If someone else had asked that question, even one of Yemu's own crewmates aboard the Sky Pirates, he would have avoided talking about the future as much as possible, at most offering a small warning. But looking at the mother before him, he thought for a moment, gazed at her slightly swollen belly, and finally spoke.
"His name is Ace..."
"Ace!!!"
The moment that name was spoken, a bright light shone in the woman's eyes. With the unique tenderness of a mother, she stroked her belly and asked,
"A boy?"
"That's right."
"He'll grow into a fine man, won't he?"
"Yes."
At that point, Yemu hesitated, but in the end he still continued.
"He'll have two very good brothers, an adoptive mother who takes great care of him, and a grandfather who loves him very much. He'll grow up healthy, right up until the day he sets out to sea..."
As Yemu spoke, the woman's expression grew gentler and gentler, until that final sentence made her face change slightly.
"So he goes out to sea... which means Ace walks the same path he did?"
"Yes. He becomes a pirate and quickly makes a name for himself across the seas. But two years later, just like Roger, he will go to meet his fate."
In an instant, the woman's body stiffened. The hand stroking her belly froze, and her eyes filled with pain.
Flare and Ayala, who had listened to the entire conversation in silence, seemed to understand something at that moment as well. Shocked, they looked at the pained woman with sympathy.
Seeing this, Yemu tried to comfort her.
"Of course, because of my arrival, many people's fates have already changed. So whether the future I saw will truly come to pass, even I can't say for certain now. You don't need to worry too much..."
The room fell silent.
The woman said nothing. She only gently caressed the child in her womb, her body trembling as tears fell from her eyes.
Not even when Roger died, or during this past year when she had endured the immense suffering of pregnancy alone, had she shed a single tear. But now...
Only after a long while did she wipe away the tears on her face. Her expression turned firm again as she looked at Yemu and asked,
"May I ask where this place is, the place where no one can find us?"
"Of course. It's one of our next destinations, and it also happens to be my hometown in this world. It's where Roger and I met as well. A world hidden among the clouds, ten thousand meters above the sky. Skypiea!"
The woman's eyes lit up instantly.
"If it's a place like that, then no matter how capable the World Government is, they probably would never find it..."
"Skypiea... Thank you."
As she spoke, she stroked her belly and said in a firm voice,
"This time, let me be selfish for once. As a mother..."
...
While Yemu was speaking here with Portgas D. Rouge, elsewhere, Fes, the island's chief financial officer, and the girl Aming, the town sheriff, were staring at the contents shown through the Den Den Mushi the boy who had just left had handed to them.
The girl named Aming instantly flushed with fury. Gripping her weapon tightly, she shouted in rage,
"How can they... how dare they... Do they not even treat lives like lives?"
As she spoke, she angrily started rushing toward town, only for Fes to grab her at once.
"What are you trying to do?"
"What do you think? Save those women and babies, of course! Are we supposed to just wait for them to be burned alive tonight?"
But Fes shook his head.
"There's no need to rush to save them."
Seeing the girl about to explode again, Fes hurriedly explained,
"Listen to me first. You saw that boy's strength just now. He's exactly the kind of truly powerful person I told you about, the kind you find on the sea called the Grand Line. Even I can't withstand a single move from him. But since he said he was acting on someone's request, then as long as he's there, you don't need to worry about the safety of those pregnant women and babies."
Only then did Aming calm down a little. Thinking back to the terrifying strength that boy, who looked about the same age as her, had displayed, she felt deeply shaken, but also much more at ease.
At that moment, Fes shut off the Den Den Mushi, carefully put it away, and continued,
"For us, the most important thing now isn't saving those pregnant women and babies. It's figuring out how to persuade the rest of the island to accept help from pirates..."
Aming frowned in confusion.
"Why would that need persuading? Isn't that the obvious thing to do?"
Fes shook his head and let out a sigh.
"Do you know how many people live on this island?"
Aming shook her head. There was no way she would know something like that.
Fes looked as though he had expected as much and explained carefully,
"Not counting the transient population, Baterilla Island has 1,325,523 permanent residents. The number being held in the assembly hall, even if you include the unborn children in their mothers' wombs, is only 10,245. Even if we stretch that number and include their families, it's still only a little over 15,000 people. Do you really think the remaining 1.3 million would oppose the World Government for the sake of those ten thousand or so?"
Aming understood at once and blurted out bluntly,
"So what if they do oppose a World Government that treats lives so cheaply?"
"That's what you think."
Fes sighed.
"For everyone else, they just want to live peaceful lives. Maybe in a moment of anger they might act on impulse, but once time passes, they'll regret it, and they'll resent us for it. Not to mention, the one about to save those pregnant women and babies is a pirate. Do you even understand what a pirate is?"
Aming froze.
"Pirates are criminals. In this world, they are evil. If word of what happened on our island gets out, that pirates saved an island from the World Government, that kind of scandal would bring disaster upon our entire country. That's also why that pirate called Yemu handed us this Den Den Mushi. He's making us choose for ourselves..."
Aming, much younger than Fes, could not fully grasp the disaster he was talking about. But she did understand that the idea of pirates saving an island from the World Government really was absurd beyond belief.
And yet, that absurd thing was about to happen for real.
"So what do we do now? Are we really supposed to just sit back and do nothing?"
At that moment, Fes fell into thought as well. After a long silence, he looked at Aming and suddenly smiled.
"Looks like there's only one way. But once we do it, you and I probably won't be able to stay on this island anymore... Can you bear to leave this place?"
"Huh?"
Aming froze.
Then she heard Fes say, while looking out at the beautiful Baterilla Island behind him,
"If we can't let pirates be the ones to save this island, then the infamy for all of this can only be borne by the two of us..."