The Marine's "operation" had been in motion for weeks.
They'd planted a spy inside the Golden Lion Pirates and bought off a "traitor" within one of their subordinate pirate crews with promises of protection and other guarantees. With those two feeding them a steady stream of information, the Marines investigated from the shadows and waited for the right opening.
And this time, they got it: word that multiple pirate crews—including the one with the "traitor"—had been invited to Shiki's hideout.
That was the cue to set their long-prepared plan into action.
They turned Shiki's own method against him—his habit of lifting an entire island, the surrounding sea, and every pirate ship caught within that range, then relocating the whole lot to his "Sky Island" hideout.
Guided by the "traitor," Marine ships were hidden inside the island and along its perimeter without being detected. They rose together with the island—carried into the sky in the same transfer.
Then, at the exact same timing as the pirate crews, the Marines moved. The entire fleet surged forward at once, advancing to encircle the island that served as Shiki's base, and opened fire.
To keep the fleet from being split apart, the supreme commander of this operation—Marine Headquarters Admiral Aokiji—froze the ships in place along with the surrounding seawater, locking everything together.
And as if that weren't enough, the island's route was manipulated through the spy's covert interference, steering it straight into the heart of a storm.
For Shiki, who fought in the air, bad weather was a natural enemy. It crippled his aerial combat potential.
And now—
"You've gotten weaker… Golden Lion."
"Heh… Don't get cocky, Ice Brat…!"
On the snowy plain before the hideout, cannon fire thundered without pause. Snow whipped into the air, wind screaming through it, while the two commanders clashed in the middle of the chaos.
But the situation was painfully stacked against Shiki.
He still wore that fearless grin, but he was breathing hard—his body marked with wounds.
Aokiji, by contrast, bore no injuries worth calling injuries. Even so, he kept his guard up, eyes fixed on Shiki without a hint of carelessness.
Around them, the massive lions of earth and water Shiki had unleashed were frozen solid, their shapes preserved in ice, motionless where they stood.
Even with Shiki's power to manipulate the ground and snow—and even the surrounding seawater—once the material itself was frozen and robbed of its fluidity, it might as well have been dead weight. At best, he could turn it into a blunt weapon.
And that kind of attack was never going to work on Aokiji.
Retreat wasn't an option, either.
If Shiki wanted to escape, he could. Flying made running away easy.
But the moment he withdrew, Aokiji would turn his sights on the hideout itself.
And inside that hideout, there wasn't a single person who could stand up to that man. They'd be trampled in one-sided slaughter—or hauled away in chains. Either way, the Golden Lion Pirates would be finished.
Everything Shiki had built for over a decade would collapse into nothing.
More than that—Shiki's name, the pride of the Great Pirate who once reigned as one of the sea's rulers, simply wouldn't allow him to turn his back and flee from one Marine.
"You know it, don't you? You know you can't beat me the way you are now. If you stop struggling, I can take you back alive… though I'm sure you know where you'll end up."
"Jihahahaha… You want me to go back to that miserable prison? Not a chance… And I just told you to stop talking big, brat!"
Shiki accelerated in a flash, lunging in with the blade on his foot, swinging up for Aokiji's neck.
Aokiji met him with an ice saber, parrying cleanly—but after several exchanges, the difference in technique showed. With a sharp, ringing crack, the ice blade was knocked aside and sent flying.
Shiki didn't miss the opening. His foot-blade caught Aokiji's neck—
—and severed it.
"G…!!"
"See? You can't handle me anymore."
But icy grains swarmed together at once, reforming Aokiji's neck in an instant. And instead, the one who took damage was Shiki—cold clinging to his blade, biting back into him.
His posture broke midair. He wavered, tilting dangerously.
Aokiji's hand reached for him—Shiki barely managed to knock it away and pull back, retreating into the sky.
On the ground, Aokiji looked up and let out a long, tired breath.
"If you hadn't gotten any strange ideas… you could've just stayed retired, living out your days as a 'Legend.'"
Shiki hadn't failed to use Haki in that strike.
It just hadn't landed as damage—because Aokiji's overall strength was higher. The blow had been neutralized, washed off, made meaningless.
Armament Haki could seize even a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, sure—but if the opponent was an equal or greater Haki user, it didn't always become a decisive hit.
Which meant one cruel truth:
Right now, Shiki's power was… beneath Aokiji's.
"And on top of that—don't you look unusually worn out? I'm not saying this to be kind. Come quietly, Golden Lion. Headquarters wants you captured alive."
"Did Sengoku and Garp really think I'd say 'I understand' when I hear that…? Jihahahaha… Don't keep asking stupid questions, kid!"
"…Yeah. They said that. Honestly… why are old guys so stubborn?"
As he formed another ice saber in his hand, Aokiji raised it into a guard, bracing for Shiki's next charge.
Meanwhile, inside a room deep within the hideout…
☆☆☆
If this diary is to be believed—assuming what's written here is even true—then my birth mother was… well.
Eccentric doesn't begin to cover it.
And to think she'd been like that even before she became a pirate.
My mother—Venerdi Sou—was born on a certain island in the Grand Line.
Even as a child, she had a mind that clearly set her apart from everyone her age. To her, studying wasn't duty or discipline. It was "a wonderful form of entertainment"—a way to turn the unknown into something she owned.
She reached for every field that caught her interest, hoarding knowledge that could only be called first-rate. And among all of it, she was especially drawn to medicine and pharmacology.
If she'd gone through proper training and pursued the path of a physician, she probably would've become a famous doctor.
But that apparently wasn't enough for her.
Or rather… she couldn't wait long enough to get a medical license.
Before she was even an adult, she opened a "hospital" (something like one, anyway) in the village where she lived—without permission—and started treating patients—without a license. The elderly were her main targets.
And she didn't stop at simple checkups or folk remedies, either. She performed surgeries and compounded medications like it was nothing, without a shred of guilt.
Of course people raised objections.
She ignored every single one.
And because her work actually helped—and because she didn't demand outrageous fees—too many people waved it off with a tired "Well, I guess it's fine," and let it happen.
For Sou, being a doctor was almost in the realm of a hobby. At the same time, it was pure goodwill—she genuinely wanted to help people suffering from illness and injury.
So long as she had research funds and enough income to maintain a decent standard of living, she was satisfied.
Basically a good person… probably.
Ideas like a devil… definitely.
And no self-awareness whatsoever.
That was Venerdi Sou.
How she ended up joining Shiki's crew is… complicated in a way that feels both deep and shallow at the same time. Or maybe it's just history.
Anyway—switching topics a bit. Like I said before, my mother, Kuu, and my birth mother, Sou, were sisters.
Kuu was in the same village where Sou opened that "clinic." By then, my mother had already married the man I recognized as my father—Toto Kash.
But no matter how many years passed after they married, they couldn't have a child, and it weighed on both of them.
If what the diary says is true, my mother—Kuu—had a body that couldn't conceive, or at least had great difficulty conceiving.
Sou confirmed it through tests… and, because she never knew when to stop, decided to develop a drug to "fix" that condition and make Kuu take it.
Kuu refused. She was scared, and honestly, who wouldn't be?
So Sou decided that if swallowing medicine was too frightening, then inhaling it would be fine. (Do not try to understand the thought process. It's pointless. Probably.)
She created a gas-form medicine meant to be absorbed by breathing it in.
But when she tried to release it inside the house, Kuu fought like her life depended on it—because it did—shouting something along the lines of, "What are you doing, you idiot?! Stop!"
In the struggle, Sou fell. The gas canister broke.
Not just their house—the entire village was swallowed by the gas.
Fortunately, the gas wasn't strongly toxic. Nobody suffered any "health damage" from inhaling it.
But Sou, with the utterly unhinged logic of, "If her body gets fixed, she'll have to try hard and make lots of babies, and I should help with that too," had mixed into the gas a component that would make men and women "get along," "feel energetic," and all those things (that's me being as euphemistic as humanly possible).
Of course, she did it with 100% good intentions.
Which is what makes it horrifying.
That gas spread across the whole village.
And of course, Kuu and Kash weren't the only couple there. There were other married pairs, and even lovers—childhood friends everyone was screaming at to just get together already, that sort of thing.
…The next year, the village experienced an unprecedented baby boom.
Naturally, Sou couldn't stay there anymore.
And Kuu and Kash couldn't stay either—caught up in the fallout.
The terrifying part is that Sou still tried to go with them even then. But the night before they left, while Sou was packing, Kuu apparently knocked her out from behind, leaving her unconscious. By the time Sou came to, it was morning, and Kuu and Kash were already gone—disappeared without a trace.
Even at this point, there are too many things to comment on.
And the story keeps going.
After that, Sou moved to a town she chose at random and—without learning a thing—built another "hospital" (self-proclaimed).
She was arrested for practicing without a license and expelled.
That same pattern repeated five or six times.
Seriously. Learn.
At some point, people started whispering about a skilled underground doctor. A bad organization noticed her and hired her as a back-alley physician.
She treated criminals' wounds, performed surgeries, and produced all kinds of dangerous drugs to get by.
Then, somehow, she learned something she shouldn't have—or got involved in something she shouldn't have—and she was driven out and marked for death.
The diary says the reason is unknown, but honestly… even without ever meeting her, I can imagine she did something reckless without realizing it.
Anyway, that organization happened to pick a fight with the Golden Lion Pirates.
And in the process, Shiki ended up saving Sou—who was about to be killed.
Shiki saw her skill, called out to her, and—
"You've got a good hand, woman. Use it for me."
"No, thank youuuu! My medicine and pharmacology aren't meant for just one person—they're meant to help many peopleee!"
"…Then I'll make sure you can be useful to all sorts of people, including me. Come with me."
"If that's the case, then OKAYYYY!"
"Really? …Well, then. I'm counting on you from here on out."
"Yesssss! Looking forward to working with you, Boss! By the way, I already made this and this and this, so can I have permission to test them outttt?"
"…Huh? These are pretty interesting—wait, what do you mean you already made them?! Did you go into the lab on your own?! I saved you yesterday—when did you even have time?! And I didn't give you permission! Not to make things, and definitely not to go in and out of the lab!"
"Ooooh, was that sooooo? I must've gotten confuseddddd! But that's such a tiny little problemmmm!"
"It is not tiny! And 'confused'—this is literally the first time we've talked! There's no way you had permission—also, you're loud! Talk quieter!"
Apparently, it was like that from the start.
In a way… it really might've been fate. These two.
After that, Sou served the Golden Lion Pirates for a long time as their doctor, pharmacist, and researcher.
As for how it ended—well. It matched exactly what Shiki told me. His story was written here, just as he'd said it.
…Except there was one thing I'd never heard until now:
After her second illness, Sou fell into despair and tried to die—taking the child in her womb with her—and Shiki stopped her and saved her.
So, yeah.
I was almost killed before I was even born.
And looking at it that way… Shiki is, for me, both a father—
and the person who saved my life.
And that savior is outside right now, on the verge of losing to Aokiji. I can feel it through my Observation Haki—he's struggling. Badly.
Maybe fighting Shiki pushed my Haki again. They say you grow in the middle of battles that force you past your limits.
I tilted my head and looked up.
Even though this is Sky Island, the altitude is low enough that the storm feels close. The weather is vicious. We're right in the middle of it.
The storm is one of the reasons Shiki's strength is dropping, and we need to break out of it—but only Shiki can move the island.
And Shiki is locked in battle with Aokiji, with no room to spare.
The subordinates inside are stretched to the limit too—dealing with Marine ships and the soldiers trying to land. There isn't a single spare hand to play a decisive card.
…Except for me.
"…Well, I guess I'll just act without overthinking this time. He is my father, after all… and the Marines are my enemies too."
If Shiki loses and gets captured, this place will be taken over. And then I'll be captured right along with it.
No. Absolutely not.
And besides—Devil Fruit abilities often get undone when the user loses consciousness, don't they?
If Shiki passes out, or if Aokiji freezes him solid… what happens to this island?
Does it fall?
That's… bad. That's really bad.
I don't have time to sit here.
And—wait, did the Marines come here knowing that? Are they actually a suicide squad or something?!
No. Stop. Later.
I can't afford even a second of wasted thought.
"Dr. Indigo!"
"Yes!? Uh—Miss, I really don't have time to talk right now… What is that?"
The clown-like scientist stared at the memo I thrust in front of his face.
"Prepare all this immediately! Hurry and save Shiki, then get rid of those Marines! I'll help too!"
Even though we were trying to kill each other just a few days ago... guess I'll try being a dutiful daughter for once!
To be continued...