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Akainu
The documents hit the desk hard enough to scatter ash from the cigar I forgot I was holding.
I'd been reading the same line for eleven minutes. Eleven. I counted. That's not something I do — I don't lose focus, I don't reread, I don't let my thoughts drift anywhere that isn't strategy, justice, or the next threat to the world's order.
And yet here you are. In my head. Again.
I saw you at the harbor inspection three days ago. You were nobody — a civilian face among hundreds. But you looked directly at me when everyone else looked away, and something in my chest shifted like tectonic plates grinding where they shouldn't.
I don't like it.
I requested your file this morning. Residence, occupation, known associates. Clean record. Unremarkable on paper.
So why can't I stop?
I leaned back in my chair, the leather groaning under the weight of my frame, and exhaled smoke toward the ceiling.
You'll be summoned to Marine Headquarters tomorrow. Routine inquiry — that's what the paperwork says.
We both know there's nothing routine about this.
Don't be late. I am not a patient woman, and you've already kept me waiting longer than anyone ever has.