Year 1511 of Sea Circle Calendar.
In a secret base of the Revolutionary Army, Yukino was organizing intelligence documents.
Since escaping from Mary Geoise two years ago, her personality had become even more silent and withdrawn, and her training had grown even more intense.
Almost every day, apart from eating and sleeping, she spent training and carrying out missions, as if trying to wash away the humiliation of that day with her sweat.
Suddenly, a communications soldier rushed in.
"Commander! A Den Den Mushi call! It's... it's Commander Ginny!"
Yukino shot to her feet, her pupils contracting.
"What?!"
She snatched the Den Den Mushi and pressed the answer button.
The Den Den Mushi mimicked Ginny's face… haggard, pale, with dried blood at the corners of her mouth, her eyes radiating utter lifelessness.
"Yukino..."
Ginny's voice was hoarse and weak.
"I'm on the Sabaody Archipelago... I've been abandoned... I got sick... they threw me away..."
Yukino's heart felt like it was being squeezed by a hand, the pain making it almost hard for her to breathe.
"Stay safe! I'll be there right away!"
She hung up the phone, grabbed her coat, and rushed outside.
"Yukino! Wait!"
Haruno shouted from behind, but Yukino had already disappeared through the doorway.
Sabaody Archipelago.
Yukino rushed there with a medical team, and under a massive Yarukiman Mangrove tree, she saw Ginny.
Ginny was curled up by the tree's roots. The surface of her body displayed strange, jewel-like blue carapaces.
These carapaces covered her arms, neck, and cheeks, refracting an eerie light under the sun's rays.
The accompanying doctor squatted down to examine her, his face turning pale.
"Sapphire Scales Disease... this is an extremely rare incurable disease."
The doctor's voice trembled.
"People who get this disease gradually have their skin turn into blue, scale-like patches, and their bodily organs slowly harden... There is currently no treatment."
Incurable disease.
These two words struck Yukinoshita Yukino's heart like a sledgehammer.
She squatted down and took Ginny's hand.
That hand was cold and stiff, the fingertips already turned into blue scales, feeling as cold and hard as stone.
"..."
"Yukino..."
Ginny's lips pulled into a faint smile, but her eyes were red.
"I thought... I was doomed... I never thought I'd see you again..."
Her lower abdomen bulged high, clearly visible even as she lay on the ground.
'Pregnant.'
Yukino's pupils trembled slightly.
"The child..."
Ginny lowered her head, looking at her belly, tears silently falling.
"I want to give birth to this child... This is my final request... please, Yukino..."
Yukino bit her lip and nodded firmly.
"Okay."
Ginny was carried onto a ship, and the medical team began emergency delivery procedures.
Yukino waited outside the operating room door, hands clasped together, her knuckles white.
Time passed minute by minute.
She felt as if each day lasted a year.
Every second was agony.
Listening to Ginny's faint moans from inside, her heart felt like it was being cut with a knife.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind—
Pure Gold.
Years ago, Neptune had promised to help Makoto find a certain treasure… Pure Gold.
According to Makoto's explanation back then, this special metal was invented hundreds of years ago by ten scientists to save their own daughters who suffered from incurable diseases.
That young girl had indeed survived to the modern era thanks to a small piece of Pure Gold, though her whereabouts were unknown.
'With so many years having passed, could Neptune and the others have already found the Pure Gold?'
A glimmer of hope ignited in Yukino's eyes.
She had to try.
She pulled a Den Den Mushi from her pocket and dialed a number she had never dialed before, yet remembered firmly in her mind.
That number was one she had seen Makoto use back when she was following him.
She had only glanced at it unintentionally, but thanks to her innate exceptional memory, she had remembered it.
The Den Den Mushi rang a few times with a 'purupurupuru' sound.
Then, it connected.
The Den Den Mushi's eyes opened, mimicking a face… stern, disdainful, looking utterly indifferent to everyone except when facing Makoto.
"Who is it?"
The Den Den Mushi spoke with human voice, making Yu's sound.
Yukino took a deep breath and gritted her teeth.
"It's me, Yukinoshita Yukino."
There was a moment of silence on the Den Den Mushi's end.
Yu was clearly taken aback for a moment, then asked: "How do you know my number?"
Yukino told him everything.
After learning the reason, Yu curled his lips slightly, revealing a hint of a mocking smile.
"So? What do you want?"
Yukino's fingers tightened around the receiver. She briefly explained Ginny's situation, then asked the question that made her feel utterly humble herself:
"Has the Pure Gold been found already? Could you lend it to me to save Ginny?"
There was another moment of silence on the Den Den Mushi's end.
Then, Yu laughed directly.
"It has indeed been found."
His tone was casual, but in the next second, his attitude shifted.
"But why would I lend it to you? You're not Senpai's woman."
It felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over Yukino's head.
Yukino's lips trembled slightly.
Finally, she gritted her teeth and said something that even she found shameful.
"Even if I'm not now, you can't guarantee I won't be in the future, right?"
The Den Den Mushi was stunned.
Then, Yu let out an even more exaggerated laugh.
"Hahahaha—!"
Laughter filled with undisguised mockery and contempt, like a knife gouging at Yukino's heart.
"Are you trying to make me die laughing?"
Right now, on Onigashima, Yu's gaze shifted slightly, sweeping over several people training not far away—
Boa Hancock.
She had now blossomed into a beauty, with black hair like a waterfall and an exquisitely beautiful face. Every move she made radiated deadly charm.
Nishikawa Hiyori.
Her facial features were delicate, inheriting the Kozuki Family's excellent genes. Her brows carried both her mother's gentleness and a touch of a 'bad girl's' roguish charm.
Yamato.
The white-haired girl was taller than her peers, with a fit and athletic build, carrying a metal-studded kanabo on her shoulder, radiating heroic spirit.
And Nico Robin.
The little girl who had joined Yu's command ten years ago had now grown into a twenty-year-old mature woman.
Her black hair was cut to shoulder length, her features were sculpted and deep, her demeanor composed.
Yu's gaze swept over these women one by one, the mockery at the corners of his mouth deepening.
"Just keep dreaming."
Bzzz—Bzzz—Bzzz—
Yukino listened to the busy signal from the Den Den Mushi, her entire body frozen in place.
The Den Den Mushi slipped from her hand and fell to the ground with a 'smack'.
She squatted down, covering her face with both hands.
Not because of sadness.
But because of anger.
Anger at her own powerlessness.
She still had to rely on Makoto's name just to stay alive.
She still had to rely on that man's lingering prestige for the possibility of saving a friend.
She had changed nothing.
Just then—
The door to the operating room opened.
The doctor walked out, removed his mask, his expression complex.
"Commander... the child has been born."
Yukino stood up abruptly.
"What about Ginny?"
The doctor lowered his head and was silent for a moment.
"...Commander Ginny has passed away."
The words 'passed away' pressed down like a mountain.
Yukino's body swayed.
She leaned against the wall, slowly squatted down, and covered her face with her hands.
Tears silently fell through the gaps between her fingers.