[One Piece] Isano's Rebel

On the night when the deal was concluded, the people of the Kingdom of Thieves held a grand banquet outside the annual festival for the first time in order to send off Prince Bradley.

The banquet was held in the open space in front of the castle—the guards dragged out the long banquet table that had not been used for several years from the castle warehouse, wiped off the accumulated dust, and spread clean tablecloths.Accompanied by gusts of evening wind, light golden tassels fluttered gently on the corners of the tablecloth.The maids washed and wiped the delicate dishes, and carefully arranged the delicacies prepared by the head chef.

As partners, Adelina and Ace were also treated to warm hospitality.Adelina didn't have much appetite, but Ace ate up a fragrant tender yellow roast chicken in a short while.Bradley was in a good mood. Knowing that Ace drank a lot, he waved his hand and asked the head chef to open the fine wine that had been preserved for many years in the cellar of the castle.Naturally, Ace would not shirk, and had a drink with Bradley very readily.

In front of her was a deliciously cooked sea fish, but Adelina only took a few mouthfuls. The fish was delicious, but she didn't have much appetite.

A cook next to her handed over a glass bottle, and when Adelina turned her head to take it, she realized that it was the middle-aged woman who enthusiastically introduced the island before.

The cook smiled heartily with Adelina, and after a few words, the cook poured half a glass of orange soda into the glass bottle for her.

"The little brother with freckles who was drinking with His Royal Highness saw that you haven't eaten much, so he asked us if we have any delicious drinks here. No, I brought the best secret drink in our kitchen. It’s not the same as outside.”

The woman proudly introduced Adeline, and went to work aside.

Out of the corner of her eye, she inadvertently caught a glimpse of him laughing heartily. He seemed to be chatting with Bradley about some interesting stories, and when he told the most attractive part, he even gestured with his hands.

As if drawn by that person's own vitality, she unconsciously curled the corners of her lips.

She slowly raised the glass and took a sip of the orange soda, but her hand stayed in mid-air, refusing to lift it up.

His gaze penetrated the pale orange liquid, passed through the crystal glass wall, landed on the blurred figure, and fixed on his handsome and bright smiling face.

The slightly cool liquid slipped into the throat, and the depressed emotions in the heart were relieved a little bit.

——The little brother with freckles sees that you haven't eaten much...

—…I thought my words made you unhappy.

——Well, it’s good that you’re not unhappy.

——As the captain of the second squad, I should have the obligation to protect the team members, right?

He is a carefree and straightforward person, but he is more careful than anyone else.

Also a gentle person.

Will take care of other people's emotions anytime, anywhere.

——Are you not in pain?

——How could it not hurt, just say it hurts.

Adelina is getting used to it and likes to be alone.

Not because of conflict with others.

It's just because if she can't become stronger little by little, then she won't be able to protect the people she values.

But he could tell her clearly that they were companions and they could fight side by side.

——Since we are companions, let's go.

——If you don't want to stay on the side all the time, then come and protect my back.

They can trust each other.

——Grandpa, protecting your companions is justified.

He even - in front of her, can resist the discrimination and prejudice she once feared for her.

Get used to the security that another person gives you.

She had never experienced this feeling.

——Anyway...it's about you, so it's interesting to hear.

There is a ball of fire jumping in the heart, the fire that is touched by that person.

Her blue pupils stared quietly at the orange soda in the glass.

Small and cute bubbles bubble up from the bottom of the soda.

It was rising and leaping at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Faster and faster.

Like the indelible emotion in her heart, it was getting stronger and stronger.

The bubbles are already reaching the surface.But she still didn't know what the emotions in her heart represented, she was a little flustered.

The moment the bubble burst, a familiar handsome face suddenly appeared in Adelina's sight.

"What are you dazed about?"

The man smiled as usual, showing his bright white teeth.

His smile is like a warm fire in the cold winter, making people want to get closer and touch him.

But she knew that the burning of the flame would be painful.

My heart felt like it had been hit hard by something, with a sour sting.

Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and her green pupils did not blink for a moment—being watched so intently by those eyes that she once thought were very beautiful, Ace couldn't say anything for a while.At the noisy dinner party, the two were silent in the narrow distance, as if everything around them had nothing to do with them.Adelina herself didn't know how long she had been staring at Ace. By the time she realized it, the bases of Ace's ears had already turned red, but she had no intention of leaving her.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Ace asked after seeing Adelina not speaking for a long time and finally calming himself down.

Adelina touched her ears subconsciously, opened her mouth, paused, and then said casually, "See if you blush after drinking so much..."

Ace's expression froze for a moment, and then he laughed out loud. Adelina was used to his appearance, so she sat there, drinking her own orange soda, watching him laugh.

The quiet white moonlight shone beside the shadows of the two of them.

Ace held the wine jar in one hand, and supported the table in front of her with the other hand, "Who said you can only blush when you drink?"

Ace stood very close to her, with calloused but slender fingers resting on the edge of her dinner plate.When he looked down at her and said this, a very bright light flashed in his dark eyes.

"You actually blush because of other things, then I have learned a lot."

She pretended to be a fool, and managed to freeze the other party's smile on her face.Ace patted her on the head helplessly, and before she could react, she carried the wine jar and went for a walk elsewhere - she watched his tall and broad back disappear from her sight, pursed her lips, and shook them gently Looking at the glass - the liquid in the glass has long since lost its bubbles.

A teasing voice suddenly came from the side, "When will drinking soda be as embarrassing as drinking alcohol?"

She turned her head, and sure enough, she saw Bradley standing not far away. He was also able to drink, and after drinking so much, he still had an expression that watching the excitement was no big deal.

Adelina glanced at him with a blank face, and Bradley looked like I understood.

"Forget about business—I don't care about your private affairs anyway." Bradley raised his eyebrows, showing a serious expression.

Adeline recalled the person's annoying behavior of almost jumping when they were negotiating the deal, first touched the sapphire on the top of the dagger at her waist, and then nodded, "Say."

Bradley noticed her small gesture, "Wait, we are all partners now, do you think I will be so disrespectful to you?"

"I don't need to trouble you for my face." Adelina retorted lightly.

"Hey, I didn't see you so eloquent when I was talking to Fire Fist just now." After saying this, Adelina flew over with a sharp look, and Bradley had to raise his hands in a gesture of surrender, "Okay, okay...Issa Miss Nuo, let's talk about business, business."

In order not to disturb other people's interest in the dinner, Adelina got up and left her seat, followed Bradley to the outdoor terrace on the second floor of the castle - it was very quiet, no one came, and people could overlook the panorama of the dinner .There is only a circle of carefully arranged flowers and plants and a few wall lamps on the terrace.The light is warmly reflected on the tender flowers, and a breeze blows by, and the shadows of the flowers flicker.

"About the No. [-] reagent, I have to tell you clearly, the reason why I trade with you, and the reason why I need the No. [-] reagent information."

When he said this, Adelina was not surprised.But the next sentence did exceed her expectations.

"I need information because I want to make an antidote."

"The antidote?" Adelina confirmed that she heard correctly.

Dr. Becca Punk of the government developed this reagent in order to use reagents to strengthen human body functions, so as to cultivate a group of powerful fighters. Those with fruit abilities will also be threatened by Hailoushi.If it weren't for the successive accidents in the first and second areas of the laboratory that caused the research to be permanently terminated, the navy would have had a terrifying army long ago.The value of the No. [-] reagent is undoubtedly able to bring huge benefits to people. This is the reason why Minos Island conducted foreign-related transactions back then, and it is also the fuse that caused the continuous occurrence of accidents in the laboratory.

He holds the power that so many people want to get, but he wants to make an antidote.

"I know what you're thinking." Bradley continued lightly, "What I drank back then was not genuine, so there would be side effects that the genuine ones didn't have, and shortened lifespan-I mentioned this to you. I need I need strength to protect this island, but it doesn’t mean that I’m willing to exchange my lifespan for strength. Simply put, if I die from the side effects of the reagent tomorrow, no matter how powerful I am now, it’s useless.”

"But if you don't have the power of No. [-] reagent, you..."

"Come on, Miss Isano, do you really rely on the counterfeit reagents you drank when I got here in the past few years?" Bradley pointed to his brain, "I know the pros and cons of gains and losses. .”

Adelina nodded, "I understand."

"You are responsible for the information. I can solve the antidote myself." Bradley didn't drag his feet.

"Oh, and. I have to apologize to you."

Adelina turned her head, only to see Bradley scanning the crowd at the dinner party below her vision.

"I've seen the photos in your dagger mechanism."

She was stunned, "You..."

"Please, Ms. Isano, next time you hide things, make a more complicated mechanism." Bradley looked at her stunned expression, "Or is this a very complicated thing, but I figured it out all at once? Are you surprised?"

The sapphire at the top of the dagger is specially carved, and the bottom of the gem has complex and regular spiral lines. When turning the gem, several special points of the thread must be stuck in several ports inside the handle to open the mechanism.After Adeline discovered this opening pattern, she practiced for a long time, so that every time she turned the gemstone, it could be accurately locked.If it is turned wrong, various hidden weapons will be fired from the outside of the handle, some of which are even poisoned.

In the E6 training camp back then, although Adelina was not the strongest in mechanism design, her level was considered to be among the top few.

From this point of view, this strange thief Bradley is really powerful.

"But to be honest, your partner is really good-looking." Bradley turned his back, leaned on the balcony railing, and asked casually, "You... other than your partner, what else is there? "

Adeline fell silent immediately. Seeing her gradually getting colder, Bradley showed no fear, but said plainly, "Believe me, Miss Isano, it's not good for you to answer my question." There will be disadvantages."

Adelina tried to find a hint of calculation in the opponent's eyes, but failed.

It's not that she doesn't trust Bradley, it's just that it's about that person, and she can't be careless.

what relationship?

At the age of five, Isano Adelina was still a flower in the greenhouse, read many books and played the piano well.

She likes to listen to her father Isano Orton's fairy tales about the big talker Rolando. She was also a little girl who asked her father whether the Golden City really existed and had infinite fantasies about the sea.

Of course, she preferred the stories of sea adventures told in her mother's letters to herself.

She asked her father why she couldn't go to sea like her mother, and could only live in the old house of Isano's family.

Her father told her that she was still young and the sea was very dangerous, and if one day she became stronger, they would rest assured that she would travel by sea.

At that time, Isano Adelina was a cheerful little girl who yearned for the sea.

Although she is sometimes disliked by the Navy because of her mother's pirate status, she lives very happily.

Because, her parents never deliberately forced her ambition.

News of her parents' unexpected death devastated her.Grandpa Isano Jack accepted her custody and raised her as the next heir of the naval family, and she was forced to learn the abilities needed to become a navy.

She was sent to the E6 training camp for the cruelest training, and she lived desperately every day.

The so-called freedom and chic that pirates can have, in the eyes of Isano Jack, are all jokes.

—The family needs glory.

— But Grandpa, I need to be free.

——The Isanos fight for justice and never need freedom.

Five-year-old Miss Isano's temperament changed drastically, and she has been taciturn since then, and she doesn't get close to others.

One day, Lieutenant General Jack brought a boy a few years older than her.

He has silver-white hair and sparkling purple eyes.Handsome face, sculpted perfect facial features, like a work bestowed by God.

He held out his hand to her, and his smile was gentle.

—Hello, Adelina, I'm Buridon.

Seeing the armband on his arm that originally belonged to Isano Orton, tears welled up in her eyes.

The boy was an airborne soldier of E6, but he became the strongest in E6 in a short period of time.

In order to catch up with his footsteps, she trained desperately.He even once suppressed his desire to become a pirate deep in his heart.

Boridon never mentioned his past, and Adeline never asked.

This is probably a tacit understanding.

Live together like a family, and cultivate a tacit understanding.

Together, they faced the cynicism of other peers in the training camp, were locked up for a long time after the East Coast Incident, carried out the most dangerous missions together, and at the most dangerous moment, they confidently handed over their backs to each other.

But in the end, Boliton disappeared from her life due to the explosion accident in the E6 East District.

At the age of five, she lost her parents and a carefree childhood. At the age of 15, she once again lost the boy who was cherished by her as a family.

She still remembers that it was her 6th birthday on the day of the E15 East Zone explosion.

"My relationship with him..."

During those days in the training camp, what she remembered most clearly was the shooting practice where she had a big fight with the instructor.

——Don’t trust anyone on the battlefield, only justice can’t be let down.

——So even if you are your own companion, you must have the awareness that you may become an enemy at any time.If the other party stands on the opposite side of you, you must not give up your job as a navy because of your former friendship.

——What I want you to do is to shoot your partner three times.

Under the coercion of the instructor, almost most of the trainees carried out the training requirements with trembling hands, wailing was everywhere, and the smell of blood became stronger.

No one shoots a life-threatening body part.

But at the same time, the bullets from his partner's gun really hit his own flesh.

All of them knew that these three shots not only carried out the cruel request of the instructor, but also shattered the friendship and trust established between the partners.

But with the exception of Adelina and Buridon — two ex-cops who rebelled against orders during the East Coast incident — no one dared to say no.

— Dinah, even if you did shoot me.I won't move you a bit.

At that time, he smiled gently and said such a thing.

She doesn't want to do it.

——I never expected that the heir of the Isano family would be so weak.

The instructor pointed the gun at Buridon, and she pointed the gun at the instructor who threatened her partner's life.

- My partner will never stand against me.

——Even if one day it really comes to this point, I will never shoot him.

So, if one were to really generalize their relationship...

"Probably, death will not hurt the other party in the slightest..."

No matter what position they stand on.

The author has something to say:

Adelina now has a clearer understanding of what Ace means to her..

But now she has a lot of things on her mind, things about Qiqila, Boridon, including reagent No. [-].

Buridon's identity is a bit more complicated than Adelina's..

In short, as long as you meet Boridon after arriving at E6, the story of a few years ago will be completely picked up.