Chapter 97

Vash and Augur gripped their guns tighter as they locked their gazes on the enormous man that was approaching on his boat. Similar to Vash and Augur, the enormous man was also looking at them.

Both sides did nothing. Vash and Augur watched the enormous man tie his small boat on the edge of Rocky Cape before approaching them. They didn't know if the man was hostile or not, so they just kept a close eye on him.

The enormous man stopped a few paces in front of Vash and Augur. Then, surprisingly, he greeted them with a smile.

"Good afternoon," he said. "Pardon me, but I couldn't help but feel your stare. Is there a problem?"

"Bartholomew Kuma," Vash said, recognizing the man whose presence he and Augur felt threatened by now that he was in front of them.

"Someone you know?" Augur asked.

"No. Not personally, at least," Vash said to Augur before addressing Kuma. "You're a lot bigger than I expected."

Vash was honest when he said that he didn't expect the sheer size of Kuma. Him and Augur had to look up to stare Kuma in the eyes.

"I get that a lot," Kuma said, still with a small smile on his face. "How do you know me? I'm sure I have never met you before."

"Your wanted poster," Vash said. "I recognized your face. The 'Tyrant' Bartholomew Kuma, huh? I wonder what you did to get that name."

"I'm sure the newspapers already told you that," Kuma said as his smile weakened.

Vash and Augur scoffed in response. In their minds, the image of their captain surfaced.

"I am afraid our Captain has taught us not to believe in the words of the newspapers too much," Augur said.

"We don't really care about what the papers say you are," Vash said, adding to what Augur stated. "We'd rather judge you ourselves."

Hearing what Vash and Augur said, the smile Kuma had on his face returned. His shoulders that were apparently tense seemed to have relaxed under Vash and Augur's keen eyes.

"It's rare to see such open-minded people like you these days," Kuma said with a small chuckle. "Don't worry, I'm not an enemy. I'm just a passerby resupplying his ship."

Vash and Augur watched Kuma's face for a few moments before deciding what to do. They were looking for any sign telling them that Kuma was lying, but they found none. In fact, his presence strangely felt… peaceful.

"That's good then," Vash said as he and Augur relaxed. "Go that way if you want to enter the city."

Kuma looked at where Vash pointed. It was in the direction Ace, Hepha, and Doppol took to enter Water 7.

"Thank you for the help," Kuma said with a nod before walking off. Vash and Augur watched him go before returning to the Ashen Dragon, just to be sure.

When Vash and Augur returned to their ship, they were greeted by the sight of Burgess running around the deck with barrels on his shoulders.

"WEEHAHAHAHA! More! More! I need more power!" Burgess shouted in what seemed like a chant to hype himself up.

"...what is he doing?" Augur said, befuddled at the sight in front of him.

"Training, apparently," Vash said, equally confused as Augur.

"I have never seen someone look so idiotic while training," Augur said.

At that moment, Burgess seemed to have realized that he was no longer alone. He stopped in front of Vash and Augur.

"Ohh! Sorry! I hope you don't mind me training here!" Burgess said.

In response, Augur just warped away. With a popping sound, he disappeared and left Vash to deal with their strange guest.

"...Just try to keep it down. And don't drop those wine barrels. Soma will blow up if you do," Vash said with a warning. "I'll go back to sleep."

…

"Captain! Over here!"

Ace turned his head in the direction where he heard the familiar voice from. Soon, he saw Eri, Tanya, Kotatsu, Mihar, Terzo, and Soma all gathered together on a bench where people can wait for the sea train to come. He walked toward them as he waved his hand.

"Yo!" Ace said, greeting everyone in front of him. "Glad I made it in time!"

"Don't worry, we wouldn't have left without you," Soma said.

"Ehh? What if I was really late?" Ace asked.

"Then we would've gone tomorrow instead," Mihar said. "Eri was adamant about waiting for you."

"Really now?" Ace asked as he turned to Eri.

"Of course! You're our Captain, after all!" Eri said with a salute to Ace.

"HAHAHAHA! What's that supposed to mean?" Ace was amused at Eri's seemingly unique definition of what a captain is. He was curious to know.

"We go wherever you go, plain and simple!" Eri said.

Ace smiled at Eri's answer. He then placed a hand on her head to stroke her hair out of innocent affection.

"In any case, thanks for convincing them to wait for me, Eri!" Ace said with a smile before turning to Terzo with a smirk. "If you didn't, I'm sure Terzo here would've made you all leave me just for laughs."

"I definitely would!" Terzo proudly answered honestly.

At that moment, everyone heard a whistle blow. They all turned their heads to see the train approaching the Blue Station from the distance.

"Is that our ride?" Ace asked.

"It is," Tanya said before giving Ace something she fished out of her pocket. "Here's your ticket."

"Ohh! Thanks!" Ace said, gratefully taking the ticket they bought for him. "I thought I would have to ride illegally again."

"Meow!"

Kotatsu nuzzled up to Ace's legs. Ace went down a bit to give attention to Kotatsu, stroking him behind his ears as they waited for the train to arrive.

The train soon stopped in front of them. The doors opened and the passengers who rode the sea train to get to Water 7 all went out rather neatly. It was an interesting array of people, from average citizens, rich folk, and festive people judging by the costumes they wore.

Once it was clear, new passengers entered the sea train. Ace and the others were included in those, of course. They quickly went to look for a free cabin in the first class section of the train since that was what they paid for.

Fortunately, they found an empty cabin they can have to themselves. Once they were inside, they relaxed. Everyone except Eri and Kotatsu, who were busy gazing out the train window to look at the sea, sat comfortably in the soft seats.

"I still can't believe there's a train right in the middle of the sea," Mihar said, once again expressing his amazement at the fact. "Whoever built this must be one impressive genius."

"Building a train is the easy part," Tanya said, adding to Mihar's thoughts. "The difficult part is getting it to work on the sea. What's impressive about this whole thing is the rail system built by whoever invented it."

"Rail system?" Terzo asked. "This train uses rails to move?"

"I thought the train was floating on water," Soma said, agreeing with Terzo's sentiment.

"No, this train definitely runs on rails," Tanya said. "I checked earlier. It's there, under the water. It's really impressive. I'm not all too familiar with the engineering field but…"

Tanya went on what first seemed like a monologue to most of the people in the cabin except Mihar. As an academic himself, Mihar was able to speak more with Tanya about topics that were rather too complex for the others in the crew to understand. 

Due to their background in academics and education, Mihar and Tanya shared a special bond between two scholars. They bounced with each other well, trading words that just went in one ear and out the other for the others.

"I have no idea what you guys just talked about," Ace said, before breaking into a wide smile. "Can't believe I'm friends with smart people! Does that mean I can be smart, too? HAHAHAHA!"

"Tanya-chan is so smart!" Eri said, complimenting Tanya before turning to Mihar. "Sensei, please don't tell me I'll have to study all that you guys just said…"

"Don't worry, Eri," Mihar said with a sigh of defeat. "I know you're not very interested in the more complicated subjects I'm familiar with. We'll stop at the necessities, like all the math you'll ever need to know."

"Yay!"

"In any case, as impressive this train is, let's hope today won't be the day it faces some issues," Ace said.

"Ever heard of the term 'tempting fate?'" Tanya asked Ace as she looked at him incredulously.

"HAHAHAHA! What a nice flag to set, Ace!" Terzo said, giving Ace a thumbs up.

"Not everyone likes being in an intense situation all the time, you adrenaline junkie," Soma said to Terzo, annoyed at his joy.

At that moment, the door to their cabin opened. Everyone in the room perked up, expecting immediate trouble after what Ace said.

Much to their relief, it wasn't trouble that came. From the other side of the door was an elderly lady pushing a cart that carried food and drinks.

"Would you like anything, dears?" the elderly lady asked them.

Ace first made a quick glance to each of his friends to see their reaction. Only Eri showed slight interest in the snacks displayed on the cart.

"Want something, Eri?" Ace asked.

"Ehh?" Eri seemed surprised at the question. She looked around to see everyone was giving her a gentle knowing smile. She blushed in embarrassment. "It's okay, I don't want anything in particular…"

"One of each of those chocolate bars, please," Ace said to the elderly lady pushing the cart as he gave her a few notes of Berry.

"Captain-!"

"We'll share," Ace said to Eri. "I bought one for each of us. Well, except Kotatsu of course."

"I'm still curious what chocolate tastes like, though," Kotatsu said after his head turned into a cat-sized tiger's head.

"Your cat spoke!" The elderly lady was taken by surprise for a moment. "It's a wide world indeed. I never thought I would see a talking animal in my life!"

The elderly lady then took something from the cart she was pushing and added it to Ace's order. It was a small bag of dried blueberries.

"You don't have to pay for this," the kind elderly lady said. "It's my treat for your amazing pet!"

"Ohh! Thank you, ma'am!" Ace said. "But, he's not really our pet. He's more like a friend."

"What a wonderful relationship you youngsters have. Enjoy the dried blueberries, Kotatsu-chan!"

"Thank you, ma'am!" Kotatsu said.

Ace received a small plastic bag carrying all the chocolates he ordered from the elderly lady plus Kotatsu's treat. Before she could close the door, Ace asked her something.

"By the way ma'am, sorry if I'm taking your time, but do you know how long it'll take to get to the next station?"

"You'll have to wait for a bit, I'm afraid," the elderly lady said with a kind apologetic smile. "It takes around two hours to get from Water 7 to St. Poplar."

'St. Poplar, huh? That's where the auction will be. When we arrive there, the auction will already be close to starting…'

"How about after that?"

"After St. Poplar will be San Faldo. Then, Pucci. In total, the sea train takes around seven hours to complete its route."

"That long, huh?" Ace looked worried. Then, he bowed to the elderly lady. "Thank you, ma'am!"

"You're welcome, young man!" The elderly lady gently closed the door to Ace and the others' cabin.

Ace sat down with a plop on his seat. It was obvious to everyone that he seemed bothered by something the elderly lady said, but they didn't know what.

"What's the matter, Ace?" Mihar asked. "You look troubled."

"Ahh. It's nothing." The usual casual air around Ace returned. Mihar, Tanya, and Soma were perceptive enough to know that it wasn't nothing. Still, they played along with Ace. "Anyway, let me tell you guys what we saw around Water 7!"