"Hohh, so Arton's actually had dealings with Whitebeard's Ace now? That's really pretty scary, y'know."
"But what's even scarier is the ability that Nojiko showed off. If I ever fell into their hands, would they dig the Glint-Glint Fruit out of my body too?"
"And if Arton really did get his hands on my Glint-Glint Fruit… I wonder what kind of Mythical Zoan he'd remodel it into." Borsalino rubbed his chin, then glanced curiously at Kuzan beside him.
"You stare at like that, and I still can't give you an answer." Kuzan mumbled. "At the end of the day, with your speed, I don't really see Arton catching you."
"Yeah, you say that, but I did go through a pretty rough little failure of a trip with them already, y'know." Borsalino shook his head as he spoke. "That fight cost quite a bit of effort."
Kuzan didn't bother replying this ti; instead, his gaze dropped to the newspaper that had been handed to him.
More precisely, to the photo of Robin on the page.
'Is this your choice… or are you just joining another organization like always?' Kuzan thought to himself.
As Robin's invisible guardian, Kuzan naturally knew how many groups she'd joined in the past.
And after that, how many she'd betrayed—and how many had hunted her down.
Because of this, Robin's reputation in the underworld was in tatters; at this point, hardly anyone dared to take her in.
When he saw that Robin had joined the Flablade Pirates, Kuzan's first reaction was that soday in the future, she might betray them too—just like she'd betrayed all those other organizations.
Only, this ti, Kuzan felt a faintly different thought stir in his heart. He had a feeling it would be very hard for Robin to leave the Flablade Pirates ever again.
Right then, Sengoku knocked on the table in front of him, drawing everyone's attention back his way.
"Just as you've all seen and heard, Blackbeard possesses certain special abilities. He's soone we need to keep an eye on."
"But compared to him, the one we should be paying even more attention to is Arton—and his Flablade Pirates."
"Those of you who've known about Arton since earlier should rember that the Marines originally intended to recruit him."
"Unfortunately, that idea failed." Sengoku said with his face set in a hard line. "Now we have no choice but to treat him as a criminal who must be taken very seriously."
Even though Garp had told him Arton wasn't a bad person, but soone with a kind heart, and even though Gion held Arton in high esteem, believing he was a capable man—all of that had beco aningless the mont Arton took down a Celestial Dragon.
And now that Arton had even invited Robin—the very woman the World Governnt wanted so badly to erase—into the Flablade Pirates, it was even less possible for the Marines to invite him to join.
"You all know Nico Robin is in pursuit of the Poneglyphs that record the true history, and the Poneglyphs are sothing the World Governnt absolutely forbids anyone to seek."
"Now that Arton has brought Robin into his crew, there's a real chance he'll go after those stones as well."
"So whether it's to prevent Arton from actually finding the Poneglyphs, or to give the World Governnt a proper response, we need to take active asures."
"In other words, we've gotta give the World Governnt an explanation, huh." Kizaru spread his hands. "Borsalino, how about you go bring Arton back?"
At the sound of Kizaru's voice, Sengoku imdiately looked over at him.
"Uh… you really need an admiral to move out for this?"
"Well, I guess with the kind of power Arton's shown, he does warrant an admiral making a move. But I've already gone out once before, haven't I? Arton's probably already figured out my abilities by now. He might've even used Observation Haki to morize my aura—if I head over there, there's a good chance he'll just lock onto with Observation the mont I get close. If it ends up like that, actually catching him is gonna be pretty difficult, y'know."
Kizaru put on an obviously evasive look, making it plain he really didn't want to go deal with the Flablade Pirates.
Co on, even when Zephyr personally went out, the price he paid was having a beloved disciple captured.
Even facing Garp, Arton hadn't really co out the worse for wear.
With things like that on the record, just thinking about being put in charge of Arton's case again made Borsalino feel tired.
"You're just making excuses, Kizaru." Kuzan gave Borsalino a sidelong glance.
"How could you call it an excuse?" Borsalino shook his head, then suddenly brightened, looking over at Kuzan. "Co to think of it, you seem pretty curious about Arton and his Flablade Pirates, don't you? How about you take this one instead?"
Not far away, Tsuru watched Kizaru's old–fox act and could only shake her head helplessly.
Sengoku's forehead veins were already bulging; just as he was about to call Kizaru out by na, Kuzan nodded. "Yeah. I can take this assignnt."
"Hey now, don't be like that, think it over a little more—wait, you accepted?" Borsalino stared at Kuzan in surprise.
He'd thought he'd have to spend quite a bit of effort talking Kuzan into it. He hadn't expected Kuzan to just agree outright—this was way too easy.
It wasn't just Borsalino who was surprised; Tsuru and Sengoku were both taken aback as well.
"You're really planning to take this mission, Kuzan?" Tsuru asked. "The World Governnt's breathing down our necks on this. If you accept, they're going to focus all their expectations on you."
She knew very well that while Kuzan didn't act like as much of a sly old fox as Borsalino, he was actually the one of the three admirals who hated hassle the most.
And because he'd spent so much ti around Garp, Kuzan had also beco the admiral who least wanted to have anything to do with the Celestial Dragons.
No surprise there—Garp had said things like "the Celestial Dragons are trash" in front of Kuzan more than a few tis.
Tsuru had originally thought Akainu would be the only one likely to accept this mission.
Sengoku had been thinking the sa thing.
What they didn't know was that the real reason Kuzan nodded… was the Flablade Pirates' new crewmate, Robin.
The woman he'd once spared had now joined a crew with the clearest potential to rise to the level of a Yonko–class pirate crew. One way or another, he wanted to see the current Robin with his own eyes—and talk to her face to face.
"I'll go take a look. I was planning to head to the Grand Line soon anyway." Kuzan nodded to Tsuru and Sengoku.
"Mm. It's unexpected, but since you've volunteered, we'll leave this matter in your hands." Sengoku gave Kuzan a satisfied nod, then turned his gaze back to Kizaru. "Borsalino, try learning a thing or two from Kuzan, will you?"
Borsalino shut his mouth and simply stopped talking. As long as he didn't have a mission in hand, getting chewed out a bit wasn't such a big deal.
Especially when the job in question was sothing as insanely difficult as dealing with Arton.
"Sengoku-san, can you send all the intel you have on the Flablade Pirates?" Kuzan stood up. "Once I have the information, I'll head out imdiately."
"In such a hurry? …Fine, go on ahead." Sengoku said. "We'll keep you updated from here with any new intelligence on Arton and his Flablade Pirates at all tis."
"Rember, your mission is to apply so pressure and interference to the Flablade Pirates. You don't have to arrest the entire crew. If you can capture Robin, that alone will be enough."
....
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