Several hours later—
After being thoroughly plied with alcohol by Arashi, the dizzy Hawkins staggered out of the workshop and headed back toward his pirate ship.
Meanwhile, Trafalgar Law and his three companions had long since drunk themselves unconscious and were now sleeping soundly on the floor of the workshop.
"Mr. Arashi."
After watching Hawkins leave, Old Wolf spoke with a hint of concern.
"I know this Hawkins fellow. He's the captain of a pirate crew that's risen to prominence in the North Blue recently. I've heard he's a Paramecia Devil Fruit user."
The old man hesitated.
"Now that he's suddenly appeared on Swallow Island, could it be..."
Arashi didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he sat back in his chair with narrowed eyes.
While he was also curious about Hawkins's appearance and strange behavior, he wasn't worried about Hawkins causing any real trouble.
More importantly, Arashi could sense that Hawkins hadn't come to Swallow Island to make trouble.
As long as he wasn't here to cause problems, everything was fine.
And if they could drink and chat together, all the better.
"Don't worry, Wolf."
After a moment of silence, Arashi stood up.
"Even if Hawkins does have ulterior motives, he won't be able to make much of a splash."
He smiled.
"It's getting late. Get some rest. Don't forget you're still injured."
With that, Arashi left the workshop and returned to the Traveler.
Back aboard the ship, he found that both Perona and Robin had already gone to sleep.
He returned to his own cabin, lay down on his bed, and silently opened the system interface.
Thanks to completing the mission of accepting Trafalgar Law as his disciple, his accumulated Travel Points had now reached thirty thousand.
"Observation Haki LV9. It's been a long time."
Seeing the total amount of points available, Arashi didn't hesitate in the slightest.
He immediately upgraded his Observation Haki to LV9.
As the system notifications faded away, Arashi blinked in confusion.
"After LV9, isn't there supposed to be another realm?"
He frowned.
"Why isn't anything happening?"
Ever since he had upgraded his swordsmanship to LV9 and entered the Sword Domain, Arashi had been wondering whether Observation Haki would gain a similar domain-like state upon reaching LV9.
Yet now, the system had merely informed him that the upgrade was successful and deducted the corresponding Travel Points.
Nothing else happened.
After waiting for a while and receiving no further notifications, Arashi relaxed.
"Maybe I need to raise all three types of Haki to LV9 before a new realm appears."
He nodded.
"Fine. I'll wait until Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki reach LV9 too."
With that thought, Arashi sat upright.
At the same time, his newly upgraded Observation Haki LV9 quietly activated.
The instant it activated, his Observation Haki spread across the entirety of Swallow Island.
Every movement on the island immediately entered his perception.
"The coverage area has expanded."
Feeling that every detail of Swallow Island was now under his awareness, Arashi nodded in satisfaction.
But the next moment—
His eyes suddenly narrowed.
A fragment of information from the future entered his mind.
"Holy shit!"
"What the hell was that?!"
Although the information vanished almost instantly, Arashi had clearly perceived it.
And what he saw left him stunned.
Because within that glimpse of the future, he saw Hawkins becoming his disciple.
"Mr. Arashi, are you there?"
Before Arashi could fully process what had happened, Hawkins's drunken voice suddenly drifted in through the cabin window.
Hearing him, Arashi nearly jumped out of his skin.
Could Observation Haki LV9 really see the future?
With lingering uncertainty, Arashi immediately got out of bed and headed onto the deck.
Standing by the shoreline was none other than Hawkins, who had earlier been drunk nearly to the point of questioning his existence.
Although he had sobered up somewhat, he was still swaying on his feet.
"Didn't you go back already?"
Looking at Hawkins's dirt-covered clothes, Arashi couldn't help laughing.
"How many times did you fall on the way here?"
Hawkins clearly didn't care about such trivial matters.
The moment he saw Arashi appear on deck, he dropped to both knees with a thud despite barely being able to stand.
Then he looked up seriously.
"Mr. Arashi, please accept me as well."
"I want to become your disciple just like Trafalgar Law and the others."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hawkins lowered his head and remained kneeling motionlessly.
Well then.
The future he had just seen had immediately become reality.
Observation Haki LV9 was truly outrageous.
Looking at the kneeling Hawkins, Arashi couldn't help twitching his lips.
He and Hawkins weren't even that far apart in age.
Yet this guy kept calling him "Mr. Arashi" and had now come to kneel and beg for discipleship.
Arashi was completely convinced that Hawkins had become addicted to trusting his tarot divinations.
Still—
He was tempted.
The future Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Law, had already become his disciple.
Now the future Magician, Basil Hawkins, wanted to join as well.
That meant two of the future North Blue Supernovas would be his students.
And if he could somehow recruit Drake—the future fallen Marine—as well...
Wouldn't that be even more entertaining?
The Three Giants of the North Blue?
The next day—
Swallow Island, rear mountain.
Arashi lay sideways on the grass with a blade of grass dangling from his mouth.
Without blinking, he stared at Trafalgar Law, Bepo, Penguin, and Shachi, who were standing neatly in front of him.
Seeing that Arashi was simply staring at them without speaking, Bepo finally couldn't hold back.
He cautiously stepped forward.
"Master..."
"When do we start training?"
"No rush."
Arashi spat out the blade of grass and smiled.
"One more junior disciple hasn't arrived yet."
"J-Junior disciple?"
Bepo and the others froze.
Then they asked in unison,
"Who?"
"Sorry to keep Master waiting. It was my fault."
Just as they finished speaking, Hawkins came running over in a hurry.
He immediately took his place beside Law and bowed apologetically.
"I had to settle things with my crew, so I was delayed a little."
"H-Hawkins?!"
Seeing Hawkins standing beside them in formation, Bepo's eyes widened instantly.
"You... you... how are you also..."
Standing perfectly straight, Hawkins replied with a serious expression,
"I became Master's disciple last night."
"Master, is that true?!"
The moment Hawkins finished speaking, Bepo immediately turned toward Arashi.
When Arashi smiled and nodded, Bepo instantly shouted at Hawkins,
"We became disciples before you! That makes us your seniors!"
He pointed beside himself.
"So you need to stand over here next to me!"
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