Chapter 211: Overexposed
One day ago, at a branch of the World Economic News Agency.
“Mo, President Morgans, isn’t it a bit unwise to directly print the name ‘Rocks’?”
“Didn’t the World Government warn us before, strictly forbidding this name from appearing in the newspaper again??”
An editor-in-chief looked at the manuscript in his hand and cautiously reminded.
“Gah?”
“Who has time to worry about that now?!”
“Let those World Government guys eat shit!”
Morgans was holding a stack of photographs at the time, his bird face full of surprise and anger, even his feathers all over his body standing on end.
The surrounding editors and ordinary staff saw their president like this and didn’t dare to breathe, all falling silent and pretending to be busy with their own tasks.
Smack!
A thick stack of photographs was slammed onto the mahogany desk, making a loud bang, and the photos scattered in all directions.
“Eh?! This, this is…”
Looking at one photo flung in front of him, that editor picked it up… and immediately widened his eyes.
Morgans ignored him and turned his head, loudly urging toward the darkroom:
“Has the second batch of photos not been developed yet?!”
“Did something go wrong with them too?”
“Ve-very sorry! President!”
The staff member in charge of developing photos heard Morgans’ anxious urging and hurriedly rushed out holding a stack of newly developed photos.
“President, these are all…”
Before the junior staff could finish speaking, Morgans snatched the photos from his hand and quickly flipped through them.
And as his gaze swept over the photos one by one, Morgans’ expression grew increasingly grim.
“Tsk!”
“Damn it!”
“How could this happen!”
Soon, this stack of newly developed photos was once again viciously thrown onto the desk by him.
And the surrounding staff cautiously glanced at the photos scattered on the desk, finally understanding why Morgans was so angry.
Among this astonishing number of photos, every one or two would have an overexposed one, with glaring white light covering everything on the entire photo.
“Who took these! All of you come over here and claim them!”
“As reporters, you can’t even handle something as simple as taking photos properly!”
“Anyone who took this crap, take a mop and go clean the toilet!”
“Huff~ huff~”
Morgans’ chest heaved rapidly, as if he could barely suppress the anger in his heart.
As a reporter, to produce so many substandard photos was simply insulting to the profession.
“Um, th-that… President.”
“The stack you just threw were all taken by you personally.”
The junior staff in charge of developing photos weakly raised his hand.
“Gah?!”
“Cough, cough!”
“This, this…”
Seeing their president so embarrassed, the editor-in-chief hurriedly offered a way out.
“President, this is probably a problem with the Picture Den Den Mushi.”
“Otherwise, it’s impossible to have so many overexposed photos.”
He picked out the substandard photos that accounted for nearly one-third of all the photos and laid them out in a row.
“Impossible, the ones others took before also had many pro…”
The young man in charge of developing photos was just about to retort when, in everyone’s line of sight, he slowly shut his mouth.
“Hm…”
Morgans stroked his chin with the feathers on his wings, carefully looking at these photos full of white light…
“Hm?!”
Suddenly, he saw a photo with not too much exposure area—this was a distant shot, and at the edge of the photo, a touch of pink was still visible.
It’s Big Mom! This is the last group photo!
Immediately after, Morgans seemed to discover some key point and promptly looked over all the overexposed photos again carefully.
“Heh!”
“I see.”
“It’s that golden brat!”
“President Morgans?”
The editor-in-chief cautiously asked.
“It’s that little girl named La—all the photos involving her in there are all ruined!”
Thud!
Morgans slammed the desk hard.
“Damn it, is it some Devil Fruit ability?”
This ability was practically full of malice toward reporters like them.
“So what do we do now? Directly put the overexposed photos in the newspaper?”
The editor-in-chief also picked up photos one by one to confirm and found indeed not a single one captured that golden-haired little girl.
“Idiot! How could we put that kind of photo in the newspaper?!”
“We are the World Economic News Agency, not some second-rate rag! If we publish like that, where would our face and authority be!”
“Ri-right, sorry!”
Seeing their president’s reaction so intense, that editor hurriedly apologized.
“Huff~”
“Since there are no photos, just draw them.”
With that, Morgans looked at a short-haired female reporter; she was also one of the people who attended the previous celebration.
“Hey, Shil, you graduated from art school, right? Go draw that golden little girl.”
“You can do it, right!”
“Eh, eh? Me?”
The little reporter named Shil seemed a bit unconfident and said timidly:
“B-but I can’t remember what that miss looked like.”
“Gah?! What are you talking about!”
“That little girl’s appearance is impossible to forget after seeing it once!”
“Isn’t it just gold…”
At this point, Morgans suddenly went silent too; he realized he also couldn’t recall La’s appearance no matter what…
“President? What do we do now…?”
This eerie phenomenon suppressed the irritation in Morgans’ heart, and his tone returned to calm.
“Hm… Paste the photos of the other two little girls, as for this golden-haired little girl…”
“Don’t mention her in the newspaper for now; we’ll talk when we get a photo someday.”
『That girl, what is her background…』
The keen sense for danger honed from years roaming the sea made Morgans wisely not pursue it further; instead, he turned around, picked up a mop, and walked into the toilet.
“What are you standing around for? Everyone who went to ‘Whole Cake Island’ this time—men clean the men’s toilet, women clean the women’s toilet!”
“……Yes! President!”*n
……
“Damn Beasts Pirates! They won’t even spare such a small child!”
Navy Headquarters, Fleet Admiral’s office.
Zephyr clenched his fists in hatred, crumpling the newspaper in his hand into a ball.
The photos of Aoxi and Obei published in the newspaper involuntarily reminded him of the little girl he encountered in the New World half a year ago.
Back then, he had no ability to save her and had to leave her alone on that Beasts Pirates’ island.
Now seeing two girls of similar age made him worry about her safety.
“Making such a small child an executive… What the hell is Kaido thinking?”
Garp, sitting beside him, also stopped eating his snacks, his face grim as he looked at another newspaper.
Like Zephyr, he also thought of La.
But looking at Aoxi and Obei’s faces in the newspaper, he always felt they resembled La a bit.
『Coincidence? Or illusion…』
In any case, there was no photo of La in the newspaper, which let him breathe a slight sigh of relief.
“Alright, Garp, Zephyr, the Fleet Admiral didn’t call us here this time for those two little girls.”
“Let’s talk about your views on the so-called alliance between the Beasts Pirates and Big Mom.”
Sengoku, sitting opposite them, adjusted his round glasses and said calmly.
“What else is there to say? Mere pirates daring to openly build a nation! When I go after Roger, I’ll wipe them out on the way.”
“Just you alone dealing with Kaido and Big Mom at the same time would probably be troublesome.”
“I’ll go with you then.”
Zephyr proposed with some personal motives; he wanted to see if he could pull Aoxi and Obei out of it.
After all, from the photos, these two were probably not even ten years old; becoming pirates was likely due to being misled, and with his status as an Admiral, he should be able to get leniency for them.
While Zephyr was pondering in his mind, the silent Fleet Admiral Kong spoke up:
“Regrettably, I just checked with the top…”
“The Gorosei’s stance is to ignore it for now.”
“Ha? Are those five old men out of their minds?”
“Those remnants of Rocks are building nations and forming alliances, causing such a commotion, and they tell us to ignore it?”
“And the previous incident too…”
“Garp!”
Seeing his old comrade getting more agitated, Sengoku had to interrupt.
“Don’t speculate on the decisions from above.”
Though he inwardly agreed with him, after all, the walls have ears; who knows if those elusive CP agents have people inside the Navy.
“Tch!”
Garp irritably turned his head away.
“Cough! Anyway, the order from above is that we’re not to act on our own.”
“That’s it.”
After Kong finished, he took several fierce puffs of his cigar, seemingly venting his own dissatisfaction.
Having sat in the Fleet Admiral’s position for so many years, he still couldn’t figure out the World Government’s intentions.
The top’s attitude toward pirates was quite ambiguous, as if they never intended to completely eradicate them.
Even for Rocks, who dominated the New World back then, the World Government’s initial attitude was to let it be.
Only after he attacked God Valley and threatened the Celestial Dragons’ safety did they urgently dispatch the Navy to encircle and suppress him.
And for the remnants left after Rocks’ death, even knowing their future threat would be huge, the World Government returned to that half-managing, half-ignoring attitude.
It’s as if…
Kong pinched his brow, stopping himself from thinking further.
I notice many people think【War Princess】 is a strange name—is it because of first impressions?
Anyway, when I watched《Blood Clan》 back then, I didn’t find it strange at all; it felt perfectly natural.
The sisters’ nicknames are simply based on their authorities: Aoxi is the Underworld God, so Underworld Princess; Obei is the god of war and destruction, so War Princess or Destruction Princess. Calling her Battle Princess directly would have some ambiguity with ‘Battle Girl’.
By the way, what should La be called? Sun Princess, Golden Princess, or just ‘Gold’? Definitely not Goddess Princess.
