The Desert Night
The night wind in Nanohana Port carried the scent of sand and sea salt, blowing from the direction of the docks into the town's streets and alleys.
The lights in the Port thinned out after midnight, leaving only a few oil lamps hanging on the pier pillars, their dim yellow light casting irregular circles of shadow on the wooden planks.
As three figures disembarked from the fast vessel disguised as a merchant ship, the night guard on the dock was dozing off against a cargo container.
They made no sound.
The sound of footsteps on the wooden pier was drowned out by the waves. The white mask flashed briefly in the light of the oil lamp before disappearing into the dark alley between the dock and the town.
Three people, three directions.
The leader paused for two seconds at the fork in the alley, extended three fingers pointing in three different directions, then retracted his fingers and clenched his fist.
One of them turned left, heading towards the outskirts of the town, with the goal of cutting off the communication lines between the Royal Palace and the Port.
The other one moves to the right, along the shadow of the city wall, tasked with checking the Royal Palace's guard deployment and patrol routes.
The one in the lead walked straight toward the center of town.
The direction of the Royal Palace.
He walked slowly, with a steady stride, and the distance between each step was almost exactly the same, as if it had been measured with a ruler.
His expression was not visible beneath the mask, but his breathing rate remained constant at twelve beats per minute, and his heart rate showed no fluctuation.
This is the standard condition for a top-tier CP0 agent.
Emotions are not needed when performing a task.
Alabasta Royal Palace.
Cobra did not sleep.
He was wearing a loose white robe and sat in a chair in the study. On the table in front of him was a cup of tea that had gone cold, with a few tea leaves floating on the surface sinking to the bottom.
The study window was open, and the desert night wind blew in through the window, making the papers on the table rustle.
The papers contained what he had just seen from the Sky Screen.
Void Century.
Great Kingdom.
The D. Clan.
The true purpose of Ancient Weapons.
His finger moved slowly across the paper, stopping at a line he had written.
The Nefertari Family, the only one of the twenty original kings not to remain in Mary Geoise.
He read that line a third time.
"Ancestors." His voice echoed in the empty study, dry and hoarse.
"What exactly did you know that made you choose not to go to that city?"
There was a soft knock on the door.
"Father."
It was Vivi's voice.
"Come in."
When Vivi pushed open the door, she was carrying a freshly brewed cup of hot tea.
She didn't sleep either.
She was wearing a blue bathrobe, her hair was casually tied back, and her face still bore the complex expression left from watching the content being broadcast on the Sky Screen.
"You can't sleep either." Cobra took the teacup, his fingers touching the warmth of the cup, and nodded slightly.
"Who can sleep after seeing all that stuff tonight?" Vivi sat down in the chair opposite her father, her gaze falling on the notes on the table.
"Father, what did you say when it was playing on the Sky Screen?"
Which sentence?
"You say you understand why your ancestors didn't go to Mary Geoise."
Cobra picked up his teacup and took a sip; the warmth of the tea eased the hoarseness in his throat.
"Yes, I said that."
"When you said that, the Five Elders were also looking at the Sky Screen." Vivi's fingers clenched tightly on her knees.
What do you want to say?
Vivi looked up at her father.
"I'm wondering how the Five Elders would interpret what you said."
Cobra's fingers paused for a moment on the rim of the teacup.
There was a three-second silence in the study.
The desert night wind blew the curtains up once in those three seconds, then they fell back down.
"They'll think our family has something we shouldn't have," Cobra's voice slowed.
"Yes." There was a clarity in Vivi's eyes that was beyond her years.
"Sky Screen says the next episode will reveal the list of members of the Twenty Kingdoms Alliance, in 24 hours."
"Before the list is released, if anyone tries to destroy certain evidence or eliminate certain informants..."
Her words ended there.
Cobra looked at his daughter, his gaze lingering on her face for a long time.
"You've grown up." There was a faint bitterness in his voice when he said this.
"How are the patrols arranged for Pell and Chaka?"
"Before I came, I had Chaka double the frequency of the Royal Palace guards' patrols. Pell is on the roof."
"The Falcon's Pell is on the roof." Cobra repeated the sentence, setting down his teacup.
This reassured him somewhat.
Pell is one of Alabasta's strongest warriors, Devil Fruit User with the Falcon-Falcon Fruit.
But the relief only lasted a few seconds.
Because he knew that if the real threat came from the Holy Land Mary Geoise, from the direct orders of the Five Elders, then the personnel sent to carry out the mission would not be ordinary naval or intelligence personnel.
It will be CP0.
The highest-level intelligence agency of the World Government, an assassination force directly under the Celestial Dragons.
Their strength is comparable to that of Marine Admiral.
Pell couldn't stop it.
Even Chaka couldn't stop it.
Even the combined military strength of Alabasta couldn't stop them.
Cobra didn't say these words aloud.
He simply looked at Vivi, reached out, and tucked a strand of hair that had been ruffled by the night wind behind her ear.
Go and rest.
"Father."
"No matter what happens, the people of Alabasta cannot live without you."
Vivi bit the inside of her lip, the pressure of her teeth leaving a shallow mark.
I'm not leaving.
"Vivi."
"You're telling me to leave because you think something bad will happen tonight," Vivi, staring into her father's eyes.
Cobra fell silent.
The night wind outside the window grew stronger in the silence, and the sand grains pattered against the window frame.
That sound drowned out another sound.
A very faint sound, like footsteps falling on the stone walls of the Royal Palace.
Pell crouched on the roof, his gaze sweeping across the night surrounding the Royal Palace, pausing briefly in the direction of the south wall.
What did he see?
Or rather, he sensed something.
A well-trained soldier's instinctive perception of killing intent made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
His hand rested on the hilt of the curved sword at his waist.
There were no unusual visual signals in the shadow of the south wall; there were too many blind spots where the moonlight couldn't reach, each Izo a person.
Pell's eyes narrowed in the darkness.
He did not raise an alarm.
Because he was unsure.
If it's just your imagination, issuing an alarm rashly could cause unnecessary panic.
But if it's not an illusion...
He reached into his left hand, pulled a signal flare from his pocket, and hooked his thumb onto the pull ring.
The wind direction has changed.
It turned from southeast to due south.
Pell tightened his grip on the pull ring slightly.
Three seconds later, the wind changed again.
It changed from due south to southwest.
Wrong.
This pattern of wind change is not natural.
The desert night wind wouldn't change direction twice in such a short period of time.
Unless something is moving high in the atmosphere, disrupting the flow of air.
Pell looked up at the sky.
The sky was dark, the moon was obscured by a thin layer of clouds, and the stars were not bright enough to illuminate any target in the high sky.
But he saw something.
High in the sky, the clouds were torn apart by some force, and a line stretched from the north, across half the desert sky, pointing straight up to the Alabasta Royal Palace.
At the end of that line, a black dot is approaching at an extremely fast speed.
Pell's lips moved.
"What is that?"