3 Chapter 2
"Why are we here, Captain?" The Mink finally couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked as they stepped on the soil of a small island village in East Blue.
"What's the name of the village, Bepo?" Sin asked back.
"Shimotsuki Village." Bepo replied and cluelessly looked at Sin.
Sin could see that most of his crew was clueless about the name, even Law, who usually spent a lot of time in the ship's Library, did not know what the name entailed.
"Robin?" He hoped that, at least, his little sister knew what the name Shimotsuki meant.
Robin lightly smiled at him and nodded, not disappointing him.
"Shimotsuki is the name of one of the feudal families of Wano Country. A lot of famous names have hailed from it, including the legendary Samurai Shimotsuki Ryumma, and the legendary Swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo." She informed them of what she knew.
"Thank you!" Sin brightly smiled at her and then turned to look at his crew who still seemed clueless about their motive for coming here. And he decided to reveal to them the reason he was here. "You know about the incident at Grey Terminal, right?"
To his question, all of them nodded their heads.
"Right before the incident, the members of the Revolutionary Army were sighted on this island, visiting this village. The Marines later swept the area, and recorded the names of all the villagers that resided there, and among them was a man named Koushirou. A Marine leaked the information that he was related to Shimotsuki Family, and had Wado Ichimonji in his possession."
"One of the 21 Great Grade Swords?" Hancock may not have heard about the Shimotsuki name, but she knew a little about famous swords since Sin seemed obsessed with them.
"Yes!" Sin nodded his head. "Shimotsuki Kozaburo is famous for crafting two of the 21 Great Grade Swords. One of them is Wado Ichimonji, and the other is Enma, which was last sighted in possession of Kozuki Oden of Wano."
"So you are after the sword?" Bonney pouted as she lost all interest in coming to this place. She thought they were up for an adventure, but it was just another Sword Hunt for Sin.
"Yes!" Sin ignored the dissatisfaction that she was trying to convey to him and led his crew inside the village.
It took them a while, but they made it to the Isshin Dojo after asking around Koushirou's name.
"What's going on?" Hancock asked a group of students of Dojo, who were sitting outside with their heads lowered as if mourning someone's death.
One boy raised his head to look at her, and the moment he did it, he was enthralled by her beauty, completely forgetting about the question that she had asked.
Sin did not wait around and entered the Dojo since the door was still open, and inside were even more people gathered in mourning. After asking and looking around, he finally reached upstairs and knocked on the door.
"Who are you?"
The question made Sin pay attention to a green-haired kid who seemed to be around eleven years old, sitting by the side of the door with his arms wrapped around his knees. His eyes were red from excessive crying, and he had not even bothered to wipe off his snot.
"I am looking for Koushirou." He said but did not give his name.
"He's not here..." The green-haired boy was about to hush Sin away when the door of the room slid open and a middle-aged man, with a grief-stricken face, stepped out, closing the door behind him.
"Zoro, do not be rude to the guests." He admonished the little boy and then turned to look at Sin.
Had it been anyone else, Koushirou would have excused himself by saying that it was not the right time to have a chat, but Sin oozed charisma and confidence that stopped him from doing that. His haunting grey eyes bore right into Koushirou as if seeing through all his secrets.
"How may I help you?" The master of the Dojo asked, his eyes fixed on the pommel of the Odachi Sin was wearing on his back.
"What is going on here?" Sin asked.
Taken aback by his question, Koushirou looked at him in surprise, but then lowered his head as the pain in his heart oozed out in the form of tears from his eyes.
"My daughter, Kuina... She fell down the stairs last night and hit her head. She's in a coma right now, and the village doctor said that she won't live past today because of the excessive internal bleeding that he could not get rid of." Koushirou did not know why he said all that, but he revealed the truth of the matter to Sin.
By now, the rest of the crew had arrived and stood behind him. Law was about to say something, but Sin placed his hand on his shoulder and stopped him.
"May we take a look at her?" He asked.
"Are you a doctor?" Koushirou hopefully asked.
"I am not." Sin shook his head. "But he is." He smiled at Law.
Koushirou seemed unsure when he looked at the said boy, who was no older than 15 years old, but did not question it and allowed them inside the room.
Law approached the dark-blue-haired girl who was lifelessly lying on the tatami mat and immediately got to work.
Koushirou tensed when suddenly his daughter was surrounded by a sphere of blue energy, and he nearly fainted when he saw Law make a slash with a Dagger, cleanly cutting off his daughter's head.
"She's fine." Sin placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it with strength that hurt him a little but kept him sober.
Law was still studying medicine, but his Devil Fruit was known as the ultimate fruit. The Ope Ope no Mi, also known as Operation Fruit, enabled its user to cure even incurable diseases by spatially extracting them from the body, and removing excessive blood was a minor matter for him. But he had to spend some time to help heal her properly.
After half an hour of gruesome-looking operation where Law sliced Kuina's head into several pieces and even went as far as to extract her brains, the girl was once again in one piece, and the paleness on her face visibly subsided.
"Good Job." Sin patted Law's shoulder and then looked at the young girl who was slowly opening her eyes.
"Kuina!!!" Zoro was ecstatic to see the girl wake up and rushed at her, but Augur caught him.
"Don't be hasty. She's still weak and needs time to recover." He said with a smile that scared Zoro and made him turn obediently quiet.
Koushirou fell on his knees, with his shoulders drooped, and sobbed. He had given up all hopes of seeing his daughter look at him again, but fate was magnanimous to him, and it blessed him with a miracle.
Sin smiled and nodded to the girl who was looking at him and his crew in curiosity, and the adolescent girl burned in a blush.
"Yup. She's going to be alright." Bonney saw her reaction to Sin's smile and couldn't suppress her giggles.
The crew was later guided to a spare guest room. It was quite congested with all of them here, but they did not seem to mind. Law and Robin were busy reading, and Augur and Bepo placed their backs against the wall and took a nap.
The rest of the crew were sitting, using their Observation Haki to scan the surroundings, and keeping an eye on everything.
Sin opened his eyes right before Koushirou opened the door and stepped inside. He did not even bother closing the door behind him and immediately fell on his knees, prostrating to them.
"Thank you for saving my daughter's life!" He loudly said. "If there is anything I can help you with, please say!"
"There is indeed something you can help me with." Sin smiled at him. "I need Wado Ichimonji." He did not hesitate to state what he wanted.
His request made Koushirou raise his head and look at him in shock. He briefly glanced at the Odachi and partially understood the reason why Sin wanted Wado Ichimonji. But his face was marred in a conflicted expression, and he apologetically lowered his head.
"There is nothing in the world I cherish more than my daughter. And I would have given the sword to you, but it belongs to my daughter now." He said. "I will go ask her..." He got up after saying that, but Sin stopped him.
"Let her rest for the day. I will ask her tomorrow myself." He said and got up from the place. "Let's go."
The crew followed their Captain out of the Dojo, and back onto their ship, where they spent the rest of the day training and fishing.
