"Please... can you save him?"
Makino turned her head. Her pale lips were pressed tightly together as she looked at Shirahoshi beside her with a pleading gaze that was almost humble.
Rationally, she understood very well that Luffy shouting about becoming Pirate King and setting sail was, in itself, a challenge to the authority of the World Government.
As one of those in power, Shirahoshi had absolutely no reason to save a rebel.
But emotionally, seeing the boy who was like half a son to her struggling on the edge of death, she simply could not remain indifferent.
"Save him? Miss Makino, you underestimate him. He has a great adventure of his own."
Shirahoshi casually watched the image, a meaningful smile appearing at the corner of her mouth.
"Did you know? The Devil Fruit he ate is recorded by the World Government as the Fruit of Destiny, a title given to it by countless prophecies. He is the chosen child destined to raise the banner of rebellion and overthrow the World Government at this specific point in history."
"You... you already knew all this?"
Makino felt a loud buzz explode in her head, as if she had been struck by lightning.
Regarding the secret of Luffy's fruit, when Shanks and Dragon plotted together in the tavern, they would occasionally lower their voices, but they had never deliberately hidden it from her.
From the way those two men described it, the fruit's real name and what it represented had always been treated as the highest secret, something the World Government absolutely could not know.
Logically, the World Government should not have known any of it.
In Shanks and the others' plan, Luffy was the final hidden trump card they intended to use to turn the tables at a crucial moment.
As far as Shanks and the others knew, the World Government should only be aware that Luffy was the son of Dragon, the former leader of the Revolutionary Army.
That would certainly attract attention, but it should never have reached the level of round-the-clock surveillance.
"Oh my, how have you still not figured it out?"
Shirahoshi smiled slightly and pointed at the barrel still floating on the sea in the screen. She raised her chin a little, her eyes filled with the arrogance of someone looking down on everything.
"Think carefully. If a dangerous fruit that is destined in prophecy to overthrow the World Government appears in this world again, then with our methods and intelligence network, how could we possibly fail to notice it? And why would we allow it to grow unchecked without doing anything?"
"Look at this screen. We can clearly capture even the ridiculous sight of him struggling in the water in some remote corner of the ocean, as if we're watching a play. At this point, do you still not understand just how much control the World Government has over this world?"
More than ten years ago, after Rosse arrived in the Soul Society world, the resources and technologies of the two worlds collided in an unbelievable way.
A large number of top scientists from the modern world were gathered there.
Under the terrifying coordination of Sora, the Brain-Brain Fruit user whose abilities rivaled a supercomputer, the World Government's technology advanced explosively.
In less than a year, the Celestial Dragon No.1 rockets carried satellites equipped with the most advanced surveillance technology into orbit one after another, weaving a network around the globe in low Earth orbit.
After that, the World Government introduced a new navigation device called the Pointer Beacon and completely banned and destroyed the Eternal Poses passed down from the old era.
Not only was this new beacon more accurate and convenient, it quickly gained universal approval.
In the three seas outside the East Blue, ships could also send distress signals through the new beacon. Once the World Government received a signal, rescue operations would be arranged as quickly as possible.
The rescues were not free, but the fees were generally low and based on the level of danger. The money did not go to the World Government either, but to the Marines who carried out the rescue.
As soon as the new beacon was introduced, it was adopted by nearly every ship, while the old Eternal Poses gradually disappeared.
The ability to send distress signals also meant the beacon itself was a tracking device connected to the satellite positioning system of the Celestial Dragon Network.
As long as you possessed one, your location was exposed.
But since most Eternal Poses had been destroyed, even pirates had no choice but to use these World Government beacons if they wanted to avoid getting lost at sea.
Of course, pirates did not buy them. They stole them from merchant ships.
But that was exactly what the World Government wanted.
Every beacon was a moving source of location data.
The countless points of light Makino had seen on the screen earlier were ships carrying those beacons.
In this era, if a ship had neither an Eternal Pose nor a beacon, even the most experienced navigator could barely move forward.
And that wasn't all. To ensure this performance unfolded without any mistakes, Shirahoshi invested enormous manpower and resources, mobilizing every available asset of the Marines and intelligence agencies.
Information on every ship within the East Blue and the first and second halves of the Grand Line, the three pirate special zones, was forcibly entered into and marked within the database.
The moment a ship changed hands or its signal behaved abnormally, the system would immediately raise an alert and dispatch nearby surveillance satellites to verify and update the information.
Although the number of ships in those three special zones was vast, the computing power and resources the World Government could now mobilize were beyond anything humans of the old era could imagine.
Not to mention Celesta, the artificial intelligence created from a small portion of Sora's separated brain tissue combined with the highest level of technology, which assisted with processing around the clock.
It was no exaggeration to say, if the World Government wanted to, they could accurately calculate how many seagulls relieved themselves over the seas of the three special zones each day.
"So... you already knew..."
Makino collapsed weakly into the chair behind her and muttered in despair.
'How tragic.'
Shanks, Dragon, and the others had protected Luffy like a precious spark, believing with all their hearts that he was the final hope that could pierce the darkness.
And the result? These gods of the World Government had already seen their hidden card clearly.
The World Government had never failed to discover Luffy. They simply found him amusing, so they watched coldly, allowing him to run around the sea like a pet raised for entertainment.
Living under this kind of complete surveillance every day, how could Luffy ever truly grow?
If one day the World Government felt even the slightest threat from him, then with a single button press, that foolish boy would probably vanish in an instant.
"But... if you can monitor everything, why are you showing all this to an ordinary person like me?"
After a long silence, Makino finally noticed the flaw in all this.
If she were merely an insignificant trophy, she would never be qualified to see these things.
"Isn't that simple? To entertain myself, and to entertain Father as well."
Smiling, Shirahoshi walked over and looked down at Makino.
"That Straw Hat boy lost his mother early. You watched him grow up in the tavern. Forcing you into this huge script and placing you in the best seat in the audience, making you watch a boy you treat as your own child run toward a dead end that was always destined to kill him while carrying hope in his heart... don't you think that's very artistic and very interesting?"
"You... you lunatic! Shanks was right. People like you are all emotionless devils!"
Makino could no longer suppress her grief and anger.
She suddenly stood up, her eyes red as she glared at Shirahoshi.
Luffy really had grown up before her eyes. Though mischievous, in her heart he was a pure younger brother, even half a son.
Making her stay trapped in this cold iron tower every day, forcing her to watch the people she cared about most walk step by step into the death trap prepared by the World Government while she could do nothing... she could never accept such torture.
"Shh! Don't be so loud."
Shirahoshi was completely unconcerned by Makino's anger. Instead, she let out a light laugh.
"Miss Makino, you should be thanking me. If you weren't sitting here watching, then one day when Shanks or Luffy died in some unknown corner of the world, you wouldn't even know where to find their bodies."
Those words were like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the anger Makino had just gathered, leaving only a chilling coldness behind.
"Celesta, show our newest Chosen Princess how we treat our guests. Create a Science Department file for her and grant her access to information related to Shanks and Luffy," Shirahoshi ordered.
["Understood. Beginning scan."]
The moment the words fell, a gentle yet inescapable blue beam shot down from the ceiling and enveloped Makino.
Only two seconds passed.
["Scan complete. Target identity confirmed: Makino. Born in Year 1490 of the Sea Circle Calendar, Foosha Village, Goa Kingdom."]
["In Year 1505 of the Sea Circle Calendar, began independently operating Makino's Tavern in Foosha Village..."]
["In Year 1509 of the Sea Circle Calendar, first contact with the Red Hair Pirates..."]
["In Year 1511 of the Sea Circle Calendar, twenty-three secret meetings with Dragon, former leader of the Revolutionary Army. Conversation contents were recorded and analyzed through monitored Den Den Mushi..."]
As Celesta's cold voice echoed through the hall, Makino stood frozen, as if struck by lightning.
The exact year she was born, the year she took over the tavern, who she met and when, even the contents of conversations they had believed were completely secret.
Everything had been recorded perfectly in the World Government's archives?
Didn't that mean her ordinary and insignificant thirty years of life had been laid completely bare under the World Government's microscope?
"Why?"
Clutching her head, Makino broke down and cried out in despair.
"I'm just an ordinary woman selling drinks in a remote town! What have I done to deserve the World Government spending so much effort monitoring me from the day I was born?"
"Miss Makino, don't flatter yourself. In truth, you only entered our special watch list after the year 1500 of the Sea Circle Calendar. That just happened to be when Father suddenly appeared."
Still smiling, Shirahoshi revealed a truth that drove Makino completely mad.
"The reason we paid attention to you wasn't because you were special. It was simply because... you happened to be born in Foosha Village, and calculations showed that in the future, you would inevitably cross paths with the Child of Destiny, Luffy."
"That's impossible! How could that be possible?"
Makino almost screamed the words.
"At that time Luffy hadn't even been born yet! Even his father Dragon had never set foot in Foosha Village! How could you have known years in advance what would happen in the future?"
Makino's entire worldview collapsed.
If the World Government monitored everything through advanced technology, she could still barely understand it through reason.
But what was this?
Years before Luffy was born, the World Government had already marked a background character named Makino?
It was as if the World Government had already known the entire script at that moment.
They knew Dragon would come. They knew Luffy would be born. They knew he would eat the Fruit of Destiny. They even knew he would wear a straw hat and set sail today.
If the World Government truly possessed such prophetic power, then what did the resistance of Shanks and Dragon, who risked their lives, amount to?
And what kind of joke was the destiny carried by Luffy?
With the World Government's ability to foresee the future, if they wanted to, they could have erased Luffy and Foosha Village from the map on the day he was born, or even while he was still in his mother's womb.
At that moment, the helplessness in Makino's heart expanded without limit, crushing even her soul.
As an ordinary person viewing the situation from her perspective, she could not see even the slightest hope of breaking free when faced with an existence as unbelievable as the World Government, which seemed capable of manipulating time itself.
"No wonder... no wonder..."
Makino slumped onto the floor, tears pouring from her eyes.
She finally understood why even a man as powerful as Shanks would reveal that deep exhaustion in his eyes whenever he mentioned the World Government during countless drunken nights.
Why, despite possessing the power to split the sea with a single slash, he could only hide in this small tavern and drink away his worries.
The closer someone got to the abyss known as the World Government, the more they would feel that despair no ordinary person could overcome.
The wind of freedom?
In the eyes of those gods of the World Government, perhaps every cause and effect in the world had long been calculated and observed.
The freedom Shanks and Luffy pursued with all their strength was ultimately nothing more than a fake breeze deliberately blown into a glass jar by the World Government to make this grand performance more entertaining.
They couldn't win.
There was simply no way to win.
"Luffy... Shanks..."
Makino's body shook as she let out a despairing cry.
"Give up... please, give up..."
In her eyes, giving up was the only way left to survive.
At least if the World Government lost interest, and they stopped resisting, perhaps they would no longer receive any more attention.
[🎉 Shoutout to Photobug, ZaberZ and Enthessi for joining p@treon. All the support is very welcomed. Thank you very much.🤗]