They say never bring your fists to a weapon fight.
Clearly, those people have never met someone whose fists were just as good as any weapon, if not even better. To someone who has honed his body for the sole and great purpose of being the ultimate weapon to be used against his enemies… and for other, less noble purposes… ultimately it was a matter of pride, of honor, to defeat an enemy wielding a weapon with none in his hands.
The hardened, well-crafted and designed practice sword, tightly tied together, shattered like a toy against the just as hardened and effective weapon that was Lee Graham's fist…
"I can't believe that just worked!" his opponent, the daughter of the Shimotsuki shouted, as Lee's fist stopped just short of her face.
The dark skinned warrior grunted, feeling the sting of his own attack, the backlash of a technique not yet mastered. He didn't speak, instead catching his breath for a few seconds, as his opponent backed away.
Kuina, daughter of the Shimotsuki family, she who was prevented from inheriting the dojo, from following her ancestors' footsteps by virtue of her gender, winced as she finally admitted defeat, tossing away the remnants of her practice weapon, and knowing that had Lee not stopped, the punch would've gone on to flatten her nose.
"It's decided then," she said.
Lee took in a deep breath, and calmed his nerves and the flow of his chi in a single, fluid motion. "It is," he said. "You still can't win… how many does this make? A thousand?"
Kuina challenged Lee every single day. Almost twice a day, in fact – once in the early morning, as Lee went about his morning conditioning and exercises, and once in the afternoon, as he was winding down from his training. Sometimes, they fought two, three times per challenge, and there was that one time Lee spent an entire training day, per order of his master, simply fighting Kuina until the girl just could not get back up anymore – Lee having found himself pushed to his own limits for the first time ever, in a fight with her.
Not once had Kuina won.
She grit her teeth. "Next time… Next time I'll show you the power of swords," she said, pointing her finger at him.
"As long as you don't do something dumb like bring live steel to a spar," Lee replied, "I'll take you on any time, any day, bring it!"
"Hmph!" Kuina crossed her arms, made a rude and dismissive gesture with her shoulders, as if insulted that she'd be accused of something that silly, and then turned to leave. "Come on, Zoro, we're leaving!" she said.
"See ya later, Lee," Zoro said, before bending over at the waist and looking towards Lee's master, who had been observing the spar in silence. "Master Cologne," he said, almost reverently.
"At least someone remembers manners," the master said. "Practice the exercises I showed you, to strengthen your teeth, your idea has merit, but you are not suited to it yet."
"Thank you!" Zoro said.
"Is this about that silly style with the three swords?" Kuina said, as the two local kids started walking away. "There's no way that works!"
"I'll show you, I'll figure it out and beat you with it, you'll see!"
"In your dreams..!"
"They're lively," Lee said, stretching his limbs as he bounced on the balls of his feet.
"And you're full of energy," Cologne said. "It's one thousand thirty eight."
"What?" Lee asked.
"Your victories," she said. "One thousand thirty eight," she spoke. "Your technique is incomplete and pathetic still, if she'd noticed that she wouldn't have taken that loss."
"I could've just punched her with my other hand," Lee countered.
Cologne, blue hair swaying in the soft wind, stared at him passively, the grassy flatland surrounding their little cabin on the outskirts of Shimotsuki silent for a few seconds. Finally, she hummed and approached him, grabbing his right hand with both of hers… and then Lee screamed as she realigned the bones of his fingers.
"Fuck, did you have to make it hurt!?" Lee screamed.
"Of course not, I'm perfectly capable of doing it painlessly," she said, breezily. "But if you are to be the King then you must learn to endure a little pain. We amazons can get rough," she said, simply offering him a self-satisfied and mildly cruel smile, tossing her hair back. "If you don't want it to hurt, master the technique sooner," she said.
"I'm really, really starting to regret this," Lee said, "I should've stuck with the Rokushiki," he complained.
"Bah, that idiotic attempt at martial arts techniques, cheap imitations of the true techniques of legend, could not make you worthy of being my husband," she said.
"I didn't even say I wanted to be your husband!" Lee responded, glaring at her.
Cologne hummed. "You've returned me to the peak of my youth," she said, "and I've seen your eyes trail my behind and my breasts," she spoke. "I am an Amazon, boy, and I've deemed you suitable a husband for an Amazon," she said, poking his chest with her finger, causing him to go stumbling back from the force, "but I won't let you touch me until you can do so by force."
"That's fucked up," Lee countered. "Ugh, she's getting stronger faster than I expected. I'm gonna need to step it up even more if I want to stay ahead."
The woman rolled her eyes. "If the imbecile that sired her was not exactly what he is, such talent, properly nurtured, would be a terrifying amazon," she said. "A warrior of legend to match our ancient queens," she continued. "That is why you must not miss your opportunity, and make that girl one of us."
"One of us?" Lee asked, crossing his arms, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course. You will recreate the Amazon tribe," Cologne said, simply. "You are the one man in this village worthy of doing so," she said. "Therefore, you will need many women to do it."
Lee snorted. "That's a pretty unilateral decision. What if I don't want to? What if I want a cute boy as a partner instead?" he asked.
Cologne raised an eyebrow.
Lee shrugged. "Fine, I admit it, it appeals to me too," he said. "It's one of my goals in life, you know. I want to go out and collect all the attractive people I can find and make my pirate crew-"
Her finger landed on his forehead, and he launched like a pinball from a bouncer, rolling on the ground and throwing up a dust cloud.
"Then get back to training, if you wish to master the seas and make yourself a harem, then get strong enough to claim the women worth of it!.. and the men, too, I suppose," she said, trailing off a little.
Lee caught himself, fingers creating furrows in the dirt as he did, ignoring the terrible sting of his fingernails tearing from his fingers, and planted his feet, raising both arms to catch Cologne's kick, which caused him to skid back further, tearing up the grass. She followed it up with a spinning kick that created a whirlwind and launched debris at him.
He knew what she wanted, and his mind immediately supplied the answer he needed to give, his hands forming into the proper position in an instant. The Chestnuts Roasting over an Open Fire – or Amaguriken for short – was a difficult and annoying technique to master, even more so than the breaking point. At least the biggest problem of the breaking point was taking physical damage from attempting it, and that could be dealt with, but for the Amaguriken?
Cologne was brutal about it, and apparently took great pleasure in showing Lee the many uses it had, for defense, for offense, and of course…
Lee's hands moved like lightning, and his eyes tracked every target in a second, his body executing the movements almost like a machine, either catching or blocking every single pebble sent his way by Cologne's technique. The immense speed increase provided by his training and the concentration on the proper execution of his movements caught up his attention, as he tried to keep up with his own body.
And then she was right in front of him, even faster than his hands were moving, and she showed the power of the complete and finished technique, as her hands moved faster than Lee could even perceive, and he only felt the tips of her fingers slamming against the pressure points all over his body and disrupting the flow of his chi.
It brought to mind something he recalled seeing once in a different anime, he guessed it was the same underlying principle, pressure points, acupressure, that sort of stuff.
But knowing that didn't mean it hurt any less, and Cologne was clearly making it deliberately hurt horribly!
Lee panted and took a step back.
Cologne stood before him, one hand forward, the other behind her back. She had just done that with a single hand. She had just displayed the gulf between them, in a single moment. "You've improved," she said. "I almost had to put in effort to affect your pressure points this time," she said. "Maybe soon you'll even be able to target my own hand as I am attacking you. As I thought, you truly are worthy."
Lee trembled, unable to move properly due to her assault, "I don't feel worthy, I feel like shit..!" he muttered.
Cologne's hand tapped the middle of his chest, and Lee fell. The pain faded in a moment, and his body's flow of chi was restored, unlocked and already it was moving to heal the damage. He panted.
Panting, Lee fell on all fours, and took a few moments to catch his breath.
Cologne hummed. "Take a break, and-"
Lee's palms slammed against the ground and he used the force from that to get back on his feet, and with the same motion, used a crescent kick that she had taught him long ago, a totally unexpected move that tended to catch opponents' off guard. Meant originally to build up into another technique, but useful on its own.
Naturally, Cologne blocked it just fine, and Lee landed from the somersault he launched into on his feet, and ready to throw hands again, going on the offensive immediately.
It would go no better than Kuina had done against him, in fact, some would say that he had even less of a chance than she ever did… but that had never made her quit, and Lee wasn't the sort who would give up either.
Ultimately, however… his fists found nothing but air, and Cologne used a single hand, and a single finger of said, hand, to poke him once on each arm, once on each leg, and once on his chest. They both knew what that meant, as she danced around his blows. That single impact, had she pushed harder, would've destroyed the bones underneath his muscles.
Cologne's mastery of martial arts was well beyond what he had even expected, and returning her youth to her had turned the already extremely powerful ghoul of an Amazon into a monstrously strong martial arts master that had the benefit of nigh infinite experience and mastery alongside the power of a youthful and incredibly well trained body.
There was no shame in losing to her, Lee knew that much… but unfortunately, losing meant that the rest of his training would take the form of being the Restaurant's bitch boy. It happened every time they fought, which was nearly every single day.
Cologne was fast to restore him his energy with more acupressure point manipulation, she hadn't actually done much in the way of physical damage to him with her attacks after all so she just needed to boost his natural recovery.
"Alright, that's it, that's enough for now, get changed," Cologne said.
Lee grumbled, but went into the cabin, and changed out of his training clothes, and into his work clothes.
His usual training choice was a simple black vest, that had once been a button up, which had long since lost its buttons, its sleeves, and much of its fabric, it made him look like a bit of an urchin.
By contrast, dressed in his work clothes, he cut a very different figure. Dark skinned, a bit on the tall side for his age, wild, barely tamed and restrained dark hair, and piercing amber eyes, on top of the genuine bad boy and troublemaker vibe he sported?
It really was little wonder that he was a hit with the girls of Shimotsuki. The fact that he was the only person who could defeat the star of the Shimotsuki dojo regularly boosted his popularity further.
And seeing him with his hair slicked back, dressed in an almost too classy waiter outfit, a well pressed Chinese style shirt and pants that showed off the shape of his legs… well, the little girls who had started to find themselves crushing on boys had haunted him since his first day there.
Lee hated every second of being swarmed, and was absolutely certain that Cologne was using it as part of his training. The fact that she forced him to balance several bowls at a time, forcing him to walk straight, to maintain a perfect posture at all times, by putting a burning hot bowl of ramen on top of his head, making him balance bowls on chopsticks held with his mouth, or even making him juggle them.
The fact that Cologne could actually juggle bowls without spilling a single drop of miso was mind breaking, but he chose to ignore her blatant disregard of physics because that was just what Cologne did, sometimes it really did feel like she just ignored the rules.
They made their way to the restaurant fairly quickly. Fortunately, it could operate on its own a lot of the time, and it only really needed extra people during the lunch and dinner rushes. It was bigger than the Nekohanten, the restaurant Cologne used to run a lifetime ago, and it was probably the most popular place in the East Blue, if Lee did say so himself.
And, well, it wasn't hard to see why. Almost every man in Shimotsuki, and men from nearby islands, and sometimes even people from very far away, all came to eat there. Not just because of the famously amazing noodle dishes served there, but of course, because of the restaurant's famously almost inhumanly beautiful waitresses.
Dressed in fetishistic, sexualized bunny outfits accented with Pirate motifs, the pair of women who did most of the day to day work in the restaurant turned to greet the owner and their shared master, so to speak, for they were all bound to him one way or another.
"Yo, boss, small boss," the bigger one of the duo, and big was an understatement, spoke cheerfully, as she bent down and showed off her chest as she placed a pair of customers' orders on the table. Notably, both members of the couple, husband and wife, had their eyes glued to the magnificent mountains that hung from Anne Bonny's chest.
Not to say that the other one was any less of a beauty herself. Though smaller, considerably more understated, and not sporting the extremely overwhelming voluptuous bod that her fellow legendary pirate did, Mary Read had just as provocative an outfit and an even more provocative attitude.
The two, after all, were famous for not holding anything back. Lee didn't exactly need psychic abilities to know what people were thinking when the bunny waitresses were going about, delivering dishes from…
"Cologne is that a clone in the kitchen? I didn't even know you could do that!" Lee said.
Cologne shrugged.
Lee rolled his eyes. Of course she could. As far as he knew, Cologne could do anything, except stuff she hadn't tried yet. Well, nothing to it. Work was work, and when one wants to eat, one needs to work. Work or work out, and most of the time both, Cologne did not believe in such a thing as being 'tired' or 'overwork'.
He began taking a load off of them, as the plates and bowls were flying to and from the kitchen, and in the few moments that he had free, he was shoved back into the kitchen to help with the dishes.
As he washed, Mary dropped by his side and patted his shoulder. Lee hissed, as an old and forgotten pain flared up. "Ah, shit, she got you bad huh?"
"Nah that was me," he admitted, wincing. "I never seem to get the hang of the chestnuts thing," he said.
"I take it you're gonna want a massage later," Mary said, snorting. "Wanna feel our hands all over you, huh?"
Lee hummed. "I'm not gonna say no," he replied. "But we both know what she's gonna say."
Lee felt the sensation of Anne's bigger body behind him only a moment before he felt her rest her big, bountiful and beautiful bosom, the envy of women everywhere, the object of desire for many a man… and well, quite a few young lasses around Shimotsuki… and something that so far, Lee knew he was the only man to have had the privilege of seeing naked, let alone touching.
Her arms wrapped around him, over his shoulders, and sneaking under his shirt, tracing his muscles. "You're all stiff and hard," she said, humming. "You're gonna need to work those kinks out, huh?"
Lee grunted. "We can talk about that sort of stuff," he said, looking up and behind at her, "when I don't have a pile of dishes to wash, and you don't have clients waiting to get a chance to ogle at you."
Anne giggled.
Mary whistled. "Very few men can resist that," she admitted. "Wonder if you're just too young to appreciate my Anne's beauty," Mary said, grinning.
"Do you need me to pop a boner or something?" Lee responded. "We're at work."
"He's right, and you two," Cologne said, as a chopstick bounced off of Mary's forehead, knocking her back as she prepared to throw herself at Lee. Anne wisely separated herself. "You two need more discipline."
"Boo, we're just having fun boss," Anne said, withdrawing.
"There will be time for that later," Cologne said. "When he is ready for that sort of education."
Lee grunted, as he grabbed his utensils and got back to cleaning, using a sponge to scrub at the dirty bowls that had contained noodle soup earlier. He did his best to further ignore all of Anne and Mary's distractions through the end of the day, no matter how many times they bent over to show how well their leotards fit them, or how perky their chests were, or in general, just being excessively and unnecessarily affectionate.
Soon enough, the second wave of guests was coming in, and once more, it was time to scramble to get plates to the tables. Luckily Lee had cleaned more than enough plates and bowls to meet the demand of the second wave, leaving Cologne enough room and dishes to actually get to work and push out the food as soon as the orders came. Naturally, it was quite fast when she knew ahead of time the people were coming, and what they were gonna order.
Chalk another one on to the list of things that could be terribly scary but were somewhat reassuring, if only due to the knowledge that she was on his side.
Fortunately, the monotony of a day's work was broken up as the door slammed wide open, and in came a larger than life burst of motion and energy, someone whose ego was so great that it filled every room she was in, and that wasn't even accounting for the fact that she, too, was an amazing, wild beauty, but of a different sort.
If Anne represented overwhelming feminity, and Mary represented the appeal of danger, then this woman combined both. Busty, long haired and confident, with a large scar splitting the middle of her face, running from her forehead down the bridge of her nose and under her eye.
She opened the door with a massive grin. "YO! El Draque has returned, triumphant as ever!"
"S'up, Captain Drake!" the crowd at the restaurant cheered.
"Oi, you bunch of landlubbin' maggots, how's that a way to receive your captain!?" she cried out. "Come on, show me your spirit!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!" they all cheered, much louder.
"I'd appreciate if you didn't turn my restaurant into a circus every time you return from a hunt," Cologne yelled from the kitchen.
Drake barked out a laugh. "Oh you love it!" she said. "Speaking about which!" she shouted, raising a massive brown bag. "I've brought the good stuff! We had a good hunt, and got some awesome seafood, break out the wine and the brandy, hell bring out everything!" she shouted, hoisting the bag.
Such was the grand spirit of Drake, more of a force of nature than a person, the woman who had conquered the Oceans and subjugated the seas, the woman who brought down the sun…
And most important of all, a woman who did not know what the meaning of the word 'restraint' was, unless you were talking about tying someone up in kinky bdsm sex.
"Give everyone a round on me!"
Damn, that meant she had brought in an incredible haul. The soul of a businessman burned behind that plentiful chest that she flaunted, however, and Cologne's eye glinted. What Drake spent now on drinks would be a pittance, compared to the marketing power that such a move had.
Truly, the amazon and the privateer were kindred souls, when it came to running a business and profiting from it. Probably one of the very few things they agreed upon, money exists to be used. All treasure exists to be used, obviously, but money in particular.
Drake finally entered, followed in by the few brave souls that dared adventure with the fearless captain. Charismatic and valiant though she might be, between her high standards for the sort of people she'd take along on her journeys, and the fact that she never made it a mystery that she was going after dangerous people for their bounties…
Well, it was no wonder she only had three crew members with her, three young men from town that she had found both worthy and willing to follow her.
As Cologne, Anne and Mary passed the drinks along, Lee had almost grabbed a frothy mug of beer but he was quickly interrupted by Cologne, who took the mug and placed it in front of a client, and instead, passed a fruity, but non-alcoholic, drink to Lee.
"The fuck," he cried out in response, offended.
"Whatever your mind," she said, poking his forehead, "the flesh is young," she explained.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Lee protested, upset at being treated like a kid now, when she had no problem beating the tar out of him, or putting him to work, before.
"I won't have a developmentally stunted man in my tribe. The husband of an Amazon must be an exemplar and paragon of men, future husband!" she said, poking his chest hard.
Lee winced, pain spreading from the tip of her finger through his chest. It was her way of telling him that she wouldn't budge.
Drake laughed uproariously, and many others around joined her. "Aye, your body will thank you later, and so will quite a few lasses I'm sure," she said, downing half her mug in a single gulp. "Shit this' some good ale," she said, then downed the rest. "Another one!" she shouted, throwing the mug at Mary, who caught it, and poured more ale from a keg.
"Where'd that come from?" Lee asked. "That wasn't there when I came through!"
"Never underestimate Mary's ability to hide her booze from view!" Anne shouted.
"Yer' darn tootin'!" shouted the scarred black bunny, white hair trailing behind her like a fluffy tail as she moved about delivering more alcohol all around.
Lee grumbled, but was ultimately swept up by the good cheer, drinking of his own glass, and continuing to work even as the merriment developed around him. Him and Cologne would wind up the only sober people at the end of the night, after all, and eventually both Anne and Mary would drink so much they could no longer continue waitressing, so Lee wound up taking over.
Needless to say, after the intense day's work, he was completely wiped out, and as the restaurant closed down for the night, everyone retreated to spend their time how they preferred. Cologne had much to do, as she ran everything behind the scenes in the restaurant, so taking stock, handling finances and dealing with the law all fell under her purview.
For their part, Anne and Mary, recovered from their drunkenness only enough to be able to be left on their own, went out into town. No doubt they'd find a young girl and take her to bed, or at least, show her the pleasures of the flesh and of women, as they had many others before.
Both of them were, of course, denied the opportunity to take Lee to bed, and Cologne had handled relaxing and massaging his body on her own. With her fingers. By acupressure. She had poked him all over, and though his bloodflow improved, his muscles felt immensely rested instantly and his fatigue had lessened, he still felt robbed of a much better experience.
"If you want me to give you that sort of massage, then hurry and become a worthy man, and I will," said the blue haired Amazon, giving him a self-satisfied, smug smirk, leaving his room. He was left on his bed for a few moments, staring out into the open window that led to a balcony.
Sighing, he got up from the bed, and rested his arms on the veranda of the balcony, looking off into the distant horizon, the calm East Blue rolling sleepily under the brilliant silver moon. For a moment, Lee wondered what it was like, to sail around in it.
Was that not why he came here? Freedom… the choice he had made was one made for freedom. Freedom to achieve his goals, freedom to grow, freedom to be himself!
Once he was fully relaxed, he clenched his fist, and looked upon the ocean with a grin. Yeah… the promise of freedom the East Blue offered was still there. Some unexpected things may have happened along the way, sure, but ultimately… this was what he wanted. This promise before him was what he wanted, and what he would take.
Maybe not tomorrow, but soon… soon he, too, would be sailing like others. He, too, would no longer be land bound. He, too, would leave land behind to chase his dreams.
Dreams of strength, of power, of freedom, dreams of success, of riches and fame… and of course, he thought with a smirk on his face, dreams of carnal pleasure as well!
Yeah…
Lee flexed his arms for a moment, then met his palm with his fist, delighting in the little bit of a shockwave created by the impact. His strength was growing. This was why he never allowed himself to skimp on training, why he put up with any and all ideas Cologne cooked up to increase his strength.
This strength would carry him far, would show him the way to success, would allow him to grasp everything he wanted, and hold it firmly!
"Just you wait," he said, laughing, "I will conquer these seas, in my own way!"
He returned to his bed, throwing himself on it, having closed the windows. As he had promised to himself, so long ago, he put his head down, and through the years, put everything he had into increasing his strength.
Indeed, together with his family and the new friends he had made along the way and through his training, Lee would face the incoming future with all he had, welcoming each new day, every new month, and every new year, a little bit better, a little bit faster, a little bit stronger than the last, meeting new people, and facing the challenges that came as time passed by and the day he would set out drew nearer and nearer.
Lee almost had a heart attack, when Kuina slipped down the stairs at her home… but she had caught herself on the way down, and had come out unharmed. Her father never complained about her martial arts training again after that, considering that she had used what she had learned from Cologne and Lee, per her own words, to prevent the broken neck she would no doubt have been killed by.
Still, the scare had caused her to throw herself even deeper and harder into learning martial arts and mastering the sword. Ultimately, she'd had a big fight with her brother in all but name, Roronoa Zoro, who had ultimately left the island shortly after.
She had never told Lee what it was that they had talked about then, he only knew that Zoro had left the island with Kuina's sword and a promise to meet again. And even then, he only knew this much because Drake had dropped him off elsewhere, keeping mum on the location.
It wasn't as if Zoro was a rival for him or anything, if anything he was a rival of a rival, but it did feel a little upsetting that the guy had just left some day. But, in some ways, he was just never going to be able to beat Kuina unless he actually went out into the world.
But Lee knew Zoro'd be okay. Unable to find his way through a straight hallway though he might be, he was strong, he was determined, and he would certainly find his way to power, even if he took the most winding path imaginable.
"I certainly hope so," Kuina said, as the two of them overviewed the wharf where their ticket off the island was. A newly constructed ship. The product of years of saving up, working themselves to the bone. A product of not just their own, but several other people's collaboration. Builders, shipwrights, workers of all sorts…
It might not be huge, it might not be a living ship, but it was his ship. A caravel, by design and make, not quite a Carrack but a tiny bit bigger. Meant to be operated by a crew of a minimum of seven people, this was a requirement that was alleviated quite a bit by the presence of the people he had brought with him here.
Lee looked upon his ship, his eyes roving over it. Primarily, it was the product of his efforts, with help and aid from Drake, Anne and Mary when it came to the design, and the aid of an experienced shipwright to finalize it. He hadn't intended to wind up with a caravel, it was just what he wound up with after explaining what he wanted to the people he'd gone to for advice.
"It's beautiful," Kuina said. "Is it ready?"
"Yeah, she's ready," Lee said, eyes trailing from the stern to the tip of the bow sprit. The ship had a maximum capacity of around forty five, upwards of fifty if people were willing to be a bit uncomfortable. Up to sixty or seventy tons of cargo at a time. Two masts, two sails, technically four with the top sails. Lightweight, speedy, and comfortable.
Kuina hummed. "I guess we're really doing it, huh?" she asked.
"Having second thoughts?" Lee asked.
"Me? Never," she said, grinning. "I can't let Zoro surpass me, and there's nothing more I can learn here. Besides, if I don't go with you, I just know you're gonna get into a mess you can't get out of, like that time with the twins."
Lee rolled his eyes. "I could've gotten out of that one myself."
"Yeah, I'm sure you could," Kuina said, laughing. "The great Lee Graham, brought low by two cute little girls asking for stories!"
Lee didn't let it affect him. "It's finally time…" he said. "Time to go and conquer the oceans!"
Kuina nodded. "Speaking about which… where is everyone else?"
Lee grinned. "Oh they'll be here. Come on, let's go get this boat in the water!"
Kuina nodded. They would need to load up a whole lot of stuff before they were ready to depart, but the greatest hurdle was passed. They'd need to have a proper naming ceremony, before launching on their voyage… but neither could contain their excitement. After years of build-up, after years of dreaming, and training, and so much preparation, it would soon be time for the two of them to finally find the freedom that the seas offered.
Lee grinned. He couldn't wait. It was finally time, time for so many things, time to travel, time to become a man, and time to start his true mission!