Time rewound slightly.
This was not long after Fleet Admiral Sengoku had been arrested for colluding with the enemy, and Vice Admiral Danzo had risen to power.
Naturally, CP9, which had been lurking in the Land of Grass shipyard, received news of such a major event.
Not long afterward, they also received word that the World Government's affiliated nations conference had been moved forward, along with an order for all spies stationed in the East Blue to withdraw.
Therefore, although they did not know why the World Government had suddenly ordered them to retreat when their infiltration had been going so smoothly, as CP9 agents of the World Government, they prepared to obey.
Originally, their mission had not been to infiltrate the Land of Grass. They had been stationed in Water Seven, searching for the blueprints of the ancient weapon Pluton.
However, following the sudden Celestial Dragon incident and the emergence of the mysterious Land of Grass, a nation the World Government deeply feared—
The World Government had assigned every intelligence agency the task of gathering information on the Land of Grass.
This mission had even surpassed the search for Pluton's blueprints, becoming the World Government's most important task.
At the time, the Land of Grass had happened to arrive at Water Seven and signed a partnership agreement with Water Seven's mayor, Iceberg... to assist the Land of Grass in laying down Sea Train tracks.
Thus, without surprise... they had abandoned their original mission of searching for Pluton's blueprints, followed a large group of shipwrights here, and successfully infiltrated the Land of Grass, where they had remained until now.
Because of this infiltration, quite a few of them had received commendations from the World Government and been granted Devil Fruits, becoming new Devil Fruit Users.
However.
They had been infiltrating