"Homies."
Beings created through the power of the Soul-Soul Fruit, mysterious living creatures brought into existence by infusing them with human lifespan, that is, "Soul."
At present, two people in these seas possessed the ability to create them.
The first was the Four Emperors' "Big Mom," the Great Pirate Charlotte Linlin.
In Totto Land, the realm she ruled, "lifespan" was collected from its residents much like a tax. Those who lived there offered up one month of their lifespan every six months. By scattering that throughout the nation to produce vast numbers of Homies, she used them for ironclad governance and defense networks.
The second was Iris, Executive of the Golden Lion Pirates and daughter of Admiral Sue.
Though it had not been made publicly known, she possessed the power as the next in line, having come from a future after Big Mom's death.
And the proposal Iris had put forward to her fellow "daughters" was this: to create custom Homies and present them to Sue as birthday gifts.
Hearing this, something occurred to Alice. "Come to think of it, if I remember right..."
"I think you mentioned this before, but when you make Homies, Iris, you have to put in human lifespan, right? And if I'm remembering correctly, you mainly use lifespan taken from enemy ships, or stuff you brought with you from the future?"
"That's right. Come to think of it, Aunt Leona once came to me white as a sheet asking, 'Are you using your own lifespan!?' She was so worried."
Iris said this with a wry smile.
Since arriving on Merveille, Iris had created a considerable number of Homies all over the place. Not as many as throughout Totto Land, granted, but still quite a few. Leona had been concerned, or rather worried, about how she was procuring the Souls that served as their source material, and had come asking about it.
Fearing the worst, that Iris might be dividing up her own lifespan to give away, Leona had pressed her on it. Of course Iris wasn't doing anything of the sort, and she recalled how she'd had to calm Leona down while explaining the situation, assuring her there was nothing to worry about.
So how was she procuring Souls? As mentioned, she took them from enemies on their ships. In those cases, she made sure to wipe everyone out to keep things quiet. On top of that, she used what she had "brought" from the future.
Before coming to this era, in a future world where the remaining time humanity had left was running short, just before Iris and Snow were sent off, volunteers had gathered and offered up portions of their own lifespans.
"If the whole world's gonna die in a year or so anyway, there's no point hanging onto more lifespan than that. Take it with you and put it to good use."
And so, using those Souls brought from the future as a foundation, the beautiful anthropomorphized Homies of this era were born: Ifijar, Pneuma, Periri, Enraenra, and the rest.
Precisely because the Souls she used had been entrusted to her by everyone from the future, Iris had resolved never to treat Homies as disposable soldiers the way Big Mom did. They were all friends, companions, family. That was how she treated them. She didn't even consciously think of them as "Homies" anymore.
As for Homies made from enemy Souls, she had no intention of treating those carelessly either, but they admittedly didn't occupy quite the same place as the ones mentioned above.
The details of that would have to wait for another time.
And the "Sue-exclusive Homies" Iris was planning to prepare for this occasion would also be made using those "entrusted Souls."
"Oh, so... it's not like you're gonna say 'I'm making Homies so give me some of your souls' or anything. Man, that's a relief..."
"Ahaha, no no, it's nothing like that... though in a sense, it's not entirely wrong either."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The Souls I'm planning to use this time are ones that were entrusted to me in the future world by Mom, Father, and Aunt Suzu."
"!!"
As she spoke, Iris produced three gently glowing spheres.
About the size of volleyballs, each one contained several years' worth of lifespan. They had been entrusted by the future versions of Alice, Suzu, and Sue.
Hearing that their own lives, and their mother's, existed within those spheres, even if from a different world-line and timeline, left Suzu and the others with feelings difficult to put into words.
"All three of them said, 'Once you go to the past, feel free to use these for your own happiness,' and handed them over. But if that's the case... all the more reason we want to use these for Mom."
"Or rather, it is precisely because they said that, that we wish to use them this way. Mother's happiness is our happiness as well. It may sound like sophistry, but it is our genuine feeling. And besides, if it were Mother, she would use any power she gained for the happiness of all of us, herself included."
"Ah, yeah, that makes total sense... Mama's always been like that."
"Indeed. For all her ways, she does properly think of us five, and Grandpa and Granny, and all our other companions."
"Then it's not strange at all for us to act for Mom's happiness. Yep, not one bit."
With everyone in agreement, they shifted back to their discussion in earnest.
Iris stated concisely what she wanted the five of them to decide together.
"It's simple, really. I want us to figure out together what kind of Homies to make with these three. Snow and I couldn't settle on anything definitive by ourselves..."
"...I see. That is indeed an important question."
Once you put a Soul into something and made a Homie, there was no do-over.
You couldn't make one, decide it didn't work out, extract the Soul, and try putting it in something else. That was simply how the power worked.
Therefore, if they were using irreplaceable Souls, they needed to carefully consider what to put them into.
That was why Iris had turned to Suzu and the others here, who had spent more time with their mother in the "present" than she and Snow had.
Thus prompted, all three folded their arms and thought seriously.
A minute or so passed.
The first to break the silence was Alice.
"As a basic premise... if we're making something custom for her, it should be Homies that can be useful to Mom, right? With that in mind, though, I don't think they should be combat-oriented."
"Oh? And why's that?"
"This isn't limited to combat, but if they're only mediocre in ability, they'll just get in Mom's way instead. In fact, setting aside the immortality that Ifijar and Pneuma have by virtue of being amorphous and not Ability Users, Mom is overwhelmingly stronger than both of them. Heck, if we pick our methods right, me, Suzu, or Leona could beat them in a straight fight."
"True, that's a fair point."
"Same goes for other areas. Mom's pretty multi-talented, so if something can only do a half-baked job, she'd rather just do it herself than keep it by her side. Especially lately, with the Proxy Doll multi-task system letting her control multiple bodies at once, she can already do the work of several people all on her own. So factoring that in, we should make Homies that can reliably be a real asset to Mom."
"In other words... we need to find some field or matter that Mother cannot handle alone, and create something that covers that gap. Quite the difficult puzzle."
"Yeah... something Mama's involved with but isn't good at, something Mama wants to do but can't do herself... is basically what we're talking about."
"When you put it into words like that, it sounds like a riddle."
"...Trying to jump straight to an answer seems difficult. Let's think through this systematically."
The five of them put their heads together and, as Snow suggested, thought "systematically."
The minimum requirement for something to give Sue was that it be something she needed, or that it possess abilities she required. "Abilities" here could mean skills, knowledge, anything at all.
And ideally, it should be something of lasting use rather than something ephemeral.
What did Sue want? What did she need?
One approach was to work backwards from Sue's "positions."
What were Sue's positions?
A writer known as the "Pirate Literary Master."
Admiral of the Second Generation Golden Lion Pirates.
One of the Shichibukai.
Their mother. Daughter of Shiki the Golden Lion.
Disciple of "Dark King" Rayleigh.
Best friend of "Pirate Empress" Boa Hancock.
Friend (and benefactor) of "Golden Emperor" Tesoro.
And various others.
The position of "so-and-so's benefactor" wasn't something you leveraged for a particular purpose, so that was out. And it wasn't just Tesoro; Sue had helped all sorts of people here and there, making the list of people she was a benefactor to far too long.
"Hancock's best friend." Same deal. Nothing actionable there.
"Rayleigh's disciple" was something they had no intention of making public, so that was excluded.
As for family relationships, there was nothing special to be done about those at this point. If there was something they could do in that regard, they'd just go ahead and do it normally rather than tying it to a birthday present.
That left three: "Pirate Literary Master," "Golden Lion Pirates Admiral," and "Shichibukai."
What was needed for these three positions? What would help Sue, their mother, as she was now?
"When you say 'Golden Lion Pirates Admiral'... she's always going on about how busy she is with all the work, right? Paperwork and stuff. Should we make something that helps with that?"
"Nah, she does say that, but she's already handling it with plenty of room to spare, so I don't think she needs help there. Especially lately, like I said, the Proxy Doll multi-task thing lets her blast through it at super speed, so I don't think she needs assistance on that front."
"To begin with, Mother's role as head of the Pirate Crew is more of an honorary position. The one actually steering the ship, so to speak, is Grandpa. Mother herself is not exactly putting her heart and soul into it, so I have heard the paperwork that reaches her is kept to a minimum."
"So helping with paperwork for the 'Admiral' role is out, then..."
"In that case... what about an 'aide' or a 'guard'?"
"Huh? No, we already ruled that out with what Alice said earlier. Half-baked strength would just get in the way."
"Yes, which is precisely why we should prepare one that is not half-baked, but genuinely powerful. Besides, as the head of an organization, it is only natural to have subordinates in attendance. Beyond 'protecting' Mother, there is also the role of swiftly dealing with small fry on Mother's behalf, enemies not worth her personal attention."
"Ah, that's a good point... a vanguard, basically."
"Mother's current aides would be Beauty and Blume, but both of them are more the rear-support type, helping with things at the base. They are not the sort to stand on the front lines."
"So you're saying we fill that currently empty 'vanguard' role... but how? What do we put a Soul into to make something that ridiculously strong? I can't think of anything off the top of my head."
"I do have an idea. If we involve Grandmother Sou, it might be possible."
"!?!"
"I mean, sure, that would make it strong, but..."
"I feel like that would create a different set of problems... if a present meant to give her an easier time ends up accelerating her stress instead..."
"Also, that's definitely gonna catch Grandpa, Dr. Indigo, and some of the other veteran Executives in the crossfire..."
"As for what's expected of a 'Shichibukai'... it's 'military power,' right? With 'fame' as a runner-up."
"...Neither of those needs anything extra, or any external additions. We already covered the 'military power' angle when we were thinking about the 'Admiral' role."
"In the first place, Mama's reason for being a Shichibukai is that she can go places for research that she couldn't before, and because Gramps told her to do it... She never had any attachment to the position to begin with, so even if we gave her something useful for that role, I don't think she'd be happy about it."
"She absolutely hates having her fame as the 'Pirate Literary Master' used for political maneuvering... Honestly, doesn't this 'Shichibukai' position have zero prospects for going anywhere? She'll probably toss it aside when the time is right."
"...Let's table this one for now."
"So, for The Real Deal, the 'Pirate Literary Master.' First premise: there is absolutely nothing we can do about her 'ability' or 'talent' as a Literary Master. Obviously."
"Indeed. And even if there were, knowing Mother, she would not want it. To begin with, the position of 'writer' is, for Mother, purely an extension of her hobby. She has professional pride, certainly, but she has little interest in treating it as 'work.'"
"With that in mind, something useful for Mama as a writer... this is tough too... actually, maybe not. Mama's always saying she wants this or that. Might be pretty easy to think of something."
"Like what?"
"What she's always saying she wants is 'time,' but there's obviously nothing we can do about that... so I'd say 'reference materials'? Whenever she's writing different novels, she's always ordering documents and all sorts of stuff, and when she goes on research trips, she buys up a ton of related books."
"Something that could replace those 'reference materials'... you mean a Homie so knowledgeable it wouldn't need reference materials anymore, one that could answer any question she had? But something with that kind of encyclopedic, no, beyond-encyclopedic knowledge seems impossible..."
"It need not know everything itself. Mother enjoys reading those materials as part of the process. There is no need for a verbal consultant who can answer all questions. Rather, the tedious part seemed to be hunting down the right materials each time. What about a Homie that functions like a library's librarian, one that can promptly produce whatever Mother wants when she wants it?"
"Oh, that might actually work! If we specialize it in that direction, just memorizing where materials are stored is totally doable... actually, why not have it double as the storage itself?"
"...What do you mean?"
"Mom always uses her powers to store tons of reference materials inside her body and carry them around, right? So she can quickly look things up when she needs to. But that's probably only a tiny fraction of the books she's bought and stored as references, the ones she uses most frequently. If she wants to look at materials outside that selection, she has to go back to Merveille's Library, where they're all kept."
"Well, that's just how it... wait! You mean we should create a Homie that can store all those remaining vast volumes while also being able to retrieve and provide them on demand?"
"Exactly! For instance, a bookshelf... no, why not just make an entire library into a Homie? I've never done it before, but I have a feeling it could work!"
"If that were possible, it would effectively replicate Mother's storage ability, limited to books. Something truly extraordinary could be born from this."
"And also, when it comes to what Mama values 'as a writer'... it came up in what we were just talking about, but it's gotta be 'research trips,' right? How about a Homie that serves as transportation for those?"
"Mother already has her own means of transport. She can fly on her own, and she can even make whole ships fly."
"That's true, but both of those use up Mama's stamina. She's got enough stamina that it barely matters, sure, but wouldn't it be better if she didn't have to spend energy on stuff like that? Pirates usually leave the sailing to their crew anyway, while the Captain and Executives just sit back and relax. It's only because we have this image of Mama traveling solo or with us that it doesn't feel weird, but she is the head of a Pirate Crew and a Shichibukai."
"...Now that you mention it, you're right. She was absurdly hands-on for someone of her position."
"So would that mean a vehicle-type Homie? Or a Homie that can fulfill the 'role' of a vehicle..."
"Since it's a Homie, it can operate on the sea or underwater without issue, but ideally it should be able to fly too. If we're thinking of it as mobility unaffected by weather."
"...Also, if it's only mediocre in speed, like, sure it saves stamina but it's slow, then Mama would just end up flying herself anyway. So it needs to actually have solid mobility, and ideally some other strengths on top of that."
"...Is it just me, or have we turned into an HR department agonizing over hiring criteria?"
"Oh, I was kinda thinking the same thing."
"Sorry, this one isn't really about her 'positions' anymore, but... when I heard 'something that can be useful to Mom,' there was one thing I thought of."
"What is it, Alice?"
"Since Mom's a Paper Human... she's weak to fire and Heat, right? She has various countermeasures, and in a pinch she can gain resistance through the Seven Star Sword's Jade Flames, but..."
"Ah, that eats up Haki too, if I remember right. Meaning it leads to mental and physical exhaustion. During the Summit War, she had no choice but to use it when she was fighting Akainu..."
"What if we could cover that weakness without any stamina cost? If it were just a simple tool that'd be one thing, but since Homies are pretty flexible and versatile, we could probably make something really good."
"I love that idea! Let's do it, let's do it! Oh, then since we couldn't come up with anything good for 'Shichibukai,' let's scrap that one."
"No objections!"
After further deliberation, the conclusion the girls reached was...
***
Um, so, here's the thing...
I'm genuinely happy they celebrated my birthday.
At my age, when someone says "birthday," all I really feel is "well, another year older." But a surprise party and presents from all five of my daughters? That's enough to make my eyes well up a little, honestly.
I gratefully accepted the presents each of them chose and prepared, deeply moved and appreciative.
...I certainly didn't expect multiple Rank-bearing named swords to appear, and a Supreme Grade at that. I had no idea there was a swordsmith that incredible in our Territory.
A fan of mine, no less. All four of the swords presented to me were inspired by my works.
Well, including the fact that they offered them up... I know I keep saying it, but I really am happy.
...That said, there's been something on my mind for a while now. More than a little, actually. Mind if I ask?
"Sure, I mean, I can pretty much guess what's bugging you and what you want to ask, but... go ahead?"
"Okay. Thanks, Alice. Then I won't hold back. So listen..."
"My 'daughters' number five, right? Not nine."
"Yep, that's right. Suzu, Leona, me, Snow, and Iris. Five."
"Right, yeah... so then, who are those four over there?"
Beyond my line of sight, in addition to the five daughters who had planned and carried out this surprise, four unfamiliar girls were sitting neatly and primly in a row.
'...No, wait, that's not right. They're not unfamiliar. I see this face every morning in the mirror when I wash up...'
I felt like I'd had thoughts along these lines before.
Specifically, back during the Neo Marines incident, the first time I laid eyes on that dark-skinned, white-haired, flame-wreathed Terminator-esque figure from the future.
Let me just cut to the conclusion. The four sitting there all had the same face as me.
However, like the Seraphim, they differed in terms of "which era's me" they resembled, and there seemed to be several other minor differences as well.
The first.
Age-wise, probably me from just before I turned twenty. Around when I was falsely accused and turned into a Bounty Target.
She wore a sharp business suit reminiscent of a capable office worker, with a mantle-like overcoat draped over her shoulders.
She sat at attention with a serious, crisp expression, but if I looked closely, she seemed a bit nervous, maybe.
And one more distinguishing feature, a difference from the real me: her hair. Both the style and color were different.
My hair has a soft, light wave to it, voluminous and long, platinum blonde inherited from Mama.
Hers, by contrast, was straight with no wave. Light brown.
Next, the second and third.
Both resembled me from my mid-teens, around fifteen or so.
These two were a complete change in style, wearing elegant traditional Japanese garments that evoked Heian-era Nobles, gazing at me with calm, composed, refined smiles.
Their faces were identical, and their outfits were the same design in different colors, so they looked like twins. Or palette swaps.
What distinguished them from each other, and from the real me, was again hair color and style. And the color of their clothes, as I just mentioned.
One had bright green hair reminiscent of jade, wearing an outfit in greens and whites to match, giving an impression of elegance and cleanliness.
The other had glossy black hair like ebony, wearing an outfit based in black and red. This one had a bit more visual impact, colors that made more of a statement.
And finally, the fourth. The youngest of the four. Young wasn't even the right word; she was little. Probably around ten?
She looked like me from the days I was being cared for in the Kuja Pirates' Territory Town. Back when I was still truly a child, barely able to fight. Over twenty years ago now.
Her expression was, how to put it, largely unreadable. Blank. Even the Observation Haki I reflexively used couldn't pick up any emotional activity. As if she wasn't thinking about anything at all.
Her outfit was a simple one-piece dress without any frills, but the craftsmanship itself looked high quality. Over it, she wore a light children's coat.
And the issue was the coloring. In a word: pure Seraphim.
Not just the hair, either. Her body too. White hair, dark skin.
But the most distinctive features of the Seraphim, or rather, of the Lunarian Tribe, the black wings and the flames on the back, were nowhere to be seen.
So she could almost pass for just a dark-skinned, white-haired girl, maybe.
So there I had it. Four individuals who looked like copy-pasted versions of my past selves at different ages with their colors swapped. Explain, please.
Huh, presents? These girls? For me?
No, I can't just accept actual people as gifts... they're not slaves...
...Homies!? All of them!? Seriously!?
And wait, oh, so the last one really is... Mama was involved too?
Hm? An Irregular? A "fourth one" that was unexpected even for you girls? Well, well.
...Seriously? That's how it split into two... or rather, into "twins"?
Ah, I see... now that you mention it, I do recognize them. I've seen them in some mysterious mental space while meditating. They looked different from back then in face and other details, but the vibe is definitely the same.
Hm? Oh, right, they do have proper names? Sorry, sorry. Thanks.
Let's see...
The brown-haired me from around eighteen is "Yu."
Of the twin fifteen-year-old me's, the green one is "Nana."
And the black-haired twin is "Saya."
The little Seraphim-colored me, around ten, is "Lou."
...Got it, thanks. Memorized.
...Memorized, but...
...No seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?
***
And then...
Time flowed on...
"Two years later."
To be continued...