Cover Story – "Momonosuke's Journey, Part 4: 'Kuina'"
SMACK!
The ruler came down hard on Momonosuke's palm. The pain nearly brought tears to his eyes.
All around, the other kids whispered behind their hands.
"That's the fifth time he's been punished in just two days, right?"
"His comprehension is way too poor. Why would Master Koushirou even take him in…?"
Damn it!
If not for being unfamiliar with this era and needing a place to stay while getting his bearings, who the hell would want to apprentice under that four-eyed nerd?!
I'm the heir of a Wano daimyo, dammit!
Shame and frustration twisted in his chest as he rubbed his stinging hand and turned to return to his seat—
When a silhouette passing by the window caught his eye.
A girl.
And she looked… eerily familiar.
...
Marineford – Marine Headquarters
Nao had just returned to Headquarters.
His first stop was Vice Admiral Chisio's house, only to find she wasn't home—apparently off on some mission.
Instead, it was fourteen-year-old Hina who greeted him. Now squarely in her teenage years, she had grown noticeably since their last meeting.
Nao, for once, hadn't forgotten to bring a gift. But Hina clearly didn't care—having not seen him in over half a year, she missed him too much to fuss over gifts.
The moment she welcomed him in, she was brimming with curiosity, bombarding him with question after question like an excited puppy, leaving Nao more than a little overwhelmed.
Just as he was finally settling in and about to take a sip of tea, Hina casually dropped a bombshell.
"So… wait, hold on," Nao narrowed his eyes. "You're telling me that Vice Admiral Borsalino gave a singing and dancing performance… in front of all the royal families at the Reverie?"
That didn't make sense. He clearly remembered removing the tape before leaving.
Could the projection Den Den Mushi have some kind of memory function, and just defaulted to showing the last footage it had read?
"Yup~" Hina giggled as she peeled an tangerine. "And right after the dance, the screen flashed a big ol' message: 'Join the Marines today! I'm Marine Vice Admiral Kizaru, and I'll be waiting for you!' Then a subtitle popped up: 'Marine Recruitment Video'."
"The whole conference room went into chaos. It even made the newspapers. Grandma Chisio said Admiral Sengoku looked like someone had dragged a pot across his face—his expression was that dark."
"The moment the meeting ended, he called G2 Branch and chewed Borsalino out like a rabid dog. Asked him when the hell he filmed something like that…"
"..."
Nao's mouth twitched.
He could already imagine Kizaru on the other end of the line—eyes wide in that trademark "Who, me?" expression, oozing with offended innocence.
Well damn, Nao sighed inwardly. I really screwed over the guy this time...
"Ah, open up."
As he stared up at the ceiling, wondering how to discreetly make it up to Kizaru later, he suddenly felt a cool, citrusy touch on his lips.
He instinctively opened his mouth—and Hina popped in two slices of tangerine.
Nao looked down, startled to find Hina had somehow climbed onto his lap, arms wrapped around his waist, straddling him.
When he met her gaze, she cheerfully offered him the rest of the tangerine slices.
"…Thanks."
He chewed for a moment before his brow furrowed. This flavor… weirdly familiar.
"Strange. These taste just like the tangerines from my family's orchard…"
"They are the tangerines from your orchard!" Hina blinked innocently. "Grandma Chisio went back to East Blue for New Year's, dropped by your house, and Aunty Yukika was way too generous. She said the family was too poor to give anything fancy in return, so she just gave Grandma all the tangerines."
She pointed toward the storeroom next to the living room.
"See? There's still a few hundred kilograms in there. We can't finish them all. Grandma Chisio's been stressing over it, but she didn't want to waste Aunty Yukika's kindness, so she's planning to send them to the mess hall at Headquarters."
Nao turned to look.
Sure enough, the storeroom door wouldn't even shut properly—stacked high and spilling over with tangerines. A few even rolled out from the cracks.
"…Seriously?" Nao groaned, three black lines forming on his forehead.
Mom… please!
It's already spring, and we've still got leftover stock from last winter? You dumped them all on Vice Admiral Chisio like she's a wholesaler?!
What a way to pass on your problems, old lady…
Now that he thought about it, Chisio was a busy woman—as the Vice Chief of Staff at Headquarters, she barely had time to breathe. And yet she'd taken leave just to visit East Blue during New Year's…
"She went to the Dadan family's place, didn't she?" Nao asked.
"Mhm," Hina nodded. "She hadn't seen Ace in almost a year, and she missed her a lot, so she went to visit..."
She lowered her voice slightly, handing Nao another peeled tangerine.
"And she made a last-minute decision, too. Want to guess what it was? I promise it's a huge surprise~"
A surprise?
Nao raised an eyebrow, about to respond—only to suddenly tense.
He glanced downward, his expression turning awkward.
It was early summer, and the weather was getting warm. Hina was only wearing super-short loungewear shorts. Her long, smooth, porcelain-white legs were pressing right up against him, brushing against his skin with every movement of her arms.
The tangerines are fine, but boundaries matter too, y'know.
Nao accepted the tangerine—and then, without hesitation, scooped Hina up from under the arms and placed her firmly on the coffee table in front of him.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
Hina protested, raising a fist in frustration. "I'm not a little kid anymore! Stop moving me around like that!"
"That's exactly why I did it," Nao replied, unusually serious. "You're fourteen now, a proper teenager. You know what that means. There should be boundaries between boys and girls. We're at the age where it matters."
"Hina doesn't care about that."
She gave him a sulky glare, plopped right back onto his lap, and wrapped her arms around his neck in defiance.
"Back then, it was totally fine. Why not now? Don't go giving me weird moral lectures! Is it 'cause I got heavier? Is that it, Nao-nii?!"
This girl…
Nao pushed lightly—only to find she didn't budge. He massaged his temple in frustration.
It's not about your weight, damn it. It's about the fact that you… filled out.
Girls this age changed fast. Just last year, he still saw Hina as a kid, and they'd had a sibling-like bond. Physical contact never felt awkward.
But now?
Everything was different.
And if it kept going like this...
That bond could warp into something else entirely.
"Hina, listen to me—"
Just then, Nao suddenly had the eerie sensation that something—or someone—was watching him.
Huh?
Didn't I bring Sadaharu with me to the West Blue? And Vice Admiral Chisio doesn't keep pets...
Puzzled, he turned around.
At the far end of the hallway, sitting on the stairs, was a tiny black-haired toddler—nursing a bottle and staring blankly at him.
A kid?
When did Chisio start fostering children?
Wait… something about the toddler's face looked oddly familiar.
Nao stood up and approached. When he got a closer look—freckles.
"...Ace?"
Nao froze, eyes wide in disbelief. He whipped around to stare at Hina on the couch.
"Vice Admiral Chisio brought Ace back to Headquarters?! That surprise you mentioned—this is it?!"
"Mhm~" Hina nodded proudly. "Well? Surprised?"
Surprised my ass. This is a freaking shock!
"That's the son of the Pirate King!"
Nao rubbed his forehead, staring at the confused little toddler.
"What was she thinking? If someone finds out who he really is—!"
"Relax, Nao-nii," Hina said gently, expertly scooping up the bottle to refill it. "Grandma Chisio's already handled everything. She made sure his identity is secure and legitimate. Paperwork's all in order."
"She didn't plan to bring him back at first. She just wanted him to grow up safe, even if he never knew she was his grandma."
"But when she visited and saw the Dadan gang's place... all the pirates coming and going, the chaotic atmosphere... she started to worry."
"She was scared Ace would follow in his dad's footsteps, just like the old days—and grow up to be a pirate."
"So she made a snap decision to bring him here."
Nao nodded slowly.
He shared Chisio's concerns.
He, too, had never understood Garp's logic—wanting his grandsons to become Marines, but raising them in a place like Dadan's?
Even if Garp returned every year to guide and train them, that influence was like a drop in the ocean compared to the environment they grew up in.
Nao had once fantasized about recruiting Luffy into the Marines—back when he'd first awakened the "Limb Regeneration" skill—hoping to avoid that tragic confrontation between grandfather and grandson.
Luffy, being Garp's legitimate heir, could've joined the Marines openly. Dragon's rebellion wouldn't change that.
But Ace?
If his true parentage came to light, the consequences would be catastrophic. And if he grew up, became a Marine, and then discovered the truth... what would happen then?
"Grandma Chisio does want him to be a Marine," Hina said, as blunt as ever.
"…Does Garp know?" Nao sighed.
"He knew the moment she brought Ace back," Hina replied, resting comfortably against his shoulder. Nao didn't bother pushing her away this time.
"At first, he was furious. He insisted that Dadan was a suitable guardian, even if she was a bandit."
"But Grandma got mad, scolded him hard, and… well, I don't know exactly what they talked about, but in the end, he gave in."
He agreed?
Nao fell silent, deep in thought.
When it came to education, he sided with Chisio. He never understood why Garp would entrust Luffy and Ace to such an environment.
Maybe one day, he'd change that himself.
But to think—eighteen years before Marineford, Vice Admiral Chisio had already taken the first step.
Is this… part of the butterfly effect I caused?
Nao gently patted little Ace's head. The toddler nursed his bottle contentedly, eyes half-closed. Nao's emotions were strangely mixed.
So… Ace is going to become a Marine.
Will the ASL brothers still form that bond?
Without Whitebeard as a father figure, will the Summit War of Marineford ever happen?
So many variables. So many unknowns.
Nao clicked his tongue.
If he hadn't body-swapped with Gion and successfully convinced Chisio to return to Headquarters, maybe none of this would've happened.
In the end, it's all that damned raccoon's fault!
...
Nao played with baby Ace for a while, then endured a hilariously failed attempt at lunch cooked by Hina. Under her disappointed puppy-dog eyes, he took his leave and headed straight to the Elite Training Camp.
It had been over half a year.
Yet the tree-lined path remained just as familiar. The maples on either side were lush with leaves, dusted with frost like every morning and night in his memories.
As he stepped into the gates of the Elite Camp, the current recruits were being drilled by instructors—sweating and shouting as they trained with full vigor. Everything felt like it hadn't changed a bit.
As he passed the training field, murmurs erupted like wildfire.
"Hey, hey, look over there—it's Nao! Rear Admiral Nao!"
"No way—seriously? Where? Oh my god—it is him!"
"He's way hotter in real life than the pictures in the newspaper… I'm doomed… I've fallen!"
...…
Voices buzzed through the air, admiration shining in the eyes of the rookies—even disrupting the drills, until the instructors barked at them to shut up.
Feels like visiting your alma mater after making it big…
Nao chuckled to himself, quickening his pace under the wistful stares of his juniors, heading straight for Zephyr's office.
But to his surprise—
The office was empty.