Rowan raised a hand and pushed against the air, opening an air door and leading everyone into Golden Lion Shiki's private room.
Inside, Shiki was asleep.
The moment he heard footsteps, he jolted awake.
For all that he was old, his alertness hadn't dulled much from his younger days. Even the slightest disturbance was enough to make him react instantly.
In a flash, Shiki opened his eyes and looked toward the uninvited guests who had entered his room.
Rowan looked back at him.
Their gazes collided.
Shiki flew into a rage. "Who the hell are you? How dare you—"
Before he could finish, his expression went blank. He stood there stiffly, not moving at all.
Tsunade, who had been expecting some earth-shattering battle, froze at the sight.
"What just happened?"
"Mental control magic," Serie said calmly. "It's one of the spells I transferred to Rowan. It invades a target's mind through eye contact, then lets him control them."
"For people with no resistance to mental attacks, it's an extremely convenient technique."
Rowan nodded. "Ever since that ship's wheel got lodged in Shiki's head, his mind hasn't been what it used to be. He can't even use Conqueror's Haki anymore. On top of that, he has no resistance to magic at all, so there's no way he can withstand my spell."
Tsunade broke out in goosebumps. "That magic is way too dangerous."
To put it bluntly, this kind of thing was basically the natural enemy of women.
If some dangerous creep learned it, even she wouldn't necessarily escape unscathed.
Tsunade definitely didn't think her own mental strength was enough to resist something like this. When it came to magic, she was the perfect example of understanding nothing.
"Dangerous, yes," Rowan said. "But also incredibly convenient, especially in a world without magic."
After learning this spell, he had already used it to control two people: Shiki, and earlier, the now-dead Gecko Moria.
Neither of them was anything close to ordinary. One had once been a legendary figure, and the other had been a Warlord of the Sea.
Both were top-class fighters standing above millions.
And yet, in front of mental control magic, they had been utterly powerless.
That alone showed that in a world without magic, magical power was practically a dimensionality attack against people like them.
Haki could defend against Devil Fruit powers.
But it clearly couldn't defend against magic.
Because the two weren't even part of the same system.
"Just so we're clear," Tsunade said, "you are never using that spell on me. Understood?"
She wanted that settled right now. The last thing she wanted was Rowan using weird magic like this on her. What if he made her dance in the street or something?
He was absolutely capable of pulling that kind of stunt.
Rowan rolled his eyes. "Relax. Why would I even use that kind of spell on you?"
"Not even if you had a reason."
"Alright, alright, fine. I swear I won't use it on you. Happy now?"
Tsunade let out a breath and nodded. "That's more like it."
Rowan said, annoyed, "Can we go now?"
Tsunade nodded.
Rowan opened another air door and led everyone out of Shiki's room, with Shiki following obediently behind them.
They had come in quietly, and they left just as quietly.
No one on the island realized that Golden Lion Shiki had vanished.
When it came to infiltration, the Door-Door Fruit really was unbeatable.
After leaving Shiki's territory, Rowan led everyone straight to Egghead and slipped into Vegapunk's room.
At that moment, Vegapunk was still in the lab conducting experiments, completely unaware that a group of uninvited guests had entered his room.
"Go ahead," Rowan said with a faint smile, giving Shiki an order.
Shiki placed both hands on the ground and activated the power of the Float-Float Fruit.
A few seconds later, Egghead began to tremble slightly.
At first, the shaking was faint, almost subtle enough to ignore.
But as time passed, it grew stronger and stronger.
The first person to notice something was wrong was Vegapunk.
He noticed it almost immediately, from the slight movement of the liquid inside the test tubes in his lab.
At first, he thought something strange might have happened under the sea.
But as the island's tremors grew worse, a bad feeling rose in his chest.
He hurried to the lab window and looked outside.
The sea level was dropping.
No—not the sea level.
Egghead itself was rising.
That made Vegapunk think for a moment of the Knock-Up Stream, but he dismissed the idea almost immediately. If a rising sea current were smashing into Egghead, the shaking would be far more violent.
If it wasn't a Knock-Up Stream, then some kind of force had to be lifting the island itself.
The Float-Float Fruit?
In an instant, the answer appeared in Vegapunk's mind.
Boom!
At that very moment, an overwhelmingly powerful wave of Conqueror's Haki swept across Egghead.
Vegapunk quickly noticed that the Den Den Mushi and the Marines stationed around the island had all been knocked out cold by the Haki, foaming at the mouth and collapsing on the spot.
What was interesting, though, was that this burst of Conqueror's Haki seemed able to distinguish friend from foe.
He had been hit by it too, but it hadn't crushed him with the same overwhelming pressure.
"Interesting."
Vegapunk remained where he was, without moving carelessly, because he already suspected that whoever had done this was here for him.
Sure enough, not long afterward, the air in front of him opened into a door.
Beyond it stood a group of unfamiliar men and women.
No, not entirely unfamiliar.
Two of them he actually recognized.
One was Golden Lion Shiki.
The other he had only seen on wanted posters, but he recognized her instantly anyway—
Nico Robin, the survivor of Ohara.
She was older now, of course, but she hadn't changed enough for him to fail to recognize her.
"At last, we meet, Dr. Vegapunk." Nico Robin stepped through the air door and into the laboratory, speaking with clear excitement.
Vegapunk asked, "You came here for me, Nico Robin?"
Robin nodded. "I came to save you, Dr. Vegapunk."
Vegapunk glanced past her and asked, "Who are they?"
He noticed that although Shiki was clearly the most famous among them, he didn't seem to be the core of the group.
And something about Shiki's state seemed off. He looked strangely blank, almost as if he were being controlled.
Robin pointed at Rowan. "This is Rowan. He's my boss, the leader of our group, and a genuine traveler from another world."
"Another world?" That answer caught Vegapunk completely off guard.
To him, another world was far more fascinating than Devil Fruits.
He had seen plenty of Devil Fruits in his life.
But another world? Never.
"Would you like to go see one, Dr. Vegapunk?" Rowan asked with a smile.
"Can I?" Vegapunk was visibly tempted.
He knew perfectly well that right now, he was basically no different from a prisoner. If this group meant him harm, they had no need to make up a lie this outrageous.
"Of course."
Rowan first took Vegapunk to the Naruto world, then brought him to his own world.
He even gave Vegapunk copies of the Naruto and One Piece manga to read through.
Vegapunk read the One Piece manga especially carefully.
During the Egghead arc, when he reached the part where he was killed by Kizaru, Vegapunk wasn't angry at all. If anything, he understood Kizaru.
After all, to the World Government, the Void Century was an absolute taboo.
Even he had to be purged the moment he crossed that line.
As an Admiral, Kizaru would have no choice but to act, even if he didn't want to.
What did surprise him, however, was that York—one of his six satellites—would betray him.
Fortunately, York had only just been created at this point, so there was still time before that betrayal.
Maybe he could correct her way of thinking before it happened.
And if he couldn't… then he would have to destroy York.
After finishing the One Piece manga, Vegapunk said, "Not long ago, Morgans suddenly exposed the story that Crocodile was searching for one of the Ancient Weapons, Pluton, in Alabasta. That drew the World Government's attention. That was your doing too, wasn't it?"
Robin nodded. "Yes. That was our doing. If we hadn't done that, there's no way we could have slipped onto this island so easily and packed it up to take away."
Vegapunk looked a little surprised. So they didn't just want him—they wanted the entire island and its facilities as well.
Greedy, certainly, but he didn't dislike that.
Because Egghead really did contain countless precious things, not least his life's work. Leaving the island behind would have been painful even for him.
If they could pack up Egghead and take it whole, that really would be the ideal solution.
"You really are lucky," Vegapunk said. "Kizaru was suddenly reassigned not long ago, which left Egghead's defenses wide open. That's the only reason you had an opening."
"That wasn't luck," Robin said with a faint smile. "Kizaru was pulled away because Kaido was preparing to head for Alabasta. And why do you think Kaido moved at that exact time?"
Vegapunk wasn't stupid. In fact, he was the smartest man in the world. The moment he heard that, he understood.
"Kaido is one of yours too?"
Robin nodded. "Not long ago, we defeated Kaido and formally invited him to join our side. And after this, we'll bring even more people into our camp so we can work together to overthrow the World Government and save this world."
"So please join us too, Dr. Vegapunk."
"You don't want to see the world destroyed by the Celestial Dragons either, do you?"