"Hey, hey, hey! Have you forgotten about this old man?!"
"This old man never agreed to cooperate with you!"
Just as Roger and Shaya were chatting happily, Garp, who had been standing silently beside them, suddenly frowned and spoke.
"Ahahaha! Garp..."
"We've known each other for decades. You wouldn't refuse to help with something this small, would you?!"
Hearing Garp's words, Roger casually sidled up beside him.
Then he threw an arm around Garp's shoulders and laughed.
"Who says this old man is an old acquaintance of yours?!"
"This old man is a righteous Marine soldier, while you're a pirate everyone wants dead!"
"How can a Marine be friends with a pirate?!"
After hearing Roger, Garp folded his arms across his chest and spoke coldly.
"Relax, Garp..."
"Once this is done, I definitely won't treat you poorly..."
As Roger and Garp spoke, Shaya suddenly cut in.
"Huh? This isn't about whether I'll be treated poorly!"
"This is about the justice this old man bears on his shoulders!"
Garp emphasized after hearing Shaya's words.
"All right, all right..."
"You don't need to keep hanging the word 'justice' from your mouth in front of us!"
"You should know better than I do whose justice the Marines' justice truly is..."
"In this world, the Celestial Dragons are justice. In other words, I am justice."
Shaya interrupted Garp. His voice was calm, and he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
Yes, Shaya's words to Garp carried none of his personal feelings. He was merely stating a fact, nothing more...
"You little brat..."
Yet Shaya's words left Garp speechless.
Because everything Shaya had said was true. Not one word was false.
Lies did not hurt people. The truth was the sharpest blade...
Precisely because Shaya had spoken the truth, Garp felt as though his heart had been pierced.
"Speaking of which, Shanks' little brother..." Seeing that Garp did not look well, Roger immediately changed the subject. Looking at Shaya, who sat in his four-wheeled chair and gently waved a feather fan with the air of a strategist, Roger asked with some confusion, "I've been meaning to ask you! Do you have some hidden illness? Why are you always sitting in that wheelchair?"
"Hehe, I don't have any hidden illness. I've simply been frail since childhood. Every day in the Holy Land, I merely stayed in the library and read books!"
"I rarely walked around in my daily life, so whenever I traveled far, I usually sat in the chair and had Stussy push me to avoid overexerting myself..."
Shaya chuckled before softly explaining to Roger.
Yes, Shaya was merely a scholar. He did not possess the powerful strength Shanks had.
"What a pity..."
"If you truly want to learn my techniques, you absolutely need a powerful body and profound Haki!"
Roger looked Shaya up and down, then sighed helplessly.
"What do you mean?"
"I know a little about this Haki stuff too."
"Don't let my appearance as a frail scholar fool you..."
"If we really come to blows, I know a bit of martial arts as well."
As Shaya spoke, he slowly rose from the four-wheeled chair. Then, before Roger and Garp, his eyes erupted with an immensely powerful and domineering Conqueror's Haki.
"Conqueror's Haki! Do you want to become a king too, kid?"
Feeling Shaya's Haki, Roger asked softly.
"Don't misunderstand. I have no interest in the position of Pirate King."
"However, I am quite interested in becoming the master of the Void Throne."
Before Roger, a dying man with only months left to live, and Garp, a Hero of the Marines who had lost the arrogance of his youth and no longer wished to involve himself in right and wrong, Shaya could not be bothered to tell lies.
"You want to become the master of the Void Throne?"
"You may be young, kid, but you sure talk big..."
"Your ambition is even greater than I imagined..."
"However, I wonder whether you possess the strength worthy of such ambition! Sitting firmly upon that suspended Void Throne is far more difficult than reaching Raftel, finding One Piece, and becoming the Pirate King!"
Shock flashed across Roger's face after hearing Shaya's words. He had never expected Shaya's ambitions to be so enormous! However, Roger was the Pirate King after all. After his brief surprise, he looked at Shaya and softly asked.
"We'll find out if we try!"
As Shaya spoke, he gave Roger no time to react!
His body shot forward like a cannonball, blasting away the surrounding air!
He instantly arrived before Roger, the Pirate King, and threw a punch wrapped in Armament Haki.
Yes, unfortunately, Shaya's current level of Haki was not enough for him to coat his attacks in Conqueror's Haki! After all, Conqueror's Haki coating was the threshold to the realm of the strongest.
"So fast! Shaya... he's actually this strong?"
Stussy watched Shaya launch himself from the four-wheeled chair like lightning, and her pupils contracted sharply. Although Stussy had long guessed that Shaya was deliberately concealing his strength, she had never expected him to have hidden so much?!
After all, even if Shaya was a Celestial Dragon, he was only around fourteen or fifteen years old! Yet despite that, his strength had already approached hers and might even have surpassed it! Yes, the strength Shaya displayed now was far greater than Stussy had imagined...
If Shaya could hear Stussy's thoughts right now, he would only chuckle and humbly say, "What does this amount to? Charlotte Linlin could sweep through a giant village at the age of five. Teacher Kaido was already rampaging across the New World at fifteen and had joined the Rocks Pirates as an apprentice. I still need to keep a low profile and learn more!"
Yes, every master always carried the heart of an apprentice.
After all, Jack Ma had once said that he was not interested in money, right?!
"Hehe."
"I have to admit, if we judge solely by the standards of people your age..."
"Shaya, your punch is indeed very powerful!"
"But a fist like that cannot sit upon the Void Throne!"
Yet this punch, carrying Haki powerful enough to astonish even Stussy, was effortlessly blocked with one hand when it reached Roger, the Pirate King. Roger's strength truly was unfathomable...
Boom!!
At the same time, the moment Roger and Shaya's fists collided, their Conqueror's Haki began clashing relentlessly.
Dark clouds filled the sky, and thunder roared around them from time to time!
Along with the thunder, fierce winds swept forth at that moment!
The violent gusts made the leaves in the surrounding forest rustle loudly.
"Crackle, crackle..."
Before Stussy could think any further...
The contest between Roger and Shaya seemed to have ended.
The two seemed to have tacitly agreed to stop at the right point. To put it bluntly, that punch had merely been a test of each other's strength.
After all, if Roger had truly intended to get serious...
Shaya's current strength was nowhere near enough to withstand him.
"All right, Shaya..."
"I've more or less figured out your strength."
"For the next month, let me train you properly."
As Roger spoke, he slightly moved his somewhat stiff-looking neck, producing a series of cracking sounds from his joints.
"Just give it everything you have!"
"Also, besides your swordsmanship, Roger, I intend to learn some hand-to-hand combat as well..."
"Vice Admiral Garp, let me learn a thing or two from your fists too."
As Shaya spoke, his gaze fell upon Garp, who stood nearby with a conflicted expression and tightly furrowed brows.
"Huh? This involves this old man too?!"
Garp, who had been agonizing over Roger's identity and wondering whether he should capture Roger here, froze upon hearing Shaya's words.
"Of course."
Shaya lightly nodded.
"For the next month, let us get along amicably."
"As for after that month has passed..."
"Let us add an even more legendary stroke to the magnificent, legendary life of the great Hero of the Marines, Garp!"
"Hero of the Marines Garp infiltrated Baterilla Island for a month and ultimately captured Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, who had hidden his identity and wandered here..."
"Justice may often arrive late, but when it is needed, it will never be absent. The seas do not belong to evil pirates, but to the righteous Marines..."
"At least, once this makes the newspapers, I believe ordinary citizens of the World Government's member nations will certainly think so."
"At that point, Roger preserves his wife and child, the Marines gain the prestige of capturing the Pirate King and strengthen their authority in the hearts of ordinary citizens, while the World Government clears away an obstacle threatening the foundations of its rule! It's simply a three-way win, win win win."
With just a few words, Shaya had clearly arranged the futures of Roger, Garp, and the others.
"Do you think I'm right?!"
After arranging Roger's future, Shaya looked at Garp and the others and softly asked.
"Let's do it that way."
Before Garp could speak, Roger nodded first.
As for whether he would go to the Marines and surrender himself, or be captured by Garp...
Roger did not see much difference between the two...
After all, even if he truly went to Marine Headquarters and surrendered, the Marines could still falsely claim that they had captured him. So it was better to let the world know that Garp had caught him.
"Sigh..."
"Since you both put it that way."
"This old man has no objections!"
Garp spoke with his arms folded across his chest.
"After all, Kong told me that I must follow the arrangements of the Celestial Dragons." At that, a sly look flashed in Garp's eyes as he looked toward Shaya and asked, "You agree, don't you?! Great Celestial Dragon Saint Shaya?!"
"Of course."
Shaya smiled lightly after hearing Garp's words.
"Then..."
After receiving the agreement of both Garp and Roger, Shaya gently twisted his neck and looked behind him, immediately locking his gaze onto the final person present.
That was Stussy, who had been standing behind Shaya without saying a word.
Just as Shaya turned to look at Stussy, Roger and Garp also followed Shaya's gaze and looked toward the silent Stussy.
"Hm?!"
For a moment, Stussy froze. Then countless beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead. Inside, she roared, No way? This concerns me too? What have I done to deserve the attention of a group of big shots like you?
Honestly, being watched by the young master of the Figarland family, one of the World Nobles and Celestial Dragons who possessed the highest privileges in the world, as well as the two strongest and most formidable people in the world—Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral and Hero of the Marines Garp, and the legendary Pirate King Gol D. Roger—put immense pressure on Stussy, a mere CP0 agent.
"Um..."
After being stared at by those three great figures until she became thoroughly flustered, Stussy forced an awkward smile, seemingly intending to say something to ease the embarrassing atmosphere.
"Stussy, you wouldn't leak this secret, would you?"
Shaya looked at Stussy with interest. His voice was low and hoarse, like the whisper of a demon.
"Who could I possibly report it to? I'm just an ordinary maid..."
Stussy replied to Shaya in a sweet, coquettish voice.
"You're too modest, Stussy..."
"You're no mere maid."
"To be precise, I should address you as the successful first clone created by MADS, the clone of Bakkin Gohm Stussy, one of the current CP0 squad leaders, and the Queen of the Pleasure District who controls the pleasure districts of the Sabaody Archipelago and many other regions—Lady Stussy."
Shaya softly revealed Stussy's identity.
"..."
After hearing Shaya's words, Stussy stood there in utter shock.
She had never expected herself to be exposed so completely!
"Oh! Now that you mention it, you really are Stussy, aren't you?"
"More than ten years have passed, and you haven't changed at all?"
"I heard rumors that you and Whitebeard had a falling-out?"
After looking Stussy over, Roger suddenly recalled something. He walked up to her and quietly asked with an expression full of gossip.
"I already said she's only a clone."
Shaya cut in to explain.
"Since Saint Shaya already knows my identity so clearly, how do you intend to deal with me? Will you kill me here?"
After Roger's interruption, Stussy finally recovered from her initial shock! She now looked seriously at Shaya and softly asked.
As for running away, Stussy had never considered it. With Garp and Roger right before her, there was no way she could escape! As for taking Shaya hostage and fleeing...
Before Shaya displayed his strength, she might actually have considered it.
But now that Shaya had shown strength surpassing hers right in front of her...
She abandoned that utterly unrealistic thought.
Yes, the reason Shaya had exchanged blows with Roger was not to intimidate Roger and Garp. It was to warn Stussy, to tell her not to make any pointless little moves.
"Stussy, you should know this."
"What I hate most is being deceived."
"And not only did you deceive me, you have shown no intention of repenting."
Shaya looked at Stussy, whose body appeared delicate and fragile enough to topple with a push, and tightly furrowed his brows. There was a hint of disappointment in his eyes.
"So what do you mean?"
Stussy looked at Shaya and asked tentatively.
"I mean, I'm really angry right now!"
As Shaya spoke, he directly took Stussy's delicate hand and, without allowing any argument, led her toward the small forest nearby.
Now that he had laid everything bare with Stussy, Shaya naturally intended to use this opportunity to properly discipline the disobedient Stussy and make her serve him alone completely.
Another four-thousand-word chapter, brothers, please keep reading! Please keep reading, keep reading forever! Thank you~
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