Chapter 140: Tsuru's Request
Let's rewind to before Garp went home.
He had once gone to Tsuru's office.
Tsuru was a Marine the soldiers genuinely admired. Alongside Sengoku and Garp, she had held the Navy together since before the Great Pirate Era began. She was a wise, seasoned strategist, and among female officers her reputation was especially high.
Squeak.
Garp pushed the door open, and Tsuru looked up at her old friend with a helpless expression.
For an idiot like Garp to knock first was nothing but a fantasy.
"Oh, little Tsuru…"
Garp strolled over and dropped into the seat across from her. Tsuru only glanced at him, then went right back to the documents in her hands.
…
Garp sat there in silence, munching senbei he had swiped from Sengoku, washing it down with the tea Tsuru had offered.
He had told Sengoku and the others he was going home to visit family, but in truth, he was also here to freeload.
Tsuru ignored him completely and kept processing paperwork.
Garp had no choice but to find an excuse to leave, until his eyes caught the photo frame on Tsuru's desk.
"Ah, that so and so, I heard… ah!"
The moment Garp stared at the red haired boy in the photo and was about to bring up the rumors everyone had been whispering about, Tsuru tapped his forehead with a rolled up case file.
She had casually wrapped Armament Haki around it.
Garp knew he had almost said the wrong thing, so he let her hit him as much as she pleased.
"If you cannot speak properly, shut up and get out." Tsuru pointed at the door, a direct order.
Tsuru, with her pale hair, was usually gentle. In front of sailors, she was calm and composed. In front of children, she was a kind, approachable old lady.
But.
If anyone dared to mention that red haired boy, or say he was dead, or anything like that…
Tsuru's mood would turn icy in an instant, and that gentle temperament would vanish under a cold expression.
That red haired boy was the one she had waited for her whole life, the one she cherished above all else.
"What was his name again?" Garp muttered, still staring at the photo, unable to recall.
In the next moment, Tsuru snatched the frame to her side and glared at him.
"I was wrong, I will leave right now!" Garp hurried out as if his life depended on it.
Only after the door closed did Tsuru look down at the boy in the photo again, her gaze finally softening.
She reached out and touched the picture, then touched her own aged, wrinkled skin.
Under those wrinkles, there was still youthful skin.
So there really was a mask on the outside.
"…Sigh."
Tsuru stared out the window and let out a quiet, helpless breath.
"Roy… Roy… where did you go?"
To wait for his return, she had already gone against her principles. She had even cooperated with that woman from the New World, risking her life to steal a small amount of pure gold.
They had spent an enormous amount of time and effort, burning through intelligence networks, just to finally locate that colossal creature known as Lord Lantern.
Back then, a couple had discovered their secret, and the two of them had joined hands again to kill those members.
Roy had not returned for far too long, so they had taken the risk.
Just because she still wanted to stay young.
Tsuru held only a tiny amount of pure gold in her hand, hidden inside a watch.
Pure gold could help maintain youth.
But it could not prevent other veterans with Observation Haki from sensing something was off.
So, before the World Government captured Dr. Vegapunk, Tsuru had concealed her identity and saved him, helping him escape.
In return, they obtained an invention from that genius, then used it to disguise themselves as Tsuru.
Tsuru did not care what Roy looked like now. Old, young, wrinkled, it did not matter.
She just wanted to see him.
Then…
He had faked his own death, slipped away without a trace, and spent time with someone else.
After all…
Back when she was still a teenage girl, she had already decided she would follow him.
Tsuru wiped at her eyes, then quickly forced herself back to work, turning another page of documents.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
The door opened again.
A tall, beautiful woman stepped inside, with two strands of hair falling along either side of her face.
She wore a large Navy Justice coat, but this one had pink epaulettes and pink cuffs.
She entered with a faint smile, saluted, then looked toward Tsuru.
"Sit down, Gion." Tsuru returned a small smile.
"What brings you here?" Gion asked as she sat, looking at Tsuru with open curiosity.
The two were close like sisters. The age gap did not matter. In private, they got along intimately.
Gion, code name Peach Rabbit.
She wore a pink deep V mini dress with light pink lace embroidery. Her chest was full and impossible to ignore.
Gion sat cross legged across from Tsuru.
If you looked closely, you could see a spider tattoo on those long, smooth, pale thighs.
Dressed in that gray black business suit and high heels, sitting cross legged like that, she was strikingly beautiful.
"It is like this…"
Tsuru poured a cup of tea for her and began to explain.
"This person once went to the East Blue, and then he never appeared again. If you have time in the future, go to the East Blue and investigate what happened back then."
Slowly, Tsuru recounted to Gion the investigation she had carried out years ago, searching for Roy.
Now Tsuru held a high position, and soon she would be going to the North Blue to deal with Doflamingo of the Donquixote Family.
Naturally, she could not personally go to the East Blue to dig into what Roy had done there.
She needed to know why he vanished there, whether he had been captured, or whether he was dead.
She needed answers, otherwise…
Even if Tsuru died one day, she would never let go of those regrets.
Yet perhaps it was a woman's selfishness.
Tsuru completely ignored Amatsuki Toki. She did not mention Toki at all.
If given the chance, who would not want a man all to herself?
Even if he got old, she wanted time with him.
Even if he was dead, even finding his remains would be enough.
Public records already had him as an old man. Tsuru could not keep this high position forever. If she stayed too long, sooner or later she would slip, someone would investigate, and her superiors would dig into her.
She only wanted to use the resources and intelligence she still controlled, while she still had power, to search for him.
"Then I will take my leave."
"Go. Thank you."
Gion smiled gently. Helping her sister was not troublesome at all.
The East Blue…
That man named Roy really was the one Tsuru dreamed of.
Gion left Tsuru's office with a childhood photo of Roy in her hand.
If she had examined it closely earlier, she would have noticed something.
In the photo with Tsuru, she had deliberately cut off a small figure on the right. Roy's posture looked strange, like he had been holding someone outside the frame.
But Tsuru had been careful. She had cut off Roy's hand as well.
In the final photo, only Roy in the center and Tsuru beside him remained.
"Roy… he must be an old man now, with red hair and wrinkled skin, right?" Gion stood outside, staring at the photo and trying to imagine it.
Yet looking at the delicate, innocent young Roy in the picture, she could not picture what he would look like in old age.
She sighed softly.
"It will be hard to find… but if I cannot, Tsuru will be sad, won't she?"
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