Hearing that news, all the orphanage kids came rushing out and warmly welcomed Hina.
"Waaah! Teacher!"
"Teacher, you're not leaving again, right?"
Hina's eyes got a little teary as she said,
"Hina's moved. I'm not going anywhere now."
I walked over to Hina too and said,
"Welcome back."
"Hina… yeah."
Hina had been staying in what used to be the Marines' quarters, but now I set her up in a room next to mine, beside Chunja (Robin). The rooms were pretty nice—each had a small kitchen, plus a bathroom with a shower and bathtub. She and Chunja were already fairly close.
That evening, the villagers threw a welcome party for Hina in the town square. I cooked everything myself.
"Wow~ so good! Boss, you're good at cooking too."
"Right? He's rich, handsome, strong, and he cooks. He's literally the perfect guy, isn't he?"
Kyaa kyaa~!
'Hey, hey, I can hear you! This is awkward—it's been a while.'
While listening to the residents talk, I found out something interesting. The swordsmanship instructor was dating one of the beautiful staff members. They said there was a 15-year age gap? Apparently they grew close while teaching swordsmanship. In Korea, he'd be called a total creep, but this was the One Piece world, so whatever.
As we were enjoying the party, a female staff member who was a little tipsy came up to me.
"Boss! What kind of woman do you like?"
At her question, the residents suddenly went quiet and all turned to stare at me. The vibe was like I had to answer.
"Hmm… Someone with a good personality, beautiful, and strong?"
The residents all started murmuring after hearing that.
"Then Hina-sensei's out? She's got quite the personality."
"Chunja the secretary seems out too? She's scary when you mess up work."
Hearing that, Hina and Chunja (Robin) both stood up at the same time and shouted,
"No I'm not!" "That's a misunderstanding!"
When everyone went silent and all eyes turned to them, they both flushed red, got embarrassed, and slowly sat back down, lowering their heads and sipping their drinks.
"Guess it's not them."
"Yeah, seems like it."
Whisper whisper.
"Ugh… Hina, humiliated…"
Hina was too embarrassed to lift her head. Chunja (Robin) was in the same situation. The two of them drank heavily to drown their embarrassment, and by the end of the party they were completely out of it, so I carried them to their rooms one by one. The next day, the female staff suddenly started training way harder.
Two more years passed, and it had been seven years since I arrived here. In that time, the island had several weddings, and babies were born. More staff learned Haki, and they even started developing their own techniques. Because of that, the martial arts tournaments got really intense. Of course, I healed anyone who got hurt.
One day, a small rowboat arrived at Merchant's Island. They said it was someone who knew me, so I went out—and it was Ace.
"Oh~ Ace! Good to see you."
"Good to see you, Taejin."
I shook hands with Ace and treated him to a meal I cooked myself in the dining hall.
"Wow~ this is good. Want to come be the cook on my ship?"
He'd only just left Foosha Village, and was recruiting crew members.
"Hahaha, I appreciate it, but the island wouldn't run without me."
"That's a shame."
"By the way, is Luffy doing okay?"
"He's fine. Training pretty hard too."
"I see."
"I didn't realize it until I left, but Taejin, you're a pretty big shot."
"Well… yeah. I'm managing an entire island, after all."
"I have a favor. Can you spar with me? Honestly, the pirates around here are too boring. I wanted to fight you since you're rumored to be strong. Grandpa Garp acknowledged you, so you must be strong."
Ace challenged me to a spar. I'd made a name for myself as a strong fighter from catching pirates and handling various incidents.
"Sure. Let's finish eating and rest a bit first."
"Awesome."
Chomp chomp
Once Ace agreed, he sped up his eating. I wasn't sure if he was eating or drinking. Probably something Garp taught him—eat as much as you can when you can. We finished eating, rested a bit, then moved to the village sports field we used for tournaments.
"Come at me whenever you're ready."
"Good, I'll make the first move since I'm challenging you. Hah!"
Ace rushed in quickly to throw a punch, but I stepped in just a bit faster and blocked his upper arm with my hand, stopping the punch before it could even extend.
"Ngh!"
Flustered that his attack was shut down before it started, Ace tried to throw a kick, but I blocked his thigh with my foot, cutting off that attack too.
"No way…"
Ace backed off, sweating, looking shocked. The skill gap between us was massive. No Haki, and he'd only fought weak pirates so far. The physical training Garp gave him, basic martial arts, and natural reflexes were enough for that, but they weren't nearly enough against me.
"Hahaha, giving up already?"
"No way. I'm just getting started."
The same pattern repeated for a full two hours. Ace was drenched in sweat and breathing hard. I was still just standing there like I had been at the start.
"Huff… huff…"
"Let's call it here."
"How is this possible? You're reading all my attacks."
"That's because your attacks are too obvious and simple."
This wasn't just Ace's problem. Every pirate I'd met in One Piece so far was like this. Maybe it was because of Haki. I pulled a drink from my inventory and tossed it to Ace. He caught it and drank immediately.
Gulp gulp~
"Phew~ thanks."
"You need to learn Haki first."
"Haki? What's that?"
I explained Haki to Ace. I gave him the same Haki demonstration I'd shown the residents two years ago.
"So that's why my attacks didn't work…"
"Yeah. And almost everyone strong out on the seas has it."
"I see…"
"And one more thing, your attacks are too monotonous. Stand still and guard."
Ace stood and took a guard stance. I faked a kick to his shin, then changed the trajectory into a high kick and stopped right next to his head. A Brazilian kick, for Ace.
"Huh!"
Ace had only been defending his shin and wasn't prepared for the sudden change to a high kick. He looked pretty shocked.
"Let me show you one more. Get in stance again."
"Okay."
I slowly threw a feint punch. When Ace tried to dodge to the side, I immediately threw a backspin blow and stopped next to his head again.
"No way…"
"I showed you big techniques, but you can do it with small ones too."
This time I faked a kick and threw a punch. A Superman punch. I showed him a few modern martial arts techniques like that.
"You get what I mean by your attacks being simple, right?"
"Yeah, I had no idea where the attacks were coming from."
"You've been crushing weak pirates with just your body, but if you're going to head out to where the strong are, you should make more varied attack patterns."
"Got it."
"Let's head back. I'll show you where you can rest."
"Yeah, thanks."
Ace looked serious, thinking hard as I guided him to a guest room. He ate dinner without a word and went to his room. I was a little worried seeing him like that.
The next morning, I heard weird shouting from outside the main building.
"Uoooooh!"
I opened the window and saw Ace running like crazy around the main building.
"Hahaha, he wouldn't be Ace if he gave up."
After breakfast, Hina came into my office.
"Hina, alarmed! Taejin, who's that idiot!"
"Garp's grandson."
"What!? Really?"
"Yeah."
Hina didn't know about Ace yet, since he hadn't made a name for himself.
Ace came to me asking for the tournament ranking list, so I gave it to him. For a month, he started sparring with people around his level, training.
"Don't tell me he plans to stay until he beats number one?"
Meanwhile, he picked up Armament and Observation Haki. Still beginner level, but it was really fast. Having people to spar with helped, and his well-trained body helped too.
'Bloodline playing a part?'
After two months, he was strong enough to spar with the mid-rank fighters. Then one of the male staff from the orphanage got competitive and started bickering with Ace every day. They were close in skill and kept trading wins and losses.
"Taejin, thanks for everything. I think I'll head out."
"Boss, I'm going with Ace. Thank you for everything."
I figured this would happen. I didn't like losing a staff member I'd trained hard, but I thought of it as the price for the Devil Fruit.
"Yeah, got it. Both of you, follow me."
I took them to the harbor. Then I pointed at a spare ship I'd built.
"It's a gift. Take it."
"How do I ever repay this?"
"Well… I've already received something. Friendship!"
"Right, friendship!"
"Food's loaded. Go say goodbye to everyone."
"Yeah, thanks."
Ace and the staff member who was leaving went around Merchant's Island saying their goodbyes, then came back. Many people came out to the harbor to see them off. I'd loaded plenty of food onto the ship.
"See you again."
"Yeah."
"Take care, Ace."
"Make sure you survive."
"Come back and I'll buy you a drink."
Lots of people came out and waved Ace off. He waved back as the ship left. Watching, Chunja (Robin) said,
"Whew… It'll be quiet now."
Hina agreed with that and said,
"Hina, agrees. Honestly, it was too loud in the mornings."
Ace got stronger than in the original, but… whatever, it'll be fine.