Having successfully broken out of Impel Down, we were now heading straight for Marine Headquarters, but... for the time being, there was a stretch of idle time.
Well, maybe not exactly idle. In the sense of waiting until we arrived, it was definitely downtime, but there was plenty to do, and events did happen.
First of all...
"""We... we didn't hear about thiiiiis!?"""
When they learned that this warship was headed for Marine Headquarters, and moreover that a war against the Whitebeard Pirates was being fought there, the people who had primarily broken out under Buggy and Mr. 3's leadership let out screams. After escaping prison, they apparently hadn't imagined their destination would be an even more dangerous place.
The Newkama Land group already knew, since that had been the plan from the start.
Those who hadn't heard... a war where the Whitebeard Pirates, Marine Headquarters, and the Shichibukai were all participating? More terrifying than hell itself, they wailed in utter pandemonium.
...Well, I understood how they felt, but... on this point, I had to agree with what Crocodile said: everyone had been a bit slow on the uptake.
After passing through the Gates of Justice, we were now riding on the Government's exclusive route, commonly known as the Tarai Current, a rapid transit route connecting the Three Major Facilities. Think of it like riding a train: the travel itself was fast, but you couldn't just get off at any arbitrary point along the way.
The only exits on this current were three locations: Marine Headquarters, Impel Down, and Enies Lobby.
Since Impel Down, which we'd just departed from, was obviously out of the question, if we were going anywhere, it had already been narrowed down to one of the remaining two from the very start.
That said, for the "we don't want to go to Marine Headquarters" crowd, the situation wasn't quite as hopeless as it seemed.
Why? Because the fleet we were currently riding consisted of a full four ships.
Luffy and Buggy were making so much noise that the discussion wasn't going anywhere, so I figured, all right, let me chime in.
"Hey, hey! Mind if I make a suggestion?"
"Oh, Sue. What are you gonna do? You going to Marine Headquarters?"
"Well, yeah... I knew about this from the start, and I boarded this ship fully prepared for it."
Personally, I wanted to help Luffy and Bon-chan... and besides, I felt I needed to repay Iva-san and the others who had taken care of me along with Alice and the rest back in Newkama Land.
Plus, I was in the mood to pay back the Marines for throwing me into that awful place...
I'd made various "preparations" for that purpose, too...
"But still... there are actually people on board who didn't expect this at all, and I think it'd be a bit cruel to drag them along against their will, don't you?"
"Yeah, that's right! Well said, Literary Master sis! Keep going, keep going!"
At the edge of my vision, Buggy and his subordinates (provisional) were directing hopeful gazes my way.
They seemed to want the destination changed somehow, but... sorry, my suggestion's a little different.
"Huh? But we don't have time to make detours and drop people off."
"We don't need detours. People who want to go and people who don't can just split up. We've got four ships, after all."
""...Oh, right!""
They'd been so fixated on the despair of the "destination" that every last one of them had failed to notice, but... right now, the warships we were spread across numbered four.
So if we designated one or two of them as the "Marine Headquarters" ships, and people who didn't want to go transferred to the remaining vessels and split off at a suitable point... that would settle it.
From our side too, bringing along people with no fighting spirit wouldn't add to our combat strength anyway... so I had no intention of forcing unwilling people to come along.
That said...
"Hell yeah, great idea, Pirate Literary Master! Alright, that's the plan! You lot take this ship to Marine Headquarters or wherever the hell you want! We're taking the other warships and getting the hell out of here! Right, boys!?"
"We're with you, Captain Buggy!"
"We just got out of hell! Like we're gonna walk into an even worse one!"
"I'm going home to my family... I'm quitting piracy and living a quiet, peaceful life!"
"Ah... well, sorry to rain on your parade when you're all fired up to bail, but... don't forget that the only possible destinations are Marine Headquarters, Impel Down, and Enies Lobby."
"""...Wha!?"""
Oh, so they really had forgotten.
As I said before, with Impel Down out of the question, and Marine Headquarters also off the table... the only remaining destination was Enies Lobby.
That place had been devastated not long ago when Luffy and crew went on a rampage and a Buster Call was called in, but... I'd heard reconstruction was gradually progressing.
Naturally, there'd be Marines stationed there for security too.
Well, given the timing, I doubted they'd be impressive in either numbers or quality... so with enough bodies, a forced breakthrough might be possible. There were some pretty big-name prisoners among us, after all.
"One more thing to add... whichever exit ye choose, ye'll have to deal with the Gates of Justice. They'll know we've broken out at Marine Headquarters too, so there's no chance they'll open the gates for us."
So supplemented Jinbe, a Shichibukai, as he gripped and turned the ship's wheel.
Having a member of the Shichibukai personally steering? Now that's a luxury Helmsman... but then again, Fish-Men are a race skilled at reading waves and currents, so maybe it was the perfect fit.
"Th-then even if we split up here, we still can't get out anywhere!?"
"Can't we just veer off to the side partway through and exit!? The Three Major Facilities aren't enclosed by fences or anything, are they!?"
"There might not be any enclosure per se... but judging by the strength and direction of these currents, the inside and outside are almost completely separated. If we had a paddle ship with considerable horsepower it'd be a different story, but in a sailing vessel that relies on wind and waves, even with oars, going against the current to get out would be nigh impossible."
"If the Captain of the Fish-Man Pirates says so, it must be true. In the first place, the Tarai Current is maintained by the Government using the Gates of Justice to regulate the ocean currents themselves. They wouldn't leave any loopholes."
Crocodile joined in with that merciless pronouncement.
The "uninformed" group stood there stunned.
A "what do we do" atmosphere spread across the other ships as well... but then, amid all that, something happened that moved things forward.
The Den Den Mushi mounted on the ship's mast began signaling an incoming call with a steady "purupurupuru..."
"(Click) Hello?"
"This is Marine Headquarters."
"I see. I'm Luffy, the man who's gonna be Pirate King!"
Whoa, he said everything in his very first line. Charging ahead without hesitation as always.
While everyone around him went slack-jawed, the Marine on the other end of the line stated that the ringleaders of this incident were identified as Straw Hat Luffy and Buggy the Clown.
On top of that, they also revealed that Buggy had been a former member of the Roger Pirates and was a sworn brother of the Four Emperors' Red-Haired Shanks.
After that, the Marine Headquarters transmission ended with the declaration, "We will not open the Gates of Justice for you. You have nowhere to go and nowhere to return to." But... the real issue was what happened next.
Having learned that Buggy's origins were something extraordinary, the prisoners began hailing him as a hero, a Great Pirate. And looking none too displeased about it, Buggy got carried away by the rising excitement and declared: "Today, I'm taking Whitebeard's head!"
Then somehow, most of the prisoners who'd been saying they wanted to escape were spontaneously moved and began pledging to follow him one after another... and the result was that the vast majority ended up going, "Let's go to Marine Headquarters!"
Well... it went this way in the Original Work too, but. So this is how it turns out after all.
Not everyone went along with it, though... and in the end, the ships were split roughly in half between those who were going and those who weren't.
Why? Because there were still a fair number of prisoners who absolutely did not want to go to Marine Headquarters, and on top of that, many prisoners had been injured during the fighting in Impel Down and were in no condition to charge into a war.
Even though I'd held Magellan at bay, the Jailer Beasts, the Blugori, and the other Executive-level forces were no pushovers, so naturally there were plenty of wounded.
What's more, in the Original Work, those people were probably left behind as everyone ran for their lives, since otherwise Magellan would have caught up from behind. But in this world, things hadn't been that desperate, so there were quite a few cases where people lent a hand to comrades who could move with some help, resulting in them successfully escaping together.
Even among those who'd made it out under their own power, there were likely some who, in the Original Work, would have been slowed by their injuries and caught by Magellan, but in this world had managed to escape.
After all, over 1,400 people had successfully broken out... that really was an incredible number.
Those people would only be a burden if they forced themselves to join the war, dragging down Captain Buggy.
And so, swallowing their tears, they resolved to "stay behind"... entrusting their feelings to their comrades heading to the battlefield, and to our Captain Buggy.
"Even apart, our hearts are with you!"
"Go wild out there for our sake too!"
"Captain Buggy! I'm ashamed I can't accompany you... at the very least, I pray for your good fortune in battle!"
"Leave it to me, you lot... rest easy and wait for us! In a few hours, when the war's over... and we've seized the world, we'll meet again!"
"""OOOOH!! CAPTAIN BUGGYYYYY!!"""
So with things settled like that, we were headed straight for Marine Headquarters.
As for the "not going" group, they decided to exit through the Gates of Justice on the Marine Headquarters side as well. The plan was to not continue on to Marine Headquarters itself, but to veer off and away immediately after passing through the gates.
There should be enough margin, or rather space, for that... right? During a war, they probably wouldn't go out of their way to chase after bystanders.
***
So our destination was set, but... there were various other events along the way as well.
During casual conversation with Iva-san, Luffy accidentally let slip that Ace's father was the Pirate King, Gold Roger.
"""Wh... Fire Fist Ace is... the Pirate King's sooooon!?"""
"What... Ace is Captain Roger's...!?"
This was enough to make not just the prisoners but even Crocodile and Jinbe change color.
Buggy was... certainly surprised, but there seemed to be something else weighing on his mind as well.
Oh, I made sure to put on a surprised act too. Even though I already knew.
"Ah, crap... I wasn't supposed to say that either."
...Well, about now Fleet Admiral Sengoku was probably saying the same thing over at Marineford... but as always, this protagonist sure had a way of casually dropping bombshells with that easygoing attitude...
"Oh, but maybe I had to tell Iva-chan!? Since I'm Dad's son, and that's why I'm trying to save Ace too, mmph mmph."
It seemed like at this rate his mouth would slip again and he'd end up blurting out that he himself was the son of Dragon the Revolutionary, so I covered his mouth from behind.
Iva-san gave me a thumbs up with a "GJ!" Apparently sharing the same concern.
"N-no, it's quite alright, Straw Hat Boy... honestly I'm quiiiite shocked, but it doesn't change who you are... Still, what a pair of sworn brothers you turned out to have..."
Watching Iva-san's oversized face dripping with cold sweat... I felt a tug-tug on my clothes from behind.
Turning around, Alice was standing there... and leaned in to whisper in my ear.
"Mom, Mom, if what they just said is true... are we really going to be okay going through with this?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Fire Fist aside... Gold Roger is, well... from Grandpa's perspective, his fated nemesis, right? If we go to save his son, you think Grandpa won't be angry?"
Ah, that kind of worry.
True enough... if I recalled correctly, Papa had fought Gold Roger dozens of times... and each time he'd tried to recruit him with "Become my right hand!" only to be turned down every time.
But, well...
"I think it'll be fine, probably. Ace is just the son, not Roger himself."
"You think so...? I feel like Grandpa's still pretty hung up on Roger even now... Even though it got called off, that old plan targeting East Blue? That was because it was the Pirate King's birthplace and ended up being his execution site too, right?"
"Emotionally, maybe. But he seemed pretty over it lately. He's been throwing himself into all sorts of different plans... and besides, just because Roger got the last laugh on him, he wouldn't take it out on Ace by hating the son for the father's sins. He's got too much pride for that."
If it were a bit earlier... back when Papa was treating East Blue itself as his personal enemy, I might have worried. But the current Papa had mellowed out quite a bit and become much more reasonable. Relatively speaking, anyway.
At the very least, the Papa of today was properly living in the present.
Even while never forgetting the memories of his battles with Roger, he was surely moving forward, living for the seas ahead alongside me, his daughters, and his new subordinates.
He wouldn't take action against Ace just because of a blood connection to Roger.
Alice seemed tentatively convinced, saying, "If you say so, Mom."
Well... if anything came of it, we'd deal with it then.
If my prediction turned out to be wrong... worst case, Papa might storm into the Summit War, lifting warships into the air and dropping them down on people... but, well, that would actually be pretty reassuring in its own way...
***
There were other things too... maybe not quite "events" per se, but.
While sailing across the sea, everyone ate and drank together in a big, festive atmosphere, making a lot of noise.
I mean, I did think it was a bit much to be making such a ruckus before a battle... and it wasn't like we'd originally planned to have a banquet or anything...
But since an extremely fierce battle was coming up, the reasoning became: let's fill our stomachs and build up our strength! So we decided to help ourselves to the Marine food supplies stored on the warships.
A Marine warship carries several hundred Marines per vessel.
Naturally, there was a corresponding amount of food stocked on board... more than enough to fill the bellies of us prison escapees.
The cooking was led by Big Sis Beauty, the Chef of the Winter Sky, with prisoners who had experience as cooks or servers in their pirate crews volunteering to help... and they cranked out dish after dish with the momentum to use up every last ingredient.
Many of them had extensive experience preparing and serving food for large groups, so their efficiency was remarkable... and before you knew it, the warship's deck had been transformed into a buffet hall.
The menu, understandably... quantity aside, wasn't exactly refined or luxurious. It was made with the top priority being food that was tasty, filling, and energizing.
Everyone grabbed whatever they liked and refueled on their own... but somehow it turned into a banquet before anyone noticed.
The prisoners started saying things like, "This is a celebration in advance of Captain Buggy seizing the world!" and the like.
For those who had no intention of joining the revelry, individual portions were prepared on smaller plates for them to take... and for members like Jinbe who were stuck handling navigation and watch duties, the server prisoners brought over easy finger food for them.
By the way, since I helped out a little too, a very small number of Offensive Cooking dishes got mixed in. If you happened to get one, that was a stroke of luck.
...Or so I thought, but my three daughters precisely sniffed out the aroma of my cooking and snatched up their portions before anyone else.
Well, those girls were used to eating my cooking on a daily basis... and with Leona there, they could probably detect it by smell.
I did make sure to have Lupus personally deliver a portion to Luffy, the one who probably needed this food the most.
"Here comes another batch! I'll keep 'em coming, so eat as much as you want!"
"Whoa! More! This is amazing!"
"Delicious... I can feel the power surging through me! Big Sis Beauty, you're the best!"
"Don't mention it! Eat up and get strong, you dogs! But hey, don't be idiots and stuff yourselves so full you can't move! Keep it to about eighty percent! And booze... if you absolutely have to drink, it's at your own risk! Don't be stupid enough to get drunk, not be able to fight, and die!"
"Yes ma'am! Big Sis Beauty!"
"Hey, you men! Stop making a ruckus and listen up! There's a war coming, you understand that!?"
The lady pirates delivered food, collected empty plates, slapped away the hands of pirates who tried to get handsy, and kicked drunks who were staggering around. ...Strong women.
"Alright, this one's done too. Take it over."
"Yes, Lady Sue."
"Thanks, Lupus... oh, that's right. Did you deliver that earlier portion to Luffy? Did he say anything about it?"
"Ah, well, about that... the moment it entered his range, he stretched out his hands and inhaled it, so I didn't get to ask..."
"..."
Well, whatever. That was fine.
***
One more thing.
This was a fairly minor matter, but...
"Lady Sue, please take this."
"Hm? What's this, Yuri?"
"A change of clothes. From the looks of it, those appear to be a stopgap measure... and they don't seem suited for combat."
Ah... right, I was still in the outfit I'd picked out in Newkama Land.
True, going to war in this virgin-killer outfit was, in multiple senses... yeah, no.
With that said, Yuri handed over a fairly large paper bag.
"These are battle garments entrusted to me by the Admiral, a complete set. I'm told they offer both ease of movement and durability, so it would be best to change into these."
"Ah, that's genuinely appreciated. Got it, I'll do that. Let me step into the cabin."
"Understood. I shall assist you with the dressing."
"Hm? I can manage on my own... wait, is there something that's hard to put on without help?"
"I believe you could manage alone, but for a first time, it may be difficult to dress smoothly... and we're short on time, so please allow me to help this once."
"I see. Okay, thanks, Yuri. Also... is there one for Alice too? A battle outfit?"
Since Alice had ended up escaping in a leotard... sending her to the Summit War like that was...
"Yes, Solyushan has already delivered hers, and she should be changing right now."
"Good. Alright then, let me get changed quickly!"
Now then, so battle costumes had arrived, but... as for what they looked like, that'll come a little later.
Well now... should be just about time to arrive, hmm?
To be continued...