"Nami,"
on the deck of the Golden Merry sailing along the Grand Line, Roman, who was at the helm, reminded Nami beside him,
"My recent Devil Fruit ability development has hit a bottleneck. I need to enter 'deep development' mode to seek a breakthrough..."
Roman spouted this nonsensical nonsense with a straight face, without even blinking.
"So I'll fall into a 'dazed' state, which will manifest as: losing the ability to react proactively, most sensory functions shutting down, and..."
"Alright," Roman said, seeing Nami's bewildered expression. He decided to use a simple example.
"Just think of me as the 'White Knight.'"
The White Knight was a skill Roman had developed recently. It used paper to form a puppet capable of handling most miscellaneous tasks, possessing a certain level of combat power, as well as:
the low-level intelligence to do whatever it was told.
"This..."
"In short, everything will be pretty much the same as usual. If there's any danger, remember to wake me with the 'code word.'"
As he spoke, Roman's gaze darkened, changing in an instant from sharp and lively to vacant and lifeless, as if he truly were a "puppet."
Of course, he only dared to pull something as dangerous as letting his main body go "AFK" when he was around his companions. As for Roman's "mind"...
"Gol D. Roger?"
Croccus looked at Roman, who was controlling the puppet White Knight, and slowly narrowed his eyes.
"You know quite a lot, young man."
The fact that Roman had called the King of the Pirates "Gol D. Roger" rather than "Gold Roger" was quite thought-provoking.
Don't underestimate that small difference. For certain reasons, the World Government had long altered much of the King of the Pirates Roger's past, the most significant change being the concealment of the "D." in his name.
Thus, in the eyes of most people, the King of the Pirates was "Gold Roger"! Anyone who knew his true name would never be an ordinary person—
"Senior, I've merely read a few more 'idle books' than others..."
As the old man named Croccus slowly approached, cracks began appearing out of thin air across "Roman's" body. Some parts had even turned into sheets of white paper, as though he were about to collapse!
As expected.
"Senior Croccus, I left this puppet here not because I wish to be your enemy, nor because I want to threaten you."
Roman quickly stated his intentions.
"I merely wish to make a deal with you!"
Crack, crack, crack.
As the old man advanced step by step, Roman's puppet, centered around the White Knight, suddenly shrank by a head out of thin air. Its entire body wrinkled up, looking as though it were about to fall apart! Fortunately, Croccus slowly withdrew his terrifying aura.
"A deal?"
"Yes." So long as they did not immediately come to blows and instead entered the "talking" stage, Roman was confident he could persuade him!
After all, many of this world's "secrets" were no secrets to him.
"For example:"
"the whereabouts of the Rumbar Pirates."
—Press!!
Crack!
"Roman" looked as though he had been struck by a stamping machine! He instantly turned into a pile of disc-shaped paper clumps. Fortunately, this had been created by his Devil Fruit ability in the first place. And though old Croccus's aura was astonishing, even taking the form of a physical attack, it was not the unreasonable Conqueror's Haki and would not harm Roman, who was far away aboard the Golden Merry.
"Senior, I told you."
Roman's voice came clearly from within the paper clumps.
"I am not your enemy, nor am I trying to threaten or intimidate you..."
"How about this? I'll show my sincerity first: the Rumbar Pirates were not completely wiped out!"
The aura around the old man named Croccus withdrew, and he seemed to become once more the ordinary old man who read the newspaper and basked in the sun. Yet he no longer needed to keep up the pretense before Roman. He merely spat out one cold word.
"Speak."
Rustle, rustle, rustle~~~
The paper clumps on the ground flew up one after another, reassembling into the shape of "Roman."
This was also why he had come using a "puppet"—as the weaker party, he would not, and could not, recklessly leave his life and death entirely to someone else's mood.
"The Rumbar Pirates. Led by Captain Binks Yuki, a West Blue pirate crew full of cowboy flair. Its members were skilled at playing musical instruments. Fifty years ago, they were annihilated by another pirate crew in Thriller Bark. Their pirate flag was a skull with horns..."
As Roman slowly recounted the details, Croccus's hands, clasped behind his back, unconsciously tightened! He had thought he had long come to terms with life and death, with partings and reunions, yet when he learned the exact news of his old friends' deaths, he still felt as though he were suffocating.
"However, this pirate crew was not actually wiped out!"
"One of them, a man named Brook, ate a Devil Fruit called the Revive-Revive Fruit before that,"
"This fruit had no effect while one was alive. It merely turned a person into a landlubber incapable of going into the sea. But after someone died—"
that was when the fruit's ability activated.
"It allowed the dead to return to life!"
What a heaven-defying ability! If the World Government learned of it, even the Three Admirals would likely be dispatched to seize this Devil Fruit.
"Unfortunately, Brook's soul got lost in Thriller Bark..."
"By the time he found his body, only a skeleton remained. In other words, he was resurrected once more in the form of a skeleton."
Roman fell silent after speaking, waiting for the old man across from him to process the information.
"Very..."
After a long while, the old man named Croccus nodded.
"...a very wonderful story."
Heh heh.
"Senior, I know the Roger Pirates all disliked 'Devil Fruits,' believing them to be a wicked and improper path."
Indeed, the entire crew possessed Haki—the only one without it was Buggy, the holder of Conqueror's Luck. A pirate crew like that would naturally look down upon Devil Fruit users, but:
"but you cannot deny the wonders of Devil Fruits."
"Roman" spread his hands.
"Just like me."
In terms of strength, Roman was certainly no match for the old ship's doctor. But in terms of "wonders," the old ship's doctor, who remained within the realm of humanity, could not compare to Roman either. Thus, after confirming that he could not truly harm Roman unless he abandoned Laboon and pursued the Golden Merry, Croccus had no choice but to seriously consider the "deal" Roman proposed.
"What do you want to obtain from me?"
Faced with the old man's question, Roman spoke of the thing he had long coveted.
"Haki training!"
Elsewhere, aboard the Golden Merry amid wind and snow.
That was right. Back at Twin Cape, the sun had still been shining brightly. Yet not long afterward, the sky had turned dark and overcast, and even heavy snow had begun to fall!
"Hahaha, not bad, not bad—"
"Like this, then like this..."
Bang!
With a kick, Nami sent Luffy and Usopp flying. Wearing a padded coat, she patted Roman, whom the two had piled into a "snowman," and helplessly chased off those two bundles of excess energy.
"Go on, go on! If you want to build snowmen, do it somewhere else! Stop messing with Roman."
Roman's "energy" was mainly focused on the White Knight puppet clone that had already left Twin Cape behind, making his main body here seem particularly stiff and dim-witted. Roman had originally told Luffy and the others to watch over his body, but unexpectedly, he had become their toy instead...
"Hahaha, behold my 'Mr. Snowman'~~"
The pair, chased off to one side, started a new activity. A classic snowman made of one large snowball, one small snowball, two wooden branches, and a carrot was naturally Luffy's creation.
"Heh heh heh, behold my 'Snow Queen'—"
The crystal-clear ice sculpture sat elegantly and looked almost alive. Naturally, it was the masterpiece of Usopp, an artist delayed by his pirate career!
"Snowman Flying Punch!"
Since he could not defeat his opponent through "art," Luffy immediately chose to drag him down to his own "level," then defeat him with his abundant experience.
"Aaaaaah~~~ My Snow Queen!!"
"These two..."
Nami helped steer the ship while brushing the snow from Roman's body. She looked at his serious face. For some reason, although Roman was the most well-rounded fighter among them, he always gave Nami a sense of being "in a hurry," as though some monstrous powerhouse were chasing him from behind.
"What exactly are you afraid of, Roman...?"
As companions, shouldn't everyone bear any hardship together... Or did he think her strength was simply too weak to be of any help?
"Hmph, what an arrogant fellow."
At Twin Cape, the old man Croccus stood with his hands behind his back. After hearing Roman's "deal," he merely gave him an indifferent glance.
"You're in such a hurry to grow stronger. Do you not trust your companions?"
"No."
Roman shook his head.
"Of course I trust them, and I want to protect them—"
It was precisely because of that that Roman wanted to increase his strength so urgently. Otherwise, given his understanding of this world, wouldn't it be better to find a place, train all Three Types of Haki to an advanced level first, then come back to show off and slap faces all across the New World?
But he could not, because...
"That's why I say you're arrogant, kid."
Croccus shook his head, but in the end, he still agreed to Roman's deal.
"I can tell you how to train Haki, but—"
whether he could learn it was another matter entirely.
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