Baroque Works

"These really are some interesting things..." Li Ziming closed the notebook in his hands. After Zephyr left, he had returned to his old routine, opening the bar every day to serve his customers. Perhaps the only difference was that he now set aside a little time each day to study the notes Zephyr had left behind.

"The Six Powers and Haki... I'd heard of them before, but I never thought I'd get them from Zephyr. Black Arm Zephyr, the Admiral who never killed, the future Z of the Neo Marines... Looks like I'll have to call him my teacher someday." Li Ziming shook his head helplessly. He sympathized with Zephyr, but there was little he could do. After all, the greatest tragedies in Zephyr's life—the loss of his wife and child, and the loss of his right arm—had already happened. What Li Ziming knew of the future was that the pirate who had severed Zephyr's arm would become a Shichibukai, leading Zephyr to leave the Marines and establish the Neo Marines. After that came the Dyna Stone incident, when he would try to destroy the New World.

None of those problems were things Li Ziming could solve, and the same went for Zephyr's psychological troubles. Li Ziming was only a bartender. He might be able to offer people advice, but he was no therapist and had no way to address Zephyr's mental issues. All he could do was get involved when those events happened and hope he could save Zephyr's life.

To save Zephyr during those future events, Li Ziming would need considerable strength. Clearly, he was nowhere near strong enough to take part in such a major incident right now, so he needed to grow stronger. Three paths lay before him. The first was to focus on developing his Devil Fruit ability, supported by Haki and the Six Powers. The second was to focus on the Six Powers, supported by his Devil Fruit ability, making every attack produce an explosion. The third also centered on the Six Powers, but supported them with Haki—a combination of martial arts and Haki, which was the usual way powerful fighters without Devil Fruit abilities grew stronger on the seas.

Each approach was different, and all three were viable for Li Ziming. But a person only had so much time and energy, so he needed to choose one of them to strengthen himself.

In the end, Li Ziming decided to focus on his Devil Fruit ability. After all, practically any ability user could become powerful by developing their ability, whereas Haki and the Six Powers required talent. Li Ziming wasn't sure how talented he was, so training his Devil Fruit ability seemed much more reliable than training the Six Powers or Haki.

That didn't mean he intended to abandon Haki and the Six Powers. He still planned to train them, just not as his main focus. It was better to be prepared, after all, and having more ways to protect himself was always a good thing.

What Li Ziming lacked now was combat experience. Without experience fighting others, even powerful abilities were useless. Battles changed in an instant, and only by going through countless fights could he improve his strength.

But combat experience wasn't something Li Ziming could obtain just because he wanted it. There weren't many fights in the village, after all. He had already begun considering whether to leave, and a letter helped cement that decision.

"An invitation from Baroque Works?" Li Ziming paused. If he remembered correctly, Baroque Works had been founded by Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai, to obtain the Ancient Weapon Pluton in the desert kingdom of Alabasta. Luffy had eventually foiled those plans.

"But why would Baroque Works invite me?" Li Ziming was puzzled. He couldn't remember doing anything that would have attracted their attention.

"Still, should I go?" Li Ziming hesitated. With Zephyr's notes in his possession, joining the Marines probably wouldn't be a problem. But he had always felt that the Marines were the World Government's dogs, and there was no shortage of darkness within their ranks. He despised governments and the like from the bottom of his heart.

Although Baroque Works was a criminal organization, at least it offered freedom. He could intervene whenever he saw something he couldn't stomach, and if worse came to worst, he could simply escape when its members were arrested. Besides, he was quite interested in Robin from the original story.

"That settles it!" Li Ziming snapped his fingers. "Baroque Works it is. But this is just an invitation. It doesn't seem to say where I'm supposed to sign up..." He scratched his head. Now he was truly curious who had written this invitation. It mentioned the relevant arrangements but left out the actual details. He had to hand it to them.

"Is heaven trying to make me join the Marines?" Li Ziming shook his head and decided to wait a while. After all, he disliked the Marines even more than criminal organizations.

As it turned out, reality didn't keep Li Ziming waiting very long.

"Seriously, he's just some nobody. Why did the boss send us to pick him up?" a voice complained.

"Exactly! All he did was beat someone worth a few million Beli. Baroque Works has as many people like that as we could ever want!" another voice grumbled just as unhappily.

Bang! The door to Edenhell was kicked open.

"Which one of you is this Li Ziming guy?" A beautiful girl with blue hair entered Li Ziming's line of sight.

"Excuse me, what can I do for you?" Li Ziming smiled, identifying himself.

"Miss Wednesday, this is your first assignment since being promoted to a senior agent. Don't mess it up." Just then, a man wearing a crown, with the number nine written beneath his eyes, walked in.

"Miss Wednesday?" Li Ziming hesitated. If his memory served him, this person was Princess Vivi of Alabasta. "Your Highness?" His voice was quiet, but loud enough for Vivi to hear.

Vivi stared at Li Ziming in horror, her eyes pleading with him.

"Sorry!" Li Ziming's apology seemed to come out of nowhere, at least to R9. Vivi, however, felt that he was apologizing for frightening her just now.

This guy is a good person, Vivi thought.

"Would you like something to drink?" Li Ziming acted as though he had no idea why they were there, treating them like any other pair of customers.

"Beer—wait, no!" R9 sat down, then suddenly sprang back to his feet. "We're here to get you to join Baroque Works! Not to drink!"

"That's right!" With her greatest secret exposed by Li Ziming, Vivi no longer had the swagger she'd shown when kicking the door open.

"Sure." Li Ziming smiled and nodded.

"Hmph, I knew you wouldn't agree. Just like that damned Pirate Hunter..." R9's expression darkened.

Vivi tugged at her partner. "I think he agreed..."

"Huh?" R9 looked utterly bewildered. "That's not right! Aren't the people invited by senior agents like us supposed to be arrogant bastards who refuse no matter what?"

"I don't think I'm quite as arrogant as you're making me out to be..." Li Ziming rubbed his nose sheepishly.

"You really agreed?" Vivi also found it hard to believe. Out of personal curiosity, she wanted Li Ziming to join so she could have a chance to learn more about him. But for her and her companions' safety, she also hoped he wouldn't join Baroque Works.

"Yes. But can I take the barware and liquor from my bar with me? I've been using them for quite a while, after all, and I think replacing them would take too much time..." Li Ziming made his request.

"N-no problem." R9 hesitated slightly. He'd expected this assignment to be troublesome. The invitation had been sent without an address, and he'd heard that the man was an ability user. They had only sent him and Miss Wednesday out of respect for that fact, and assigning two newcomers showed just how little the organization cared about the matter. He and Miss Wednesday had only come to go through the motions. He hadn't expected to actually recruit an ability user.

"Then shall we leave once I've packed up?" Li Ziming found their conflicted expressions quite amusing.

"Oh, right, sure!" R9 was acting like a servant now, or perhaps he had simply lost the ability to think. Vivi had countless things she wanted to say, but didn't know where to begin.

"Then, miss, sorry for the trouble, but please go check on the ship. And sir, please help me move my things." Li Ziming simply began giving orders. Judging by their reactions, they would need a while to recover. He felt he would be missing out if he didn't take the opportunity to squeeze some labor out of them.

The two obediently went off to do as Li Ziming instructed.

Once Li Ziming was alone, Alto ran over, looking rather upset. "You're leaving?"

"Yes." There wasn't the slightest trace of sadness on Li Ziming's face.

"Why? Isn't it good here?" Alto couldn't understand. "Everyone will accept you sooner or later."

"This has nothing to do with them." Li Ziming shook his head. "Just think of it as my spirit of adventure burning bright."

"The spirit of adventure..." Seeing that Alto actually seemed convinced by his excuse, Li Ziming couldn't help marveling inwardly. Innocent guys like him really are the best.

"Then are you going to join the Marines?" Alto asked again. He apparently still remembered Zephyr recommending the Marines to Li Ziming.

"No. It'll probably be something like a work agency." Since Baroque Works had "Works" in its name, Li Ziming simply borrowed that description.

"Will we be able to see each other again?" Alto seemed to realize that he couldn't persuade Li Ziming to stay. Now he only hoped their friendship wouldn't fade because of this.

"Of course. If fate allows it, we'll meet again someday." Li Ziming also truly enjoyed being friends with Alto. Having seen so much scheming and deceit, he considered himself lucky to have met someone like him.

"All right. We'll always be friends, and we have to meet again someday!" Tears were already welling in Alto's eyes, and his outstretched fist showed the young man's resolve.

"We will!" Li Ziming said firmly. Their fists met, forging an unbreakable friendship.