In the corridor outside a private room at a café in Golden City, the maid Tashigi had been sneaking along the red-carpeted passageway. She had been out of contact ever since a certain bratty captain announced free time, and no one knew what she had been doing during that period.
"..."
She first warily glanced left and right. After confirming that the waiter from earlier had already passed by, that there were no other customers nearby, and that no one had followed her, she suddenly reached out, pushed open the door to a nearby private room, and quickly slipped inside.
"You're here?"
"No one followed you, right?"
After she entered and closed the door, the hooded, robed figure standing in the corner with an indistinct face slowly spoke.
"Yes!"
"All the crew members of the Sunny went out to have fun. I was the last one to leave, and no one noticed me. Even that brat seems to have forgotten all about me."
Tashigi first stood at attention and saluted before speaking with slight nervousness.
"Is that so?"
"It really wasn't easy for us to get in touch with you. We thought..."
"You had defected to the brat's side."
The hooded, robed figure in the corner nodded, neither confirming nor denying it, and merely said that in an unhurried tone.
"!!"
"That's impossible!"
"Sir!"
"I, Tashigi, am a colonel of the G-5 Marine branch. I was born a Marine and will die a Marine. I would never do anything to betray the Marines!"
"I was captured by her. Staying beside that brat wasn't my intention!"
Seeing that the "superior" she had finally managed to contact suspected her, Tashigi hurriedly declared her loyalty in a loud voice.
After all, she had been captured by the brat in battle. If the brat