Kali Dill

"Kenta's studies aren't progressing very well, are they?"

The woman in the lavish dress lowered her head and answered resentfully:

"Yes."

"I hear that illegitimate son is very clever and stands a chance of inheriting your husband's trading company, while your son thinks of nothing but having fun."

Dill straightened up, fixing his gaze on the woman before him:

"Mrs. Marie, you wouldn't want an illegitimate son to drive you out of your home, would you?"

"That's why I came to you." The woman raised her head and pleaded in a trembling voice:

"With your hypnosis, Kenta will definitely love studying like he did a few days ago and overtake that damned illegitimate son."

"And what do I get out of it?"

"I... I understand."

The woman shakily rose to her feet. After removing the gold ring on her ring finger, she took off her other jewelry one piece at a time.

She catches on pretty quickly.

Looking at the jewelry on the table, Dill nodded in satisfaction. This could fetch quite a bit of money.

Wait, why is she undoing her zipper?!

"My husband's always been in poor health..."

"I think you've misunderstood what I want."

Dill hastily waved his hands. After looking her up and down twice, he explained:

"I only want money. Cash, gold, or jewelry will do."

Although the married woman before him still had her charms, he was only twelve. Besides, he was no Boss Cao, nor did he like women without substance.

Snap!

Dill snapped his fingers and called toward the door:

"Secretary, come in and explain our prices to this lady."

Click~

Robin pushed the door open. Ignoring the woman's stunned expression, she took a price list from inside her clothes and began her introduction:

"Mrs. Marie, your son is twelve this year. I recommend this six-year package..."

The two women began haggling. With nothing to do, Dill tilted his head back and stared blankly at the ceiling.

It's already been two and a half years.

Kali Dill, twelve years old, was a transmigrator who had arrived in the One Piece world two and a half years ago.

He was currently working toward his goal of becoming the World's Strongest without lifting a finger.

His arrival had been poorly timed. The body's original owner had caught the eye of the gang leader Aimee because of his delicate good looks, and, unwilling to suffer humiliation, had jumped into the sea to kill himself.

When Dill woke up, he was already floating at sea.

Fortunately, he had encountered Robin rowing a little boat after her escape from Ohara, saving him from setting a new record as the shortest-lived transmigrator.

"Then please bring five million Beli in cash to this same room at two tomorrow afternoon."

Robin opened the door and saw Mary out with a beaming smile. "You certainly won't be disappointed."

Click~

The door closed again.

Robin took off her shoes with their ten-centimeter lifts and jogged over to sit on the sofa. Rubbing her aching ankles, she asked:

"Will she really come? Five million isn't a small sum."

"Of course. The hypnosis began the moment she walked into the room."

Dill closed his pocket watch and explained lazily:

"All she can think about now is making her son overtake the illegitimate son."

Robin nodded thoughtfully and took a newspaper from inside her clothes:

"The owner downstairs brought this over."

She also pulled a bounty poster out of the newspaper, a hint of amusement lurking in her voice:

"Your bounty's gone up quite a bit."

"Really?!"

As though injected with a shot of adrenaline, Dill sprang up and snatched the bounty poster, looking excitedly at the number beneath the photograph:

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands..."

His excited voice gradually flattened, before finally turning into a teeth-gritting snarl:

"Those bastard Marines! They've gone too far!!"

He angrily slapped the bounty poster onto the table. Printed on it was a white-haired boy of just ten, with a particularly eye-catching bounty below.

[Accomplice Kali Dill, bounty: 1,000 Beli]

[Often appears with the Devil Child. Capture alive if possible to learn the Devil Child's whereabouts.]

Back then, he and Robin had rowed their little boat to the next island, and the bounty posters had arrived before they could even catch their breath.

Devil Child, Nico Robin, bounty: seventy-nine million.

Accomplice, Kali Dill, bounty: five hundred Beli.

Dill knew what the World Government was like. Whether he surrendered or left Robin to flee alone, he would most likely end up disposed of as someone who knew about Ohara.

So he had simply stuck with Robin. It was a little safer, too.

Now, after two and a half years on the run, Dill's bounty had doubled, increasing by a whopping five hundred Beli.

"What good is such a tiny increase? Are they going out of their way to insult me?!"

"Of course it's useful." Sitting cross-legged beside him, Robin waved the newspaper and said with a perfectly serious air:

"A newspaper costs forty Beli. Five hundred Beli only buys twelve and a half copies, but there's a discount for a long-term subscription. One thousand Beli gets you exactly a month-a whole thirty copies."

Dill: "..."

With him around, Robin had become much more cheerful than in the original story. Originally, she had hidden her wicked streak; now she was practically flaunting it.

Bzz~

He stood up, a faint spark of electricity flickering at his fingertips, and flicked Robin's forehead.

At the same time, he crumpled the bounty poster into a ball and held it in his hand. Flames rose over his entire palm, burning it to ashes.

"I'm going to ask the owner to buy us something. What do you want?"

"Black tea and sandwiches."

"Okay~"

Click~

Dill opened the door and walked out. They were currently staying on the second floor of an inn that offered neither shopping nor meal delivery services.

Of course, that was another matter if one showed enough sincerity.

Extinguishing the flames in his hand, Dill headed downstairs.

He had arrived with a rather abstract golden finger.

[Power of Belief]

He needed other people to believe he possessed an ability before he could actually possess it.

Famous or powerful people provided more "belief." Different abilities required different amounts of "belief," and as the "belief" increased, the upper limits of his abilities would rise as well.

Apart from those slapdash instructions, the golden finger offered no other guidance.

There was no system panel and no little companion spirit. For a while, Dill had even doubted whether his golden finger was real.

Had seawater gotten into his head and made him hallucinate?

Although he hadn't had a powerful, famous Sun God who would believe anything he said beside him at the time, he did have Robin, who had yet to experience betrayal and was relatively innocent.

A very famous one, at that.

A bounty of seventy-nine million at eight years old. The last person with anything that outrageous was Charlotte Linlin, who had received a fifty-million bounty at six.

By fooling Robin, Dill had successfully mastered hypnosis and confirmed that his golden finger really existed.

Hypnosis not only made acquiring other abilities easier, but could also earn him money to improve his life.

Right now, for instance, he was about to pass off one thousand Beli as five thousand to trick the owner into buying things.

"Could you please buy lunch for three, plus two sandwiches-hmm?"

Bang!

The inn's door was kicked open, and a man in a black suit strode inside.

Dill frowned and stepped behind the owner.

In the West Blue, most people who wore black suits were either mafia members or World Government agents.

Holding a gun in one hand and two bounty posters aloft in the other, Brandon demanded:

"Have either of you seen the people on these bounty posters?!"

The posters depicted Dill and Robin respectively.

Unlike the Grand Line, where monsters roamed everywhere, seventy-nine million was a genuinely enormous bounty in the Four Blues.

And the person carrying that bounty was just a little girl. It was hard not to be tempted.

"I have!" Before the owner could reply, Dill stepped forward, rubbing his hands together as he said mercenarily:

"But as for the price..."

"Don't worry. You'll get your reward afterward."

"Great!" Feigning delight, Dill tilted his head up and stared into his eyes:

"Then shall we talk upstairs?"

Brandon, who had been about to take Dill back with him, paused as a thought crossed his mind:

That's seventy-nine million, and the target's just a little girl. I can handle her myself. Why should I take him back and tell the boss? I might as well...

"All right, let's talk upstairs!"

Seeing Brandon's response, Dill secretly sighed in relief. Another weak-willed fellow.

Unlike ordinary hypnosis, which required verbal suggestions and props, he only needed eye contact to hypnotize someone without anything else.

Still, using props and verbal suggestions took less effort and made the hypnosis more effective.

Just now, he had used hypnosis without any aids to stir Brandon's greed.

The two went to a room on the second floor, one Dill used specifically for hypnosis.

While Brandon was still studying the tablecloth covered in spirals, Dill took the opportunity to tap his forehead three times.

Petals drifted down, and his bloated face became delicate and handsome, revealing features almost identical to those on the bounty poster.

The Flower-Flower Fruit allowed its user to sprout any part of their body like flowers on any tangible object within sight.

Besides hands and feet, that naturally included parts such as cheek flesh, which could be attached to the face to alter one's appearance.

Dill had learned this from a novel he had read in his previous life.

The additional body parts could also transmit sensations. Tapping his forehead three times was the signal he and Robin had agreed on.

Remove the disguise and reveal his real face.

Seeing the big, fat face before him suddenly turn into a handsome boy's, Brandon was a little puzzled:

"Who are you?"

Dill's mouth twitched. Although he had dyed his white hair black, surely that wasn't enough to make him unrecognizable.

As expected of the One Piece world, where everyone was face-blind.

He pointed at the bounty poster. After looking down and comparing them for four or five seconds, Brandon abruptly stood and drew a flintlock pistol from inside his clothes, delighted surprise spreading over his face:

"You're that one thousand Beli!"

The accomplice often appeared with the Devil Child. Seventy-nine million and one thousand in the bag!

"How rude. My name isn't One Thousand Beli."

Dill raised both hands and said casually:

"I'm Kali Dill. I've fallen out with the Devil Child."

Tick~ Tick~ Tick~

The sound of the second hand ticking continued. Growing increasingly excited, Brandon hurriedly pressed:

"You said you've fallen out with the Devil Child?"

"That's right. I've had enough of hiding everywhere."

Dill leaned against the sofa, his face filled with sincerity:

"Once Nico Robin is arrested, naturally nobody will care about a mere one-thousand-Beli nobody like me."

"You get the bounty and enjoy yourself, and I live a peaceful life under a new name. We each get what we want."

"But," he straightened up, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table:

"You have to tell me your operation plan first."

Tick~ Tick~ Tick~

Tap~ Tap~ Tap~

The ticking second hand, the tapping of fingertips against the tabletop, the faint scent, the spirals on the table.

His excited mind gradually settled, and Brandon murmured:

"Why... are you asking about that?"

"To use that information to win the Devil Child's trust, of course, and achieve our goal sooner."

"...That makes sense."

His consciousness gradually sank. Brandon felt as though a layer of fog had settled over his mind, and he answered blankly:

"Bullet asked us to help them capture Nico Robin alive. We're currently assigning men to search the island."

"Bullet? Aren't they one of the Five Families? They shouldn't be short of that little bit of money."

Dill was somewhat puzzled. He did know the general situation in the West Blue.

Mafia culture flourished here. Gangs were practically everywhere, and even many small countries consisted of one or more gangs.

The Five Families referred to the five largest mafia organizations. Although seventy-nine million was no small sum, it wasn't worth going out of their way to search. At most, they would capture her if they happened across her.

Brandon shook his head and continued:

"I don't know. I've heard rumors that they seem to be planning to use the Devil Child to bribe the Marines and expand their business."