Done with the Flying Slashes, I once again returned to Alubarna to complete my goals. After all, a queen needed some saving. I, being a gentleman, can't just see a helpless woman and not help.
"Why are we going to the castle? Are we going to steal the treasury, master?" Anna asked.
Well, everything did not go according to plan. Although Robin stayed back in the hotel, having a good sleep... Anna decided to stick with me.
"No, we are just visiting," I said, denying her claims.
"Really?" Anna looked puzzled.
"Yes. Do I look like a thief to you?" I asked angrily.
"No, you don't... but you must be going to the palace for a reason. You never do anything without a reason," Anna said, still stubborn.
"Ughh... no, I am just going to the palace to..." Ugh... what the fuck am I even doing? Am I really thinking from my dick instead of my brain? No, I am not strong enough to have that luxury yet... I have achieved whatever I have due to my brain... and I would have to keep on using it in the future. Lock on, Alexander, lock on.
"We are leaving here. I have something necessary to do. We need to catch a devil fruit user," I commanded.
"Huh, I am a devil fruit user. You can do whatever you want, master," Anna replied with a proud smile.
"I need a devil fruit user to experiment on. So, no, we have to catch someone else." My goal was to kill a few devil fruit users with similar types of fruits that can be born within my Isolated World created through the Operation fruit.
This move is created to detach a room completely from the outside world. So my research object was to check if that can result in the birth of a devil fruit inside the room. If it worked, I would have a method to extract devil fruits like Blackbeard.
"So how are we going to find devil fruit users?" Anna asked, contemplating the rarity of devil fruit users.
"We don't. Put on a mask, we are going to the black market." Using the black market would be the easiest method to buy information about devil fruit users. Some useless Zoan user would work too. My demands were not that high.
"Alright."
The black market was not like what you would expect it to be, like some shady place. Instead, it was hidden amongst the normal markets. You just needed to know where it was to access it, but with my observation haki, it was easy to find.
I went to a seemingly ordinary bar and sat near the bartender, with Anna by my side. The bartender was a sinister-looking man at first glance, with a strange smile to complement it.
"So, what would you like, Mr. and Mrs. Mask?" asked the bartender, flashing the same smile.
I presented a suitcase on the desk and replied, "A list of all the devil fruit users nearby."
The bartender opened the suitcase, checked the sum inside, and, happy with the contents, replied, "Just a moment. I will prepare a list with their last known location."
And soon, a short list with only five names was in my hands. Well... at least the location was detailed.
'Hmmm... A retired pirate hiding here in Alabasta... with the devil fruit, Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Dachshund... Wasn't this later eaten by a cannon?' Although this fruit was certainly trashy, I only needed to test if I could extract it. So this one, which was the easiest to get, would be my natural choice.
Gareth, 78 years old, retired 10 years ago, and had a bounty of 80 million. Now, even in his prime, he could have been solved by me with just a single attack. Now that he was close to death and had almost zero strength left, he was simply a sitting duck. This old guy was simply hiding now, waiting to die, without committing any crime whatsoever. Heck, even his bounty had been cancelled by the Marines—no need to waste any resources on him. This was also the only reason he hadn't been picked up by bounty hunters.
In a small town by the shore, I was standing in front of Gareth's house, my observation haki locked onto him.
"Wait a minute, master. I will go and bring him outside, master. No need for you to trouble yourself for someone this weak," Anna said excitedly.
"Why bother bringing him here? We are going inside. It would be better hidden that way," I said as I took out a bag of apples I had carried with me. The Dachshund fruit had the shape of an apple.
"Alright, let's move in then."
"Yes," I replied, creating a room and teleporting inside the house. The old Gareth was fast asleep and didn't even notice our entry, which went to show how weak he had become—considering that with the Dog-Dog Fruit, his senses should have been top-tier.
Isolated World!
I cast an Isolated World to start the fruit extraction and dropped all the apples from the bag to the floor, the noise of which woke up Gareth.
Not paying any mind to his surprised shouts, I simply drew my sword and sent a flying slash towards him, cutting him in half. I waited while looking at the bunch of apples.
A few seconds passed, and an apple started to transform—and there it was, Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Dachshund.
"It seems it was successful. But I would like to try one more time to ensure that this was not just a fluke," I said with a serious look, but my smile was hardly hidden.
"Wow! It really worked—we got his devil fruit!" Anna exclaimed.
"Don't mention anything about it to anyone for now. Not even Robin. She can know of it when she gets a bit older. Maybe she would unconsciously reveal some information," I ordered.
Since we had been gone for too long, I decided to first go back to Robin, then we would go after the next target later. So, after another hour of travel, I reached back to the hotel in which we were staying.
As I was about to enter the room, I heard sounds of sobbing coming from the inside—which, of course, was Robin's. I went into full alert mode and opened the door urgently to see what was wrong.
Inside, Robin was crying while sitting on the bed, clutching a newspaper in her hand.
'Ohh... So it seems that it's that time already...' Yeah, the destruction of Ohara did happen around this time...
Anna and I both tried to coax and comfort Robin, while I took the newspaper in my hand to see what was up.
'So Ohara isn't destroyed yet? It seems now only Olvia has been arrested. Well, doesn't matter. We are far away from Ohara. Even if Robin insists on going back, by the time we reach half the distance, Ohara would probably be destroyed.'
Robin, seeing the news of her mother's arrest, was clearly in shambles and insisted that we return to Ohara—or at least West Blue, since Olvia was there.
And of course, I, being the kind man that I was, accepted her request, and we set off towards Ohara. My plans could wait for now.
But, in case we did not reach Ohara on time... then it's not my fault, right?
_______
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the delay, this fic would continue regularly from now onwards.