Some time had passed since the Neo Marines incident.
The cleanup and everything else had mostly wrapped up, and not just for us; even the Marines and the Government had returned to normal operations.
"Come on, Mom, hurry hurry!"
"Now now, don't be so impatient, Iris... The snowy mountain isn't going anywhere."
"But this is finally a day where we can all hang out and take it easy together, so I want to enjoy every single second! Right, Snow! Aunt Leona!"
"Well. True enough... The place may not run away, but time does have a way of slipping through your fingers."
"Yeah yeah, exactly, so come on Mama, Suzu, Alice, hurry up! ...Also I still can't get used to being called 'Aunt'..."
This was a Sky Island located within one of the Golden Lion Pirates' Territories.
A Sky Island, sure, but nothing absurdly harsh about the climate. Just a moderately snow-covered place, about the level of a minor snow country.
If anything was noteworthy, since it fell within part of Merveille's airspace, there were various interesting animals unique to the area living here. But every last one of them was a friend of Leona's, so there was no worry about being attacked.
And today, we'd come here to have fun as a family. Just us. Family time, nobody else.
The plan was to go all out with snow activities like skiing and snowboarding, plus whatever else anyone happened to think of.
The origin of this... well, it wasn't anything dramatic, but the catalyst was a simple, everyday moment.
Since returning to the future was impossible, Snow and Iris had come to live with us in this era.
They were welcomed as my fourth and fifth daughters.
...Well, even if it was from a different timeline, they actually were my daughters, so...
Or rather, my daughters and granddaughters, since they were also Alice's daughters.
I think this every time, but this family tree is just too weird.
Still, it wasn't like I felt badly about it or anything. During the Neo Marines incident, I felt we'd built real bonds fighting together as allies, so I hoped we could get along well going forward.
And... at first, both of them were still a bit awkward. Made sense, since we'd only just met even if we were blood-related. But after a few days, once they gradually started getting comfortable...
'Mom, Mom! You're done with work, right? Come on, let's go out and play! The weather's perfect right now, and apparently Kyuka Island is having an all-you-can-eat sweets festival today! Let's go together!'
'Iris! Mother just got back from work and she's tired, so don't... pester her with unreasonable requests!'
'But our schedules and Mom's schedule finally lined up so we can be together, so we should make up for all the time we don't usually get to spend together by playing! Even you, Snow, you always look lonely when you can't be with Mom!'
'That's... I-It can't be helped. Even though we've been accepted as family, we're still newcomers in the Golden Lion Pirates, so we need to work hard and diligently earn our standing...'
'We're family, so you don't need to be so stiff about it! Of course I have absolutely no intention of slacking on work, but I don't think we should neglect family bonding and good times either!'
Exchanges like this had been happening a lot lately.
Once the awkwardness faded, Iris started clinging to me without any reservation, as if she'd always been that way. Approaching me with the closeness of family.
About the same as, or maybe even more than, how Leona and Alice had been when I first met them.
I'd briefly wondered if she was even regressing to a childlike state, but according to Snow, 'The real Iris has always been like this.'
And Snow also said that the fact Iris was showing her true self so freely meant she'd opened her heart to me, and to everyone in this era, that much.
On the other hand, Snow... she'd also gotten closer than before, though not to Iris's extent. She didn't cling to me or act spoiled.
She reminded me of how Suzu was when we first met. Still gauging the right distance, giving off that air of someone not quite sure whether it was okay to let herself be pampered. The type who simply wasn't used to expressing those feelings naturally.
But I'd caught her several times watching enviously as Iris shamelessly clung to me and nuzzled one side of my face while Alice did the exact same thing on the other side (hey). Watching that scene with unmistakable longing.
Like Suzu, she was the serious class-president type, but deep down, maybe she was the same as Iris.
On top of that... and this applied to both Iris and Snow... the fact that this world was peaceful seemed to be amplifying these tendencies.
Iris becoming more clingy. Snow seeming a bit at a loss.
After all, the world they'd lived in was one where everyone had to desperately endure just to survive... no, even enduring, the eventual collapse and extinction was already in sight. A Ruined World.
No room to breathe in daily life. People's hearts in tatters. Hope nowhere to be found.
Furthermore, in that world, Leona was dead, and both Suzu and I were permanently out of commission as warriors. Papa and Mama were gone... and if I started listing everything, there'd be no end to it. Tragedy piled up so thick it was practically causing a traffic jam.
Those two had spent their lives in that world on the brink, watching people drown in despair and grief.
For them, knowing that world, this era must have seemed like paradise.
Their family was alive, they had a peaceful and safe home, there was delicious food... and above all, they had a place where they were accepted. A place to belong.
Even if this world was commonly called the Great Pirate Era, and even if an even more intense New Era was said to be on the horizon, it was still a world overflowing with hope.
Surely, in that era, those two hadn't been allowed to act spoiled even during the years when they should have been children. There simply hadn't been room for them to just be kids.
That was exactly why Iris was making up for lost time, being as clingy as she was and enjoying each and every day. Dragging me and all the family around her into the fun on a grand scale. Because this was a world that allowed it. A world with room for that.
They said this was just 'the real her,' but I still thought there was at least some degree of childlike regression going on. Not in a bad way at all.
Snow wasn't opposed to having fun, but I think she just hadn't quite internalized it yet. Or maybe she simply didn't know how to enjoy herself.
You know that thing where someone's been so overworked with no days off that when they finally get a holiday, they have no idea how to spend it or how to have fun? Like a corporate drone at a sweatshop company... Is there a better analogy? Probably not.
So anyway, with the two new daughters being like that... one radiating 'More! Pay attention to me!' and the other 'I want attention too, but, well...'... we figured, why not just go all out and have fun as a family?
Honoring Iris's wishes, while also serving as an icebreaker of sorts for the still slightly awkward Snow.
And when it came to deciding how to play in this era, we left it up to the three daughters who'd grown up in this time.
On top of fostering sisterly bonding, if it also helped the other two enjoy this peaceful (?) era, that was the best outcome.
So this time, the snow activities were Leona's idea.
"Yeeeaaah-hoooo!!"
Leona looked like she was having even more fun than Iris or Snow.
Snowboard strapped on, she blazed down the mountain at an unbelievable speed.
Right behind her, refusing to lose, was Iris. On skis.
Running parallel to her was Alice on a snowboard.
And behind all of them, Snow, Suzu, and I gave chase.
There really is a particular joy in just moving your body without thinking about anything.
When you're tired, you might think 'All they're doing is sliding down snow on equipment...' but that's exactly what makes it fun. You understand once you try it. It's not something you can reason out.
Well, whether moving your body is fun or not varies from person to person, so I can't make blanket statements... but from what I could see, everyone was having a great time, so that was good enough.
By the way, since this wasn't a ski resort, there was nothing so convenient as a lift to carry us back up the mountain.
So every time we slid to the bottom, I used my Powers to ferry everyone back to the summit, and then we'd slide down again. Over and over.
The key was not to zip everyone up instantly, but to take our time, deliberately slow, like a ski resort lift.
A little impatient, sure, but it had its own charm. That waiting time was perfect for thinking about how you wanted to ski next run, or looking down from above and scouting routes like 'Let's try that slope next!'
Sure enough, all five of them showed not a shred of boredom, chatting away in a relentless barrage of conversation that made you wonder how they could possibly keep going.
There were plenty of ways to have fun beyond just skiing.
For instance, going full childhood mode with sled rides.
Unlike skiing or snowboarding, you could pile two or three people onto a sled and ride down together, so we had fun trying all sorts of combinations.
Some of the more daring ones... or rather, mainly Leona and Iris... even attempted acrobatic moves on what was supposed to be a sit-down sled, as if they were snowboarding.
Launching off a snow ramp they'd built beforehand and doing three-and-a-half aerial rotations. That kind of thing.
Also, when Leona rode with Alice, Alice pulled what looked like a stroke of luck on the ecchi side and touched all sorts of things... but honestly, that was just normal operations at this point, so it didn't faze me.
Then immediately afterward, Suzu's sled came crashing in as a flying retort, causing a spectacular wipeout.
Going even further into childhood mode, we made snowmen and had a snowball fight... though the snowball fight was a bit dangerous.
What was dangerous about it? Well, you know how in a snowball fight... I probably don't even need to explain this... you pack snow in your hands, make snowballs, and throw them, right?
If you don't hold back to a certain degree when doing that...
BOOM!!
CRACK CRACK CRACK... THUUUUD...!
"...Leona. What was that just now? Did you throw a cannonball?"
"No, just a regular snowball..."
"Ye put too much force into it, fool. Ye snapped a massive tree clean in half."
Snowballs get pretty hard when you pack them with all your strength, right?
When one of us does that... especially Leona, who has the most physical strength among the daughters... the snowball gets as hard as an iron ball, and then she hurls it with full force, so it genuinely becomes lethal.
Watching Leona fire those off at speeds exceeding cannon blasts, I was reminded of a certain Marine Vice Admiral. The one whose son became a revolutionary and whose grandson became a Pirate.
...Come to think of it, current Leona could probably do the same thing with actual cannonballs. Maybe I'll have her try it sometime.
And then there was the time we tried making snowmen.
Actually, rather than just snowmen, everyone made whatever they felt like out of snow.
As many as you want, whatever you want, however you want. Like a snow festival.
Suzu made one normal snowman, then on a whim made several vegetables. Out of snow.
A thick, magnificent daikon radish, a weighty pumpkin, and... not a vegetable, but stacks of rice bales, all sculpted from snow. A farmer even at a time like this... well, as long as she's having fun, I suppose.
Leona, pretty much as expected, made animals from Merveille.
Her partner Cloud Wolf, Dora, joined in too (I hadn't mentioned it until now, but he'd been with us the whole time), and they put quite a lot of detail into the snow sculptures.
Alice...
"What are ye making, ye fool!"
"Oh, it's Mama. But why's she naked? Looks cold..."
"Father!? Wait, this is a bit much even by..."
"Nihihihi... well, when I heard we were making snow sculptures, this was the first thing that popped into my head!"
"Mom, that's incredible... You even captured the hair texture perfectly in snow... It's art. At this point, it might have actually looped back around to not being erotic anymore, honestly?"
She made a nude sculpture of me. Well, in a way, this was also as expected.
At least the important parts were covered, and there I was, emerging from a clamshell.
Fine, whatever... but having a nude statue of me standing in the middle of a snowy mountain... as Leona just muttered, looking at it kind of makes you feel cold.
But what really knocked our socks off, in a certain sense, was Snow's creation.
Standing there was a mysterious structure: something like a thick pillar, with neatly packed spherical snowballs placed on either side of it.
"Oh, isn't that a Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jeet Armstrong Cannon? The quality's pretty high."
"Well... it was quite difficult. Getting the barrel nice and thick and long was the hardest part; I had to redo it several times. I hope it turned out well."
Leona, genuinely impressed. Snow, wiping sweat from her brow with a look of 'job well done.'
Neither of them showed the slightest hint of anything suggestive; they were purely admiring and taking pride in the work.
Suzu, standing off to the side looking absolutely aghast, was being left completely in the dust.
She looked like she wanted to say, 'Wait, why? Snow, this isn't like ye at all...'
But then,
"Snow? What did you make over... Oh my, it's a Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jeet Armstrong Cannon. The quality's pretty high."
That was Iris.
"Huh? Really? Wow, it really is a Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jeet Armstrong Cannon. The quality's pretty high."
And that was Alice.
Both of them genuinely impressed.
And both of them, saying things like 'You polished these so nicely' and 'They really are big and impressive,' were touching and rubbing the pillar and the balls. Please stop that.
"...Huh? Why is everyone just... Huh? ...A-Am I the odd one out here?"
Suzu, don't think too hard about it. It's futile.
And finally, Iris.
What she made was simply a snowman, but...
"Iris, how much effort did ye put into making this snowman...?"
"Ahahaha... Sorry, Auntie, I just got carried away because it was so much fun."
"That's huge... What is this? Isn't it bigger than most ships?"
"To think you did this with just two snowballs... Actually, how was there even enough snow to make something this big?"
Iris had stacked two snowballs, each easily over ten meters in diameter, to create a super-massive snowman.
She really made that thing... and not just the snowballs; it even had proper arms.
Wait, she recycled the trees Leona snapped in half with her iron-ball snowballs during the snowball fight earlier? Ah, so that's why there was a whole tree stabbed through it.
The finer details were... oh, she had Pneuma produce water and then froze it into ice to use. More elaborate than I expected.
That colossal snowman had the most visual impact by far.
...It would have been great if things had ended with a 'Pretty impressive, right!'... but...
"...Hey, Iris. Tell me if I'm imagining things, but... is this thing wobbling?"
"Huh? No, I packed it down firmly, so there's no way... wait, huh?"
"...Maybe it's because it's so heavy that the ground underneath is starting to give way? I mean, just placing the snowballs made a pretty big thud and impact."
"What? Wait, doesn't that mean this is bad... Oh, the head... the top snowball is fall..."
THOOOOM!!
RUMBLE... RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE... RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!
Oh wonderful. The top snowball crumbled, separated, fell, and started rolling at tremendous speed.
The impact dislodged the bottom snowball from its foundation too, and that started rolling at tremendous speed.
...Hold on. This is seriously bad.
"E-EVACUATE!!"
After that, we were chased around for a good while by two snowballs rolling at us straight out of Indiana Jones.
The snowballs kept gathering more snow as they rolled, growing bigger and bigger.
Just rolling, they caused tremors in the earth.
The mountain shook.
And then came the avalanche.
...What is this snowy-mountain Rube Goldberg catastrophe?
Looking back, I should have just sliced them apart the moment the snowballs started rolling. That much could have been done easily by me, of course, but also by Suzu or Iris.
Alice could have bounced the snowballs back with Reversal too, so yeah, there was zero need to run.
Had all the playing lowered our collective IQ or something...?
In the end, I fired off a massive slash imbued with Conqueror's Haki, and Snow combined her naginata with an earthquake strike. We launched them together in a rough imitation of "Hagoku!!" and managed to blast the avalanche and snowballs into oblivion.
By pure coincidence, the obliterated snow was launched straight up into the sky and rained back down across the entire island, more or less restoring things to how they'd been before we started playing. What kind of pointless miracle was that?
Ahh... I'm exhausted.
But well... it was fun, so whatever.
So that's how today went. Family time courtesy of Leona's snow activities proposal.
Next time, it'll be either Suzu's or Alice's idea... Now, which one should we go with?
To be continued...