On the Winter Island of Rejection, Punk Hazard.
Having intercepted a Distress Signal and caught wind of the Straw Hat Pirates' presence, the members of G-5 Base led by Marine Vice Admiral Smoker the White Hunter had come to this island, supposedly off-limits by Government order with no one present, only to find themselves face to face with a single man.
The Marines, caught off guard and shaken by this unexpected figure, were rough enough in appearance to be mistaken for Pirates themselves, though they were undeniably Marines. Undaunted, Smoker stepped forward ahead of them and posed his question.
"This island is off-limits, even to Government Officials. So why are you here? Trafalgar Law."
"Where I am and what I'm doing is my own business. Don't go picking fights over nothing, White Hunter."
Trafalgar Law, the Surgeon of Death.
One of the Supernovas who once caused a stir at Sabaody Archipelago, now known as one of the Worst Generation.
He had become an Over 100 Million Berry Bounty Target at a young age and was known for both his strength and his ruthlessness, but among the Marines, he was well known for another reason entirely.
That reason: he was a direct subordinate of Sue, the Pirate Literary Master, one of the Shichibukai.
Sue was known as a particularly cooperative Shichibukai toward both the Government and the Marines. Since Law operated as her subordinate, his interactions with the Marines were naturally frequent as well. He would deliver captured Pirates he had hunted on Sue's orders to Marine bases, reinforce and rescue Marines who found themselves in dire straits, and even treat the wounded with his medical skills during relief operations.
Because of this, a fair number of people actually felt indebted to him for saving them. But even setting that aside, the fact that he invariably used his Op-Op Fruit Powers to dismantle his prey's bodies and Hearts before bringing them in made him someone people couldn't help but find unsettling. The G-5 Marines facing him now were likewise keeping their distance, wanting nothing to do with him.
Paying no mind to such subordinates, Smoker and Tashigi explained the situation to Law. The Straw Hat Pirates might have come to this island, and they had followed them here.
"I don't think a little Q&A is gonna satisfy either of us. Move aside. Let me see what's inside."
"No. This is nothing more than my private vacation home."
"However, as I just stated, this island has been designated off-limits even to Government Officials. No matter how much you may be under a Shichibukai's umbrella, illegal occupation poses a problem..."
"What's it matter to you if a Pirate like me sets up camp on an island you people already threw away? It's not like I'm costing you anything. And since I'm doing this as part of carrying out lawful piracy under Miss's command, anything short of truly egregious behavior should fall under the Amnesty. Am I wrong?"
"! You're saying you made this your vacation home on orders from your Master, the Pirate Literary Master?"
Hearing Law's words, Smoker reacted with a slight twitch as he asked the question. The name that had come up belonged to a female Pirate who was both a Shichibukai and a personal acquaintance, someone he had crossed paths with on more than one occasion.
"I wasn't directly ordered to do it. But it's necessary and useful for carrying out the missions Miss gives me. Otherwise I'd never bother settling down on an island this miserable to live on."
"Does she know you're here?"
"Of course she does. If it bothers you, why not check with her over the Den Den Mushi, White Hunter? You're personally acquainted with Miss, aren't you?"
"Huh!? Is that true, Smo-san!?"
"With the Pirate Literary Master!?"
"...It's not like we hang out off the clock. She's a Pirate. I'm a Marine."
Pirates are Pirates, no matter what. That was the creed Smoker lived by, which was precisely why, even with Sue, someone he had known from before she became a Pirate, he maintained a firm line as a Marine in how he dealt with her. He wouldn't stand in the way of cooperating as a Marine and a Shichibukai, but that didn't mean he let his guard down. Even knowing that her true nature was that of a good person.
Setting aside the question of Smoker and Sue's relationship, if Law was telling the truth and his reason for being here was tied to missions for Sue, a Shichibukai, then a matter as minor as unauthorized residency would hardly be an issue. It was well within the scope of what the Shichibukai's existing privileges could easily cover, and given that Sue's contributions to the Marines were particularly significant, she could probably get away with quite a lot of demands if she wanted to.
Without waiting for Smoker's reply, Law moved to wrap things up.
"Now that you understand, we're done here. Get lost. I'm the only one here. You've got complaints, take them up with Miss, but I'd recommend against it since it'd be a waste of your time."
"..."
"If Straw Hat-ya shows up here, well... it's not part of my mission, but I'll take his head for you. You're not exactly swimming in free time, so hurry up and go..."
"Nooooooo!!"
"...!?"
From beyond the door where Law stood blocking the way, a shrill voice, almost a scream, came echoing out. And it didn't stop there. More voices kept joining in, growing louder and louder, rushing closer. Something, no, someone, clearly multiple someones, could be seen approaching from the other side of the door.
The sudden commotion caught the Marines off guard, and even Law, hearing the noise erupt behind him, turned around with a look of bewilderment.
The instant he turned, a thoroughly incomprehensible group came bursting through the door.
The Straw Hat Pirates.
A tanuki-like creature of indeterminate species: "Howacha!!"
Giant children.
A robot carrying children while running in a formal kneeling position: "Suuuuperrr!!"
A disembodied head that somehow still talked.
*Some overlap among the above.
The scene had gone from merely "noisy" to something else entirely. Even Smoker and Law were left stunned.
"...They're right here. What happened to 'I'm the only one'...!?"
"Yeah. So they are. I'm as surprised as you are right now."
Even as they spoke, Smoker drew his jutte and Law took up his sword.
From here, things would only accelerate further.
***
Meanwhile, around the same time, on a certain island near the starting point of the New World.
Sue had taken a room at the finest hotel in Town, in its very best suite.
A single room larger than most modest houses, furnished with numerous pieces of expensive furniture. Food, drinks, and every other service available were uniformly top-class. The price was commensurate, naturally, but for Sue, the expense was barely worth noticing.
What mattered to her more than the price, more than anything, was having a comfortable, peaceful space where she could focus on her writing. That was what mattered most of all.
Though at the moment, what she was putting pen to was neither a novel nor a magazine article, but a report to be submitted to the Marines as a Shichibukai. The Real Deal, her actual writing, she planned to settle into at leisure once she had finished off the tedious work first.
"It was even more of a madhouse than I'd heard. No wonder Fleet Admiral Kuzan, and the whole Marine force for that matter, is stretched to the breaking point."
"When all those Rookies who'd been bottled up underwater for a month get released at once, of course that's the kind of surge you'd get. The quality was about what you'd expect, but with numbers like those, even with people lying in wait, there were bound to be plenty that slipped through."
Sue and Blume chatted while seated on the sofa, snacking on tea sweets ordered from room service. Yu stood nearby, remaining on her feet.
"Yu, you can sit down too, you know. Standing the whole time must be tiring, right?"
"No, I'm perfectly fine, so please don't trouble yourself. Besides, I am technically on duty."
Yu smiled warmly as she said this, gently declining Sue's offer and continuing to stand. Sue looked at her with a wry smile, thinking, 'For someone with the same face as mine, she sure is diligent,' then said:
"Don't push yourself, okay? Oh, and Yu, could you pull up the Bounty Target list and the distribution map of the Pirates around this area? The latest versions. I think they were updated recently... do you already have them?"
"Of course. I requisitioned them the day they were published and have them in my collection."
As she spoke, Yu unfastened the front of her ladies' suit jacket and opened one side to reveal the lining. She reached toward it as though slipping her hand into an inner pocket, but her hand sank into the lining as if an empty space stretched out beyond it.
When her hand reemerged, it held two books, or rather booklets, that certainly hadn't been there a moment before. Both were fairly large and thick, far too big to fit in any pocket.
Yu handed them to Sue, who set one on the table and held the other, flipping through its pages to read the contents before using it as reference to continue her work.
The one in her hand was a directory of Wanted Posters for Pirates and other criminals, compiled into a scrapbook. For Sue, a Shichibukai, it was essentially a list of prey. The one on the table was a compilation of data on which Pirates had been sighted or were active in these waters. Both were the materials Sue had just requested from Yu.
Those two were not the only references in use. The table was already covered with books Sue had been reading and consulting. She selected the ones she was done with and handed them to Yu, who opened the front of her jacket just as before and stowed the books away into the space within the lining.
Blume watched this process with evident fascination and asked:
"I always think this when I see it, but Yu, when you pull out books and materials, you always produce them instantly... don't you ever get confused? The number of books you have stored isn't just a hundred or two hundred, is it?"
"Not to worry. I have a complete grasp of everything, so I can retrieve any item on demand with no delay. There's never any confusion. I am a Library Homie, after all. Lady Sue's Library and Librarian, created to assist with all of her work, starting with her writing."
A year ago, when it was decided that a Homie would be given to Sue as a birthday present, the question arose: what would be useful for Sue as a writer? What would she need?
One of the conclusions they arrived at was: reference materials, essential for the writing process and the idea-building stage that preceded it. If they could create a Homie capable of storing vast quantities of books and booklets, producing them at will, and providing whatever materials Sue wanted whenever she wanted them, it would be an enormous help to their mother.
With this in mind, Iris and the others decided that rather than a bookshelf, rather than even a library room, they would go further to ensure maximum storage capacity. What they did was turn an entire massive Library into a Homie.
The daughters personally oversaw the design and construction of the Library that would serve as the base material. As for the books to fill it, they gathered everything they could: books from every era and every corner of the world that Sue might enjoy, magazines, specialized texts from various fields, Picture Story books, photo collections of landscapes and natural scenery from around the globe, back issues of newspapers, scrapbooks of Wanted Posters. Every piece of information, every piece of culture they could get their hands on was stored in that enormous Library.
Once it was complete, Iris used her Powers to turn it into a Homie. As per usual, the result was a cute-girl personification, but since the Soul used was from Sue's own future self, the appearance turned out to be the spitting image of Sue in her younger days, a result that left even the daughters stunned. However, the Homie's capabilities as a Library and Librarian met or exceeded expectations, and there were no particular issues with her personality or temperament, so after the final finishing touches, the Unveiling and presentation to Sue took place.
From that point on, whether at home or on the road, whether Sue was writing or doing paperwork, Yu was always there to produce whatever materials were needed on the spot. She continued acquiring and absorbing new publications, steadily growing her collection, and proved herself an immense asset to Sue as a writer. This was a source of joy not only for the daughters, of course, but for Yu herself as well.
'At first, I wasn't sure how to handle a Homie made specifically as a present for me, and one with my own face at that. But now she's completely just... a companion, a friend, someone I interact with like it's the most natural thing in the world. When it's time for work, she's exactly what she says she is, a Library and Librarian, and she even helps out with paperwork sometimes. She's truly capable, sweet-natured, and wonderful. More than I deserve, honestly.'
By now, Sue barely even thought of Yu as a Homie anymore, treating her almost entirely as an individual person. No one objected to this, and frankly, no one found it the least bit strange.
Though her origins and roots were different, just as it had been with the daughters who shared no blood ties, just as it had been with the daughters who came from the future, there was nothing that could stand in the way of Yu becoming a companion, a friend, or even family to Sue. That was true now and would undoubtedly remain true going forward.
And then...
Ring ring ring... ring ring ring...
Click.
"Yes, yes, this is Left Minister Blume of the Retainers. Who's calling?"
"Ahh, the Pirate Literary Master's aide, is it. This is Kuzan from Marine Headquarters. Sorry, but could you put me through to the Lady?"
"!? Fleet Admiral! What business do you have with our Lady Sue... well, I suppose you wouldn't be calling if you didn't have any."
"...Blume, I'll take it. Hand it over."
Sue, who had been listening from beside Blume with a sigh of 'here we go again,' reached out preemptively before the call could be passed along, taking the receiver.
"...Hello, Fleet Admiral Kuzan?"
"Ahh, been a little while, Pirate Literary Master. Sorry, but could you do me a favor?"
"Listen, right at this very moment I'm out here on Patrol around the New World entrance, on your orders, I might add. I hate to say this twice in such a short span, but aren't you really overworking me at this point? I think I'd be justified in getting angry..."
"Sorry. I'll make it up to you somehow later, I promise. But this one's pretty urgent. Hear me out."
"...?"
The voice coming through the Den Den Mushi carried an unusually serious tone. Sensing this was different from Kuzan's usual laid-back, listless demeanor, Sue shelved the irritation that had been half-genuine and shifted into listening mode.
"There's a place I need you to go check out. You said you're near the entrance to the New World right now, yeah? Then it should be close from where you are. Sorry, but I need you to take this on."
"Where? And what specifically should I do?"
"Punk Hazard. A few hours ago, Smoker contacted G-5 to report he was moving to pursue Straw Hat, and then... went completely silent. If he was just in the middle of a scrap with Straw Hat and couldn't answer personally, that'd be one thing, but even the Den Den Mushi that's supposed to be installed in the warship's communications room, with a dedicated operator standing by for emergencies, isn't picking up. And that's not all..."
"There's something else bothering you?"
"I think I might've mentioned this in passing when we talked before, but the waters G-5 oversees have always had an unusually high number of suspicious incidents and maritime accidents. And on top of that, the few times I've ordered detailed investigations, the investigations themselves haven't gone well. I figured maybe the quality of the Marines at that base just wasn't suited for detailed work, but... something doesn't sit right."
"..."
"Embarrassing as it is, even a Fleet Admiral can't justify diverting personnel to investigate a place where nothing has actually happened, based on nothing but a bad feeling. But if there really is something going on in that area, and Smoker and his people have gotten caught up in it somehow, falling behind on this could be a serious problem."
"So you're saying the Marines can't investigate properly, and that's why you're asking a Pirate. Honestly..."
Sue let out a sigh, then:
"I heard about this recently, by the way. Apparently there's a new flavor of Marine Rice Crackers out? I'm a fan, and so are Suzu, Leona, Papa, and plenty of others in my Crew. They're only sold at the Marine Headquarters commissary, so they're really hard to get. Any chance those could be made available for mail order?"
"Ahh... sheesh, fine. I'll take it up with the General Affairs Department. And when this is all over, I'll buy a whole case and send it your way as a care package. ...I'm counting on you."
"Wonderful. Well then, I'll be on my way."
Click.
To be continued...