[Author's Note: I am not officially back, but I've got things set up to where I will be soon. My posting schedule will not be as consistent as it was in the past because I will still have a very busy schedule. I know the last chapter left a lot of questions. I'm afraid this chapter answers very few. I look forward to seeing your responses as I continue to post and your guesses as to whom Karmen is seeking!]

Valentine's personal log, day 1:

It's been three months since I was sent from Sabaody Archipelago. I spent two months stuck on Batoidea Island and spent another month trying to figure out how to save my bodyguard. I have him. I finally have him. My dear, beloved Pierce. Friend and ally and now a broken shell of a man if Ikaika's words held any truth to them. I feel like he was being too cruel to be lying. I only hope that I can keep him with me, at least for a little while. I hardly recognized him yesterday in the shadows of the basement when I pulled him off the wall. I'm just glad Ikaika liked to dangle the key to the chains just out of Pierce's reach. The room smelled of death and torture and Ikaika. Or maybe it's Ikaika who smells of those things. I'm not sure I ever differentiated the two. He caused suffering while I was growing up and he didn't stop while I was gone. That much is obvious. It looks like there had been some sort of tally system marked horizontally into Pierce's skin using a whip, flail, knife, and maybe hot iron. When Ikaika had run out of space on his back he had moved to Pierce's arms and chest. There is still unmarred skin on his abdomen and legs, but there is hardly a human figure to be recognized at the moment.

There's something wrong with his eyes. They've been damaged, that's for sure. There's so much blood and infection crusting them shut that I haven't been able to assess the severity. They look so bad that I'm afraid to touch them. It's almost like something's trying to grow from them. The thought of his determined gray eyes kept me motivated when I was planning to rescue him. I pray they can be saved. Saaresto and I have stitched what we could and wrapped what we couldn't but there's hardly any skin to stitch. I've used deadbolt where I absolutely had to, but I'm afraid I'll stop his heart or lungs if I use too much. I tore what was left of my skirt, glove, and sleeve of my red dress to use as bandages. Being red, it was hard to tell where he was still bleeding through, which gave me a chance to get my panic under control.

Saaresto, my favorite, one eyed doctor, related the events of the past two years. Ikaika had kept Pierce on Valcour for a while, simply locked up and letting his bullet wound fester in the basement. When it became apparent that I was not to return he packed him into a cage and traveled to Galaval in the New World. He began torturing him then. At first it was one wound a week to keep track of time. He killed people in front of Pierce to try to break his mind. Women and children mostly. Pierce had told Saaresto that I had endured it for years and that cracking under the pressure and horrors inflicted upon him and the slaves would be a dishonor to my service.

When Ikaika had gotten bored of this he brought in the tank of electric eels. Pierce had been dunked into the tank three times a week and on three occasions his heart had to be restarted. Pierce had confided in Saaresto that he dreaded the eels more than any of the other tortures and begged the doctor to kill them, and on the third occasion, him. About a year into my absence Ikaika had met with Doflamingo who had provided a new prototype SMILE fruit which he had been eager to find a guinea pig for. They had forced it down Pierce's throat before Saaresto had a chance to substitute it for anything. They kicked the doctor out of the basement for three hours and when he was allowed to return Pierce was shackled to the wall in sea prism. His eyes had been attacked next, but Saaresto had not been on the island when this had happened and Ikaika had forbidden him from treating them. He wasn't sure of the damage there and the amounting damage to the rest of his body called for more dire attention. No matter what he had tried, Pierce's health had decreased rapidly with the increased ferocity of Ikaika's attacks after I had declared myself dead.

Saaresto said there was nothing more he could do for him and that he had other patients to treat, so I set out alone with Pierce in tow. I wish Chopper was here. He'd be able to do something. I studied so hard to find out how to not kill people with my poisons. I wish I had given a little more attention to how I could use them to save a life. There's so much bleeding and infection. Saaresto sent me with plenty of bandages made from the old uniforms of the slaves, but they soil quickly. They smell like the basement I pulled him from. It's like death is hovering over his body, letting me build my hope while waiting for the cruelest moment to rip him from me once again. He needs a doctor, which I am not. I just hope the man I'm looking for is still in the area. I don't care what I have to pay.

I'm writing this from the back of Parvati, the undulate stingray I raced years ago. She's just as fast as I remember and she's gone off and had children like I had hoped. Kuma sent me to her and her mate, which I've named Raja, in the waters surrounding an island which they use as their breeding ground. He's faster than Parvati, which I find hard to believe. His markings are darker than hers, but he's an undulate all the way. I've been staring at them so I don't stare at the blood and pus seeping into the poor bandages I've wrapped Pierce in. He looks like a mummy. If it wasn't for his ragged breathing I would think he was already dead. I'm afraid to touch him. He looks so fragile. I don't know if there's anything left to break. There's only one power that can save him now. I just hope I catch him in a good mood.

From my brief encounters with him before I know that he can't be worse than Mother Kudra, the Sea King Stingray that forbade me from leaving Batoidea Island for forty days after I splashed down. She felt I had disturbed the breeding grounds and a mother is territorial and protective. I don't know how, but I knew the only way to gain her respect was to prove that I was capable of riding her. Being friends with Parvati helped. To be honest I spent the first month making a harness and running around the island synchronizing with faster and faster things just so my body could keep up with the speed of Kudra's tail. Something the size of an island shouldn't be able to move that fast. I had half a mind to use light poisons on her to calm her aggression, but I wanted to honor Godwin's memory. A fishrider should face an ocean challenge head-on and without restraint. That's the type of rider he taught me to be. I may not be able to fight head-on without almost dying, but I have won the gold in several riding competitions. I'd set my pride against her prejudice any day.

As I said, it took forty days and three broken ribs to successfully ride her. I tied myself to her back, resolved to stay there or die trying. She was a fair competitor and didn't use cheap tricks like trying to drown me. That might have been on Parvati's request. I love that ray. She did, however, try to crush me with her tail, body, and fins, throw me into an active volcano, wash me off in a rip tide, and use me as bait for giant sharks. Or maybe the sharks were just hungry and would have been happy with either one of us. It's hard to tell with predators with teeth as big as you. Somehow I managed to stay on her back for two weeks. For a while I thought she'd forgotten I was there, but she responded to my rein movement and commands, even though I looked like the world's most wrinkled sea prune. I had brought supplies, but I was hungry, wet, and sunburned. In the end, I did something I've never heard of any other rider accomplishing. I gained the respect and formed a bond with a Sea King in two months whereas it takes most a year or more. She had Parvati bite both my shoulders with her multiple rows of sharp teeth and I rubbed red dye into the wounds to turn them into circular tattoos. This is a sign of a life bond between a rider and fish. I think Godwin would be proud.

Mother Kudra is with me now, but the trip to Valcour took her too far away from her precious children. She wants to stay in the Calm Belt. I can feel her circling beneath us, giving us momentum from the water just short of starting a whirlpool. Though I love that ferocious giant, Parvati and I are far more compatible. With my observation Haki we move in flawless synchronization. And where we're going, Kudra would have attracted the attention of Sea Kings loyal to dangerous people who I'd like to avoid. Or, one dangerous Warlord, to be exact. That's the area where my informants say he is. I have to think of a way to thank Shakky for keeping my network going, even if most people think I'm dead… again. If that man isn't here in the calm belt and I lose Pierce again, I may have to show Gallowcomb what it's like to encounter the insane dead. On second thought, I'll probably be showing him ghostly vengeance no matter what happens to Pierce. I would prefer him to be by my side for it, though. He deserves a chance to even the score. I wonder if, after all he's been through, if he's still afraid of taking a life.