Nao heard footsteps approaching from behind.
Turning around, he found that the slender figure was already almost nose-to-nose with him. If he'd turned even a second later, they probably would have bumped heads.
Standing there was a girl of about seventeen or eighteen, with strikingly delicate features and long, waist-length light-blue hair. A faint air of melancholy hung about her, and her misty, deep-blue eyes had a dreamy, almost dazed quality.
A subtle fragrance wafted toward him, prompting Nao to instinctively step back a couple of paces. Even after the distance increased, the girl remained silent, her gaze fixed steadily on him.
Unsure of what was going on, Nao took the initiative. "Do you need something… Mia?"
"…"
The girl finally stirred, tilting her head slightly as she gazed blankly into his eyes.
"…Shia."
After a long silence, she spoke, her voice as soft and distant as a dream. "I'm Shia, from the New World—Krongaard Shia."
Nao blinked, a hint of embarrassment creeping into his expression.
There were so many recruits in the Headquarters elite training camp that it was already difficult for him to remember most of their names. Though the girl before him was his peer, they'd barely interacted before. He had vaguely remembered her as someone else, mistaking her for another blue-haired Marine.
"I'm sorry!"
He gave a small bow, sincerely apologizing. After all, they had trained together for nearly a year, and mistaking her name was a serious lapse in manners.
"It's fine…"
Shia continued to stare into Nao's eyes. "I might be angry if it were anyone else, but if it's you…"
Before he could react, she gently reached out with a delicate hand to touch his cheek, her voice whisper-soft. "Everything's forgivable and understandable when it comes to you…"
"…Sorry."
Nao immediately sensed something was off. He took another step back, evading her hand, and his expression turned serious. This time, he addressed her formally:
"Perhaps I wasn't clear before. Let me ask again—Miss Shia, why exactly did you come here tonight?"
Shia blinked in confusion, as if trying to parse his words. After a few seconds, her dazed expression shifted to a sweet smile.
"I'm here, of course, to confess my feelings to you. I've held them in for so long. If I don't let them out now, I'm afraid I'll break under the weight of it all."
Her tone was light and cheerful, like a songbird trilling in the trees.
Nao stood frozen, speechless. Before he could reply, Shia tilted her head, gesturing to a building in the distance. "See that building over there?"
"…Yeah," Nao replied instinctively, following her gesture. "That's the dorm for female Marines at Headquarters, right?"
"That's right."
Without warning, Shia produced a small monocular telescope from somewhere in her short skirt. "For the past year—three hundred nights, rain or shine—I've stood on the third-floor balcony of that dorm, watching you train down here."
When?
Nao felt a chill creep down his spine. His expression twisted with disbelief. This girl… was she a stalker? He'd been coming here for grueling extra training sessions every night, and she'd been silently watching from a hidden vantage point for nearly a year?
"From the first day I saw you, I fell for you," Shia murmured, caressing the telescope that had accompanied her for a year. Her eyes were as hazy as a lake shrouded in morning mist. "At first, I was drawn to your looks. Then, I admired your sunny and optimistic personality. And when I saw you working so hard, drenched in sweat for the sake of your dreams… I couldn't help but feel even more drawn to you."
"You know, Natsuya… there were so many nights…"
Her voice trembled as she instinctively reached out again, as if to wipe the sweat from his brow. "I wanted to run down from that balcony and stand by your side, wipe away your sweat, and cheer you on. But it's only today that I finally summoned the courage to come to you."
Nao took another discreet step back.
At this point, he was beginning to question his own reality. Was he really in the world of One Piece, or had he somehow stumbled into a clichéd, overly dramatic Japanese high school romance drama?
How else could he explain this—a sudden, out-of-nowhere confession from a girl who'd been silently obsessed with him for a year?
"Miss Shia," Nao interrupted firmly, coughing lightly to cut her off. "I need to make something clear. Before tonight, we'd barely interacted, and I even mistook you for someone else earlier. That's how little connection we had."
He paused to choose his words carefully. "In any case, a confession should be like the victory song that plays after we defeat the pirates—not the battle cry before boarding their ship. Do you understand what I mean?"
Shia's hand froze mid-motion.
Under the dim lights, she gazed quietly at Nao, whose tone was calm yet distant. After a long silence—long enough to make Nao uneasy and glance away—she finally smiled softly.
"All right, then."
"What?" Nao was certain she hadn't heard him properly.
"I mean, since that's how you see it, then please consider my confession tonight as the battle cry," Shia said, putting away her telescope and smiling faintly. "Did I startle you, Natsuya? That's only natural. Before boarding a ship, there's always a cannon blast—boom!—to catch everyone off guard. Anyone would be surprised, even covering their ears, right?"
"But now, I've already crossed the ropes and boarded the ship. From here on, it's close-quarters combat. I'll do my best to win, so you'd better watch out…"
Dammit. She still didn't get what I meant!
Nao felt exasperation bubbling up. He had a sinking suspicion that this colleague named Shia—while perhaps not quite a full-on yandere—was at the very least a little bit... unhinged. Her thought process was completely alien to someone as "normal" as him.
Who in their right mind would dare accept a confession from someone like this?
He found himself regretting using the Character Scanner on Garp back in the mess hall. If he'd saved it for tonight, at least he could've gotten a system prompt to reveal Shia's true nature—and maybe some guidance on how best to reject her.
But really, who could've predicted something like this happening in the middle of a midnight training session?
"To be perfectly clear, I reject your confession, Miss Shia," Nao said firmly.
As he stared into her unwavering blue eyes, he racked his brain for a reason—should he quote the classic Marine resolve? "As a proud Headquarters elite, I have no room for love until the pirates are defeated"?
"…I'm sorry, but I'm just that kind of person. My standards for a partner are very high…"
Nao finally forced out a clumsy excuse, speaking solemnly. "Specifically, I don't care about looks or figure—I just can't accept anyone whose strength is below my own."
As soon as he said it, he wanted to slap himself.
That was the dumbest excuse he'd ever come up with.
"…Then I'm perfect for you."
"Huh?" Nao was dumbfounded.
"I've been watching your assessments from the sidelines, Natsuya," Shia said softly, her voice light and melodic. "You're always ranked between 50th and 60th, right? As for me—from the day I joined this camp until now—I've never fallen out of the top 10 in Zephyr-sensei's evaluations."