One Piece: The sky is azure, I just time-traveled today.

Page 45

Sabo was outnumbered and was quickly taken down by Kuina with a sweeping kick.

The two lay on the ground, panting heavily, their bodies seemingly falling apart, but their eyes shone with an alarming brightness!

They...they almost...almost forced this violent woman to use her true abilities?! Although she ultimately suffered a crushing defeat, it felt...different!

Kuina, slightly out of breath, sheathed her sword and stood still. Looking at the two disheveled boys on the ground, whose eyes burned with an indomitable spirit, her expression turned unusually serious.

She walked over and gently poked Ace's head with her bamboo sword: "How about it? Do you give up or not?"

Ace, panting heavily and with his neck stiff, roared despite being in excruciating pain all over his body, "I won't accept this! Next time... next time I'll definitely beat you!"

Sabo struggled to sit up, wincing in pain: "That's right! Just you wait!"

Kuina pouted, ignoring their stubbornness, and turned to Robin: "Let's go, bookworms, let's go eat! I've been so active today, I'm starving!"

Robin stood up, glanced at Ace and Sabo, then at Kuina's back, and nodded slightly.

"Wait for me!"

The sunlight cast long shadows of the two people, swaying gently along the mountain path.

Kuina walked ahead, gripping her bamboo sword, her steps heavy and unsteady, unlike her usual nimble manner. Robin followed quietly behind, sensing that something was wrong with her friend.

As they walked, Kuina suddenly stopped, her back to Robin, her shoulders slumped slightly.

Robin stopped as well and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

Kuina didn't turn around, her voice muffled, carrying a sadness she would never normally show: "Robin... next time... I might really lose."

Robin was stunned. Lose? Kuina would lose? In her memory, the word "lose" didn't exist in Kuina's dictionary.

“Ace and Sabo,” Kuina continued, her voice growing softer, “their power grows stronger every day. You saw it today, I almost… couldn’t control them.”

She turned around, her usual radiant face gone, her brows furrowed tightly: "This isn't something swordsmanship can compensate for. Their strength, their speed, they've grown too fast... Although I'm very confident in my swordsmanship, but..."

She gripped the bamboo knife tightly, her knuckles turning slightly white, her voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of grievance and resentment:

"If only... I were a boy."

These words struck Robin's heart like a pebble. She realized that Kuina had once again fallen into the dead end of the idea that "girls are not as strong as boys."

Robin sighed inwardly as she watched her friend's rare display of vulnerability. She recalled the scholars' helplessness in the face of absolute power in Ohara; she remembered Uncle Liu Jiu saying that power itself is neither right nor wrong.

She walked up to Guina, without saying anything in rebuttal, but tilted her head and asked in a slightly questioning tone:

"Kuina, are you hungry?"

"Huh?" Kuina was lost in self-pity when she was taken aback by this abrupt question. She subconsciously touched her stomach. "Yes, it is a little... but what does that have to do with whether I'm a boy or not?"

“Yes, there is a connection.” Robin nodded seriously. “Look, Ace and Sabo are strong, isn’t it because they eat a lot?”

Kuina thought about it and realized... that seemed to be the case. Those two boys really could eat a lot.

“Then think about it,” Robin continued, “who cooked the food they ate?”

Kuina blinked: "Aunt Rouge."

“Yeah, right!” Robin spread her hands, looking innocent. “Aunt Rouge is a woman too, especially since she got Ace to invite Sabo to live with them. She can cook enough food to feed two gluttons all by herself. How much effort does that take? Isn’t that a lot of effort?”

Kuina: "..." (That seems... somewhat reasonable?)

Robin pressed his advantage, pointing to the bamboo sword in Kuina's hand: "And where did you get that bamboo sword?"

"It's made from bamboo cut from the mountain behind the dojo."

Who did it?

"...I chopped it."

Is cutting bamboo easy?

"...It's not easy, it's quite strenuous."

"Yeah, right!" Robin clapped her hands, her eyes sparkling. "Look, you can chop down such hard bamboo, can Ace and Sabo do it? They probably can't even swing an axe properly!"

Kuina opened her mouth, wanting to retort that the steel pipes those two kids used for fighting were quite heavy, but she swallowed the words back. It seems... what Robin said... wasn't wrong?

“Besides,” Robin leaned closer, lowered his voice, and said in a mysterious tone, “Kuina, have you forgotten my abilities?”

Kuina looked at Robin.

Robin smiled slightly, a thought forming in his mind.

The next moment, to Kuina's astonishment, the bamboo sword in her hand seemed to come alive, steadily held up by several small hands that appeared out of thin air, and then—

With a soft sound, the rather sturdy bamboo knife that had accompanied Kuina for so long was easily broken in two by those slender little hands!

Kuina was dumbfounded.

Robin withdrew her powers, picked up the bamboo sword broken in two, and handed it back to Kuina, who was still in a daze, in a relaxed tone:

"You see, does strength have anything to do with whether someone is a man or a woman?"

She paused, looked into Guina's eyes, and said earnestly:

“The important thing is not whether you have their brute strength, Kuina. The important thing is whether your sword can become faster, more accurate, and sharper when you have the power.”

“Just like my ability, if I only use it to scratch an itch, it’s a joke. But I use it to scout, to assist, and even…” She brandished the broken bamboo knife in her hand, “to prove something. That’s how it became my power.”

"Your sword is also your power. Don't get trapped by boring things like 'boys' and 'girls'."

Kuina looked at the broken bamboo sword in her hand, and then at Robin's calm yet powerful eyes. The gloom in her heart suddenly seemed to be blown away by the wind.

What is she agonizing over?

So what if she's not as strong as them? Her sword isn't wielded with brute force!

She's destined to become the world's greatest swordsman! How could she let something so trivial hold her back!

Kuina abruptly raised her head, the flame in her eyes reigniting, burning even more intensely than before! She patted Robin's shoulder forcefully:

"You're right! You bookworm! I was mistaken!"

She grinned, revealing a bright yet slightly fierce smile:

"Just you wait! Next time I'll definitely use my sword to beat those two brats until they're completely convinced! I'll show them they still have a lot to learn!"

Robin was jolted by her slap, and looking at Kuina who was full of fighting spirit again, the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

Yes, this is the Guina she knows.

As for the broken bamboo knife...

"Sorry, Kuina, I think I wasn't paying attention and broke your bamboo sword. I'll ask your uncle to get you a new one when we get back!"

"That's exactly what I was just about to say. After you go back, don't bother your uncle anymore. From now on, I will no longer use bamboo knives, but real swords!"

"Guina, are you running a fever?"

"Bookworm, what are you saying? You're the one who's burning it!"

The two exchanged a smile and continued walking towards the bandit's hut.

Chapter 48 Garp's Vacation

The next day, the sun shone brightly.

Ace and Sabo were in the yard, their faces bruised and swollen, applying medicated wine to each other, wincing in pain.

"Hiss—be gentle, be gentle!"

"Serves you right! Who told you to block that attack yesterday!"

"Nonsense! If I weren't blocked, would I still be sitting here now!"

As the two were blaming each other, suddenly, a roar like thunder came from afar, shaking the entire mountaintop as if it were trembling three times:

"Ace—!!! You brat! Your grandpa's here, come out now!!!"

That voice... it's so familiar!

Ace and Sabo froze instantly, their faces turning deathly pale, and they nearly dropped the bottles of medicinal wine in their hands.

It's Garp! That devilish old man is back!

Even Sabo, when he first saw Garp, was treated like his own grandson and trained to withstand the "iron fist of love".

Almost simultaneously, the door to the cabin creaked open, and Liu Jiu and Lu Jiu quickly stepped out. Both of them had somewhat solemn expressions.

“It’s Mr. Garp.” Rouge’s voice was urgent, tinged with obvious nervousness. “Mr. Liu Jiu, you…”

Liu Jiu reacted quickly, his gaze sweeping over the equally bewildered Kuina and Robin, and said in a deep voice, "You two are now Dadan's distant nieces, here to stay temporarily. Remember, don't give yourself away."

He then looked at Rouge: "Let's go down."

Rouge immediately nodded, and without any hesitation, the two quickly lifted a hidden wooden plank in the yard, crawled into the cellar underneath where supplies were hidden and occasionally used to evade searches, and then covered the plank again, leaving only a small gap for ventilation.

The whole process was smooth and quick, taking only a dozen seconds.

Before Kuina and Robin could fully react, they were left alone in the courtyard, along with two pale-faced boys.

Kuina blinked, glanced at the cellar entrance, then at the terrified Ace and Sabo, and whispered to Robin, "Bookworm, are we... now relatives of bandits?"

Robin adapted quickly, nodded, and whispered, "Do as Uncle says."

Just then, Garp's imposing figure appeared at the gate of the courtyard, carrying a struggling little boy on his shoulder—it was Luffy wearing a straw hat.

"Ace! Where have you been hiding again, you brat?!"

Karp's booming voice made everyone's ears ring. He strode into the yard, his gaze sweeping across like a searchlight.

When he saw two unfamiliar girls in the yard besides Ace and Sabo, his thick eyebrows twitched.

"Hmm? Who are these two little girls?"

Garp tossed Luffy off his shoulder like a sack of potatoes (Luffy rolled twice, then got up as if nothing had happened), and pointed at Kuina and Robin, asking a question.

Ace and Sabo felt their scalps tingle and their hearts leap into their throats.

Ace forced himself to speak, trying to make his voice sound normal, and introduced them dryly: "They...they are Dadan's distant nieces, Kuina and Robin, who came to...to stay for a few days."

Sabo quickly nodded vigorously beside him, echoing, "Yes, yes, yes! A distant niece!"

Garp looked at Kuina and Robin with suspicion.

Kuina tried her best to keep a straight face and pretend to be calm.