Jin finished sweeping the last of the treasure into his bracelet and did a quick mental tally.
"Hoo… that's close to a billion in jewels alone," he whistled. "Rich people really do live in a different world."
He left the ruins, grabbed Pedro by the collar, and flew them back toward the shore.
When they landed, Wanda had already hunted down a wild boar and was roasting it over a simple spitfire.
She glanced over as they came back.
Found what he wanted, huh.
"Musashi-sama, please wait a little,"Shirako said softly. "It's almost done."
Jin sat down and pulled a few barrels of beer out of his bracelet, thumping them on the ground.
"If you wanna drink, pour it yourself."
Pedro immediately went to fill a cup. The other three didn't move. The squirrel girl didn't drink; Shirako was still too young; and Wanda absolutely refused to let her guard down around a Marine she didn't fully trust.
"Aaah—finally," Jin sighed after downing a cup of beer in one go. "Haven't had a drink in a while."
He leaned back.
"Alright, I'll give you guys the short version of who I am."
The four of them straightened, listening seriously.
"My name's Arakaki Jin," he said. "Right now I'm a Marine Rear Admiral, stationed at Sabaody Archipelago. This trip was partly to power up, partly to grab some… goodies."
"Partly," he says…
Wanda and Pedro, both well-traveled by mink standards, fought the urge to roll their eyes.
You looted Wano, trespassed in our forbidden Whale Tree, and just dug up a Mythical Zoan. "Partly." Right.
"As for me," Jin went on, "I'm not like other Marines…"
He started talking.
By the time he was done running through his Black Justice, his deal with Celestial Dragons, his shady business with Doflamingo, and that auction house of his, Pedro and Wanda's mouths were twitching in sync.
There are Marines like this?
Shirako and the squirrel nurse were slower to catch on, but after Wanda quietly explained, both girls finally understood—and stared at Jin with wide, stunned eyes.
He clapped his hands.
"That's where things stand right now. If you've got questions, ask. We're gonna be teammates for a while; better to clear stuff up early."
Wanda and Pedro shared a glance, then shook their heads.
Their orders were simple: protect the Kozuki heir.
Everything else was background noise.
"T-then… White-sir," the little squirrel mink piped up in a tiny voice, "do you really have… that many women around you?"
"…Hah?" Jin blinked.
Of all the things to latch onto, that's the one?
"I–if you don't want to answer, you don't have to!" she squeaked, ears flattening as her head dipped, making it impossible to see the disappointment on her face.
"Um, White—White…"
"You can just call me 'White-bro'," Jin said, seeing Shirako fumbling for how to address him.
Her cheeks went pink.
"Okay… White-bro," she said carefully. "Then… do we all have to join the Marines in the future?"
That shut everyone up.
They… actually hadn't thought about that.
Jin shook his head.
"The Marines aren't for me," he said flatly.
He glanced at her.
"I took your grandfather's compensation, so now you're my responsibility. When I leave the Marines, you're coming with me.
"As for Kuro, Jango, and Ain," he went on, "it depends on what they want. Stella will follow me for sure.
"My whole dream from the beginning was just to survive in this man-eating world. Now I've got the power for that."
He looked out at the sea.
"So it's time to chase the other dream."
"What dream?" Pedro asked.
The three minks and Shirako all relaxed a bit at "not staying Marine" and were curious now.
Jin smiled.
"To travel the world.
"Start with the four Blues, one sea at a time. Then the Grand Line. Then the New World.
"Once I've seen it all… find a place I like and retire there."
…Such a simple, boring dream.
And yet compared to all the idiots who tasted a bit of power and immediately screamed about becoming Pirate King, this sounded… strangely solid.
"Alright," Shirako said, nodding hard. "Grandfather entrusted me to you, so wherever you go, I'll go too, White-bro!"
She looked so sincere that Jin couldn't help himself.
His hand landed on her head and ruffled her hair.
"Hyah!" Shirako squeaked, face going tomato-red.
Pedro and Wanda both gave him a what do you think you're doing look.
The squirrel nurse, on the other hand, watched with a soft smile.
Jin's gaze flicked to her.
…Yeah, she was pretty cute too.
So he reached over and rubbed her fluffy head as well.
"Kyah!"Ella whipped her head down so fast her ears blurred, but there was literal steam puffing from the top of her head.
Jin burst out laughing, mood sky-high.
He almost reached toward Wanda too… then saw the "you try it and I bite you" expression in her eyes and wisely pulled his hand back.
Instead, he set down the small box Dogstorm and Nekomamushi had given him.
Wanda and Pedro leaned in. They'd seen the dukes hand it over and were just as curious.
Jin pulled out his Devil Fruit Encyclopedia and started flipping through, comparing shapes.
"Not this one… not that one… Ah. Found you."
He tapped the picture.
"Ancient Zoan: Armored Dragon," he read. "Late Cretaceous ankylosaur—hah. Those two furballs were sitting on a gem.
"Probably brought back when they sailed with Roger. Roger didn't eat it, Oden didn't eat it, so it ended up in their stash."
He tucked the fruit into his bracelet, already planning.
Give it to a giant and you'd have a walking siege weapon the size of a ship.
Smash first, ask questions never.
He poured himself another drink and bit into some boar.
"Alright," he said between swallows, "get some rest."
He looked around at them.
"Once we get back, odds are I'll be heading straight into a fight. Take the chance to recover now. Tomorrow, I fly us straight home without stopping."
"Fight…?" Shirako's expression dimmed as old memories tried to surface.
"Yeah," Jin said.
He pulled out a newspaper he'd grabbed along the way and tossed it on the ground.
The headline screamed: WHITEBEARD PIRATES DESTROY DEEP NEW WORLD MARINE BASE!
"Heh. The Marines finally managed to hammer a few nails deep into the New World. Then this happens." Jin smirked. "Guess this little butterfly of mine is flapping a bit too hard."
"Whitebeard…?" Pedro sucked in a breath. "That's the man they call the 'strongest in the world.' Why would the Marines poke him?"
"Because the World Government is stupid," Jin said immediately, kicking the blame uphill without hesitation.
"They sent agents to assassinate important figures under the Three Emperors. Stir the pot. Make them kill each other."
He rattled off a few names and "incidents," dumping as much of the mess as possible in the Government's lap.
The boar disappeared quickly—between Jin and Pedro, one pig wasn't nearly enough. Jin dragged out more supplies from his bracelet; Pedro even used the leftovers to bait up a mid-sized Sea King from the shallows.
Weirdly enough, the Sea King went crazy for the roasted meat.
The party went on until everyone was stuffed.
Shirako barely needed to eat. Ella only nibbled on the cakes and cookies Jin had brought out. Wanda ate, but never stopped watching the surroundings.
Finally, Jin stood.
"You guys can sleep in the cabin," he said. "We're leaving tonight. If all goes well, we'll be at Sabaody by morning."
"Won't that be too tiring, White-bro?" Shirako asked, worry written all over her face.
Jin shook his head.
"I'll be fine. I can fight for days without sleep if I have to. If I can't handle a night flight, why'd I bother eating a Mythical Zoan?"
"Then… please rest if you get tired," she said quietly.
The three minks stared at her.
Hadn't even been three days, right?
"W–we just spent a lot of time together, that's all," Shirako stammered, face burning as she noticed their stares. "I'm just worried about him, not anything else…"
"Get on the boat," Jin cut in. "Less talking, more boarding."
His body warped, stretching and twisting into a massive golden dragon.
"Raaah—!"
The winged dragon coiled above the beach.
The four of them scrambled aboard the little boat in a hurry. Jin closed a claw around it and rose into the sky, wings beating a steady rhythm.
The distance was longer this time—deep in the New World all the way back to Paradise. No point burning stamina with unnecessary sprints.
He settled into a stable, cruising pace.
The fastest path that still left enough in the tank to fight when he landed.
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