Chapter 149: The Discovery of Shiki
Charlotte Linlin handed a document to Charlotte Galette.
"This is?"
Galette scanned the place names listed on the file, then looked up at her mother with curiosity.
"Go on. The requirements are all written clearly," Linlin said with a smile. "You're eighteen this year. This little task should be easy for you."
"I won't let you down, Mom." Galette closed the file.
"Lift your head. Let me look at my lovely adopted daughter," Linlin said warmly.
Galette raised her face. She had beautiful pink hair and skin as white as snow. A purple fur coat draped over her shoulders, and beneath it she wore a fitted dress that matched her hair. Fuchsia gloves hugged her hands, and bright red high heels completed the look.
If you ignored the arrow shaped headdress on her forehead, it was easy to understand why.
Linlin could not help thinking Galette looked like the little princess she and that person might have had.
Linlin's hair was long and pink. Roy's hair was a vivid, burning red.
In Linlin's imagination, the two of them could have produced a little princess with long pink hair.
And in the world of One Piece, that was not even the strangest fantasy.
Sometimes a child resembled their parents perfectly. Sometimes it was like the world spun a roulette wheel.
Even Judge had children who looked nothing like him, with hair colors that did not match any generation of his family, regardless of gender. Judge had once worked alongside Vegapunk, so those children could not possibly have belonged to anyone else.
Others across the sea had also produced children with similarly sudden, ridiculous changes.
Somewhere, even Darwin would have been tempted to lift the lid of his coffin just to curse.
So yes, even Linlin's absurd pink fantasy might have been possible.
Unfortunately, Galette was not her child.
Linlin sighed, then shook her head and waved. "Go."
"Okay. Goodbye, Mom."
Galette bowed and turned to leave the castle.
Linlin, changed by Roy, now wanted to give her brother a perfect world when he returned someday. So she had been learning noble etiquette from various kingdoms.
That was why Whole Cake Island had become what it was now, not quite a pirate crew and not quite a nation. Roy's opinions even influenced the eventual creation of the Kingdom of Trant.
Galette reached the shore of Cake Island, boarded a ship, and set sail for the East Blue.
A great power like Totto Land had special methods to travel between seas.
Soon, the ship vanished into the ocean.
Inside the castle, Linlin suddenly sat up.
"Oh no. I need to give her an instruction."
She shook her head, annoyed at herself for forgetting something important.
"Brubru."
"Hello? Do you need anything else, Mom?"
"If you find a red haired man named Roy, you must treat him with the highest respect," Linlin said slowly, each word heavy. "Do not refuse any request he makes. If you meet him, treat him as though he is the king of a kingdom."
"He matters to you. I understand."
Only then did Linlin finally relax. She ended the Den Den Mushi call.
"Clap."
...
The New World, high above the heavens.
Fluffy white clouds drifted lazily across the sky, above every corner of the world.
And in the air itself, an island floated among those clouds.
A man stood on the island with his arms crossed, a ship's wheel embedded in his forehead. Behind him, a massive Marine warship had flipped over in a small lake. Countless lifeless Marines floated in the water around it.
"Jihahahaha!" he cackled. "Foolish Marines, you still want to chase me, Shiki the Golden Lion? I was once the Golden Lion who nearly drove Roger to the edge of death!"
Behind him, pirates stared in horror at the capsized warship, then at the terrifying figure laughing in front of it.
Nine years ago, Shiki had severed his own legs, discarded the seastone shackles that bound him, and replaced his limbs with his twin swords, Oto and Kogarashi, becoming the first prisoner in history to successfully escape Impel Down.
Later, he reached an island called Merveille, where he discovered plants containing the substance known as SIQ, and animals that had become ferocious because of it.
So he used the Float Float Fruit to lift the entire island into the sky, creating the first floating islands since his rebirth.
His trusted subordinate, Dr. Indigo, worked alongside him on the SIQ theory, and Indigo had spent years researching which plant held the key.
Years later, the Golden Lion planned to unleash those mutated beasts upon the East Blue, letting them ravage the sea as a declaration of revenge against the World Government.
Just now, when he descended to find a new island and expand his floating kingdom, the Navy attacked him.
But who was Shiki?
This was a man who once fought Sengoku and Garp in Marineford, a battle so violent it nearly destroyed half the base before he was finally captured.
There were still many years before the era that people called the main story. Even if his strength had declined, even if the wheel in his skull had clouded his mind, he had not fallen so far that a few minor Marines could bully him.
So those Marines were sent straight to the underworld, to keep chasing Roger there.
And Shiki, generously, took the warship as spoils.
"Hm?" A pirate suddenly spotted a black Den Den Mushi near the lake, half submerged, almost drowning.
Shiki accepted it from his subordinate and stared at it with curiosity.
This Den Den Mushi was smaller than the ones they usually used, small enough to strap to a wrist.
"Huh? Why can't it make calls? What a useless Den Den Mushi," Shiki grumbled, poking at it in irritation.
"Pfft pfft. Bubu."
Dr. Indigo's eyes lit up the moment he saw it. He started dancing in front of Shiki, his ridiculous shoes clacking and squeaking as he hopped around.
And yet, he still did not explain a thing.
"Huh?" Shiki scratched his head, staring at Indigo in confusion.
Indigo finally snapped. "That's an interception Den Den Mushi. It's designed to steal information from other Den Den Mushi communications!"
"So you can talk!" Shiki said, shocked.
Indigo looked like his soul had left his body. "So you can get Alzheimer's too…"
"Hello? Do you need anything else, Mom?"
After Indigo fiddled with the black Den Den Mushi for a while, it suddenly mimicked a pleasant woman's voice.
Shiki, Indigo, and every pirate nearby fell silent, listening intently.
"If you find someone named…"
Then Linlin's mature voice rang out clearly, and Shiki's expression shifted as he clenched his fist.
When the intercepted call ended, the Golden Lion slowly lifted his head toward the sky, then burst into laughter.
He laughed so hard the wheel lodged in his head trembled.
Indigo panicked, yelling for him to calm down before the wheel shook something important loose.
"Cough, cough…" Shiki finally stopped, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.
Memories surfaced.
Back then, when Linlin rose to prominence and refused recruitment under Rocks, Shiki, as a member of the Rocks crew, was often sent by Rocks to deal with her.
And against that stronger, sharper Linlin, Shiki had tasted defeat more than once…
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