Izan slowly woke up from his slumber with a headache which lasted only for a mere second. He felt that his whole body was in ruins as he could barely breathe properly."Seems like I pushed myself a little too much…" Izan chuckled before glancing around himself.
A sleeping Nojiko was what Izan saw to his right, she was sleeping peacefully while smiling and drops of drool running down from her mouth.
Izan shook his head slightly as he embraced Nojiko, pulling her closer towards himself. "Why do you have to be so cute?" Izan whispered as he closed his eyes once again as he enjoyed having Nojiko in his arms.
"… Because I"m very beautiful…" Nojiko replied in a low voice, she woke up when Izan embraced her. But, she didn"t want to leave his embrace as she felt giddy and protected in his arms. This was one of the feelings that she loved the most, nothing seemed to matter as Nojiko kept cuddling in Izan"s embrace.
"Heh." Izan chuckled in a low voice as he kissed Nojiko on her forehead gently. "Indeed, you are not mistaken." Izan laughed in a low voice as he kept caressing Nojiko"s hair and back.
"Nojiko, as much as I enjoy laying here with you. I think it"s time for us to get up." After ten minutes, Izan said with a soft voice as he kissed Nojiko"s forehead once again before smiling.
Nojiko blushed slightly when Izan smiled at her, Nojiko couldn"t help but to act like this whenever she saw Izan"s devilish smile. Nojiko gulped unconsciously while holding onto Izan"s body.
"…" Izan sighed slowly as he could clearly see how Nojiko was acting, he wasn"t blind nor stupid. He slowly raised his hand and stroked her cheeks tenderly. "Nojiko, I have never forgotten, and I will never forget either. Just be patient for a little bit longer, it won"t be long, alright?" Izan asked in a low voice as he kept stroking her cheeks.
"… Yes, I understand…" Nojiko nodded as she kept staring into Izan"s eyes, while she said that she understood, Nojiko thought "If you make me wait for a long time, don"t think I won"t take actions in my own hands…" A grin slowly appeared on Nojiko"s face as she happily stood up from the bed.
Izan had no idea why, but he felt that Nojiko"s grin was dangerous, but he only raised one eyebrow as he also stood up from the bed and stretched his arms slightly outwards. Izan managed to let out a chuckle to not think of Nojiko"s dangerous grin any longer. "Let"s go and see what"s happening." Izan let out a smile as he started walking towards the door.
Nojiko obliged and walked by Izan"s side. The two of them walked for a while, Nojiko followed Izan as he kept walking without any hesitation.
"How do you know where they are?" Nojiko asked a question as she was curious about it.
"I have two ways to know that." Izan nodded slowly as he answered with a serious tone. "The easiest one to explain should be that I can "sense" most things near me. As of right now, I can sense approximately 100 meters around me with me as the centre. This is slightly different from Observation Haki, but Haki does have similar traits."
Nojiko nodded seriously as she was in deep thoughts. It took Nojiko over 5 seconds before she asked Izan. "I want to learn Observation Haki then, it seems like a very good ability to learn. If I can sense things around me, it would be simpler to fight against many or fast opponents."
"I can think of a way to try awakening your Observation Haki, it won"t be simple, but it would be very helpful indeed." Izan nodded with a bright smile on his face. He had to speak and discuss it with Jiutian, but he had some ideas about how to awaken Observation and Armament Haki.
"…!" A silly smile appeared on Nojiko"s face as she couldn"t help but think of Izan guiding her personally. "So, what"s the next way you"re able to sense them?"
Izan laughed inside of his heart as he shook his head while answering Nojiko. "Not them, only Jiutian." Izan knew that it was a very confusing thing to say, but before Nojiko could ask anything, Izan continued explaining. "There exists a bond between Jiutian and I. It is very weird, but I can somehow know where she is and what her feelings are. If Jiutian"s angry, I can somehow feel her anger welling up inside of me, when Jiutian"s happy, I feel happy deep inside. None of these affects me, as I need to focus to sense it." Izan explained as detailed as he could, but it was even confusing to him.
"…" Nojiko couldn"t help but to open her eyes widely as she couldn"t believe what Izan had said. "I must ask Jiutian about this…!" Nojiko said in a very low voice that even Izan wasn"t able to hear. "How wonderful it would be if I could do the same…" Nojiko continued whispering as she started blushing once again.
Izan didn"t know what to do, he could barely hear a whisper, but he couldn"t understand any of it. As Izan was about to ask, he opened the door to the deck, he opened it unconsciously and saw both Jiutian and Robin sitting on sun-chairs.
A frown appeared on Izan"s face as he saw they were already docked near an island. He put his eyes on Robin and Jiutian before asking. "For how long was I asleep?"
Robin shrugged her shoulders as she answered while reading her book. "Half a day."
Izan sighed as he could see the sun started to rise up in the horizon. He glanced slightly at the island before asking Robin curiously. "Don"t you want to go and explore? I can already guess that Jiutian knows the exact location of the Poneglyph."
It was at this time that Jiutian answered with a small smile on her face. "I told her about it. But, she refused to go as she wished to read it with you by her side." Jiutian sent a glance towards Robin before laughing in a low voice.
A chuckle escaped Izan"s mouth once again, it had started to become his habit to do so. "Then, what are we waiting for?" Even after Izan said that, he didn"t move as he laughed while scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, we can go and explore after eating breakfast."
"Hahaha." Nojiko and Robin couldn"t help but laugh out loudly, even Jiutian released a small laughter inside her heart.
It didn"t take them long, only half an hour pa.s.sed before Izan filled his stomach whereas Nojiko, Robin and Jiutian ate a couple of bites. Robin was drinking wine as she continued reading her book, but she sent glances towards Izan from time to time.
"It is going to happen tonight…!" Robin thought as she continued drinking wine slowly. She had been stuck on the same page for half an hour as she wasn"t able to focus on her reading. The only thing that Robin could manage to do was to think about what would happen at night-time.
Time pa.s.sed by swiftly and they were all ready to explore the golden city and Poneglyph Jiutian had sensed. The four of them jumped from Defying and on top of the island.
It took them over an hour of slowly trekking forward before they saw the golden city in front of them. There were large buildings shining brightly as the sun shined upon the city and reflected it like a sea of gold.
Izan didn"t care about the wealth he could obtain if he had the gold, he had nothing to spend the gold on. He didn"t need food as Jiutian said they had an everlasting stock of everything they would need. And their ship – Defying was the most perfect ship ever as it could do anything and had enough defence to protect itself against any rough weather and battles.
"Still…!" A grin slowly appeared on Izan"s face as he slowly glanced at Jiutian. "Jiutian, can we take this with us?"
Jiutian raised one of her eyebrows slowly, she didn"t understand why Izan asked for some minor wealth. But nevertheless, she nodded slightly and flickered her hand.
At the same time Jiutian flickered her hand, several buildings got cut into pieces before it vanished into nothingness. It took Jiutian five minutes before she had taken half of the golden city. "Is this enough?"
Izan shrugged with a grin. "It"s good enough, even if don"t need to spend it right now, it is still an achievement in having enough gold to make half a city with it."
Robin and Nojiko gawked at the whole scenario of taking half the golden city for themselves. The two of them didn"t really care much of wealth, but even so, it was a very strange feeling to take half a golden city for themselves. Nojiko and Robin felt slightly eager at the thought of having so much money that they could buy anything they wished for.
Izan was also happy, but he suddenly turned his head towards where they had been coming from and he showed a frown on his face. "Visitors?" He let out a smile as he could sense a couple of people walking towards them.