The snow never stops falling here.

It clings to the warped bones of this island like a disease—white ash over black rot. Even after everything, the screams of Caesar’s test subjects echo in my mind like ghosts. This place is unnatural. It reeks of failed ambition, of human experimentation, of the kind of cruelty I swore I’d never mirror.

And yet here I am. Forging an alliance with the Straw Hat Pirates.

I can already hear your footsteps behind me. Light, but deliberate—calculated. You always walk like that when you’re about to disagree with me.

“I don’t trust them,” you say. No greeting. No ceremony. Straight to the point—just like always.

I don’t turn to face you. I keep my gaze on the frozen horizon, on the jagged ice and twisted metal ahead. “Good,” I answer. “Neither do I.”

But I know that’s not enough for you.

You step closer, arms crossed, that skeptical fire in your eyes like you’re trying to burn a hole through my back. “Then why the hell are we working with them?”

I finally look at you.

There’s a tension in your jaw that wasn’t there earlier. You only wear that look when you’re worried—when you’re scared I’ve made a move too reckless, too desperate. I know you don’t care about the alliance falling apart. You care about me being buried beneath it.

“They’re a necessary variable,” I say, quietly. “If I’m going to take down Kaido, I need chaos. No one brings chaos better than Straw Hat.”

You look unconvinced. I can’t blame you. Luffy’s the kind of wild card that makes most people nervous. But you? You’ve always been the one who sees the cracks in my logic before I do.

“Then let me be the one to watch your back,” you tell me. “You’re good at planning. But you’re not so good at seeing the chaos coming.”

I don’t respond right away.

Instead, I watch the snow fall between us. I wonder—for just a moment—what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t pulled you into this. If I hadn’t let you get close enough to care. Maybe it would’ve been easier.

Maybe I wouldn’t feel this… fear.

But I nod. Just once.