Chapter 273: Suspected Ally!

The first half of the Grand Line, the Iron Barrel Island sea area.

On a small raft, Blackbeard leaned against the only mast, looking at the Munch-Munch Fruit held in his palm.

In Blackbeard's most perfect vision, the first Devil Fruit chosen would be the Dark-Dark Fruit.

After consuming the Dark-Dark Fruit, one could extract Devil Fruits from other ability users using the Dark-Dark Fruit's power.

This way, he could strengthen himself and also strengthen his future crew members.

However, after being an intern with the Whitebeard Pirates for so many years, the Dark-Dark Fruit remained nowhere to be found, and now he had unexpectedly obtained the Munch-Munch Fruit.

Blackbeard faced the greatest choice of his life.

Second only to the decision made half a year ago to leave the Whitebeard Pirates and set sail again to form the Blackbeard Pirates.

If he consumed the Munch-Munch Fruit, his strength would see a surge, and he could begin hunting other ability users.

But he would be unable to strengthen his future crew members like he could with the Dark-Dark Fruit.

"Hmm?" A flash of inspiration struck Blackbeard.

"Thief hahaha~"

"The Munch-Munch Fruit is a Paramecia type; I can simply consume the Dark-Dark Fruit as my second one."

However, once this choice was made, he could no longer seek out the Tremor-Tremor Fruit of the Old Man, because the third fruit would be limited to the Zoan type.

Among the Zoan types, the Mythical Zoan is the most powerful.

In short, if the first fruit consumed was the Munch-Munch Fruit and the second chosen was the Dark-Dark Fruit, the third could only be a powerful Mythical Zoan.

Among the Mythical Zoans, Kaido of the Beasts' Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu is the most overpowered.

Unfortunately, Blackbeard could only think about it.

Challenging Kaido with his current combat power would be no different than an egg hitting a stone; he would only be smashed to pieces.

Blackbeard took a deep breath, holding the Munch-Munch Fruit but unable to bring himself to take a bite no matter what.

"Wait a bit longer?"

After all, compared to the Paramecia types like the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and the Float-Float Fruit, the Munch-Munch Fruit was truly unworthy of the stage and could not support Blackbeard's ambition and dreams.

Others shattered islands or flew through the sky and dove into the earth; the Munch-Munch Fruit could only eat, eat, eat...

Blackbeard forcibly suppressed the urge to consume the Munch-Munch Fruit and decided to continue waiting for a while.

The unexpected acquisition of the Munch-Munch Fruit meant his luck had turned, and perhaps the Dark-Dark Fruit was waiting for him not far ahead.

The small raft drifted and drifted, following the waves toward the unknown front.

Leaning against the mast, Blackbeard stuffed the Munch-Munch Fruit into his bag as a backup; if he couldn't find the Dark-Dark Fruit within two years...

Killing Blackbeard didn't care; killing a hundred or a thousand didn't matter, but eating people was something he truly could not accept.

This might be the only conscience he had left.

"Eh?" Blackbeard seemed to remember something and hurriedly turned the raft toward the direction of Iron Barrel Island.

He had only been focused on seizing the Munch-Munch Fruit and had forgotten that lucky boy Wapol; even though Wapol was only ten years old, the Black Pirates were currently short-handed.

He could simply kidnap him to be an intern.

There was no way around it.

The only two crew members the Black Pirates had previously were arrested by Admiral Kizaru, so Blackbeard could only resort to this desperate measure.

Ten years old it is.

Little Bai Mao joined the Roger Pirates at nine; Wapol joining the Black Pirates at ten is very reasonable.

The two crew members Blackbeard was thinking so much about were currently being personally escorted by Admiral Kizaru to Impel Down.

Inside the cabin of the Navy warship, Warlord Tiger was giving instructions to his little brother Arlong.

"Arlong, go in and wait for two years first; I'll find a way to get you out."

Tiger tried to promise freedom to shut his little brother up, simply because Arlong was one of the few fish-men on Fish-Man Island who knew that Tiger and Jinbe had joined the Morning Star Pirates.

"Hmph." Arlong let out a cold snort.

"Want me to shut up? Not enough! Boss Tiger, you wouldn't want the Navy Admiral to know, would you?"

"Oh?" Kizaru's lazy voice rang out.

"The Navy Admiral you wanted has arrived."

Kizaru's sudden appearance made Tiger's face tighten involuntarily: Not good, my identity is about to be exposed.

Actually, exposure wouldn't be a problem.

He, Tiger, was after all a person of Saint Saint Saint Saiwen; however, Tiger did not want his identity exposed, which would affect the captain's layout.

Arlong grinned, looking as if he had nothing left to lose: "Warlord Tiger is a member of the Morning Star Pirates."

"Kowai na~" Kizaru smiled ambiguously.

"I didn't expect Mr. Tiger to be under the command of my lord Saint Saint Saiwen; my apologies, my apologies."

The imagined scene did not appear; Arlong was stunned for a few seconds before suddenly realizing: The boss of the Morning Star Pirates is now a Celestial Dragon.

Is there a problem with a Warlord submitting to a Celestial Dragon?

Not only was there no problem, it was even a situation the World Government hoped to see.

Having stayed with the Blackbeard Pirates for a long time, Arlong ignored an absurd fact: Strictly speaking, the Morning Star Pirates no longer belonged to the category of pirates.

The leverage he had pinned his hopes on to blackmail Tiger now looked somewhat ridiculous.

It was equivalent to: He was trying to report to the Navy that a Warlord and the master of the Navy... were colluding.

It would be a miracle if the report succeeded; not being silenced immediately was already a stroke of luck in misfortune.

Glancing at Arlong, who stood motionless and dazed in place, Kizaru patted Tiger's shoulder.

"This trash is not worth wasting emotions on."

"Let's go; we are almost at Impel Down."

Specifically leading Tiger to the bow of the warship, Kizaru lowered his voice: "Remember to tell Saint Saint Saint Saiwen, so preparations can be made in advance."

"You... you..." Tiger was dumbfounded.

Because the matter was too absurd, Tiger's thoughts stalled for a moment, his mind buzzing and in a complete mess.

Tiger originally thought Kizaru would report to the World Government and revoke his status as a Warlord; he never expected... Kizaru to actually seem like one of their own!

At this moment, Tiger's admiration for the Captain was truly beyond words.

Kizaru is an Admiral of the Marines!

Kizaru said lightly.

"I heard nothing just now."

Only by having Tiger relay this to Saint Saint Saiwen could the value of his undercover role be demonstrated, avoiding that guy Saint Saint Saiwen constantly saying he does nothing worthwhile.

Being an undercover agent is hard.

Especially since he is originally a Marine Admiral, yet had to submit to the Morning Star Gang to rescue Sakazuki.

He could neither truly betray the Marines nor do nothing, lest Saint Saint Saint Saiwen commit some crazy act causing even greater destruction.

This situation... is just right.

What the Warlords are made of, any clear-eyed person understands at a glance; everyone just tacitly agrees and is too lazy to expose them.

"Thank you. If you have time, come to Fish-Man Island; I'll treat you to a seafood feast."

Kizaru nodded with a smile.

A Marine Admiral protecting the Celestial Dragons; even if the Five Elders knew, they would find no fault and would have to commend him.

Drawing two salaries is so satisfying.

I must find time to buy a large mansion in the Flower Capital of Inazuma, to live in seclusion after retirement.

Five years ago on the Sky Island, Kizaru understood Saint Saint Saiwen's intentions; a normal pirate could never say: "Brother, this world shouldn't be like this."

A pirate who knows the history of the Void Century and can also shout "Liberate all slaves, Long live the people"...

Kizaru has only met one in his life.

Even though Saint Saint Saiwen once destroyed the Marine Headquarters, Kizaru still wanted to see what the future Saint Saint Saiwen described actually looked like.

Whether it truly is... Long live the people.