The days when I wanted to be a human being

"No what no? Shanks?"

The man patted Shanks' arm, bringing his attention back to reality from his thoughts.

"Bucky, what are you doing? Are you trying to scare me to death?"

Shanks said helplessly after seeing that it was his long-time friend Buggy.

"What were you talking about?"

Buggy put his arm around Shanks' shoulders and walked under the eaves because the rain was so heavy that he felt a little uncomfortable.

Shanks frowned, looking at the rain that didn't stop at all. After thinking for a while, he broke away from Buggy's hand and said, "I have two pieces of news now, one is good and the other is bad. Do you want to..."

"Stop! I also have good news and bad news to tell you. Which one do you want to hear first?"

Bucky put his finger under his chin and smiled.

“…You speak first.” Shanks was silent for a moment, intending to let Buggy speak first.

"Hehe~" Buggy smiled, looked around, and after not seeing the navy behind him, he whispered, "Shanks, my good news is that I'm going out to sea."

"You're going out to sea, so why are you telling me?"

"Don't worry, let me finish."

"The bad news is, I haven't found a single crew member yet."

“…You’re not looking for me, are you?” Shanks pointed at himself unconfidently.

"Right! Shanks, you are still as smart as before." Buggy patted Shanks on the shoulder.

Shanks fell silent. To be honest, he didn't want to go out to sea right now, especially with Buggy.

"By the way, Shanks, have you noticed that the navy doesn't seem to care about us at all."

Bucky watched as a group of navy soldiers hurriedly ran from the square to the port in the rain.

After hearing what Buggy said, Shanks looked around and went to a shop nearby to buy two raincoats.

Then he pulled Buggy into an alley nearby.

It's not like he didn't consider what Bucky said, especially since he spent some time in the Navy and then defected a few years ago.

His wanted warrant is still there, but the Navy has ignored him since Roger turned himself in.

As you can imagine, this is probably thanks to Captain Roger.

"And... Shanks, didn't you just have good news and bad news to tell me?"

Buggy, who had put on his raincoat, looked at Shanks who was worried and asked curiously.

"Well... maybe. My good news is..."

After Shanks used his Observation Haki and found no one paying attention to them, he said leisurely, "I might have met Mya."

"Wha… Ugh!"

Just as Buggy was about to shout out in surprise, Shanks anticipated it and tightly covered Buggy's mouth.

"Keep your voice down."

You should know that a few days ago, Zhou Ling was captured and taken to Impel Down because of the attack on Marinford.

Although no one knows why she is here and the Navy has not released any news, it does not mean that they can easily talk about her in public.

“Mmmm!” Bucky’s face turned red as he covered his mouth, and he nodded quickly.

Seeing Buggy signaling him to let go, Shanks opened his hand that was covering Buggy.

“Huh!” Buggy exhaled heavily, “Shanks! You want to smother me to death, right? So that you can become the captain, right!”

"Forget it, Captain, I'll forgive you for your rude behavior this time." Buggy twisted his neck and looked at Shanks.

At this moment, Shanks seemed to have a headache, he covered his head and remained silent.

"What's wrong with you? Do you have a cold?"

"No, I'm fine." Shanks regained his composure, "I have another piece of bad news, do you want to hear it?"

"Listen, why don't you listen? I just told you two pieces of news. You can't just tell you one."

"The bad news is, she doesn't want to see me."

That's what Shanks thought, and that's why he had a headache.

He immediately understood why Zhou Ling appeared here in a new look. It must be to avoid being discovered by the navy.

But why she didn't recognize him is still a bit questionable.

"Huh? Shanks, don't you think about how much that woman has done? If she dared to recognize you, you would have to hide from the navy now."

Buggy smiled and looked at Shanks like he was a fool.

After all, what Zhou Ling did was really horrifying.

Many years ago, he attacked the holy land of the Celestial Dragons, and a few days ago he burned down Marinford. These things made the World Government and the Navy gnashed their teeth at him.

Zhou Ling didn't want to recognize Shanks, probably to avoid dragging him down.

Of course, this is just their guess.

"You are too weak, Shanks." Buggy said in a pretended deep voice.

Shanks sighed helplessly.

Apart from what Bucky said, he really couldn't think of any other reason.

"Shanks, come to sea with me! I will definitely find the treasure and become the Pirate King."

Bucky began to fantasize about the future.

"By that time, I think you must be very powerful, not to mention Aunt Miao, even..."

"enough!"

Shanks scolded Buggy to continue.

"Bucky, if we want to go out to sea..."

"I must be the captain."

"Come on, go out to sea with me!"

Shanks held out his hand to Buggy.

"Snapped!"

Buggy slapped Shanks' hand away, "Damn you, now that you've made up your mind, I'll go out to sea on my own."

After he said that, he turned around and left angrily.

"Bucky!"

Shanks wanted to call out to Buggy who didn't even turn around, but in the end, he didn't say anything.

He returned to the square, took a look at the execution platform, and walked towards the port with determination.

Since Zhou Ling doesn't want to drag him down because he is too weak, then it would be better for him to become stronger.

A pair of eyes flashed through Shanks' mind.

One was red like a blazing flame, and the other was occupied by a bottomless water ball.

He didn't know what happened to cause her to lose an eye, but he thought it might have something to do with leaving Impel Down.

...

Zhou Ling, wearing a menial soldier's uniform, followed a team of navy soldiers onto a warship shaped like a dog's head at the port.

Of course she knew that this was Garp's battleship. She came here because she was attracted by Garp's easy-going personality.

On the way to Rogue Town.

Zhou Ling knew that his disguise as a Marine could still play a huge concealing role among ordinary Marines.

But for a strong man like Garp who has a strong willpower, it has no effect at all.

Most Marines would forget about her as soon as they saw her, and when they talked about her, they would say, "Oh, is that the new errand boy?"

But Garp would pretend to meet her by chance every day and chat with her, saying that there were female servants on the entire warship, but none of them would come to the deck to wash the floor.

Most of them are in the medical sector.

So Zhou Ling also realized that she was "hiding", but she was only hiding her strength. She was not a person who could hide.

Although Garp didn't say it explicitly, his words and deeds showed that he hoped she would just stay well and not cause any trouble, and then everything would be fine.

Zhou Ling planned to follow Cap back to Windmill Village.

Yes, she plans to settle down directly in Windmill Village.

Anyway, there is nothing else to do. She needs to think carefully about how to improve her strength in the future.

There is another benefit to settling in Windmill Village.

If the navy wants to capture her in the future, they will have to consider the importance of Windmill Village in Garp's heart.

Yes, she didn't think that Cap wouldn't recognize her.

"Um... Lao Zhou, come here for a moment."

Cap arrived on the warship late. After giving instructions to his deputy, he called Zhou Ling to the captain's room.

"Old Zhou, we may not be able to go to Windmill Village for the time being. What are your plans?"

Just as Cap was about to take off his wet clothes, Zhou Ling simply sucked the water out and threw it outside.

"Hahaha, this is a great ability."

"Let's get down to business, Mr. Karp."

Zhou Ling looked a little depressed when she heard that she couldn’t go to Windmill Village in the short term.

Karp sighed helplessly, "If you want to blame someone, blame Roger. If it weren't for what he did just now, I would have been able to take a good vacation."