By dusk, the story had run ahead of the sun.
At dockside stalls and smoky taverns, hands went black with ink as sheets rolled off hand-presses. By morning, men would wake to a headline they'd swear was a joke:
EAST BLUE MONSTER CHILD TOPPLES DEMON PIRATES
On another page, a familiar bird silhouette screamed a smaller line:
BIG NEWS EXCLUSIVE SOON — SOURCE IN LOGUETOWN CONFIRMS "KINGLY WILL"
Somewhere far from Loguetown, a massive albatross chuckled and sharpened a headline. The world liked a miracle. It loved a monster.
Marines: Lockdown & Logistics
Back in town, the square wore frost like a bandage. Broken stalls were stacked, ropes run, muskets shouldered low. Colonel Miz paced the cordon.
"Separation order stands," he barked. "First division sharpshooter to cold storage, pufferfish in a lined cage—mouth guard on. White wolf sedated and shackled. Paperwork before midnight or Aokiji makes me sign in ice."
"Aye, sir!"
The Demon Pirates were already nameless weight in chains, boots thudding toward Loguetown's cells. Oren snarled once. The ice didn't notice.
Aokiji's Report (and an Uninvited Reader)
Inside the branch office, Aokiji wrote with a pen that kept trying to freeze to his fingers.
After-Action, Loguetown
Pirate unit: "Demon Pirates" neutralized.
Primary: Oren (Zoan: bear-type, giant-line musculature), secured.
Anomaly: Subject "Kai" — controlled Conqueror's Haki; confirmed Rokushiki (Soru, Tekkai, Kami-e, Geppo, Rankyaku, Shigan).
Unknown pattern on back ("Ghost Back") correlates with performance spikes at threshold ≥ 10%.
Civilian casualties: 0. Marine injuries: minor.
A knuckle tapped the open window once.
"Working late, Vice Admiral?" a smooth voice said.
Aokiji didn't look up. "Cipher Pol?"
The man in the workman's cap stepped inside the lamplight. No Marine insignia. No rank. The faintest imprint of a badge tucked where a coat seam pretended there wasn't one.
"Observation only," the man said. "Internal affairs prefers we transfer the boy."
"You can prefer anything," Aokiji replied. "Loguetown is under my authority."
"Headquarters will—"
"File your protest." He set the pen down. Frost crawled a lazy spiral around the inkwell. "I'll sign it when I thaw my hand."
A long pause. The agent's smile didn't reach his eyes.
"Understood, Vice Admiral." He tipped his cap and faded—footsteps leaving, shadow lingering.
Rooftop: Ghost Back Breathing
Across the harbor, Kai sat on an inn roof, knees drawn up, moonlight silvering his knuckles. The marks across his shoulders pulsed like a slow second heart.
[Ghost Back Completion: 10.07%]
[Cultivation Efficiency Multiplier: ×50]
[Passive resonance with ambient life force detected]
"Ambient life…?" he muttered. The idea made his stomach tighten. It also made his pulse quicken.
He flexed once. Power answered—not loud, not wild; obedient.
Below, Loguetown breathed: gulls, rigging, late carts, a vendor counting coins. Above, something else listened.
Eavesdroppers
Two figures in a dark warehouse watched a long-range Den Den Mushi. The snail's eye tracked the roofline where a small silhouette sat against the moon.
"He's syncing faster than projected," one voice whispered. "If the rate holds, escalate extraction."
"Careful," the other said. "Aokiji is still in town."
"Orders from above," the first hissed. "Higher clearance than us."
"Then we observe. Dawn window only. No noise."
The snail blinked. Somewhere else in the city, another snail blinked back.
World Reaction (Moving Pieces)
At a back table, a merchant circled the headline with a finger and didn't laugh. In a dockside tavern, three old pirates read, raised cups, and refused to say the boy's name aloud. In a smoke-blue room no civilian would ever see, a thin man closed a file stamped with three letters and said, "Ongoing observation."
On a rooftop nearer than either side thought, a cloaked figure watched the harbor until the wind tugged at his hem and then stopped as if asked to wait.
"So you chose the Marines," he murmured. "For now."
Aokiji's Window
Back at the branch, Aokiji leaned on the sill. The square below glittered in thin ice and lantern light.
"A kid with Conqueror's Haki… and a pattern no one understands," he said to the night. "What are you becoming, Kai?"
He pulled his coat tighter. The ice creaked under his fingers.
"This sea doesn't need another monster."
He paused, a yawn he didn't bother to hide. "But it's getting one anyway."
He turned away. The frost on the glass didn't melt; it chose its own time.
To be continued…
At dawn, the watchers move. But a laugh rolls in over the harbor before them—a laugh Loguetown knows by heart.
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