." 

Quickly after that, Bidi disappears merging back with her true body the Athena's God Bidoof, at the same time, Nikita rushes inside and heads toward the bridge with a skin in her steps, and soon after, Athena's God Bidoof starts to change its course and pick speed, so much that from time to time, the ship jumps over the waves causing Koby and Vivi to yell in surprise.

At the same time, I stare at the horizon while thinking, 'We are going to meet Nikita's friend and fellow Champion Zandeer. I admit this is a lot sooner than I expected, but even so, I have to get ready for anything. I truly hope he is a good person who truly likes Nikita and isn't simply playing with her feelings things will become much easier. But if he isn't then I will do anything in my considerable power to make him pay for hurting her.'