The hotel-
Aokiji lay on a comfortable deck chair beside the indoor pool's lounge area.
His straightened black hair hung loosely over his shoulders, and oversized sunglasses covering half his face reflected the light. He wore a white double-breasted chef's jacket and a red pirate bandanna.
Holding a blue cocktail with a little paper umbrella, he looked no different from any lazy chef enjoying a vacation.
Aside from Lilith's group of four, who had gone to compete, the others had scattered to investigate under the pretext of sightseeing.
"..."
Aokiji adjusted his sunglasses.
He withdrew his gaze from the female tourists in the pool.
The lounge area had just the right density of guests, along with hotel employees performing various duties. Everything looked perfectly normal.
This hotel was almost too much of a hotel.
That wasn't just a meaningless thought.
He had noticed that everyone inside the hotel was either "enjoying themselves" or "working." No one was doing anything "pointless."
And the feedback from his Observation Haki carried a sense of wrongness that was difficult to put into words.
"Phew-"
Setting down his now-empty glass, Kuzan stood up.
Since everyone else had something to do, he decided he ought to do a little work himself.
"...Say, buddy, any entertainment spots around here you'd recommend?"
Aokiji ambled over to a corner of the area and greeted a cleaner with a leaf growing from his head.
"Hello."
The cleaner stopped, turned toward him, gave him a guileless smile, and nodded. Then... he went right back to pushing his cleaning cart.
"...Hmm."
That didn't answer my question. No, he didn't answer at all.
Aokiji turned his gaze toward a female receptionist without a leaf. She was patiently answering a "guest" who had asked about the pool's opening hours, her tone perfectly natural.
"...Well,