One Piece's Vice Captain 2

Chapter 68 Precious Rice

When the group of people was heading towards Ayu's house, they passed through a declining village after passing through the lush bamboo forest.Feeling strange, Luffy stopped Babomaru, and asked Otama who also stopped Komaru, "Tama, what happened here?"

Looking at the village where he once lived, Ayu just smiled helplessly and said, "That's where I used to live, but now everyone has moved away, and now only me and the master are here."

[It doesn't look like it was moved just because of poverty. ], Brook looked at the village and decided to go down to see the situation, "Mr. Luffy, I'll go down and have a look, and I'll follow you later."

"Okay." Luffy nodded, watching him jump and walk towards the village.

Although Ayu didn't know what he was going there for, he still clarified their destination loudly, "I will walk through this bamboo forest to my house later, be careful not to be found."

"Okay." Brooke nodded, humming a song and walking towards the village.

"Then let's keep going~" Ayu said happily, letting Koma Inu continue to lead the way, while the buns that jumped out of her hands rolled around on Koma Inu's generous back.

Ayu blinked, suddenly remembered something, then looked back at Luffy who was dressed strangely for the people of Wano Country, "Brother, what do you do? The clothes look so strange."

"Me? I'm a pirate~", Luffy sat cross-legged on the baboon ball, and replied with a smile, without thinking about whether it would scare the little one.

"Pirate?" Ayu looked back at him in shock, and said with a bright smile after a while, "But big brother is strong and gentle, he must be a very good pirate~"

"Hahaha, is that so?" Luffy couldn't help laughing, he still rarely sees people who are not afraid after seeing pirates.

"Hmm! And even if I'm a pirate, I also have my favorites and my dislikes~", Ayu smiled with some emotion, and a figure accompanied by a warm flame flashed in his mind for a moment.

"It doesn't matter~"

"Hey~", Ah Yu thought of something and smirked, and then suddenly talked about another topic full of expectation, "When I grow up, I will become a coquettish female ninja~"

"Beautiful?" Lu Fei, who didn't know much about this word, tilted his head to look at the little one,
"That's right, coquettish~", Ayu made a seal with his hands, and couldn't help but smile when he remembered the agreement a few years ago.

Not long after, they came to the small house where Ayu lived.Ayu's master was not there, so after Ayu told Lu Fei to wait, she took the small bag of rice and started cooking.

This wooden house is very narrow, and most of the furniture piled inside has been repaired many times, looking old and damaged.This wooden house was built in the gaps of a big tree. It may be because of the poor circulation of the air that there is an old musty smell in the house.

"Aww..." Baozi, who had a sensitive sense of smell, frowned and ran around the room, before spreading his legs and running outside.

"Don't run too far, Baozi." Luffy casually reminded, and nodded in satisfaction after hearing the cry from afar.

After washing the rice, Ayu started cooking in a clay pot, and the faint fragrance of the rice began to permeate the small room.

Luffy sat bored on the messy wooden board, shook his head and waited for a while, and then couldn't help asking, "Are you ready? I'm so hungry...

"Brother, wait a little longer~", Ayu replied with a smile while fanning the wind with a cattail fan, and couldn't help smiling happily when she smelled the scent of rice that she hadn't seen for a long time in her nostrils.

It took a while before Ayu extinguished the firewood, took out a large bowl with a gap in it but cleaned it, and began to fill the white rice in the clay pot. The rice was scooped out, and even the rice grains that accidentally rubbed against the side of the pot were collected.

All the rice was piled up in the big bowl, and Ayu took some pickles before happily putting the bowl of rice and pickles in front of Luffy, "Please use it quickly, big brother~~"

"Wow, it looks good~ I'm starting~", a straw hat foodie didn't have much opinion on this extremely simple rice and pickles, picked up the chopsticks and started eating, after taking a few mouthfuls of rice, he noticed that Ayu was just smiling. Sitting there, I couldn't help asking, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I don't want to eat now~", Ayu smiled and shook his head, jumped up and made a few gestures of throwing shuriken with both hands, "A female ninja must be as light as a swallow~ hehehe~~"

And in just a few seconds, a certain big eater had already wiped out the big bowl of rice, and habitually handed the bowl forward, "One more bowl~"

"So fast!" Ayu was taken aback by him, and after recovering, she pinched the hem of her clothes and said, "But I didn't cook so much, and the pickles are gone..."

Lu Fei blinked blankly, then just took the bowl back and his eyes drifted for a while, laughing dryly, "Hahaha, I'm joking, another bowl is fake..."

"I'm really not good at lying!!" Ayu couldn't help being shocked when she saw Luffy who was obviously guilty, but after a while, there was a slight 'cuckoo' sound from her stomach.After her body froze, she quickly ran out with a smile and said, "I'm going to the toilet~"

"?" Luffy looked at her running out with some puzzlement, thinking that she was really going to the toilet, then put down the bowls and chopsticks, and lay lazily on the wooden board in large characters, "Although it is not enough, it is still thrown in. It was specially made for me, Ayu is such a good person..."

At this time, there was a faint sound outside the door, and then a person slammed open the dilapidated wooden door. The huge wings, long nose and long knife at the waist were obvious even against the light, "Are you Who?!" (Swordsmith, Feizhu, Ayu's master)

"Usopp??" Luffy sat up in surprise when he saw the long nose, but after a closer look, he realized that it was not, "No..."

"Why are you here!", the gray-haired Feiji standing at the door wore a red mask on his face, and his long nose was also red, and when he saw the clean bowls and chopsticks next to Luffy, his pupils immediately Shrinking, gritted his teeth and asked, "Did you eat rice?"

"Hey, who are you?" Luffy nodded in confusion, but just after he finished speaking, he found that Feizhu was directly slashing at him with a long knife.After quickly dodging and jumping out of the window, Luffy shouted to Feiji who was chasing him in confusion while letting him run away, "Wait a minute, who are you? I just asked Ah Yu to do it for me. It's just rice!"

"Why did Ayu cook for you?" Feiji didn't keep chasing after him. He jumped down and swung his long sword angrily, then growled and said the truth that Luffy didn't notice, "Do you know how many days that child hasn't eaten until today?" Is it?!! Weaving bamboo hats diligently every day, even if I sell the bamboo hats, I don’t know if it’s enough to live alone!!”

"!!", Lu Fei's eyes widened in disbelief, and when he recalled the dilapidated village he passed before, he realized that there was no edible food around.

Thinking of those incomparably precious and expensive rice being eaten by a stranger inexplicably, Feizhu couldn't help but tightly clenched the knife in his hand, "Although it is a life where you can eat cold food occasionally, but at least Twice a year, I want her to eat rice for birthdays and New Years! Today I asked her to go to the city with the money to buy rice for her [-]th birthday, and you actually ate it!!”

(End of this chapter)