Thus, it would take a while for me to be able to form sentences on my own. Except for introducing myself. For some reason, that was the first thing to learn, learning a new language besides forms of courtesy.
But I knew I could call myself lucky to be able to communicate with at least one person. I don't know what I'd do otherwise.
Other than that, these past few weeks were passing by without any incidents. I finished the first stack of documents without finding anything interesting. The few pages, that were not trade agreements, were diary entries from different merchants. There were no hints to any other worlds like remarkable clothes or topics between merchant and customers. My motivation dropped considerably with that.
"Urgh! Ich hab keine Lust mehr. Diese Handelsverträge sind so langweilig! Warum verkauft denn keiner mal was anderes als Proviant oder Waffen?", I couldn't imagine this island to be anything else than some kind of military stronghold. No books or toys or anything different at all was selled there.
"Vielleicht mach ich Musik an...", the battery of the music box I bought had quite a long lifespan. During my time here, I only had to recharge it two times. The powerbank more often, as both the music box and my phone fed off of it.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
I answered the door while putting away the music box. But as it didn't open, I walked over and opened it myself.
"Bepo?", I hadn't expected someone else than Law.
"[The captain asked me to get you. Ah-]", Bepo seemed to realize. My language skills weren't there yet. He spoke too fast for me anyway.
"[Law.]", he just said then and I nodded in understanding. He was sent to get me. I raised a finger to let him understand to wait a second. Wanting to try out the quill one more time, I had to close the bottle of ink and clean the quill before leaving. Yes, I tried, but I still couldn't understand how anyone could write with that without scratching through the paper.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVdL9SMkNW
On my way, I wondered what Law wanted from me, but I couldn't think of anything.
After receiving an answer through the door, Bepo instructed me to wait outside the door for the captain. He himself wandered off towards the bridge.
After coming out, Law ordered me to follow him.
"We're going to reach Sabaody soon. You implied some hints." Oh, right. Was that really smart to do?
"You're going to the auction, right?", Law hesitated a moment. "... Right."
"Just be careful. And take some good fighters with you.", his eyes narrowed in response.
"You're saying there's going to be a fight? One needing good fighters on top of that?" I wasn't sure whether to say something from the very beginning. Now I had to come up with something on the spot.
"Well... You know. Other rookies will be there. The marine as well. A fight is pretty obvious, don't you think?", I tried explaining the obvious.
"That's your hint? Do you think I'm stupid?", obviously feeling offended, he ended the conversation. I couldn't just reveal I had knowledge of future events.
We reached the bridge not long afterwards. Law talked to Bepo, who listened closely, nodding a few times. Subsequently, the captain talked to the whole crew over the radio.
"What did you tell the crew?", I asked on our way to the next goal.
"We'll arrive in two days. That means for everyone to prepare a list of things they need and make other preparations. The list goes for you as well.", he explained.
"Alright. Anything else?"
"No."
Law led me into the far back of the archive. I never expected this room to be this big. After stopping in front of a relatively small shelve, he pulled out boxes full of paper.
"We're looking for a sheet of paper which contains information about a certain secret on the sabaody archipelago."
"It should be in one of those cardboard boxes.", he added.
"These are all papers in English?", I was still quite surprised looking at this mass of documents.
"You keep saying 'English', is that what you call the forgotten language where you come from?", I nodded, but repeated my answer verbally, as I noticed Law's eyes glued to the papers already. As I searched through the first box, I wondered how Law was going to determine which would be the right one, considering he couldn't read it. It was easy for me though, as I just had to skim through the text and search for the word 'sabaody'.
"This should be it.", Law interrupted my rhythm with a relieved tone. A brief look told me, this search wasn't over yet, though.
"I... don't think so. The title says 'Best Bread On The Planet'. Looks like a short, handwritten report." Law opened his mouth, but only put the sheet of paper back into the box without saying anything. He didn't quite succeed in hiding his hurt pride. Which just made me smile briefly.
"Say, how do you even decide which paper could be the right one? You told me you couldn't read this writing.", I finally asked.
"I remember the paragraphs of the paper. There wasn't much writing on it. Just a few lines in curved writing."
After another hour of searching through the boxes, we finally found the destined document in the last box. I found a few other interesting documents on the way. Some looked like newspaper articles, others looked like reports about different topics. I even found a poem that spiked my hopes of getting home again. It contained the phrase "nightlights of the worlds". Hoping to get to those sometime, I put them on an extra stack of papers.
Back in my room, I could finally get a closer look on the document. I had to handle it very carefully, as it was indeed quite old. The writing was beautiful, though that made the text quite hard to read. Just like Law said, it was a beautifully curved handwriting. Like calligraphy.
"Sabaody legend
On this island of soap trees Thou findest the crystals to open the path
Under the corpus of one of their dogsbodies His last breath takenth hence by those hands faithful through stakes and arrows158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhNs8HLEaM8
This corpus in the center of the warning wood with cross'd legs158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeWFRY44x2
His masters the rebels of new times
Takest the bodkin coat'd by this soap For thou must not harmest its fountain
A thousand crystals of pure formeth the crystal thou wilt158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDkD0vI4YO
The path is as clear as the crystal"
The handwriting was the hardest part really. Interpreting the legend wasn't that hard. Law helped, so we finished it in about an hour.
That was my mission once we reached the archipelago in two days. Find the crystals.
"So one is supposed to make a salt crystal out of the salt from the mangroves. To be precise, from a certain tree. Luckily I know the future to some degree so I already got knowledge Law was yet to acquire.", I thought, "The masters of the dogsbodies, rebels of new times, must be the tenryuubito. Therefore, their dogsbodies are the marines.", I concluded, summarizing my task one more time. I had to memorize the criteria for that tree, since I was supposed to leave the document in the submarine. Just to be safe. I agreed. The only thing left for me to do was finding that sign with a marine corpse on it.
"I just hope there aren't too many.", thinking that, I kept walking around in search for the destined sign. I still didn't feel very comfortable walking around on my own. I was fitter now, sure, but probably still an easy target. Besides, the sign I had to find must have been in the lawless zone. After all, it was supposed to be a warning sign for the marine. I didn't quite understand why Law wouldn't let any one of his crew members accompany me. "At least he gave me a den-den-mushi."
"I must not talk, since no one would understand me. I'm sure I'd quickly end up at the auction, if anyone heard me talking the forgotten language. My fighting skills weren't that good either. And all this in the lawless zone. Na wenn das mal gut geht.", I doubted to myself. I honestly had to be careful not to start thinking out loud.
"On the other hand,", I thought, "assuming someone started talking to me, I'd probably just provocate them by not saying anything at all and just staring at them. Plainly ignoring them would be even worse.", not convinced by my idea of playing mute, I was nowhere near finding the right sign, wondering how long it would take until chaos broke out.
The only thing that put a smile on my face, was the thought of Law's confused face when I told him my actual hint for the sabaody archipelago. Right as I left the ship, I told him. "Remember, it's not Kuma.", and kept walking without giving him the chance to press the matter. Of course, I meant the pacifista he had to fight.
After two to three hours, I finally saw a sign, that from afar, looked just like the one I was searching for. As I walked towards it with newfound motivation, I eyed the group of men standing a few meters away closely. The sign right in front of me, I checked the criteria.
"Legs crossed... Corpse in the center... and pierced with arrows and stakes... Works!" Right behind the sign was a root from a mangrove. Just as I pulled out the knife and was about to cut the root, I realized I had forgotten something crucial.
"Shit! Vergessen.", I groaned in annoyance. I had forgotten to coat the knife. "Und das Handwerksviertel ist natürlich auf der anderen Seite der Insel. Do I really have to go back all the way?! Seriously? God, this stupid, stupid head of mine!", but being angry at myself wouldn't help me. I looked at the number of the mangrove, noted it down and started making my way back.
Then I remembered the group of men. I had forgotten about them completely in my dilemma. Nervous, but hopefully looking completely calm on the outside, I looked around. They were nowhere to be seen. "Guess they went somewhere else. Lucky.", I didn't want to imagine what might have happened if they had heard me. Not only did I speak the forgotten language, but also a language that did not exist in this world at all.
"Alright. I need to go... this w-"
"[Where to little lady?]", I heard a low voice behind me and turned around in surprise. At the same time, one hand found it's way to the telephone-snail and the other to the handle of my short sword. I could handle a short sword alright. A long sword, like Law had, was simply too heavy for me at the moment.
The man that apparently talked to me belonged to the group of men I had lost sight of. The adrenaline rose, as I saw his malicious smirk. With the first step one of them took towards me, I got out the den-den-mushi and called Law.
"[Already calling for help? That's rude, we don't intend to harm you little lady.]", he said something, but it was too fast for me to understand. It was a shame, really, since I did put effort into improving my language skills. Just like we agreed, I gave Law the number of the grove I was at and then the one I was moving towards. "16, 15."
It was smart of him to teach me the numbers first. Was that planned in advance as well? I would have been impressed, had I had the time.
The men were closing in on me while I still pondered whether I should run or fight. My condition wasn't that bad anymore. Law had gotten a lot out of me. The men in front of me where a mix, looking at their fitness.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjR4uHY1Y3E
"Seven in total. Three too fat. Three average. One well trained.", I'd be able to get away from the three fat ones easily. The three average one's might be a problem. The trained one definitely was a problem. But fighting would have been suicide. I trusted in myself being more agile than the trained one, since I was smaller, as I turned around and ran.
After about 5 minutes, only four men remained behind me. I could see the craft district in the distance. It was still about a kilometer away, but it set a goal for me. I thought I was safe there.
After another 5 minutes I started getting slower. Three men remaining behind me. The well trained guy worried me. He wasn't getting faster to catch me, but his pace wasn't getting slower either. He was more agile than I had hoped. I saw a tree and a giant rock right next to it. Maybe I could hit the hook there to get away from them, I thought. But Law told me to not change directions, so the crew would know where I was going and help me.
That's why I hadn't realized another chance of maybe getting away from them. But I was slowly, but surely loosing my breath. There was no other way, I wouldn't make it to the craft district. I saw a small gap between the rock and the tree. "That's my chance.", I turned abruptly towards the mangrove.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJY7P3Czxse
"[You can't escape us now! Even running around this mangrove won't save you!]"
I admit, it was risky. Every time I thought I felt their hands on my ponytail, it was far too close. Around the mangrove, over and under giant roots and that one man was still behind me. My last chance was that gap between the tree and the rock.
"Shit that looks narrow!", I thought, right before squeezing myself through the gap. It was only thanks to my speed that I got through. And it was thanks to my speed that I received a few bruises and scratches.
Behind the giant rock, relief immediately hit me. I hadn't just barely escaped that man, but I also heard some familiar voices.
"CATHERINE-SAN!", my two saviours called. Ikkaku and Clione hurried to me.
Translations:158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRzuDNfUQK
(1) "Urgh! Ich hab keine Lust mehr. Diese Handelsverträge sind so langweilig! Warum verkauft denn keiner mal was anderes als Proviant oder Waffen?" - "Urgh! I don't wanna do this anymore. These trade agreements are so boring! Why isn't anyone selling anything different from provisions or weapons?"
(2) "Vielleicht mach ich Musik an..." - "Maybe I'll turn on some music..."
(3) "[...] And all this in the lawless zone. Na wenn das mal gut geht." - "[...] And all this in the lawless zone. Wonder if this will go well."
(4) "Shit! Vergessen." - "Shit! Forgot."
(5) "Und das Handwerksviertel ist natürlich auf der anderen Seite der Insel. [...]" - "And of course the craft district is on the other side of the island. [...]"158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpY8o3GkAA8
