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“Come on, slave! Sing!”
“Mrrggh…”
As the two Holy Knights jeered through the bars on her cage, Uta did her best to glare at them.
She refused to give a World Noble - any World Noble - the satisfaction of seeing her admitting defeat.
Even, though, well, that was exactly what had happened.
World Nobles didn’t fight, as far as most of the world knew.
And Uta, like most of the world, believed that.
After all, why would the “gods” bother to lower themselves to the level of commoners, and do something as hard as train themselves?
So, when she - and a number of the Revolutionaries she’d been assigned with (for her first mission as one of them!) had heard there was a Holy Knight assigned to the area they were supposed to be scouting/raiding, near the outskirts of the Sabaody-Marineford Exclusion Zone (already spanning several islands away from either of the two) they - well, they had taken precautions. They weren’t stupid.
But they hadn’t - well, they hadn’t prepared for what they should do if their plans didn’t work.
Hadn’t prepared for what would happen if the Holy Knight in question had apparently brought backup - and wasn’t there for Revolutionaries in general, but for her.
Apparently, underestimating the Holy Knights was a really stupid idea.
Her comrades - her friends, no matter how short the time she’d known them - had all been killed.
(She’d cried when they did - more people dead because of her-)
Enough.
Crying wasn’t going to solve their deaths.
All she could do, at this point, was ensure they didn’t die in vain.
And to do that, she had to-
“Enough.”
As a new figure walked into the room - one she recognized, much to her horror, any thoughts of escape fled Uta’s mind.
“Saint” Figarland Garling. Leader of the Holy Knights, and the only one with a bounty.
Even so, a two and a half billion-berry bounty - a bounty bigger than hers - was nothing to sneeze at.
“Dismissed. Both of you.”
The two Knights saluted, all levity vanishing as they walked out of the room.
It was a display of obedience that would have satisfied any drill sergeant on the planet, and Uta felt her confidence slipping.
How - how strong is this man, to get World Nobles to show that sort of submissiveness?
Uta didn’t like the answer that her mind was giving her.
But… come to think of it, why was this man even here?
Uta couldn’t think of any reason that the leader of the Holy Knights would show up for her.
Why would-
“...so. It seems my blood decided to debase himself even further than I suspected he had.”
…what?
“What?” Uta immediately slammed her mouth shut, the second the unconscious response slipped out of it, bracing herself swiftly for the blow that would end her life.
To her surprise, no such blow came.
Garling gave her a dark look.
“Be grateful. If it was not for your father never raising you correctly or even telling you what you were, I would have cut you down already for going against your own blood.”
Uta was about to tell Garling that she had no idea what he was talking about, but a horrible idea struck her as she opened her mouth.
One that fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately, from the perspective of her stomach, kept her from letting the response she had been planning out into the air.
Shanks didn’t have a last name. At least, not one he’d ever shared with her.
No “Gol”. No "Silvers”. Just a blank space, as if he didn’t care to mention his last name at all, or acknowledge that he had one.
Uta, despite what people had been saying about her after her first “dead” performance, wasn’t stupid.
(Her plan had been well-thought out - it was just that, when you were suicidally depressed and half-crazy, your plans often didn’t end the way that the plans of sane people did).
The look on her face must have reflected her realization, because Garling - well, he didn’t smile. But he didn’t frown any more than he already was.
“Prove it.” Uta replied.
Garling did not appear bothered, and withdrew a shell.
“Not an unreasonable request. Here, then.”
Blinking, Uta felt her attention turn to the Vision Dial, as it projected-
It took her more willpower than she had ever been aware she possessed to fight down the urge to vomit.
The hair hadn’t changed, in the Vision Dial projection on the wall. She could still see his hair there.
But otherwise, she was looking at the spitting image of her father.
“Even the slightest trace of divine blood is enough to secure one a place among the gods - as long as they do not belong to a branch that chose to forsake our blood.”
Uta blinked. “But - didn’t my father-?”
Leave you?
Garling - for the first time since entering the room, showed an emotion besides annoyance.
Possibly the first time in his life, for all Uta knew.
World Nobles -
They weren’t the type of people to have regrets.
“My son was taken away in the world below, when he was only a year old.” To Uta’s surprise - well, she could hear genuine pain in Garling’s voice. “Taken in by a demon, and taught nothing but blasphemy.”
He was quiet.
It was harder than Uta had initially thought it would be, to not comfort him a little.
Either way, it took Garling around ten seconds to pull himself together. “He has never returned home. But due to the actions of other Nobles, he has never been given the chance. He was declared as a pirate - by the Elders, no less. I approached him, despite his blasphemy… but in hindsight, I did so at a poor time. Regardless. You will begin your lessons tomorrow.”
Uta didn’t let her confusion show on her face - at least, she didn’t think she did - but either way, Garling picked up on it. “Even with divine blood in you, there are far too many of us who will disdain you for being corrupted by the world below, even if you had no choice in the matter or knowledge of the truth.”
He gave Uta a look that made it clear to her that he didn’t care in the least about her opinions on any of this.
“I will not allow you to be anything less than perfect.”
And then, without warning, he slashed.
She was out of the cage.
Uta still couldn’t believe it.
She’d been taken to Sabaody - long since cleared of anything except Ryokugyu’s Marines, slaves, and World Nobles.
(If you weren’t the first, or the third, you became the second - that had been the law, recently. When the Government decided - well, to stop being subtle, after a large part of the Navy rebelled after the alliance with Blackbeard).
And now, she was in the last group.
Because of Shanks.
Shanks was a World Noble.
Shanks was a World Noble.
It still sounded ridiculous, even in her own head.
Her -
Memories came to her, of the man who’d raised her for more than ten years - who’d taught her music, who had been there for her no matter what -
Her first father - well, he didn’t act like a Noble.
He didn’t act like a pirate Emperor either, though, so maybe she should have expected that he wasn’t what he appeared to be (or in this case, that he wasn’t what he appeared to be).
Even so - well, this was a good thing. At least for now.
She was alive. That was more than everyone else with her could say. And she had free run of Sabaody, now - at least, she should, right?
She couldn’t go to Mariejois - but that was a good thing! It would be even harder to escape from there than it would be from here.
And - well, the worst-scenario kept going through her mind.
Being taken to Mariejois , the Unholy Land , and being accepted as a World Noble… and failing to escape…
…and then having Garling realize she was not Shanks’ daughter by blood, that he had just adopted her -
That she, technically, wasn’t a World Noble, that he wasn’t her grandfather… (at least, by blood, thank God…)
…a quick death would be far, far worse than whatever fate would lie in store for her after that.