This was back when I'd already finished my tour of the Four Blues, but was still drifting from sea to sea on a whim.
A small incident—on a certain island in the Grand Line.
"…This place has really fallen apart."
I was standing in what used to be a town.
To be precise, the place where a town once stood. Now it was nothing but ruins—no lights, no voices, no people. Just broken stone and collapsing timber, abandoned to salt wind and time.
Everywhere I looked—front, back, left, right—houses sagged and crumbled, their roofs half-caved, their walls gnawed away by rot.
When I turned toward the harbor, I could still make out the remains of the shipbuilding facilities: docks, slips, workshops—everything that had once made this place breathe.
Even after all these years, seeing it like this still made my chest feel strangely hollow.
This town… mattered to me.
It was where I'd first had a custom ship built.
Or rather—where it used to be.
Until a few years ago, the shipbuilding town of Elena had stood here.
Then, one day, a pirate raid hit it hard enough that survival became impossible.
And as a result, the town… and its people…
Click.
"Don't move."
My breath caught.
A heavy, ominous sound rang out right behind my head—the unmistakable click of a hammer being drawn back.
A gun.
The muzzle pressed into the side of my skull.
I raised both hands without a word.
"What business does a pirate like you have here…?"
"…This town meant something to me," I said carefully. "Who are you? A bounty hunter?"
"Exactly. I'll be collecting the 76 million on your head. Don't resist if you don't want to die. Cooperate, and I won't get rough."
"…Liar. You don't mean any of it."
"…Huh?"
"You're going to tie me up, make sure I can't fight back, and then…" I let my voice sink into something sweet and poisonous. "You'll indulge yourself, won't you? Take your time. Do all sorts of things to me. Savor it."
"What?! Hey, wait—"
"Before you hand me over to the Marines, you'll have your fun, right? Force me down, rip my clothes, bare my skin, not even trying to hide that… that thing you're going to shove into—"
"Stop! Calm down! Shut your mouth for one second! What are you even saying?! A woman shouldn't be talking like that!"
"All men are the same! Pirates, slavers, acquaintances, family—" I kept going without mercy. "Even their own sisters! All they see is p——! As long as they can p—— p——, nothing else matters! I'm not the only one who's been poisoned by their fangs, you know…"
"I said stop!" His voice cracked. "How are you saying this so smoothly?! Don't waste your writer's talent on garbage like this! And the sister line—quit it! That's not funny! If she hears—"
"And then you'd go bleep and bleep and bleep-bleep and bleep-bleep-bleep! Bleep-bleep-bleep and bleep-bleep-bleep and bleep-bleep! Bleep! And I, now bleep, cradled my bleep and wept helplessly as I bleep—"
"WAIT! Seriously, WAIT! Stop! For real!" The gun jerked away as the man practically yelped. "Okay, I messed up! I'm sorry! It was a joke, Sue-san! It's me—Shuraiya-kun! You know me, right?! You do, don't you?! Look—"
"It's Shuraiya-kun."
"Yeah, I know."
"Then don't mess with me like that!"
I turned the tables on Shuraiya-kun.
He'd snuck up behind me and pressed a gun to my head as a cruel little prank, so I answered with something far worse—then laughed while he panicked and tried to talk me down.
When I finally turned around, I saw a young man tucking the gun into his jacket, his face twisted into a tired, awkward smile.
Curly, dusty rose-pink hair. Just like I remembered.
Shuraiya-kun.
And peeking out from behind his shoulder was a child.
At first glance, with her hair tied up and a rough worker's cap pulled low, you might not realize she was a girl. But the dusty rose strands slipping out from under the cap made it obvious.
Related, then.
"Well," I said, letting the mood soften, "it's been a while. Shuraiya-kun—Adele-chan."
"Heh heh heh! Long time no see, Sue-neechan!" Adele flashed a bright grin, the kind only kids can manage. "Sorry about Big Bro's dumb prank, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. You look healthy. Still talking the same way, though."
Adele's eyes narrowed, suspiciously sharp for someone her age. "…Hey, what was all that beep and beep and beep stuff you were saying earlier?"
"Forget it!" Shuraiya-kun snapped, flustered. "You don't need to know! Don't you dare repeat those words in front of anyone! See what you've done, Sue-san?! You and your stupid pranks have her picking up weird crap! As if she doesn't already have enough trouble with her language—"
"Hmph!" Adele puffed up, glaring at him with all the confidence in the world. "What's it to you, stupid Big Bro?! I like talking like this! If you keep it up, I'm gonna tell everyone on the Gran Tesoro that you're a beep and a beep-beep-beep and a beep-beep-beep! I don't even know what any of that means!"
"Stop it, you idiot!" Shuraiya-kun hissed. "I'll seriously lose my place on the ship!"
Right.
I should probably explain why we were here in the first place.
A few years ago, the shipbuilding town of Elena was attacked by pirates.
It wasn't Gasparde, this time. I'd crushed his attempted raid back then, and he'd ended up under Papa's wing not long after.
This raid happened later—years later—by an entirely different crew.
They weren't as strong as Gasparde, but they were still led by a captain with a respectable bounty. And even if you're not the biggest shark in the sea, a bite in the wrong place can ruin a town.
I happened to be nearby at the time, so I rushed over and helped. Thanks to Shuraiya-kun and the Self-Defense Corps holding the line, casualties stayed low—but not zero.
What really dealt the killing blow was the damage to the shipyard facilities.
And in this world, a town that gets wrecked by pirates doesn't automatically receive help. Not from the country. Not from the Marines. Not from the World Government.
Unless it's strategically important, or politically convenient, or wealthy enough to matter.
Elena wasn't.
Left to rot, the town's future was bleak: either fade out completely, or limp along and never regain what it had been. The people were alive, but the "shipbuilding town" they took pride in was finished.
That's when I proposed something drastic.
If reconstruction was impossible, why not move?
Around that time, Tesoro and Stella had just completed the Gran Tesoro—a colossal ship, nearly ten kilometers long, bigger than most towns.
A floating metropolis gilded in gold. Casinos, hotels, theaters, racetracks—every kind of entertainment facility you could imagine. A legendary hub whose name echoed even into the New World.
It had only just begun operating, yet it was already wildly successful. And to expand further, Tesoro and his people were recruiting talent aggressively.
It felt like a gift that had fallen into our laps.
So I suggested it: relocate Elena's people—its shipwrights and their families—to the Gran Tesoro.
I knew the craftsmen here. Their shipbuilding outfit might not match Galley-La in scale, but their technical skill was real. And they had specialized know-how for complex machinery—paddle ships and other advanced mechanisms that most crews couldn't maintain properly.
Tesoro and Stella had said it from the start: the Gran Tesoro would need a permanent, living, breathing department of shipwrights to keep it running.
If that was true, then Elena fit perfectly.
The people of Elena would gain a new home and stable work. And that home was a World Government-recognized non-aggression zone—protected, defended, and far safer than any ordinary port town.
Meanwhile, Tesoro gained something priceless: skilled shipwrights who lived aboard year-round and could handle maintenance, repairs, and upgrades as part of daily life.
Of course, no one could be forced. Asking someone to move onto a pirate ship—even a "neutral" one—wasn't something you could pressure lightly. Resistance was natural.
And for those who refused… there was only so much I could do. I could recommend other towns where they might settle and start over. After that, their lives were their own.
The town leaders debated my proposal for a long time.
In the end, most agreed.
Roughly two-thirds of the residents relocated to the Gran Tesoro.
The rest stayed behind for their own reasons. Some wanted to remain land-bound shipwrights. Some didn't want anything to do with pirates, no matter how safe it was. Some were simply old and tired and wanted quiet ground beneath their feet.
They moved to another town I recommended instead.
Elena had helped me so much. So, quietly, I arranged some financial support through a few channels and told the people who could help, "Please look after them." It wasn't perfect, but it was what I could do.
The ones who did move became settlers and technicians aboard the Gran Tesoro.
They went straight into maintenance and repair—keeping the ship's systems alive: air-conditioning boilers, seawater pumps, the infrastructure that makes a floating city livable.
Tesoro and his people were thrilled. "It's a huge help," they said, and they made sure the work environment was fair and healthy.
Shuraiya-kun and Adele-chan were part of that first wave.
Shuraiya-kun had started training long ago—back when I was still a bounty hunter, before Adele-chan was even born. A raid had hit the town, and he'd decided he would never be helpless again. He trained relentlessly after that.
By the time he transferred to the Gran Tesoro, he could already fight and defeat bounties in the tens of millions—hard-won, but real.
No Devil Fruit. No Haki back then. Still, I've always thought he was impressive.
During the raid on Elena, he was second only to me in combat contribution.
Once aboard the Gran Tesoro, he joined security under Tanaka-san. Through harsh training and actual field work, he awakened Haki.
I even heard he'd recently crushed a bunch of stupid pirates who caused trouble in the casino—some with bounties over 100 million.
He'd grown strong.
As for why security instead of engineering… it wasn't that he couldn't do technical work. He just wasn't suited to high-level specialized tasks, by his own admission. He had the basics down, but he always looked uncomfortable when the conversation shifted into deep engineering.
Even so, he'd protected people. He'd done his part. There was nothing to be ashamed of.
Adele-chan, on the other hand, was the opposite.
She was born for engineering—and loved it.
Even as a little kid, she'd hang around the shipyard, apprenticing herself to adults, helping wherever she could. Now she worked alongside them as a full-fledged engineer.
The only problem was that growing up in a male-dominated environment had left her talking like one—which made Shuraiya-kun clutch his head in despair every other day.
I didn't see the issue. It was just her personality.
Normally, the two of them lived happily aboard the Gran Tesoro. But sometimes they went out.
Adele-chan left when she needed materials for a new project and insisted on inspecting them herself. Shuraiya-kun took leave to escort her.
This time, they were here for the same reason I was: to visit the ruins of former Elena and pay respects at the graves.
No wonder Adele-chan had brought flowers.
"Don't go pulling stupid pranks at a time like this," Shuraiya-kun muttered.
"I could say the same to you," I shot back. "You're a bad influence."
"…My bad," I said lightly. "If you don't like my adult novels, you can stick to the children's ones."
"I've got tons of Sue-neechan's books!" Adele declared proudly. "Whenever a new one comes out, Tesoro-niichan always stocks it in the ship's bookstore, so I buy it right away!"
"That's wonderful," I said, and patted the head of my enthusiastic little reader.
Together, Shuraiya-kun and I laid our bouquets at the communal graveyard.
This place looked more run-down every year. Understandable—no one was here to maintain it.
So we cleaned.
I used my Paper-Paper Fruit to scatter a flurry of confetti, then set to work. Shuraiya-kun tore out weeds and piled them neatly before spraying herbicide to slow the regrowth.
Adele scrubbed tombstones with a brush, grinning through the effort. "Compared to maintaining the ship, this is nothing!"
When everything was finally clean, we sat down with the drinks we'd brought and let the silence settle.
"Since we're already out," I said, "want to grab something to eat before heading back? My treat."
"Seriously?" Shuraiya frowned. "Where? There's nothing left on this island that serves food."
"There are resort areas not too far from here," I replied. "We'll fly there in my ship. It'll be quick."
Shuraiya blinked, then sighed. "Ah, I get it… Fine. If you're offering, Adele, we'll take her up on it."
"Yay!" Adele bounced—then suddenly froze mid-step.
She tilted her head up.
"…Wait. Huh?"
Her eyes widened.
"Big Bro! Sue-neechan! Emergency! A girl's falling from the sky!"
"…Huh?" Shuraiya-kun and I traded a baffled look.
A moment later—
BOOOOOOOM!!
The ground shook with a brutal, earth-splitting blast.
"…What?!"
A massive crater had appeared in the distance.
What in the world fell here? A meteor? One of the Four Emperors?
Please, no.
Adele had noticed it before either of us—despite Shuraiya-kun and me having Observation Haki.
I felt a presence at the crater's center now. Unconscious, but alive.
That at least ruled out a certain kind of monster, but I still didn't let my guard down. I drew my weapon and approached cautiously.
Shuraiya stepped in front of Adele at once, shielding her without thinking.
As the dust slowly thinned, something small lay at the bottom of the crater.
A child.
About Adele's size.
She wore something like an Amazonian tribal outfit—similar to what Kuja girls wear, but not quite the same. It was tattered and torn, ripped in places, as if the fall had shredded it.
And just as Adele had said…
It was a girl.
Despite slamming into the ground hard enough to carve out a crater, she was still alive.
Who is she?
Where did she come from?
I looked up, but the sky was empty—nothing but clouds drifting lazily overhead.
I didn't understand anything about this situation.
But leaving her here wasn't an option.
…Fine.
I'll help her.
To be continued...