"So the plan is to prevent Arton from mentioning our location or our next destination in his Diary, so enemies won't track us down or ambush us at our next stop?"
"This really is necessary, but how do we stop Arton from writing about our location in his Diary? All he needs is a thought, and it gets recorded."
"It's not like using pen and paper—we can't very well stop him directly, can we?"
Kaya furrowed her brows in worry as she spoke.
"No, maybe it's not impossible," Nami said, rubbing her chin.
"Possible?" Kaya blinked, looking at Nami with confusion.
"Yes indeed! Kaya, have you forgotten?"
"Before we joined the Flameblade Pirates, there was a time Carina interrupted Arton's Diary entry."
At Nami's words, Kaya's eyes lit up, and she turned to Carina.
"Could… could it be that time?"
Involuntarily, Kaya recalled the time Carina had given Arton a hot massage to distract him from writing in his Diary. A while back, when Arton was about to make a Diary entry, Carina had offered him a massage, causing him to forget about continuing the entry.
"So that's it. I remember—I joined in that time as well," Uta said, arms folded.
"Back then, I helped Arton by walking on his back."
"Hehe, since you've all remembered, that makes this easier." Carina smiled and said, "It's true Captain Arton doesn't need pen and paper. As soon as he thinks of something, it appears in the Diary, visible to all holding a Diary Copy. So all we have to do is disrupt Captain Arton's train of thought."
"And to break that train of thought… well, you can guess. Knowing Arton's personality, if we do something stimulating enough, he'll forget about writing for the moment."
"For example, if Arton is about to reveal something that's bad for our crew—like our location—and, Kaya, you happen to be at his side, you need to act. Distract him from that thought."
"Arton's always shown a lot of interest in those hug—, ah, large assets of yours, right?"
"So if you, say… used those to wash his back?"
"I'm sure that'd knock his thoughts off course."
Hearing that, Kaya's face instantly went red. Carina's suggestion was undeniably effective, but using such a method in front of everyone left Kaya feeling shy.
"I see. If getting close to him like that can disrupt Arton's thoughts, it really will be easy to stop him from revealing information we don't want out," Nojiko said with a laugh.
"Given how proactive you are, Nojiko, it's a perfect approach," Uta chimed in. "Whether it's you, Nami, or Carina, all of you are quite good at making Arton lose his train of thought."
"Haha, speaking of distractors, you're at the top of the list, Uta," Nojiko teased with a grin.
"Hehe, who knows?" Uta clasped her hands behind her head, then glanced at Tashigi. "Anyway, we can all do it. I'm sure Kaya can handle it too. But what about our newest recruit here—can you do that?"
Following Uta's words, everyone, including Kaya, who was still blushing, turned to look at Tashigi. Indeed, using your breasts to wash Arton's back was a very embarrassing notion, but if absolutely necessary, there might be no choice.
"D-Do we really have to rely on our bodies for this?"
"Maybe I can just ask Arton to practice swordsmanship with me to break his train of thought?"
Tashigi offered weakly.
"That's fine. If you can genuinely stop him by sparring, then our goal's met," Carina said. "But what I really want to know is, if your first idea fails, can you rely on your… charms to break his concentration? You may still be pretty lacking in that department right now, but Arton did say your figure is going to change drastically in the future, right? So if you give it your all, I'll bet you could manage it."
Carina patted Tashigi's shoulder.
"Tashigi, I'm not trying to force you—it's for your own good."
"You stabbed a World Noble and betrayed the Navy. From now on, both the Navy and the World Government are going to come after you. Without sufficient power, you'll be in serious danger."
"Arton happens to have the Arrancar Tier template. Aren't you hoping to gain that power?"
"With her strength, the Navy and World Government will find it much harder to catch you. And with enough power, you'll actually have a shot at saving whoever you need to."
At Carina's words, Tashigi fell silent.
"If I'd had enough strength back then, those villagers wouldn't have died because of me…"
She sighed inwardly, then nodded to Carina. In that moment, Tashigi's longing for power was stronger than ever.
"Great. Now that that's settled, we need someone to stay by Arton's side at all times, so we can nip any unfortunate Diary entries in the bud. As the ship's first crewmate, I'll volunteer to keep Arton company first," Carina announced, patting her chest as if preparing to leave the room.
"Wait just a minute, you," Nami said, placing a hand on Carina's shoulder, her mouth twitching. "Arton specifically told you to handle Tashigi's admission. If you take off, what am I supposed to do—run the whole show by myself?"
Carina likewise grabbed Nami's hand to stop her from leaving.
"Hehe, you think I'd let you sneak off, little thief? I can't deal with Tashigi and Hina alone. Are you going to abandon me when we're best friends?"
Nami quickly replied, "I believe in you, Carina. Someday, you're going to steal all of the Golden Emperor's treasure—you're more than capable. You can handle Hina and Tashigi just fine all by yourself."
The two went back and forth, completely missing the fact that Nojiko and Uta had already slipped out, and even Kaya had departed after taking care of Hina and the World Noble's corpse.
Tashigi waited a while before she finally spoke up.
"Um… Miss Carina, Miss Nami… Could you two please stop for a second? Miss Nojiko, Miss Uta, and Miss Kaya have already left."
"What?!"
Carina and Nami, still in mid-argument, blurted out in unison. They glanced around, realizing the room was empty except for the three of them. At that moment, Tashigi stepped forward and pushed her Diary Copy toward them. It showed a photo of Arton reclining sideways on Kaya's lap, while Uta held a glass of juice for him and Nojiko fed him grapes.
"Th-those guys actually got Nojiko involved like that?"
Nami stamped her foot, sparks of lightning crackling around her. She looked ready to storm over to Arton's room. But Carina seized her hand first.
"You're not going anywhere, Nami. It's just you and me left, so let's help Tashigi get to know the ship," Carina said with a wide smile. If you looked closely, though, you could see a tic mark throbbing on her forehead.
…
Some time later…
On the island where Cocoyasi Village lay, three Marines—Doll, Kujaku, and Hibari—had arrived onshore.
"Sigh… We're too late after all," Kujaku said, gazing at the village. "I never expected things to escalate so far."
"Now's not the time for sighing. We need to ask around, see if any villagers know which way Arton's group went." Doll frowned.
"Vice Admiral Doll, why are we still in disguise?" Hibari asked. "Arton's not here anymore, so do we need to pretend to be travelers?"
"It's necessary, Hibari," Doll replied. "The villagers might hate the Navy because of Captain Nezumi. If we pose as ordinary people, we might be able to find out something about Arton. Hibari, you look the friendliest, so you go ask. Feel free to pretend we're acquaintances of Arton."
Hibari nodded and quickly walked ahead to speak to some villagers. After she was gone, Kujaku spoke up.
"Vice Admiral Doll, do we really need to keep looking for Arton? At this point, it's pretty clear he wants nothing to do with the Navy."
Doll sighed.
"I know that. But just like Vice Admiral Gion told us earlier, even if Arton can't be brought onto the Navy's side, we still have to stop him. If he keeps slaughtering World Nobles, the entire world will be thrown into turmoil."
She shook her head.
"In any case, let's see if we can gather some intel. Since Arton hasn't announced his next stop in the Diary, this is the best we can do. Hopefully, we can figure out where they're headed and report it to Gion and Garp."
...
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