Pirates?

After returning to the village chief's home, I assisted him in moving his sake barrels onto an old-looking wooden cart that had a shabby appearance. After we had moved six barrels of sake, the cart was completely full.

When I saw that the village chief intended to pull this cart full of sake barrels by himself, I quickly asked, "Isn't it usually the horse or donkey in charge of pulling it?"

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? I pulled it with my own strength the whole time."

After that, the village chief tried to pull this cart by himself once more, but from earlier, this cart only walked a few inches. Meanwhile, the village chief was already sweating with his breath panting.

"hah... hah... Hyahhh... a little more... ughkk..."

'What little more! Aren't we still in front of your house and haven't made the slightest progress?'

I heaved a sigh as I started helping the village chief push the cart from behind, and now we could see some visible progress.

"Oh, Luffy, at first I didn't expect much from your little body, but it seems Garp's training is paying off, hahahaha," commented the village head with a satisfied laugh, but I just kept quiet and didn't respond, but I just kept quiet and didn't respond.

'I have to hurry back to the bar because I'm sure Shanks and his crew are already there by now.'

I also started focusing my energy and concentration on pushing this cart so we could get to the bar as quickly as possible. Even the village chief, who was pulling from the front of the cart, screamed in surprise when the cart was going very fast.

-

"stop!... Luffy,... we're going to crash!... ahhh... Stop!.."

Along the way, the village chief couldn't stop screaming, and he sounded terrified when his cart drove very quickly through the village streets and, several times, almost hit something, but I was able to handle it deftly.

Until finally, we came to a stop right in front of the Partys bar. Soon after, the door to the bar opened, and Makino walked out. She asked in surprise when she saw the village chief looking pale and panting.

"Are you okay chief? Where is Luffy?"

"hah... hah... yeah, for my age, it's not bad either, at least I still have some strength left..."

As I made my way toward Makino, I said to myself, 'what nonsense is this old geezer saying? Did he forget that I was the one who helped push the cart?'

Only at this point did Makino notice me, and she spoke to me as if she already knew what was going on, saying, "I'll prepare your cold orange juice. For now, you can just rest inside, Luffy."

"hah... hah... I... what about me? Won't you offer me a drink?"

"Yes, yes, I'll just give cold water to the village chief, right?"

Makino continued by saying, "ohh, and don't forget to move these sake barrels in the back, okay?"

After that, Makino and I went inside the bar, leaving the village chief, who was now even paler and seemed as though he was going to pass out.

-

When I didn't see Shanks and his crew inside, my eyebrows slightly raised, and out of curiosity, I asked Makino, "Hey, were there any pirates that came here earlier?"

"Pirates? I don't see anything from this morning, is there something wrong?"

"I met someone who claimed to be a member of a famous pirate and it looks like they just arrived in this village," I said while sitting at the bartender's counter and explaining the situation.

Immediately, Makino, who was in the middle of squeezing oranges, showed signs of surprise. She also quickly cautioned me, saying, "Listen, Luffy, pirates are a group of bad people, and even if there are good pirates, there are only a few of them, so I hope you don't get to close to them."

I simply laughed and told her not to worry, as the pirate crew member I had encountered was a young girl of the same age as me.

"little girl?"

"yes, and a strange one."

-

While sitting at the bar sipping my ice-cold orange juice, I soon became aware of the sounds of someone rushing inside. The person's face looks pale as if he had just seen something terrible.

"This is urgent! Our village is in danger! We must contact Garp, or we will be too late!"

Makino, who had become a little concerned, then asked the individual, "calm down, drink this first, then tell me what happened," while bringing him a glass of water.

*gulp

*gulp

"There are... there are pirates who are docked in our village!"

The expressions of everyone in the bar changed to ones of panic almost instantly. They then began speaking to one another, and the majority of them were discussing pirates and trying to come up with suggestions for what to do in this situation.

"It's been a long time since pirates came to our village."

"Yes, throughout all of this time, we have lived in peace and quiet because of Garp, the Marine hero, so no one dares to cause trouble."

"What should we do? should we contact Marine?"

Upon seeing the heated debates, I leaned close to Makino's ear and whispered something. After she nodded her head in agreement, Makino then spoke up in a fairly loud voice so that everyone could hear:

"Everyone, calm down. For the time being, all of you can go home first. If this pirate has nefarious intentions, we will report it to the Marine, so don't panic."

After listening to Makino's suggestion, these people looked at each other, nodded their heads, and then got up to leave the bar, leaving Makino and me by ourselves.