6 006

Night fell by the campfire.

Kaido sat facing the blonde girl. The air was so still that only the crackling of the flames could be heard.

The girl tilted her head back slightly, as if awaiting Kaido’s answer.

Cold and ruthless, Kaido flatly refused Carp Leap’s request. “No. Why should I listen to you?”

Carp Leap showed no sign of regret, her expression remaining calm, as though Kaido’s fleeting hope was merely an illusion. She quietly withdrew her gaze and smoothly shifted to the next topic.

Kaido felt the words that followed seemed to catch in his throat.

He heard Carp Leap ask, “Building a raft seems pretty simple. It wouldn’t take long before you could set sail.”

Kaido fell into an inexplicable silence.

It must have been another illusion—he felt a profound loneliness hidden within that sentence.

Carp Leap’s expression remained unchanged as she asked, “If you leave this island, will I lose contact with you? …By the way, does this game have a friend system? Like adding contacts or something?”

Kaido did not understand the strange terms she casually tossed out—“game,” “contacts,” and the like—and so couldn’t fully grasp her meaning.

He only answered the first part of her question: “Yes, you won’t be able to reach me.”

Carp Leap looked at Kaido, expressionless but with a flicker of hope in her eyes. “Isn’t there any way?”

Kaido said, “...I don’t have a Den Den Mushi.”

After a pause, Kaido glanced into Carp Leap’s eyes before looking away. “This ocean is just like that. Once you’ve seen it, that’s enough. Some people will never appear in your life a second time.”

Carp Leap asked, “What’s a Den Den Mushi?”

Kaido: “…It’s a communication tool.”

Carp Leap seemed to fall into thought, then asked, “What if you want to see someone? Is there no way to know their location?”

“If you set sail, the next time I see you, I’ll just be waiting here on this island, hoping some animal drifts ashore.”

Kaido felt he didn’t quite understand the latter half of her sentence.

Used to skipping unknown terms, Kaido replied, “I’ve heard of something called a ‘Life Card’—it can reveal someone’s location and confirm if they’re safe.”

Carp Leap silently reached out her hand.

Kaido was puzzled.

Only then did he understand her meaning. “No. I don’t need that.”

Carp Leap said, “Then here’s the problem.”

Rubbing her chin, her expression serious despite its usual impassiveness, she said, “Where am I supposed to get a Den Den Mushi and a Life Card?”

Kaido snorted, unwilling to answer such a dull question. “How would I know? Those things don’t matter. I don’t need them anyway.”

Carp Leap looked at Kaido. “But without them, I won’t be able to contact you, or know your location, or whether you’re safe, right?”

“Why would you want to contact me?”

Kaido replied dismissively, “Whether I’m dead or alive shouldn’t concern you.”

That sentence left Carp Leap silent.

Kaido heard no reply for a long moment. He looked over at Carp Leap, only to see her hugging her knees, face buried in her arms, her fiery red eyes cautiously watching him.

The firelight flickered.

She looked a little downcast. “I thought this game would let you add friends freely, but it turns out you need items. So the little animals that appear early on—once they leave, you can only rely on luck to meet them again?”

…She was rambling nonsense he couldn’t understand again.

“Is it only after getting a Den Den Mushi and exchanging Life Cards that you can add friends?” Carp Leap asked for confirmation.

Kaido still didn’t fully grasp what she meant and didn’t answer right away.

But in the next moment, looking into her eyes, Kaido suddenly seemed to understand something.

Carp Leap then asked more directly and simply, “Are we… friends?”

“Can I be friends with you?”

Kaido completely understood her meaning, yet fell into an even longer silence.

Since birth, Kaido had lived by his own rules, never caring for others’ opinions.

But this time, many things seemed to connect in his mind.

For who knows how long, perhaps since infancy, he had lived alone on this remote island;

To survive, he learned to hunt insects and beasts.

He lacked everyday knowledge and didn’t know how to prepare food;

But for survival’s sake, whether it was charred apples or disgusting dark cuisine, he could eat it without flinching.

Even the pig feed in the marine prison was a hundred times better than the food she made.

Yet she had grown accustomed to such cooking and such a life.

Perhaps, for the first time in his life, he had met someone he could truly communicate with.

For a moment, Kaido really thought: rather than letting her stay here, better to take her out to sea. After all, the outside world couldn’t be worse than life here.

As a friend, anyway...

But Kaido quickly pushed the thought aside.

Friend? What friend?

He didn’t need friends!

He liked fighting, liked war, liked power.

He had no interest in “friends” or “friendship,” those intangible things.

But...

After the silence, Kaido finally asked, “Why do you think we’re friends?”

Though his tone was dismissive, he felt as if he were explaining: “You humans are cunning and only care about gain. I was born in the Woka Kingdom, a royal family that sold me to the Navy for some meaningless politics.”

Carp Leap obediently sat still. “Okay.”

Kaido continued, “Those bastards won’t get a good end, and because of that, I carry a bounty.”

Carp Leap: “Okay.”

“Why do you want to be friends with me? Or is there some scheme? Do you think I’ll fall into your trap and get handed over to the Navy for a bounty?”

Carp Leap: “Okay.”

Kaido: “?”

Carp Leap quickly shook her head, as if snapping out of a daze. “Great backstory! Very touching! I definitely wasn’t daydreaming!!”

Kaido: “?”

Carp Leap: “Thanks for the background story, Bull! Now we’re officially friends!”

Kaido: “??”

Carp Leap: “Wow, just one background story and my affection jumped to 52. Looks like I need to skip more... cough, listen to more animal stories in the future.”

Kaido: “???”

Kaido looked into Carp Leap’s sparkling eyes, the fiery red pupils flickering like flames. Suddenly inspired, he asked:

“What’s the name of the country I was born in?”

Carp Leap froze, her gaze drifting. “Uh, why does this game have quizzes? I hate these…”

Kaido just stared at her.

Carp Leap cautiously looked back. “Jo-Joawa Kingdom…?”

Kaido stared with no expression and said decisively, “We’re not friends. I don’t need friends, and I certainly don’t need you as one.”

Unexpectedly, Carp Leap’s expression changed instantly; tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at Kaido. “Don’t say things like that!!”

“…Huh, it didn’t lower affection? Oh well, never mind.”

Carp Leap switched back to her impassive face and sighed, “Kaido, you’re so kind!”

She brightened again, looking at Kaido with deep emotion and pushed further:

“We agreed to be friends for life—tomorrow we exchange Life Cards, the day after you move onto my island as a resident, and the day after that you help me cultivate fields and grow fruits and vegetables...”

“Who said we agreed?! I’m not your friend, and there’s no way I’m staying on this island to farm for you!!”

Kaido exploded with anger, grabbing his spiked club, but heard Carp Leap mutter with a spirit of defiant sarcasm, “But isn’t that what draft oxen do...?”

Who’s calling me a draft ox? Just because I have horns doesn’t mean I’m a beast of burden!

“Ah, I get it!”

A little lightbulb appeared above Carp Leap’s head as if she’d just realized:

“Because you’re not an adult yet, I can’t hire underage labor! Even in the game, we have to follow labor laws!”

Seeing Kaido’s spiked club, she wasn’t the least bit intimidated and instead clenched her fist with enthusiasm: “Grow up quickly! When you’re an adult, you can help me farm! Come on, Kaido!”

Did she really want him, the mighty Kaido, to farm for her?

Kaido could no longer hold back and raised his spiked club toward her:

“Come at me!”

Page complete.