Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

The sea breeze blew across the square, carrying cool, salty moisture with it.

Haruto walked over the smooth stone pavement and entered the plaza where the execution platform stood.

Looking up at the rebuilt scaffold, he could not help remembering the scene before Gol D. Roger’s execution.

’You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you just have to find it!’

Roger’s final words had unleashed a frenzy that swept across the entire world and ushered in the Great Pirate Era.

As for why Roger had chosen to do it, perhaps it had something to do with the prophecy surrounding the world’s future.

Haruto was not particularly interested.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he ignored the strange looks from the people around him and walked to the base of the execution platform.

He grabbed one of the steel supports and began climbing.

It did not take long for him to reach the top.

The wind was stronger up there, whipping loudly at the hem of his clothes.

Haruto walked to the center of the platform and sat down cross-legged.

Below him stretched a sea of moving pedestrians.

Farther away were the uneven rooftops of Loguetown, and beyond those lay an endless expanse of blue ocean, the horizon blending seamlessly into the sky beneath a few drifting clouds.

Haruto sat there quietly.

He felt no particular nostalgia for the Pirate King, nor did he have any grand reflections about the changing of an era.

He simply wanted to experience the view from the place that had once witnessed the beginning of one.

”Hey! You up there!”

A shout carried upward on the wind.

Haruto looked down.

A uniformed police officer stood below with a megaphone raised to his mouth.

”Get down from there immediately!”

”That execution platform falls under World Government jurisdiction! Unauthorized climbing or loitering is prohibited! Come down and submit to inspection!”

The officer’s grip on the megaphone tightened slightly.

Anyone bold enough to casually climb the execution platform was usually either a reckless lunatic or someone genuinely dangerous.

Neither kind was pleasant to deal with.

Rather like that kid in the straw hat who had shown up not long ago.

Unfortunately, duty was duty.

”Yeah, yeah. I heard you.”

Haruto dug a finger into his ear and waved lazily.

He had already seen what he wanted to see, so he had no reason to stay.

He leisurely got to his feet, brushed the dust from his pants, and glanced down at the wary officer below.

Then he stepped off the edge.

Straight down.

The surrounding crowd let out a collective gasp as Haruto dropped more than ten meters.

The expected crash never came.

His knees merely bent slightly when his feet touched the ground, dispersing the impact so smoothly that even the stone beneath him barely made a sound.

The officer stared blankly for a moment.

By the time he recovered and tried to approach Haruto for questioning, Haruto was already well on his way out of the square.

After leaving the execution plaza, Haruto headed directly toward the harbor.

Originally, he had planned to wait until reaching the Grand Line before seriously gathering ingredients.

While sitting on the execution platform, however, he had suddenly remembered that the East Blue possessed plenty of unique seafood of its own.

Loguetown was also the final major stop before entering the Grand Line from the East Blue.

Thanks to the unusual currents around Reverse Mountain, fishermen in the region occasionally hauled in species originating from other seas as well.

There was no reason not to stock up while he had the opportunity.

The moment food entered his thoughts, Haruto’s eyes brightened and his pace immediately quickened.

Before long, he arrived at the busiest seafood market near the harbor.

The instant he entered, the heavy scent of the sea rushed over him, mixed with the cold air rising from crushed ice and the unmistakable freshness of newly landed catches.

Vendors shouted from every direction.

Live fish thrashed inside water tanks.

Merchants and customers loudly haggled over prices.

It was noisy, chaotic, and wonderfully alive.

What excited Haruto most, however, were the bizarre fish filling the stalls.

There were enormous East Blue bluefin tuna three or four meters long, their silver-blue bodies gleaming almost metallically beneath the sunlight.

There were deep-sea spinyback fish from the West Blue, whose fins were covered in razor-sharp spines despite possessing exceptionally tender belly meat.

There were luminescent anglerfish from the South Blue, whose light organs continued flashing even after they had been removed from the water.

Then there were ice-scaled fish from the North Blue, with scales as translucent as shattered ice and flesh possessing a naturally clean sweetness.

And those were only the ones Haruto could identify.

Countless other strange creatures filled the market, bizarre seafood unlike anything he had ever tasted before.

How could he possibly resist?

Starting from the stall nearest the entrance, Haruto began buying his way through the entire market with such generosity that vendor after vendor stared at him in disbelief.

”I’ll take the whole tuna.”

”Everything in this tank. Pack it all up.”

”How many ice-scaled fish do you have left? I’ll take every one.”

”Don’t worry about the species. Everything in that pool is mine. Just give me the total.”

Whether it was an ordinary edible fish or some bizarre creature fishermen had hauled up by accident without even knowing whether it was safe to eat, anything that caught Haruto’s interest was purchased on the spot.

He stored everything directly inside the Gourmet Restaurant.

At first, the vendors were stunned by the sight of their merchandise simply disappearing into storage.

That surprise quickly gave way to delight.

Whatever ability Haruto was using was none of their business.

All they cared about was that he paid generously.

Soon they were practically falling over themselves to pack crates, replenish ice, and show him their best catches.

It did not take long for the five million Berries Haruto had exchanged earlier—plus the hundred thousand he had taken from the five pirates—to vanish like water down a drain.

Haruto did not care.

He simply started paying with gold instead.

That was when he discovered something unexpected.

A piece of gold of the exact same weight that the exchange shop had valued at five million Berries possessed dramatically greater purchasing power here at the seafood market.

The merchants valued his gold at more than twice the rate the exchange shop had offered.

He could buy over twice as many ingredients with it.

Haruto’s previously cheerful expression immediately darkened.

So that bastard at the exchange shop had seen an outsider who did not know local prices and ripped him off?

Granted, Haruto really had not known the local prices.

Still, that did not make it any less irritating.

Suppressing his annoyance for the moment, he finished buying everything else he wanted.

Once his shopping was complete, Haruto headed straight back toward the exchange shop, already considering exactly what sort of memorable ”lesson” he should give the owner for trying to scam him.

He wanted the man to understand that not everyone was safe to cheat.

Unfortunately, when Haruto arrived, all he found was a tightly shut door.

A handwritten sign reading Temporarily Closed had been pasted across it.

Even the shop’s signboard was gone.

Looking through the windows revealed an empty interior.

The owner had already cleared out and fled.

Apparently, after making a fortune off Haruto, the man had correctly guessed that his customer might eventually realize what had happened and come back looking for him.

So he had packed up and disappeared immediately.

”Son of a bitch.”

Haruto kicked the doorframe in irritation.

A large hole instantly appeared in it.

Unfortunately, that did little to improve his mood.

Still, he was not going to turn all of Loguetown upside down over one crooked merchant.

That would waste far too much time and make him look ridiculously petty.

He was not about to simply forget it either.

Haruto casually spread word around town that the amount of gold he had exchanged at the shop had actually been ten times greater than the real amount.

He was confident someone would eventually become curious enough to track the owner down and verify the story personally.

Feeling slightly better after that, Haruto visited a navigation supply store.

He purchased several Log Poses, an East Blue map, and various smaller supplies that might prove useful at sea.

With everything prepared, the next step was reaching the Grand Line.

The conventional route was obviously Reverse Mountain—riding the powerful current up and over the Red Line before being carried down into the Grand Line.

Haruto considered the idea for a while before ultimately dismissing it.

The currents around Reverse Mountain were notoriously dangerous.

Four channels from the four Blues converged into the upward-flowing canal before rushing toward the Grand Line.

One mistake could smash a ship to pieces.

That was why relatively few pirates ever dared attempt the crossing.

And right now, the East Blue hardly had any decent pirate crews left anyway.

For years, Marine hero Garp had returned home every so often to visit his grandson and conveniently cleaned up the East Blue’s pirates while he was there.

Then, before entering the Grand Line themselves, Luffy and his crew had gone around beating up practically every pirate crew in the East Blue whose name was worth remembering.

The region’s pirate scene was now suffering from a serious shortage of talent.

It was difficult to find even a single pirate with a bounty above ten million Berries, much less a crew willing to risk their lives challenging Reverse Mountain.

As for the pirates currently causing trouble around Loguetown, they were merely opportunists attracted by the town’s wealth.

With Smoker gone, they thought Loguetown had become easy prey.

Those people had no intention whatsoever of braving Reverse Mountain.

If Haruto was not going to use that route, then he only had one reasonable alternative.

Cross the Calm Belt directly.

Haruto reached down and touched the Poké Ball hanging at his waist, a smile appearing on his face.

With Charizard, flying across the Calm Belt and reaching the Grand Line would not be difficult at all.

And the Calm Belt was filled with enormous Sea Kings.

He could catch a few along the way and add them to his Gourmet Restaurant.

Two birds with one stone.