"It's nothing, I'm fine. Nojiko, why did you come back?"
Seeing Nojiko return, Nami immediately hid her thoughts and gave Ryuen a look, as if telling him not to mention what they had just talked about.
Ryuen blinked slightly, indicating that he understood and wouldn't tell Nojiko.
"Hello, I'm Nojiko, Nami's sister~" Nojiko walked to Ryuen's bedside and smiled at him.
"Nojiko, I'm the older sister, okay!" Hearing Nojiko call herself the sister, Nami couldn't help but refute before Ryuen could respond.
"Anyway, Bellemere said I'm the sister, so your objection doesn't matter!" Nojiko smiled proudly.
"Darn Bellemere! I don't want to be your little sister!" Nami glared at Nojiko angrily, clearly unhappy about calling Nojiko her sister.
"Hello Nojiko, I'm Ryuen. Nice to meet you." Seeing Nojiko being so polite, Ryuen also became gentle.
"So... Ryuen, how did you fall from the sky yesterday?" This was too strange, and Nojiko really wanted to know.
Hearing Nojiko's question, Nami couldn't help but worry that Ryuen would tell her what they had just talked about.
So Nami quickly said, "I know, Ryuen ate a flying Devil Fruit, and he fell because he wasn't good at flying yet."
"Devil Fruit? What's that? Flying? Ryuen, you can fly?" Nojiko's expression was almost identical to Nami's earlier.
"Let's go, let's go!"
"Nojiko, Ryuen just woke up, let's not disturb him. I'll tell you outside..."
Nami pulled Nojiko out of the room, giving Ryuen a triumphant look as she left.
"Young Nami is really cute, but a bit malnourished, and Nojiko too..." Ryuen thought about the two little ones and realized Bellemere's family was really poor.
After the two little ones left, Ryuen started checking his body and found that he was much stronger than before eating the Devil Fruit.
"Could that intense pain before be because the Devil Fruit was improving my body? Hmm... that must be it..."
Ryuen thought for a while and understood the changes in his body.
After all, Zoan-type devil fruits more or less enhance the user's physical strength, not to mention he ate a Mythical Zoan-type devil fruit.
Ryuen got out of bed, lifted the blanket, and went to the table to drink several glasses of water. He was really thirsty.
After drinking the water, Ryuen started to check the room. It was simply furnished, not like someone lived there often.
His clothes had been changed to the local style.
But it wasn't much different, just a T-shirt and beach shorts, clothes suitable for his age.
He was still wrapped in several layers of bandages, which seemed to have some medicine inside.
Ryuen suddenly remembered that Bellemere was still alive, which meant Arlong hadn't come here yet.
Thinking of this, Ryuen suddenly became anxious. Judging by Nami and Nojiko's ages, it seemed to be around the time when the fish-man Arlong would come here!
He hurriedly opened the door and found Nami and Nojiko coming back together.
"Huh? Ryuen, why are you out? Are your injuries healed?" Nami immediately asked when she saw Ryuen.
Ryuen had promised her to earn thirty billion berries! If he died, wouldn't she lose a lot?
"I'm all better now, don't worry, Nami." Ryuen moved his body a bit to show her.
"Strange, you fell from such a height and recovered so quickly. Is it because you ate a devil fruit?" Nojiko circled around Ryuen, feeling it was unbelievable.
"Uh... you guessed right, Nojiko. Devil fruits do enhance physical strength." Ryuen admitted without hiding it.
"By the way, Ryuen, you won't leave, right? This is Genzo's house. Genzo said you can live here or at our house~" Nami suddenly remembered something and said.
Mainly because Ryuen could fly! If he flew away, her future thirty billion berries would be gone. So she wanted to keep Ryuen here.
"Okay, I won't leave. By the way, Nami and Nojiko, I'm 10 years old now, how old are you?" Ryuen asked.
He wanted to confirm when Arlong would come here based on their ages.
"You're 10? Then you're a year younger than me. Nami is two years younger than me, she's 9 now!" Nojiko replied warmly.
"Huh? Nami, you're 9? Then I'm your big brother now. You can call me Brother Ryuen from now on, hahaha!" Ryuen laughed proudly.
"Ahhh!" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ ɴovᴇl(F)ɪre.ɴet
"Darn it, you two are bullying me!" Nami was very angry, she didn't expect Ryuen to be older than her.
"Hahaha, Nami, Ryuen and I will protect you from now on!" Nojiko was also very happy, now they had another playmate.
Ryuen thought that Arlong came to Cocoyasi Village when Nami was 10, so there was still a year left.
In this year, he had to train his body and enhance his strength, otherwise, no matter how good the devil fruit was, without a strong body, he couldn't use its full power.
"By the way, Nojiko, did Bellemere finish the work in the orange grove?" Nami suddenly remembered that Bellemere was working alone in the orange grove.
Now Bellemere has to support both sisters by herself, which is very hard, so they help Bellemere with work as much as they can.
"We definitely can't finish all this work..." She looked at the distant orange grove and thought to herself: How can Bellemere finish so much work alone?
Thinking of this, she decided without hesitation to go to the orange grove to work, otherwise Bellemere would be busy until very late tonight before she could come home.
"Wait, Nojiko!" Ryuen hurriedly called out to Nojiko, who was about to turn and leave, "Nami and I will go too, my injuries are healed now."
"Great! With Ryuen's help, we can finish early and go home!" Nami jumped with joy, her eyes sparkling with happiness.
This way, they could finish the task early and come back for dinner sooner. Thinking of this, a bright smile appeared on Nami's face.
"Okay, let's go to the orange grove together then." Nojiko nodded in agreement.
So the three kids walked together, chatting and joking along the way to the orange grove.