Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? Half-Step Senior Officer

At twenty-four, Ma Qiao was still young by the standards of the pirate world, five years younger than that pervert Franky.

Of course, at his age, it wasn't unreasonable for Vivi to call him an old man.

But this old man's physique was a little too...

"Sorry to bother you!"

The girl's face turned bright red. She hurriedly slammed the door shut and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

But on second thought, Vivi suddenly realized that the one who should have been embarrassed at being caught peeking at a dirty magazine was the lecherous old man himself, wasn't it?

Why was she the one hiding?

She was being far too cowardly!

With that thought, Vivi plucked up her courage and opened the door again.

By then, however, Ma Qiao had put on a shirt and trousers and tossed the magazine aside.

For a moment, Vivi didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

Ma Qiao said irritably, "Hey, little girl, what are you doing here so early? Didn't your father teach you any manners?"

As he spoke, Ma Qiao took several oversized burgers out of the refrigerator.

They were already zero-calorie, zero-energy foods, and now they'd been chilled overnight. Didn't that make them negative-calorie?

Wouldn't eating them make him waste away?

Ma Qiao was just about to eat his weight-loss meal for the day when Vivi suddenly snatched it away. "Don't keep eating refrigerated leftovers! Middle-aged people need to take care of their health! Honestly..."

Vivi grabbed Ma Qiao's muscular forearm and dragged him all the way to the dining room.

There, Vivi had prepared breakfast early that morning.

Over thirty fried eggs, and more than fifty servings of toast and bacon.

Given Ma Qiao's appetite, that was just about enough to fill him up.

Eating a fried egg, Ma Qiao raised an eyebrow. "When someone acts out of character, they want something. Go on, what is it?"

"What are you talking about? Haven't I been making you breakfast for more than half a month?"

Vivi protested, sounding somewhat unsure of herself.

"Oh?"

Ma Qiao picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. "You mean the breakfasts you used to spit in?"

"How did you know? Ah, no, I mean, how could that possibly be true?"

Vivi hurriedly covered her mouth.

That crafty old man had to be bluffing.

She had indeed secretly added a little "seasoning" to the stinking old man's breakfasts before, because she held a grudge against him. But he shouldn't have noticed at all, or else he wouldn't have...

Right, he must be trying to scare me!

Vivi put on a look of childlike innocence and blinked her big, guileless eyes.

Ma Qiao shook his head, choosing not to hold an underage girl's petty tricks against her. Instead, he drummed his fingers on the table and asked mildly, "So where did you sneak off to alone last night? This is the Island of Chaos. You know how dangerous that is, don't you?"

"So you did notice..."

Vivi showed no panic at having been caught in the act.

After confirming that there was something suspicious about the shape of the cave entrance, Vivi had realized that the lazy, lecherous old man at her side might indeed be a master hiding his abilities.

She studied Ma Qiao's face intently, trying to catch every subtle change in his expression:

"So, old man, you were the one who sent Santini flying?"

"Sent him flying?"

Ma Qiao touched his face. You don't suspect anything? Do I look like an idiot like Luffy, who doesn't know to finish someone off?

Pirates is a hot-blooded shonen manga, sure, but I'm not a local. Why would I follow those stupid rules?

No damage if there's smoke, no death if they fall into the sea...

He would never do anything so stupid and pointless. Of course he'd give the man the full funeral treatment, grind his bones and scatter his ashes!

Ma Qiao looked at the girl before him, who wore an expression that said, "There's only one truth," and felt that her outlook was deeply flawed.

It seemed he needed to find time to teach her a lesson about the cruelty of the sea.

Vivi still didn't know that Ma Qiao had labeled her a "naive local."

Seeing that Ma Qiao didn't deny it, she assumed she had guessed the truth.

Of course, there wasn't much difference between the two versions of the truth.

"You're such a crafty old man. I almost fell for it!"

Vivi looked at Ma Qiao and asked somewhat expectantly:

"Like me, you became a Pirate Hunter at fourteen and were known as South Blue's Destruction Dragon. You joined Baroque Works nine years ago, distinguished yourself among its first hundred employees, and earned the recognition of the organization's upper management with your outstanding work. They groomed you to become a senior officer, and even now you still have a special Den Den Mushi that can connect directly to the Spiders Cafe...

"Old man, is all of that true?"

"Mm-hmm..."

Ma Qiao nodded, chewing on a fried egg as he said, "When I, your teacher, was your age, I really was super fierce!"

In fact, things like South Blue's Destruction Dragon were just aliases Ma Qiao had given himself during his edgy phase. He had no idea what obscure corner the little girl had dug them out of.

Back then, Ma Qiao had been a genuine local and hadn't known Baroque Works' true nature. He'd still been full of fighting spirit, hacking people down in pursuit of a promotion, a raise, and a senior officer position!

As for the special Den Den Mushi, it wasn't much of a secret. Not many people knew about it, that was all.

In Baroque Works, every senior officer had a special Den Den Mushi like that.

As a powerful man who had once been a Half-Step Senior Officer, it was perfectly reasonable for Ma Qiao to have one too.

In short...

What did it mean to be a slacker veteran and a pillar-of-the-organization freeloader...?

Hands on hips in triumph.jpg (￣︶￣).

As for why Vivi knew all this, Ma Qiao wasn't surprised.

He guessed that Igaram had most likely told Vivi while he was in the cave taking care of business yesterday.

After all, the man had been working undercover in Baroque Works for over two years. No matter how slow and incompetent he was, he ought to have found out something.

This time, however, Ma Qiao had actually misjudged Igaram.

He wasn't pretending. He really was that bad...

Everything Igaram had learned in his two years undercover wouldn't even fill half a sheet of A4 paper.

And that was in size 2 font.

In short, with Igaram's pitiful intelligence, he hadn't thought there was anything special about Ma Qiao at all.

He had never investigated Ma Qiao's background in detail.

The one who had really told Vivi these things was Ma Qiao's student from two years ago, the muscular dark-skinned woman Miss Monday.

Although Miss Monday looked rather fierce and frightening, she was actually a very kind and attentive woman.

That was both Ma Qiao's own observation and something supported by the One Piece manga and its cover stories.

So Ma Qiao had actually treated her quite well too, taking her seriously as a student and training her.

In fact, Ma Qiao felt more at ease with Miss Monday than with Vivi.

At least Ma Qiao swore he had never installed anything like a Vision Ward in Miss Monday's bathroom.

As for Vivi-chan... ahem... special circumstances, special circumstances!

Who told her to be an undercover agent and an unpredictable factor?

This was just a necessary precaution.

Nip trouble in the bud.

Be cautious!