Even if you ask me that…
Robin pinched the bridge of her nose. She wasn't some real intelligence broker. How could she possibly know why the World Government had suddenly started going after the Revolutionary Army so aggressively?
Just then, Rowan suddenly spoke.
"I know why."
"Boss?" Robin looked a little surprised.
Rowan said calmly, "Not long ago, we took Vegapunk away, and we even packed up Egghead and took the whole island with us. The World Government thinks the Revolutionary Army did it, so now they're going all out against them."
Robin: "???"
Dragon: "???"
What had he just heard? This mysterious group had actually rescued Vegapunk from the World Government's custody?
That was unbelievable.
Dragon knew exactly how tightly the World Government guarded Vegapunk. He genuinely had not expected these people to pull something like that off. It seemed they were far more capable than he had imagined.
What followed, however, was excitement.
Vegapunk's importance went without saying. Without him, the World Government had undoubtedly suffered a major blow.
"No wonder…" Dragon murmured.
No wonder the Revolutionary Army had suddenly been singled out so brutally. Now it all made sense.
"Please keep Dr. Vegapunk safe, sir. He is extremely important to our efforts to overthrow the World Government and save this world."
Dragon was unexpectedly magnanimous and didn't complain about the Revolutionary Army being made to take the blame.
Instead, he seriously urged Rowan to protect Vegapunk.
"Don't worry. Vegapunk's eating well, sleeping well, and living comfortably on our side," Rowan said. "As long as we're here, the World Government won't be taking him back."
Though Rowan's voice was calm, Dragon could still hear the absolute confidence in his tone.
And given that this was a man who had somehow learned the World Government's deepest secrets, that confidence seemed entirely justified.
"I look forward to meeting you someday, sir."
Dragon brought it up again. He truly wanted to meet this remarkable man and speak with him properly.
Perhaps the conversation would give him new inspiration.
"Maybe someday," Rowan said vaguely. He had no intention of meeting the man just yet.
After Robin exchanged a few more words with Dragon, she hung up.
Issho asked curiously, "Vegapunk is really with you?"
Robin replied, "To be precise, we rescued Dr. Vegapunk from the World Government."
"Then why would the World Government pin that on the Revolutionary Army?"
"It's simple. Because the World Government doesn't know we exist."
Robin had figured a few things out as well. "Mr. Issho, if you lost something important, and you had no idea a third party was involved, who would you suspect first?"
At that prompt, Issho immediately understood.
Vegapunk had vanished, and if the World Government didn't know someone else had taken him, then who would they suspect first?
The Revolutionary Army.
Because in this world, only the Revolutionary Army would dare strike directly at the World Government.
So of course the World Government would assume it was them.
"In that case, the Revolutionary Army really did end up taking the blame for you," Issho said.
Rowan shook his head. "Not really. The Revolutionary Army was already the World Government's enemy. Even without us, they'd still be targeted."
Issho thought it over. That was true enough.
Robin now understood why the World Government had started going after the Revolutionary Army, but she still didn't understand how Rowan had figured it out. That part hadn't been in the manga at all.
"Boss, you…"
"I guessed."
Before Robin could finish, Rowan already knew what she wanted to ask and answered with a smile.
And in truth, he wasn't lying. It really was just his guess. As for whether it was actually true, only the Five Elders knew for sure.
Robin grilled a few pieces of meat, dipped them in sauce, and placed them on Rowan's and Issho's plates.
"So, Mr. Issho, have you made up your mind? Will you join us in overthrowing the World Government and saving the world?"
Issho was still hesitating, because he had no way of knowing for certain whether Rowan and Robin were telling the truth.
"I want to meet Dr. Vegapunk. Is that possible?"
"Of course," Rowan said. "We'll go after this meal."
Seeing how open and relaxed they were about it, Issho's caution eased somewhat.
After that, Rowan stopped talking and devoted himself completely to eating. The reason this barbecue place was so popular wasn't just that the meat was fresh—the biggest draw was the sauce.
Sweet-and-sour, salty and spicy, cumin-based… there were at least a dozen different kinds, one for every taste.
And every last one of them was good.
Rowan ate with great satisfaction. He even opened a door to Wano, brought Cosette over, and had her try the sauces.
He wanted to see if she could replicate them.
Cosette didn't disappoint. After tasting them, she not only perfectly reproduced the sauces, but added her own twists, elevating the flavors even further.
"Well done, Cosette."
Rowan couldn't help praising her. Saving her from Germa and making her his beautiful personal chef had definitely been the right move.
These past few days, the quality of his meals had been rising steadily.
If he weren't extracting chakra every day and training his body, he would have gotten fat a long time ago.
After a lavish meal, Rowan took Issho to Egghead to meet Dr. Vegapunk.
After speaking with Vegapunk for a while and confirming that Rowan and Robin hadn't lied, Issho decisively joined Rowan's camp, determined to do his part to save the world.
After all, the world was going to be destroyed in just a few years, and the World Government had known that all along and concealed it.
That alone was enough to make Issho lose all trust in the World Government.
From that point on, there was nothing for it but to work with Rowan.
Rowan also took the opportunity to grant Issho the ability to extract chakra. Issho was already very strong, but Rowan still wanted him to become even stronger.
He could very well become one of their trump cards against the World Government.
At the same time, Issho found the whole thing astonishing and almost hard to believe.
The chakra extraction technique let a person harness a completely new power, one that stood shoulder to shoulder with Haki and Devil Fruits, and even allowed them to use all kinds of ninjutsu and wield the powers of water, wind, fire, earth, and lightning.
It was incredible.
For the leader to grant him such a powerful secret art without hesitation meant one thing: he was being treated as one of their own.
Issho made up his mind then and there not to disappoint Rowan.
From that day on, no matter what, he spent several hours every single day extracting chakra.
Watching that left Tobirama, Orochimaru, and the others staring in disbelief.
After all, chakra was produced by squeezing out spiritual energy and cellular energy. Overdoing it was harmful to the body, so people in the ninja world always had to be cautious when extracting it.
The moment they crossed the line, they stopped.
Spending several hours every single day extracting chakra without fail—by ninja standards, that was superhuman.
Only monsters from a world like One Piece, where people could fight for days and nights on end, were qualified to abuse their cells that hard.
More importantly, even after squeezing themselves dry, they could recover in a short time.
Secret Art of the Six Powers: Life Return, anyone?
That technique let you freely control your body, hair, and internal organs. Once you poured your will into them, you could manipulate them at will—and even accelerate bodily recovery and cellular healing.
Even if most of the top fighters in the One Piece world hadn't formally learned the Six Powers, they still possessed similar techniques.
Luffy himself had shown as much more than once in the story.
As a great swordsman, Issho naturally wasn't lacking in that regard either. The energy he burned off could be replenished with a single good meal. Overexerting his body simply wasn't an issue.
And that meant Issho's chakra changed almost daily. In just a day or two, he had already surpassed an ordinary Konoha genin.
Catching up to a tailed beast and becoming a human-shaped tailed beast himself wouldn't be a problem.
Watching this left Tobirama, Orochimaru, and the others deeply envious.
Fortunately, Rowan had already granted them the physique of the One Piece world as well. As long as they trained hard, they would all eventually gain that same constitution. Getting stronger was only a matter of time.
Then one day, Tobirama and Orochimaru came to see Rowan together and brought him some good news.
With Vegapunk's cooperation, they had completely broken through the problem of creating Zoan Devil Fruits.
Vegapunk had already created the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon—the pink version—so Zoan fruits no longer held any real mysteries for him.
Now, after working together with Tobirama, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the others, his understanding of Zoan fruits had gone even deeper.
At this point, they could not only replicate Zoan Devil Fruits—they could manufacture them.
They had even established a complete factory that could produce large quantities of Devil Fruits every day.
There was just one condition.
They needed the appropriate materials.
For standard Zoans and Ancient Zoans, that wasn't a problem. The fruit factory could already turn out ten or even dozens of them per day.
But Mythical Zoans were another story…
Because they lacked the necessary source material, Mythical Zoans couldn't be manufactured from scratch. They could only be replicated.
That left Rowan rather disappointed. He had been hoping to have them make him a Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Anubis—or at least a Hades model.
If those were too much trouble, even a Yama model would've been fine. He really wasn't picky.
"That's not impossible," Tobirama said calmly after hearing what Rowan wanted. "It just takes time."
Rowan thought about it and nodded. "That's fine."
After all, he wasn't lacking in time. With so many worlds behind him, immortality didn't really seem all that difficult anymore.
Orochimaru then said, "The reason Tobirama and I came to see you today, besides reporting our progress on Devil Fruit research, is that there's one more thing."
~~~
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