October 21, 1498, Age of the Sea Circle
After hearing Hina's words, Orion looked at the small ball of fur in the girl's arms and shook his head, thinking this little creature was far too carefree.
It was sleeping peacefully in Hina's arms, offering no resistance at all. If she had ill intentions, it would probably already be dead. He would definitely have to educate his little pet on the dangers of interacting with strangers!
"Nibble, co here!" Orion called out.
Upon hearing his master's voice, the small animal woke up imdiately and squird in Hina's arms until it broke free from her grip, running towards Orion and happily leaping into his arms. Although the little furball had no problem interacting with other people, it preferred to be with Orion whenever there was a choice.
Hina wore a hurt expression when she saw the little creature abandon her to run back to its kidnapper, and the look on her face reminded Orion of a woman who'd been left by her lover.
"Antonia! Where are you going? Co back!" Hina shouted, having even given the little creature a na—though she'd incorrectly identified its gender.
Nibble paid no attention to her call and simply curled up in Orion's arms and went back to sleep. Orion took a step forward and approached Hina slowly, trying to maintain a kind expression so as not to agitate her further. But that very expression only made Hina more nervous, and she imdiately backed away to the edge of the ship.
"P-Pervert! What are you going to do to Hina? Are you going to do the sa thing you did to that obscene pirate?!" Hina asked fearfully, covering her nonexistent curves with her arms in an instinctively defensive stance.
Hearing her words, Orion stumbled and almost fell flat on his face.
"Fuck! That's not sothing you can just throw out lightly!" he thought indignantly, though he kept a gentle expression on the surface, trying not to agitate Hina even more. Still, it was obvious that his lips were trembling slightly, as were his eyebrows.
Hina noticed the change in Orion's face and imdiately theorized that she had uncovered the intentions of this beastly man. Thinking back to the scenes she had witnessed, where the obscene pirate had begged for rcy for a long ti, a blush crept onto the little Marine's cheeks—only to fade quickly, leaving her pale.
Orion watched her changing expressions in confusion, realizing this girl had a wild imagination. He had never hinted at any of the things she was accusing him of, but she had made up an entire scenario in her head on her own—and was suffering because of it.
"Mmm, Hina. I really don't intend to harm you and just want to talk, but if you're that worried, I have a proposal," Orion said calmly, keeping a prudent distance.
Hina snapped out of her explicit fantasies and looked at Orion warily, waiting for his next words.
"Right now, we're in the Grand Line, and there are no islands nearby, so there's no choice but to share this journey. From now on, I'll ignore your existence, and we'll travel together until we find an island. If that's what you want, you can leave at that point. Until then, you can stay in a corner of the ship, and we won't bother you," Orion concluded.
It was true that he was always open to recruiting Nad Characters, especially young talents like Hina, but he couldn't force them to join him. Orion knew he wouldn't be able to recruit every talented person he encountered, and if Hina had such a negative opinion of him, it was best they parted ways to avoid trouble.
After finishing his words, Orion turned around and returned to Olive, paying no further attention to Hina, who was completely stunned by how things had played out. In her mind, this beastly man had kidnapped her with terrible intentions and was going to do all sorts of unforgivable things to her.
Now, seeing him walk away without doing anything and ignoring her presence, Hina felt a bit confused and began to think that maybe she had misjudged him. However, as soon as that thought erged, she vehently rejected it, thinking it was all part of Orion's strategy to make her lower her guard and fall into his trap.
"Mppf! Nice try, villain, but I won't fall for such an obvious trick!" Hina thought proudly, basking in her own intellect.
…
October 23, 1498, Age of the Sea Circle
Hina looked out over the sea and felt deeply irritated. The boat had been stopped for the last three hours. The reason was that Orion and Olive had entered the Pocket Dinsion, leaving Hina alone outside to wait.
She didn't know how Orion's powers worked, and that's why she hadn't tried to use this mont to escape. In her mind, Orion could co and go from that strange alternate dinsion without issue, and if she tried to escape by stealing the sailboat, he would eventually erge by her side, making any attempt useless.
Suddenly, a door opened in the air, and Orion erged from the Pocket Dinsion, hugging Olive. Her cheeks were flushed, and there were visible marks on her neck and chest that hadn't been there before!
Even though she was young, Hina had been exposed to all sorts of things and wasn't clueless, so she imdiately knew what they had been doing inside the Pocket Dinsion. Thinking about how she had been here waiting under the intense sun while they carried out those obscene acts, Hina felt a surge of irritation and ntally slapped Orion several tis.
It was a new pasti she had just invented—and one that was quite satisfying to her. In her mind, she could beat up Orion in all kinds of ways, making him cry and beg while licking her boots like a dog. Just thinking about it made a strange smile appear on Hina's face.
Suddenly, Hina heard footsteps approaching and tensed up imdiately. It had been two days since they had agreed not to interfere with each other, and now Orion was coming straight toward her.
Had he only lasted two days before his beastly instincts decided he couldn't let Hina go? the girl thought, her imagination running wild.
Orion approached her but didn't say a word. He simply placed a plate of food in front of her, nodded, and went back to Olive to enjoy a romantic lunch with the sensual pirate. Since confirming their relationship, they had been in sothing like a honeymoon, enjoying each other's company and expressing their feelings passionately.
As a result, the speed of the journey had slowed considerably, since they had to make several stops to express the fiery passion in their hearts...
Hina looked at the plate of food but didn't move to take it. Who knew if it was poisoned or drugged to leave her immobilized and defenseless—so the beastly man could humiliate her afterward!
Grrrrr
Hina's stomach growled loudly. She hadn't eaten in two days, and now that she had slled the delicious aroma of the food in front of her, her stomach began to complain. Hina looked up, a bit flushed, and glanced into the distance to see if her noisy stomach had alerted Orion and Olive. She couldn't let them see her in such a vulnerable and embarrassing state!
Seeing them smiling and chatting as they fed each other like a pair of stupid lovers, completely ignoring her, Hina sighed in relief.
Grrr—bam!
Her stomach growled again, and Hina punched herself in the belly to teach it a lesson.
Grrr—Bam bam bam bam!
Orion and Olive, who were eating at a distance, struggled to hold back the laughter threatening to burst from their mouths and did their best to ignore Hina, who was noisily pounding her own stomach.
Of course, they had noticed everything happening with her, since the ship wasn't large enough to really ignore anyone's movents. They were just trying not to embarrass the young Marine, who had way too many ideas in her head and was a bit eccentric.
Eventually, Hina's stomach stopped growling, though it was now thoroughly beaten and sending waves of pain to her brain, making small tears form at the corners of her eyes.
"Why is this happening? I should be heading to Marine Headquarters in the Grand Line to join the central force, but instead, I'm—" Hina was sadly reflecting on her derailed plans when suddenly she realized sothing obvious.
"Wait a minute… Grand Line? Aren't I already in the Grand Line? Then I can just head to Headquarters on my own! No, I don't even need to go that far—if I can find any Marine base and report in, everything will be solved!"
Unconsciously, she hadn't realized this had always been her situation. She had just assud Orion wouldn't let her escape, but now that belief had started to crumble. After all, she had spent two days in Orion's company and had been slightly affected by his two Halos, which passively increased people's favorability. And considering that Orion truly had no ill intentions toward her, it was only a matter of ti before Hina's mindset began to shift.
"But if I'm going to carry out this plan, I need to be in good physical condition!" Hina thought, practically hypnotizing herself.
With a determined look, she picked up the plate of delicious food in front of her and began to eat in large bites, nearly choking in the process.
"No! How can a beast cook sothing this delicious?!" she thought, cheeks puffed with food.
…
October 28, 1498, Age of the Sea Circle
"H-Hey, Orion… Hina wants to know if you're going to make lunch soon," Hina asked shyly.
A few days ago, she had thought he was trying to drug her to do beastly things, and now she was actively asking him to cook sothing. She was very proud, and this noticeable change made her feel a bit embarrassed, though Orion paid no attention to her mood swings and had treated her the sa way from the beginning.
"I won't be cooking for now," Orion said with a kind smile, but Hina interpreted it as him refusing to cook for her ever again, and her mind began to imagine all sorts of strange things—like having to give her body to this beastly man in exchange for a crust of bread, and even stranger things beyond that.
"We're about to arrive at an island, so we'll see what the situation is there. It's probably inhabited, so we should be able to eat sothing there," Orion continued, cutting through Hina's bizarre thoughts.
"An island? Where?" Hina asked, looking toward the horizon, where nothing could be seen but the endless blue sea.
"It's not visible yet, but it's there. We'll probably arrive in a few more hours," Orion replied with certainty. He had the help of the map and knew that in the direction they were heading was the marker for the Nad Character Sharinguru.
That marker had stayed nearly immobile in that location, so Orion was almost sure there was an island there. Considering that Sharinguru was only thirteen years old, it was most likely that the island was inhabited by other people.
"You'll finally be rid of , Hina. Happy now?" Orion added with a smile.
Hina reacted imdiately, realizing that if they did find an inhabited island, she could finally escape the clutches of this man who had kidnapped her against her will!
However, she wasn't as happy as she had imagined—and was even a little disappointed at the thought that she might never eat his delicious cooking again.
Slap!
Hina slapped her own cheek and scolded herself internally:
"What are you thinking, Hina?! Do you have Stockholm syndro or what?! This is the mont to be happy you can escape this human beast!"
Orion watched Hina's erratic behavior in confusion—one mont smiling, the next sad, then slapping herself, and finally standing with clenched fists, looking up as if psyching herself up for battle.
Over the past few days together, Orion had noticed that this girl was truly eccentric and had a tendency to overthink things. However, he didn't find it botherso or irritating, since it was a trait he himself possessed—although he had learned to balance it better than Hina and not get too lost in his thoughts.
Besides, Hina was just a twelve-year-old girl about to enter adolescence, so he didn't think it was strange that she had such a rich inner life. It was probably sothing that would fade over the years until reaching a more nuanced level, as had happened with Orion in his past life.
"Of course I'm happy!" Hina finally said, then walked dejectedly to a corner of the ship's deck where Nibble was sleeping and began to pet the furry little creature.
During these past few days, one of the things she had enjoyed most—besides Orion's cooking—was the presence of this adorable animal, which she wanted to kidnap and make her own pet.
Orion didn't pay much attention to Hina and focused on staying on course. It was easy to veer off in the Grand Line, and during the first day, when he had spent the night leveling up his 'Marital Happiness' skill with Olive, he had strayed quite far from the intended path. Luckily, they hadn't encountered any of the catastrophes common to the strange weather of this place.
Finally, after a few hours, they reached the island where Sharinguru's marker was located. Orion didn't see any city at first glance, so he simply picked up Olive and Hina and used Geppo Pocket Dinsion to move to the coast.
He checked the marker's position and saw it wasn't too far away, so he began walking with his two companions at a leisurely pace in the direction indicated by the system map.
The island was rather desolate, almost desert-like, with reddish soil unlike any other region. Vegetation was practically nonexistent—just a few spaced-out bushes and cacti—and curiously, there was a large number of oversized insects resembling spiders.
Olive didn't react at all and continued walking calmly beside her beloved. Hina, however, had a far more dramatic reaction—she imdiately clung to Orion's arm, trembling visibly as she looked at the giant insects in fear.
Orion said nothing, knowing Hina was very sensitive to others' words and looks. He simply ignored her behavior and whispered sothing to the small Nibble resting on his shoulder.
At once, the little creature nodded and jumped to the ground, digging a hole at incredible speed and disappearing without a trace. Its digging ability was truly impressive. Nibble reappeared in the distance, grabbing one of the insects and dragging it underground before disappearing again. Then he reappeared behind another and repeated the process.
Little by little, the surrounding insects disappeared entirely—to Hina's great relief. Only then did she realize she was clinging to Orion and let go of his arm, embarrassed by her involuntary actions.
"Thank you," she said softly.
She knew that Nibble had acted under Orion's orders to get rid of the insects, and that the order had been given just so she wouldn't be afraid to walk through this area. Orion always had those little gestures—kind acts that might go unnoticed by soone inattentive, whose only purpose was to help, even in tiny ways, the people around him.
During their short journey together, Hina had been the recipient of many such gestures, which had contributed to her Stockholm syndro.
They walked, admiring the desolate landscape for nearly an hour, until they reached the location where the marker indicated Sharinguru was. But the area was nothing more than a barren plain—no buildings, and no one in sight.
Suddenly, Nibble erged from a hole in the ground and jumped onto Orion's shoulder, making sounds that were both adorable and silly, pointing with his tiny paw at the hole he had just co out of. Orion had a spiritual connection with the little animal, created with the help of the system, so he could understand sowhat what it was trying to say, even if he couldn't speak its language.
Looking at the hole and thinking about the marker that indicated Shariguru was here, Orion quickly reached the correct conclusion. They were in the right place—but at the wrong level!
"Can you make a hole big enough for us to enter?" Orion asked, stroking Nibble's chin. The little creature nodded as if to say "leave it to " and jumped to the ground, beginning to dig a much larger tunnel.
A few minutes later, Nibble erged triumphantly, indicating he was done. Orion picked up his two companions and jumped into the deep hole, falling rapidly into the darkness.
He activated his Observation Haki, and just before they reached the bottom, he used Geppo to slow the fall and land softly on the reddish ground.
Curiously, the underground area was dimly lit by orange rocks embedded in the walls. Orion and his two companions walked with curiosity through this underground space, shaped like a gigantic do beneath the earth. They approached a small ledge and, looking beyond it, were surprised to see a vast underground city stretching across a large crater beneath their feet.
They were now at the top of the do where the city was located, with a full view of the strange settlent. In the distance was a giant staircase that seed to lead to the surface—likely the official entrance to the city.
Next to the enormous reddish staircase—like all the buildings carved into the island's red earth—stood a large sign that read:
Welco to Poober Cedy!
...
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