Under Crocus' treatment, a bit of color finally returned to the blind swordsman's deathly pale face. The exhaustion from that desperate flight, the kind that gnawed straight into the bones, was smoothed away little by little.
Fujitora listened.
With Observation Haki, he felt the pressure around him, layer after layer, like mountains stacked on mountains. There were several presences here that were even stronger than him.
He had not walked into an ordinary pirate ship.
This kind of lineup did not exist anywhere in the New World, except one place.
The Hell Pirates.
"You are all members of the Hell Pirates, aren't you?" Fujitora said solemnly, his sightless eyes rolling slightly toward Brook's voice. A clash with the World Government did not mean he wanted to become a pirate.
"Yohohoho." Brook chuckled. "Your name is Fujitora, right? Not bad. You dared to stand against the World Government, and you were hunted by the King itself. Not many people get to enjoy that kind of attention."
Brook's tone turned lighter, almost amused.
"It seems Imu also values your Gravity Fruit."
"Imu?" Fujitora frowned. "I have never heard that name. But that World Government expert did say he wanted to recruit me as a Knight of God."
Brook did not hide it.
"Imu is the king of this world, an immortal who controls the Uranus." Brook's voice carried a calm certainty, like he was stating the weather. "And I am very glad you did not become their slave."
He paused, then spoke with rare sincerity.
"Fujitora, join the Universal Government. Fight for peace among every race."
He did not invite him as a Hell Pirate.
He invited him in the name of Universal Government.
Fujitora's heart tightened.
He had been preparing a careful refusal, something polite, something that would let him leave alive. But Brook's words struck at an awkward place, because Fujitora had heard plenty about Universal Government.
Its reputation was real.
And it sounded dangerously close to the world he had always wanted.
"Captain Brook… let me think about it," Fujitora said slowly. He still needed to see the truth for himself before he could trust it.
Brook's laugh remained, but the meaning behind it sharpened.
"Brother Fujitora, please come with us. Your Gravity Fruit has already caught Imu's eye," Brook said plainly. "We will protect you. After all, that power is important to us as well."
The message was clear.
The World Government wanted it.
The Hell Pirates wanted it too.
So do not even dream of quietly walking away.
Fujitora understood immediately. He could only give a bitter smile.
"Then… thank you for your help."
Escaping a tiger's den, only to step into a wolf's territory. His Gravity Fruit was truly popular.
"Haha! Welcome, Brother Fujitora!" Kozuki Oden boomed, gripping his swords like a starving man spotting dinner. The swordsman in him was already itching for a spar.
Brook did not waste time. He ordered the fleet to turn back toward the Edd War Sea.
The World Government had dared to barge into the New World to steal, and if the Hell Pirates swallowed that quietly, they might as well kneel and beg for chains.
When Imu had controlled Uranus and encountered the Hell Pirates' main force, he had immediately ordered the withdrawal. The Five Elders pulled their troops out without hesitation. Sargon took the Word Spirit Fruit, boarded Uranus, and fled straight back to the Holy Land.
Brook did not chase the Uranus. He could not.
But the CP forces?
Those were another matter.
Uranus was too fast, but hunting down panicked CP troops was more than enough.
The Pluton flying fleet swept over the shattered battlefield, past the defeated Beast Squad, the broken underground forces, and the wrecked pirate ships. Then it dove toward the retreating World Government troops like a guillotine dropping.
"Go," Brook said coldly. "Since Imu took the Word Spirit Fruit, these CP rats can stay behind."
He showed no mercy.
A tide of ghosts surged forward as Brook summoned his undead army and sent them into the charge. He wanted their souls. He wanted their fear. He wanted to swallow their lives whole and make them part of his power.
"Hahaha! Crush them! First Division, forward!" Shiki roared, charging in with his human imitators and a dozen squad leaders, fighting like a storm that only knew blood.
"Vanti! I'll get you revenge!" Kaido thundered.
Seeing his crew slaughtered and Vanti crippled, the Beast King's fury exploded. He became a thousand meter long azure dragon and smashed into the CP ranks like a living disaster.
Ahead, CP and Navy forces fled in terror.
Above them, Linlin stood on Zeus, bombarding soul techniques as lightning rolled. She plundered lifespans without restraint, forging fresh Homies from stolen years.
Newgate struck next.
The sea cracked.
A massive quake erupted, and the resulting tsunami walled off the CP retreat, trapping them like insects in a glass jar. Newgate's intent was simple.
No mercy.
Every commander moved. Every monster bared its teeth.
And Brook, even as he fought, was already calculating the real lesson of this disaster.
Why were unknown Devil Fruits being auctioned in the New World?
Why were they never reported to the Hell Pirates?
It meant the underground dark world needed to be cleaned up. Thoroughly.
Because those private auctions had cost him the Word Spirit Fruit.
From this day on, any Devil Fruit discovered in the New World had to be reported to the Hell Pirates immediately. Private Devil Fruit auctions would be forbidden.
If someone wanted to sell one, the Hell Pirates would decide the price.
Elsewhere, the Navy's main force entered the New World, rushing to reinforce the retreating CP units. Even the Four Elders were on high alert.
Who could guarantee Brook would not snap and start a full scale war?
Now even the Roger Pirates had joined the Hell Pirates. Brook's strength had swollen to the point where he could face the World Government head on.
If Rocks had been the one holding this power, Mary Geoise would already be burning.
Brook was different.
He was cautious.
And that made him even more terrifying, like a venomous snake that waited until the bite could not be stopped.
If Brook ever chose to strike first, he might truly overturn the World Government.
In the Holy Land, the Celestial Dragons were gathered and herded one after another, ready to become sacrifices. If Brook launched a general assault, they would be fed to whatever final weapon the World Government planned to use against him.
Was the world really about to trigger another war over a single Devil Fruit?
The Navy Headquarters and the Four Elders moved into the war fortress beneath the Red Line, a massive island stronghold guarding the Red Earth Continent.
But Brook did not come.
After slaughtering the CP forces, he did not challenge the Four Elders or clash with the Navy. Instead, he withdrew immediately.
This operation had been sudden. He had not summoned the Roger Pirates fully, nor called in every affiliated crew. He had not prepared for total war.
They had come to seize the Word Spirit Fruit.
They had failed.
So they retreated, for now.
Still, devouring another large number of CP0 teams would be enough to make the World Government bleed in silence.
--------------
If the World Government dared to charge into the New World to snatch the Word Spirit Fruit, then the Hell Pirates would dare to wipe every CP unit in sight off the map.
Imu and the Five Elders did not step in to save their agents. They did not escalate into open war, they simply abandoned those forces and pulled back. Cold blooded. Ruthless. They paid a mountain of lives for one Devil Fruit, then tossed the bill onto the battlefield and walked away.
When the World Government realized the Hell Pirates had withdrawn, they finally breathed again. They were not ready for an all out war. The Word Spirit incident had been a sudden flare up, nothing more.
But after tasting the Hell Pirates' pressure firsthand, the Five Elders moved immediately. They began pulling masters from the royal guards of member nations into Mary Geoise and the Navy, stripping countries of their best fighters.
That only worsened the resentment.
A royal guard exists to protect a royal family. The Navy did not live in their palaces, and it could not be everywhere at once. To many kings, this was nothing but robbery dressed as duty.
Some pirate aligned member states had already felt the World Government's decline, yet none of them dared to leave while Uranus still hovered over the world like a blade.
Among them was the Flower Kingdom in the West Sea, a pirate nation that had been warned repeatedly. The reason was Chinjao of the Happo Navy. The World Government demanded the Flower Kingdom recall Chinjao and forbid him from serving the Hell Pirates.
The king could only grit his teeth.
Even his own forces, from Ippo to Shippo, were being pressured to hand over Armament Haki experts to the World Government.
His dissatisfaction grew heavier by the day, and in secret, he began building closer ties with the Hell Pirates.
Then the news of the Edd War Sea battle spread.
Large numbers of CP agents died. Navy losses were severe. The story raced across the world like wildfire, and it did not inspire fear, it inspired disappointment.
Civilians pitied the dead, but more and more member nations asked the same question in private.
Why were they paying so much tribute?
To keep feeding a machine that could not even trade blows with the Hell Pirates for more than a few rounds?
Public opinion fermented. The world's mood turned sour. The seas grew restless.
War felt close enough to taste, yet it did not break. It simply pressed closer, as if waiting for a final spark.
…
Sea Calendar Year 1498.
New World, Sky Island. Technological Island, Punk Hazard.
Brook opened his eyes on a hospital bed.
The moment he did, Dr. Vegapunk knew the world was about to tilt.
Crocus had used the ultimate technique of the Heal Heal Fruit to mend the wound in Brook's heart. Beside the bed, Linlin waited with a treasure chest in her arms, her expression unusually serious.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Two hearts.
Two steady, violent beats.
Two solid souls.
Brook's lips curled, then his laugh burst out, wild and sharp. The pressure of his Conqueror's Haki surged so fiercely that cracks spiderwebbed across the alloy bed beneath him.
"Yohohohoho!!! Linlin, bring me the Dark Dark Fruit. Now!"
He had spent three years mobilizing the entire Hell Pirates' network, and in the end, they found it, the most evil fruit of all, hidden on an island near the West Sea side of the New World.
For years, Brook's second heart had been tested and screened through one monster after another. Demon Lord Anos. Emperor Engine King. Orochi Chris. Even Sakazuki.
In the end, Brook chose the strongest heart of them all, Isaac's.
Sakazuki escaped.
And the moment the Dark Dark Fruit was found, Isaac's relentless training ended. He gave everything he had to forge Brook a heart that could bear it.
Linlin opened the Homies chest carefully, like she was unveiling a curse, and placed the fruit into Brook's hands.
If Teach had been there, he would have gone mad with envy. This was the Devil Fruit he had desired most.
Brook did not hesitate.
He bit down.
The taste was vile. The power was worse.
That darkness poured straight into Brook's second soul like a flood, and in the same instant, it surged into the second heart, swallowing it, claiming it, drinking endless power as if it had found a bottomless well.
The Dark Dark Fruit and the Revive Revive Fruit occupied the same body, two hearts, two souls.
But there was no deadly struggle for control.
No collapse.
No explosion.
Brook stood atop the bed like a demon king reborn.
In his left hand, an evil black flame that devoured light.
In his right hand, cold ghostly mist that dragged the living toward the Underworld.
His eyes shone with a deep red gleam.
In that moment, Brook felt stronger than he had ever been.
The pressure rolling off him made Linlin, Vegapunk, and Crocus all feel it. Their Devil Fruit powers were being suppressed, crushed down as if something heavier had wrapped around their throats.
Was this the might of the most evil fruit?
"Yohohoho! With power like this, I do not need to wait for Poseidon to be born, or for Nika to grow up," Brook declared, voice rising with a heat that was not his usual calm. "I can crush Imu myself!"
The second he gained the Dark Dark Fruit, Brook's caution evaporated. Arrogance surged through him like a drug, and even he could feel it.
He had never expected a Logia like this could warp its user's temperament so violently.
No wonder Kuzan grew lazier. No wonder Borsalino moved like time itself bored him. These powers did not just change the world around you, they seeped into the person holding them.
"Brook!" Linlin shouted, her voice slamming into him like a fist. "You said arrogance leads to failure. Have you forgotten?"
Brook froze.
Then he remembered Teach's smug, swollen confidence, the kind that made a man believe the world owed him victory.
He exhaled slowly, forcing the arrogance down, locking it away.
"It really is an arrogant power," Brook said, laughing again, but this time the laugh had restraint.
The Sun God's power came from laughter and freedom.
The Dark Dark Fruit felt different. It felt like the more conceited you became, the louder it roared back, feeding off that pride.
A nasty side effect.
But Brook would still despise the enemy strategically, and take the enemy seriously tactically.
And once he had adapted, once he had mastered the darkness, Brook stopped pretending.
He no longer wanted to hide his intentions from Imu.
After a few months of stabilization and development, he officially set his great plan into motion.
The second generation of Hell had grown, one by one, into true monsters.
Even Nika, only four years old, could already communicate with the Elephant Lord and give commands to that colossal being over thirty thousand meters tall.
The time had come.
On Doragonzo Island, Brook and Linlin publicly announced the establishment of the Universal Government.
A new world level organization, meant to stand against the World Government itself.
News Coo birds flew across the seas, delivering invitations everywhere. Member nations and non member nations alike were invited to join, openly, shamelessly, boldly.
The Universal Government would compete with the World Government for membership.
Directly.
At the same time, the World Economic News Agency revealed the existence of the World King Imu and exposed the Void Century.
The seastone warships of Universal Government began operating on a massive scale, opening routes across all four seas and flinging the world into a true Age of Exploration.
The era of global domination had arrived.
The first nation to move was West Sea All Nations, joining the Universal Government immediately. It became the first core country under the Universal Government's protection, backed by seastone fleets and the Hell Pirates' shadow.
In an instant, every kingdom on the seas gained a second choice.
Remain a member of the World Government.
Or become a core nation of the Universal Government.
And if you chose neither, you would be standing alone in the open, with no umbrella at all.
The moment of decision had arrived.
Now it depended on the royal families.
This would be the choice that decided their fate.
.....
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