One Piece: It All Started When I Found Shanks' Arm

Chapter 37: My Brother! The Champion!

An hour later, at home.

"Let me get this straight. I'm going to review the events of the month you were at sea, and you tell me if I've got anything wrong. First, you suddenly grew a dozen centimeters taller?"

"Yes. Puberty growth spurt. It's perfectly normal."

"You won the kendo tournament on Cherry Blossom Island?"

"Yes. I won it by accident."

"And you also happened to uncover a major conspiracy on the island, becoming a famous figure in the East Blue?"

"Yes, but I'm not that famous. Popularity comes and goes; it'll be forgotten soon."

"And then you also became a multi-hundred-millionaire!!!"

"Yes. Four hundred million Belli. I withdrew fifty million; the rest is still in the bank. Here, here's the card."

Belle-mère took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, but when she looked up at the brawny, muscular man before her, her vision went dark, and she swayed backward.

Shane quickly caught her. "What's wrong, Belle-mère?"

"I'm fine. Let go of me. I just need a moment to process this..."

Belle-mère sat cross-legged on the carpet, staring blankly at the coffee table for a long time. She took the water Shane handed her and drank it all in one go before she finally, slowly, accepted reality.

"I told you so. I said it before," she murmured. "Your bloodline is definitely not simple. The moment you came of age, it started to awaken. Your parents must be some incredible people, maybe even royalty..."

"No, that doesn't seem to have anything to do with bloodline, does it?" Shane said, puzzled. "I just won a championship and made a little money. It's all good news. Why are you having such a hard time accepting it..."

"I'm talking about your height! Your height! It's normal to grow during puberty, but who grows a dozen centimeters in a single month?!"

Belle-mère, annoyed, pounded Shane's calf with her fist. "What's wrong with you?! Do you know that while you were gone for this past month, I knitted two sweaters for you, three pairs of long johns, and half-finger gloves, and full-finger gloves..."

"Now none of them fit! They're all useless! I have to unravel them all again, wuwuwu..."

So that's what she was sad about!

Shane facepalmed. He suddenly noticed a thick stack of newspapers on the wooden cabinet next to him and let out a soft sound of surprise. "You still bought newspapers every day while I was gone?"

"I was afraid you'd miss some while you were out," Belle-mère pouted. "But I didn't read them. They've just been sitting here. I only found out about your exploits on Cherry Blossom Island when the neighbors were talking about it. I couldn't sleep all night."

"What about Nami and Nojiko? What were their reactions?"

"What do you think," Belle-mère said irritably.

At the time, she had been both worried and a little proud, tossing and turning all night, unable to sleep. Nami and Nojiko, on the other hand, didn't think so much. They were incredibly excited, especially Nami, who wished she could jump to the sky. She ran from one end of the village to the other every day, showing off, wishing everyone in the village knew that her brother had become a big shot in the East Blue. Even the big white dog at the village entrance had to have its ears pulled and be told about it several times a day, to the point that it would tuck its tail and run whenever it saw her.

Not to mention the two budgies the next-door neighbor kept. Their favorite things to squawk now were "My brother! The champion!" and "My brother! The hero!".

Shane broke into a cold sweat just listening to it.

For the next little while, he was afraid that even the chickens, ducks, and geese in the village would look at him funny.

He shook his head, picked up the stack of newspapers, and sat down on the sofa. He was just about to read through them to see if there was any interesting news.

Just then, the door was quietly pushed open a crack. A small, dirty, orange-haired figure tiptoed in, holding her shoes, and tried to sneak past the sofa towards the bathroom...

"Come here!"

Belle-mère said fiercely. "Do you think I'm blind? Can't I see a little mud monkey coming into the house? And can't I see the two lines of dirty footprints on the floor?"

Oops! So close! Nami turned her head to look at the two strings of black prints on the floor and slapped her forehead in annoyance. I should have known! I should have snuck in through the kitchen window!

"Tell me the truth. Where did you go? When you left this morning, didn't you say you were going to the bookstore?"

"I wasn't lying, Belle-mère! I did go to the bookstore at first, but it was too small. I've pretty much read all the books I'm interested in, like the ones on navigation and cartography... Huh? Bro?!"

Nami, who had been looking down, suddenly realized there was someone on the sofa next to her. When she saw the familiar face, her eyes widened in pleasant surprise.

"When did you get back?!"

She shrieked with joy and threw herself into Shane's arms, reaching up with both hands to pinch his cheeks. "You didn't even come get me! So mean... Oww! That hurts!"

She had charged with too much force, and her nose bumped into Shane's hard chest. A sharp pain shot through her nose, and it hurt so much she almost cried.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you've turned into Buggy," Shane said, looking at her red nose and gloating.

But when he looked down and saw his shirt covered in mud spots, and then looked in the mirror and saw two dirty handprints on his face, his expression darkened, and he couldn't laugh anymore.

"Hee hee, neener neener~~"

Nami, her prank successful, made a face at him. "Serves you right! Who told you to sneak away that morning without saying goodbye to me and Nojiko!"

"Wasn't that because I was afraid you two would turn into little crybabies?" Shane said irritably, rubbing his face hard with a towel. "Besides, I can trust Nojiko. But you, you little troublemaker, if you had gone to the pier that morning, you probably would have snuck onto the ship when we weren't looking. I don't want to run around with a burden."

"Who's a burden?! I've grown up a lot! I'm really good at fighting now! Just now, two monkeys in the mountains ganged up on me, and I sent them running all over the place!"

"Monkeys in the mountains?"

Belle-mère keenly sensed something and her anger flared. "Wait! You got yourself so dirty because you went to the mountains to fight with monkeys?!"

"I couldn't help it," Nami said, blinking with an innocent expression. "I was holding up the newspaper photo and telling them that my brother is the champion, but they just kept eating their fruit in the tree and ignored me with a roll of their eyes. So I got mad and threw a rock at them, and then we started fighting."

This unlucky child!

Belle-mère gritted her teeth, grabbed her by the ear, and dragged her to the bathroom. "Go wash yourself properly! Honestly, if there's a next time, see how I deal with you! I'm not even asking you to be like Shane! When will you ever be as sensible as Nojiko!"

Creeak~

The door was pushed open again. Shane on the sofa and Belle-mère at the bathroom door both subconsciously turned their heads.

A dirty, blue-haired girl appeared at the door, her face bruised and swollen, her pants torn in several places, and with only one shoe on.

She saw Shane and her eyes lit up with surprise, but then she met Belle-mère's murderous gaze and couldn't help but shrink back, giving a sheepish smile.

"Um, there's a reason. I was telling the big goose at the village entrance about Big Bro Shane. It got impatient halfway through and tried to run away, so we started fighting. Unfortunately, I was just a little short of winning..."