[Amazon Lily]
"What!? Sue!?"
"...Yeah, it seems so. A letter arrived by way of Sue's Shikigami. It said, 'I'm heading to Impel Down for research.'"
In Kuja Castle, there was a private room set aside for Hancock and her two younger sisters.
No one could enter without permission. Not servants, not Pirate Crew Executives. In that room, Elder Nyon, known as Gloriosa, stood in stunned disbelief at what Hancock had just told her.
In Hancock's hand was a single sheet of paper, smudged here and there with soot: a letter from Sue.
During her battle with Akainu, Sue had written it to inform those close to her of the situation. She'd bought a sliver of time using her Proxy Doll and, with her trademark speed-writing, put pen to paper.
She was under attack by Marine Admiral Akainu. She probably couldn't escape and expected to be captured.
But she'd handle it on her own, so there was no need to worry. Don't get any reckless ideas. Don't do anything dangerous.
That was the gist.
She had mass-duplicated the letter using Shallow Lie and shaped the copies into birds with Origami.
Then, while she drew Akainu's attention by fighting him head-on, she sent them off in staggered intervals.
Most were shot down, caught up in the battle, but a few birds, or rather a few sheets, made it out and reached their intended recipients.
The one in Hancock's hand was among them.
Her two younger sisters, who had apparently heard the news first, showed no surprise, but even so, they couldn't hide their anxiety at learning that Sue, their benefactor, had been arrested by the Marine.
Hancock felt the same. But with her two sisters already on edge, she was at least trying to hold herself together so as not to add to their worry. That was how it looked to Elder Nyon.
In truth, the one most shaken had to be Hancock herself.
To her, Sue was not only the benefactor who had reached out a hand and rescued her from a place that was nothing short of hell. Sue was a comrade-in-arms she had constantly competed with, constantly pushed herself alongside. And more than that, a priceless friend she could talk and laugh with without caring about status or position.
If that Sue had been captured by the Marine, it wouldn't be strange for Hancock to completely lose her composure. Elder Nyon knew the Kuja Empress standing before her was no woman of ice, unmoved no matter what happened.
And precisely because she knew that, Elder Nyon couldn't help but admire the strength of Hancock's will, dire as the situation was.
"However, Snake Princess, today's newspaper, which just arrived, doesn't mention anything of the sort..."
"It wasn't in there, was it? I thought as much. The Marine, or rather the Government, apparently intends to keep this quiet. I just contacted Tesoro and Stella by Den Den Mushi to confirm. Their guess is that Sue wasn't captured simply for being a Pirate. It seems they targeted her with some sort of agenda."
"An agenda...?"
"Yes. This is also from what Tesoro told me, but it seems that before long, a certain directive related to that agenda will be circulated to us Shichibukai. Though, needless to say, I have not the slightest intention of accepting it."
'Depending on the terms, perhaps it would be worth considering...'
* * *
[Gran Tesoro]
"The Government's agenda is probably to use Sue as a figurehead."
"A figurehead...? You mean, like making her write books that serve the Government's interests, or spreading their ideology?"
"That too, of course, but given they dispatched one of the Three Admirals at this particular timing just to capture Sue, it's most likely in anticipation of the coming 'war.'"
Tesoro, unable to conceal his irritation, was in his private room with Stella. Just the two of them.
He had ordered their servants and subordinates to let no one in for the time being.
On his desk, mixed among various other documents, lay a letter smudged with soot, identical to the one that had arrived at Hancock's.
Flipping through reference materials, Tesoro began piecing together what this incident was really about.
"According to information that came in just recently, the Marine has arrested Fire Fist Ace, the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. From what I can gather, the circumstances involved a 'gift' from a Pirate seeking admission into the Shichibukai. And it seems the Government and Marine intend to publicly execute this Fire Fist."
"A commander of the Whitebeard Pirates!? That would mean... starting a war against one of the Four Emperors..."
"If the information is accurate, yes. I still don't know what the Marine was thinking when they arrived at that decision, but assuming it does happen, a war of that scale, regardless of who wins or loses, would cause a massive shift in the era, in the world itself. In the worst case, it could bring chaos and upheaval surpassing even the current Great Pirate Era."
If the Marine won, Whitebeard would die or be forced to retreat, and his authority would be gravely damaged, if not utterly destroyed.
If that happened, his Territory would be drenched in blood in no time by Pirates emboldened with the conviction that Whitebeard was no longer to be feared, swept up in turmoil.
If Whitebeard won, the Marine would be destroyed or suffer a catastrophic loss of strength.
That too would embolden the Pirates more than ever. Whether or not it was Whitebeard's Territory, Pirates who no longer feared the weakened Marine would run rampant.
Eventually, the repercussions would reach the World Government itself to no small degree.
"The Marine certainly doesn't intend to lose, but regardless of which way it goes, one of the most critical forces in such an era is 'influence.' The Government most likely wants an 'influencer,' someone who can make their voice and ideology heard even amid the chaos. And when it comes to filling that role, Sue is one of the most suited people in all the seas."
They could have her write books to spread ideology favorable to the Government. They could have her spread material that vilified and demeaned inconvenient ideas, such as Revolutionary forces or Pirates.
Or perhaps they could even have her endorse Government policies, or run campaigns inspiring admiration for the Marine to boost volunteer enlistment. If they could couple that with the fact that the Marine had defeated Whitebeard in a 'war,' the effect would be that much more potent.
Her passionate fans were legion, on both sides of the law. Among them, there would be no shortage who would act on their own accord without being told, working to shape the world in line with the ideology she wrote. And even those who wouldn't go that far would still read her work. It would reach countless eyes. Seep into countless minds.
No need to threaten with force.
No need to placate with sweets.
No need to deceive with lies.
All they needed was the golden Symbol she had built over these twenty years: the name "Pirate Literary Master."
The Government intended to harness that enormous existing influence for their own ends.
"Sue's arrest wasn't reported because of that. If people learned she'd been arrested and then released, only to start writing stories that conveniently served the Government, plenty of them would catch on. Most likely, they plan to make it seem as though nothing has changed for Sue on the surface while pulling her strings from behind."
"That way, the unsuspecting citizens, or rather most of her fans, would continue to hang on Sue's every word... And tricking us and using us was also for that purpose..."
"Yeah. The nerve of them. Making me, of all people, an unwitting accomplice in degrading my own benefactor."
Tesoro's molars ground together audibly.
He was barely managing to suppress a rare, seething fury, and Stella, watching from beside him, could tell.
'A little while ago, he mentioned that Sue had fought and rampaged against a Marine Vice Admiral, and yet her Bounty was never increased. That was probably because they'd already been planning to use Sue for this even back then. They deliberately left her Bounty unchanged so as not to shift her reputation in either direction. And then Fire Fist's arrest became the green light...'
"Tesoro. What about working behind the scenes to help Sue somehow?"
"...That would be difficult. Right now especially, with the Marine and the Government in complete disarray over the Fire Fist execution, they'd just say they have no time to deal with it. And besides, this is a Government-led initiative. It would almost certainly be stonewalled. No amount of money would move them on this one. I intend to think of various approaches, but at least for now, it's impossible."
"...Sue is a Pirate. Which means the place they'll take her to is, just as the letter said..."
"If they prepared a dedicated Facility for it, that might be different, but most likely... yes. Sue will almost certainly refuse to cooperate, so as a means of 'persuasion' to change her mind as well..."
Tesoro couldn't bring himself to say the rest.
After all, the destination mentioned in the letter was a place where she would suffer agonies equal to, if not surpassing, those they had once endured in Mary Geoise.
For a Pirate, it was tantamount to hell: the impregnable Great Undersea Prison.
When Stella imagined what would happen to Sue there, tears welled in her eyes, and almost involuntarily, she covered her face with both hands.
Tesoro put his arm around her shoulders, a vein pulsing at his temple. Even so, he forced himself to stay as calm as he could.
'Screaming at anyone right now won't improve the situation. If I give it time, an opportunity will come. I need to prepare until then. And besides...'
He paused to take a deep breath and settled his emotions as much as possible.
'They framed Sue and made Stella cry... Just you wait... I will repay this debt, World Government...!!'
* * *
[Merveille]
"Why not, Gramps!?"
"Please, Grandpa, let us go rescue Mother!"
"I said no! Calm the hell down, you idiots!"
The Hideout of the Golden Lion Pirates, built on a man-made Sky Island kept aloft by his power.
In one corner of it, in the very mansion where Sue should have been coming home to, two shrill voices rang out as two granddaughters desperately pleaded with their Grandfather.
The report, or rather the letter informing them that Sue had been captured, had arrived just moments ago.
Upon reading it and grasping the situation, Suzu and Leona had confronted Shiki the moment he arrived at the mansion, begging him to rescue Sue. He refused without hesitation.
A frontal assault would be next to impossible, he told them.
Impel Down, where Sue would most likely be taken, was not called the Iron Wall for nothing.
Shiki could say this with certainty precisely because he had been imprisoned there himself.
A fleet of warships rivaling a Buster Call was stationed there permanently, and due to certain circumstances, security was currently even tighter than usual. At the first sign of trouble, a massive force from Marine Headquarters could be dispatched immediately.
Extracting Sue from there would be difficult even for the Golden Lion.
Even ambushing the transport would be no simple matter, given that Admiral Akainu himself, the very man who had captured Sue, would be guarding her. A surprise attack wouldn't come easily.
Above all, Shiki surmised that Sue had sent this letter knowing full well all of this.
Of course, Shiki had no intention of abandoning Sue. He planned to devise a strategy for her rescue, but doing anything right now was simply not feasible.
But Sue was no weakling.
She would face difficult times ahead, but she would endure them.
She might even manage to escape on her own.
After all, she was his daughter. The daughter of the Golden Lion, who had broken out of Impel Down twenty years ago.
Whatever happened, they should trust her and wait. Even after being told that, Suzu and Leona refused to accept it and tried to run off, declaring, "Then we'll go by ourselves!" They were restrained by Lupus and Yuri.
Yuri was also a Haki User with Armament Haki. Because of that, even when Suzu tried using her Mud-Mud powers, she couldn't break free and remained pinned to the floor.
Leona shifted into Beast Form with her powers, growing enormous to try and shake off her captor, but Lupus used her own powers to grow even larger and held her down all the same.
"I beg of thee, Grandpa... even as we tarry here, who knows what is being done to Mother...!"
"Impel Down is supposed to be like hell for Pirates, right!? They torture people, execute people... and Mama is in a place like that...!"
"And what good would it do if you went, Lady Leona!? You can't even beat us, and here you are getting pinned down like this. You'd just get taken down and captured yourselves!"
"If that happened, Lady Sue would be the one grieving! That's exactly why she said in her letter, 'Don't get any reckless ideas.'"
"...I have a pretty good idea what the Government's after. She probably won't be killed... not right away, at least. For now, just wait. When the right time comes, I'll act, and I'll tell you too."
Even as he spoke, Shiki let a trace of Conqueror's Haki seep out, pressing down on them.
Hit by it, Suzu and Leona flinched, their bodies trembling, and went still. They hadn't passed out, but the fight had been visibly knocked out of them.
After confirming that, Shiki decided to ask about something that had been bothering him.
"By the way, you two... is it just the two of you? Where's Alice?"
"Alice... after we read the letter, we called out to her, saying we should go to Grandpa and ask him to rescue Mother, but..."
"That girl just said, all casual, 'It won't work even if you go.' So we decided to go ask Gramps on our own. You ended up coming here before we could head out, though..."
"And as it turns out, Miss Alice was right. You did get turned down."
"Lupus, nobody asked you!"
"..."
Shiki listened in silence, then furrowed his brows slightly, adopting a look of deep contemplation.
"...Lupusregina, Yuri, keep those two held down. Send every remaining member of the Maid Squad to find Alice and bring her here. Now."
"...? Yes, understood."
In place of the two who couldn't move (the eldest and second daughters), Narberal (the third daughter) answered, then led her sisters off to search for Alice as instructed.
They headed toward Alice's room, where Suzu and the others had been summarily rebuffed just earlier.
But a few minutes later:
"Shiki-sama, we have a problem! Miss Alice is... nowhere to be found! She's not in the mansion, and as far as we can see, she's not anywhere on the island either!"
"...Huh!?"
"...I knew it, that idiot granddaughter...!"
Suzu and Leona exclaimed in unison, voices rising in shock.
And Shiki furrowed his brow, confirming that the bad feeling he'd had was right.
The fact that only Suzu and Leona had come to him to plead should have been unnatural from the start.
True, Alice was more intellectual and realistic than her two older sisters. It was easy to believe she might say exactly the kind of thing Leona had described.
When a cold, clear-headed judgment was needed, Alice was the one who could make it without flinching. That was the kind of girl she was.
But at the same time, or rather even more so, Alice was the one among the three who was most devoted to Sue.
For that reason, Shiki had considered the odds low that Alice would simply give up on rescuing Sue.
From Shiki's perspective, the very fact that Alice had backed down so easily and hadn't come to make even a single plea was itself suspicious.
He had expected from the beginning that Alice would be the most insistent, the hardest to talk down.
Which meant, in all likelihood...
"Honestly, Suzu and Leona are so naive... If you go asking straight to their face, 'Let us go rescue her,' of course they're going to say no and stop you."
"If you're going to move, you do it fast, and you do it without a word."
* * *
...And then, several days later.
'Transport vessel to Impel Down control room. Requesting landing clearance for prisoner transfer of the Pirate Literary Master.'
'Control room to transport vessel. Confirmed. Landing clearance granted. We're dispatching personnel, so stand by upon landing. Good work on the mission.'
The ship carrying Sue had finally arrived at that place.
To be continued...