The letter arrived in a sealed navy-gray envelope, crisp as a threat.
Kael slit it open in the Bellpoint loft, alone with dust and silence. His hands were steady, but his stomach had turned to stone.
He already knew what was inside.
A bounty poster.
A new one.
"Monkey D. Luffy – 400,000,000 Berries"
The ink was fresh. His grin just as reckless.
Kael stared at it for a long time.
This was no longer a "rising threat." No longer a "notable pirate." No longer some brat with a Devil Fruit and a dream.
This was a figurehead. A name spoken in backroom meetings, whispered in bounty hunter dens and frightened port towns.
The World Government didn't just want him watched now.
They wanted him hunted.
Kael flipped the poster over. A second parchment was stapled behind it. A brief note from an old contact in the Marines, someone who still owed him from the Banaro Island fallout.
"He's moving faster than we expected.Dangerous. Reckless. Unpredictable.Orders from above: 'Bring him in. Dead is fine.'Don't underestimate him, Kael. Not again."
Kael set the paper down. His heart should've been racing.
It wasn't.
It was cold.
This was it, wasn't it?
The justification he needed. Four hundred million was a declaration of war. The world was finally calling Luffy what he'd always been to Kael:
A threat.
A smiling, sunlit, oblivious threat who left bodies and broken systems in his wake.
Kael sat back in his chair, lit a match, and stared at the flame. It flickered like the torches on Banaro Island.
Rear Admiral Hallen's last orders had been simple: "Evacuate the injured. Get out."
He had wanted to stay. Wanted to fight. She'd put a hand on his shoulder, eyes blazing.
"This isn't about glory, Veyne.This is about stopping a tide we weren't ready for."
He didn't listen.
By the time the tide receded, she was gone.
And in the smoke, swinging above the chaos like a hero in some child's story, was Luffy. Grinning, shouting, laughing like the dead didn't matter.
Kael hadn't seen him up close until last night.
Didn't expect the grin to be real.
Didn't expect to feel that grin in his bones like a riddle that refused to make sense.
He picked up the new poster again. Held it under the lamplight. Something about the image bothered him.
Not just the bounty.
The eyes.
Luffy didn't look dangerous in the photo. He looked… alive. Like someone who didn't belong in a cage or a file folder.
Kael flipped open his notebook and jotted down new entries beneath the name:
Bounty now 400 million. Rising faster than expected.
Still no formal crew structure. They follow him voluntarily.
Directly responsible for: Enies Lobby collapse, Alabasta revolution, defeat of CP9, and now Fishman Island's liberation.
Has declared war on at least two Emperors.
Delusional? Or fearless? Or something else?
He paused.
Then added one more line:
He saved Fishman Island. Didn't have to. But he did.
Kael stared at the words, hand frozen.
Why write that? he thought.
Why does that matter?
A knock at the door snapped him back to reality.
He stood, silent.
Another knock. Then: "Oi, Mystery Cloak Guy! You in there?"
Kael's blood froze.
Luffy.
He opened the door.
There he was. Straw hat tipped back, a fish bone sticking out of his mouth, like he'd forgotten what pockets were for.
"Hey!" Luffy said cheerfully. "Thought you could help me carry some food. Sanji's making too much again."
Kael blinked. "Why would I—?"
Luffy walked past him into the room like he owned it.
"Whoa, it's dark in here. You sleep in this cave?" He picked up the bounty poster Kael had left on the table. "Hey! This is a good one. Look at that photo! I look awesome."
Kael couldn't speak.
Luffy flopped onto the chair. "So what's the plan, huh? You gonna turn me in or something?"
Kael's throat tightened.
"What?"
Luffy tilted his head. "You've got that face again. Y'know, the 'I'm thinking about something scary and probably regretting it' face."
"…You're insane," Kael muttered.
"Maybe." Luffy grinned. "But I'm also hungry. And I don't think you really want to kill me."
Kael looked at him.
Really looked.
Luffy's grin hadn't changed.
But for the first time, Kael saw it wasn't empty. It wasn't mocking. It wasn't the grin of a monster.
It was the grin of someone who had chosen to live freely — and would die the same way, without apology.
Kael turned away.
"Get out."
Luffy stood, stretched. "Alright. But if you change your mind—food's at the dock. You can just show up. You don't even have to talk."
He walked out.
Kael stood there, in the silence, holding a bounty poster that suddenly felt more like a question than a mission.