One Piece: I Understand It Now

Chapter 17: Help Me!

"Calm down. What's going on?" Seeing the girl who had just entered the bar crying, Linda, the older woman who had been talking with Ken, stopped what she was doing and got out of her counter.

"My- My mother... She... She." The girl couldn't even speak her mind, but Linda, being a wise woman who had been through a lot, immediately guessed that the girl's mother needed urgent help.

"Let's get moving. Right now!" To guess that was normal, but to immediately move to action was what experience gave a person.

"Aye!" The men who had just come back from a 'hunt' mission got ready to leave again. Ken looked at all of this, and just as he was about to sit back and wait for the woman to come back...

"Young man, follow me." She said.

"...?" Ken couldn't understand for a second, but he didn't speak much; a second later, he got up and followed after them.

The group of 19 pierced through the long red district and then the main street before they entered the other area, where the people who had nowhere else to live but this island and could fund themselves through odd jobs were.

The young girl and her mother had no other family member to support them, and because they could only live on this island because they had no way of leaving, they stayed here.

The ground was dirty but not as dirty as the slums; the houses were normal village houses that one could live in normally, and the air around here seemed friendly.

But all of this made Ken feel strange. He never felt comfortable in these happy-go-lucky places. Friendly neighbors? Nice houses? Clean clothes? Can you eat that?

He walked with an expression that fully displayed his unpleasance, and the woman who was to his right could clearly see that.

It was obvious that Ken was a young man who had only gone through hardships in his life. If you were around him for even a minute, you would start to feel an uncomfortable, gloomy aura try to absorb you.

His face seemed scrunched to even walk alongside a group of people; his whole body was tense, and he seemed as if he was ready to fight all of them once again any second.

Though it made the group who was behind him feel weird and scared, no one was more annoyed by this situation than Ken. He felt his body itch all around, from his head to his toes; he just didn't feel in place, and he was starting to think of just leaving this place.

Not one thing around him was pleasing to him, but as long as he was able to resist this feeling, he decided that he would stay here.

And sure enough, the group had reached a house on the edges of this district; it was separated from the other houses by a few meters, but when they arrived, they could see a few people standing around the house with worried expressions.

"Little girl, I heard your mother was infected with a deadly virus; will she be fine?" One of the women who was standing on the door asked.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you can save her fast." Another one talked.

"Don't worry, we will do our best." Linda spoke. She knew that the girl was in no condition to answer, even though these people meant well.

Ken on the other hand was having shivers. The way these people asked about the well-being of someone they had little to no connection with just made him feel annoyed and weird. Not to mention, unlike the lies he grew up around, this felt... so genuine.

"If it isn't Linda. Knowing you, I guess we have nothing to fear." An old man who was standing with his wife while being supported by a wooden cane took one look at the leading woman and smiled.

"Old man, I see you're still alive and kicking." Linda raised an eyebrow and commented.

"Hahahaha, Death still hasn't developed enough to kill me." He laughed loudly while playing with legs, making the men behind Linda get weirded out and for the woman herself to smile in a way Ken didn't see before.

"Nice to hear that." Linda said before she passed him and opened the door.

"Be careful there, dear. That virus is no joke." The old man said one last time before he turned to leave with his wife.

"I know." Linda replied.

-----End-----

Check out my patreon for advanced chapters:

ADAPT0