Shimotsuki Village had not been this lively in a very long time.
Ever since Kairo the traveler appeared, word had spread through the village in barely more than ten minutes. Before long, nearly all of the village's children and teenagers had come running over, surrounding him after one particularly enthusiastic villager invited him home as a guest.
Half an hour later, Kairo had already blended right in with the villagers. Laughter and chatter rose one after another without pause.
"Mr. Kairo, Mr. Kairo, if you're really a traveler, then you must've been to so many places and seen so many interesting things, right?"
"Mr. Kairo, can you tell us some stories from your travels?"
"I want to know what the world outside Shimotsuki Village is really like!"
"Mr. Kairo—"
Most of the ones crowding around him were children and teenagers from the village.
The moment they heard he was a traveler who had been all over the world, they completely lost their shyness and began shouting over one another in excitement.
One child, desperate to hear a travel story, actually ran home and secretly brought back a bottle of liquor his father had hidden away.
That one act set off a chain reaction.
Some children ran back home and brought fruit. Others came back with cigarettes. One especially outrageous little brat even stole his father's emergency stash of money, sending the watching adults into a burst of helpless laughter.
Strangely enough, none of the parents stopped their children.
Clearly, they were just as curious about Kairo's "travel experiences" as the kids were.
As for making up travel stories on the spot…
Kairo was a master at that.
He casually accepted a cigarette from one of the boys and tucked it behind his ear. Then he cleared his throat and said with complete confidence, "Since everyone wants to hear my travel stories that badly, then I'll tell you a few."
"Now then… where should I start?" He paused, as if giving it serious thought, before snapping his fingers. "Got it. Let me tell you about something I saw while traveling in the South Blue."
"The South Blue is known as the Sea of Craftsmen, because there are many inventors there who love tinkering with machines and even building robots. Of course, that has nothing to do with the story I'm about to tell."
"What I want to talk about is a very interesting group I met during my travels there."
"A very interesting group?" A child holding a match hurried up to him. Without even asking, the boy struck it and tried to light Kairo's cigarette for him.
Seeing how earnest the kid was, Kairo couldn't bear to reject him. He took the cigarette from behind his ear and let the boy light it.
"That's right. A very interesting group." Kairo took a slow drag, then exhaled a cloud of smoke before continuing. "The leader was a man named Tang Sanzang. He'd lived in the South Blue for so many years that he gradually grew bored. Eventually, he decided to leave the South Blue and head for the Grand Line to search for the treasure the Pirate King Roger had left behind."
"So, he gathered three companions and set sail."
The moment Kairo finished that line, a little girl in the crowd immediately asked, "What were the names of his three companions?"
"Excellent question." Kairo turned to her and gave her a warm smile. "These three companions were no ordinary people. Especially the first one to join him. His name was Sun Wukong… and he was a monkey."
"Ah?!"
The children surrounding Kairo instantly erupted in surprise.
"Why would he take a monkey out to sea? The adults in the village said the Grand Line is super dangerous, and there are tons of pirates who kill without blinking!"
"What do you know? That monkey must be stronger than those pirates!"
"Exactly." Kairo gave the speaking boy an approving thumbs-up. "That monkey really was terrifyingly strong. In the entire Grand Line, there was basically no one who could beat him."
"Wow! Then what about the second companion?"
"His second companion was called Zhu Bajie. And from the name alone, you can probably guess what he was. That's right—he was a black wild boar."
"Why would Tang Sanzang want a wild boar as a companion? Wouldn't he be scared of getting rammed into the sky?"
"You idiot, isn't there already a super powerful monkey with him?"
"True… Then, Mr. Kairo, what about the third companion?"
"The third companion was named Sha Wujing. He wasn't a monkey, and he wasn't a wild boar either. He was a Curtain-Guarding General from a royal palace…"
Kairo told the story with growing enthusiasm, and before long the children, teenagers, and villagers of Shimotsuki Village had all been dragged into the absurd tale he was spinning.
He painted every scene so vividly that everyone listening leaned forward unconsciously, as if they were afraid of missing even a word.
Because his storytelling was so lively—and because Tang Sanzang's bizarre group was just too strange not to be fascinating—more and more villagers began making their way over.
Before long, a green-haired boy squeezed his way through the crowd.
"Zoro, what took you so long?"
The moment the green-haired boy made it in, another boy about his age quickly pulled him over and said excitedly, "Weren't you talking about going to sea someday to find Dracule Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman? Maybe Mr. Kairo has seen him before!"
At those words, the green-haired boy's eyes instantly lit up with intensity.
Just then, two children near Kairo suddenly let out disappointed sighs.
"Mr. Kairo, didn't Tang Sanzang and the others already make it into the New World? If they kept going just a little longer, wouldn't they have reached Laugh Tale? Why would they suddenly stop and go back to the South Blue?"
"Because…" Kairo reached out and gently rubbed the little boy's head. "Tang Sanzang's first companion, Wukong, got tired of all the fighting and killing. He didn't want to continue anymore."
Then, in a tone full of fake wisdom, Kairo added softly, "A lot of the time, kid, the world isn't about fighting and killing. It's about people, favors, and understanding how things really work."
"Oh…"
The little boy blinked, then asked curiously, "So did Wukong go back to the South Blue?"
"All of them did," Kairo said with a nod. "After returning to the South Blue, Sha Wujing went back to the palace to resume his role as the Curtain-Guarding General. Zhu Bajie went off to a place called Gao Village, where he spent every day drinking, feasting, and living in luxury. Wukong became so jealous of him that he couldn't stand it."
"So in the end, Wukong pulled off a grand switch, took the name Jia Baoyu, and transformed himself into the treasured young master of the Rongguo Mansion."
"And from that moment on… the gears of fate began to turn."
The children's eyes widened even further.
Sun Wukong had turned into Jia Baoyu?
What kind of story was that supposed to be?
"Then what happened?"
"Why did he turn into Jia Baoyu?"
"That," Kairo said with a slight smile, "is a different story."
"We'll continue tomorrow. It's getting late, and all of you should be heading home before your mothers come looking for you."
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