Chapter 41 - 41: At long last.

"Yggdrasil's great arts...?" After having been handed the book, Edam read the name on the cover as he raised his head curiously to look at Zephyr and then at the book again.

On the book cover below the title "Yggdrasil's great arts", the two initial letters "J.R" could be seen with the words "Complete edition." just below the initials.

Seeing this Edam blinked his eyes rapidly in doubt.

Even Garp's face at the side wore a stunned expression.

"Is that...that idiot's book ?" Garp suddenly said turning to Z with a twitching face as if he find it ridiculous or something, struggling to say something else about that "idiot".

"Yeah it is..." Zephyr just replied plainly as he drank his cup of tea.

"So that's why you came with us huh...well it is certainly now the only place where we could find one after all..." Garp said furrowing his brows at first and then realize something.

"Yeah someone there, owe me a service so... and as the kid seemed to be related to it..." Z said vaguely leaving a lot of room for hypotheses as he kept drinking his tea.

Listening to their weird conversation, Edam didn't put too much thought into it and gaze at the book as he then decided to open it but...

However just as he opened and turned the first page Zephyr suddenly spoke making his hand stopped in place.

"Well, no need to rush, you have all the time to read it... and look, one of your friends is up now..."

As they were at the front of the ship, they were somewhat hidden by the beam of the sail making her unable to see them.

At this Edam turn around and saw Hancock walking out, looking around at the passing marines soldiers with a wary and frowning face just like a threatened little snake who just left its nest to find its mother.

"Hey, I'm here, come over, breakfast is ready !" Edam said with a smile, waving his arms to call her out, immediatedly drawing her attention to him.

Seeing him, her expression seemed to lit up immediatedly, as she slowly made her way to him.

"What do you want to eat ?" Edam asked curiously.

"Uh...n, nothing I'm fine..." She said hesitantly trying to put a smile.

"No that won't do, you have to eat, don't you know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day ?" Edam asked if he was giving the most important advice in the world as he then said.

"Hey take my chair...here..., I'm done eating anyway..." He offered his chair to her as there were just three chairs much to Hancock frustration who want to refute but gave in in the end seeing his expression that he was absolutely mind set on giving his chair to her.

Having seemingly no other choice, she just sighed a bit and sat on the chair looking at the food in front of her in a daze.

"Hey, girl now that I think about it, you didn't tell us where you were living at don't you ?" Garp asked noticing this somewhat crucial info that they had forgot as he began to eat his rice crackers that he had brought out from who know where.

"Uh... I don't know where it is ... I only know that it is surrounded by a lot of sea monsters all day long." She replied honestly as this drew Edam attention instantly as he asked in surprise.

"Your island is surrounded by seas monsters ?" Edam's eyes lit up at that.

"Hum..." She just nodded lightly in response to his question.

"Well it should be situated on Calm Belt then...However, it doesn't help much..."

"Hum... does your island have some particularities or something ?" Zephyr asked for a hint.

The seemingly small seas named Calm belt was awfully vast, so vast that even they old geezers had never explore all the islands that could be find on it with the main reason for this being the case, all the sea monsters that were in there.

No sane men would even dare to think of crossing it or travel on it with all those gigantic monsters of absurd sizes living in.

Anyway, face with this question, Hancock reflected on it and said hesitantly.

"Umm, there is..." She said but paused a bit thinking that what she would say would maybe be too weird for them to believe her, so she just considered to leave this detail out.

And also after having seen the disgusting side of men, her faith in humanity, (especially men) had decreased to a negative point already, (Except maybe for Edam)...

Without stating that this information shouldn't be allowed to reach some ill intentioned ears and so she had decided to keep her mouth shut but...

"There is...?" Edam repeated with bright eyes waiting expectantly truly curious about what she would say next.

"N...noth-..."She didn't want to say it but...

Looking at his somewhat "angelic" face waiting for her to finish her sentence, her beautiful eyelashes fluttered in frustration as she was completely and totally hopeless against it.

And so in the end she spat out the thruth.

"....There...there is...no man...on it..." She said struggling to not say it, in vain however.

"Eh ?" Edam was stunned for a moment not thinking that this would be something like that at all, he thought that maybe there were some flying humans on it, or just something more "epic" but no... it was an entirely different and rather boring stuff to his disappointment.

"And here I thought it was something incredible..."

That is to say the fleeting, and supreme dream of most men in this world !

A pity that a kid like him couldn't understand that...yet...cheh...

Meanwhile Garp and Zephyr's expression changed as they said as if enlightened by it.

"...Oh... so you come from there..."

Zephyr then remarked. " Haha...no wonder you don't even know where you're living at...so you three are Amazon lily's inhabitants..."

Edam said curiously. "Amazon lily... ?"

"You...you know its name... ?" Hancock asked a bit stunned but after putting a bit of thoughts into it, it wasn't so strange in the end.

Those two old men seemed to be extremely experienced and knowledgeable after all.

"Of course..." Z replied leisurely and add next.

"But this will be troublesome..." Zephyr said reajusting his glasses.

"Why is that ?" Edam asked curiously as his head tilted lightly to one side.

"Well you see, we do know where the island is situated to...that is no problem, but as for reaching the place in question that is the problem." Zephyr said drinking his tea again completely finishing it.

"The island is situated nearly in the middle of calm belt where Sea Kings are commonly seen swimming around daily..."

"Ah...so that's why..." Having seen a Sea King in the past during one of his check up travel, Edam knew just how much Sea kings were breathtakingly dangerous.

If it wasn't because he had a monster to his side called "grandpa" at that time, there's no way that they would have survived that day.

That Sea King was nearly as tall as the giant Mount Corvo, but even this beast didn't last long in front of his grandpa.

It was maybe at that time that he began to see Garp as a monster instead of a human... who know...

...

"Um...that's quite problematic indeed..." Z commented with a heavy expression.

They fell into a deep silence for a couples of minutes before Garp broke it.

"Well we don't have to go there ourselves you know, munch, munch, munch" He grinned widely looking at Z in a mysterious voice, eating his rice crackers.

"What ?" Zephyr didn't immediatedly got his point. It was only after a few seconds that it finaly struck him.

An expression of 'Oh so that's what he meant.' was plastered on his face.

Edam and Hancock just look at each other questioningly but could only see the same sense of losses in the other eyes.

"But do you know where to find her ?" Zephyr asked curiously.

"Heh...that old woman should still be there I think, I have receive continuous report of her being there not long...however even that will be problematic..." He said smiling at first but then his face became a bit heavy.

" Um ?" Zephyr lifted one brow curiously as Garp continued.

"There is an old monster with her too and another person worth to note too..." Garp said in a serious face but with still a touch of amusement on it.

"So serious...?" Zephyr asked stunned.

"Yeah... two old acquaintances indeed..." A sudden grin took place on Garp's face as he took a rice crackers. " Crunch, crunch..."

"..."

Seeing Garp like that, Zephyr who knew him well enough quickly understood from his way of talking that the two other people with the one they were seaching for weren't really people who did things in the legal way.

And the fact that Garp called one of them "old monster" could only mean one thing, they knew that guy personally and most of all...

That person was not to be triffled with...

With such a troublesome case at hands Z asked again while sighing. "Where do we go then...?"

Instead of replying to him, he shouted out to his subordinnates.

"Guys we are heading to Shaboady Archipelago this time !"

"Yes sir !" At this, the guys who had to do something got to their position while the others kept their positions.

"Oh cool we're going to Shaboady, it's been a while..." Edam said eagerly while Hancock face pale a bit, remembering some bad memories.

Seeing this, Edam put a hand on her head and said in a heartfelt tone. "Hey don't worry, hehe, I'll make sure you and your sisters go back home safely." A wide reassuring smile present on his face.

Her face turn a deep red as she nodded quietly. " Thank you..."

Edam just smile at that while the two old men eagle like eyes narrowed at that with a, "Heh..." sounding out from them making Hancock head turn redder in result.

...

* A dozen of minutes later.*

The two sisters woke up as well as they ate something while, Garp who had already finished returned in it as he had some things to call back Sengoku for yesterday incident.

The poor was sure to be lectured all day long for not having pick up the call.

But well it was already a miracle that he was still not fired, all thanks to his special stature.

However before he step into the ship, he paused a bit and said. "Oh right, Edam...!"

"Yes...?" Edam who was chatting with the sisters about how was their island like replied.

To that, Garp then said. "For your punishment, you will wash this ship from top to bottom and every corner of it, if I see just the shades of a speck of dust still lingering around..." He paused a bit and laughed weirdly and then said.

"...Hehe, let's just say you will feel it this time around... Bwahahahaha..." an evil grin could be seen flashing by his piercing eyes as he laughed evily while heading in.

At this statement Edam felt goosebumps creep up throughout his whole body rapidly as he flinched a bit in fear and immediately get to work.

He was certain to be the only grandson who had a grandpa so evil....

Meanwhile, Zephyr decided to relax peacefuly on a deckchair under a parasol.

"It's so cool to be an instructor..." Edam looked in jealousy Zephyr who got to relaxed as he muttered under his breath.

Seeing this, Edam decided that he too would become an instructor in the future...maybe...

...

Like this, he began to clean this dog ship.

But of course how could the sisters just look at their "savior" do this alone do they ? They proposed to lend a helping hand and he accept it.

The four of them then proceed to clean this ship thoroughly while chatting.

Although it was more like Edam alone who asked question it didn't prevent the atmosphere to be relaxed.

Having finished before the sun set they had as a reward a beautiful view just for themselves before going to take a bath.

There were indeed baths in this ship, however it was more like "public bath", to the girls dismay.

But to their surprises and happiness, it just so happened that Edam's room was one of the only rooms which had a private bath, this only made them even happier.

Not caring if he was last or not, he just let the girls go first as the three of them then entered in at the same time.

The bath had a shower and one bathtub that were kept in pristine condition by Edam himself.

Well... even his room was so clean that not even a speck of dust could be seen in there.

Such a degre of cleanliness was truly unexpected coming from a boy.

However what they didn't know was that this sense of cleanliness came from a lot of pain and suffering...

Because since a young and tender age, Garp taught him in the hard way to keep his room clean at all time...

And the most infuriating for Edam was that he was the only one who was taught this, Luffy didn't got to be taught this "beautiful way of life" as on the day he discovered his brother's existence, they were directly entrusted to grandpa Hoop and Makino that same year.

Meaning, in other words that Garp was there to kick his Edam's buŧŧ but not here to kick Luffy's buŧŧ... much to our monkey's grievance.

However thanks to that the girls could have a good bath in a clean bath.

Like the saying goes "One brand's pain is another's gain." indeed.

After a good bath, when it was already night they then enjoyed a good dinner together before going to bed.

The same thing from yesterday happened gain as Edam was hell bent on sleeping on the floor...

It was still a little awkward to sleep at four in a room with only one bed.

And the weirdest thing of all was of course that none of them were on the said bed, as if too afraid to sleep on it, even the proprietor of it was sleeping like his three guests on the floor.

But this awkwardness didn't prevent Edam from having a beautiful sleep at all.

...

The next day, just as he woke up along with Hancock and was just about to take his breakfast, Doctor Gahan came with a rather good news...

The unconscious girl had woken up at long last !