The West Blue had a unique feature not found in other seas - the Five Great Families of the West.

Each organization was positioned near the core of some country, existing as a powerful force with immense funds and military might.

While opposing factions with each other, the Five Families had experienced cycles of growth and decline, their members shifting over time. However, the current Five Families had remained stable with no major conflicts in recent years.

Yet amidst them, the Happo Navy based in the Kano Country had been expanding its power exponentially of late.

Ever since the man known as "Chinjao the Drill" became their leader, the balance had begun to crumble.

"You get all that, boy?"

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard enough about that area already."

The youth - Kuro - muttered disdainfully, as if he had wax buildup in his ears. Perhaps due to the nearby stove, he dabbed at the sweat beading his brow while haphazardly fanning his shirt. Rocking precariously in the tilted chair, he motioned for George to continue.

Though doubting Kuro's sincere interest, George swallowed his dissatisfaction.

"...Fine then. So where was I?"

George retrieved the previous day's newspaper, meticulously folded before tossing it onto Kuro's desk.

"Take a look," he said as Kuro caught and unfolded the newspaper.

Emblazoned across the front page was news that two of the Five Families had gone to war - utterly decimating each other while inflicting catastrophic damage upon the nation itself.

In the midst of the depicted battlefield, massive footprints seemed etched into the terrain. The black and white photo made it somewhat unclear, but comparing to the surrounding trees indicated a colossal scale.

A giant, perhaps? Yet even so, this size seemed outrageous.

"Damn, two whole Families wiped out, huh?"

"All the senior ranks annihilated. The small fry either got absorbed by other Families, killed off, or started new gangs - a total mess."

"Probably some ripple effects headed our way too then."

"Which is why I'm telling you about it. Don't forget, you're one of our senior ranks yourself."

While plagued by a lazy streak, Kuro fundamentally carried out his duties properly. Technically subordinate to Kanata rather than George himself, that senior status applied.

George remained the overall boss of the current organization, with Kanata beneath him and only Kuro, Junshi, and Scotch considered senior officers beside her direct subordinates. Understaffed as they were, George worried someone might buckle under the strain before long.

"Five years since we started this business, and I still don't get you being called the boss."

"I don't really get it either. But that Kanata kid refuses to take the boss title herself, and Junshi is just a bodyguard to begin with."

"Ain't he pretty much part of the family at this point though?"

"Maybe so, but he insists his role is just a hired position. It's a tricky situation."

Having integrated so deeply into the George Family dynamic, the notion of merely hiring Junshi as a bodyguard seemed farcical at this stage. Even if he claimed otherwise, everyone else viewed him differently.

Maybe it was about time to have him commit one way or the other, George muttered under his breath.

"...Gonna be choppy seas for a while, it seems..." Kuro murmured while reading the newspaper details.

The battlefield photos resembled some cataclysmic upheaval, whether the aftermath of a giant's rampage or the work of an Ability user.

***

Frosty breaths misting the air, Kanata gazed up at the overcast skies threatening snow. This island had certainly transformed over the past five years.

The docks expanded to accommodate larger ships, the harbors lined with increasing warehouses - most belonging to the George Family, though other factions had also proliferated as the island grew into a trading hub.

Funds had accumulated as merchants sought contracts with the George Family, street toughs hoping to get a piece of the action filtering in.

Yet competent personnel remained scarce, the core organization still pitching in to handle cargo loading themselves. Maintaining credibility meant meticulously handling shipments with utmost care.

Thieves constantly tried exploiting any lapses, after all.

"These rabble have gotten pretty brazen lately."

Kanata glared down at the would-be pilferers she had battered into the ground, groaning as they tried to rise.

"Not very organized, are they? Just street punks without practice at thievery."

"Y-You bitch...!!"

One fumbled for a knife, crouching into a tackle stance to stab her. Without flinching, Kanata simply pinched the blade between her fingers, stopping its motion.

"Wh-What the...?!"

Discarding the rigid knife, the thug clenched his free fist to throw a haymaker at close range - only for Kanata to sock him squarely across the jaw first.

Boom!

He flew back spectacularly before crashing unconscious, the remaining two seeming to lose their nerve after such an effortless beatdown. They glowered resentfully, but Kanata paid them no mind as the knife shattered into ice shards still gripped in her hand.

One of her men had already alerted the island authorities after the scuffle ended, an exasperated Kanata idly noting their workload would increase as well.

"The cargo still isn't fully loaded?"

"Nearly done, miss. But we really need to hire more hands, the shipments just keeping growing lately."

"I suppose you're right...We'll have to arrange some recruitment once this job finishes."

That said, dealing solely with former street thugs meant nepotistic hiring of similar riffraff, which posed its own issues.

Fundamentally just manual labor, solid supervisors keeping them in line should suffice, Kanata reasoned. But that discussion could wait until after completing their current commitments.

She made a mental note to discuss it with George later. Cargo loaded by the time her chilled subordinates took a break, Kanata remained shipside while one runner notified George.

"Alright, loading's finished. Inspections are complete."

"Then inform George we depart in half an hour. Everyone else can rest in the meantime."

Inhaling the crisp, cold air, Kanata mused how the biting chill no longer bothered her since consuming a Devil Fruit. With time to kill beforehand, she idled about aimlessly.

***

They departed promptly on schedule.

Upgrading to a larger galleon significantly improved transit speeds, reducing travel days even with full cargo loads that would have bogged down smaller vessels. Well-armed escorts also deterred most pirates from harassing them unprovoked, even if maintaining the cannons incurred costs deemed necessary operational expenses.

While the West Blue hosted more mafia activities compared to other seas, pirates moonlighting as raiders still proved unavoidable nuisances from time to time - such as now, their ship already taking cannon fire.

Junshi and Kanata swatted aside any potentially impacting shells. Wanting to finish things quickly, Kanata steps on the edge of the ship and called out to Junshi:

"I think we'll manage, but stay wary of boarders all the same."

"Planning to cross over yourself again?"

"Could use a bit of exercise."

With a slight smile, Kanata leapt over the gunwale into the wintry seas below. An ordinary act of suicide given her Devil Fruit, but her cold powers rendered it trivial.

Fwoosh!

Freezing the waters from her landing point outward, she rapidly formed an icy path straight towards the enemy ship. Heedless of the cannon bombardment, she sprinted across and vaulted aboard the pirate vessel.

"Wh-What the...?!"

The dumbstruck pirates and their apparent captain all whipped their guns towards Kanata simultaneously. Though unfamiliar with the man's face, she cocked her head inquisitively.

"Don't recognize you. New rookies?"

"What's that?! You don't know who I am?! I'm 'Big Helmet' Marcy, worth 8 million berries!!"

"Never heard of you. Just small fry, I'd wager."

"...Why you...!! Kill this bitch!!"

Infuriated by her dismissiveness, Marcy opened fire - though Kanata remained utterly nonchalant, her Observation Haki detecting no threat from such meager opponents.

Boom! Boom!

Systematically pummeling each pirate into submission, she found their numbers the only remotely challenging aspect before hurling the last man aside like discarded trash.

Evidently battle-worn already, the galleon's cabins held scores of captive women bound and imprisoned within.

Truthfully Kanata cared little about their fates, but liberating them could further elevate the George Family's growing reputation if nothing else. Not that she needed more jobs they could scarcely handle as it was.

"...Hm?"

While surveying their payload in the treasure hold, a familiar item caught her eye:

A vaguely patterned Devil Fruit - the same accursed entity that had upended her very existence, granting unnatural cold powers.

Certainly a different fruit than the one she consumed, given only one exists per era. Yet to encounter another so casually...

"Who'd have thought to find one here?"

Consuming a second Devil Fruit reputedly proved fatal, a risk Kanata had no intention of taking despite the richly empowering temptation.

At the same time, the artifacts posed a conundrum - eating one granted special abilities, but their rarity also made them extraordinarily valuable commodities when sold.

Clearly these pirates aimed to unload it elsewhere for profit rather than consuming it themselves, reaping a tremendous windfall.

While exceedingly rare overall, Devil Fruits cropped up periodically across the seas.

Shelving that dilemma for later consideration, Kanata pocketed the solitary find before rejoining Junshi and the others.

She could cross-reference its species in their Devil Fruit encyclopedia afterward. No need to determine its fate immediately.

***

--West Blue, township of Toroa.

Headquarters for the Larsh Family headed by Drevan, one of the Five Great Families. Upon receiving a certain report, Drevan flew into an apoplectic rage - lashing out to viciously pummel the hapless messenger before him.

"--You gotta be f*ckin' kidding me!!"

While not imbuing it with Haki, his blow's sheer ferocity blasted the subordinate through the nearest door and down the hallway, leaving him unconscious amid the wreckage before other men hastily dragged him away for treatment.

Unable to slake his fury, Drevan reached for the drink he craved during such fits of anger.

Nothing seemed to go right anymore. He could overlook the Happo Navy's growing dominance for now - that Chinjao character remained too formidable an adversary to realistically uproot, no matter how much Drevan wished otherwise. He had no intentions of losing by underestimating their might.

Fine, that was fine. But other issues beggared belief:

Two of the Five Families had collapsed altogether. Leaders commonly took to the field themselves like Chinjao, but for both rival bosses to die in battle simultaneously left an unprecedented clusterfuck in its wake.

Typically the victors would handle aftermath proceedings themselves. But with both sides decimated amid national strife, cleanup duties fell to the remaining factions by default.

"Goddamn, what in the hell is going on..."

Compounding this chaos culminating into Drevvan's present fury were several rapidly unfolding events:

First, the aforementioned downfall of two Family powers - now precipitating a turf war Drevan's side seemed to be floundering.

Second, a highly coveted Devil Fruit he had arranged to acquire from the Wood Head Pirates was inexplicably snatched away by unknown interlopers.

And third - a giant had appeared, ravaging territories under his control.

While the first incident proved irritating, the latter two could not be overlooked so readily.

"A giant, you say? Thought those massive bastards only dwelled along the Grand Line!"

As recent newspapers also covered, the two decimated Families apparently fell to the same gargantuan culprit. Yet said giant's current whereabouts remained an inscrutable mystery infuriating Drevan.

With their phenomenal size reaching ten times human proportions, secluding such behemoths should prove impossible - yet besides sporadic rampages, no credible sightings existed. Logically some unknown party must be intentionally harboring them.

But which faction could conceal literal giants? He had search parties meticulously scouring every potential hiding place, but the seas held innumerable locations to scour.

Securing that caliber of power grew increasingly urgent. Which explained Drevan's keen interest in the recently ascendant George Family...

 

Follow/support at: Patreon