Although Spandine and his son Spandam had wanted to get rid of CP9 for a long time, Rono was different. At the rate he was progressing, he was sure to join CP0 in the future and become a direct subordinate of the Celestial Dragons—a target for those great families to recruit as a bodyguard. (Some people say Spandine was a Celestial Dragon, but the author still doesn't believe it. If he were one, then Spandam getting beaten so badly that his face was disfigured without Spandine sending an Admiral after Luffy clearly wouldn't fit his personality. So here, Spandine is just a high-ranking official.)
But who was Spandam? The legendary pig teammate who could turn an easy-mode dungeon into a hell-difficulty dungeon. Would he listen to his father?
And then the scene from earlier happened.
Rono easily caught up with Mr. Spandam, whose Doriki Value was "as high as" eight, and swung a claw at him.
A few strands of Spandam's hair were sliced off. His legs went weak, and he dropped onto his rear. Spandam remembered running beneath the sunset all those years ago. That was the intelligence he'd lost.
"Chief~, why are you sitting on the ground?" Rono retracted his Bone Planting Armament, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.
"Mm!" Spandam realized he was still alive and angrily snapped at Rono, "Hurry up and help me up!"
"..." Rono mourned for his father for a second. Raising a son like this must have been exhausting.
"Chief Spandam, are you asking me to help you up?" Rono bent down, his nose almost touching Spandam's.
"N-no need." Spandam finally realized how awkward his situation was and didn't dare act up again.
"I knew it. How could someone as powerful as Chief Spandam be unable to stand up?" The taunting had leveled up: Taunt LV2.
Although Spandam was an idiot, he was top-tier at sucking up to powerful people and flattering them.
Once he realized Rono was someone he couldn't afford to offend, his attitude changed by 180 degrees.
As he got to his feet, he seemed to forget how Rono had humiliated him. He patted Rono on the waist (because of the height difference). "That was just a little test. Don't take it to heart. Come, let me welcome you properly."
"Ah~ As long as they don't mind, I don't really care." Rono absentmindedly nodded toward the Marines who'd been killed. He still had a System mission to deal with.
Spandam called over some Marines to clean up the traces of the battle and the corpses.
"Let's leave it for today, Chief Spandam. Look at how covered in blood I am. I'd better take a bath and have a meal first."
Rono carried the flowerpot and his luggage as he followed Spandam to a small courtyard. Spandam handed him the key, exchanged a few polite words, and left.
"System, when does the timer start?" Rono was asking when the handstand push-up timer would begin.
"Ugh, that's disgusting! Go take a bath. We'll start in ten minutes." System Loli appeared above Rono's head, pinching his nose in disgust.
Rono breathed a sigh of relief, too. He was covered in blood, and he didn't think he could stand starting the handstand push-ups without washing first.
He could manage handstand push-ups all night. With Super Regeneration, his mother would never have to worry about him straining a muscle or feeling sore again. But the System's requirements were so harsh that he was bound to suffer.
After his bath, Rono started doing handstand push-ups in his room wearing only his underwear.
An hour passed. Rono was shocked three times, but he gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound. As for why, if Spandam found out, it would become a humiliating story he'd never live down.
Dawn finally came the next day, and Rono finally made it through the System mission. He collapsed face down in a lake of sweat, tongue hanging out.
Over the course of the night, Rono had been shocked more than five hundred times. By the end, he was relying entirely on willpower.
After recovering a little, Rono took another bath, then fell onto the bed without eating.
He slept until his protesting stomach woke him in the afternoon. Rono looked at the somewhat cold food on the table, and his opinion of Spandam went up by one point. After wolfing it down, Rono completed another System mission and finally had some free time.
Rono found an iron shovel in the storage shed beside the courtyard and started digging a hole on the left side to plant a tree.
After a long while, he finally got the tree planted. He watered it, stepped back, and looked it over with satisfaction.
"Your boy's got an eye for things." Rono was shameless.
"Rono, where did you get this tree? I pride myself on being well-informed, but I've never seen one like it." Spandam had appeared at the entrance to the courtyard at some point.
"Heh, I'm not just bragging when I say I've got an eye for things. This tree is the only one in the world. It grew thanks to all kinds of coincidences, and I bought it for just twelve million." Rono was only fifteen, after all, and Spandam's praise pleased him. It wasn't like the sort of obvious flattery people usually gave him. Rono felt great, and he was glad he'd bought the tree.
"What! You only paid twelve million? Rono, I have to say, you got a bargain." Spandam was genuinely surprised.
"If you put it up for auction and spent two months building up anticipation, just the words 'the only one in the world' would be enough to get the Celestial Dragons bidding over two hundred million."
Spandam praised him some more, and Rono chimed in from time to time.
"All right, what do you want with me?" Rono's smile faded.
"Mm, I did come to see you. I have one personal matter and one official matter."
Spandam gathered his thoughts.
"Start with the personal matter."
Rono's simple response made Spandam a little happy.
"Then I'll apologize to you, Rono. I offended you yesterday." Spandam might not have been very smart or good at scheming (if Tom hadn't taken the blame for Franky, Spandam's plan would have failed completely), but he was socially astute and knew when to yield. Apart from acting like a spoiled young master now and then, he wasn't so bad. Had anyone ever seen him bully men or women? Had anyone ever seen him exploit the common people? No. As for dealing with enemies, of course he wanted to make them suffer as much as possible.
"What are we, strangers? An apology would only put distance between us." Rono was a natural at making himself at home. "Just call me Rono."
"Even better, then. Rono, this matter is near the place where you'll be carrying out your mission. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked you."
"Oh? Where?"
"Alabasta."
Before you continue