On the deck, Yamato sat in her usual spot, leaning back as she scanned the newspaper. "There doesn't seem to be much interesting news today," she remarked, her voice trailing off.
She turned her attention toward Haruko, who was still sorting through the mail. "Haruko, did you find anyone noteworthy among those bounty posters?"
"An interesting person... well, I don't know if this counts, but there is a rookie whose first bounty has already reached 30,000,000," Haruko replied. She pulled a brand-new bounty poster from the stack and placed it on the table. "He looks like a teenage boy. His name is Monkey D. Luffy."
At first, Yamato didn't pay much attention, but the moment she heard that name, her calm demeanor shattered. She looked down at the poster. It showed a boy with a wide, beaming smile, wearing a simple Straw Hat.
"Has the time come so soon?" Yamato muttered to herself, her tone becoming inscrutable.
Without realizing it, she had almost forgotten about the timeline of these events. Since she had arrived in this world, nearly nineteen years had passed. It was a long time. Hearing the name Monkey D. Luffy now caused her thoughts to drift back to memories of a life long ago.
"What's wrong, Young Master? Is there something special about this boy?" Haruko asked curiously, noticing Yamato's sudden silence.
Yamato snapped back to reality at the sound of Haruko's voice. "Ah, no, there's nothing wrong with him. I just think he has a very free smile."
"A free smile?" Haruko blinked. She hadn't expected such a poetic description from Yamato.
"Speaking of which, Haruko, do you know about this?" Yamato asked, pointing her finger at the middle initial in the name: the letter "D."
Haruko leaned in to look. "D? I've heard of a few people with that letter. For example, Fire Fist is Portgas D. Ace, and that Blackbeard we met twice is named Marshall D. Teach. They all share it. Does the letter actually have a special meaning?"
Whenever Haruko saw names with that middle initial, she found it a bit strange, but she never gave it much thought. She assumed those people might have added the letter to their names just to be unconventional; if that were the case, it wouldn't mean anything at all.
"I don't know for sure, but I feel like there should be a deeper meaning. Though, to be honest, I'm not really that interested in it myself," Yamato said, shaking her head.
Now that Monkey D. Luffy had set sail, it meant that in approximately two years, he would arrive in Wano Country. However, before that could happen, a massive turning point in history was likely to occur: the Marineford War.
"Whether the Marineford War happens exactly as planned is still uncertain, but Blackbeard stealing that Devil Fruit and killing his crewmate is definitely going to happen. It should be any day now," Yamato thought.
She was curious whether Ace would still follow his original path. Would he still be defeated by Blackbeard on Banaro Island? Would he still be used as a bargaining chip with the Marines to trigger the war? Logically, the current Ace should be much stronger than his canon counterpart, especially since she had personally trained him. However, she couldn't guarantee that Ace would defeat Blackbeard. After all, Blackbeard was the man who had managed to leave a permanent scar on the face of Red-Haired Shanks long before he had a Devil Fruit power.
"Thinking about it that way, it seems unavoidable. Was I being a bit too idealistic?" Yamato pondered. After a while, she realized she was stuck in a mental dead end; no matter how much she racked her brain, she couldn't see a clear way to break the cycle of fate.
"Forget it. I won't think about it anymore. It's not my life, so why should I care so much?" Yamato said, shaking her head. She was Yamato now, not the protagonist of this story. Respecting the fates of others and letting go of a savior complex was the only way to live freely.
Beside her, Haruko watched Yamato lost in thought. "Young Master, what are you thinking about now?"
"Haruko, I have a premonition that something big is about to happen," Yamato said, looking up with a serious expression.
"Something big? Young Master, has your Observation Haki become that powerful?" Haruko teased.
Yamato rolled her eyes. "This has nothing to do with Observation Haki. I told you, it's a premonition. Something huge is coming. When it happens, you'll have to start calling me the Master of Prophecy."
"We'll talk about that when this 'big event' actually happens," Haruko replied, convinced Yamato was just talking nonsense again.
"I knew you wouldn't believe me. Just wait and see," Yamato shrugged. She looked back down at the bounty poster on the table, an unreadable light flickering in her golden eyes.
Just as Yamato had predicted, it wasn't long before a major event shook the world. This incident took place in the New World, within the ranks of the Whitebeard Pirates, one of the Four Emperors.
"Young Master, news just came in. Someone under the Four Emperors' Whitebeard has defected. It's that man, Blackbeard. They say he even killed one of his own crewmates before fleeing into the sea," Haruko reported, her voice filled with genuine shock.
Not long ago, they had met with members of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division and had seen Blackbeard with their own eyes. It hadn't even been two months, and now Blackbeard had betrayed his family and murdered a comrade. For something like this to happen within a Yonko's crew was truly unbelievable.
"My, my, this Blackbeard guy is quite bold. He betrayed his 'Pops' and left calmly after killing a crewmate. Tsk, tsk," Yamato marveled. She wasn't particularly surprised, but the reality of the situation still carried weight.
"Does that guy have water in his brain? No ordinary person would do something so reckless," Haruko said, struggling to make sense of it.
She wondered why he would defect and why he had to kill his crewmate to do it. If he had a grudge, why wait so many years? Most importantly, wasn't he afraid of Whitebeard's retribution? Offending an Emperor of the Sea was no small matter; there would be nowhere in the entire New World for a traitor to hide. Especially when that Emperor was Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world.
"That's exactly why Blackbeard isn't an ordinary person. Someone like him has his own deep ambitions and could never stay under someone else's shadow forever. Once the right opportunity arrives, he'll bare his fangs without hesitation, no matter who he's facing," Yamato said, taking a slow sip of tea.
"Someone like that sounds terrifying," Haruko admitted.
Yamato nodded. "It's normal to be afraid. Which of the true powerhouses on this sea isn't terrifying in the eyes of the world? They all have unique traits that ordinary people simply don't possess. Since Blackbeard has made his move, it means the time he was waiting for has finally arrived. This is something no one can stop, because it's the choice of fate—and the choice of the world."
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