One Piece: Impel Down's Guard - Chapter 23
“Teacher, my name is Figo.”
“Yes, yes, sorry.” Leading Figo and Mia to sit on the living room sofa, Doug turned around and brought Kong over, introducing, “This is your older brother Figo, another marine taught by your grandpa. He’s amazing, only… 28 years old, right? Oka told me he’ll soon be promoted to Vice Admiral.”
“Hello, Brother Figo.” Little Kong was very polite, standing upright and serious.
“Hello, Little Kong,” Figo responded thoughtfully, adding, “Actually, shouldn’t you call me uncle?”
“Neither you nor Mia have started a family yet, so calling you brother and sister is fine,” Vice Admiral Doug shook his head, signaling Kong to go play in his room. Then he turned to ask Figo about his experiences over the past eight years in Impel Down.
Doug had been quite aware ever since the news of the Fish-Men invasion of Impel Down and their capture by Figo reached the headquarters seven years ago. As Mia said, Doug had been paying attention to this formerly inconspicuous student, but even he hadn’t anticipated Figo’s rapid growth.
“Every day, imprisoning and interrogating prisoners must have been dull and tiring eight years,” Doug sighed, asking again, “How did you and Mia end up coming to see me together?”
Mia, who had been quietly listening, finally spoke up, recounting their encounter at sea and the suicide attempt of the Crazy Laugh Pirates’ captain, Gerald.
“So, he was indeed captured. A man with Conqueror’s Haki? Choosing to commit suicide to avoid implicating his crew makes him quite a tough guy. The Crazy Laugh Pirates might have been able to roam freely in the New World, and the Navy usually wouldn’t launch a large-scale campaign against them. Why did they… go to Sabaody Archipelago and provoke the Celestial Dragons?”
Was it really because they provoked the Celestial Dragons that they attracted the Admiral? Figo had caught a bit of this conversation when he first entered, but at that time, his attention was on little Kong. Now hearing it again, he showed some curiosity.
The crime index of that Crazy Laugh Pirates’ captain was only 25, which, while still indicating a heinous nature, didn’t match his bounty of 640 million Berries. Compared to the criminals in Impel Down’s fifth and sixth levels, he was almost a good person.
Even though he was SSR1, capturing him wouldn’t yield more rewards than capturing the nun, let alone with only 35% capture participation. With this in mind, Figo casually selected his reward.
?Reward: Swordsmanship +552 ? 9886 (Level 3 Iron Cutting Swordsman)?
As expected, it was only this much.
After seeing rewards in the thousands, looking at mere hundreds felt underwhelming.
Meanwhile, Mia, hearing Doug’s question, sighed lightly and said, “On the way back, he told me his story. I don’t know if it’s true. If it is… I really don’t know what to think.”
As Mia recounted the story, Figo instinctively felt that Gerald’s Event 1 might be related to this. Character events usually revolved around what a person most wanted to do or some deep-seated obsession.
Thus, he listened while activating the character event.
Doug listened to the story; Figo watched a movie.
A young boy of about eight or nine, wandering the streets, found an abandoned baby girl in an alley corner.
The baby girl was unique, with pure, sapphire-like blue eyes that sparkled in the sunlight. She reached out to him, smiling.
The wandering boy hesitated several times but ultimately picked up the baby girl.
And thus the story began.
Figo, however, was reluctant to watch: ‘Another little girl, another tragedy…’
In the world of pirates, tragedies were common.
…
Ultimately, he didn’t cut off the scene because Mia was telling the same story.
The next part of the scene focused on survival.
The wandering boy earned pocket money by fetching water for wealthy families, carrying water in one bucket and the baby girl in the other.
The wandering boy collected scrap metal,
using an iron pot to make a small cart to carry the baby girl. The boy set up a street stall to sell his ‘junk treasures,’ and the growing baby girl sat beside him, laughing to attract customers.
He had to support not just himself but now two people, making life harder but also happier. Every time he saw the baby girl’s pure blue eyes and innocent smile, he would smile genuinely as well.
Days passed, the boy gradually became a teenager, and the baby girl turned into a little girl.
When the girl was five, their lives suddenly improved. In the scene, the girl pointed to specific trash heaps, and the boy would find valuable items without fail.
Born with a powerful Kenbunshoku Haki!
Thanks to the girls’ abilities, their lives improved each day. They bought new clothes and even a small house.
The turning point came when the girl was seven. A well-dressed couple found them, tearfully claiming the girl was their lost child.
“We encountered pirates at the time, and in our panic, we hid her in a corner…”
“When we returned, she was gone…”
“Thank you, thank you, young man. If you’re willing, we’ll also be your parents. From now on, we’ll be one family!”
Their words were sincere, and their emotions genuine.
The boy looked at the shy girl, thought about the recent pirate havoc on the island, and considered the girl’s confusion about not having parents. With some wariness, he agreed.
The four formed a new family, and life grew happier and more beautiful each day. One month, two months, not only for the girl but also for the boy, the couple treated him well, seemingly treating him as their own child.
The boy gradually let down his guard.
Until one day, after going out, the house was empty!
What followed was a frantic search, a boundless quest lasting one year, two years, three years. The boy acquired his first sword and killed his first pirate. With excellent talent, he grew stronger and stronger.
At 23, the boy, now resembling the captured Gerald, finally found the couple who had once taken them in!
As expected, they were traffickers.
They had long targeted the girl with special abilities. The cautious street boy led them to pretend for three months, successfully abducting the girl.
The two trembled under Gerald’s blade, confessing everything.
“Sapphire! Where is Sapphire now? Who did you sell her to?”
The male trafficker stammered, “We… we took her to the Sabaody Archipelago, thinking we’d get a good price. But… but the damn Celestial Dragons made an offer, and no one dared compete. We didn’t even get much Berries.”
“I didn’t ask how much money you got! The Celestial Dragons?!” Gerald clenched his teeth, on the brink of rage, “Damn it! Sapphire became a slave? Which Celestial Dragon, when?!”
But this time, no matter how much he questioned, the couple wouldn’t speak. Until Gerald held a blade to the auctioneer’s neck.
“A girl with blue eyes?”
“I… I remember. It was… Saint Cassiria, Saint Cassiria bought her! It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault!”
“Cassiria…” Gerald took a deep breath, feeling closer to finding Sapphire, then noticed the auctioneer’s evasive eyes. He realized that if it were just this, the despicable traffickers wouldn’t have hidden it.
An immense fear gripped him. Gerald trembled, asking, “And then?”
“Then… then… Saint Cassiria thought her eyes were beautiful, so he had a slave gouge them out…
Gouging them out, they no longer looked like sapphires. Saint Cassiria was furious and had the eyes put back… that girl… no! It’s not my fault!”
A flash of blood, followed by silence.
Gerald hung his head.
“Heh heh, heh heh heh heh…”
“Cassiria!”
Conqueror’s Haki, awakened!
…
Boom! A massive fist struck down, shattering Vice Admiral Doug’s coffee table!
The robust old man stood up, no longer gentle, trembling all over. After a moment of silence, he walked into the bedroom without a word.
“Every time he hears about justice being tarnished, the teacher gets very angry,” Mia said sorrowfully. “Figo, you understand, right? This isn’t sympathy for pirates, it’s just…”
She paused, staring into Figo’s eyes.
“I spent eight years in Impel Down, encountering various pirates, many with their own hardships,” Figo said after a moment of silence, shaking his head. “Perhaps because I haven’t experienced it myself, I still feel that hardships can’t wash away evil.”
He looked at Mia, saying, “But sympathy is certainly permissible, and anger is justified. I would be gentler with pirates who have unfortunate circumstances. After all, as humans, there are things you can’t ignore once you see or hear them, making it hard not to feel sympathy.”
In his mind, the image of the angelic sapphire-eyed girl still lingered.
?Event Requirement: Kill, or help Gerald kill, preferably torture to death, Celestial Dragon Cassiria.?
“It’s hard not to be angry.”
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