Carrying a bento box she had meticulously prepared with love for her husband, Jessica walked slowly down the corridor.
Her high heels clicked rhythmically against the smooth floor, one after another, as if she were playing a piano with only a single key.
Usually a no-nonsense woman, her expression was even more serious than usual today. Even when the Marines passing by greeted her, they received only an unnatural response in return. Clearly, the beautiful head chef was in a bad mood.
(What on earth is that guy, who doesn't even dare to show his eyes, plotting by sneakily interrogating Crocodile lately?) Jessica wondered to herself.
Vice Admiral Jonathan, the commander of the Navarone Fortress, was undoubtedly a brave and resourceful Marine officer. Naturally, his wife was no mere trophy with an empty head. Jessica had already guessed more or less what Rear Admiral Fred was trying to do.
(I'd heard before that this spoiled brat relies on his father's connections to steal credit from others. Now it seems those rumors weren't baseless... And this time, is he trying to pull that crap on my husband?!)
Marine Headquarters ranks are generally considered three levels higher than their branch counterparts. This meant that a Headquarters Rear Admiral effectively outranked a branch Vice Admiral. Rank is everything in the military, and if that shameless jerk was truly that bold, her assumption was highly probable.
At that thought, the blonde chef's face instantly darkened.
Although Vice Admiral Jonathan had voluntarily transferred from Headquarters to the G-8 Branch five years ago due to the incident involving Vice Admiral Hisoka, and was generally indifferent to things like achievements and merits, that didn't mean his hard-earned credit could just be snatched away by some outsider!
Women are like that sometimes; despite Jessica constantly nagging Jonathan about dietary nutrition, the moment her husband was getting the short end of the stick, she would be the first to stand up for him.
(But then again, Fred isn't the only Headquarters Rear Admiral in this fortress right now.)
Thinking of the petite figure who had returned to Navarone a few days ago, Jessica's eyes lit up. But then she recalled the sheer resentment in that girl's gaze every time she stared at a certain part of Jessica's body, and the daily chaos this "loli" caused, turning the entire Marine fortress upside down...
(Better forget it. If I trouble Rear Admiral Alan, I have a feeling things will only get more chaotic.)
Jessica sighed with a bizarre expression. That past-her-prime loli with the mismatched black-and-white twin tails was truly beyond words.
Lost in thought along the way, Jessica unwittingly arrived at the place where her husband usually worked. She knocked gently on the door, but there was no response.
"Is no one here?"
The blonde chef pushed open the door, only to find a young, spectacled female Marine half-kneeling on the floor in the empty room, intently teasing a tiny black cat no larger than two palms with her finger.
The black cat's fur was incredibly glossy and bright, and a gold crescent moon-shaped pendant hung around its neck. But most striking of all were its eyes—a deep wine-red that exuded a bewitching beauty.
Although cats are notoriously aloof and indifferent, the Marine girl didn't mind at all. She was playing with it enthusiastically, clearly smitten by the adorable little black cat, to the point that she didn't even notice someone standing behind her.
"Uh, excuse me... Tashigi?"
"Ah?!!!" Startled by the sudden voice, the blue-haired Marine immediately scrambled to her feet. She turned around and let out a long sigh of relief upon seeing who it was.
"Oh, it's you, Head Chef Jessica. Are you here to deliver Vice Admiral Jonathan's bento?"
Seeing Tashigi's cute reaction, Jessica covered her mouth and chuckled, "Yes. Do you know where he is right now?"
"Vice Admiral Jonathan was dragged off to go fishing by Rear Admiral Alan. They said it's to feed this kitten."
The airheaded Marine looked down at the incredibly lazy black cat splayed on the floor and asked curiously, "By the way, Head Chef Jessica, I've been meaning to ask for a few days now—is this Vice Admiral Jonathan's pet?"
"No, this black cat was brought here by Rear Admiral Alan..."
Jessica placed the bento box on the desk and murmured, "She left the little guy here before setting off for Alabasta. Jonathan happens to like cats, so he set up a temporary little nest for it here in the office."
"If she hadn't returned to Navarone, I bet Rear Admiral Alan would have forgotten she even owned a pet."
"Uh, that does sound a lot like Rear Admiral Alan..." Tashigi gave a sheepish smile, then continued asking, "So, what name did Rear Admiral Alan give this little guy?"
"Its name?" Jessica stroked her smooth chin. "I remember it was..."
BOOM!
A violent explosion suddenly thundered from outside. Even from a distance, the shockwaves generated by the blast could be felt.
Immediately following, a piercing alarm began to blare throughout the entire fortress!
Wuuu—
True to its reputation as an impregnable Marine fortress, Navarone instantly went into level-one combat readiness, and the atmosphere grew tense in a split second.
"What happened?"
Jessica's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly leaned out the window to look outside. Tashigi also tightly gripped the hilt of Shigure, bracing herself for combat.
On the other hand, the wine-red-eyed black cat remained as lazy as ever. Far from being alarmed by the blaring sirens, it simply let out a calm yawn, narrowed its eyes, and went back to dozing.
But inexplicably, the alarm cut off abruptly after sounding for just over ten seconds. A few minutes later, a voice all too familiar to the local Marines boomed from the G-8 Fortress's broadcast Den Den Mushi.
"This is Vice Admiral Jonathan. The alarm just now was part of a live drill. The drill is now over. All Marines, please resume your previous duties. I repeat, this is Vice Admiral Jonathan. The alarm just now..."
After repeating it five times, Vice Admiral Jonathan finally stopped the broadcast. For some reason, his tone of voice had sounded a bit strange.
"Oh, so it was just a drill after all."
The naive, spectacled blue-haired girl believed it just as innocently as most of the Marines. Wiping the light sweat from her forehead, she let out a long breath and said, "I thought remnants of Baroque Works had come to break someone out of prison."
"No, that was definitely not a drill. At least, that wasn't the original intention..."
With a line of dark clouds practically hanging over her face, Jessica facepalmed and pointed out the window. "See for yourself."
"Huh?" Tashigi looked out the window in confusion.
The G-8 Fortress was built entirely around a crescent-shaped island with a sizable inland sea in the center, which in turn contained another island within the island. Looking out from the balcony of Vice Admiral Jonathan's office, one could see most of the inland sea and the layout of Navarone.
On the surface of the inland sea not far away, a little loli with mismatched black-and-white pigtails was standing on a shattered wooden plank, laughing merrily. Floating all around her was a massive, quite impressive number of dead fish.
"Wait... didn't they agree to go 'fishing'?"
Tashigi was completely dumbfounded. Even though she was an airhead, she could easily piece together exactly what had happened just by looking at the scene in the distance.
Cough cough. Perhaps in the eyes of a certain past-her-prime loli, "bombing" was just far more efficient than "fishing"...
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