Listen! To! The! Truth!

Jogo did not have to wait long.

The day after setting up the deployment point, he intercepted vital intelligence from a phone call.

"The Capone Family is very cunning. They scattered that batch of cargo they moved out among ships headed for different islands,

"forcing the Happo Navy to split up its original fleet and head to different islands to collect the goods."

Inside the prison, Jogo closed his eyes and moved through the darkness with the bearing of a dragon and tiger, slowly throwing punches. With every breath, his aura was long and heavy.

At the same time, he quietly recounted the intelligence he had obtained:

"According to the latest information I received, a Happo Navy pirate ship seems to have left the Flower Country relatively late and is preparing to head to Crab Claw Orchid Island to collect its cargo."

"Sai is also heading that way to rendezvous with them..."

"The time is set for four days from now."

"The location is the 'Red Spider' Dark Harbor on Crab Claw Orchid Island."

Hina leaned against the iron cage, watching Jogo's vague figure in the darkness as she praised him:

"Good work!"

"Hina knew something this small wouldn't stump you!"

Yet as she spoke, a storm raged uncontrollably in her heart:

"He actually managed to uncover intelligence of this level!"

"And in such detail!"

"Didn't he say every pirate on the ship was hostile toward him?"

"How did he do it?"

In Hina's original expectations, under circumstances so disadvantageous to them, Jogo would have had to pay a huge price—perhaps even sell his dignity—just to coax a few scattered words from different pirates.

Then the two of them would have had to take those fragments of intelligence and, in this damp, dark prison, painstakingly unravel them through a thrilling and meticulous chain of deductions...

Only then would they have obtained a guess close to the truth!

Who would have thought that Jogo would go out to clean toilets and return with a thunderous piece of intelligence so detailed it was almost excessive!

She was starting to suspect Sai had told Jogo personally.

It was too detailed!

Everything had gone far too smoothly!

It even made Hina fear that Jogo might already have defected to the Happo Navy and was joining forces with Sai and the others to dig a pit for the Marines!

No... the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed!

"Jogo learned the Hasshoken secretly passed down by the Chinjao Family the moment he saw it."

"And Jogo is a Historian!"

No matter how she looked at it, he should have been helping the Happo Navy rather than the Marines!

And if Jogo's identity were defined as someone on the Happo Navy's side,

then many of the previous events could be explained.

"He infiltrated the Marines in order to provoke a battle between the Marines and the Capone Family, allowing the Happo Navy to acquire that batch of weapons cheaply!"

"Did he appear on the cruise ship in order to escort those weapons?"

That could even explain why, on the night before Jogo got off the ship, he had so easily slipped through the pirates' surveillance to say goodbye to her...

Because they were on the same side!

Hina's eyes gradually widened as she stared at the vague figure in the distance, nearly blending into the darkness. Her eyes slowly reddened, and she clenched her silver teeth.

"Could it be... that you've been deceiving Hina from the very beginning?!"

But she quickly shook her head.

"No, no..."

"I can't just imagine things!"

"If he wanted to deceive Hina, there would have been no need for him to help Hina deliver evidence against the Capone Family!"

During her earlier contact with the major, he had told her that she had inexplicably received commendation and seemed to be getting promoted.

At that time, she knew Jogo had already completed the delivery of the information.

"And Jogo's injuries are real too..."

She entwined her fingers together, and only after a long while did she make up her mind and say:

"Jogo!"

"Yes?"

"Come here!"

Jogo walked over to Hina's cage and looked at the pretty face leaning close to the bars.

Her eyes were clear and bright, her nose small and delicate, and soft pink strands of hair fell from her cheeks. The hint of weakness between her brows made one feel pity for her.

"What is it, do you want to whisper? There's no need. That guy at the door is already asleep..."

Hina interrupted him.

"Hina wants to ask you, why are you willing to help the Marines?"

Jogo was startled.

"Didn't you ask me to help?"

Hina fixed her gaze on Jogo's eyes.

"Hina wants to hear the truth!"

Jogo blinked. Realizing Hina was not joking, he pondered for a moment.

"Because we share common interests, I suppose. After all, the Happo Navy is our mutual enemy."

"Helping you means helping myself."

It was a perfectly reasonable answer, but Hina still stared at him relentlessly, enunciating every word:

"Listen! To! The! Truth!"

Hina's requests were clearly so troublesome and dangerous, so why did you agree to every one of them without hesitation?

Why would a Historian help the Marines?

She could tell from those eyes that Jogo had not told the truth—or rather, that he had hidden something.

One most crucial reason!

Jogo met Hina's gaze for a moment, then gradually seemed to understand something. He sighed and sat down cross-legged.

"There is one reason, but do you really want to hear it?"

Hina nodded stubbornly.

"I do!"

Today, she had to know the answer!

Otherwise, how could she dare send the intelligence to the Marines?

Under her watchful gaze, Jogo slowly opened his mouth.

"Because of you!"

Hina blinked, and for a moment, the pitch-black prison fell silent.

Me?

The next second.

Eh!!!!

Hina instinctively leaned back, a blush appearing on her face.

"Y-you-you-you... what did you say?!!!"

It was not as if she had never been confessed to before.

In fact, she had been confessed to so often back at the Marine Academy that she had grown numb to it.

But this time, for some reason, Jogo's answer was like an arrow piercing the softest part of her heart, making her feel flustered in a way she had not felt for a long time.

Perhaps... because she could tell that this truly was Jogo's honest answer?

Jogo looked at her seriously and repeated himself.

"Because of you (you have the highest favorability!)!"

"That's the answer!"

When are you going to give me the golden Devil Fruit Trait you owe me?

"Y-you-you... let Hina calm down! Hina is so flustered!"

Inside the cage, Hina shrank into a corner like a startled little hamster.

Jogo shrugged.

"Women... always have to ask..."

He got up and continued practicing his punches.

Time passed day by day.

Every morning before dawn, Jogo would appear on deck on time and use "Historian" to record Sai and Abu's training sparring.

When it was time to clean, he would slack off while watching little movies, using "Spy" to imitate the two of them like mad.

Whenever his energy was depleted, he would go straight to the rear cabin, pick out an antique, place it on the table, and start sleeping.

By the time he dawdled his way through finishing the paper, it was already afternoon.

He would return directly to the prison and integrate the experience gained through "Spy" into his body through repeated practice, gradually breaking down Hasshoken's ability to control vibrations and blending it into his own martial arts!

And Hina recovered that very same day.

"Now isn't the time to think about that!"

"There are more important things waiting for us to accomplish. Don't you think?"

After being flustered for less than an hour, the career ambition of a certain rabid Marine girl once again seized the high ground of her intellect!

Jogo: "Right, right, right, right, right..."

And so, the fourth day arrived.

An urgent call came through Sai's Den Den Mushi.

"Pillar!! We've been attacked by the Marines on Crab Claw Orchid Island!!"

The wailing Den Den Mushi spewed snot and tears.

"Requesting reinforcements!!!"