After being bombed by Klee Meow, then thrashed by the Straw Hat Pirates, and even losing his "final trump card," the Oars zombie, the already dispirited Gecko Moria had grown even more dispirited.
He had still taken part in Garp's version of the Summit War, but only to keep his position as a Shichibukai. With the collapse of the World Government's rule, however, even that last scrap of motivation had been exhausted. He had even abandoned his enormous ship, Thriller Bark, and holed up in a remote little town.
Incidentally, the Clear-Clear Fruit user Absalom had, just as in the original story, adopted the pen name "Abu Sa" and submitted articles to the World Economy News Paper as a freelance writer.
His Devil Fruit ability always let him take exclusive photographs, and with the special boost his perverted nature gave him when photographing beautiful women, he had quickly become a rising star in the media industry... If Morgans had not mentioned wanting to recruit this "born paparazzo" while chatting with Xie Wen, Xie Wen would never have remembered any of this.
But precisely because Morgans had been searching for "Abu Sa," Xie Wen had quickly pinpointed Moria's exact location by combining that with the information Shanks provided.
"I-it's the Palico Research Commission!"
"Aaaaaah! It's Princess Klee! She's so adorable!!!"
"Strange. Why would someone as important as the Sapphire Star come to a remote place like ours?"
"You clearly don't know much about Mr. Xie Wen. He wrote the World Travel Guide! It wouldn't be strange to find him anywhere!"
As the Toot Toot Forward descended from the sky, the little town where Gecko Moria was hiding instantly came alive.
With the World Government overthrown, and the World Economy News Paper presenting all kinds of hard evidence, public opinion had now