Three people and one fish walked down the main street of Loguetown, drawing quite a few stares.
The three were naturally Usopp, Nami, and Sanji. As for the fish—a massive creature with a long, elephant-like trunk—it was the prize Sanji had won as champion of the cooking competition.
A treasure of the sea, the elephant sturgeon. To countless chefs, it was a dream ingredient.
"So you entered the contest just for this fish, huh?" Usopp grumbled from the front, teeth gritted as he hoisted the enormous fish onto his shoulder. He looked like he was about to collapse under the weight.
"And why am I stuck carrying the heavy end?!"
Trailing behind Usopp was Sanji, his face flushed with lovesick bliss as he walked and muttered to himself.
"I never imagined the president of the Goldglint Trading Company would be such a stunning beauty. Ah~ Miss Anna…"
"If you like her that much, why didn't you take her up on it?" Nami scoffed, lips pursed. The navigator had an instinctive aversion to women like Anna—beautiful and dripping with wealth. "Didn't she just invite you to be a chef at the Goldglint Trading Company's hotel?"
"Impossible, Nami-san!" Sanji cried, dramatically flinging aside the fish tail he'd been holding. The sudden shift in weight nearly crushed Usopp beneath the beast. The curly-browed chef dropped to one knee before Nami and declared loudly:
"The moment I laid eyes on you, I swore to be your knight of the seas!"
Nami ignored Sanji's theatrics with practiced ease. Suddenly, her eyes widened. She lifted a hand, sensing the air for a moment, then turned to the others.
"Hurry up. It's going to rain…" Her pace quickened. "The air pressure's dropping."
Usopp, teeth still clenched as he hefted the entire elephant sturgeon, glanced up at the sky. It was perfectly clear—not a single cloud, let alone a raincloud.
"How could it possibly rain in weather like this?" he muttered, baffled.
Goldglint Trading Company Headquarters
After the cooking competition ended, Anna returned to the Goldglint Trading Company headquarters. Though she'd only sampled a bite of each dish, the sheer number of entries had overwhelmed even her modest appetite.
Dismissing her accompanying secretary, she pushed open the door to her study—and froze. Beneath her glasses, her eyes narrowed to pinpricks.
In the ebony rocking chair she adored sat a familiar man. Familiar black hair, black eyes, silver-rimmed glasses, and that unmistakable aura—though compared to a year ago, it had lost some of its warmth and gained a sharper edge.
The East Blue's most feared terrorist—the sorcerer—Sarsalian Sherlock, the second president of the Goldglint Trading Company, and Anna's former boss, sat before her, casually reading a book from her shelf.
"You're back," Sherlock said without looking up.
"Yes, I'm back." Anna adjusted her glasses, a strange sense of relief flickering across her face.
"Shame you missed the cooking contest. The blond chef from the Baratie? His dishes were incredible." She forced an awkward smile.
"The sea restaurant Baratie? Blond?" Sherlock set the book down. "Sanji, you mean. Come to think of it, he saved my life once."
Sherlock stood, giving Anna a thorough once-over before pushing up his glasses.
"I never thought the woman who always worked behind the scenes would grow into someone capable of standing on her own. I'm proud of you." He smiled faintly, the gentleness in his expression making Anna's mind blur for a moment.
He stepped closer, his gaze drifting to her ample chest where a golden iris pendant gleamed prominently.
"You still have that necklace," he said, surprised.
"Yes." Anna carefully touched the pendant, her expression wistful as she murmured, "I'll never forget the life you saved, President."
It had happened ten years ago. That year, Sherlock's parents perished in a shipwreck at sea. At just fourteen, Sherlock inherited the mess that was the Goldglint Trading Company and became its second president. Later, during a business trip, he found a dying Anna aboard a ship…
The necklace had been his gift to her on the one-year anniversary of her joining the company.
"Is that so?" A shadow flickered. Suddenly, Sherlock closed the distance between them, leaning in until his lips nearly brushed her ear. Their posture was intimate, his warm breath tickling her skin and making her lean back instinctively.
The room fell deathly silent. They could hear each other's heartbeats clearly, the oppressive atmosphere thickening the air until it felt solid.
"Then let me ask you one thing," Sherlock whispered, his voice like a dream against her flushed, tense ear.
"Why did you betray me?"
Anna froze as if struck by lightning. She'd prepared herself for this moment, but hearing it aloud still left her standing there like a fool.
Based on the intelligence he'd gathered and the internal reactions within the Goldglint Trading Company at the time, Sherlock had little trouble deducing that Anna was both the most capable and the most likely to betray him. She'd prepared as if she'd known disaster was coming for him. But he couldn't understand why the woman he trusted most would turn against him.
Feeling the intense emotions radiating from the beauty beside him, Sherlock's eyes glinted coldly as he waited for a satisfactory answer.
After a long silence, Anna gently pushed him away, creating some distance.
"As expected of Sherlock. Nothing gets past you." Her face was expressionless as she spoke slowly. "Do you know, Sarsalian Sherlock, I've always seen you as the object of my admiration. My life's goal was to become someone as strong as you."
"I watched you constantly, imitating you in secret—your gestures, your tone, your habits, your way of thinking, everything." She gazed at him with deep affection.
"And like most of the girls in the company, I fell deeply in love with you."
Sherlock's expression didn't change.
"I once told you I had a happy family—a father, a mother, and two beautiful older sisters."
"I told you we ran a bakery, and that I became an orphan after a pirate attack."
"But to avoid complications, I lied. The truth is… I was once a princess of a small kingdom in the East Blue!"
Sherlock's face twitched slightly. He'd never heard this before.
Anna glanced at his reaction and continued, "It's normal you didn't know, because…"
She took a deep breath, her eyes blazing with hatred as painful memories resurfaced.
"Because the ones who destroyed my kingdom, my home, my family… were the Celestial Dragons!"
"Just because one of them took a liking to my sisters, and my father refused… they…"
"They unleashed a Buster Call!" Tears streamed down Anna's anguished face.
A Buster Call?! Sherlock inhaled sharply. He'd heard it was a devastating weapon to protect government interests, but he'd never known it had been used anywhere.
"To cover up the scandal, all information about that kingdom was sealed by the World Government. I'm the only survivor."
Anna steadied herself, the hatred in her eyes almost tangible as she continued, "From that day on, I swore that if I ever got the chance, I'd kill every last Celestial Dragon—wipe out every single one of those vile monsters!"
She forced a bitter smile. "Then you saved me. You took care of me, taught me business, and we managed the Goldglint Trading Company together. You were like an angel, pulling me out of the darkness. Years passed, and I thought I'd forgotten my hatred. Back then, all I wanted was to spend my life with you."
"But what I never expected…" Anna wiped the tears from her face and looked at Sherlock, her eyes like shattered stars in the midnight sky, heartbreakingly pitiable.
"Sarsalian Sherlock—the man I admired, the man I loved most… was one of the Celestial Dragons I hated with every fiber of my being!"
"!!!"
Anna's voice was soft, but her words struck like thunder. Sherlock's body trembled. His dark eyes, filled with disbelief, met hers—burning with intensity—as countless thoughts raced through his mind.
Love turned to hate; resentment festers into madness. Some people, when the thing they love most becomes tainted by something they despise, might stop loving it or continue despite the flaw, depending on their feelings. But for those with a twisted heart, they destroy what they love. Anna was the latter. The deeper the love, the sharper the hate.
After a long silence, Sherlock exhaled heavily.
"You heard it from that old drunk, didn't you? So his death… that was you too?"
The old drunk was Sherlock's uncle, a piece of trash cut from the same cloth as Loki. Loki had told Sherlock that shortly after his own "accident," the old drunk had perished in a mysterious fire—though his son, Loki, had survived unscathed.
Anna didn't answer, but her silence was answer enough.
"It's true I have the blood of the Twenty Kings," Sherlock admitted, his gaze flickering as he sighed. "But I'm not a Celestial Dragon. I'm not!"
"Hmph." Anna crossed her arms and huffed. "Who knows if those monsters won't drag you back to Mariejois one day."
"Like they did with your sister."
Silence.
Anna's words struck Sherlock's weakest point. He adjusted his glasses and turned his face away, lost in thought.