Figarland Estate – Eastern Noble Quarters, Mariejois
The rain never reached this part of the Holy Land.
Saint Figarland Garlin stood barefoot in his dojo, a Cipher Pol agent kneeling broken at his feet. The agent had failed to track Mireille's last movement past the palace gardens. That wasn't a surprise. She never left a trail.
Garlin didn't scold.
He simply placed his heel on the man's chest and pressed.
There was a crack. Then silence.
"Disappoint me again," Garlin murmured, "and I'll show you what I learned from the D clan."
Behind him, a group of noble supporters bowed lower than necessary. Cowards. Loyal—for now.
Meanwhile – The Donquixote Estate
Raisa knelt before me with the map of the world unrolled across the blackwood table. Two red pins. One on Wano. One on Amazon Lily.
"Both fronts will obey," she said.
"You're sure?"
"The Shogun of Wano is weak without Kaido. And the Kuja are divided since Hancock's... fixation with you."
I touched the pin resting on Amazon Lily.
"Boa will bend," I said. "Eventually."
Mireille emerged from the shadowed doorway, dressed in a traveling coat woven with sea prism thread. Light armor. Assassination-ready.
I gestured at the Wano pin.
"You'll take that one. If the new Shogun resists, bleed him. Slowly."
She smiled, kissed my gloved hand, and vanished like smoke.
Mariejois Underground – Garlin's Counterplay
Saint Garlin was smart.
He didn't fight fire with fire.He used water.
His counter-move was subtle—a diplomatic summons to the elders for a "Council of Correction." A small meeting of old nobles to "discuss Lucien's divergence from noble standards."
But I wasn't worried.
They didn't know I wrote the book they were quoting from.
Instead, I sent Valen.
The red-haired girl I took into the Garden.
Now dressed in ceremonial silk, educated in the histories of the World Government, and trained in persuasion by Raisa herself.
A puppet with a razor-tipped smile.
By the time she left that meeting, two nobles had sworn their daughters to my house. One pledged his vote.
Garlin smiled when he heard.
But it was tight. Controlled.
Afraid.
Amazon Lily – A Dangerous Envoy
Raisa stepped foot on the sacred soil of Amazon Lily cloaked in nothing but white robes and mirrored eyes.
The Kuja warriors who surrounded her hesitated.
Even Boa Hancock paused.
"You dare walk into my island uninvited?"
"I came to offer a gift," Raisa replied. "And a warning."
Hancock narrowed her eyes.
"A gift?"
Raisa lifted a scroll, its seal cracked and royal.
Hancock's pupils dilated when she read it.
Because it wasn't a threat.
It was a proposal.
Lucien's crest.
A half-coiled ouroboros ringed by thorns.
And below it, in elegant script:
"Be the queen you were born to be. With me."
Interlude – Cipher Pol Briefing Room
Garlin stared at the latest reports in silence.
Wano had gone quiet. No resistance. No messengers. No dead. Just stillness.
Amazon Lily? Closed its gates. No contact. But no hostility either.
And Mariejois?
Lucien's banners now hung in two new noble estates.
Garlin didn't blink.
He merely folded the parchment and whispered to his aides:
"Bring in the Seraphim."
Donquixote Estate – The Broken Piano
I returned to the drawing room where the piano stood, untouched.
I pressed a key.
Still off-tune.
Valen stood nearby, eyes half-lidded.
"Shall I have it fixed?"
"No," I murmured. "It plays truer this way."
Outside, the sky over Mariejois cracked with dry lightning.
The garden was growing.
And snakes were learning to sing.