novelnext Chapter 228 Breakfast
Chapter 228 Breakfast
Chapter 228 Breakfast
Artoria's hair took on a color between gold and pale gold in the morning light. She usually wore her hair up in a bun, tied back, but last night she had let it down, so the golden strands cascaded freely over her shoulders, with a few even reaching her chest, forming a soft, semi-transparent curtain above the curves of her breasts.
Her body and her temperament were perfectly in sync: lean, strong, and without an inch of excess fat.
Her muscle definition is very clear, but not in the exaggerated way of a bodybuilder; rather, it's a more balanced look that resembles that of a "warrior."
Violet was at the furthest point from everyone else, near the bow of the ship.
She lay on her side, her body possessing the most dancer-like qualities of all.
Long and supple, every joint seemed meticulously designed; even in this completely relaxed, unconscious state, her limbs displayed a graceful, almost deliberate arrangement.
There is an invisible geometric relationship between the arms and legs.
Her face was turned towards Bai Yu.
Therefore, Bai Yu was able to see that deep, dense forest.
Violet's eyes opened at a certain moment.
She saw Bai Yu.
Then the corners of her mouth curved slightly.
The smile was so small that Bai Yu wouldn't have noticed it at all if he hadn't been looking at her at the time.
Then her gaze shifted from Bai Yu to Mirajane.
Then her smile widened.
It wasn't the kind of wide, toothy laugh, but rather a smile where the eyes curved upwards, fine lines forming at the corners, softening the entire face and making it appear as if a painting had shifted from cool to warm tones.
"Good morning, you worked really hard last night, Bai Yu."
She said just that, which made Mirajane a little shy.
Then Violet sat up.
Her movement to sit up was incredibly fluid. From lying on her side to sitting cross-legged, there were no unnecessary movements in between. She didn't use her hands to support herself or use any leverage; she simply engaged her core muscles, and her entire upper body sprang up like a spring. This movement activated every muscle in her body, and all the lines appeared and disappeared simultaneously in an instant, like a body exhibition that lasted only a fraction of a second, exclusively for the morning.
The morning light fell on her upright body.
Her body appeared exceptionally long in the light, with the length from her collarbone to her groin almost half her height. This made her waist appear extremely thin, while her hips appeared extremely wide, creating an almost exaggerated waist-to-hip ratio that only someone who has practiced dance for a long time can possess.
Her chest rose and fell gently with her breath, full but not exaggerated in shape, and the effect of gravity made it present a more natural, slightly drooping curve when she was sitting upright.
Bai Yu looked away.
It wasn't because he felt embarrassed; after last night's experience, the word "embarrassment" had been temporarily removed from his vocabulary.
Rather, it was because he felt it was inappropriate to stare at a naked woman who had just woken up in this situation, for fear of making everyone feel awkward.
But he was a fraction of a second slower to look away.
Violet noticed.
Of course she noticed.
She is a dancer, and dancers are more sensitive to the gaze than ordinary people can imagine.
On stage, they were watched by thousands of eyes, and the direction, intensity, and duration of each gaze were recorded by their bodies in some way. In the fraction of a second that Bai Yu looked away, Violet caught the point where his gaze landed—not her face, not her legs, but her—never mind, it doesn't matter.
But she picked up the coat beside her and slowly, almost deliberately, draped it over her shoulders.
The movement was very slow, so slow it was like a slow-motion replay. The arm went through the sleeve, the fabric slid down the shoulder, and finally gathered in front of the chest.
The whole process lasted for nearly five seconds, and during those five seconds, her gaze remained fixed on Bai Yu.
On the other side, Rangiku withdrew her gaze, turned over, and went from lying on her side to lying on her back.
The process of turning over was slow, deliberate, and almost theatrical.
She first pulled her arm out from under her head, then rotated her shoulders, then twisted her waist, then rotated her hips, and finally rearranged her legs. The whole process was broken down into more than a dozen steps, each step like an independent slow motion, each slow motion showcasing a part of her body.
The curve of the neck, the hollow of the collarbone, the rise and fall of the chest, the tightening of the waist and abdomen, the curvature of the hip bones, the length of the thighs, and the lines of the calves.
When she finally lay back on the deck, her hands were outstretched at her sides, her legs were slightly apart, and she was completely, utterly, and without any reservations.
The morning light fell straight down from above, illuminating her entire body, from her forehead to her toes, leaving no inch of skin untouched.
Her gaze shifted from Bai Yu to the pale blue dome of the sky, dotted with a few wispy clouds.
"Ah, that feels so good."
She said it with a hint of almost sighing satisfaction in her voice.
"I haven't slept this well in a long time."
After she finished speaking, she stretched gently. The stretch started from her fingertips, traveled along her arms, shoulders, chest, waist, abdomen, pelvis, thighs, calves, and all the way to her toes, like an electric current passing through her entire body.
Her body tensed up in that instant. Not in a tense, strained way, but in a relaxed, expansive way.
It's like giving yourself a full-body stretch and tightening.
Every curve of the body was stretched to its limit in that instant, from the acromion to the nipple, from the breast to the navel, from the navel to the pubic bone, every line was straightened, and then in the next instant it returned to a soft and relaxed state.
That moment was so brief that you wouldn't have noticed it if you weren't watching closely.
But everyone on deck was watching.
Bai Yu shifted her gaze, once again.
Rangiku noticed that the moment he looked away, a new element appeared in her smile.
Robin finally spoke.
Her voice wasn't loud, but the gentle, smiling tone, as if she were talking about something very ordinary, made every word exceptionally clear.
"Rangiku, you'll scare Shiraha away like that."
As soon as he finished speaking, Mirajane walked away from Bai Yu.
It wasn't a sudden, emotional departure, but a natural, composed movement, like the next action after completing a necessary task of standing still.
She walked to the spot where she had left her clothes the night before, bent down, and picked up the crumpled coat.
There was nothing particularly special about the way she bent over.
But Bai Yu noticed that when she bent over, there were a few faint red marks on the small patch of skin exposed on the back of her neck.
It could have been pressed down by his arm, his shoulder, or any part of his body, at some point last night.
Mirajane straightened up, shook the coat, and then draped it over her shoulders.
She put on her coat casually, first slipping one arm into the sleeve, then the other, and then adjusting the collar.
After she put on her coat, she turned around and faced all the women on the deck.
She stood there, the morning light shining from behind her, making her silvery-white hair look like a luminous flag.
Her face was hidden in the shadows, her expression unclear, but her features were distinct. From the top of her head to her shoulders, from her shoulders to her waist, from her waist to her ankles, every line was carved with meticulous care, without hesitation or alteration.
"I'll go prepare breakfast," Mirajane said.
Rangiku also went to the kitchen area.
She walked the same way she lay on the deck.
Lazy, nonchalant, yet every movement subtly reveals something.
Her bare feet made a dull, rhythmic sound on the deck, each step as if on some unseen beat.
She opened the pantry and took out flour, eggs, milk, and sugar.
She placed them one by one on the countertop, very gently, and then she started looking for bowls, whisks, and sieves.
Robin went to the bucket at the bow of the ship.
She squatted down, scooped a ladle of water from the bucket, and began to wash her face.
The way she washed her face was just like the way she did everything else—methodical, efficient, and without a single unnecessary movement. Water trickled from between her fingers, down her wrists, forearms, and elbows, finally dripping onto the deck with a crisp sound.
After washing her face, she began to comb her hair. Her hair was very long, and combing it required patience, but she had plenty of patience.
She started combing from the ends of her hair, working her way up little by little, stopping after each section to gently untangle any knots with her fingers before continuing.
Violet went to the side of the ship.
She took down the clothes that had been drying there last night, folded them neatly, and placed them on the wooden box next to her.
Artoria went to the stern.
She went to get her sword.
It wasn't a real sword for fighting, just a wooden training sword, but she treated it no differently than a real sword. She held it up with both hands, level with her eyes, checking for cracks in the blade and looseness in the hilt. After checking, she pressed the sword against her forehead, closed her eyes, and silently recited something.
No one heard what she said.
But everyone sensed the change that occurred on the deck in that instant; a calm, stable, and earth-like force spread out from the stern.
It's not about domineering presence or any supernatural power, but something much simpler: focus.
A person's focus can be a power in itself, a power that can be perceived by everyone around them.
Unohana stood by the deck, her back to him, facing the sea.
Her hair was a little disheveled by the wind, but she didn't fix it.
She simply stood there, like the anchor of the ship, like the center of all the chaos, like the only still point in this noisy morning.
Bai Yu walked towards her.
He didn't call her name, nor did he touch her. He simply walked to her side and stood beside her, facing the same sea.
Seagulls flew over the sea, skimming low across the water, their wingtips occasionally touching the crests of waves, stirring up small white splashes.
On the distant horizon, there was a deeper blue line.
That was the outline of the land, Elbaf, the kingdom of giants, the place they were going to today.
"How much longer until breakfast?"
The Flower of the Rabbit (卯之花问).
She looked at the sea, not at him.
"have no idea."
Bai Yu said.
Breakfast begins an hour later.
There wasn't much to describe about the process: Rangiku baked bread, Robin brewed coffee, Violet cut fruit, and Artoria arranged the plating.
Everyone has their own role to play, and everyone is doing what they are supposed to do in their own position.
There was no one giving orders, no one assigning tasks; everything just happened naturally.
The food was served on a long table in the center of the deck. The bread was a blind yellow color with a thin, crisp crust that made a crisp sound when tapped lightly with a finger. Inside, it was soft and steaming hot.
The women sat down around the table.
In this round, they all put on clothes.
Those naked, defenseless bodies that had been spread out in the morning light had been wrapped up again with cloth, leaving only their faces, hands, and a small section of their necks exposed.
Bai Yu sat at the end of the table.
Mirajane sat next to him.
They were about a fist's width apart.
Not far, not near.
Just enough for the steam from the coffee to rise between the two of them, blurring their expressions, yet not obscuring their presence.
Rangiku sat opposite Shiraha.
She broke a piece of bread in half, handed one half to Violet sitting next to her, and put the other half on her plate. Then she picked up a butter knife and began to spread butter on the bread.
The butter melted slowly under her knife, seeping into every pore of the bread, turning it from a dull yellow to a deep golden yellow, with a glossy sheen.
As she applied the butter, her gaze kept shifting back and forth between Bai Yu and Mirajane.
Bai Yu pretended not to notice.
He picked up a piece of bread and took a bite.
The bread was piping hot, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with the aroma of wheat bursting in your mouth, accompanied by a hint of caramel sweetness.
"tasty."
Bai Yu said.
"Of course," Rangiku said, pausing for a moment as she held the butter knife.
"I did it."
Unohana did not participate.
She sat at the other end of the table, a cup of tea in front of her. Not coffee, but tea; I don't know where she got it.
She picked up her teacup, took a sip, put it down, then picked up a piece of fruit, put it in her mouth, chewed it twice, and swallowed it, without any extra expression throughout the entire process.
But she was indeed listening.
Mirajane was eating too.
The way she eats is the same way she does everything.
She broke the bread into small, even pieces, each one just the right size to fit in her mouth, requiring only three chews before swallowing.
Bai Yu noticed that while she was eating bread, her gaze was constantly fixed on the sea.
Instead of looking at the nearby sea, look into the distance, towards the horizon, towards the direction of that deep blue outline.
Elbaf.
She was looking at Elbaf.
Bai Yu also looked over. From their current position, Elbaf was no longer a vague outline, but a clear, concrete entity—a place where you could point to a section and say it was a mountain, and no one would disagree.
The trees on the island are already noticeably different in size from ordinary trees. Their huge, towering canopies block out most of the sky, leaving only gaps for sunlight to filter through and cast dappled shadows on the green canopies.
"What are your plans after you arrive?"
Robin's voice came from the other end of the table.
Bai Yu withdrew his gaze.
Robin held his coffee cup, the rim touching his lower lip, but he wasn't drinking.
"Let's see how things go first," Bai Yu said.