One Piece: Getting Stronger by Writing a Diary

Hina, Tashigi, and even Gion, who had previously fought against Arton, were all heroines in Arton's stories. If possible, Arton naturally didn't want to be enemies with them. Likewise, he hoped these heroines would, like in his doujinshis, all become his allies.

If Hina, Tashigi, and other Navy members truly left the Navy and were willing to join his pirate crew, Arton wouldn't refuse to accept them. However, he also knew this was unlikely. At least, it was impossible for now.

Perhaps, as the world continued to evolve and the conspiracy of the World Government was truly exposed, Tashigi, Hina, and others' sense of justice might waver. At that time, Arton might have the chance to bring them into his fold.

What Arton didn't know was that his diary was already subtly shaking the Navy's sense of justice, including that of Tashigi and others. Even the older generation of female Navy members had begun to reexamine the justice they upheld.

"Quit the Navy?" Tashigi lowered her head, feeling lost.

Hina sighed, understanding Tashigi's thoughts, and patted her shoulder in consolation.

"Well, this is truly goodbye for now," Arton said. "Next time, don't be so unlucky as to be targeted by a pirate like Shiki. You can't always be so lucky to encounter me at the right time."

As Arton spoke, he took Tashigi's sword, Shigure, from Uta, who had tossed it from the Sylvan. After a brief hesitation, Arton decided to use Shirou Emiya's projection magic.

"Projection, begin!"

"Material structure analysis successful."

"Reinforcement, begin!"

"Reinforcement, complete!"

"Entire process finished."

As Arton chanted the incantation, green magical circuits glowed around him.

At the same time, blue and white light particles surrounded the entire blade of Shigure.

"This... what is this?!" Tashigi was stunned by the sight before her, stammering.

"I've enhanced your Shigure," Arton said. "Its quality should now be on par with the Supreme Grade Swords. Work hard, young swordswoman. I hope you can become an outstanding swordswoman before you leave the Navy and join my pirate crew. Consider this enhancement my investment in you."

After handing Shigure back to Tashigi, Arton smiled warmly. Supreme Grade Swords are rare treasures in the pirate world, but Arton, a man capable of projecting treasures far beyond the Supreme Grade Swords, found it quite easy to enhance Tashigi's Shigure to that level using his projection magic.

He was indeed investing in Tashigi. Among the Navy, Tashigi was one of those he had the highest regard for. This might be related to how often she appeared, but what caught Arton's eye the most was the fanservice moments when Tashigi and Smoker swapped bodies. Her cute personality and sexy body made Tashigi all the more likable to Arton.

Knowing her love for famous swords, Arton didn't mind creating a Supreme Grade Sword for her. This way, every time she saw Shigure, she would think of him. The thought made Arton's lips curl into a smile.

"A Supreme Grade Sword, the Twelve Supreme Grades! Arton, you're quite generous," Hina sighed. "So what about Hina? Does Hina get a farewell gift?"

Having seen Arton's Unlimited Blade Works, Hina had no doubt about the current quality of Tashigi's Shigure. She was also certain that she couldn't stay on Arton's ship any longer.

"What, do you want me to use projection magic to make you a black rod?" Arton asked.

"Your black rod is produced by your ability. If I enhance your black rod, are you sure you can still store it back in your body?"

Arton waved his hand at Hina, intending to jump back onto the Sylvan.

Just then, Hina suddenly grabbed Arton's hand, which had not yet been retracted.

The next moment, Arton felt something soft.

"What are you doing?"

Arton turned back, looking at his hand now placed on Hina's chest, and asked her in confusion.

"Nothing, just making sure you remember the current size," Hina said, her voice firm. "The future Hina won't be just this size."

As she spoke, Hina squeezed Arton's hand inward.

"Hmm?"

Arton tilted his head and looked at Tashigi.

"Tashigi, is she always like this?"

Tashigi lowered her head, feeling extremely embarrassed by the situation. She understood that Hina was expressing dissatisfaction with Arton's diary entry, which mentioned that future Hina wouldn't be as impressive as Tashigi. However, she couldn't mention the contents of the diary to Arton or even hint at it in front of Hina.

"Alright, well, you're not bad," Arton said, retracting his hand. "Maybe we'll meet again someday."

With a slight push off the lifeboat, Arton quickly jumped back onto the deck of the Sylvan. After instructing Carina and the others to continue sailing according to the planned route, Arton grabbed Nami's hand and headed towards the bow. He intended to have a good talk with Nami about the Raiden Shogun template there.

Under Carina and Nami's control, the Sylvan quickly left Hina and Tashigi far behind.

Watching as the Sylvan disappeared into the distance, Hina finally opened her own diary copy.

"Over five minutes of recorded video, plus the photos taken earlier," Hina said, feeling a mix of emotions. "This time, the gains were good."

She wasn't sure whether to feel happy or ashamed of the way she had earned the points. Perhaps, she felt a bit of both.

Tashigi, looking at her own diary entries, felt equally complicated. Although she didn't have a kissing video, Arton had taken quite a few photos of her in the medicinal bathhouse.

Thinking about how these photos have been seen by many diary copyholders, including Gion, Hibari, and other female Marines, Tashigi just wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

"Don't take it too seriously, Tashigi," Hina said, patting her shoulder to comfort her. "Compared to being killed by Shiki, just letting Arton see is a very light thing, isn't it? And we earned some points too, right?"

"Even so, even so... I can't be as calm as you, Captain Hina," Tashigi's voice was almost inaudible at this point.

"Even Hina feels embarrassed," Hina sighed. "But there are some things that should be done."

"Things that should be done..." Tashigi looked in the direction of the departing Sylvan, thinking about the experiences during this time and what she had seen in Arton's diary.

"What are the things I should do?" she pondered. "Should I continue acting to make Arton a Marine like Captain Hina? But Arton hates the Marines so much, and indeed, there are unjust acts within the Marines."

As she thought about it, Tashigi felt her thoughts sinking into a dead end again. Finally, she could only sigh deeply and shift her attention to Shigure. At this moment, only looking at the Shigure, which had been enhanced by Arton, could make her feel a bit calmer.

"Anyway, let's report our situation to Vice Admiral Gion and Vice Admiral Doll first. We can't let them worry anymore," Hina said, finding the female Marine chat group interface in her diary copy.

[Hina: Vice Admiral Gion, Vice Admiral Doll, everyone, Hina and Tashigi have left Arton's Flame blade Pirates and are now on a lifeboat.]

[Sadi: Huh?! You left already? Weren't you just passionately kissing Arton? I thought you guys would go further. I even prepared popcorn!]

[Domino: Sadi, what are you talking about?]

[Doll: Hehe, Sadi, you sure have a lot of free time. If that a scene happened in the video, are you sure you could still eat your popcorn?]

[Sadi: That's true, maybe I should prepare some tissues.]

[Hina: ...]

[Gion: Alright, everyone, let's stop joking around and listen to what Hina and Tashigi have to say. Hina, Tashigi, what exactly happened over there, and what's your current situation?]

Getting back to the main topic, Hina regained some composure.

Soon, she reported the events and observations from Arton's place through the female Marine chat group, including Arton enhancing Tashigi's Shigure.

[Gion: Arton, that guy, actually has the ability to enhance Shigure to the level of a supreme grade sword? Projection magic is truly an unreasonable ability...]

[Doll: Arton's Unlimited Blade Works contains so many top-tier swords, so the famous swords of this world indeed don't mean much to him. But let's get back to the main issue. Hina, is there really no way to predict Arton's next destination?]

[Hina: Unfortunately, Arton's companions were very cautious around us. While we were on the Sylvan, we couldn't even take out our diary copies. Similarly, Carina and the others also kept their next destination hidden from us. We can only know where they are heading next through Arton's diary, but...]

[Peacock: But what? Do you have any other discoveries?]

[Hina: Earlier, when Hina was facing Nami, she mentioned 'Arlong.' This pirate should be one of those ruling her hometown. If we can find out where 'Arlong' is, we might be able to determine where Arton will definitely go next.]

[Domino: That's a good approach. I remember Arlong is under the Seven Warlords' Jinbei. Because Jinbei became a Warlord, Arlong was released without charges. I didn't expect he went to the East Blue and is now ruling Nami's hometown.]

[Sadi: This means the Seven Warlords' Jinbei is somewhat connected to Arton, right?]

[Gion: Arlong, huh. I'll have the Marines in the East Blue investigate Arlong. However, Arton mentioned that there are Marines shielding the pirates ruling Nami's hometown. So, the investigation might not go smoothly.]

[Kujaku: That's still better than doing nothing at all. We've also arrived in the East Blue, so we can personally visit the naval base.]

[Hina: Hina also plans to go to the naval base. Hina can use the special Den Den Mushi to transmit Arton's fight with Shiki to the Marine Headquarters.]

[Gion: Marine Headquarters... well, it can't be helped. Morgans' journalists will definitely publicize Arton's actions to the whole sea. We also need to let the Admiral know about Arton. I'll contact Tsuru-san and have her discuss with Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Perhaps we can slightly delay his being wanted and buy time for Vice Admiral Garp to stop Arton.]

[Hina: Vice Admiral Garp... Hina understands.]

"Before Arton enters the Grand Line," Hina mused, "only Vice Admiral Garp has a chance to prevent him from truly becoming a pirate."

After closing the Marine chat group, Hina contemplated.

Garp and Arton had met once, and their conversation was quite pleasant. Garp also had the strength to stop Arton. These conditions made Hina place her hopes on Garp.

"Captain Hina, where are we going next?" Tashigi asked meekly.

"Next, we're heading to the 16th Branch of the Navy in the East Blue."

"The 16th Branch? That's Captain Nezumi's territory?"

"Yes, that's right. We're going there next!"

"Captain Hina, are you planning to stop Arton from causing trouble for Captain Nezumi?"

"No, it's simply because that place is closer to us," Hina replied after recalling the distribution map of the Navy branches in the East Blue. "Given that Arton might seek revenge against Captain Nezumi, and he might know Nezumi's location, to prevent Arton from retaliating against Nezumi and causing irreversible consequences, Vice Admiral Gion has already used her authority to warn Captain Nezumi to temporarily avoid returning to the 16th Branch."

"Speaking of which, that guy seems to be using Vice Admiral Gion's warning as an excuse to stick close to the Celestial Dragons' fleet right now."

"We're heading to the 16th Branch, so it's unlikely we'll encounter Captain Nezumi there."

"Our goal in going there is to get a ship and upload the contents of the image phone to our superiors."

Upon hearing this, Tashigi silently nodded.

Soon, the two of them were rowing in the designated direction.

At this moment, Hina and Tashigi could never have imagined what kind of deviation from justice they would witness at the 16th Branch.

They wouldn't have thought that the Navy officer sheltering Arlong, leading to the dangerous rule over Nami's hometown and resulting in Nami becoming Arton's crewmate, was none other than Captain Nezumi of the 16th Branch.

Tashigi herself could never have anticipated that her sense of justice would face further challenges at the 16th Branch.