When Pablo's foot first touched the ground of Naraka, he heard a strange noise of birds above him.
He raised his head.
He saw dozens of strange birds carrying bags on their backs, making strange noises.
Newspapers were falling from the sky like autumn leaves. Dozens of them flew in every direction above the port and streets.
He grabbed one from the air.
He looked at the big headline.
Garp the Hero of the Marines Captures the Pirate King Gold Roger.
He read it twice.
The people around him were picking up newspapers, shouting, and talking to each other with obvious excitent.
"They caught Roger!"
"The Pirate King is in custody!"
"The age of pirates is over!"
Pablo stood in the middle of this noise in complete silence.
He looked at the newspaper again.
Garp did not catch him.
Roger turned himself in.
That's what he alone, almost, in this entire world knew.
The man who opened the way for the Great Age of Pirates chose his own end.
He put the newspaper in his pocket and continued walking.
---
Marco was beside him, holding his newspaper with wide eyes.
"Roger! They caught Roger now?"
"Yes."
"This ans the age of pirates is over?"
Pablo looked at him.
"On the contrary, it has just begun."
Marco looked at him with surprised eyes.
Pablo did not explain further.
He continued walking.
---
Naraka was completely different from Verona.
Crowded streets, people of every shape and size, smoke coming out of massive buildings in every direction, the sounds of machines, workers' shouts, and ship horns never stopping.
The sll of fish and salt filled the air.
Pablo walked slowly, his eyes capturing everything.
This was another world.
---
He parted ways with Marco after agreeing to et later, and began his search.
First factory.
A large fish factory. Its gate was huge, and in front of it stood a man watching those who entered.
Pablo approached.
"I'm looking for work."
The man looked at him from head to toe.
He stopped at his thin body.
"No."
"I didn't hear the reason."
"Look at yourself. You'll drop the first sack."
Pablo did not feel any insult and continued walking.
---
Second factory.
A drying and canning factory, smaller than the first.
The sa look.
The sa reply.
"We need n who can endure."
---
Third factory.
Fourth factory.
The sa words everywhere.
The thin body of a fourteen-year-old child did not suggest the ability to do hard work in fish factories.
---
After four rejections, Pablo stopped in a side alley.
He was not disappointed.
Large factories want huge bodies for heavy work.
His body was not huge.
So he needed a factory that did not need huge bodies.
He wandered more through the streets with different eyes this ti.
He noticed at the edge of the industrial area a slightly smaller building.
A different sll ca out of it. Not the sll of fish, but sothing sweeter.
Fruit.
He approached and read the small sign on the door.
Fruit Packing and Juicing Factory.
---
He entered.
The inside was different from fish factories. Quieter, less noisy. Workers sorting fruit, juicing it, and packing it into bottles.
He found a man who seed to be a supervisor, in his forties, wearing work clothes with a pen behind his ear.
"I'm looking for work."
The man looked at him.
The sa usual look at the thin body, but this ti the rejection was not imdiate.
"What do you know how to do?"
"Anything you need."
"The work here is sorting, packing, and cleaning. Not work for heroes, but it needs speed and attention."
"I have both."
The man looked at him for a few seconds.
"The salary is thirty thousand monthly. Six days a week, twelve hours a day."
"Alright."
"You start tomorrow."
---
Pablo left the factory as the sun began to tilt toward sunset.
He t Marco at the place they had agreed upon.
Marco was smiling.
"I found work at the big fish factory. Forty-five thousand monthly."
"Good."
"And you?"
"A fruit factory. Thirty thousand."
Marco looked at him.
"Much less."
"But it's a start."
Marco nodded.
They walked together through the streets of Naraka searching for a place to sleep at a reasonable price.
---
At night, when Pablo lay down in a simple rented room, he took the newspaper out of his pocket and looked at the headline again.
Garp Captures Gold Roger.
In a few weeks, Roger would be executed.
And with his final words before the crowd, he would ignite the entire world.
He would say his treasure is out there, and whoever finds it will beco the Pirate King.
From that mont, the Great Age of Pirates would begin.
Thousands of people would leave their lives and take to the seas searching for a dream.
And after twenty years, a child in a small village nad Monkey D. Luffy would appear and begin his journey.
Pablo looked at the ceiling.
He knows all of this.
But this knowledge gives him no power, no money, no ship.
He is now a worker at a fruit factory on an industrial island, his salary thirty thousand monthly.
The world is about to change completely.
And he is still at the beginning.
But at least, he knows where the world is heading.
And knowledge, in the end, is the strongest thing he currently possesses.
He closed his eyes.
Tomorrow, work begins.
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