Chapter 429

A knock suddenly sounded at the door.

"Sima Di. It's me." Nami's voice came from outside the door.

Sima Di instantly panicked, threw the whiteboard marker away, and frantically searched for something to cover it with.

"Something, something... ah, I can stuff it in here."

"Sima Di? Are you in there?" Nami knocked on the door twice more.

"Coming! Coming!"

Sima Di quickly shoved the movable whiteboard behind the floor-length black curtains, then feigned calmness and opened the door for Nami.

"What took so long? What were you doing?"

"N-nothing." Sima Di smiled awkwardly.

"Really?" Nami looked past Sima Di into his room with suspicion.

Sima Di's room was three to four times larger than the original Merry's room; the facilities inside were so complete they exceeded Sima Di's imagination, matching the standard of a luxury five-star hotel.

The overall color scheme of the room was dominated by black and white, a bit monotonous but within everyone's expectations. However, what was surprising was that a pink princess bed stood right in the middle of the room, creating a huge sense of incongruity with the rest of the space.

Although Zeff had once suggested to Sima Di that he might as well just change the entire room to pink, Sima Di had refused with a look of pure happiness.

—Isn't this combination nice? Sima Di had said.

Yet even now, Nami couldn't stand this visual impact.

"What are you... looking for, Nami? Is there something strange in my room?" Sima Di let Nami in and casually closed his door behind her.

Luo Bu's two million and one hundred thousand bounty poster was conspicuously stuck to the back of the door. Although Sima Di couldn't figure out where that one million came from, the bounty rising was something he was delighted to see.

"Just a sixth sense..." Nami looked around stubbornly, finally noticing the curtains still swaying slightly and the whiteboard marker lying on the floor. "So... what was it you wrote on the whiteboard that you couldn't let anyone see? And you secretly hid it behind the curtains?"

"I... I just wrote a little..."

"I know! Sima Di! It's the character settings for the new arrival, right!" Nami suddenly leaped up, rushing to the curtains at a speed even Sima Di couldn't stop, and then yanked them open with a rustle.

"Nami..." Sima Di felt utterly helpless.

"First Generation, Second Generation... and also the Holy Messenger... what the heck is this? Is it a new sect setting? What is this sect called? It looks like it has a long history." Nami asked.

"Spade."

"Spade? Strange name... but why does it feel so familiar?" Nami looked at the whiteboard and finally spotted something strange on it.

Tenth Generation, Red Heart Sima Di.

Nami pointed at this line of text, and 087's face changed.

"Could it be... all the important figures of the Navy's highest Keyan Force?"

"What Keyan Force... it's all just a cover." Sima Di stepped forward, took out the whiteboard, and set it up in the center of the room. "I know you've all noticed my bounty poster and held back from asking out of respect for my wishes. But I also believe in you... if it's you, no matter what happens, you'll definitely be able to save me just like you saved Robin, right?"

"Sima Di..." Nami quickly said, "If talking about those things will cause you pain, you don't have to say anything."

Although she didn't know what Sima Di was enduring, Nami could feel it. Whether it was the "I'm sorry" he muttered while unconscious from severe injuries, or his habit of hiding in a corner of the Merry to stare blankly, Nami knew it all.

Perhaps the reason Sima Di and Nami formed such a deep friendship was that, in some unseen way, they felt they were the same kind of person.

"Pain? That most difficult time has long passed. If I don't tell this story completely, it would be a betrayal of your trust. Besides, I also believe in you... if it's you, no matter what happens, you'll definitely be able to save me just like you saved Robin, right?"

Nami looked at Sima Di and smiled, a smile as gentle and brilliant as the one on that bounty poster.

"Mm." Nami nodded heavily. "Absolutely, we absolutely will!"

If it's you, no matter what happens, you'll definitely be able to save me just like you saved Robin, right?

Sunny, the grass deck.

Except for Sima Di and Nami, everyone had gathered here.

"... These are the words Mom said." Merry relayed the conversation between Nami and Sima Di to them.

As Sima Di had said, everyone had noticed the annotations on the bounty poster and hadn't asked out of respect for his wishes. But that didn't mean they didn't want to know. Usopp, in particular, had asked Merry that if there was any movement from Sima Di's side, especially if the words "Spade" were mentioned, she must tell them.

Merry was connected to the entire Sunny; whatever Sunny saw or heard, it meant Merry saw or heard it too, so it was normal that Sima Di didn't realize Merry was monitoring him.

If Sima Di knew about this, he'd probably be furious; it had only been a few days, and Merry was already completely following Usopp's orders.

"Of course!" Luffy giggled.

"He's talking nonsense again." Zoro's tone held a hint of disdain, but there was a smile on his face.

"This Sima Di is the cutest~!" Sanji's eyes sparkled with hearts. "That's right! I must practice my Devil Wind Kick very hard today too!"

"Leave saving Sima Di to me, the great Usopp! Hahaha!" Usopp threw his head back and laughed, but then heard a crack. "Twis... twisted... it hurts so much!"

"And me! And me! I'll do my part for Sima Di's sake too!" Chopper raised his hand and said.

"Sima Di is just that kind of person; once he decides to believe in something, he believes in it to the end and even lays everything out on the table. You can see this from Sima Di's inside. And... this is very much like Luffy." Robin said slowly while sipping her coffee.

Since the Enies Lobby incident, Robin no longer addressed everyone as "Mr. Swordsman" or "Little Navigator," but called them by their names directly.

"Wuwuwu... truly moving, what a resilient bond. I will help Sima Di too." Franky pulled out a small handkerchief from somewhere, only one-sixth the size of his face, but he persisted in using this tiny handkerchief to blow his nose.

Sunny, Sima Di's room.

Sima Di shyly touched his pearl earring. "But... this matter is a bit too complex, and I'm still thinking about how to explain it to you. So I first drew a character sketch to see if it could help me clear my thoughts."

Nami nodded understandingly. "So that's how it is..."

"By the way, Nami, what did you come to see me about?" Sima Di asked.

"If you hadn't said that, I almost forgot. I came to tell you that the newspaper I asked you to keep an eye on has finally published it." Nami handed the newspaper in her hand to Sima Di. "Look at this, it's on this page, the one with the largest layout."

Sima Di's eyes lit up, and he immediately became interested. "Is it the latest news regarding the aftermath of the Enies Lobby incident?"

Sima Di had been paying close attention to these things recently. Of course, he didn't care about CP9; after all, he knew everything that happened after CP9, and it was all recorded on the title page of every chapter. What he wanted to find was information about that guy Brad; at the very least, he needed to know if he was dead or alive.

"Let me see... Today, CP9 members Jabra and Kaku were successfully captured and punished for dereliction of duty. CP9 members confirmed dead are Spandam, Blueno, Lion Kumatori, Soundless Owl, Kalifa, and the intern Sea Otter Nero. Currently, the wanted fugitives are Luo Bu Lucci, the intern Viss, and the traitor Zi Zi Busheng, the three..."

Sima Di's voice grew quieter as he read, until eventually it became inaudible.

"That's it... truly sigh-worthy. It seems the Navy has blamed the consequences of the Buster Call launched on Enies Lobby entirely on the CP9 group. And although we suffered no damage after the Buster Call was launched, they lost quite a few." Nami's eyes held some sadness.

Just before, he had fought a fierce battle with Kalifa, and now, in the blink of an eye, they were separated by life and death.

After Nami finished speaking, Sima Di still showed no reaction for a long time. She looked up and found him staring blankly at the newspaper, as if he had not yet processed its contents.

"Sima Di? What's wrong?" Nami asked with concern.

"These people... are all dead?" Sima Di's expression was one of disbelief.

"Yes, all dead. Except for that Nero fellow, everyone else died from the Buster Call. They sank along with the entire island; their bodies were only recently recovered," Nami said.

Hearing the tone in Nami's voice, as if she were recounting a very ordinary matter, Sima Di opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it. This was, after all, the natural order. Although they were not ordinary people, in their state of severe injury and unconsciousness, there was no way they could escape an island on the verge of destruction, especially since many of them possessed Devil Fruit abilities.

"Right... this is the normal progression..." Sima Di murmured.

"Huh? What normal progression?"

"Nothing, nothing. I mean, it would have been the normal progression if that Veis had escaped," Sima Di quickly said.

Forget it, don't think about such things. Perhaps in the original world, because this story was aimed at teenagers, it didn't include such negative content. Right now, matters concerning the Spade Pirates are more important.

"Veis? Why do you say that? Is he your cousin too?"

"What... where would I get so many cousins? Veis, actually, he was also a member of the Spade Pirates." Sima Di pointed to a line on the whiteboard. "The Third Holy Envoy, Bled... because of his special ability, I almost got lost in an illusion. His attack power wasn't strong, but he had many means of restriction. Next time we meet that guy, we must be careful."

"Ghosts Beauty Fruit... what is that?" Nami asked, somewhat puzzled. Clearly, she had never heard of anything called a Ghost Beauty.

"This... I'll explain it to you all together later." After Sima Di finished speaking, he took a deep breath and then said in an extremely sincere tone, "... Nami, help me gather everyone. Please."

Although Sima Di asked him to help gather everyone, but... why had this "everyone" already gathered themselves voluntarily!

"Why are you all here? Did something happen?" Nami asked.

"We are just enthusiastically participating in a group activity," Robin said.

As soon as Robin finished speaking, the others followed suit, nodding frantically.

"Then... what are you all doing here?" Nami asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Eating meat."

"Drinking alcohol."

"Fishing."

"Playing cards in the hall."

"Admiring the moon."

Enemies? I understand!

Nami received several very "consistent" answers, except that one very strange answer had slipped in among them.