"9,998."
"9,999."
"10,000."
Lucien exhaled and stood up, grabbing the cloth off the ground to wipe his face. He looked up and stayed looking.
The shipyard sat at the edge of the water, the way all shipyards did, loud and practical and smelling of fresh timber. Men moved between frames of half-built hulls, calling out measurements, arguing about something at the far end.
He'd grown up watching his father work in a place that looked exactly like this. Different island, same noise, same smell. Aldric had been grinning the day he put the notebook in Lucien's hands and sent him off. Lucien hadn't thought about that grin in a while.
He looked at the shipyard for another moment, then looked away.
It had been two weeks since Minion Island. They'd come straight here after, a small trading island in the North Blue called Lake 4, which was apparently named by its first settlers as a tribute to somewhere in the Grand Line called Water 7. Lucien had heard this explained once and immediately stopped listening. The island was useful. That was enough.
The ship they'd commissioned was three weeks out. Bigger than what they'd escaped on, built for the crossing at Reverse Mountain and surviving the Grand Line rather than the North Blue coastal water. They'd paid the full amount upfront and been told to come back when it was ready.
Until then, the three of them were staying put, which suited Lucien well enough. The last two weeks had given him more to think about than he'd had in a while, and he intended to use the time properly.
Law needed the time more than any of them. The fruit had been in him for two weeks and he was still finding the edges of it, which was reasonable given that he was seven and had eaten it four hours after watching people die. Staying on one island was the practical call. Lucien had said so. Idris hadn't disagreed.
Looking at the sun that was already right above his head, Lucien made his way back to the hotel they were staying in. He picked up food on the way back, enough for three, and went to Law's room first.
Lucien stepped inside quietly and set the food down on the small table by the door without looking away from Law. The water bubble sat suspended in front of him, rotating slowly, the surface tension holding without any visible effort on Law's part. That was different from three days ago, when it had kept collapsing.
He pulled the chair from the table and sat down. He didn't say anything. Law's brows were still creased, and his eyes were still shut, and interrupting that for no reason seemed wasteful.
A few minutes passed.
The bubble dissolved. Law opened his eyes, looked at it for a moment like he was cataloguing the result, then looked at Lucien.
"Getting better," Lucien said.
Law nodded once. "On track."
He reached over and took the food without looking at it. He ate the first few bites in silence, then set it down.
"The fruit operates on a defined space," Law said. "Whatever I designate as the room, I have full control inside it. Objects, substances, the arrangement of things." He paused. "I need it to cover a body. That is the requirement." He looked at the space in front of him. "The first part was understanding how to hold the room at all. That took the longest. Now that I have that, the rest is just expansion. Progress has been faster."
Lucien looked at the space he'd indicated. A fruit that let you rearrange the contents of a defined area. He thought about what that meant in the hands of someone who already understood anatomy the way Law did, and what it would mean in another ten years.
"That'll do," Lucien said.
Law picked the food back up and kept eating.
"Do you want to go back?" asked Lucien, even though he didn't mention where Law understood. The remaining time until the boat gets done is the only time they have left in North Blue, and probably for a long time.
Law's hand paused before briefly shaking his head.
"I don't want to go back now."
Lucien left Law's room and pulled the door shut behind him. He walked down the short hallway and knocked on Idris's door.
It opened after a moment. Idris was shirtless, and the bruising across his ribs and left shoulder had deepened since yesterday. He'd been at it again. Observation Haki training had a lot of getting hit repeatedly until your body learned to 'see' everything as it happened and not react after. Idris had been disagreeing with his body every day since they arrived.
Lucien handed him his food without comment. Idris took it and stepped back to let him in.
The room was tidy in the way Idris kept everything, nothing out of place, the window open, a chair pulled close to it. Idris sat on the edge of the bed and started eating. Lucien leaned against the wall by the door.
"No plan for the Grand Line?"
Lucien just looked out the window in the room before answering, "No."
"Fine by me."
Lucien considered that for a moment. "We'll have one when we get there."
Idris nodded once. That was about the extent of what needed to be said about it. The Grand Line would tell them what it wanted from them soon enough. Planning ahead of that seemed like wasted effort.
Lucien pushed off the wall. "Eat. You look terrible."
Idris looked down at the bruising across his ribs with the detached interest of someone inspecting work in progress. He didn't disagree.
With that, Lucien went to his room and sat on the chair. He had many thoughts going through his mind as his eyes became droopy and he plopped his legs on the table. He couldn't help but feel bored, the only thing that had him going was the prospect of Grand Line in a few days.
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1 Chapter For Every 50 Power Stones. Please Do Support.