After nightfall, the Buggy Pirates practically fled the area, hurriedly escaping from these waters for fear that someone might make them stay.
Or rather, Buggy was even more afraid that someone would discover his true identity.
Pretending to be a clown might keep anyone from discovering who he was for the time being, but the day the truth came out, he would be finished.
A group of pirates disguising themselves as circus members and staying here—no matter how you looked at it, they did not seem like good people. If those Fish-Men decided to attack him, there would not even be anywhere to run.
Meanwhile, Arlong looked at the day’s revenue and revealed a satisfied smile. Even with the opening-day discount, the amount of income was still considerable. If things developed well, perhaps they could open branches of the amusement park in other seas in the future.
By then, his name, Arlong, would spread across the seas along with those amusement parks.
Surely when that time came, the world could not still be calling this place “Shyarly’s Big Brother’s amusement park.”
Thinking of this, Arlong suddenly took out his planning document.
Originally, he had wanted to promote Fishman Island’s fortune-telling culture by setting up something like a fortune-telling booth inside the amusement park. There would not even need to be a real fortune-teller; it was just an entertainment attraction anyway.
But from a practical standpoint, Arlong felt he should probably cross that item out.
The amusement park began operating steadily according to plan, and Arlong also finished writing his first work report from East Blue and sent it back to the Ryugu Kingdom.
That year, quite a few scattered events also took place.
The Germa Kingdom publicly announced that its third prince, Sanji, had tragically died of illness, and the entire kingdom mourned.
A Celestial Dragon family in Mariejois put an unused Devil Fruit—the Love-Love Fruit—up for auction, but the auction house’s ship was raided by the Kuja Pirates while transporting the goods.
After the Love-Love Fruit was stolen, the Kuja’s newly appointed empress, Boa Hancock, set out to sea. Her first bounty was eighty million Berry, and not long after her wanted poster was issued, she received an invitation to become a Shichibukai.
Aside from Moria’s one failure, the current Shichibukai could all be considered fairly “dedicated.”
Apart from Hawk Eyes, who acted more or less however he pleased, Crocodile wanted to establish his reputation as a national hero, Moria needed the shadows of powerful people, and Luna and the others were undergoing training; all of which kept them in fairly frequent conflict with other pirates.
Of course, these people also had their own private agendas. Ginny, for example, was compiling the information she had gathered recently.
“Recently, two Devil Fruits have been mentioned pretty frequently on the channels I’ve been monitoring. One of them is the Gum-Gum Fruit, but that Red-Haired Shanks stole it.
“The World Government was furious and threw the CP9 agent who was escorting the Devil Fruit into prison. If the fruit was that important, why didn’t they send someone stronger to escort it?”
“Hasn’t the World Government always been like that? Maybe they thought a CP9 agent was already strong enough for those waters.”
Kuma, sitting nearby, put down the book in his hands and responded to Ginny.
“True. That Red Hair seems pretty capable. The other fruit is the Op-Op Fruit. That one has also been discovered.
A group of pirates found the Devil Fruit and even reached an agreement with the Marines. They plan to sell the Devil Fruit to the Marines.”
“These days, the Marines have started doing business directly with pirates?”
Luna had just returned to the cabin carrying a newly ordered pharmaceutical machine when she happened to hear Ginny talking about the Marines reaching a deal with pirates.
“The World Government must be pulling the strings behind the scenes. I’ve seen some secret information about the Op-Op Fruit. Supposedly, it can perform an Immortality Operation on someone. That’s probably why they agreed to this kind of deal.”
If some incompetent Devil Fruit user ate the fruit and lacked the skill necessary to perform the Immortality Operation, that would be troublesome.
They would have to kill the user, wait for the fruit to reborn, and then find it all over again. Who knew how many years that might take?
Therefore, once they realized those pirates did not know the fruit’s true value, they immediately reached an agreement to purchase it.
“Should we get our hands on the fruit? If the World Government wants it, making sure they don’t get it is usually the right move.”
“With our current identities, it’s not very convenient for us to act.”
“Don’t worry. Kuma-chi and I can go. The World Government… isn’t the only one after this fruit. Let’s go, Kuma-chi! Their agreed transaction site is Rubeck Island in North Blue. It isn’t far from Flevance, so the two of us will head there first!”
Luna’s group was currently in the Grand Line, but traveling quickly was easy for them. After saying a few words to Luna and the others, Kuma directly picked Ginny up and then slapped his own body. Protected inside a bubble, the two of them flew toward North Blue.
At the same time, in North Blue, Doflamingo, who had received news about the Op-Op Fruit, was ambitiously preparing to make his move.
He knew what lay behind the Op-Op Fruit and also knew that seizing it would be extremely dangerous, but he still decided to do it.
Whether it was to have someone perform the Immortality Operation on him in the future, or to have one of his own people eat the Op-Op Fruit so he could use it as leverage in negotiations with the World Government, either outcome was something Doflamingo wanted.
“Given how important this fruit is, once we get it, I’ll need someone I can trust to eat it. Corazon, you’ll be the one to eat this fruit.
After all, you’re my little brother, the family member I trust the most.”
Rosinante, who was known as Corazon, merely tapped the table to indicate that he understood, since within the Donquixote Family, his identity was that of a mute who could not speak.
At present, Rosinante and Law had no connection with each other, so he had not split off from Doflamingo to act separately.
However, Doflamingo was still irritated by the Marines constantly tailing him and had begun to suspect that there was a traitor inside the family. He simply had no evidence yet and was cautiously testing everyone while investigating.
Rosinante’s own thoughts were more complicated. He had already eaten the Calm-Calm Fruit, so it was completely impossible for him to eat the Op-Op Fruit. In other words, as long as Doflamingo got his hands on the fruit, Rosinante’s identity would inevitably be exposed.
After all, if he had no secret to hide, there would have been no reason for him to conceal the fact that he had already eaten a Devil Fruit.
Either the Marines had to capture Doflamingo and his entire group during this operation, or Doflamingo had to be prevented from obtaining the Op-Op Fruit. Rosinante had to accomplish at least one of those two things.
At this moment, Rosinante was not too worried.
Although Tsuru had been pursuing Doflamingo for so long without catching him, that was because Rosinante needed to continue operating undercover in order to uncover which major figures in North Blue’s Underworld had connections with Doflamingo.
They intended to use this opportunity to overturn North Blue’s dark underbelly in one fell swoop, so they had not been in too much of a hurry.
Otherwise, if someone else took over Tsuru’s job—for example, Borsalino—then once Rosinante provided Doflamingo’s location, Borsalino could arrive in no time at all and naturally deal with these people without much difficulty.
With the Op-Op Fruit as the target, undercurrents began surging through North Blue…
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