One Piece: The Silver Sovereign

This casino was enormous. Finding one specific person in here was already hard enough, but finding someone deliberately trying to avoid them was even harder, even with four of them searching.

At some point while walking, Shanks disappeared. He had probably wandered off somewhere to gamble with his chips.

After making a full circuit of the place, the group still hadn't found Rayleigh. Meanwhile, Shanks now had a huge pile of chips in his hands, far more than the ten he started with. He could barely hold them all, and some were even falling to the floor.

"Shanks, you're pretty good! You won that much?"

Shirakawa's eyes lit up. He hadn't realized Shanks had such talent in gambling.

"I don't even know how it happened. I just bet a few times randomly, and before I knew it, I had this much."

Shanks scratched his head, smiling bashfully.

"Shanks, you used my money to win all that. So everything you won belongs to me!"

Buggy, unwilling to be left out, immediately tried to stake his claim.

"No way. I won it, so it belongs to me."

Shanks said firmly, then tossed a 10,000-Berry chip over to Buggy.

"Not enough. All of that is mine too!"

Buggy snatched the chip out of the air with lightning speed but kept eyeing Shanks's pile with greed.

"Alright, that's enough. You two, stop arguing. Since we didn't find the Vice-Captain here, we should try somewhere else,"

Shirakawa interrupted the escalating quarrel.

"As for the chips, let's just cash them out and divide the Berries equally among the three of us. How's that?"

"No way,"

came the immediate joint objection from both Shanks and Buggy.

"I worked hard to win that money. Why should I share it just like that?"

Shanks thought to himself. He didn't care much about money, but it didn't mean he'd hand it out freely, especially when Shirakawa hadn't helped at all.

As for Buggy, he was even more against it. Sharing with one extra person already felt like a loss.

"Yo, what are you four doing here?"

At the sound of that familiar voice, Shirakawa turned around. It was none other than the person they'd been looking for. Vice-Captain Rayleigh.

"Don't tell me, Shirakawa... you're into this kind of stuff too?"

Rayleigh sidled up to him with a sleazy grin.

"What are you even thinking? We're here to find you."

"Looking for me? Don't tell me you caused some trouble and want me to clean up the mess?"

"No trouble. We're here for a serious matter."

"Oh? A serious matter, huh? Well, no rush, then we can talk later. I want to play a few rounds first."

Without waiting, Rayleigh walked over to Shanks and took all his chips, and didn't forget to snatch the ten chips from Buggy's hands too.

"Perfect. Now I don't need to pay for my drinks,"

He chuckled, thrilled at having saved himself some Berries.

"Whatever. We've already wasted this much time; a little more won't hurt."

Shirakawa sighed and followed Rayleigh. He was curious to see how this gambling worked anyway.

But whether it was because of bad luck or poor skill, Rayleigh didn't win a single round. Before Shirakawa could even figure out how the games worked, all of Rayleigh's chips were gone.

He'd lost at least a million Berries.

"Maybe he's the real fat sheep of the One Piece world,"

Shirakawa thought.

"Alright, what did you want to talk about?"

Rayleigh's interest vanished along with his chips.

"Vice-Captain, we just learned that the Log Pose needs three years to fully record the magnetic field of the next island."

"Oh."

Rayleigh walked over to the bar, ordered a drink, and took a hearty swig.

"Aren't you worried at all?"

Shirakawa asked, seeing how unfazed Rayleigh looked.

"What good is worrying? We'll still have to wait. Besides, we set sail for freedom. We go wherever we want, whenever we want. There's no need to cling to one place in the end, a solution will always appear."

"So what, you're saying we just sit here and wait?"

"I didn't say that. You can do whatever you want. Just make sure you're not missing when it's time to leave."

"But if the Log Pose isn't done recording, how are we supposed to leave?"

"Who knows? We'll see if the Captain has any ideas."

Rayleigh didn't seem concerned at all. Shirakawa decided it was time to come clean.

"Vice-Captain, we know where to find a permanent Log Pose to the next island."

"Oh? You guys know?"

For the first time, Rayleigh showed a hint of surprise.

"Yeah, it's in a warehouse in the Kingdom of Moll."

Rayleigh turned to look at Kather·Lynn, who gave a small nod to confirm what Shirakawa said.

"Hmm. Makes sense. It's not unusual for royalty to have something like that."

"But I suppose she's asking for something in return, isn't she?"

Rayleigh quickly deduced the nature of the deal.

"I need you to escort me back to my country. In return, I'll give you the Eternal Log Pose."

Kather·Lynn explained.

"Sounds reasonable enough."

"So... does that mean you agree?"

She asked, pleasantly surprised that he didn't reject her outright.

"Nope."

Rayleigh shook his head. "I'm not going."

"You say you're not going... but you didn't say they couldn't go, right?"

"Yep. If they want to take the job, I won't stop them."

"That's great! Shirakawa, you guys will escort me home, right?"

Kather·Lynn turned to Shirakawa with pleading eyes like a helpless kitten.

Shirakawa hesitated. He had no real connection to her, so saving her twice already should've been enough. But he also couldn't just leave her behind. He was too soft-hearted.

If abandoning her led to her being captured, he'd probably carry that guilt forever — maybe even as a mental scar.

"I think it'd be good for you to go,"

Rayleigh said, noticing Shirakawa's hesitation.

"What makes you say that?"

Shirakawa's eyes lit up at Rayleigh's suggestion.

"If I'm not wrong, her country is near an active battlefield. And for you guys, there's no better training ground than a war zone."

"A battlefield? No way. Count me out."

Buggy instantly folded at the mention of fighting.

"Shut up. No one asked for your opinion."

Kather·Lynn quickly cut him off. With Rayleigh supporting her, she didn't want Buggy ruining things.

"Fine. I think we should go."

"Yeah, I think so too,"

Shanks agreed. He was eager to grow stronger.

"How long do you think you'll stay on this island?"

Shirakawa asked Rayleigh.

"Who knows? The island's big. Probably at least half a year. You might even run into the others while you're out."

"Why's that?"

"Well, some of the crew love fighting. The rest can't just hang around one city the whole time. There are so many cities here you've got to explore a few. Otherwise, why even stop here?"

"True. Whenever we hit a big island, we always end up staying for a long time. Most of the crew ends up exploring the entire place before we finally leave,"

Shanks chimed in.

"In that case, there's no need to rush."

It was true that the Roger Pirates had been sailing for years, while the Straw Hats reached the Sabaody Archipelago (the halfway point) in under a year.

The Roger Pirates took their time.