Northern FinancialLegacy of the Nychthemeron Empire: A Dramatic Follow-Up, Gakure Ooshinra
Yesterday was the 15th Anniversary of the fall of the Nychthemeron Empire. Northern Financial ran an accompanying article, discussing the history of the island and the fallout of its destruction at the hands of the three Admirals of the time, Admiral Kinryu, Admiral Gintora, and Admiral Konjoinu. But recent events have brought Nychthemeron into the eyes of the world once again. Several remnants of the Empire, led by former Prefect Marcus Istria, had been a festering wound on the North Blue for years, committing numerous small times thefts and murders in anonymity as they hid from the world at large. Their crimes were discovered by veteran Captain Stewart Arbor, who valiantly fought and was wounded by Marcus 15 years ago on Eclipsis, continuing to serve and excel even with his injury. But Marcus had also been harboring the unthinkable: Princess Luna Nox, the half-mink child of Comet Nox still lives. Emperor Comet Nox was at the center of many rumors and claims of the Nychthemeron Empire’s planned treason, and he was known to consort with pirates and criminals publicly. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as Marcus’ bandit band was not so different from pirates themselves. Luna has inherited the ferocity of the former bestial Emperor, Arbor only barely escaping with his life, marking her as highly dangerous. The World Government bounty office has called for Luna’s capture, dead or alive, no doubt wanting to put the Empire to bed as the night demands, once and for all.
Southern PressLet There be Light! World Changing Discovery, Dan Dan Romney
The brilliance of invention can come from the most unlikely of places. Several years ago, the Special Science Group splintered as a result of the crimes of Dr. W, its brilliant members lacking direction without his guidance. Despite the collection of great minds, the lack of results has led to several budget cuts, only leading to further lack of discovery. Dr. W may have been the center of the world of science once, but against all odds, the Gamma Group making Wardenclyff Island their home have put the SSG back on the map. They brought this reporter right to their base so they could show their findings, a wonderful little invention called the ‘lightbulb’. Trapping lightning in a glass bottle is no longer a cute phrase: with a small glass tube, they have created a light source brighter than flame and a fraction as hot. It’ll still burn, but one can touch it without risking the spread of dangerous fire. It can also last without constant consumption of physical fuel sources. Their current sample has been lit for an entire month with only a constant source of electricity! Envisioning nights lit to daylight, humans have once again surpassed their innate fears of the dark. Not quite with flying colors, only the one shade of soft yellow, for now. Head of the Gamma Group, Ed Foneson, is already in talks with his fellow Group Heads and even the Godhead of Science and Defense, Saint Carina Jorgenson himself, as these brilliant minds try to conceptualize a world that runs through the lightbulb. Other potential uses of electricity are no doubt going to be investigated. This reporter is glad to have been blessed with the chance to offer some good news, a much needed point of light in dark times.
Sunset DailyA Sudden City of Ghosts, Cause of Disappearance Still Unknown, Letourneau Sconce Erik
Pinchton Island is no more. Though a small community, a former lawless land that hardly attracted much tourism, a year without word was far too long. Recent investigation has revealed that the island is completely and utterly abandoned. There’s no evidence of violence or disaster: not a corpse to be found. It’s as though the whole city got up and sailed away. The missing possessions might imply as such, or they might imply looters who skimmed through sometime after the abandonment. This isn’t the first time the West has fallen victim to such strange happening: over 15 years ago, half a dozen islands were found to have most of their citizens taken, the rest sworn to silence, if there were any left. Cannon Island, Saltern Island, and Shaker Yost were just a few. Now these places are truly abandoned, and empty, those who remained gone with the wind. Some argue supernatural causes, others believe it’s a divine retribution cast against those who are not in full support of the holy World Government. It could just as easily be the work of pirates, or a bizarre power. The world has been known to possess stranger things.
East TodayFinding Footing for the Future, Kanba Mio
These are more than troubled times. Even this journalist know for her laughs can’t so easily make light of that. The Grime King, the Witch of Webs, the Devil’s Legion: the news is full of terror and travesty, and has for as long as this reporter can remember, even before the descent of the Devil on Marie Geoise. But sometimes something happens that makes the future a little more bright. The East Blue has been a paradise of peace for decades. It’s produced the least pirates and infamous criminals of all the Blue Seas, and Marines often bemoan their assignment there as dreary and dull, not knowing how good they have it. But there’s been a rumbling from Gosa Village, as the 77th works towards its future. After a long period of stagnancy, the village has been set into motion again as the Marines take an active role in the community, rebuilding after a devastating storm just a month ago. While protecting the people is a Marine obligation, going so far is not. And it isn’t without reimbursement. The World Military Draft was first used after the tragedy at Marie Geoise 18 years ago to refurbish ranks. Detractors, such as Admiral Gintora, felt as though the vagueness of the Draft left it exploitable, at worse becoming a sort of slavery (something long since outlawed for humans, even well before the Fishfolk Emancipation of 1445). While the original version was rather fleeting (even if its effects can still be observed today), more recent revisions have allowed it to be put into place again, with certain restrictions. Gosa has become one of the first regions to make use of this new system. Marines assist the community, and in training and educating the young, they will become part of the Marines: a symbiosis that avoids the nasty ‘slavery’ connotation of the original World Military Draft. Building the future of the Marines, something often remarked on by experts as a broad failing of the current administration. As it stands, this reporter believes the East Blue can serve as a model for the rest of the world, one mired in conflict. A skeptic needs only ask those of those others seas how they feel. What’s worse than a lack of peace?
New Bounties60 million beri - “Waning Moon” Luna Nox
1.5 million beri - “Snake-Eyes” Andou
Eclipsis Island, North Blue“What the hell would anyone want with this place?” mumbled Lieutenant Jayrod, the young man adjusting his sunglasses as he looked over the once grand island. The crumbled stone was scarred beyond belief, the whole island’s shaped changed through destruction wrought by the Admirals of 15 years ago. Spikes of earth and ripped foundations left a trail of ruin throughout. Burn marks of all kinds scoured the sides of all sorts of construction, and the remains of all sorts of weapons and rubble still littered the city.
“It’s not my idea of a vacation…” mumbled Rear-Admiral Mexus, stroking his straight mustache.
In awe at the destruction, Jayrod wondered, “I still don’t get it. I understand that treason is worth investigating or retaliating against, but this?”
Mexus let there be a moment of silence, before admitting, “You were young when it happened, right?”
Jayrod gave a nod. “I think I was 6 or so.”
“It was a different time then. I’ll bet even as a 3 year old toddler you remembered where you were when you heard about the Devil’s attack on Marie Geoise.” Jayrod winced. It had all felt alien to him, but seeing the adults discuss things and panic while the capital of the world and its Gods were under attack half the world away...even if he couldn’t process it then, it felt massive, and unreal. “People were scared. Still are. Men aren’t supposed to be able to challenge the world of the Gods. We’re still feeling the damage. The upper brass was hit just as much as the lower brass. Malay’s still trying to get our military might back. When you think to back then, even if the Government was just jumping at shadows, we were more than ready to just sit back and let it happen. Never again, and all that...not that this is much better.” With a long sigh, he pivoted slightly. “The timing’s odd too, Eclipsis has been a bit news worthy. The paper today mentioned the princess of this place is still alive.”
“Wait, really? We’ve been on our way here for weeks now! That’s crazy,” Jayrod gawked.
Mexus muttered, “Huh, you’re right. No way she’d have… Well, honestly, it’s none of my business. To each their own.”
High heels disturbing the gravel, black dress floating above the refuse, a
young woman walked through the long vacant city streets, head high, gaze unfixed. Eyes and feet both wandered as she swept through the city like a specter. Occasionally, something would catch her interest, and she would stop: a cat poking about, a hand reduced to bone sticking from rubble, and old book rotted from years of open weather. Rather than something or nothing, she seemed to seek everything, absorbing the locale in its totality. The air, the earth, the sky, the grass, the stone, the rubble, the fauna, the objects, the remains, the aura. She took nothing and left only footprints, and yet, somehow, it was all hers all the same.
Walking alongside a fence, her feet moved in a single line with arms outstretched to hold her balance. Then there was a shuffling around her. Slipping out of shadows and shallows, about half a dozen men moved in on her, brandishing cutlasses or rusted weapons scavenged from the ruins. Their clothes tattered, faces haggard, they’d seen better times. But the woman didn’t even register them, continuing on like nothing happened.
“Hey, you!” one of them called, moving forward as the woman started past him. She lowered her arms, pace relaxing for a bit, then he moved ahead of her. She stopped dead, looking down. “You deaf? Or stupid?”
“There’s no shadow,” the woman noted, her feet on a sunny patch of pavement. Behind her, the fence had formed the path she’d walked in the ground, but she’d stepped away onto the area another shadow had been.
“You moved, so I lost.”“You’re about to lose more than some game, lady. You’re with that Marine vessel, huh? You look pretty important. You’ll make a good hostage so we can get back at that Max fellow,” said the biggest man, a de facto leader.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name,” said the woman.
A wiry sort gave a shiver as he replied, “H-he’s the Marine Captain who captured our crew. We jumped ship, and you’ll be worth their release, I’ll bet!”
“Hmmmm...that won’t happen.”“Th-th-there’s n-no way th-that’s t-true!” chattered the leader.
“H-hey, why is it s-so c-cold all of a s-s-sudden?” muttered one of the pirates, his breath turning to fog in the air as a cloud masked the sun over Eclipsis.
The woman tilted her head back, face as stoic as ever.
“Out of the frying pan, and into the fire? No, not quite,” she whispered, as something small and white glistened in front of her as it drifted. It was steadily joined by more, one of the pirates holding out his hand to feel the biting chill of a snowflake for just a moment before it melted.
“Not with me.”Eyes shooting open with panic, the pirate survivors scattered, but that descriptor would soon fail to describe them as they became buried alive in a freak snowstorm on Eclipsis Island, striking mid spring against all logic, at least for a Blue Sea. Jayrod and Mexus were among the witnesses, watching from a distance, the attention of many crew mates grabbed as the wind picked up, chill air meeting their cheeks and lungs. The isolated phenomenon was strangely beautiful and haunting, the snow shining in the sunlight as it blew down like a tiny avalanche, forming a pillar of white in the center of the island, settling into gray as the thin layer came to rest on the dirty ruin.
Within the hour, the woman returned up the gangplank.
“It’s rather nice today, I’ll be on the deck reading a book I found. If you would start the course back home to Marineford, Rear-Admiral?”Lieutenant Jayrod’s mouth hung open, but Mexus merely saluted, “Yes ma’am!” As she went off, heading to the other side of the deck, Jayrod stammered, “Wh-wh-what? She came here for a book?”
Mexus shook his head. “I don’t know why she came here. It’s more likely she just found it in a house somewhere and thought it was interesting.”
“Then what did we waste our time on this expedition for?”
Mexus turned back to the island, where the snowfall was still visible even from the shoreline, even though the snow would be gone within a day or so, melted and evaporated into nothing. “I heard they were strange, but Malay’s pupils really are something.”
A ways away, the young woman leaned back on a reclining chair, the book creaked as she opened it, pages not having touched air in over a decade. Within moments, she gave a long sigh of disappointment,
“Ah, I’ve read this one before...” [Vice-Admiral Névé, Prospective Admiral Shirohitsuji, Snow-Snow Fruit]
Fetzen
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