Cover Serial: Heart Pirates, Part 12 - "Doffy, do you think they were the flames from that day?"
As the waves crashed against the rocks, Baby 5 tearfully explained how Giorno and Jolyne Cujoh had killed Doflamingo, and how Doflamingo himself had abandoned her.
Corazon sat nearby. He took a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his coat and handed them to Law.
Law lit a cigarette with a click and slowly exhaled.
His monstrous elder brother had ultimately made that choice...
But flames?
So, in the end, he had burned to death...
…
Sienna had gone to assassinate the king fully prepared to die. Her attack was meant to draw the imperial palace's full attention so her third brother, Ryudo, could complete his mission more easily.
However, now that the headless monster, who appeared to be the Warlord of the Sea Jolyne Cujoh, had rescued her, she wasn't stubborn enough to throw her life away just to follow Ryudo into the grave.
Since she now owed him her life, she would repay that debt only after making full use of it.
The righteous warriors of the Humble Bamboo Alliance died only for the cause of restoring their nation, never for personal sentiment.
Only after shedding her last drop of blood would she have the right to enter the Underworld and apologize to her third brother.
"The king's men will come after me soon..."
Sienna quickly washed herself in the stream, showing no concern for the headless creature standing on the bank. After stripping down, she wrung out her tattered clothes.
With strength far beyond that of an ordinary person, her hands worked like a high-speed spin dryer. Water practically exploded from the fabric.
The clothing twisted and shrank to a fraction of its original size. She snapped it out forcefully, leaving it almost completely dry.
Sienna wiped herself down, walked ashore, and put the dry but badly wrinkled clothes back on. Then she glanced anxiously toward the imperial palace.
"I need to leave this area immediately. What about you?"
She studied the lean, muscular monster, staring at the two beautiful eyes growing on either side of his chest.
"Why did you save me? Are you Jolyne Cujoh? And what exactly is this form?"
"I saved you because I'm not on the king's side.
"You clearly aren't either. More importantly, you seem to know something I desperately want to learn, the true history of this country."
A pair of red lips appeared over the headless Kento's navel and spoke softly.
"As for your other two questions, you'll naturally learn the answers once you've cleared up my doubts."
In truth, Sienna had stopped paying much attention after Kento's first sentence.
She had wanted to interrupt, but she waited until he finished.
"You're not on the king's side? If you really are Jolyne Cujoh, then you're a Warlord of the Sea. Why should I believe you?"
The red lips on Kento's abdomen replied calmly, "I intend to kill that king. But before I make my move, I want to understand exactly what's happening here."
"You want to kill him too?"
Sienna's eyes lit up, and she answered firmly, "Then we can be allies!"
"Didn't you say we needed to leave?" Kento replied. "We can talk while we move. A large force of soldiers appears to have left the imperial palace."
"You can sense people from that far away?"
Despite her surprise, Sienna immediately sprang into action and raced away alongside the Headless Monster.
"Your qi is incredibly powerful..."
"Qi?"
Kento ran alongside her with effortless strides.
"People from overseas seem to call it 'Haki,'" Sienna explained.
"But here, we have many different names for it. Alchemists divide it into more precise concepts, such as 'Life Force,' 'Divine Sense,' and 'Divine Power.' In ancient times, wandering heroes and samurai often called it 'Inner Strength.'
"But the most common name is simply 'qi.'
"After the Kano Kingdom joined the World Government eight hundred years ago, more and more people began following the outside world and calling it 'Haki.'"
Sienna gave a scornful sneer.
"People from the Two Treasures Navy and the Happo Navy, for example."
Kento nodded, or rather, he would have, if he had a head. Robin, controlling the headless Flower Clone, shook her own head instead.
"You don't seem particularly fond of those two fleets."
"Do you know how many naval forces Kano originally had?" Sienna asked as they ran. "Seven! So why are those two the only ones left? Because the other five refused to surrender or acknowledge a usurper as their ruler. Every last one of them was slaughtered!"
Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Those two fleets were much better at reading the room. Once they realized resistance was hopeless, they immediately dropped to their knees and pledged allegiance to the new king..."
Kento nodded thoughtfully.
'Right. He still doesn't have a head.'
Robin already knew that the Kano Kingdom had once possessed seven naval forces, but this was the first time she had heard that the other five had been completely wiped out.
"The new king they supported presumably wasn't the same one you tried to assassinate," Kento said. "Am I right?"
"...That's right."
Sienna's expression darkened.
"It happened three hundred years ago..."
She and Kento emerged from the forest and looked toward Aqua Laguna ahead.
"Three hundred years ago, a great pirate uprising engulfed the Kano Kingdom..."
...
"Three hundred years ago, a powerful band of pirates suddenly arrived and began burning, killing, and pillaging throughout the Kano Kingdom.
"Everyone in the nation expected the emperor to wield the National Treasure's power and drive out every last pirate.
"But what they eventually learned was that the Kano Kingdom's National Treasure had already been lost more than a decade earlier because of the royal family's incompetence..."
By the time they reached the streets of the Water Capital, Sienna had disguised herself. She had also purchased a doll from a roadside stall and placed it over Kento's severed neck as a makeshift head.
Once he pulled up his hood, he looked at first glance like an ordinary tall young man wearing a doll mask.
Blending into the crowd, Sienna and Kento hurried toward the city gates.
"Very few people knew how the royal family passed the National Treasure down through the generations," Sienna continued in a low voice. "Naturally, very few understood what it actually meant for the National Treasure to be 'lost.'
"But one fact was undeniable. Princess Lily, who everyone agreed was the person best suited to inherit the National Treasure, was forced to admit that it was no longer within the Kano Kingdom.
"Even the mighty Princess Lily was powerless against the endless waves of pirates. All she could do was watch as the flames of war spread across the land.
"Then, without warning, a Black Dragon appeared. With overwhelming strength, it drove out every pirate and saved both the kingdom and everyone who lived here.
"Because of that, the former emperor abdicated and yielded the throne. The Black Dragon became the new king.
"Not long afterward, Princess Lily vanished as well. A story spread that she had sailed overseas in search of the National Treasure, but she never returned..."
Perhaps Robin was imagining it, but Sienna seemed to be gritting her teeth by the end of the story.
Controlling Kento, Robin fell silent.
She couldn't help feeling emotional. Even the ending of Liam's mother's story was strangely similar to that of Princess Lily, the woman she had admired and whose name she shared.
Both had left the Kano Kingdom in search of the National Treasure.
Neither had ever returned.
A ventriloquized voice emerged from beneath Kento's clothes.
"If that's true, then..."
(End of Chapter)
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