Asking for the Gun

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Red-Haired Shanks.

In the future Corvin remembered, he would become one of the Four Emperors who ruled the New World like sovereigns.

No matter how hard Corvin thought, he could not imagine why someone that important would come to a run-down shop like this.

For a moment, he failed to answer Shanks.

Shanks was already used to reactions like his and did not mind. He turned toward Sunny behind the counter and raised a hand in greeting.

"Yo, Sunny. Been a while."

"I, uh... It's been a while."

"Why'd you cut your hair?"

"That was... Sol said my hair was too long and wasted water when I washed it, so he made me cut it."

Sunny lowered her eyes. Her pulse quickened, and she blurted out the first excuse that came to mind.

At that same moment, Sol was walking slowly down the street with packed leftovers in hand. He sneezed hard, wiped his nose, and was suddenly struck by a sense of foreboding. Without realizing it, he quickened his pace.

Back in the shop, Shanks smiled helplessly.

"Sol really is as thrifty as ever."

"Um, what brings you here this time?"

Sunny changed the subject at once, asking why Shanks had come.

"Same as always. I'm here for some liquor from back home."

Shanks laughed and walked past Corvin to the counter.

Only then did Corvin turn to watch him.

'I left him hanging.'

Fortunately, Shanks had a different temperament from the other Emperors.

Yasopp stole another glance at Corvin, then fell in behind Shanks alongside Lucky Roux, who was still holding his meat.

Corvin watched their backs in silence, gathered his thoughts, and casually pulled the shop door mostly closed. Then he stepped aside and observed Shanks and Sunny as they spoke.

From the conversation, Shanks seemed to be a regular customer.

What left Corvin speechless was that Shanks had come for liquor, not weapons.

Did the shop even sell liquor?

Corvin suddenly thought of the basement entrance below.

Was that a wine cellar?

Behind the counter, Sunny was not acting like herself. She seemed nervous.

But once liquor came up, Sunny remembered Sol's emphatic orders and found her backbone.

She lifted her head, looked Shanks in the eye, and said seriously, "After you emptied out the liquor last time, Sol gave strict orders. We can sell to anyone except you."

"What?"

Shanks looked startled. He turned to Lucky Roux in confusion.

"Didn't we pay last time?"

"We paid," Lucky Roux said. "It's just... when we moved the barrels, we also took the two barrels the boss had specially set aside for himself."

Shanks fell silent for a moment, then sighed.

"So that happened."

After that, he leaned closer to Sunny, tried a different approach, and lowered his voice.

"Is Sol home?"

Sunny answered honestly, "No."

"Then this is easy."

Shanks looked perfectly serious.

"You...!"

Sunny's eyes widened.

Before she could find the next words, Lucky Roux, who understood exactly what Shanks meant, placed the payment for the liquor on the counter and headed toward the stairs with practiced ease.

Watching him walk toward the cellar, Sunny instinctively started to leave the counter and stop him.

Thump.

At that moment, a soft sound came from the counter.

Sunny followed the sound and saw that, while everyone was distracted, Yasopp had taken a flintlock musket and a short-barreled flintlock pistol from the shelf and set them lightly on the counter.

"Sunny, how much for these two?"

Yasopp leaned forward, folding his arms on the counter.

His timing was shameless, but he clearly meant to buy them.

Sunny looked at Lucky Roux's back, then at the two guns on the counter. She swallowed her frustration and quoted the prices in a dead voice.

"One point two million Berries for the musket. Three point eight million for the pistol."

By then, Lucky Roux had already vanished from sight, probably down in the cellar.

Yasopp let out a low whistle.

He did not object to the seemingly unreasonable numbers. He simply took out the money.

Shanks looked at the flintlock musket on Yasopp's back.

"Deciding just like that? Sol might be able to fix it."

Yasopp clicked his tongue.

"Boss, do you want to wait in the shop until Mr. Sol comes back?"

"Ha ha."

Shanks laughed without concern.

"No big deal. We can move the liquor first, then come back."

Yasopp was speechless for a moment, then shook his head.

"No. This is where we part ways. My old partner's done enough."

As he spoke, he took the flintlock musket from his back and set it on the counter.

This gun had been his first partner, the weapon he had carried out of his village. After all those years at sea, time had finally caught up with it.

Yasopp had tried reinforcing it with Armament Haki, but he had begun too late. A sniper by trade, he specialized in Observation Haki, and he had not learned Armament until several years after setting sail. By then, the damage was already done.

The musket had gradually become a backup. Now it was so badly worn that it could barely serve even that role, something Yasopp felt every time he maintained it.

He had finally run out of options. It was time to replace it.

Sunny looked at the old flintlock musket Yasopp had set on the counter and said calmly, "Sorry. This shop does not buy secondhand guns. Especially broken ones."

She put extra weight on the word broken.

"It's not broken. It's just old."

Sensing the jab, Yasopp sounded helpless.

"We don't take old ones either."

Yasopp had no answer.

Shanks laughed happily.

Yasopp shook his head.

"I'm not selling it. Just tell Mr. Sol I left it here."

"Can't you throw it away? It doesn't work well anymore."

"Absolutely not."

Yasopp's face turned serious.

"If Mr. Sol keeps it, maybe one day he'll feel like moving my old partner's heart into another gun. If that happens, it can keep traveling in another form."

"There is another option."

Corvin spoke from where he had been watching.

Every head turned.

Calm now, Corvin met their stares without flinching.

"Give it to me. I'll carry it the rest of the way."

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