After leaving the shipyard, Jin followed the life cards and soon found the others still happily wandering the city.
He explained the situation.
The others listened and nodded. Just from the blueprint alone, half of them had gotten dizzy—the ship was bound to take time.
"Um, Jin?" Uta tugged his sleeve, eyes bright. "Since we've got a whole month… why don't we hold a concert here?"
"That works," Jin nodded. "We've got time to burn.
"You can go talk to Iceburg. He's basically the guy in charge of this city anyway. Get permission, find a venue."
He glanced at his core fighters.
"As for me, Kuro, Zan Gao… we've got a little errand to run."
"Uh, boss…" Señor Pink crushed his cigarette and stepped forward. "Can I come with you? I want to help out too."
He'd been with them about a month now.
His wife was healed. He'd been training non-stop, and Lucia said she preferred how he looked in his old days, not slumped and broken.
Señor Pink felt ashamed, honestly.
He'd been eating their food and sleeping under their roof and hadn't contributed much of anything.
His pride couldn't accept that.
Jin nodded.
"Sure."
Ain, Wanda, Brook, Pedro—plus Uta and Shirohiko—were more than enough protection back at base. Uta and Shirohiko together could absolutely flatten a group of ordinary adults.
Styla was even more overpowered: with the Bubble-Bubble Fruit and the Six Powers, she was already close to a standard rear admiral combat-wise.
They wandered the city until evening, enjoying the food stalls and waterways, then rented rooms in a decent hotel for the night.
That same night…
Iceburg quietly slipped away to the backstreets.
There, in a familiar junkyard workshop, a man in nothing but a black-and-grey speedo lounged with his leg up, sunglasses on.
"Whatcha doing here, Iceburg?" Franky asked, chewing on a cola straw.
"I need your help," Iceburg said, sitting down opposite him. He pulled out the blueprint and handed it over.
Franky skimmed the design once, then twice. His jaw dropped.
"Oi, oi, oi—who came up with this crazy-awesome stuff?" he demanded. "This design is SUPER!"
"A very important person," Iceburg said. "He's given me one month. And already paid a deposit."
Franky's face hardened suddenly.
He tossed the blueprint aside.
"Ever since… that day," he said quietly, "I swore I wouldn't build ships anymore. You know that."
Iceburg nodded, expression calm.
He took out a folded letter and held it out.
"Read this first," he said. "It's from that man. For you."
"What's with all the secrecy," Franky grumbled, but he took the letter anyway.
He opened it.
His expression darkened line by line.
I know the blueprints for the Ancient Weapon Pluton are with your friend.
Help me build this ship. If anything happens in the future, I'll help you—once.
"That's the kind of price he's offering," Iceburg said seriously. "I can't just pretend I didn't see it.
"And I think…" he added, looking at Franky, "you should go with him. You just came back. The World Government probably doesn't know you're alive yet.
"We have no idea if they've already planted someone close to us.
Leaving with him now is your safest option."
"Who is this guy?" Franky asked, letting the letter fall onto the table.
"Not long ago, in the New World," Iceburg said slowly, "he defeated the Beast Kaido in open battle.
"Former Marine rear admiral, now free agent—Arakaki Jin. Codename: White Ghost."
"Oh, that guy, huh," Franky grunted. He'd seen the papers too. "Even so, I don't want to leave. This is Tom's town. His home."
"Franky," Iceburg said, voice firm. "This is the best chance you'll ever get.
"Right now, the World Government doesn't know you're alive. If you leave now, it's the safest move you can make."
"Enough," Franky said, picking the blueprint back up and flipping through it again. "I'll help with the ship.
"But leaving with him… sorry. I don't have that in me."
Iceburg stared at him for a long time, then sighed.
"I figured you'd say that."
Franky smirked slightly.
"Still," he said, tapping the letter, "you really think that guy's gonna keep his word after the ship's done?"
"He should," Iceburg said. "If he wanted to sell us out, he wouldn't need to threaten us like this. He could've gone straight to the Government and been rewarded."
Franky thought about it, then nodded once.
"Alright then. I'll help. Never tried a design like this before… but that just makes it more fun."
Later that night, back in his office, Iceburg stayed late, deep in thought.
On the other side of the city, Jin had just finished a plate of Water Seven's famous water-meat and was now walking along the dark shoreline with Styla.
The others had stayed at the hotel to rest. Ain had wanted to come too, but halfway to the door, something crossed her mind and she turned back.
The waves crashed gently against the stone line of the coast.
On a large rock near the water, Styla lay sideways across Jin's lap, her head resting against his chest.
Neither of them spoke.
They just sat together, watching the moonlight ripple on the sea.
"How long's it been," Jin murmured, "since we just… sat like this, quietly, just the two of us?"
"Mm… it's been a while," Styla agreed softly.
Ever since Jin had saved her and brought her home, she'd shared a room with Ain.
Back in the early days, there were still nights where Ain was off on missions and Styla got Jin to herself sometimes.
But then Uta had arrived.
Then Shirohiko, Wanda, Squirrel-tan…
More and more people had come into their home.
Time alone with just the two of them had become rarer and rarer.
And Jin was constantly out on missions.
By now, you could probably count their truly private moments on one hand.
"What are you thinking about?" Jin asked when he realized she'd gone quiet, staring at nothing.
Styla traced circles on his chest absently with one hand.
"I was just thinking," she murmured, "if I hadn't met you that day… would I have ended up as some noble's slave by now?"
Jin nearly laughed.
No, he thought. If you hadn't met me, you would've run into Tesoro. Then been bought by a Celestial Dragon. Ended up tortured to death. And that bastard would've slipped out on a fluke.
But he didn't say that.
"Don't think about stuff like that," he said instead, lightly flicking her nose. "You're here now, aren't you? And you're doing just fine."
"Mm…"
Styla nodded gently and snuggled closer, arms tightening around him.
Her mind drifted.
Her face grew warmer and warmer.
They'd been together for a long time now. They'd confessed. Kissed. Slept in the same house.
But… never actually crossed that line.
"What's wrong?" Jin asked, feeling her tension change.
"N–nothing," Styla stammered, trying to tuck her face further into his chest.
"Liar," Jin said quietly.
He put a hand under her chin and tilted her face up to meet his.
They looked at each other.
Styla stared at his annoyingly handsome face.
Jin looked at her flushed cheeks and trembling eyelashes and suddenly felt like biting her.
He couldn't hold it back anymore.
Jin lowered his head and kissed her.
Styla's eyes widened briefly—
then closed, her arms sliding up around his neck.
Jin flicked a finger, summoning a barrier of compressed wind around the rock, cutting off sight and sound from the outside.
Then he stood, lifting her, and stepped behind the boulder with her in his arms.
What followed was… not peaceful.
Somewhere between an explosive shout from Jin and a muffled gasp from Styla, the wind barrier shivered.
After that, there were only broken, breathless sounds and the rustle of cloth.
No one else on the quiet shoreline heard a thing.
He made sure of that.
After who-knows-how-long, Jin lay back inside the barrier, Styla curled into his side.
She'd fallen deeply asleep, drained.
He pulled a blanket from his bracelet and draped it over them both.
For a while, he just watched the stars.
Then his hand started wandering.
Styla stirred, eyelashes fluttering as she slowly woke.
She caught his "misbehaving" hand and pressed it flat against her stomach.
"Not… enough yet?" she whispered, voice hazy and hoarse.
"Heh. What do you think?" Jin grinned.
He rolled over and pinned her beneath him again.
At dawn, he carried the completely exhausted Styla back to the hotel and tucked her into bed.
Then, despite not having slept at all, Arakaki Jin walked out into the sunrise with clear eyes and a spring in his step, gathering Kuro, Zan Gao, and Señor Pink.
Time to get some work done.
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