"Phew… we finally made it."
On the merchant ship that had just escaped death, a sailor lay flat on the deck, panting hard.
Several of his shipmates lay sprawled nearby in the same exhausted way.
One of them said curiously, "I have no idea what that moving island was, but I swear I heard those pirates shouting about the One Piece."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard it too," another sailor chimed in immediately.
"So does that mean we…"
Before he could finish, the sailor beside him cut him off.
"It means we did not hear anything and we did not see anything."
He declared it loudly first, then dropped his voice.
"Are you insane? We do not even have guns on this tub. Those are pirates who kill without blinking. How are we supposed to fight them over some so called One Piece?"
The greedy sailor who spoke first still sounded unconvinced.
"But that is the great treasure…"
"Something is wrong."
His words were interrupted again.
"What?"
"Something wrong again?"
"Do not tell me pirates are back already."
They grumbled and cursed, but still dragged themselves off the deck.
If pirates caught up again, it would not be a joke. Complaints were one thing. Staying alive mattered more.
Before they could even look properly, a massive shadow had already fallen over the merchant ship.
They tilted their heads back and saw a cruise ship several times larger than their own, looming not far away.
On its mast, the flag of the World Government fluttered in the wind.
A gangplank was lowered. This time, Tenryū Yuto did not ride in on a slave. He descended with Stella, Aramaki, and two CP agents following behind him.
"A C… Celestial Dragon?"
"How is that possible? How could a Celestial Dragon be in West Blue?"
"Kneel. Do you all have a death wish?"
Hearing their whispers, Yuto chuckled, then turned to Stella with a smile.
"Seems the World Government's propaganda really does the job. Even this bunch of landlocked bumpkins can recognize what I am."
"It is Your Highness's imposing presence. They do not even dare lift their heads to look."
Yuto's gaze flickered in mild surprise. He glanced at smiling Stella, then reached out and ruffled her golden hair.
"You really are good at providing emotional support."
That was what Yuto liked most about Stella's personality.
Call it submissive or adaptable, Stella always adjusted herself to her surroundings, always faced her situation with a kind of stubborn optimism.
But this was not the time to tease Stella. There was someone on this ship he was even more interested in.
Stepping into the interior of the vessel, Yuto moved as if he knew the layout by heart. He walked down the corridor and stopped in front of a storeroom door.
Aramaki, quick on the uptake, stepped forward, opened the door, and stood in front of Yuto in a subtly guarded stance.
Yuto patted his shoulder.
"No need to be so tense."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Aramaki stepped aside. Yuto entered the room.
It was called a storeroom, but most of the commonly used tools on a ship were kept where they were easy to reach. There was not much piled up here.
Yuto walked to a certain section of floor, bent down, and flipped up a board.
At the same time, he shouted.
"Boo."
"Waaaah!"
A tiny, obviously frightened voice shrieked from the space beneath the floor.
…
Back on the Sanctum, Yuto let out an exasperated little laugh and handed the girl in his arms to Stella.
"This kid scares way too easily. Take care of her for a while. We can talk about the rest after she wakes up."
Stella could not help herself. A giggle escaped her.
Yuto shot her a look.
She shrank her neck but did not seem all that afraid. She dipped in a proper curtsey, then left with the girl in her arms.
As she turned away, she whispered softly, "His Highness is actually very gentle…"
After a year together, Stella had gained a basic understanding of Yuto's personality.
In daily life, he did not seem all that different from other Celestial Dragons.
But she had keenly noticed that Yuto did not actually like the formal pomp and ceremony that came with his status. When he went along with it, it felt more like a perfunctory nod to his position than genuine enjoyment.
And he was extremely lenient with the maids around him. Even when someone made a small mistake, they were never punished.
In fact, over the past year, Stella had never once seen Yuto punish a maid.
Judging from the way he had just jumped out to scare the little girl, he was, at heart, someone with a very childish side.
…
Yuto, on the other hand, was feeling a little annoyed.
The reason he had boarded that merchant ship in the first place was, of course, because someone aboard had caught his interest.
With his Observation Haki earlier, he had noticed a hollow space hidden within the storeroom and a tiny figure curled up inside it.
A little girl, maybe two or three years old. Long pink hair. Huge round eyes that flickered like stars.
Given her appearance and the timing of Thriller Bark's arrival, it was not hard for Yuto to guess who she was.
Ghost Princess Perona.
Thinking about Perona's awful personality in the original story, Yuto had decided to give her a good scare.
He had not expected her courage to be that small. The moment he shouted, she went full swirly eyed and fainted on the spot.
Even so, running into Perona here put Yuto in a great mood. He did not even bother scolding Aramaki, who had been slacking on his training ever since coming back aboard.
He lay back on his deck chair, told the guards to set sail again, and turned his thoughts to another problem.
"With Perona this young, she should not have gotten the Ghost Ghost Fruit yet. So where is the Fruit?"
"In the original, Perona was raised by Moria like a daughter. Does that mean the Ghost Ghost Fruit is in Moria's hands right now?"
With that in mind, Yuto called out.
"Aramaki."
Whoosh.
Aramaki appeared in front of him almost instantly and dropped to one knee.
"Your Highness."
Yuto sighed.
"You are a retainer, not a bodyguard. And definitely not a slave."
Slaves were one thing. With important combat power, he needed to be more relaxed.
Retainers were basically like Marines. They did not have to kneel whenever they saw a Celestial Dragon.
With the way other Celestial Dragons acted, the only reason their subordinates had not revolted was the sheer strength of the brainwashing.
"Yes, Your Highness."
One look at Aramaki's face and Yuto knew the man had not actually taken it in.
He was the type who always wore the expression of "I will do better next time."
Now was not the time to worry about that, though. Yuto's expression grew serious.
"Go back to that merchant ship and search it. See if there is a Devil Fruit aboard. If not, head over to the island ship and look there."
He paused, then added a reminder.
"Be careful. The island ship belongs to the great pirate Moria. At your current strength, you are more than enough to handle him. Do not let me down."
Aramaki straightened slightly, his tone solemn.
"Please rest assured, Your Highness. I will give it everything I have."
He bowed to Yuto, then turned and left, stepping into Geppo and soaring back toward the merchant ship.
Moria was roughly ten years older than Aramaki and should theoretically be at his prime right now.
But Aramaki's talent ceiling was clearly much higher. On top of that, Moria had just been crushed by Kaido and was in the middle of a complete mental breakdown. There was a good chance he could not even use Haki properly.
For someone like that, sending Aramaki was more than enough.