Dan's Old Tattoo

What about the old man?

Upon hearing Garling's words, Luffy immediately turned around.

"No one can take him away!"

Dan leaned against the wall, her chest heaving violently.

Shakky pushed him back.

"Old man, don't try to be strong if you can't stand properly."

Dan waved his hand.

I can still walk.

Nami looked at the red text in the Sky Screen.

"Why Dan? Isn't he an underground laborer?"

Robin had already crouched down next to Dan, his finger resting on the edge of his tattered collar.

"Mr. Dan, do you have a number given to you by the Holy Land?"

Dan paused for a moment, then pulled open his collar.

Below her collarbone was an old burn mark, the edges of which had been worn dark by time, and half of Solar Crown Pattern remained in the middle.

Usopp took a breath.

"It's this thing again."

Words fall from the Sky Screen.

[Old Maintenance Patterns detected on the body surface of Dan, a former laborer from the Old Archive.]

[Possibly a survivor from the early transport group of the Corona Crown Prototype.]

Dan looked at his chest.

"I've had this burn for twenty years, and it turns out it still works."

Shakky cursed.

"Don't talk like it's some kind of employee ID card."

The adjutant emerged from the elevator shaft, his silver-white cloak trailing across the ground.

He looked at Dan.

"The seventh batch of remaining personnel from the relocation team returned the Holy Land."

Luffy shielded Dan behind him.

He won't return it.

"That's what the adjutant said."

"Straw Hat Boy, his number is still on the Holy Land's inventory list."

Robin stood up.

"Sky Screen has already defined underground laborers as victims and witnesses."

The adjutant raised his hand.

"Definition cannot erase property registration."

Koby gritted his teeth.

People are not property.

The adjutant looked at him.

"Naval soldier, does your Fleet Admiral agree with what you're saying?"

Akainu's voice came from the Sky Screen.

"Agree."

The adjutant paused for a moment.

Akainu continued.

"Marine Headquarters does not recognize population and asset registers."

The Sengoku period then spoke.

"Old Archive worker Dan is placed under witness protection."

"The crane said."

"If the Holy Land insists on using the old list, please disclose the source of the list."

The adjutant looked up at the Sky Screen.

A flash of Golden Light appeared in the Sky Screen.

[Dispute detected.]

[Public Q&A Launched.]

[Question: What was the real reason Dan was brought back by the Holy Knights?]

[A, Dan is Holy Land site.]

[B, Dan knows the Old Archive transport route.]

[C, The original Maintenance Well can be located within the elixir body where old patterns can be identified.]

[D, B, and C are valid; A is an illegal registration.]

Luffy immediately shouted.

"D!"

Nami.

"Why don't you wait until Robin finishes speaking?"

Robin nodded.

"D."

Akainu pressed down.

"D."

The adjutant's face turned cold.

"Who gave you the right to call it 'illegal registration'?"

The Sky Screen was revealed.

[Correct answer: D.]

[Dan is a survivor of the Old Archive transport team and knows the Maintenance Well route.]

[The old markings on its surface can be used to locate the original Maintenance Well for the Corona Crown Prototype.]

[Holy Land property registration is illegal.]

A commotion broke out among the workers.

Dan looked down at the burn mark on her chest, her hand tracing the old scar.

No wonder they always made me move the innermost door.

Shakky asked.

Do you still remember the way?

Dan nodded.

"I remember."

The adjutant raised his hand.

"Then he absolutely cannot leave."

Zoro draws his sword.

"Give it a try."

Sanji moved to the other side.

"The old man had just spoken up to testify, and you came to arrest him. The Holy Land has even lost its sense of propriety."

The four knights behind the adjutant simultaneously raised their lances.

Koby rushed to the front row.

"Continue the evacuation, don't stop!"

Tashigi shouted at the laborers.

"Go through the back door, don't look at the fighting!"

Usopp climbed the tower and aimed his slingshot at the token on his lieutenant's waist.

"Robin, can you grab his token?"

Robin looked at the protective markings on his adjutant's body.

"The coordinates of the Sky Screen are being blocked."

Nami flipped through the keybook.

"If Dan can locate Maintenance Well, it might be able to block the pursuers' path."

Ka Mi Er overheard this from the Old Archive.

"Don't tamper with the Maintenance Well; it's connected to the Old Archive's Red Mark."

Dan raised his head.

"I know which one is clean."

Ka Mi Er was stunned.

You know?

Dan gave a wry smile.

"Back when I was moving stones, there was a well passage that the Celestial Dragons were never allowed to use; only we were allowed to."

Shakky said.

"Why?"

Dan looked at his adjutant.

"Because that path will remember footprints."

The adjutant's expression finally changed.

Golden lettering pops up in the Sky Screen.

[Key testimony detected.]

[Is the Maintenance Well publicly by witness Dan?]

The adjutant spoke sternly.

"Kill him."

All four knights fired their guns simultaneously.

Luffy stretched out his arm, grabbed Dan and Shakky, and flung them backward.

Zoro blocked two bullets with his twin swords.

Sanji kicks away the third shot.

Koby's Haki punch missed his fourth shot, and he staggered back several steps.

Tashigi helped him up.

Are you alright?

Koby shook his head.

"Good."

Luffy placed Dan next to Nami.

"Old man, speak!"

Dan took a couple of breaths.

"Enter from the Main Gate on the east side, take three steps to the left, and there's a stone slab under the old drainage outlet on the right. The Maintenance Well is under the stone slab."

Nami quickly marked the map.

"Robin."

Robin nodded.

"I found it."

In the Sky Screen projection, the image of the old transport line unfolds downwards, revealing a hidden shaft to everyone.

[Maintenance Well route made public.]

[Additional information: Well logs can provide evidence that the Old Archive prototype was once transported to the Holy Land Medical Department.]

Mia looked up from the Scrap Platform.

"Medical Department?"

Dr. Eve's expression changed.

"Lumi's Cold Storage Room is in the Medical Department Old Wing."

Bonney is holding Lumi.

"They moved the prototype from the Old Archive to the Medical Department for testing?"

Vegapunk gritted his teeth as he flipped through the documents.

"No wonder the Sapphire Scales Trial and the Corona Crown were connected, but the missing transport record was here with Dan."

Garling looked at his adjutant from the outer perimeter of the Holy Land.

"Waste."

The adjutant bowed his head.

"Commander, I will handle it."

Shanks spoke.

"You still want to deal with the witnesses?"

Garling said.

"The testimony has been made public; keeping the witnesses around will only make them easy targets for your manipulation."

Shanks tightened his grip on his sword.

"People don't live to be evidence for you."

Garling said.

"Then let him escape alive."

The red lettering on the Sky Screen lit up again.

[Added missions at the Sabaody exit battlefield.]

[Escort witness Dan and underground workers to the back gate of the coating factory.]

[Prevent the adjutant from seizing the Old Pattern Sample.]

The adjutant drew a slender knife with black patterns on its blade.

"Task corrected, sampling is now complete."

Shakky pushed Dan towards Nami.

"Take him away."

Nami helped Dan up.

"Usopp, cover me!"

Usopp shouted.

"I've been covering for you!"

Luffy was about to rush towards his first mate, Zoro stepped in front of him.

"I'll take the blow."

Sanji a cigarette, and the flame flickered near the heel of his shoe.

"I am a Qing person."

Koby watched his adjutant's speed, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Miss Tashigi, we're protecting the evacuation line."

Tashigi gripped the knife tightly.

"Um."

The adjutant rushed forward, his slender knife aimed directly at the burn mark on Dan's back.

Luffy stretched out his arm to block, but the blade sliced a red line into the rubber.

Nami exclaimed in surprise.

"Luffy!"

Luffy gritted his teeth.

"This knife can hurt me."

Robin shouted.

"That's no ordinary knife; the pattern is derived from Old Pattern Sample."

The adjutant raised his knife and stabbed again.

Zoro blocked him with three sword strikes.

Your opponent has changed.

The lieutenant looked at Zoro.

"Pirate Hunter, get out of the way!"

Zoro grinned.

"Your name isn't big enough for me to make way."

Sanji kicked from the side, and his lieutenant parried with a flick of his wrist.

Luffy took the opportunity to send Dan and Nami back a short distance.

"Run!"

Dan, supported by Nami, walked towards the coating factory, but turned back to look at the Sky Screen.

I haven't finished speaking.

Nami was so anxious she wanted to hit him.

"Say it as you run!"

Dan nodded.

"The Maintenance Well has three doors. The first door records footprints, the second door records blood, and the third door records names."

Robin immediately pressed for more details.

"Name?"

Dan said.

"Every time someone goes in, the guards ask us to give our names."

Shakky, supporting another laborer, turned around and asked.

"You gave your real name?"

Dan shook his head.

"I reported my name (Dan) and my number, but the door only lit up once."

Ka Mi Er looked up abruptly from the outer wall of the Old Archive, then interrupted himself.

He phrased it differently.

Which time did it light up?

Dan answered.

"The time I insulted the Celestial Dragons."

Luffy out laughing.

"This door is pretty good."

Robin's eyes lit up.

"The third gate records self-affirmation and is of the same origin as the Old Days Index."

Vegapunk slams his fist on the table on Future Island.

"Maintenance Well records can prove Error Index revisions."

Akainu immediately spoke.

"Dan must live."

Upon hearing this, the adjutant's blade flashed even faster.

Zoro's arm was knocked back half an inch.

Sanji kicked his lieutenant in the shoulder, but it didn't send him staggering far.

Luffy stomped his foot and charged back onto the battlefield.

"Me too!"

Nami shouted angrily.

"Your backlash hasn't subsided yet!"

Luffy around.

"But he wants to steal the old man's scar!"

The Sky Screen suddenly lit up.

[The backlash from Straw Hat Luffy's Old Days Index has not yet subsided.]

[If they continue to participate in the battle, the complete coordinates of the Straw Hat's Inner Compartment segments may be exposed.]

Garling's gaze shifted to Luffy.

Shanks' expression changed.

Luffy, don't use your Straw Hat!

The lieutenant heard this too, turned around, abandoned Dan, and turned the tip of his knife towards Luffy's Straw Hat.

"The better sample was here after all."

Nami lunged forward to try and stop her.

Robin's arm shot out, but he was still a beat too slow.

The adjutant's knife tip was already touching the edge of the Straw Hat.

Just then, Dan broke free from behind Nami, lunged in front of Luffy, and used the old mark on his chest to block the blade.

The tip of the knife pierced the old burn mark, and Red Mark lit up along the adjutant's blade.

Dan coughed up blood, but his hand gripped the back of the knife.

"You want the old pattern, take it."

Luffy's smile vanished.

"Old man!"

Dan stared at his adjutant, blood dripping from his mouth.

My name is Dan.

Golden Light descended from the Sky Screen.

[Witness Dan triggered the Maintenance Well Third Gate registration.]

[Old Pattern Sample reverse locking.]

[The lieutenant's weapon was captured by the Maintenance Well log.]

The adjutant's expression changed drastically; he tried to draw his sword, but couldn't.

Dan grinned.

"The door will remember you."