Chapter 1 Paradise
Anno 1523/8
The first part of the Grand Line...
At that very moment, high above the sky, a blonde woman was traveling in a hut-like rickshaw through the walls of clouds, in the direction of her upcoming adventure. Her means of transport was well equipped for the trip, as the small dwelling seemed to be wind and weatherproof. So, she could now prepare herself mentally for what was to come in peace and quiet. She could not help but wonder how long she had been longing for this day? To be honest, she was not sure anymore. But she had always wanted to find out everything. Now that day should have come when she could retaliate! According to the information she received, her target person should now be on the island of San Farudo, which was in Paradise, or more precisely, in the last third of the first half of the Grand Line. To get here, she had used the now famous transport company owned by a man named Kovac Maco. In her youth she had met this gentleman several times and knew that he could be relied on. In turn, despite her young age, she was a skilled informant under the pseudonym "B". For normal, she took on assignments from others in order to get answers depending on what was asked, but this time it concerned herself. It was not that she didn't want to investigate the secrets of the world for herself as she felt inside always this irrepressible thirst for knowledge. However now B no longer just wanted to follow the traces of her past, but instead wanted to be able to conclude with it. For her there were now other things to take care of, so she could not allow herself to be too distracted by her past ghosts. B felt that she owed it to Junior, and because of him, she had enough to keep tracking her target from a distance. For a brief moment her eyebrows drew together sadly. But a deep breath with closed eyelids later, suppressed this sensation while B then put on her emotionless, cool mask again. Emotional impulses of this kind were actually rare, but more and more recently, which must be due to the hormones, she thought. Anyway, again, B reached into the collar of her outfit, which today consisted of a loosely casual short-sleeved denim one-piece and pulled out the one souvenir she had once found in North Blue. It was an old photo, already burned in the corners, with a little girl, but also a boy with a fur hat. That one spotted hat had been her only true clue over the years, which she had always followed. Today would be the day when she faced the person wearing this hat! The thought of it instantly aroused all sorts of questions in her. What was the man like? According to the rumors, her target person was supposed to be a pretty cruel individual, which is why he had his dreaded nickname. But B was not one of these gullible people and found that it was better to go and look into such hearsay herself. In her opinion it was one thing to believe something, but quite another to find out through personal experience whether or not what was said was based on the truth! Being in good faith and ignorant was the worst for her. This thought threatened to make B think of the past again, but before it happened, her chauffeur made himself aware with a gentle knock on the front window. Closing everything deep inside her once more behind an imaginary meter-thick door, she raised her right hand to push aside the curtain in front of the small window in front of her. Curious to find out the reason for his disturbance, B now looked directly into the blue-gray eyes of the man on the other side of the glass pane. The dark-haired mohawk gave her a mischievous smile and indicated that she please should push up the sliding window on the middle handle. B did it, whereby the sudden wind ruffled her long white-blond hair. Now she knew why the man always carried his black aviator goggles with him. "Good morning Funbee ~", the other greeted her as always and pulled up the collar of his black leather flight jacket because of the cold, while he held the handle of the rickshaw by him with his muscular thigh, as she noticed with a glancing look down. The brief reflection, where she wondered whether his whole body was really so muscular, but not excessively trained, pushed B quickly aside and looked up again. The man raised an eyebrow. "Don't I even get a 'good morning' back? Ah, that really hits me now... ", he made with a theatrical touch and put a hand on his chest. B cleared her throat briefly, maintaining her detachment. "Are we there yet, Mr. Kovac?", she asked politely. The person opposite simply nodded and then pointed down. "Yup, this is your end of the line ~", he said as if he did not see any problems with it. B, however, frowned, grabbed her backpack, and stood up with a critical look. "We're still yards off the ground, Mr. Kovac, a circumstance that should seem rather unusual to us, shouldn't it?", B remarked, opening the small cabin door sideways and descended the few small steps to stop on the last one. "Oh, you can manage the height easily, sweety ~", Mr. Kovac replied with his arms thrown to the side. In the next moment, the man then reached towards the rickshaw front, where there was a small cupboard, while he continued to speak. "Besides, you just said I should take you to San Farudo Island. There was no question of also landing there ~" While the dark-haired man was looking for something in the cupboard, B had to bow her head a little at his words. However, he was right, she had never explicitly requested that he put her down on the ground! So, she accepted it, she had to be happy to be here at all and should rather now find out whether her target person was still to be found, but also, if so, where she could find the man now! In her mind, already elsewhere, B turned her gaze forward and downward again to find the most suitable landing spot. Suddenly, however, the man pulled her out of her thoughts again. "Here Funbee ~ Don't forget your Fizzy Bubblech", he said and winked at her, holding out a hand with a bottle to her, "it's on the house!" Curious, but eyeing skeptically, B reached for the drink with the yellow liquid and first looked at the label. Something she had never tried before, she thought. "Your new service offer, yes?", she murmured and pocketed it straight away. The man just laughed, knowing about her urge to always try everything new, and then got ready to go again, as she saw in the corner of her eye. With a nod to the side, he checked that the door from before was closed, and then pushed the small window back down from the outside. He then got himself into position by again grasping the handle of the pullable rickshaw with both hands. "Then I have to go again. A new assignment came in earlier with Hedwig ~", he said, which made B pricked up again. Briefly she looked a last time in the direction of the man, knowing who he would be picking up soon. Her other contact probably left the island again, now that she had arrived... Shortly afterwards, B jumped off without saying another word, only to disappear completely under the rickshaw a little later with a firm grip on the straps of her luggage and a concentrated gaze directed downwards. The latter, in turn, seemed to float in the air as if by magic, but on closer inspection, one could see a golden tail. That split up to each side towards the back. The man, who called himself Kovac Maco, tapped his right shoe once in the air and mumbled words that sounded strange to outsiders. "The bird of Hermes is my name, consume my wings and keep me tame ~!" Shortly afterwards, small pale-yellow wings appeared on his black boots, which were open at the toes, and the next moment the transport company "The wing ~" also whizzed to pick up another very stubborn lady a little later...