That Year, I Was Fifteen, Standing Like a Lackey

"I want the Black Dragon Nidhogg and the special Logia Dark-Dark Fruit!"

Rocks answered Oak's guess, then voiced his own question.

"How did you know about all that?"

So it really was the Dark-Dark Fruit!

After hearing Rocks' answer and question, Oak did not respond immediately. Instead, he nodded first.

He had already guessed that Rocks most likely wanted the Black Dragon Nidhogg and the Dark-Dark Fruit, not Nika.

He wanted Harald, his friend, to eat the Black Dragon Nidhogg, while he would eat the Dark-Dark Fruit himself. Nika simply did not fit Rocks' temperament or personality at all.

What Rocks wanted was to become the King of the World, not some "Warrior of Liberation."

Blackbeard Teach's desperate pursuit of the Dark-Dark Fruit in the future was probably driven by the same mindset. In a sense, he was inheriting his father's will and continuing Rocks' plan.

Gathering his thoughts, Oak raised his head and met Rocks' gaze. Before asking those questions, he had anticipated being pressed over how he knew such secrets, so he had prepared a response.

"Don't forget, I'm from the West Blue, where Ohara is located.

That island is renowned across the world as a holy land of archaeology. It gathers some of the smartest scholars from all over the world and houses the Tree of Knowledge—the largest library in existence. So isn't it perfectly normal for the people there to uncover secrets history never recorded?

Everything I know was told to me by a scholar from Ohara who ended up in the kingdom where I lived."

His explanation was entirely reasonable, so neither Rocks nor the others doubted him. If there was any place in the world whose people possessed the most knowledge, it was undoubtedly Ohara. Its scholars gathered every day to study history and archaeology, so making a few discoveries was perfectly normal.

Seeing the confusion fade from Rocks' face, Oak changed the subject.

"You said there were two matters to discuss today. What's the other one?"

Before Rocks could answer, John spoke first.

"We also need to find the Great Hammer Warband. I've heard some legends about that warband, but..."

John appeared to be explaining things to Oak, but his eyes were actually fixed on Rocks. He stopped midway through his sentence, and Linlin picked up where he left off.

"I used every intelligence network available to track that warband, but I found nothing about the Frozen Giant Army."

Whether in this era or in the future era of the Four Emperors, Linlin possessed formidable abilities and an intelligence network spread across the world. Thus, most of this crew's intelligence work was handled by her.

Oak could tell from her words that the two matters being discussed today were far from being raised for the first time. They had definitely been discussed many times before, and Rocks' group had taken action over them, though apparently with little success.

At that moment, Newgate took over from Linlin and spoke to Rocks.

"Even if you found them, what use would a pile of corpses be?"

He clearly did not think much of Rocks' plan to search for the Great Hammer Warband. Gourmet Knight Streusen also chimed in.

"That's right. There's no way to bring them back to life!"

The string of doubts made Rocks increasingly impatient, and he barked out an order.

"Shut up!"

"We're discussing dreams here! Don't ruin the mood, you bastards!!"

But even after he said that, someone still stepped forward to pour cold water on the idea.

"Even if you find the Great Hammer Warband and revive them, they have no reason to listen to you."

Barbel, the catfish fish-man, raised a new issue.

"That's why we need Harald. He's the current king of Elbaf, the land of giants."

Rocks responded fiercely.

That was also why he was so determined to invite Harald to join them. On one hand, it was because of their friendship—he wanted Harald to stand in the same camp as him. On the other, only Harald, the giant king, could command the Great Hammer Warband composed of ancient giants.

However, he had invited Harald to join multiple times before, only to be refused every time. It irritated him to no end.

The Frozen Giant Army, the Great Hammer Warband?

After listening to their discussion, Oak pondered it in silence. He did remember seeing frozen giants before. They seemed to have been on Punk Hazard in the future, though he did not know whether they were the so-called Great Hammer Warband.

He could not be certain about that, but there was one thing he could be sure of: Harald was not necessarily the only one capable of commanding the Great Hammer Warband.

Judging from the discussion, the frozen Great Hammer Warband was most likely a group of corpses that needed to be revived.

Reviving corpses sounded absurd, but it was by no means impossible. One of the future Shichibukai, Gecko Moria, had done exactly that.

Thinking of this, Oak glanced at Captain John, Ganzui, and Gill Bastar. In the future, the corpses of these three would become some of Moria's revived subjects.

Moria had only managed it through the power of his Shadow-Shadow Fruit. He stole other people's shadows and stuffed them into corpses, reviving them as zombies. Those zombies were also completely under the control of the ability user.

Oak was about to tell Rocks all this. He knew it was impossible for Rocks to recruit Harald. Having read the original work and knowing how the future unfolded, he was absolutely certain of it. Rather than trying to persuade Harald, it would be far more practical to search for the Shadow-Shadow Fruit.

But before he could speak, Kaido got fired up and spoke first.

"Can't we just use force to make them submit? Why do we need Harald!

And even Harald himself can be dealt with the same way.

Absolute strength can make everything submit, and we possess the strength to make everything submit!!"

Kaido suggested using force to solve every problem involving the Great Hammer Warband and Harald. He did not understand why Rocks was so tolerant of Harald. If it were him, he would not care who the other party was. If they refused to submit, beat them up first. If once was not enough, then twice. Sooner or later, they would submit.

But that thought only lasted for an instant before he got beaten up.

"You little brat, shut up!!"

Rocks shouted angrily, then delivered a massive flying kick straight into Kaido's face.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!"

Watching from the side, Oak saw Kaido's face get kicked completely out of shape.

"Fifteen this year, standing like a lackey—little brother Kaido really has it rough!"

Oak could practically feel Kaido's face hurting, but that did not stop him from enjoying the show.