Ace spent the entire time the coating was being done walking around the islands and eating food. He made the most of his brief time on land, never returning to the ship.
The others on the crew also busied themselves while enjoying their three-day stay.
In typical fashion, Mihal did not leave the ship, even while it was getting coated.
Skull attended and observed the coating process as the ship’s representative. Others patched up holes, repaired various fixtures, and cleaned up the ship in the meantime.
Some went out to purchase supplies, food, and weapons for the journey into the New World, some joined Kotatsu in sleeping all day long, some enjoyed extravagant vacations, and some strode the backstreets with purpose, hunting the pirate-hunters. The three-day stop passed in a blink.
I had become Ace’s money handler by default, it seemed. So I had no choice but to wander the archipelago with him. That in itself wasn’t so bad—what was annoying was the fact that he commanded such a high bounty that he was attacked by bounty hunters and glory-seeking pirates at every turn.
Naturally, Ace easily crushed any and all comers so that he could continue enjoying his meals.
In a way, it was smart for Ace not to return to the ship. There was no point in leading his pursuers to where his ship was, stuck in place until the coating was finished.
But Ace wasn’t thinking about any of this. He just wandered around, walking into every establishment that looked interesting to him…
On the third day, the coating was nearly complete. I hadn’t seen Isuka at all since our first day. Perhaps her leave time was over, and she’d gone back to her base. No—she was going to show up again, this time with her subordinates. The thought of returning to face that made me feel gloomy.
Ace was roaming around and snacking again today. He really seemed to like those Grasen rice crackers, as recommended by Isuka, and he bought so many that he had a bundle of them stuffed under each arm.
The crackers crunched and crumbled and disappeared at an alarming pace. They were packed in attractive boxes, intended to be given to others as souvenirs, but Ace was ripping the boxes open and devouring them right on the spot.
“How many boxes are you going to eat?” I asked, aghast.
“I shoulda bought more,” he said. “I’m not gonna get full on these.”
I would have thought he’d be sick of them by now, but instead he was unhappy that he hadn’t gotten enough. We’d also been dealing with bounty hunters while we bought the Grasen packages, so the transaction had ultimately been very hasty. Ace seemed to want more than we’d purchased at the time.
The bounty hunters were probably shocked to see such a highly valued target strolling around a tourist attraction, buying local souvenirs. Sometimes fame just isn’t worth the trouble.
Even later, several groups of unsavory-looking figures stepped up to Ace. He had no trouble defeating all of them. But in the act of tussling with them and heading away from trouble we had moved from the crowded city center and farther into the slums.
It was gloomy and much quieter here than where the tourists were. Trash littered the area, and most of the buildings looked abandoned.
“I’m getting hungry… Wonder if they sell any Grasen around here,” Ace said, glancing around despite the fact that he was already holding several boxes of them under his arms. This was a more dangerous area, clearly, where no tourists were likely to venture. Nobody would set up a rice cracker shop here.
In fact, not only were there no stores, there were no people here, either. The fact that we were wandering around outside must have made us stick out like sore thumbs. I could see young children peering out from the crumbling buildings. They appeared to be street urchins.
Ace promptly beckoned to them. They approached us suspiciously, until Ace started handing out the boxes of Grasen he was carrying. Then their faces lit up with smiles, and they raced away holding the boxes like precious objects. The gloomy, depressing back alley seemed just a bit nicer than a moment before.
He’d given away every last one of his Grasen boxes. I asked him, “You really mean to do that, Ace?”
“Yeah. I just realized I’m totally full,” he said, watching the children go. It put a smile on my face too.