Brook stared in shock at the figure floating in front of the Road Poneglyph—he almost screamed—though, strictly speaking, he had no eyes or mouth...
"Hmm?"
Koala, whose lower body had turned into gas and was floating midair, turned her head and found herself face-to-face with a ghastly green skeleton spirit, mouth agape, staring at her...
"Pfft!"
Even for Koala, a seasoned intelligence specialist of the Revolutionary Army, the sight nearly made her scream. Fortunately, her exceptional professional training allowed her to suppress it—her pretty face turned bright red from holding it in.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Covering her mouth, she managed a few light coughs to regain her composure. Only then did she realize—this guy looked a bit like...
"The Soul King?"
Koala's voice, soft as a mosquito's buzz, brought Brook back to his senses:
"Eh? You're from the Revolutionary Army..."
Though they had never met face-to-face, Brook recognized Koala from the reports during the Summit War. At the time, the Revolutionary Army members who made an appearance were heavily reported in the newspapers.
Originally, the Revolutionary Army wasn't all that well-known, but because of Koala's close relationship with Sabo—and, well, with Robin—the Straw Hat Pirates naturally became familiar with her.
Similarly, because of her connection to Sabo and Robin, a professional intelligence agent like Koala couldn't possibly not recognize Brook. However, she had never seen Brook's "soul form" before. It was only because she was so familiar with the Straw Hats that she was able to make the connection.
"Koala-san? Sabo's... Luffy's brother's..."
"Uh... y-yeah... geez..."
Koala's cheeks turned even redder as she mumbled in a small voice, "It's me!"
"What are you doing—?"
"Shhh—"
Koala quickly glanced outside and motioned for Brook to stay quiet. Then she pulled out her tools and began making a rubbing of the Road Poneglyph!
Outside, the guards had already been put into a dazed stupor by her "Hypnosis Gas" and "Hallucination Gas." They weren't fully unconscious—just deeply confused and sleepy. It allowed Koala to work without being disturbed, but it also meant they had to keep the noise down.
Brook could only watch, stunned, as Koala swiftly completed the rubbing, stored the copies safely, and then—without a sound—transformed back into mist.
"Soul King, let's talk once we're out of here!"
"A-a-alright!"
...
At the Fire Tank Pirates' hideout, in the Straw Hats' guest room—
Brook was whispering excitedly to his crewmates about the night's harvest.
"Robin-san, here's the copy—it's incredible, running into Koala-san like that."
Smiling warmly, Robin accepted the rubbing. She was clearly in a good mood. "Thank you... I can't believe Koala appeared here herself. The Gas-Gas Fruit's powers really are perfect for infiltration and intelligence gathering."
"In that case," Sanji mused, "the Chief of Staff must be here too. Those two usually operate together, heh~."
"Sabo's here too!"
Luffy had been bouncing with excitement since the news broke:
"Awesome! Now I can focus entirely on beating up Big Mom!"
Everyone shared a smile. They had seen firsthand at Sabaody Archipelago just how powerful Luffy's second brother was—after all, he had the Tremor-Tremor Fruit!
With an ally like that, their chances of escaping safely skyrocketed.
After all, why had the Straw Hats willingly sailed into a trap, agreed to join Bege's plot to assassinate Big Mom, and marched into Whole Cake Island?
Because this would become another "Summit War"!
An epic battle of such scale—how could they possibly miss out?
Now, with the Road Poneglyph rubbing secured, plus two additional copies of intelligence-related Poneglyphs, tomorrow they could throw all caution to the wind and make as much of a ruckus as they pleased!
It had to be said—thanks to all their "external hacks," the Straw Hats' information-gathering capabilities were on a completely different level compared to the other members of the "Worst Generation."
The Road Poneglyphs—the key to becoming the Pirate King and reaching Laugh Tale—were still a mystery to the other Supernova captains.
Bege didn't know about them. His current focus was still solely on how to assassinate Big Mom and make his name resound across the New World.
Besides, how many of the Worst Generation had even set sail with the real goal of becoming Pirate King? That was debatable at best.
Even their definitions of "Pirate King" varied wildly.
Thus, the Straw Hats hadn't shared anything about the Road Poneglyphs with Bege.
They only told him they had their own important matters on Whole Cake Island—but reassured him their main fighting forces would still assist in tomorrow's plan.
Bege, notorious in the West Blue for his cruelty and ruthlessness—a true mafia boss—had been scheming Big Mom's assassination from the moment he learned she intended to invite the Straw Hats to her tea party.
To him, the Straw Hats were originally just convenient tools—until Chiffon discovered their connection to Lola. Only then did they become genuine partners.
Now, though, the plan had changed—Brook's late-night mission meant they wouldn't need to sneak back tomorrow...
Koala had other tasks to attend to. After escorting Brook's spirit back to his body and handing over a copy of the rubbings, she quickly took her leave.
"I'd love to meet Robin-neechan, but the real show starts tomorrow!"
Brook hadn't thought much of Koala's parting words at the time—but when he returned to the room, realization struck:
"Everyone... I think... I might have discovered something huge... Yohohoho!"
Brook suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention.
Setting down his teacup, he rapped lightly on his skull:
"When we parted ways, Koala-san said, 'The real show starts tomorrow.'"
"At first, I assumed she meant our plan at the tea party."
"But when I got back, it hit me—we never even told her about our alliance with Bege!"
"If that's the case... Even if the Revolutionary Army is helping us, there's no way they could know enough to cause real chaos at the tea party..."
Seeing Luffy's disgruntled, gloomy face, Reiju and Robin chuckled, while Nami smacked Luffy hard on the head:
"What? Brook's absolutely right!"
"Back when we agreed to come here with you, we didn't even know how terrifying the Yonko really were! If we hadn't met Reiju and her group along the way, we'd still be completely clueless!"
"We're just a small group—you think it's smart to waltz into Whole Cake Island to pick a fight?!"
"But—but we were going to sneak in!" Luffy protested stubbornly.
Nami covered her face in despair:
"Are you stupid...? You think we could sneak into a land crawling with Big Mom's Homies?"
"Come to think of it," Zoro suddenly spoke up, "Kuina did warn us—if we didn't act soon, the Yonko would start falling one after another. If we waited for them to move first, we'd lose our chance."
"Back then, none of us really understood how powerful a Yonko was."
"And now that you do—do you regret it?" Reiju asked with a smile.
"No... In fact, I'm glad we made it!" Luffy declared, clenching his fists with a grin.
Robin gave a light cough:
"Luffy, did you actually understand what Brook was trying to say?"
"Eh? What?"
"Hehe..."
Robin shook her head and smiled as everyone turned toward her.
What Brook meant was clear:
"Koala already knew something major would happen tomorrow—and she had absolute confidence that both we and the Revolutionary Army's operations would succeed."
"In other words—she knows about the Navy's raid plan!"
"!!"
The whole room stiffened in shock.
It really did make sense...
"Heh heh... Luffy, looks like your father and your second brother are quite something indeed..."
"..."
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