One Piece: Hashirama Template

"Link, stop fishing and come play cards with me."

As Link was considering his next plans, Nami's voice suddenly reached his ears.

Turning his head, he saw Carina and the other two girls, dressed in short shirts and shorts, sitting at a mahjong table made from Wood Style, waving their fair, jade-like arms at him.

"Alright."

Looking at the three beautiful girls, each with different hair and eye colors but equally lovely, Link reeled in his fishing rod and leaped down from the ship's railing.

At the mahjong table, the four of them began to skillfully shuffle the tiles.

Several days had passed since Vivi temporarily joined them.

In those few days, Carina and Nami had become good friends with Vivi.

The two girls, who were very good at socializing, only needed a short time with Vivi to understand the princess's personality.

This princess was one of their own kind.

Vivi's willingness to go undercover in Baroque Works for the sake of her country was particularly similar to Nami's experience of joining the Arlong Pirates at the age of eight and starting to steal at ten.

This similarity made Nami, who had been pulled from the abyss by Link, feel a deep sense of affection and sympathy for Vivi.

Within their group of four, Nami and Vivi had the best relationship.

Vivi, in turn, felt very warmly towards Nami and Carina.

Having been promoted to be Mr. 9's partner, Miss Wednesday, Vivi was no mere damsel. In terms of combat ability, at least, she was definitely stronger than Nami and Carina.

Besides her strength, Vivi had also spent two years in a den of hyenas, learning a great deal. She had a good knack for judging people.

After a few days together, she could see that Carina and Nami were both very kind-hearted girls, with at most a slight greed for money, often asking if being a bounty hunter was profitable and how much money she had saved over the years.

After inquiring about her small savings, the two girls immediately lost interest, seeming to look down on her meager funds.

Over these few days, Vivi had become much more relaxed and open in front of Carina and Nami.

Initially, Vivi had been a bit reserved around Link, but that quickly disappeared.

This was because Carina and Nami had told her a little secret.

The secret was about Link's hidden personality.

It turned out that this 'Lord Impaler' who seemed to have nothing in common with them and would silently walk away whenever they talked about the past, was actually a shy boy who disliked sentimental moments.

After a few days of observation, Vivi realized Link wasn't pretending.

Thus, her fondness for Link, who now had this endearing trait, grew even more.

She even began to cooperate with Nami and Carina, often pulling Link into a game of mahjong to help him open up and deepen their bond as companions.

Link was unaware of their intentions; otherwise, he would surely have been a little moved.

Link, who had been an otaku before crossing over, wasn't actually shy... he was a classic case of men-sao!

Online, he was a social butterfly, able to chat with anyone, and when it came to flame wars, his keyboard-tapping speed could take on ten opponents at once.

But in reality, he was a man of few words.

Faced with sentimental scenes, his first reaction wasn't to be moved, but to feel an awkwardness that gave him goosebumps.

Coming from another world where he needed to kill to become stronger, he had even less of a desire to socialize.

After all, once you get to know someone, it's inconvenient to kill them.

He wasn't a simp. Although he had recruited Nami and Carina, he never made the first move.

Having never been in a relationship, he had no idea how to woo girls. If he were too enthusiastic, wouldn't that make him a simp?

At the same time, he was afraid that being too forward would scare the two girls and make their interactions awkward.

That's why, in the eyes of Carina, Nami, and Vivi, Link appeared to be a shy boy who disliked sentimentality and was sensitive to emotional moments.

——————

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, more than a week had passed.

After a long voyage, Link and the others finally reached Sandy Island, the home of the Alabasta Kingdom.

Sandy Island was a rare, super-large island.

It was less of an island and more of a continent.

Common small islands, if a kingdom were built on them, would have at most one city, like the Drum Kingdom or the Dressrosa Kingdom...

Medium-sized islands would have at most two or three cities, all of them small towns that couldn't compare to a city like Loguetown.

Even a large island like Wano Country only had six small cities.

In contrast, Sandy Island also had six cities, but each one was a major city.

Not only that, but these six major cities only occupied a small portion of Sandy Island's total area.

Between these six cities lay an astonishingly vast expanse of desert.

For an ordinary person to cross these desert areas, it would take at least a full day.

This gives an idea of just how immense Sandy Island truly was.

Fortunately, Sandy Island was almost entirely desert and lacked resources.

Otherwise, any power would covet such a massive island.

As a super-kingdom built on Sandy Island, the Alabasta Kingdom's population and standing army were also incredibly large.

The population of the six major cities combined reached the tens of millions.

The number of standing troops was over six hundred thousand.

With such military might, in the first half of the Grand Line where Haki is extremely rare, almost no pirate dared to provoke the Alabasta Kingdom.

Gazing at the clear silhouette of Sandy Island from a great distance, Nami exclaimed in amazement, "I've heard about it, but seeing a super-large island like this for the first time, it still feels so exaggerated."

Carina didn't laugh at Nami, but nodded in agreement. "That's normal. My reaction was about the same when I first entered the Grand Line."

As a local, Vivi chuckled lightly. "The Grand Line is called the Great Sea precisely because it's home to all sorts of incredible islands."

Link nodded in agreement. "My wood clones have been to places with islands that are just as big as Sandy Island."

Hearing this, Nami's face filled with longing. "Someday, I'm going to travel all over the Grand Line and draw all those incredible islands on my map of the world."

"That day will come," Link said with a smile.

Amid their idle chat, the sailboat finally drew near Sandy Island.

Looking at the island ahead, Nami quickly asked, "Vivi, where should I dock the ship?"

"Let's dock at Nanohana. It's our kingdom's port city, and outsiders usually dock their ships there," Vivi replied, then began to give Nami directions.

With Vivi's help, Nami quickly found the port city of Nanohana and steered the sailboat into the harbor, which was filled with numerous docked ships.