'A Future Person, huh... What a wild card to show up...'
The story of the future I'd read through Heaven's Door, then heard directly from their own mouths, was too shocking to process. This world would be destroyed in just a year or so...
I wanted to say I couldn't possibly believe it, but... the result came from directly "reading" it. Including the part about them being Future Persons, it was all probably true.
And their objective was... stopping the Grand Reboot. They'd just asked us to lend our strength for that purpose, and...
"Of course, we would never be so presumptuous as to ask pirate crew members such as yourselves for cooperation without offering something in return."
So said Snow. As she spoke, she pulled something from the luggage she'd brought.
It was... a cylindrical tube made of paper. Shaped like something you'd keep a diploma in. Fairly large, maybe a meter long?
Then she actually removed the cap and drew out a roll of paper from inside.
"Your future self entrusted us with this... Mother. As a weapon for fighting in this era. And at the same time... as compensation, or rather a gift, for requesting your cooperation."
"Even if we are blood-related family, approaching the Great Pirate 'Golden Lion' and the 'Pirate Literary Master' with a favor empty-handed would be far too convenient, she said. She also said it would serve as proof of how seriously this problem needs to be tackled... so she had us prepare it."
"Hoh... So you do understand how things work."
Papa said that with a wicked grin. A pirate through and through. Whether it was a world crisis or whatever else, and there might still be parts he hadn't fully bought into, he apparently intended to properly collect what was owed.
The one who understood the meaning, the weight, of a Great Pirate's Symbol better than anyone here was Papa. ...And how best to leverage it, too. That's exactly why he never sold it cheap regardless of the circumstances, always seeking to use it with maximum efficiency. ...Same as always, all around.
Meanwhile, Snow kept unrolling the paper... It was remarkably long. Rolling it out across the floor, the thing stretched several meters. Could practically serve as a banner.
And the moment the very last edge was fully unfurled... with a satisfying pop, something appeared on top of the paper. 'Ah, it was an Enigma for storage,' I thought as I watched, but...
"""...Huh?"""
Seeing what had appeared there, every single one of us... was struck speechless. There was nothing to do but be struck speechless.
Not just me and Alice and the two retainers... even Papa was standing there dumbfounded, unable to form words, unable to believe the sight before his eyes.
...If you were shown something like this, of course... that's what would happen. Of course it would. Only natural reaction in the world.
Because this was...
"Snow... Iris... Is this all real?"
"Yes, of course, Mother. Every single one is a genuine... Devil Fruit."
Spread across the paper unfurled like a banner. Covering its entire surface... fruits marked with distinctive swirl patterns. Dozens of them.
Sell just one and you'd get 100 million Berry. But depending on the fruit, prices far exceeding that were commonplace. In fact, considering the power you could obtain from one, 100 million Berry could even be called cheap. If I recalled correctly... in the Original Work of One Piece, the Op-Op Fruit was traded for 5 billion Berry...
And here, dozens of these Hidden Treasures of the sea, just casually laid out...
"29 Paramecia, 35 Zoan-type, 9 Logia. In addition, 32 fruits of unknown name and classification as they do not appear in any encyclopedia... 105 in total. This is every Devil Fruit we were able to bring from the future."
"And of course, none of them are 'artificial'... they're all natural. The ones whose names have been identified are listed right here. Mom and everyone, use them however you like."
I took the list Iris held out. I was fighting pretty hard to keep my hands from shaking.
What an insane haul these daughters of mine from the future had brought back...!
***
As they'd mentioned before, the world of the future was already on the verge of destruction... No, saying it had effectively already been destroyed wouldn't be an exaggeration.
To begin with, there were no "enemies." No one left to fight, no one left to compete with. Forget pirates and bandits; due to environmental destruction, even Sea Beasts and Sea Kings had vanished. The exploitative classes who had wielded tyranny precisely because civilization existed, like Nobles and Celestial Dragons, had long since disappeared as well.
Conflict between humans simply didn't happen anymore. The strength to cause it no longer existed. If conflict did break out, it would engulf everything and truly "end" in an instant. Everyone had been forced to understand, whether they liked it or not, that cooperation was the only alternative to extinction.
So Devil Fruits, which granted power to whoever ate them... not only was there no longer any demand for that "power," but people had actually begun to shun acquiring unnecessary "power" for the very reasons described above. Nobody wanted them. Nobody would eat them.
On top of that, in a world where the vast majority of humanity had perished... naturally, the previous Ability Users who had eaten these fruits were dead too. When an Ability User dies, their Devil Fruit reappears somewhere in the world. So Devil Fruits were being found fairly frequently... but no one was there to eat them.
A small number of exceptions existed: powers that didn't translate into combat strength and were convenient for daily life, or abilities that supported day-to-day Survival, were still valued. When fruits like those turned up, people would eat them and put them to use.
The rest had been stockpiled with a "might as well hold onto them" attitude. And since they'd just been sitting in storage with nobody using them... the decision was made to give them all to the two heading into the past.
"For us, these were nothing more than objects with no practical use... but in this era, where civilization is still going strong... we thought they would hold considerable value."
"Considerable doesn't even begin to cover it... This could throw the entire world into chaos, you know..."
"Really? Well, we're coming from an era where the world's already in chaos, so if you're going to do things while there's still energy left, why not go all out? That's kind of how we see it..."
Iris said this as if it were nothing, but everyone other than those two... had expressions that were simply indescribable. Of course they did.
Honestly, this was a gift so overwhelming it was hard to know what to do with. Practically a bomb... this many Devil Fruits all in one place... What's more, some of these fruits still had living Ability Users in the current era. There was no way we could carelessly let this get out.
I mean, yes, depending on how they were used, they could become an incredible weapon in every sense, so I was grateful, don't get me wrong.
***
Now then.
The sheer absurdity of the gift had forcibly driven home just how serious these two were about this problem... but the question was what to do from here.
For the time being, I'd proceed on the assumption that what Snow and the others were saying was true. Stopping the Grand Reboot.
It was a disaster triggered by Zephyr-san after he'd lost hope in the Justice upheld by the Marines and Government, arriving at the extreme conclusion that "pirates are to blame for everything"... He'd caused it to wipe out all the pirates in the New World.
In concrete terms, what we needed to do was prevent the Neo Marines led by Zephyr-san from destroying the End Points. Additionally, we needed to apprehend Zephyr-san and his people. Those two objectives.
That said, based on what the two told me... he wouldn't start making his move for about another year. If that was the case, we still had a fair amount of breathing room. At the very least, it was safe to say we had enough time to gather information and formulate a plan.
'Well, just like summer vacation and the days before exams, if you keep telling yourself there's still time, it vanishes before you know it. So we still need to maintain a sense of urgency and act promptly... If we botch the response here, what gets blown away isn't a grade report, it's the world itself.'
So with that... now that we understood who the two were, we moved locations. Not a branch within the Territory, but to our headquarters on Merveille.
If we were going to take real action, this was the place, with all the facilities and resources we could need. It had to be here. Anti-eavesdropping Den Den Mushi, means of contacting all relevant parties, everything.
And so, first things first: gathering information.
Using Shichibukai privileges, I'd casually inquire with the Marines about Zephyr-san's situation and information regarding the End Points. We had this authority for a reason. Might as well make proper use of it when it counted.
Running in parallel, I'd consult with Tesoro and his people to gather any information related to these matters, no matter how trivial, and have them report back. With their powerful connections spanning east and west, above and below board, they could bring us information that even the Marines couldn't dig up, or at least not quickly.
And so, we'd entered a holding pattern for the time being, standing by for that information to come in. Since we couldn't act immediately anyway. We needed to maintain a certain level of alertness while not being so tense that we wore ourselves out, calmly waiting for the right moment. Staying wound up the entire time would just be exhausting, after all.
In that sense, maybe I should take a cue from those folks over there...
"In! Other! Words! The mood earlier was so dead serious I let it slide, but I successfully got together with Mom in the future! And as a result, Snow and Iris were born! Am I right?! Yes! Way to go, future me!"
"W-well... that is technically correct, but..."
"Ahahaha... Dad in this era is like twice as energetic and cheerful and lively as in the future..."
"Th-this one really, truly, finally... No, I know it wasn't this one now but this one in the future, and yet still... she really did take Mother to bed..."
"Alice is incredible... She actually made babies with Mama."
The scene: three daughters lounging on sofas, chatting away and asking the two visitors from the future all sorts of questions.
When we'd arrived back here, we'd already explained the two visitors' backgrounds to Suzu and Leona, who had been on standby.
Those two had plenty of things they were curious about and wanted to ask, but during the serious atmosphere of the briefing, they hadn't been able to so much as let it show, let alone voice any questions.
But now that the discussion had reached a stopping point and we'd moved into this phase of relaxed downtime... they were making up for lost time, chatting happily and without restraint.
And as expected, the topic was... "family."
"So, um... Sue and those two are in a parent-child relationship, right? It may be in the future, but she carried and gave birth to them. Which means... they're also sisters with those three over there, even if only by technicality."
"But those girls are also Alice's children, aren't they? So what would Alice's relationship with them be... parent-child and also siblings...?"
"Oof... Say it out loud and it's quite the tangled web..."
Tell me about it. Actions speak louder than words... That girl actually went and made my future self hers. Astonishing... And yet at the same time, I can't help thinking that if anyone would pull it off, it'd be her.
And I should add that I didn't actually find it unpleasant or anything. I mean, I certainly wasn't going to actively embrace the idea, but... if that's how things ultimately turned out, there was a part of me that might think, 'Well, if it's Alice, I wouldn't mind.' Yeah.
...I'd had similar thoughts back in Impel Down, come to think of it. And then I'd accidentally mumbled that in front of her, and she'd nearly pounced on me, and I'd been terrified.
"And so! Since Mom and I successfully had kids, that means it's Suzu and Leona's turn next, right?"
"Don't even think about it! Stay away! Stop inching closer, I say! Sister or not, I'll show no mercy! I mean it! I've never felt my chastity more threatened in my entire life!"
"Suzu's desperate..."
"Ye should be desperate too, Leona! This one has genuinely gotten Mother with child, at least in the future, so if we let our guard down, we're in real danger! Whatever ye do, don't carelessly nod along to anything she says! I repeat, she'll seriously come at us for real!"
And over there, something was... no, Suzu was fighting with a level of desperation that was no laughing matter.
Alice's usual declaration of "I'm going to have children with Mom and my two older sisters" had apparently been a tremendous shock now that it had proven to be a promise fulfilled in the future. Which meant they, who'd been told the same thing, naturally started thinking... And given Suzu's worrywart personality (and Alice's complete lack of restraint), that reaction was entirely reasonable. Yep.
And sure enough, Alice was already locking on with eyes far more serious than anything before recently... Suzu and Leona might genuinely want to be on their guard...
But then again, whatever else Alice might do, she'd never do something someone truly hated... That was the one thing you could count on. ...Probably.
I'd thought it many times before, but Alice truly cherished her family. That came before everything else, even before her sex drive. It was the very core of who she was.
"Oh, but don't worry, I'll properly make babies with Mom too! Snow and Iris were made by future me. Present me is present me, and I want kids of my own!"
"This girl..."
I was sighing in exasperation at all this... when it happened.
Ring ring ring ring... Ring ring ring ring...
The Den Den Mushi rang, and I picked up the receiver. It was Stella on the line. Apparently, there had already been a development in the investigation into the End Points and related matters that I'd only just asked about. That was fast...
I listened to what she had to say, and...
"...Wait, are you serious? Stella."
"Dead serious, but... Is there something about this island? I mean, I was surprised when I heard too..."
And then, after the call ended.
"Ah, sorry to interrupt, everyone. Got a moment? ...Especially you, Snow and Iris."
"? What is the matter, Mother?"
"Looked like you were talking on the Den Den Mushi... Has there already been some progress with the investigation?"
"Yeah, well... you could say there has been, but... Listen, you two? The Grand Reboot happened... two years after the Summit War, right? So from now, that's... roughly one year away."
"That's correct... What of it?"
"...So, here's what I just learned..."
"One of the End Points... Faus Island... was it? Apparently... it was completely destroyed, island and all, by a massive eruption that happened several days ago."
""...Huh?""
To be continued...