[The Third Floor]
Luffy's group kept low as they quickly climbed the stairs.
Zoro led the way with all three swords already drawn.
His steps were light and silent. Every muscle in his body was tense, ready for any attack.
Nami followed close behind. Her breathing was quick, but she did her best to stay calm.
Her eyes kept moving across the hallway, watching for anything dangerous.
As for Luffy... Luffy was still yawning.
"Hey, can you take this seriously?", Zoro growled in a low voice.
"But I'm really sleepy..."
"Shh!"
Nami quickly raised a hand for silence.
They had reached the third-floor hallway.
The decorations here were even finer than on the second floor. Thick carpets covered the entire corridor, and expensive paintings hung on the walls.
During the day, it must have looked bright and elegant.
But now, in the middle of the night, it gave off a strange feeling.
At the end of the hallway stood a carved wooden door, with a faint light shining through the gap beneath it.
That should be the master bedroom.
Just as Zoro was about to step forward, a stern voice suddenly came from behind.
"What are you doing here?"
The three of them turned around at once.
Usopp stood at the top of the stairs, holding a night lamp. The dim light made his face appear bright one moment and dark the next.
Behind him stood Kuro.
The silver-rimmed glasses reflected the light. His face still wore its usual polite expression, but something hidden remained deep in his eyes.
"We heard a sound downstairs, so we came up to check."
Zoro answered calmly, his eyes fixed on Kuro.
At the same time, his nose moved slightly.
A faint smell of blood reached him.
It was so weak that an ordinary person would never notice it.
But for someone like Zoro, who lived with swords, that smell stood out like a beacon in the dark.
Impossible to ignore.
"Something's wrong!"
Zoro's pupils narrowed.
Before he could think, his body had already moved.
He rushed to the end of the hallway and slammed open the carved door.
BANG!
The wooden door crashed against the wall.
Behind him, Usopp shouted at the same time.
"What are you doing? That's Kaya's room—"
His voice stopped the moment he saw what was inside.
The curtains had not been drawn.
Moonlight poured into the room, turning everything pale.
The elegant four-poster bed.
The thin curtains hanging from it.
Everything looked peaceful.
Except for the patch of red on the bed.
Kaya lay there without moving.
Her eyes were slightly open.
The amber eyes that had once been full of life were now empty as they looked toward the ceiling.
A faint smile still remained on her lips, as though she had still been dreaming when death came and never realized what had happened.
A silver dagger was buried deep in her chest.
Blood had soaked the sheets beneath her, spreading into a dark flower.
The whole room smelled of blood.
Time seemed to stop.
Zoro gripped his sword so tightly that his fingers turned white.
Nami covered her mouth without saying a word.
Even Luffy, who had still been half asleep, became completely awake.
His expression had never looked so serious.
Thump!
A dull sound came from behind them.
Usopp had collapsed onto his knees in the doorway.
His legs had completely given out.
His face had lost all color.
His lips shook.
His eyes stared wide open, the reflection of Kaya's pale face filling them.
"N... no way..."
His voice came out rough and broken.
He tried to stand. His knees refused to move.
He wanted to rush over. His body would not obey.
He could only kneel there, staring at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure on the bed.
That was Kaya. The Kaya who had grown up with him. The Kaya he had sworn to protect. The Kaya he loved.
Even though he knew this was fake. Even though he knew Kaya was safe. At this moment, he still felt pain so strong that he could hardly breathe.
"KAYA!"
His cry tore through the night and echoed across Syrup Village.
It carried shock, grief, and anger that was about to burst out.
Usopp knelt there, shaking violently as tears rolled down his face.
His whole world had collapsed.
———
[Outside the Manor]
Several hundred meters away, on a hillside, the Red Hair Pirates stood quietly in the night.
Moonlight outlined their figures.
Usopp's scream traveled on the wind.
Even from this distance, they heard it clearly.
The grief in that cry made even pirates who had seen countless deaths fall silent.
Beckman held a cigarette in his mouth and looked toward the manor without speaking.
Shanks lowered his head slightly.
Yasopp stood at the front with his back to everyone else.
His posture remained straight, like a flag that would never fall.
He showed no reaction.
No surprise. No guilt. No pity.
Even his breathing stayed the same.
It was as if Usopp's cry had nothing to do with him.
As if it had come from a complete stranger.
The crew exchanged looks.
Before today, they had thought Yasopp's words about "a man of the sea must cut off all attachments" were just something he said to show courage, or jokes he made while drinking.
After all, who could really do something like that?
But now... Yasopp had meant every word.
He really was ruthless. A real pirate. A pirate without a heart.
"Someone like that..."
One crew member spoke quietly.
"...it's hard to trust him enough to turn your back on him."
Outside the manor, the night wind carried the smell of the sea.
The moon clearly lit one side of Yasopp's face.
He smiled. He was actually smiling.
The crying from the manor kept reaching them, scraping at everyone's nerves.
That was Usopp's voice.
The cry of a man who had lost the woman he loved.
Yet Yasopp, Usopp's own father, was smiling.
Beckman's hand shook slightly as he put out his cigarette.
He glanced at Yasopp but said nothing.
Some crew members lowered their heads. Others looked away. No one spoke.
But everyone was thinking the same thing.
The ones who had died were his daughter-in-law and his unborn grandchild. Two lives.
And the child's grandfather... was smiling.
Lucky Roux quietly stepped to one side, no longer looking directly at Yasopp.
He had seen many ruthless people.
After so many years at sea, battles and partings had long since hardened him.
Even so, tonight still left a weight in his chest.
Shanks stood beside Yasopp and looked at him once.
There was no anger.
No questioning.
Only quiet helplessness.
To get Usopp onto Luffy's ship, Yasopp no longer cared about anything else.
His wife. His daughter-in-law. His unborn grandchild.
To Yasopp, they were simply obstacles that needed to be removed.
For the greater good of the world, the sooner unnecessary family ties were cut away, the better.
That was his way of thinking. Clear. Cold. Without any weakness.
But... was that really right?
No one in the Red Hair Pirates had an answer.
Only Yasopp stood in the night wind, his smile still there.
His mind had never felt so clear.
At this moment... he felt better than ever.
———
[Science Department, Mary Geoise]
This was a special room built by Shirahoshi for Rosse.
It was made for watching.
Everything happening in Syrup Village was being shown live.
The village. The lights of the manor. The fields under the moon.
Whether it was Usopp's group or the Red Hair Pirates, every movement and every expression could be seen clearly here.
A true god's-eye view.
Rosse sat lazily in the chair at the center.
His chin was slightly raised as he watched everything on the screen with interest.
It was as though he were watching a carefully prepared play.
Every now and then, his finger lightly tapped the armrest.
Sora sat on his lap, leaning against him.
She tilted her head, pity showing in her eyes.
"Banchina," She spoke softly, "Your man is really heartless."
Banchina's situation reminded Sora of herself.
Fortunately, she had met Rosse.
Others saw Rosse as a devil. To her, he was the light that had changed her life.
In the corner of the room, a black-haired woman sat quietly.
Banchina was ordinary in both appearance and build. She was the kind of person people would forget after passing by.
She stared without moving at Yasopp's face on the screen.
At the smile that had never disappeared.
So many feelings filled her eyes that she no longer had the strength to let any of them out.
She simply stared.
The two most important people in her life... Now, the one she cared about most was destroying the life of the person she treasured most.
"Mom..."
Kaya gently held her hand.
Neither of them spoke.
There was only that touch.
Beneath her loose robe, Kaya's slightly raised belly was easy to see.
Her other hand rested over it without thinking, gently protecting it.
Makino stood beside Rosse's chair.
She quietly watched the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
She knew Yasopp.
They had met before in the tavern.
He had seemed straightforward.
He spoke loudly.
He laughed loudly.
He had looked like someone who had traveled everywhere.
Back then, she had thought he was someone worth knowing.
Now... she realized that had only been the surface.
She watched the screen for a while before slowly looking toward Sora and Rosse.
A question quietly appeared in her mind.
If Yasopp was really like this... then what was Shanks, who allowed and accepted all of this, really like?
She did not ask it aloud.
She simply buried the thought in her heart without changing her expression.
———
The night in Syrup Village was completely broken by Usopp's cries.
His voice spread across the whole village.
It was filled with grief and anger.
Anyone who heard it frowned.
His performance was flawless.
Usopp completely acted out the pain and fury of a man who had lost his wife.
He held Kaya's fake body in his arms.
Tears streamed down his face.
It felt so real that even he almost believed it.
When he saw Kaya dead, he still found it impossible to accept, even knowing it was fake.
He did not dare imagine how hopeless he would feel if it had been real.
At this moment, he had never been more grateful that he had joined the World Government.
"Kuro! Kill them!"
Usopp suddenly looked up.
His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at Zoro and the others.
"Hey, at least be reasonable."
Zoro frowned slightly.
Wado Ichimonji was already out of its sheath.
He held his other two swords in his hands and took a fighting stance.
His eyes swept across the room, remaining calm.
He knew this was a misunderstanding.
But misunderstanding or not, he could not lower his swords.
"Mr. Usopp, your wife's death has nothing to do with us. We only came up because we heard footsteps..."
Nami never finished her sentence.
Kuro moved.
His figure disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The next moment, he was already in front of Nami.
There was no warning at all, as though the space between them had simply vanished.
"Nami!"
Luffy and Zoro shouted together.
Before their voices had even faded...
BANG!
A kick landed hard in Nami's stomach.
The impact sent her flying sideways.
Her back slammed into the wall at the end of the hallway, shaking dust loose from the cracks.
"Cough... Cough... you bastard!"
Nami clutched her stomach, coughing as she barely managed to steady herself against the wall.
She stared at Kuro through her messy hair.
That speed.
That strength.
They didn't match.
Even through the pain, her mind worked quickly.
Kuro was very strong.
His speed was so fast that she couldn't react at all.
She had studied at Marine Headquarters.
She knew very well that the speed Kuro had just shown was definitely at B-rank.
But the force behind that kick was nowhere near C-rank.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to stand up.
One kick would have left her half dead.
'He's one of us!'
'Tonight...'
'This whole thing is a staged act!'
Once she understood everything, she clenched her teeth even harder.
But another kind of anger was also burning inside her.
A staged act was fine.
She could play along.
But why was she the first one to get kicked?
Was getting knocked out with one kick really her role today?
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