A flash of killing intent passed through Stussy's eyes as her anger surged, her ample chest heaving violently. After a long while, she stared at Taro and said coldly,
"One day, I will let you experience exactly how many ultimate techniques I have!"
After saying that, she actually turned around and boarded her ship, refusing to give Taro another chance to provoke her.
Taro suppressed the urge to slash down with his blade and sighed with some regret.
At this moment, seeing Stussy's merchant ship depart, the Sergeant Major approached.
This was the first time he had seen his Vice Admiral fail to "pick up a girl." Hearing Taro's sigh, he hesitated for a long while before speaking.
"Vice Admiral, she... you...?"
Taro watched the merchant ship disappear into the deep sea and sighed again.
"Sigh, it would have been better if I had said a bit more!"
Say a bit more? Money?
The Sergeant Major was stunned for a moment. He never expected that Vice Admiral Taro's legendary ability to "pick up girls," which was whispered about as something divine within the Marine, would actually turn out to be "money power." For a moment, he felt somewhat disappointed.
Taro was also disappointed. He had hoped to provoke Stussy into attacking first, which would have given him an excuse to kill her directly.
Afterward, he could just play dumb and insist he didn't know she was a member of CP0.
In any case, only a limited number of Marine big shots knew what the members of CP0 looked like.
Unfortunately, as an intelligence agent, endurance was a mandatory course for Stussy!
"Vice Admiral, do we need to investigate her?" the Sergeant Major leaned in and asked softly.
Taro gave him a speechless look. "Are you that idle? Get lost, tell the brothers to land on the island."
"Yes."
In the Fish-Man Island Royal Palace, because of the light from the sun tree eve, day and night were not distinct on Fish-Man Island, and the daily routines were not like those on land.
At this time, Vice Admiral Garp was meeting with King Neptune when the Grand Right Minister walked in to report that Taro requested an audience.
Garp rolled his eyes and twitched his nose, appearing somewhat impatient about Taro's arrival.
Then, his expression became much more solemn as he looked at Neptune on the throne.
"King Neptune, please carefully consider what I told you. Also, please keep it a secret from Taro!"
King Neptune was originally very surprised by Garp's words and wanted to verify them with Taro, but seeing Garp's conviction, he finally nodded.
"I will. Please rest assured!"
When Taro walked into the main hall, Garp and Neptune had already returned to their respective seats, showing no abnormalities in their expressions.
"Vice Admiral Garp, why have you come to Fish-Man Island!" Taro wondered in his heart.
Garp raised an eyebrow. "Does this old man need to report to you to come here?"
Taro was stunned. This old man isn't acting right!
He glanced at Neptune, hoping for a hint, but Neptune kept his eyes lowered, seemingly determined not to get involved in their conversation.
"Heh... heh, how could that be? Wherever you like to go..." Taro gave a dry laugh.
"No, I mean, it's no problem wherever you go!"
Garp waved his hand, his eyes flickering. "Is your business finished, kid?"
Taro was still trying to figure out Garp's purpose for coming to Fish-Man Island and nodded casually. "Yeah, it's finished!"
"Handled well?"
"Handled well!"
Garp suddenly left his seat and leaped to Taro's side, his palm slapping heavily onto Taro's shoulder.
"Very good!"
Bang
With a single slap, Garp slammed the defenseless Taro into the ground, causing the floor made of polished Variegated Sea Stone to instantly crack and shatter.
"Pfft, pfft!"
Taro climbed up from the ground and spat out the stone fragments from his mouth, feeling quite speechless.
"Old man, what are you doing?"
Garp picked his nose. "This old man was just giving you some encouragement!"
After saying that, Garp actually walked straight outside.
Taro was stunned. "Vice Admiral Garp, you're..."
Garp didn't even look back, simply waving his hand behind his head. "Didn't you just say it's no problem wherever this old man goes?"
Taro: "..."
It wasn't until Garp's figure disappeared outside the door that Taro realized what was happening.
Holy crap, does this old man know what I've been doing these past few days?
It would be one thing if he had just received intelligence from Marineford, but if he knew beforehand... Taro frowned, feeling like he had been played.
He raised an eyebrow and looked at Neptune again, his gaze deep. "His Majesty Neptune, what did Vice Admiral Garp say to you?"
"Uh... nothing." Neptune's bulbous nose twitched. Seeing Taro's suspicious face, he added,
"Our 'movie,' the Fish-Man Island portion is almost finished filming. Aren't you going to take a look?"
Neptune's obviously evasive and exaggerated performance made Taro even more suspicious. He frowned deeply.
"Did Vice Admiral Garp instruct you not to tell me?"
Neptune remained silent.
Taro raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Fine, in that case, I won't force you."
Neptune breathed a sigh of relief and swam down from his throne.
"Let's go take a look at the 'movie' first. I must say, that Lieutenant Colonel Mike under your command is truly a Genius!"
Fish-Man District.
Only the final scene of Fish-Man Island's "city promotional film" remained. The actress playing the mermaid mother turned out to be Madame Shyarly, and her seven children consisted of three mermaids and four Fishmen.
Neptune's eyes flickered. "The offspring of a Fishman and a mermaid—if it's a boy, he'll be a Fishman, and if it's a girl, she'll be a mermaid. I didn't expect Director Mike to know these things."
Taro nodded. As expected, that's Mike for you—all-around talented at everything except being a Marine!
"Cut! Perfect, wrap it up!"
Mike raised a megaphone and shouted.
"Clap clap clap~"
The film crew and the surrounding civilians immediately broke into thunderous applause and cheers.
Taro also clapped along. At this time, Mike noticed Taro's arrival and strode over. There wasn't much joy on his face; instead, he looked somewhat worried.
"Vice Admiral, that wom—"
Taro smiled and shook his head. "We'll talk when we get back!"
Then he patted Mike's shoulder. "Mike, I heard you did a great job. Thank you for your hard work!"
Mike snapped to attention to salute, but Taro stopped him, grabbing his arm.
"Come on, the celebration feast is already prepared. We'll talk when we get back."
As he spoke, he pulled Mike along and strode away.
Taro didn't know if Stussy had left any spies behind, so he didn't dare reveal his familiarity with Vivi in public. Therefore, he deliberately ignored Vivi and the others.
Princess Vivi frowned, her eyes showing some displeasure. Pell walked to Vivi's side and said softly,
"Prin... Vivi, Taro must have his reasons for acting this way. Let's also head back first."
Mermaid Restaurant.
The entire place had been booked to serve as the designated hotel for the film crew during the shoot.
Taro and Neptune each gave a speech, thanking the crew for their hard work.
After the feast began, Taro walked to Vivi's table with a wine glass and said apologetically,
"I'm very sorry, Vivi. I've run into some trouble recently, so I can't appear too intimate with you..."
Vivi glared at him. "We have never been intimate."
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