Within Kurozumi Higurashi's memories lay the unimaginable.
She had once briefly infiltrated the Valley of the Gods, a legendary and forbidden island that permitted only Celestial Dragons, World Government elites, and their forces—namely the CP organizations and Navy. Ordinary citizens, pirates, and bounty hunters were utterly forbidden. The island was a fortress of opulence and cruelty.
Higurashi had slipped in by disguising herself as a member of a slave-hunting team. Escorting a group of mermaid slaves and other rare species, she passed through the outer gate and set foot on hallowed ground—only for a moment, but long enough to glimpse the truth.
The island was crawling with CP0 through CP9 agents, each more terrifying than the last. Among the whispers in the wind, Higurashi caught a chilling title she had never heard before: the Knights of God.
She even personally witnessed the Mythical Zoan - Yamata no Orochi Fruit being transported into a Celestial Dragon estate.
Everywhere she turned, resources were being stockpiled—devil fruits, treasures, historical relics. Slave-hunting and resource-plundering teams were paid obscene amounts to collect rare Devil Fruits. One of the missions she saw listed a Paramecia Operation-Operation Fruit with a bounty of 5 billion berries, and a Mythical Zoan Blue Dragon Fruit worth 6 billion.
Her blood ran cold.
One of the slave-hunting teams that delivered the Orochi Fruit received a 3 billion berries reward. It was then she truly grasped the unshakable financial power of the Celestial Dragons.
Upon leaving the island, Higurashi was a changed woman. The grandeur, cruelty, and extravagance of the Valley of the Gods had scarred her soul.
To obtain the Orochi Fruit she had seen—and fulfill the Kurozumi clan's ancient dream of ending the Kozuki bloodline in Wano—she and her brother had joined the Rocks Pirates.
Their plan was simple: one day, reveal the location of the Valley of the Gods to Rocks. Let him launch a full-scale assault. Amid the chaos, they would sneak in and claim the Yamata no Orochi Fruit for themselves.
After all, in the Wano legends, Yamata no Orochi was prophesied to bring the downfall of Wano's ruling family. If the Kurozumi family possessed that power, they could become the new Shogun—a godlike ruler, ascending from the shadows.
But all of that came to nothing.
Captured by Brook, their secrets spilled.
And now, the location of the Valley of the Gods was fully exposed to the Hell Pirates.
"Yohohohoho~!!! The Valley of the Gods!! What a glorious dungeon-level treasure trove!" Brook exclaimed, practically glowing with excitement.
He didn't know whether Kamisaki and the Celestial Dragons had already secured the Blue Dragon Fruit, the Red Poneglyph, or other ancient treasures… but just the Orochi Fruit alone was enough to make his soul tremble.
After all, Brook had long suspected that during the original raid on the Valley of the Gods by the Rocks Pirates, Charlotte Linlin had taken the Blue Dragon Fruit, Newgate had stolen the Phoenix Fruit, and the Kurozumi siblings had snuck off with the Orochi Fruit.
That line of thinking... was thrilling.
Brook was practically vibrating with anticipation.
Now that he had concrete intelligence, he began considering his next major campaign.
Could he bait Rocks into attacking again?
If he carefully leaked the location, details about the Celestial Dragons' Devil Fruit collection, and the immense wealth hoarded there… how could Rocks resist?
Let him wage war.
And Brook? Brook would be the oriole behind the mantis—watching, waiting, swooping in to snatch the true prize.
Not long after, Brook harvested Salmon's Devil Fruit, and the Kurozumi siblings were also eliminated. Their abilities were extracted and recycled into fruits.
Brook examined the new fruit in his hand: white with swirling arabesque patterns.
The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia had no entry for it.
"Let's call it the Bone-Control Fruit," Brook muttered. "A rare Paramecia, maybe? Or something more?"
Salmon hadn't fully developed its potential—he focused only on strengthening his body. The true scope of this power remained a mystery, waiting for the right wielder.
The new harvest sparked excitement among Brook's crew.
Especially Kaido, who had long watched from the sidelines as a trainee.
Now, he approached his captain with hopeful eyes.
"Captain Brook… if I train hard enough… will I also get a mythical beast fruit?"
Brook smiled. "I'll find you the strongest one. Just give me time."
Kaido's heart surged. For a moment, he looked ready to kneel and call Brook his father.
"Nope. Absolutely not," Brook shut that down with a laugh. "You call me Big Brother Brook, just like everyone else!"
"Once a big brother, always a big brother!" Kaido shouted, punching the air.
From that day forward, Kaido was officially promoted from trainee to crew member.
Even Fisher Tiger gained a boost—no longer a trainee, but now a "good brother" under Brook's command. He even took pride in calling Tom "Big Brother Tom," though the shipwright promptly smacked him into the sea.
---
Meanwhile, the Memory Seahorse was growing impatient.
Through the Parrot's translation, the little seahorse made a request.
It wanted to fly.
Specifically, it wanted to eat the Wasp Fruit.
Brook blinked. "You sure about that? It's just a basic Zoan. I was saving something grander—a Mythical or Ancient type!"
But the Memory Seahorse was firm.
Parrot explained, "He says the six legs of a wasp look cool, and all the other crew members are flying now—Shakky, Stussy, Kirin… even me."
Brook sighed. He looked at the little seahorse that had accompanied him through countless battles.
"All right. If you're that serious…"
He returned to his quarters, placed the Bone-Control Fruit in a stasis chamber, and opened a secured box.
Inside were three fruits: Wasp, Octopus, and Rhinoceros Beetle.
Brook picked up the Wasp Fruit and stepped back out.
In a sudden burst of chaotic inspiration, he shouted, "It's decided! Beedrill, Harlequin Dragon—fusion evolution!"
And like a Poké Ball toss, he hurled the Wasp Fruit into the air—directly at the Memory Seahorse's face.
Snap!
The fruit vanished into the seahorse's long snout in a single gulp.
Everyone stood still.
"What… what kind of feeding method is that?" Shakky muttered.
The Memory Seahorse twitched. A red cross formed on its forehead. It glared at Brook with glowing red eyes.
Its body transformed.
A pair of translucent insect wings burst from its back.
Six razor-sharp insect legs extended from its sides.
At the end of its tail, a gleaming venomous stinger twitched with lethal intent.
Brook coughed.
"I… I may have overdone it a bit."
The newly evolved Wasp Seahorse buzzed ominously.
"I said I was careless. Do you believe me?"
-----------------
The newly evolved Memory Seahorse, now bearing insect wings and six limbs, looked like a bizarre fusion of Beedrill and Dragonite from Pokémon. Pulling the remnants of the Wasp Fruit from his mouth, he flexed his newfound power with gleeful pride.
He flung the fruit core aside, his wings buzzing as he adjusted to flying. For a marine creature who had dreamed of the skies ever since meeting the Dragon, this was a dream come true.
As he soared through the air, a sharp poison needle launched unexpectedly from his tail, zipping straight toward Brook—the very culprit who had "fed" him the fruit.
"Yohohoho~! It fires projectiles too? Not bad. You've got ranged attacks now!" Brook chuckled, swatting the needle away like it was a mosquito.
Then he turned, arms crossed, expression exaggerated.
"Memory Seahorse, seriously. Can't you learn to talk like Parrot? Look at him—he can even hold a conversation. You've eaten memories from hundreds of people. Not even one sentence?"
The parrot translated, tilting his head. "He says he doesn't need to speak. He can already control people's minds. Why waste time talking?"
Brook blinked.
"…Fair enough. Keep training that Wasp Fruit. Learn to fly properly. We'll get to the mind control stuff later."
Brook gave the grumpy Seahorse a pat and returned to the storage room to sort out the rest of the Devil Fruits—particularly the ones he'd recently harvested from the Kurozumi siblings. With so many fruits piling up, he needed powerful subordinates to wield them, or it'd all be wasted potential.
That's when he glanced at Salmon's corpse, and a wicked idea bloomed.
"Wait a minute... We're missing a piece of the puzzle."
Brook, infected by capitalist thinking, suddenly remembered—corpses weren't just trash. They were assets.
If they could acquire the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, then with Gekko Moriah's technique, the Hell Pirates could have an undead army. A perfect match for their hellish theme.
Wasting Salmon's corpse was a crime.
Even worse, Brook remembered he'd already wasted several high-value corpses—David Kyons, Beaver, and others. Were they still salvageable?
David and his crew had been buried on Pso Island, once the Siren Pirates' base—now under the control of Diger. Beaver had perished on Squid Island, still relatively untouched.
Beaver's body might still be usable.
Brook immediately sent word to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Salmon's body was frozen and transferred to Vegapunk, who stored it in a high-tech cryogenic chamber.
Soon after, Brook collected the Mimic-Mimic Fruit and the Barrier-Barrier Fruit—formerly belonging to the Kurozumi siblings. With these, his fruit collection grew to five.
Octopus Siren Fruit (Mythical Zoan)
Rhinoceros Beetle Fruit (Ancient Zoan)
Bone-Control Fruit (Paramecia)
Mimic-Mimic Fruit (Paramecia)
Barrier-Barrier Fruit (Paramecia)
Brook intended to award the Rhinoceros Beetle Fruit as a prize for his upcoming recruitment event. The rest would be carefully assigned to elite fighters.
He considered offering them to warriors from Wano Country—perhaps Ashura Douji, Hanagoro, or the various underground family heads. But they were notoriously territorial. Most refused to leave Wano. Not ideal for building a mobile army.
Still, Ashura Douji or the Eight Swordsmen held potential.
Frustrated, Brook took out a thick stack of recent bounty posters—rookie, rising pirates with potential. He needed new blood.
But being outside the canon timeline, most of these names were unfamiliar. Some were already Devil Fruit users, others bore Conqueror's Haki.
Then he spotted two names that lit a spark.
"Ibadonbo... wasn't he forced into the Rocks Pirates at one point? And Golden Pirate Woonan is active again?"
Neither possessed Conqueror's Haki. Neither were fruit users.
Perfect.
Ibadonbo had once ruled Level 6 of Impel Down, defeating and leading a group of brutal criminals. Woonan, a veteran of the Grand Line, commanded loyalty and fear.
Brook's intelligence network was vastly superior to Rocks'. With the help of Seagull News Bird, they could locate and scout these captains quickly.
"Let's not overthink it. We'll approach them head-on. If they refuse, we'll just beat some sense into them."
Soon, under Brook's orders, Moore Thomas delivered their last known locations.
But Brook's joy vanished the moment he saw the map.
"Are you kidding me?"
Both pirates were wreaking havoc within Rocks' territory—taunting, plundering, and humiliating Rocks' senior officers.
Brook frowned. If he invaded Rocks' territory to recruit them, it might spark open war. Worse, Rocks could simply eliminate the rookies himself to deny Brook their talents.
Brook was stuck.
That's when Moore Thomas returned with another message—one that immediately caught his interest.
The Umit Family, a dominant force in the underground world, had formally requested top-tier military support.
They were preparing for a full-scale assault on the World Transport Company, aiming to monopolize the underground shipping industry and claim the title of Dark Emperor of the underworld.
Brook's eyes widened with interest.
Finally, some movement.
He immediately sent word approving their request—but with conditions.
The Hell Pirates had no intention of revealing themselves just yet. Their support must remain covert. Their identity as the Umit Family's backers needed to stay in the shadows—for now.
Therefore, no Devil Fruit powers were to be used. Abilities like the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, Float-Float Fruit, or Thunder Fruit were too recognizable.
Instead, support teams would be armed with standard uniforms, combat masks, and rely solely on swordsmanship and physical combat.
Brook gave the order.
"Prepare the uniforms. Mask everything. If anyone asks who supported the Umit Family… it was no one."
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