“Gin! Now that you’ve become our strategic resource, don’t use your Devil Fruit transformation in front of other people as much as possible, when we reach a certain point, then it shouldn’t be a problem, but now we’re still too weak.”

Gin nodded with a smile.

Gin was naturally happy, now that he’d be able to help the family with his newfound ability, he wasn’t too bothered about keeping his ability a secret.

Allan, Gin, and Kaku returned to their usual activity, with Gin going away for a period of time before returning with a group of pelicans, he would train these pelicans first and let them follow the boat, sea birds have good navigational senses so even while staying behind, the pelicans could easily follow.

As for food, Pelicans were quite self-sufficient, and food in the sea was of course rich, most underwater predators ignore birds most of the time and even cooperate with them at times.

The only problem would probably be that at times the boat changes color to black and white when the pelicans needed to rest.

“Good thing Gin tells them not to poop on the ship.”

Kaku sighed in complaint, the poop wasn’t there, but pelicans didn’t smell good either, not to mention a literal boat full of them.

“Alright Kaku, these guys will be the key to our future, patience, we’ll have to find nests for them, now we’ll have to start work and recruitment when we arrive in Goa Kingdom.”

Allan patted Kaku’s shoulder, Goa Kingdom and the Grey Terminal, Allan was going to hire people from the Gray Terminal.

“Kaku, when we reach Goa Kingdom, I’ll have to ask you to recruit people in Gray Terminal, people there have hard lives so you have to be careful who you pick.”

Allan explained.

They were one day away from reaching Dawn Island where Goa Kingdom was in.

A total of one month was spent sailing from Apple Island to Dawn Island, the old man’s estimates were quite accurate, Kaku even had Alexandria ride sea currents twice, although it was the weakest type, just like the old man, the trio decided to prioritize safety instead of speed.

Allan also met pirates and stayed in islands, but most of them were small islands and weak pirates, it seemed like Allan’s luck was spent on the pelican devil fruit, but another 2 million berries entered their pockets.

Allan in fact, already had a candidate island to settle in, the place he wanted to go was another Archipelago next to Conomi Islands, named Echo Islands where the 77^th marine branch base was.

As for why there, Echo Islands was southeast of East Blue, forming a triangle with Conomi Islands and Polestar Islands or Logue Town.

Echo Islands has two main islands that both look like crescent moons with the second one hugging the first, the first island was a famous port town with a calm inner sea, with an entrance formed from its two crescent tips, the second island hugged the first island forming a huge curved river named Crescent River, there were small ports distributed in between the huge river while another main town laid at the center of the second island.

The first Island was called Chen Island while the second was called Lina Island, the 77^th marine branch was based in Chen Island’s Port Town respectively called Chen Town while the second island’s main town was called Lina Town.

Echo Islands has many smaller islands, Allan’s aim was to develop one of the islands into a base, the newly recruited people would stay in the base for the meantime, then settle down in Chen Town.

Chen Town was already the size of a city, with a huge population.

Chen Town has a number of bounty hunter organizations, that’s right, since there were bounty hunters already, then organizations aimed at them already existed.

But Allan could only take things slowly, first was to find a good place for the pelicans to live in, any of the surrounding islands would do, but picking a more hidden one was best, after all, he couldn’t just enter Chen Town with an entourage of pelicans.

The very next day, Alexandria arrived in Dawn Island, Goa Kingdom but docked at Windmill Village instead, as for why, of course, it was Allan’s decision.

 Kaku left along with Gin and the five boys, they embarked on a journey to recruit people in the Gray Terminal.

Allan stayed because they were only going to stay for a day, he wanted to visit Windmill Village and maybe even see Luffy who was probably only 5 years old at this point in time.

Allan walked calmly while taking in the view, it was hard to believe that from an anime he enjoyed watching, he was now walking where Luffy lived, seeing the bustling fish store, there were familiar faces mixed in them.

Allan finally arrived at Party’s Bar where he saw the familiar pub, not because he remembered it in particular, it's just that most pubs look the same.

Of course, the green-haired bartender looked the most familiar, Allan couldn’t help but chuckle.

Makino was surprised to see a young man at the entrance of the pub chuckling, but as young as she was, Makino was already experienced in handling customers.

“Hi there little brother, what would you like to have?”

Makino said with a smile while cleaning a cup, the other customers just left so there were only the two of them.

“Just juice please.”

Allan said with a smile, the anime didn’t lie, Makino looks beautiful.

“Juice?”

Makino was a bit stunned, most kids or teens wouldn’t order juice, from her experience, most teens who entered her bar would proudly ask for alcohol before Makino persuaded them to buy juice or milk.

“Is juice not available?”

Allan said teasingly, if he remembered correctly, Luffy drunk juice in Makino’s bar.

“Sorry for my gaff little brother, juice is available, I was just a bit surprised, kids your age are usually too shy to order juice.”

Makino answered with a chuckle while pouring Allan a glass of juice.

“I guess it is rare.”

Allan said with a smile.

“Here you are, little brother.”

Makino said with a smile.

“My name is Jaeger Allan, you can call me Al or Allan.”

Allan introduced himself, hearing the constant little brother made him feel like he was being treated like a kid although he was a kid.

“My my my, how mature, nice to meet you Al, my name is Makino.”

Makino said with a chuckle and a radiant smile.

Allan couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“Well, Al, this seems to be the first time I’ve seen you, did you move here with your parents?”

Makino asked while cleaning a glass.

“Not really, I’m just passing by, as for my parents, well, they’re not around anymore.”

Allan answered while drinking juice.

“I’m sorry I.”

“Don’t be, it’s a perfectly fine question to ask.”

Allan said with a smile.

He would be lying if he said he didn’t miss any of his parents, his past life parents especially, as for missing this world’s parents, he did have the memories so to some extent he did feel the love and care this world’s parents had for their child.

“I’m 11 years old this year so it’s a perfectly fine question to ask.”

Allan added.

This time Makino was shocked, even though she called Allan ‘little brother’, she thought he was already a teenager just a bit younger than her who was 17, but to hear the other party say he was only 11 with his height, was a bit unbelievable.

Allan who was now about 1.8 meters in height was definitely too tall for his age, but this was the world of One Piece, so Makino accepted it quickly.

“Then, as an apology, the juice is my treat, little Al.”

Makino said with a teasing look, this time it was Allan’s turn to be stunned, that’s right, he just gave Makino a justification to call him little again.

“Well then Miss Makino, I was actually thinking of building a bar, and I lack a bartender, would you like to go with me? The salary won’t be small.”

Allan said with a smile, it was his turn to tease.

“A bar? How big?”

Makino asked which surprised Allan again.

“Well, as big as you want.”

Allan answered thinking Makino was just going along with him.

“Are you serious little Al?”

Makino said placing the rag and glass down.

“Of course.”

Allan said biting the bullet, now he was a bit nervous, he didn’t have enough money at the moment, but in his plans, the organization building he planned to build would have a bar or was mainly a bar.

“Well then little Al, I still need to do something, so one year, if after one year you still want me as your bartender, then I’ll do my best to create the best bar in the world!”

Makino said with shining eyes.

“Eh, really?”

Allan asked in shock.

What was this?

Was he really going to abduct Makino from Windmill Village?

Then what about later events?

But Makino seemed serious, not only that, the glow from her eyes almost blinded Allan.

Maybe it was Makino’s beauty or his guilt.

But Allan couldn’t help but blush to see Makino so pumped.

“Really! Weren’t you the one who asked?”

Makino replied with a smile.

“Then, it’s a deal!”

Allan said reaching his hand out for a handshake.

A year was good enough for Allan to prepare, even if the organization wasn’t ready at that time, he could also build the bar in advance.

“Deal!”

Makino said with a smile whilst shaking his hands.

“Do you have any questions Sister Makino?”

Allan asked a bit embarrassed by Makino’s soft hands, it was hard not to when faced with such a pretty face, although he was 10 years old in this world, he was already 40+ in the past and had a relationship once but failed.

So it was the first time in ten or so years that Allan held hands with a girl, his mother and sister excluded.

“Well, can you tell me about yourself?”

Makino asked.

“Well, I belong to the Jaeger Family, there are two other members as of now, Gin and Kaku, 10 and 12 respectively, don’t think we’re very young, any of us can easily beat pirates with bounties of 10 million berries, apart from us, we have 10 other subordinates, all of them left to recruit people in Gray Terminal, we plan to be bounty hunters and build a Hunter Association in Echo Islands Chen Town, I wanted you to be the bartender of the Hunter Association Pub.”

Allan explained.

It was currently early February and Allan’s birthday was on January 3 so he just turned 11 while Gin and Kaku’s birthdays were on April 7 and August 7 respectively.

Makino had a rich mix of reactions after hearing Allan’s explanation, at such a young age he was already leading his own family, a bunch of subordinates, and had clear plans too.

“Then, tell me your dream Al.”

Makino asked omitting the word little, if it was just talking and having fun, then she would definitely call Allan little Al, but they were having a serious conversation, and dreams were no joke.

“My dream? To grow strong enough, enough to build a safe haven where people can eat enough and live a happy life. That’s why I built my family, that’s why I want to earn money, that’s why I want to grow stronger. This is my dream Sister Makino.”

Allan replied solemnly but with determined eyes.

At first, Allan wasn’t too sincere about his so-called dream, but he genuinely yearned for such dream to happen, but before, he still wasn’t too sure, but the more he said it, the more he wanted to fulfill his dream.

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