The preparations for what was to come were steadily progressing.
The body that had dulled from prison life was back to normal thanks to training. No, more than that. Stronger than before, I think.
Thanks to the recent activation of the Superhuman Factor, my body had powered up by several levels, even if my appearance hadn't changed all that much. Every last one of those massive portions Beauty had made for me had become my flesh and blood.
If anything, what I really needed was practice to accurately grasp and control the specs of my powered-up body.
When I tried it out the other day, I could snap a steel sword with a single flick of my finger (no Haki), and rip apart steel chains with brute arm strength. On top of that, I tried Shave and Tempest Kick based on half-baked knowledge, and they both worked. I could do Moonwalk too, but since I can fly on my own, honestly it probably won't see much use.
And just recently, in the middle of a meal, I accidentally bit right through the tines of a metal fork. Wait, things other than arm and leg strength went up too? That caught me off guard.
Still, after a little practice, I quickly learned to regulate my strength enough to carry on with everyday life the same as always.
So physical conditioning had been going extremely well, or rather was basically already complete, but at the same time I'd been breaking in a new weapon that would come in handy during the breakout. The Cursed Holy Sword that I'd been storing inside my body all this time: the Seven Star Sword.
Originally, the blade I used was Floating Cloud, the fine sword Hancock had given me, but that one went missing. After the fight with Akainu, all my belongings, clothes and all, were confiscated. Well, most of my valuables and belongings were stored inside my body anyway, so it wasn't a huge deal, but Floating Cloud was probably confiscated too. If it wasn't destroyed, I'd imagine it's being kept somewhere, but who knows.
If I remember right, when Papa broke out, he stole back the two beloved swords they'd been keeping, right? Then maybe Floating Cloud is stored somewhere in Impel Down too? If I have the chance, I'd like to search for it and recover it if possible. It has sentimental value.
But in case that didn't pan out, or rather, even before that, going into a fight unarmed would be far too dangerous and reckless. So I realized I needed a replacement weapon, and that was when it happened.
It was as if something was calling out to me from within myself. At the same time, I remembered the existence of the Seven Star Sword.
When I pulled it out and held it in my hand, I felt it again, that sensation from before: the mysterious energy emanating from the sword, the curse, interfering with my mind. But unlike last time, it didn't feel unpleasant.
So I took the plunge and accepted it, and...
In that instant, without any words exchanged, I understood so many things.
The loneliness the Seven Star Sword had endured. The anguish. The despair. The resignation. The countless tragedies born from its single-minded, unwavering desire to be nothing but power. How that earned it the label of Cursed Sword, and the days it spent with its heart sealed away in sealed darkness.
And then, without realizing it, being brought back into the light. The happiness of witnessing the warm, peaceful everyday life it hadn't seen in so long. The one who had given it that. The fierce will to protect me, to protect that daily life, that peace, this time for certain.
All of that came flooding into my mind at once, and I froze for a moment from sheer surprise.
But strangely, I was able to accept it without resistance. I understood at the same time. That mysterious girl I'd seen in my dream once, she was the Seven Star Sword itself. She had been trying to lend me her strength all along, ever since then.
And I accepted that.
I trained with the Seven Star Sword in hand over and over to break it in, and simultaneously held a dialogue with the sword, with that girl. It was just a feeling, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
For the method of dialogue, I borrowed from a certain stylish battle manga: Jinzen. Sitting cross-legged, placing the sword across my lap, and focusing my awareness on nothing but the blade.
To concentrate better, I borrowed the room where Luffy had been kept in the Original Work and did it there. Being alone, in a quiet place with nobody around, was ideal for that sort of thing.
I'd done everything I could, running basic physical training in parallel with all of this.
As for what results came of it, what new abilities I gained... well, you'll just have to see for yourself when the time comes.
***
Then, one day.
Newkama Land has baths, too. Not just one, but several.
See, the Newkama here are fundamentally "beings who transcend gender," so apparently everyone just bathes together in mixed bathing. Men, women, former men, former women.
That said, while some Newkama don't care about being seen naked or seeing others naked, there are also those who still feel uncomfortable bathing with the opposite sex. So there are multiple baths set up for different purposes.
As for the mixed bath, apparently male-bodied and female-bodied Newkama all bathe together completely nude, happily singing songs in the tub, drinking sake... or so I'm told. I've never gone in, so I've never seen it myself, but Alice told me about it. Wait, you just casually go in there? What's that? The sight of a fully nude man swinging that around while singing and dancing in the same space as a stunning beauty wearing nothing at all, bouncing and swaying as she danced, was "moving"? Yeah, great, good for you.
So right now, I'm soaking in the regular women's bath. And by coincidence, probably, it's just us four: me, Alice, Blume, and Beauty. We have the whole place to ourselves.
We'd been chatting about nothing in particular, but the conversation drifted into each of our pasts, bit by bit. That's how I unexpectedly got to learn about Blume's and Beauty's histories.
Back when we were in the cells, the mood and the circumstances never allowed for that kind of conversation.
Blume had originally belonged to a certain Pirate Crew, apparently. Though it sounded less like she'd been a member and more like she'd been forced to work for them. Kind of like Coby at the very beginning of the Original Work?
Blume had eaten a Devil Fruit when she was small, so young she couldn't even remember it, and by that point she was already on a Pirate Ship.
As a Mist Human, her power was extremely convenient for generating fog over a wide area to blind enemies or confuse pursuing Marines to make an escape. She was prized for it.
And from what she vaguely remembered, she recalled being made to stand at something like an auction, and bubbles floating all around her. Wait, the Human Auctioning House there? She was sold? Bought and sold? And if it was at Sabaody Archipelago, that meant she was sold with the Marines turning a blind eye.
During this period, she was normally kept shackled with Seastone and locked away, only having the shackles removed when her Powers were needed, then locked up again. Day after day of abuse, her will to resist thoroughly crushed, used however they pleased.
But at some point, unable to endure that life any longer, Blume secretly rekindled her will to resist. The moment her shackles were removed, she turned her body to mist and fled.
The pirates who chased after her, she lost in the fog, just as she'd done to enemy ships before. She heard later that their ship drifted off course and crashed into an iceberg or something, sinking. Inadvertently, no further pursuit was possible.
Blume settled on a nearby island, and not wanting to see anyone, she surrounded it in mist, keeping everyone away.
But since she'd still die if she didn't eat or drink, she'd occasionally attack passing Pirate Ships and such to procure supplies and food.
In the process, she ended up fighting Marines as well. At the time, Blume saw both pirates and Marines as nothing more than "enemies who bother me when I just want to live in peace." She didn't really like interacting with people to begin with.
If she stayed on one island too long, rumors would spread and Marines would come in increasing numbers, so she'd periodically relocate to different islands, setting up mist barriers there too. Repeating that cycle, she'd lived for over twenty years.
As she grew, she did learn enough social skills to get by to some degree, but the habit of holing up on an island or a ship and refusing contact with others never changed, not even after decades.
On top of that, apparently due to her natural constitution, her appearance never changed from that of a young girl no matter how many years passed. Because of this, she became infamous in almost a horror-story sense: "In the foggy sea, there's a girl whose face and form haven't changed in ten years, twenty years." The epithet that stuck was Ghost of the Foggy Sea.
Recently, someone had forcibly broken through her mist defense, and Marines flooded the island she'd been using as a base. She was captured and thrown in here, she said.
That was Blume's story.
Now, on to Beauty's past.
Beauty was originally from a poor nation not affiliated with the World Government. I imagine it was similar to the country where I'd met Alice before.
On top of that, the island was a Winter Island. It didn't sound like it was as extremely cold year-round as Drum Island, but even so, the environment might have been even harsher than Alice's island.
Beauty had been part of a group of orphans living in the Slum, serving as their leader of sorts, looking after the younger brothers and sisters (not related by blood).
Fortunately, nature was bountiful there, so every day they'd all go fishing in the sea or hunting beasts in the mountains to get food and stave off hunger.
And at the time, there was apparently a former chef living in the Slum. By sharing some of their catch with this person, they'd get meals cooked for them. This arrangement continued until the former chef fell ill and passed away.
As the saying goes, "a child raised near a temple learns to chant sutras without being taught." By that point, Beauty had learned the craft just from watching the chef cook. Using those skills, from then on Beauty was the one cooking for the orphans. That life continued for a long time.
The orphan group, bound by strong ties, grew into a force within the Slum. Their numbers swelled, they gained considerable strength, and they became large enough that local punks and thugs couldn't touch them. From the outside, it looked as though a gang had sprung up without anyone noticing, apparently.
Of course, from Beauty's perspective, there were younger siblings there who couldn't be abandoned, so it was simply a matter of taking care of all of them. There was never any sense of doing anything special. Just making meals for everyone, every day. They didn't have a proper house, and even if they did, it wouldn't be big enough for the whole group, so they ate outside. In the cold. Under the Winter Island sky. That's most likely where Beauty's epithet, Chef of the Winter Sky, came from.
But instead of punks and thugs, they began drawing attention from the national military and larger, more serious gang organizations.
Eventually, when staying in the country became impossible, Beauty and the others abandoned their homeland and took to the sea. An organization of children with no Patron couldn't do legitimate business, so they worked as middlemen dealing in anything, illegal goods included, to earn money.
At times they even dealt in slaves, but unlike the types who frequented places like Sabaody Archipelago, they never kidnapped and sold innocent civilians, Fish-Men, or Mermaids. Mostly they'd turn the tables on criminals and fellow human trafficker groups, then sell off anyone who wasn't a Bounty Target with an attitude of "well, you were doing the same thing, so fair's fair."
Things went fairly smoothly like that. They even continued gaining more comrades. Apparently, doing that kind of work gave them plenty of opportunities to take in orphans like themselves, and since Beauty was so kindhearted, those kids were never turned away.
But at one point, among the groups they'd beaten happened to be some with connections to power. Saddled with false charges and hunted, Beauty as the leader was placed on the wanted list, and the entire group was lumped together and branded as pirates. Even so, they managed somehow. They embraced it, operating as a Pirate Crew, and with the support of the people they'd been helping all along, they fought back with a tenacity you'd never expect from what had started as a group of children.
But eventually, an enemy they simply couldn't overcome tracked them down and cornered them. To let her comrades escape, Beauty alone took on the role of decoy and rear guard, fought, and was captured.
And so, imprisoned, she met us, and here we are.
After hearing both their stories (and sharing my own, though I'll spare you the retelling), let's take a moment to check what charges these two were actually wanted under.
Blume: "Originally a member of a small-time Pirate Crew, she betrayed them at some point, murdered the Captain and most of the other sailors, and escaped. Using her Powers to shroud the area around her base in mist, she attacked passing Merchant Ships and Pirate Ships. A mysterious female pirate who rarely showed herself in public."
Beauty: "Originally the leader of a small-scale gang organization in a Non-Affiliated Nation. Took to the sea and became an Underworld broker doubling as a human trafficker operation, further expanding in scale. Placed on the wanted list as a pirate after targeting an Affiliated Nation's Merchant Ships, then arrested. A dangerous individual with the charisma to lead a band of outlaws."
Those are almost entirely false charges.
Blume's has some truth mixed in, sure, but given the circumstances there should have been room for extenuating factors. They'd conveniently twisted all the finer details. And wasn't the human trafficking that started this whole thing for her something the Government tacitly approved of?
As for Beauty, from the charges onward, the ones wielding power were clearly the ones doing Evil. All she was trying to do was protect and support her brothers and sisters. Being treated as a problem organization would have been bad enough, but a gang? Pirates? Those people, honestly...
And the most shocking part: both Blume and Beauty had been approached with the same kind of recruitment as me, told to "use your powers for the Government." Blume was valued for her ability to manipulate mist to disorient enemies and gain tactical advantage over a wide area. Beauty was wanted for her talent in leading groups, to be used as personnel who would gather potentially rebellious or dangerous groups and neutralize them indirectly.
There was no point in bringing it up, and none of us wanted the others to pull away thinking "so the Government's been courting you," so we'd all kept quiet about it. But to think all three of us had been in the same position in that regard too. Maybe being put in the same cell hadn't been a coincidence either?
At any rate, one thing could be said for certain.
"The Government is seriously garbage."
"For real."
Beauty sighed and sank into the bathwater up to her head, blowing bubbles. As an Ability User, I couldn't do the same thing (I'd drown), but hearing all this had sapped the energy out of us too, and we just lay there limply soaking in the hot water.
Slapping false charges on people for their own convenience, trying to recruit those same people for their own convenience, and when refused, resorting to torture to change their minds. Not an ounce of sincerity to be found. Honestly, your average pirate probably shows more human decency.
Their fundamental operating principle was "whatever we do is Justice," so even when they later reversed part or all of a decision and started saying the exact opposite, they'd be completely unfazed. Not a shred of guilt. And if you protested? "You're the ones in the wrong." And anything goes to deal with you after that.
Yeah, worse than pirates. Not a scrap of honor to be found.
"It's amazing they've managed to rule the world for 800 years doing things this way. That part alone, I actually respect. Their capability, at least."
"Even setting aside the fact that there's more to it than just that, what they're doing is as vile as any common pirate, or worse..."
"Bet there are tons of people out there who got 'made into' pirates just like us. And the Government doesn't think twice about having the Marines hunt them down, or using them..."
Even if you cooperated, who knew when they'd toss you aside? Once you were no longer useful, they could easily slap more false charges on you and throw you away. And where that "throwing away" led was either being dumped back in prison, or being sold off to some convenient buyer or location. Either way, no happy endings.
We were right not to agree. Feeling that conviction sink in, we sighed again.
"And they show no mercy to anyone who won't bend to their will. If we'd kept refusing, they probably would have done... much worse. Until we said 'I'll do whatever you say.'"
"There were still plenty of tortures they hadn't used on us yet. All sorts of them..."
"I'd rather not remember, though..."
As we sat there feeling grim at the memories, even Alice, who'd been watching from the side, wore a look that said "yikes."
"That sounds really rough, Mom... I'm glad you were rescued before it got any worse."
"Truly. When I think about how we might have been subjected to even worse torture down the line... yeah, it was a close call."
"About that, actually..."
For some reason, Alice hesitated.
"I'm only telling you this now, but... those people, especially Chief Jailer Sadi-chan, were apparently planning to start some really bad torture the day after you all arrived here."
"Really bad torture?"
"Yeah. The sexual kind."
"...?!"
The three of us flinched so hard we splashed water everywhere. Alice, are you serious right now?!
And considering we'd already been through the Public Spectacle, the parading around, and all sorts of other things at that point, for it to get even worse...
"Dead serious. The preparations were being coordinated through internal prison communications. Including arranging male prisoners to 'use' in the torture. They'd even been administered aphrodisiacs and stimulants, all very thorough. You were saved by a hair."
"That's exactly what I think it is! I'm actually shaking a little hearing that."
"We were saved by that slim a margin..."
"Yeah... no matter how much resolve I'd built up, going through something like that as a woman... it would have been a wound that lasted a lifetime. It would have been hell."
I really didn't want that kind of visceral Experience. There are limits to how far "research" can justify things. Well, maybe if it had actually happened, I'd have eventually rationalized it with something like "what's done is done, no use worrying about it." But still, I'm genuinely relieved it didn't come to that.
"I thought that was the one thing I absolutely couldn't let happen, so that day, I went down to Level 5 in 'Kisack's' form, planning to rescue Mom even if I had to force it a little. Then things took an unexpected turn, and I was able to use the chaos to make contact."
"Is that what happened... No, really, thank you, Alice. Thanks to you... really, thank you."
Overcome with emotion, I hugged Alice, who was sitting right next to me.
Since we were skin to skin with nothing on, normally Alice would have seized the opportunity to cop a feel everywhere, or reflexively swapped genders. But right now, in my arms, Alice was just smiling innocently, happily, going "ehehe." In moments like these, she's a genuinely sweet kid.
Blume and Beauty were also saying things like "We need to do something to thank you." I was thinking I really ought to come up with something proper myself, while stroking Alice's head...
That was when it happened.
"...Hm?"
The moment I noticed it, I reflexively snapped my gaze upward. The sudden movement startled Alice and the others, leaving them blinking in confusion, but I said nothing, confirming that what I'd just sensed wasn't my imagination.
Could it be...!
"...? What's wrong, Mom?"
"Hancock is up there."
"What?!"
No mistake. I could tell from the Vivre Card reaction inside my body. Right now, Hancock was almost directly above us.
"Hancock, as in... one of the Shichibukai?"
"The Pirate Empress?! What's someone that big doing here?!"
"A Shichibukai at Impel Down... and at this particular time? Why?"
Naturally, the three of them were bewildered, but I understood what this meant.
If Hancock had come here at this timing, she hadn't come alone. Hidden beneath her mantle, she would have brought the person she loved.
Which meant...
'It's finally... beginning!'
The protagonist, Luffy, had arrived.
And from here, within a short span of time, the story would unfold with furious momentum. Infiltration. Jailbreak. And then... the Summit War.
In other words, my time of preparation was finally over. The time to raise hell had come!
To be continued...