"Change... change a diaper?"
Shanks broke out in a cold sweat, forcing a strained smile:
"Ah, right! Monster's really good at this—I'll go get him."
Dier was speechless. A monkey changing diapers? Only Shanks could come up with that.
"Just call Robin over from the cargo ship. She probably knows how to do this."
Robin had been sent to live with her uncle since she was two years old. As she grew older, most of the household chores fell to her—including taking care of her cousin, who was the same age but still wetting the bed until she was six.
Thirty seconds later, Robin, still holding a book in her hand, was brought into the room by Shanks.
Once she understood what needed to be done, she activated her Devil Fruit Ability.
Six arms emerged from the edges of the crib—four of them lifted the crying Uta while the other two deftly changed the diaper.
The treasure chest hadn't just contained Uta and valuables; there were also some baby supplies. Otherwise, there was no way a pirate ship like this would have diapers lying around.
The crib's padding was soaked and needed to be replaced as well.
While the four arms continued holding Uta, Robin took a soft blanket from the bed, folded it, and placed it in the crib before gently setting Uta down.
"Wah, haha~"
Uta stopped crying, giggling as she grabbed Robin's fingers.
As she played with the baby, Robin instructed:
"You should talk to her more often. Children this age usually start speaking, but she's still just babbling.
As for food, just avoid anything too spicy or hard. Make sure her diet is balanced—don't just feed her meat."
Shanks diligently took notes in a small notebook.
Since he had decided to adopt her, he was determined to do it right.
The only father on board, Yasopp, had never actually taken care of his own child, so he couldn't offer any useful advice.
That made Robin's modest childcare experience all the more valuable.
After rocking Uta back to sleep, the three of them carefully left the captain's quarters.
The crew on deck had already resumed their party, though the loud cheers had turned into muffled excitement—like watching a silent play.
Shanks invited the two to join the muted celebration. Robin declined, but Dier accepted.
Not for the food and drinks, of course, but to demonstrate his current abilities.
Conventional powers—fire, lightning, water.
Functional abilities—flight, telekinesis, Mind Communication.
And then there were Heat Vision and Freezing Breath.
The comic industry on Colon Island was just getting started.
Dier had localized the Superman comics in his mind, and Colon Island's artists had drawn and published them.
In this version, Superman wasn't a Kryptonian but a child whose family was killed by pirates before being adopted by a retired Marine—a true Right Seagull Flag.
Justus, derived from "justice."
After growing up, he joined the Marines and began traveling the seas to uphold justice.
Dier played the villain in the comics. To ensure children didn't idolize the wrong person, he not only used his real name but also his actual face.
Flight, Heat Vision, Freezing Breath, super strength, growing stronger under sunlight...
He and Justus had identical abilities, but Justus—with his heart of justice—always defeated him in the end.
A perfect promotion of the World Government's righteous ideals.
With substantial investment, the printing factory operated at full capacity, selling the printed comics at cost price.
If it weren't for drawing too much attention, Dier would have even considered giving them away for free.
Now, the comic was gaining popularity on several islands near Colon Island, gradually spreading throughout the entire West Blue.
Aside from flight, the most discussed abilities were the far cooler Heat Vision and Freezing Breath.
Thanks to this, Dier gained these two abilities.
Well, kids were easy to fool.
Though the power of these abilities wasn't yet strong enough for combat, they were more than sufficient for performances.
"What kind of Devil Fruit did you even eat to have so many different abilities?"
Shanks rubbed his forehead, which had been hit by Heat Vision and still felt slightly warm.
Having grown up by Roger's side, he had seen plenty of the world.
Though there were no Ability Users in the Roger Pirates, they had encountered plenty among their opponents.
For example, Little Marco, who had been stopped by a single finger from old man Rayleigh.
The latter was a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit user—the Phoenix Fruit—possessing blue flames capable of healing injuries.
Aside from Little Marco, he had seen plenty of other Ability Users. After all, the sea was never short of Pirates eager to challenge the strong.
Among these challengers, there were those who wielded multiple powers, but their abilities were usually related in some way.
In contrast, Dier was an oddity, capable of simultaneously controlling fire and water—two completely opposing abilities.
"That's a secret, Shanks."
Having finished his performance, Dier casually sat down next to Shanks, holding a bottle of milk.
"Actually, I have another question for you."
Shanks blinked. "What is it?"
"You know about Haki, right?"
"Of course I do."
"Then… can you teach me?"
Dier looked at him expectantly. Naturally, he hadn't neglected acquiring the Three-color Haki.
But to make others believe in it, they at least needed to know what Haki was.
So compared to simpler abilities like breathing fire or flying, progress in obtaining Haki had been much slower.
After half a year, he had only mastered one type of Haki.
Armament Haki—and in minuscule amounts. At full strength, he could barely cover a fingernail.
And it was unreliable, flickering in and out, making it utterly useless in battle.
He had once considered adding Haki to the comics to boost his Armament Haki reserves and acquire the other two types.
But within a month of release, the Navy cracked down hard on it. The overworked artist was arrested outright.
The charge? Leaking Navy secrets.
Only after promising never to depict Haki again and paying a hefty fine was the artist released.
For a while, Dier couldn't understand why the Navy had acted so harshly.
Though Haki was rare, it was still passed down in many places. Why single out a comic artist?
It was Robin who later enlightened him.
Haki wasn't common knowledge.
He had assumed that most people with any strength knew about Haki, so he thought adding it to the comics was no big deal.
But in reality, across Paradise and the Four Seas, most people had no idea what Haki even was.
Pirates without connections or backgrounds had no way of learning about its existence.
If comics depicting Haki became widespread, these people might haphazardly experiment and actually manage to develop Haki.
Even something as basic as Observation Haki would make them more troublesome, increasing the Navy's workload.
After realizing this, Dier had no choice but to reluctantly abandon his plan of incorporating Haki into the manga.
However, just because it couldn't be in the manga didn't mean he couldn't train in it himself.
Right now, there was a ready-made teacher—Shanks.
Faced with Dier's eager expression, Shanks grinned and said,
"That's a secret, Dier."
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