Chapter 642 - 890 – Kujaku Wants to Put It into Practice

"Speaking of Miss Hina, Arton's been mentioning her more and more often in his diary lately."

After hearing Gion bring up Hina's name, Kujaku could not help speaking up.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

For a moment, Gion did not react, looking at Kujaku beside her in confusion.

"This is just what I'm thinking, Gion-nee. The reason Miss Hina left the group might be because she decided to rely on her own strength to escape from wherever she was being imprisoned."

"Even if the World Government used Seastone chains when they locked her up, Miss Hina should still have had a chance to escape. Afterward, she may have run into Arton out at sea, and Arton kept her with him. That would explain why her name has been appearing more and more often in the Sea Diary."

Kujaku laid out her theory.

Listening to her, Gion's eyes gradually brightened.

Although Kujaku was only speculating, a great deal of what she said made sense. It really was a possibility.

"If Hina really was taken in by Arton, then that means Arton's pirate crew has probably passed near Judicial Island recently. Right now, the Flame Blade Pirates may very well be somewhere in the waters surrounding Judicial Island. If they're currently staying in a town—or heading toward one as their next destination—then perhaps we could…"

Gion paused for a moment, then exchanged a glance with Kujaku.

"Water 7!"

"Exactly."

Kujaku nodded emphatically.

Because of the size of her hat, the two locks of hair hanging in front of her chest bounced unconsciously with the movement.

"Arton has already been sailing for quite some time. Some of the pirate ships he owned at the beginning have probably accumulated plenty of damage by now. Before entering the New World, he may want to build a new pirate ship in Water 7. If we head there now, there's a chance we might run into him."

The mere thought of possibly meeting Arton—and increasing the odds of obtaining another doujinshi from him—made Kujaku almost unbearably excited.

Finally… I might finally get to see you.

You drew me as that kind of shameless woman in your manga. Now I want to see whether you can actually make me become one.

Kujaku licked the corner of her lips, looking forward to meeting Arton even more.

Even Gion had no idea just how deeply Arton's doujinshis had affected Kujaku.

Originally, Kujaku had plenty of knowledge, but she had always been fairly conservative about personally trying those things.

After seeing so many of Arton's works, however, she genuinely wanted to experience them for herself.

…

That was right—Kujaku now sincerely wanted to put what she had seen into practice.

There was no helping it. The scenes depicted in those doujinshis made intimacy with the opposite sex look extremely enjoyable.

More importantly, the manga had even used Kujaku herself as its model.

After seeing how she had been portrayed in those scenes, Kujaku truly wanted to try them once.

But she did not want to choose some random man just for the sake of experimenting.

As for finding a boyfriend among the Marines… frankly, none of the men there particularly interested her.

Compared with them, Arton was far more appealing.

He was not merely powerful and entertaining; there was something about him that made Kujaku all the more curious.

As for Arton's identity as a pirate, after thinking about it carefully, she did not consider it a serious problem.

Arton himself had never deliberately committed atrocities merely because he was a pirate.

At most, he seemed to have plenty of unpleasant opinions about the World Government's agents.

As for the Marines, Arton could hardly even be bothered with them unless they came looking for trouble.

Gion had already learned that much through Kujaku, Ain, and the other Marines.

If Arton truly harbored ill will toward the Marines, then back when Zephyr blocked his path, Arton could have killed him.

Kujaku knew Zephyr was powerful.

Even after his strength had declined severely, he was still extremely formidable.

Yet if the present Zephyr were to clash with Arton, Kujaku believed Arton would still be stronger.

The fact that Arton had let Zephyr go despite possessing greater strength was proof enough that he did not harbor much hostility toward the Marines.

Kujaku even thought that if the Celestial Dragons had never bombarded Arton in the first place, perhaps he might eventually have considered joining the Marines.

After all, there were plenty of beautiful women there—Kujaku herself, Gion, Hina, Ain, and many others.

Since Arton had used women like them as models for so many doujinshis, there was no reason he would not want to meet them in the real world.

Kujaku still had considerable confidence in her own charm.

Just imagining herself seducing Arton with it and knocking him to the ground made her legs press together unconsciously.

Gion, however, was far too excited over the possibility of locating Arton to notice Kujaku's unusual state.

Had she noticed, she probably would have been speechless and secretly decided to keep a closer eye on Kujaku so she would not do anything foolish.

Of course, Kujaku had already decided that if she really met Arton, aside from him, she had no intention of doing anything improper.

"I remember Zephyr-sensei is in Water 7 right now. Could his guess actually have been right?"

Gion rested her chin on one hand and murmured thoughtfully.

"But we haven't received any news."

"If Zephyr-sensei really encountered Arton in Water 7, then no matter how it ended, shouldn't we have heard something?"

Thinking it through, Gion concluded that Arton probably had not yet reached Water 7.

The reason no news had come from Zephyr's side was simply that he and Arton had not crossed paths there yet.

What Gion did not know was that Arton was indeed no longer in Water 7 at that moment.

He had, however, already seen Zephyr from afar.

...

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