Shashakima Island sits as one of the northernmost Islands close to the entrance of the New World, making it a hub of trade and tourism for many government officials and rich sailors who can afford to cross the Calm Belt.
Shashakima Island itself sits as the head of the Shashakima Archipelago, a group of tropical islands that when looked at on a map, make up the shape of a Manta Ray, with the smaller Islands making up the fins and tail, with Shashakima making up the head of the fish.
Due to its unique topography and climate, it's also a source of many tropical and exotic fruits, which the locals sell and use in their cuisine.
For the past 300 years, the fruits of the Shashakima Archipelago have been a source of great fortune and wealth to the archipelago, in part due to the many tourists and merchants visiting the island to try the exotic fruits, but mostly in part to one simple thing that has guaranteed Shashakima Island its safety for all these years.
The Heavenly Tribute.
The Tax that world government-affiliated nations pay to ensure their protection from piracy. While many countries suffer under the effects of the Heavenly Tribute, such as the poor Vodka Kingdom, which has started multiple wars against non-World Government affiliated countries in order to pay their tax, Shashakima Island has excelled at delivering the heavenly tribute.
The amount needed to be paid by the Heavenly Tax depends on the number of citizens each island has. Shashakima island, contrary to many other islands affiliated with the World Government, has a rather small population. Mix that with the favoritism the island receives for being one of the many sources of food for the World Nobles living on top of the Red Line in the Holy Land Mary Geoise.
This means that they pay less taxes than the average island while reaping the benefits of having a thriving economy.
"Why are you telling me this? We're only going to be here for a night. I don't need the History Lesson." I turned to stare at my father from the corner of my eye, the two of us walking down one of the streets of Punga, the Capital of Shashakima. Funkfreed in his sword form was hanging off my belt, and one of the Cipher Pol agents walked a fair distance behind us, keeping watch on their boss.
"I'm telling you this so you'll get excited for what we're going to be doing now," Spandine said happily, smiling at his son with visible excitement that is rarely seen on a man his age.
"And that is?"
"Cheese Tasting!" My father said as he grabbed my shoulder and turned me to look at a nearby building. It was a two-story building made out of reddish wood, the smell of fruits and nuts could be felt emanating out of the open windows on the second floor.
"Cheese tasting?" I turned to raise an eyebrow at my Father, the 37-year-old man nodding his head before he pushed me in the direction of the restaurant, opened the door, and called for a table for two.
The next thing I knew, I was sitting inside of a restaurant, platters of different kinds of exotic fruits and nuts sat before me, and a plate of different cheeses sat in the middle of the table between Spandine and myself.
"This place is famous for its fruit-cheese recipe," My father said as he picked up a cube of cheese with a toothpick and put it in his mouth, "They use tiny pieces of dried fruit and nuts local to the archipelago and make these wonderful culinary inventions~"
I stared at my plate for a moment, my mind briefly thinking about the investigation I should be conducting right now before I felt a nudge on my arm.
"Troo?" Funkfreed's head extended out of the hilt of my sword, his trunk poking me gently before he grabbed a trunkful of fruit from the plate and shoved it into his mouth. The sight of the small Elephant head eating from my plate was enough to convince me to shelf the investigation preparations for the time being.
I'll have enough time to work on it while we're sailing over the Calm Belt.
And so I picked up a toothpick and placed a piece of cheese in my mouth.
And promptly fell in love~
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Spandine smiled to himself as he watched his son eat the food on the table, seeing him try and sneak some of the food to his Sword, smiling at the taste of the cheese and fruits.
Before they reached Shashakima, Spandine was beginning to worry that his son wouldn't enjoy this trip.
Sure, he wrote it as an investigation, part of a test to make him a great Cipher Pol chief. But in reality, he simply wanted to use the opportunity to travel with his son. Leave Maruiki for a few days and see the World outside of the pages of a book. The real thing.
He wanted this to be a special occasion, a Father-Son bonding trip that he rarely could do with his job always getting in the way, so he accrued a bunch of vacation days and decided to go with his son on this trip.
And if Spandam does manage to solve the Cold Case, that would simply be a bonus to the already wonderful reward of getting to spend more time with his son.
"Here, Funkfreed, You need to try these!" Spandine smiled at the scene of his son feeding his sword.
This was what being a father was all about.
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Deirdre did not know a lot of things about the job she was currently on. When agents Garlo and Laskey approached her, telling her that she had the opportunity to go on a vacation, she took it without question.
You don't get a lot of vacation days as an agent of Cipher Pol, let alone an agent of CP9.
Like any assassin, she saw an opportunity and she took it.
She expected to be lying on a sandy beach, catching a tan, and having an army of hot shirtless hunks fall head over heels for her, willing to do her every bidding!
Instead, she's tasked with following her boss, watching over him as he takes his son out for a tour of the island. She was forced to stand guard from afar as the two of them ate cheese and fruit at some fancy snack restaurant.
She was the third-best Agent of CP9! If she knew that her vacation would actually be a job consisting of helping some brat finish what was essentially his homework, she would have- Well... She probably would still have accepted the job, just with much lower expectations.
"Should have known this would be my vacation..." She grumbled to herself, keeping her eyes on the pair she was tailing as they left the restaurant, making their way towards a bookstore.
Following the father-son duo into the bookstore, Deirdre stood to the side, keeping her eyes on the two through the gaps in the bookcases. She watched Spandine pick up a bunch of different encyclopedias and guides, cookbooks for local cuisine, and even an old novel about a crew following an angry ship captain hunting a monstrous white whale that ate his leg.
"Can you hold this for a moment?" Someone told her before placing a book in her hands.
"Huh?" Deirdre looked down, watching her Boss's son walk away before returning with more books for her to hold, "What are you doing?"
"You've been following us, instead of standing back and doing nothing, the least you could do is help me carry my stuff." Her boss's son told her, his hair was a wavy lavender color splayed messily down the sides of his head, and dark circles surrounded his eyes, Combining the two features with his pale skin and the dark red color of his nose, the child looked like some sort of ghoul.
An unsettling appearance that might scare away most people, but as a Cipher Pol agent, she's seen weirder.
"Damn brat," Deirdre clicked her tongue in annoyance but still kept holding the books for Spandam. It wasn't like she had anything better to do, and besides, If Spandine saw her voluntarily helping his Son, she might get a bonus for her next mission.
"I heard Spa Island got a new floor..." She whispered to herself, imagining all the relaxation she could have if she had a real vacation instead of this Babysitting mission.
"Hold these ones too," Deirdre groaned as more books piled on her arms, the little demon that was Spandam kept piling books on her until she could no longer see in front of herself, "There, that should be enough for now."
Deirdre wished she could have a real vacation.
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"Deirdre, Next time you're tailing me, don't make it obvious," Spandine told his subordinate as the small group made their way back to the ship to drop off all the things they bought.
Or more accurately, all the things Spandine bought for Spandam. After the bookstore, they went to buy new clothes, new shoes, a new world Log Pose, an Eternal Pose with Shashakima Island as its target, and even more fruit and nuts for Spandam and his Elephant.
At the end of the day, they were carrying so much stuff that Funkfreed had to start carrying most of it for them.
"Unless you weren't obvious, In which case, my son is talented enough to catch a CP9 Agent tailing after him! Oh, I'm so proud of him!" Deirdre rolled her eyes at her boss's act. If he acted like this during the job, he never would have made it past his post as Chief of CP7.
As they were making their way down towards the docks, a loud crashing noise rang out around them, causing the people on the street to stop what they were doing and look in the direction of the sound.
"HELP!" Someone yelled in the distance.
"Ahh! MY LEG!" Another voice screamed, closer than the last.
"SOMEBODY STOP HIM!" A third voice yelled out, the crashing sound was getting closer.
Deirdre put down the bags of books she was carrying, moved her body to stand between Spandine and where the sound was coming from, and entered a boxer's stance.
"What's going on?" Spandam asked from on top of Funkfreed, the boy having a vantage point as the current highest person on the street, "Wait... Is that~!" He pointed to something behind one of the houses on the street, the building blocking it from view for the CP9 agent.
Deirdre flexed her body ready to protect her boss as the crashing sounds started to get closer and louder.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" A Hoarse voice yelled out as the wall of the building in front of them exploded outwards, dust and debris flying into the street as a bleeding man stumbled onto the road, his eyes looking around him as if searching for an escape from something heading his way.
His black hair was stuck to his forehead as sweat dripped down his face, his torso was round like a beach ball, his arms thick and muscular but his legs thin and skinny. He wore only a pair of pants and overalls, nothing to hide his torso or the numerous injuries that covered his chest and back.
Before the man could do anything, another figure jumped out of the hole in the wall, this time a teenager, roughly 15 or 16, with curly white hair and a dark blue jacket on his back. The most impressive thing about the teen was his height, standing at two meters tall.
"Stop following me!!!" yelled the injured man, a head and a half shorter than the teen. Before Deirdre could do anything, the man pointed his hand in her direction.
Deirdre watched as his hand covered itself in a black sheen before extending forward, turning from a hand into a sharp spike that flew in her direction like a spear.
Deirdre could have dodged the attack easily, but in doing so she would be placing not only her boss in danger but also his son.
"Tekkai!" She yelled, her body becoming as hard as steel as she prepared to block the spike.
"Nooo!" The tall teenager yelled as he jumped at the man, Deirdre being able to watch in slow motion as his body transformed mid-jump, his jaw growing and being covered by brown scales, the boy activating his Devil Fruit in an attempt to stop the Spike-armed man.
It was thanks to this slow-motion view of the incoming spike, that Deirdre was able to see a white Elephant trunk swipe past her head in the direction of the man, the tip of the trunk turning into a blade mid-swing, the man's eyes widened as a strong slash hit him in the spike, cutting it off mid-thrust, causing the man to scream in pain before being silenced as the sharp jaws of the half-transformed teen bit into his torso, the pain knocking him unconscious.
"Funkfreed! Are you okay?!" Deirdre silently turned to see Spandam hug his Elephant, the White Elephant letting out a trumpeting sound as his trunk returned to normal, letting him pat his owner on the head.
"Finally!" The tall teen yelled as he placed his leg on the knocked-out body that was bleeding beneath him, not paying attention to the blood that was dripping from his teeth, "Juanzo the Spike, Your bounty is mine!" He laughed victoriously, taking out a bounty poster from inside his jacket.
"And since you're still alive, I'll be getting 45 Million Beri! Hahahaha!!!" He laughed before lifting the bleeding man from the ground, turning to look at the group.
"You!" He pointed at Spandam, "Is that Elephant yours?"
"Don't point at me!" Spandam yelled at him, the ghoulish child being wrapped by Funkfreed's trunk as if he were being constricted by a python, "And what's it to you?! Put a shirt on!"
"Hahaha! Join my crew!" The teen laughed, ignoring Spandam's words.
"No!"
"What?!" The Teen looked aghast, as if unable to understand why he was refused, "Why not?!"
"I don't know you! You're a shirtless creep who jumped out of a wall and bit a chunk out of some other creep! that's a horrible first impression!"
"Fine! When I make a name for myself, I'll come by here again, and then you and that awesome elephant will definitely join my crew!" The teen smiled widely, placing the body on his shoulder before turning away, only to look over his shoulder at Spandam and his Elephant, trying to look cool and failing spectacularly thanks to all the blood still dripping from his mouth.
"My name is Hanafuda! And don't you forget it!" The tall teen yelled before jumping back through the hole in the wall he came in from.
"...What a weirdo. Anyway, what's for dinner?" Spandam quickly changed the subject away from what just happened and the group resumed their trek back to the ship.
Picking up the books she dropped, Deirdre took a glance at the ghoulish boy sitting on top of the Elephant, her eyes trying to see if she missed something about him that she hadn't noticed prior.
"What a weird brat..."