The casino owner, Anthony, head of the Marlon Family, knew Conrad had fallen victim to Baccarat's Devil Fruit ability, and he wasn't surprised.
He knew just how powerful this secret treasure was. It was the secret behind the casino's enduring success.
But the composed expression with which he puffed on his cigar lasted only until the next moment, when he choked and his eyes bulged.
"Excuse me, is the Navy still recruiting?"
Baccarat steadied Conrad and studied his handsome face, black enough to look like it was steaming. She smiled sweetly. "I've always wanted to be a Marine."
She had always relied on the Lucky-Lucky Fruit to get by, so she believed in luck. It was the foundation of her survival.
And she had discovered that the more of Conrad's luck she absorbed, the more he struggled—and the more he seemed unable to leave her, as if a magnet had drawn him against her chest.
When Baccarat tried to release the luck and return it to him, Conrad immediately found his footing and tried to get away from her.
"If you want to be a Marine, then go ahead." Conrad backed away from her. His Haki could only just "cut steel" at the moment, putting him at about one and a half times the strength of a young Mr. 1—not enough to make him immune to Devil Fruit abilities.
"Baccarat! You... you're leaving?" Anthony couldn't keep his old face composed any longer. He hurried around in front of her.
Losing Issho meant losing a powerful bodyguard; he could always find another. But Baccarat's luck was one of a kind in the world, and he couldn't accept losing it.
"I was always going to leave sooner or later." Baccarat put her right hand on her hip and opened her left palm. "Thank you for taking me in these past six years, but I was only here temporarily for work. Like gambling, it was just a transaction."
"No! You can't leave!" Anthony lost control of himself and reached for Baccarat's wrist. But halfway there, he suddenly found himself unable to breathe. His fingers never even brushed her skirt before he crumpled to the ground.
His bodyguards hurriedly pulled a spray from his pocket and sprayed it into his nostrils three times.
Baccarat sighed helplessly and turned around, only to see Conrad already carrying a box of money as he left with Issho and the Marines.
She smiled, raised her high heel, and pressed its tip against Anthony's forehead. Looking down at him with a mocking grin, she said, "Uncle Anthony, let me borrow a little more of your luck one last time. Thanks."
The bodyguards watched the lovesick look in their boss's eyes, confused. After all, Baccarat's existence was a secret.
They assumed the boss and his lover were playing some kind of intimate game, so they left them alone.
As Baccarat twirled her skirt and walked away, the bodyguards suddenly noticed Anthony convulsing as his illness took hold.
"Quick, quick, quick! Call a doctor! Get the boss to the hospital!"
At the entrance to the casino on Twin Snake Island.
The Marines heard the sound of approaching footsteps.
A bubble of snot popped from Aokiji's nose as he lay atop an ice sculpture, and his eyelid lifted a crack.
When the black-haired youth emerged, carrying a black suitcase and accompanied by a purple-robed blind man and a whole squad of Marines, including Drake, Aokiji took off his eye mask and sat up. Scratching his head, he said listlessly, "Did you win the bet? Sigh, this is going to be a hassle. I'd planned to hand everything over to the government and be done with it."
"Brothers! Time to split the winnings!" Conrad opened the black suitcase, revealing a neatly stacked pile of 100 million Beli.
The Marines' initial surprise and delight turned into excitement, and by the time the money was stuffed into their hands, all they felt was joy.
Amid cheers and laughter, the Marines, led by Drake, tossed Conrad into the air.
But one person wasn't happy: Kujaku.
Conrad had actually come to repay her, and he'd given her the most money out of everyone.
He'd even said arrogantly, "I'll pay you back ten times, a hundred times over! We're even from now on!"
Even after they had finished confiscating everything at the casino and returned to the warship's deck, Kujaku still hadn't come around. She wasn't feeling very happy.
Her friendship with Conrad and Baby-5 had always been tied together by money. Without that connection, she wasn't sure what to say.
Night fell.
A knock sounded at the door.
Kujaku opened it, and Conrad stood on the other side of the threshold. As usual, he handed her Baby-5's long rifle.
"It's cold. Don't fight her for the blanket," Conrad reminded her, just as he always did. Then he took a red scarf from the bag containing a new Western-style dress.
Baby-5 had returned to being a sweet, red-dressed girl. She obediently let him tie the scarf around her neck, gave Conrad's hand a gentle tug, and went inside the cabin.
Kujaku didn't feel the usual pang of jealousy this time. Instead, she felt like a complete outsider. With a sudden mischievous grin, she demanded, "You two haven't been doing something behind my back, have you?"
"Ridiculous!" Conrad raised an eyebrow and shot back, "Why would Baby-5 and I have to do anything behind your back?"
Thud!
The cabin door slammed shut.
"Strange." Conrad gave it no further thought. Kujaku had always been mischievous, unlike the simple-minded Baby-5, and she was at the age when a girl's thoughts grew complicated.
He turned to head back to his own cabin, but after taking only a few steps, he spotted a tall, slender figure leaning against the railing with a drink in hand.
"Conrad."
"Vice Admiral Aokiji."
Aokiji pulled a green glass bottle of pear wine from his pocket. Cold air curled around his palm, chilling the drink in an instant, and he casually tossed it to Conrad.
Conrad caught it, but as he approached, he held it out to return it. "Thanks, Vice Admiral, but I don't drink."
"Why not?" Aokiji lowered his eyes, hazy with drink, hoping for an answer that had some depth and a story behind it.
For example, when he'd first started drinking pear wine, it was because he'd wanted to follow Zephyr's example and become a cool guy.
"Alcohol doesn't taste good." Conrad offered no further explanation.
Aokiji stared at him, dumbfounded by the simple, direct response. Then he seemed to crumple, leaning all his weight against the railing. "What a boring answer. What a boring little guy. This whole sea is boring."
"I don't think it's boring." Conrad's expression turned serious. "There are plenty of interesting things to do. There's no such thing as being bored just because you aren't doing one particular thing."
He looked Aokiji straight in the eye. "Only cowards with weak minds who are easily shaken doubt themselves over something like that."
Aokiji felt that Conrad's words were aimed at him, but his confusion couldn't be dispelled by words. It came from the helplessness he felt in the face of all the darkness in the world. The more he knew, the more helpless he felt.
It was only because the youth was ignorant that he could charge forward fearlessly.
If he knew that what lay before him wasn't a rough patch in the road but a road that simply ended in a cliff and an abyss, who would have the courage to jump?
"In this battle, you killed a total of ninety-eight people. Two more and you'd have reached a hundred. Apart from the Mafia boss's son, one of them was even the king of an Affiliated Nation."
Aokiji sat cross-legged on the ground and tilted his head to stare at Conrad. "Do you know what this means? Are you planning to flee and become a pirate?"
"They threatened my life and my teammates' lives." Conrad didn't shy away at all, each word ringing clearly. "Before we set out, I asked whether I could kill them on the spot. The Vice Admiral said it was allowed if our lives were in danger."
"So you're saying I sent you to kill King Lucas?" Aokiji continued, while an invisible pressure mingled with cold air and poured from his body. Ice crystals spread across the sea behind the warship as it sailed.
"He ordered them to kill me, so I killed him." Conrad repeated himself emphatically.
Aokiji stared at him for a long while, then leaned lazily against the railing. "You didn't kill him. The Devil Sheriff, Laffitte, did. You were trying to rescue the king, but Laffitte used him as a weapon to attack you and buy time to escape, which led to the king's unfortunate death."
"If anyone asks, that's what you say. Remember. The newspapers will publish it tomorrow."
"Understood!" Conrad had always been a law-abiding person. He had no reason to stubbornly argue with a reasonable order from a superior.
If he didn't want to lie, he could simply keep quiet. He'd always done that—for instance, when people from the orphanage came to inspect and asked if life was good.
Aokiji abruptly raised his bottle high and sang out toward the distant horizon, where sea met sky.
"The sea is always watching over the end of this world~ The sea knows everything~ Even how this world will end!"
After a sudden pause, his hoarse voice rang out again.
"If one day, I disappear from this world..."
His voice was weathered and low, yet it carried across the vast nighttime sea.
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