Chapter 104: Toki Boards the Ship
"Then I'll be off. My companions are still waiting for me," Luo Han said, slowly rising into the air, ready to leave.
"Wait for me! I'm coming with you!" Toki quickly called out as soon as she saw Luo Han preparing to go. If she hadn't, he'd be gone in a blink.
"Why are you coming with me?" Luo Han paused, looking at her with confusion.
"I need to go back to Wano!"
"Then go!"
"I don't know the way back! I came all the way to this sea just to help you. You have to take responsibility and send me home!" Toki replied awkwardly.
"But… I don't know where Wano is either. How am I supposed to take you back?"
Toki froze. She clearly hadn't thought of that. Pouting and looking pitifully at Luo Han, she said, "Then what am I supposed to do?"
"Uh…" Faced with her charming, pouty expression, Luo Han was momentarily speechless.
"Just let me board your ship! We can search for it together," Toki said, looking like a child being stubborn. "Anyway, I must return to Wano within three years. You're responsible for that!"
"Ugh… Fine. But my ship often ends up in battles. It'll be dangerous. Be careful," Luo Han finally said, feeling cornered. After all, even if she had a reason for helping, she'd gone through great lengths — and now she didn't even know how to get home. Not helping her didn't sit right with him. So in the end, he agreed to take her and find Wano together.
"Yay! Then let's go right away!" Toki jumped with joy upon hearing his answer.
Luo Han twitched at the corner of his mouth. "How did I ever hear even a hint of maturity in her voice?" he thought, now deeply questioning himself.
"Alright, let's go." Luo Han pulled out the life paper Spoon-jie had given him, checked the direction, then used telekinesis to wrap around Toki, flying with her toward Both Island.
On the way back, the girl kept exclaiming in wonder, getting excited even at the sight of seagulls. Maybe at this moment, she truly was just a girl again.
"I wonder what must have happened for a cheerful girl like her to travel through time from the distant past to the future," Luo Han silently pondered.
By the time they returned to Both Island, night had completely fallen.
Following the faint lights of the port, Luo Han and the girl landed on the ship, where only Cole and Spoon-jie were waiting. The others weren't in sight.
Tap tap! As soon as they landed, Cole and Spoon-jie rushed over with small quick steps — they had clearly been waiting for Luo Han's return.
"Well? Did you find it?" Spoon-jie asked urgently.
Cole didn't say anything but stared intently at Luo Han, his eyes full of hope.
"Sigh… I found it, but there was an unexpected twist," Luo Han replied with a sigh.
"What happened? Are my mom and dad, and the others okay?" Cole was getting anxious, his big head moving closer to Toki.
"Ah!" Startled by Cole's sudden huge face, Toki let out a cry and hid behind Luo Han.
Her crisp voice rang out, sounding especially loud on the otherwise quiet ship with only four people aboard.
"And who's this?" Only now did Spoon-jie and Cole notice Toki.
"When I arrived at Ring Tree Island, it had already been reduced to ruins," Luo Han said as he gently pulled Toki forward. "But thanks to her Devil Fruit power, everyone from the island was saved — she sent them thirty years into the future."
"Thirty years into the future?" Spoon-jie gasped, staring at the girl in awe. "A time-based Devil Fruit… such an incredible power!"
"Good thing they're safe!" Cole patted his chest in relief, then froze. Looking at Luo Han's face, he counted on his fingers, once, twice, three times before stopping.
"Han-ge… what do we do if we're old thirty years from now? What if Mom and Dad don't recognize me?" Cole asked, frightened. A vision of his mom failing to recognize an aged version of him appeared in his mind.
"Uhh…" Luo Han was stunned and turned to glare at Toki.
Toki flinched, her eyes darting about as she avoided Luo Han's gaze.
"This damned woman sent everyone so far into the future and didn't even think of the consequences?" Luo Han imagined Granny Mo being greeted by a nearly fifty-year-old man calling her "Granny," and quickly shook his head to stop the thought. "Too terrifying."
"Hehe! As long as everyone's okay!" Spoon-jie chuckled behind her hand, clearly imagining the same scene as Luo Han.
"But what exactly happened on Ring Tree Island? You're part of the Rocks Pirates now — who would dare attack your home, Luo Han?" Spoon-jie asked. Normally, those under the Rocks Pirates fly the crew's flag in their hometown, and no one in the New World would dare provoke them.
"Yeah, Han-ge, who the hell attacked Ring Tree Island?" Cole growled, clenching his fists. "I'm not letting those people who made my parents vanish off the hook!"
"Those people…" Luo Han frowned deeply as he remembered CP0 — and possibly two of the Gorosei.
"It was CP0 — the World Government's intelligence agency. Cole and I were ambushed by them not long after joining the Rocks Pirates."
"I had a feeling they'd come looking for Ring Tree Island eventually, but I thought it'd take them longer to find it. That's why I didn't rush back."
"I'm sorry, Cole. I didn't return in time."
Luo Han still felt a bit guilty. He hadn't told Cole any of this before. Only after something happened did he finally speak up.
"Uh… Han-ge…" Cole scratched his head, not knowing how to respond to Luo Han's apology.
Since childhood, he had always listened to Luo Han. Even when they set out to sea, his father had told him to follow Luo Han. In Cole's heart, Luo Han was a reliable older brother who always took care of him.
"Um… excuse me," came Toki's voice, and all three turned their eyes on her.
Toki shrank back and said nervously, "I… I have something to say!"
She looked at the three of them with a guilty glance.
"About the aging issue — I might have a way to delay it," she said quickly, then lifted her head proudly.
"You mean… Pure Gold? You know where to find Pure Gold? Is that what you're saying!?" Spoon-jie's eyes lit up, and whoosh! She appeared in front of Toki in an instant, her eyes full of hope, voice trembling with excitement.
"Eh? You know about Pure Gold too?" Toki replied in surprise.
"You really know where it is?!" Luo Han and Spoon-jie exclaimed at once. If she truly knew its location, neither of them could stay calm. They stared at Toki with burning intensity.
"Uhh…"
Feeling their heavy gazes, Toki shrank again and mumbled, "Well… I saw it in a vision of the future. On a certain day, a lanternfish carrying Pure Gold will appear somewhere in the New World."
"You can search the New World… you should be able to find it… maybe," she added, her voice getting weaker and less certain toward the end.
"Sigh…" Luo Han and Spoon-jie sighed in unison. If only they knew the exact location of Pure Gold.
(END CHAPTER)
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