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Prosperous Kingdom, Royal City, Restaurant, Third Floor, Private Room
"Why… why would Gance cooperate with pirates and plan to steal the Heavenly Tribute from the royal palace…"
Ross whispered, her head bowed low, the question a raw, soft sound against the background noise.
Behind her, Liam and Robin were seated at a table absolutely buried under plates of food. Robin was the picture of leisure, propping her chin on one hand while the other casually flipped a page in her book. Liam, meanwhile, sat bolt upright, rigid as a man facing a firing squad.
"Why did he say I betrayed my country… that I deserved to die…"
Ross clutched at her head, a low, pained groan escaping her lips.
Suddenly, Liam's face twisted. His mouth stretched into a silent, desperate cry of agony, muscles twitching violently. His skin flushed an angry red, and thin wisps of white steam began to rise from his body.
Without looking up from her book, Robin reached out, plucked a whole roasted meat leg from the massive pile, and smoothly shoved it into Liam's agape mouth.
"But… I feel like he's right…"
Ross's eyes went vacant. "I was the one who betrayed my country… I knew full well Hyena was pulling the strings. Relying only on a doctor's skills could never have saved anyone…"
Liam, enveloped in a cloud of white steam, ate with ferocious speed. Robin shook her head gently beside him. Liam's superhuman physiology and the unique strain of his Stand meant that merely existing burned through several times the energy of an average person. Thankfully, he was a master of the Life Return technique, an ability that touched on the very essence of life, allowing him to efficiently absorb, store, and utilize every calorie he devoured.
"I knew the Drum Kingdom no longer had any doctors left… Maybe someone like me really would be better off dead…"
Ross moved to the window, staring blankly down at the street. It was eerily quiet, perhaps a symptom of the country's failing economy, or just the hush of approaching night.
"From only the third floor… You wouldn't even break your neck if you jumped, would you?"
A voice, sharp and utterly unmoved, startled Ross, sending a cold shiver down her back.
She spun around. Half the food on the table was already gone, devoured by the owner of the voice, Giorno, who was still eating with gusto.
Jolyne, a book held loosely in her hand, was watching her too. Giorno spoke around a mouthful of food: "Look, I don't get you, girl. You claim you want to save your home, but you wasted over a year in a place where you knew you couldn't do a damn thing. You claim you want to save your home, yet you willingly boarded two dangerous pirate ships, " (Robin glanced coolly at Liam) ", and when you found out we're actually super decent people, " (Robin reached out and gently, teasingly, scraped a finger across Liam's cheek) ", you kept quiet. Didn't say a word, didn't even ask for help. So what is it you actually want to do? If you just want to die, believe me, there are always plenty of chances for that, aren't there?"
Ross froze, the color draining from her eyes.
"Are you…" Liam gnawed on a bone, pointing it at her with a serious expression. "An idiot?"
Bonk! Robin delivered a light, sharp chop to his head.
Meanwhile, outside the city, moments after Lucci and his subordinates had departed, a human-like eye and ear, cleverly embedded in a large rock, quietly dissolved into a shower of falling flower petals.
Back in the restaurant's private room, Robin spoke, her voice low and certain, "The Haichi Chamber of Commerce is very likely working secretly with the Warlord, Hyena."
Ross's eyes went wide. Liam scratched his head, perplexed. "Where did that come from all of a sudden?"
Ah, Liam suddenly remembered. Ever since Robin's Flower-Flower Fruit (Hana Hana no Mi) powers had vastly improved during her years on Kujai Island, she'd developed the habit of spreading her flower eyes and ears across any island they visited.
So she'd gathered information across this city that way?
Robin gave a slight nod. "B.I.B. helped me locate you. I saw your fight with those men, and after you left, the Lucci you were waiting for also arrived. He received intelligence from the Haichi Chamber of Commerce's branch, they've been collaborating with a powerful pirate, which directly caused the downfall of the Igor Kingdom… and the current state of this so-called Prosperous Kingdom."
"B.I.B.?" Ross looked utterly confused.
"That Lucci guy is so slow," Liam grumbled. "He took ages to show up, and I was starving! At least I managed to snag a few skills, not a total loss. Otherwise, he'd really be drinking juice through a straw right now, hah!"
"You mean his Rokushiki martial art? You've already mastered it?" Robin asked, genuinely surprised.
"More or less…" Liam stroked his chin and grinned. "Maybe I'll test your strength later! I bet you're not just some weakling."
Robin shook her head, guiding the conversation back on track. She briefly summarized what Lucci had relayed to Blueno and the others, especially the bizarre 'Fortune Water' distributed by the Haichi Chamber of Commerce.
"You mean the water the Chamber of Commerce gave out in the city today?" Ross gasped.
"Yeah. The people who drink it either want to kill others… or themselves," Liam mused. "Sounds pretty interesting. Kinda makes me wanna try it."
"Interesting?!" Ross stared at him in horrified disbelief.
Robin, however, knew that with Liam's Stand constantly at his side, even if his physical body was affected by something, his Stand, B.I.B., could always 'correct' him, physically setting him back to normal.
"People who abandon reality and willingly sink into depravity," Robin analyzed slowly, "will either vent their negativity outwards by hurting others… or turn it inwards, blaming and destroying themselves. That strange water seems to function in precisely this manner."
She lifted her gaze to the shocked Ross. "And according to your own account, your homeland fell into endless civil war, people endlessly fighting one another. That chaos was caused by the Warlord Hyena and her Rot-Rot Fruit ability…"
"So that's it," Liam concluded. "You're thinking the pirate working with the Haichi Chamber of Commerce… is her."
"So then…" Ross looked down at her shaking hands, her voice trembling. "That means I also…"
Robin spoke softly, "The urge you've felt, to escape reality, to destroy yourself, may very well be the effect of Hyena's Rot-Rot Fruit influencing your mind and body."
Ross froze, utterly stunned.
Liam grinned. "Well, that simplifies things. Whatever's inside your body, just digest it and get rid of it."
Ross's head shot up in alarm, just in time to see Giorno's hands spreading open in the air, as if grasping or donning something unseen. Then, he strode toward her.
Liam's right fist drove straight into Ross's fragile chest. She looked down in disbelief, seeing his forearm buried deep inside her body, and then he slowly began to draw it out again…
Is this… death? Ross thought vaguely. It doesn't really feel any different…
But then she saw Giorno pull out his right arm, only to immediately drive his left fist into her chest again.
Was… was it necessary to kill me twice? Ross thought blankly. Still, there was no pain, only a strange numbness spreading through her entire body.
"What are you standing there for?" Liam said, tossing B.I.B.'s gauntleted arms out the window. The Stand caught them in midair and drifted away into the night. Liam reached forward and flicked Ross hard on the forehead.
"You're not a Regulation-Regulation Fruit user anymore, you're a Munch-Munch Fruit user now! Hurry up and eat yourself, get the filth out of your body, either by 'spitting' it out or by digesting it!"
"Huh?" Ross blinked, lost in total confusion.
Night was falling.
At the Marine branch base on True Gold and Silver Island, part of the forces had already been dispatched to the royal palace to guard the Heavenly Tribute. The remaining soldiers, after their daily training, were enjoying their free time.
"One Admiral! Ha! I win!" That was from a group gathered around a card game.
"Where did you get this booze? Damn, it's good stuff!" That was from a few with arms slung around each other's shoulders, drinking on the rooftop.
"I will… huff… reach Marineford someday… huff…" That was one soldier, still training hard, alone in the yard.
"What's that?"
The card players in the courtyard, the drinkers on the roof, and the shirtless trainees all lifted their heads toward the sky. From a distance, something seemed to be flying toward them, many things. Countless, densely packed objects, like… raindrops.
"No! Something's wrong!" The soldier training in the yard suddenly turned pale and screamed, "We're under attack!!"
Shuā Shuā Shuā Shuā Shuā, !! A torrential downpour of bullets swept horizontally across the Marine base. The storm of gunfire shattered houses, snapped flagpoles, tore through the shoulder of a Marine holding a hand of cards, and blew the hat off a drunken soldier on the roof.
Bang! Bang! Bang! In an instant, the base was consumed by chaos, the sounds of shattering wood, screams, and relentless gunfire blending together. Blood mist hung in the air like a red fog, blurring into the darkness of the night.
At the source of that storm of bullets stood Commander Gance, his expression empty, his body covered in countless gun barrels protruding directly from his flesh. From each one, a tongue of flame burst forth as he unleashed another round of unfeeling gunfire.
Then his head began to twist and morph, transforming into a massive cannon barrel. Within the black maw glowed a fiery light… until it exploded outward in a blinding flash.
"BOOM!"
The cannonball screamed through the air, heading straight for the distant Marine branch base.
(End Of This Chapter)