Sowing the Seeds of Revolution; Aokiji Takes Action!

The two Black Merchants had gone numb. When they heard someone push open the door, they assumed it was the same pirates who had tormented them earlier.

Instead, their luck had turned. Someone had dealt with those pirates.

The joy of being rescued surged through them both.

"Hey, you!"

"Please save me!"

"I'll give you ten million Beli!"

"Save me first! I'll give you twenty million Beli!"

"I'll pay a hundred million Beli!"

"Two hundred million!"

"Wait~~~"

Money talked, and Nami was desperately short of it. She needed no further urging from Dongze.

She burst straight out of the barrel.

"Hey, gentlemen! I'll save you. Just give me the money!"

"I'll even give you a fifty-percent discount!"

Dongze's eyes glinted with amusement as he watched Nami, whose eyes had practically turned into Beli signs.

In an instant, he put on an expression worthy of a second Kizaru. "Oh? There was someone in that barrel? How impressive!"

At his words, all three of them tugged at the corners of their eyes. That irritating Kizaru-like expression was enough to make anyone angry.

Nami most of all. Her face reddened. "Liar! You were calling out to me just now!"

"Oh? You saw through me."

"Do I really look that stupid?"

"But listen, young lady. That's no way to do business!"

"I'm the one who defeated the pirates outside!"

With that much Beli at stake, Nami wanted to fight for a share even if Dongze was an unknown quantity. She still had a hundred-million-Beli debt hanging over her head!

"What does that matter? I'm a victim! A little compensation for emotional distress isn't too much to ask, is it?"

"Haha!"

She was every bit the Cat Burglar he remembered.

But he had heard the pirates say they had found these Black Merchants because someone tipped them off.

And judging by the situation now...

"Hey, young lady. I heard someone leaked their whereabouts to the pirates!"

"Who do you think that person was?"

At Dongze's words, Nami and the two merchants all shuddered.

Black Merchants had thrived for a thousand years not only because of their business methods, but also because of their seemingly flawless schemes.

His question made the two merchants think at once of the bloodless tactics their rivals employed. The thought sent a chill down their spines.

It never occurred to them to suspect the young woman in front of them.

Nami, meanwhile, had only one thought: Oh no. Has he figured out what I did?

She was indeed the one who had tipped off the pirates. By chance, she had learned that a group of Black Merchants was manipulating prices in a nearby town, leaving her family's Orange Grove unable even to buy fertilizer. So she had passed the information she had stumbled upon to those pirates.

Now, listening to Dongze, she felt there was more behind his words. If the Black Merchants learned she had leaked the information, they would tear her to pieces in their fury.

"Hehe! What are you talking about?"

"..."

"Oh? Mr. Dongze, who are these people?"

"Black Merchants."

"A bunch of people who make my skin crawl. They're a bit troublesome, though. Those pirates didn't kill them."

Hearing Dongze and Robin's exchange, the two merchants shrank like frightened quail. Even Nami retreated into a corner, terror on her face.

Seeing their expressions, Robin smiled faintly. "Mr. Dongze, you have such peculiar tastes. Where did the heads of those people outside go?"

Nami and the two Black Merchants grew even more afraid.

"Eek..."

They had assumed Dongze had only knocked the pirates unconscious. They had not expected this, and from the sound of it, he had no intention of sparing them either.

Then Nami heard a whisper like a devil's: "I'm guessing you're the one who leaked the information."

Dongze needed to say no more. The two Black Merchants filled in the rest themselves.

"What? It was her?"

"Damn it! I knew it was strange to find someone here!"

"You bitch! Once we get out, you'll pay for this!"

Sowing the Seeds of Revolution: Aokiji Makes His Move! Ten minutes later, Robin emerged from the cabin with Nami on her back.

Looking at the unconscious Nami, Robin asked in puzzlement, "Mr. Dongze, they were only two Black Merchants. Why did you have to manipulate a young girl too?"

In the cabin, Dongze had exposed Nami as the informant. The two merchants had threatened her and even vowed to take revenge on the people close to her.

They had said they would pay to have them killed.

At the end, they had arrogantly named the man backing them: Heavenly Yaksha, Doflamingo.

Joke, the Underworld's foremost dealer.

As the leading figure in the Underworld, he controlled a terrifying network of illicit trade across the pirate world. It was no surprise that he was the two merchants' boss.

Dongze suspected that was the real reason the pirates had never quite dared to kill them.

By now, Doflamingo had used the Heavenly Tribute to secure a place among the Shichibukai.

His name carried considerable weight.

The Black Merchants' threats, combined with the pressure of Doflamingo's name, had nearly crushed Nami. What could an ordinary person do against a Shichibukai?

She had struggled to choose whether to kill them.

In the end, Dongze's words—"Only if you kill them will your family be safe"—were the final straw that broke her restraint.

Nami had dealt with the two of them.

Robin was far more perceptive. She saw through Dongze's scheme. If he had not exposed Nami, she would never have faced that choice. That was why Robin had asked.

"She's unexpectedly strong."

Looking at the young woman slumped against Robin's shoulder, Dongze could not help feeling a rush of emotion.

As for what he had done, Dongze had his own plans. He had little time left to linger at leisure. The pressure from Robin's father weighed heavily on him, and he needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible.

Ideological Liberation, however, was a movement that would take years.

For now, he could only plant its seed among ordinary people.

As for Arlong and his crew, who had been doing evil in the East Blue, Dongze had little sympathy to spare. After years of enslavement by the Celestial Dragons, their thinking had become radical and extreme. They were rabid dogs preaching racism wherever they went.

The Celestial Dragons called themselves descendants of the world's creators, sacred and untouchable. Attacking one was a crime; striking one could even bring an Admiral down on your head.

Yet these Fish-Men, too afraid to defy the Celestial Dragons, had come to the East Blue and imposed the same treatment on the villagers of Cocoyasi Village.

They had enslaved the village for ten years. If Nami had not finally stirred the last spark of courage in the villagers' hearts through her actions, they might never have dared resist, even to their deaths.

It was like people in his old world claiming the air in Beautiful Country was sweeter, that white people were born superior, or that Black people were genetically stronger.

Anything they could not measure up to, they blamed on blood or race. Such claims were utter nonsense.

Hadn't the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors governed in ancient times and opened the first chapter of Chinese history?

From then on, China had soared.

The First Emperor had built on the achievements of six generations to unite the Central Plains. Given his vision and talent, if he had not been limited by his lifespan and his era, Dongze imagined the black dragon banner would have flown across the entire world.

Everywhere the sun shone would have been Qin territory.

The iron resolve of the Han forged its spirit. In Emperor Wu's time, a red-tasseled spear pierced through Mount Langjuxu and gave force to the vow: "Those who offend the mighty Han shall be punished, however far away they are!"

Those men had dominated an age. Before them, perhaps the "white monkeys" and "black pigs" would not even have dared make a sound.

In the flourishing Tang, all nations came to pay homage. China was the center of the world, and those "white monkeys" and "black pigs" could come to the Tang only as servants. Had they never heard the term "Kunlun slave"?

Even the Song dynasty's economy had ranked among the greatest in the world. Its wealth might have bought half the globe.

During the Yuan dynasty, the cavalry led by Genghis Khan, a giant of his age, had ridden across the entire Eurasian continent.

Then there was the legendary Ming, with the celebrated tale of Zheng He's seven voyages to the western seas.

Looking back, when had China's five-thousand-year heritage ever been dimmed? In every age, it had stood as a symbol of strength.

Yet today, some said it fell short in one way or another. To put it bluntly, you were the one who fell short, not your ancestors.

If your ancestors were here, they would beat those people senseless.

Straighten your backs and hold your heads high. When had we ever been lesser than anyone?

Work harder and complain less. That was what we ought to do. As for those who fawned over foreigners, and those "white monkeys" and "black pigs" jumping up and down, why not show them with results who was really on top?

But that line of thought had gone too far. What Dongze wanted to leave the villagers was the courage to resist. Sometimes he wondered: if the villagers in the nearby towns had fought the Arlong Pirates with the resolve to die rather than submit, would things have unfolded as they had in the original story?

If Arlong truly massacred those villages and the truth got out, not only his crew but Fish-Men throughout the world would be put in mortal danger.

"Those not of our kind can never share our hearts." That saying was especially apparent in this world.

Even an ordinary World Government would never allow such a thing to happen, let alone the one that ruled now.

The act would surely provoke public outrage. Disaster would await them, leaving them only one possible fate.

And if someone with an agenda steered that outrage...

The result would be "extermination."

Not even possessing Poseidon would help. More than eighty percent of this world's population was human, and almost all its strongest fighters were human too. If racial conflict sharpened until only one side could survive, would those human powerhouses stand by and let everyone condemn them? Dongze doubted even Whitebeard could bear that responsibility.

Dongze had done this to ignite Nami's fighting spirit. Some people had spent so long on their knees that they had forgotten how to stand, so he had used a method he was not proud of.

Nami was also the heart of Cocoyasi Village. He intended to spread the seeds of revolution through her. It might serve as a safeguard later.

This time, though, he would be there. He was confident he could keep the villagers from harm.

Once Robin had carried Nami back aboard, Dongze raised his sword and struck through the air. A Slashing arc spanning nearly a hundred meters tore forward and hit the pirate ship in the blink of an eye.

The ship was cut clean in half.

It then met the same fate as the pirate ships before it, slowly sinking beneath the waves.

At the sight of that Slashing arc, a strange look flashed through Robin's eyes. She was no swordswoman, but she had read a couple of books about Swordmasters.

She knew a little about Slashing arcs.

A Slashing arc extended a Swordmaster's attacks beyond the reach of the blade, making up for the inability to strike at a distance. It was a mysterious technique that only a swordsman who had attained the necessary level could truly understand.

Improving it, however, was extremely difficult. In the original story, Zoro, hardened by countless battles, had needed to go all out just to split the meteor Fujitora pulled down from space. Hawkeye could have reduced it to dust with a casual swing. The gap between them showed how hard such an attack was to improve.

Yet how many days had it been? Robin had seen the Slashing arc Dongze sent deep underwater to kill Sea Kings only a few days ago. The one today was nearly ten times larger.

Robin stared at Dongze in a daze, asking herself again and again just how monstrous her current employer was—and how strong he truly was.

Meanwhile, far away at Marine Headquarters in Marineford, on the Red Line, Admiral Aokiji received a mysterious call.

It came from an undercover agent under his command.

"Mr. Aokiji, she's gone!"