Forget it. I will just use Kizaru as a training dummy for my Observation Haki.
Still, that guy is unbelievably punchable. Good thing the people in the card space cannot talk. If he could, I would probably be so annoyed I could not use Observation at all.
If he really turns out to be a Revolutionary Army mole in the future, I am absolutely settling all these old and new scores together.
After making that silent promise, Hiruto Blake looked off into the distance.
An island appeared ahead. He turned and asked:
"Where are we now?"
"Your Highness, at our current speed, we will arrive at Baterilla Island in about half an hour."
Blake nodded without any change in his expression.
"A tiny island like that has nothing worth seeing. We will resupply there, then head for the West Blue."
Baterilla Island?
Was that not the island where Gol D. Roger hid before he turned himself in?
At this point in time, Roger had already been executed by the World Government. Portgas D. Rouge should still be on that island.
Blake had zero intention of meeting her.
Many transmigrators who took Rouge back to raise her as some kind of Cao Cao style stolen consort were all elite Celestial Dragons to begin with, already registered with the Five Elders, future Holy Knights or even future Elders themselves.
A guy like Blake, who was trying to skip straight to the final boss position, was not about to show off like that.
As for taking Ace back and raising him as one of his own?
Give me a break. You really think growing up in Mary Geoise would make him less rebellious?
He would end up like Uchiha Itachi, sitting in a corner, questioning the meaning of life. That would be a real spectacle.
One year later, in the West Blue.
Because a stretch of the Red Line lay between the South and West Blues, Blake had to return to Mary Geoise first in order to cross over. The detour took quite some time, and with the period he spent in the Holy Land, a year slipped by very quickly.
That year had been dull, but his strength had grown steadily.
Six months ago, as his Haki intensity climbed higher and higher, his Observation Haki finally broke through a threshold and reached the realm of Future Sight.
If Katakuri's Future Sight was the culmination of refined technique, Blake's Future Sight was pure numbers. A change in quantity that had simply forced a change in quality.
With Observation refined to that level, Blake finally defeated the young Kizaru.
As he flipped the ability card in his hand, he felt both excited and helpless.
Ability Card: Glint Glint Fruit.
That was right. He had just dropped the highest grade reward on Kizaru's body, the Pika Pika no Mi.
The card system did not neutralize the Devil Fruit curse. Using this card was no different than eating the real Glint Glint Fruit.
"I can stand at the top of the world with raw stats alone. Why would I give myself such a glaring weakness?"
That was how Blake saw it.
So he planned to give this card to someone else who needed it.
After all, he could only eat one Devil Fruit, or rather, only fully use one ability card.
If he was going to consume a Devil Fruit, he would take his time and choose carefully.
For now, he only had Aramaki under him.
Aramaki already possessed the Woods Woods Fruit, so he could not use this card. It looked like the Glint Glint Fruit would be sitting in Blake's hand as a collectible for quite a while.
Blake's power had also advanced quickly over the year. At this point, he could fight the forty one year old Donquixote Doflamingo from the original timeline without any issue. His combat power was roughly at the level of a right hand man to a Yonko.
On top of that, his chances of drawing swordsmen had noticeably increased this year.
It was as if the card space wanted to nudge him along the path of the all rounder.
Thanks to the efforts of all those swordsmen, his swordsmanship had improved at a terrifying rate. In just one year, he had reached about the same level Zoro had when he first entered the Grand Line, and was only one small step away from becoming a true swordsman who could cut steel.
"Your Highness, there seems to be something ahead."
One of the CP agents behind him finally spoke up.
Blake did not lift his head. Since his Observation Haki had been boosted by ability cards, it had grown evenly in every aspect. Its range now was no worse than Enel's from the original story, so naturally he had already noticed the situation ahead.
On the sea surface, two ships were racing in a chase.
"Fire the cannons. Force that merchant ship to stop."
A burly pirate holding a wide bladed sword stood at the rail, yelling at the top of his lungs.
Suddenly, a hand appeared behind his head and slapped the back of his skull.
"Do not fire, you idiot. What if you blast the treasure into the sea? If that happens, you can jump in and fish it up yourself."
The big pirate hunched his neck.
"Yes, Captain."
Far away, Blake, who had been watching the show, suddenly sat up straighter and looked in another direction.
A massive island ship had entered his field of view.
"What is he doing here?"
The newcomer was Gecko Moria, who had only recently suffered a crushing defeat in Wano Country.
He really was down bad. Kaido had slaughtered his whole crew and Moria alone had escaped with his life.
The island ship was not particularly fast, but its sheer size made it impossible to miss.
"Captain. Something at four o'clock."
On the pirate ship up ahead, the lookout shouted down.
The silver haired, lanky captain raised his head in the direction the lookout had indicated and also saw the enormous island ship.
His eyes bulged.
"Wha… what is that? The island… the island is moving?"
The West Blue was separated from the New World by nothing more than a Calm Belt. There was no shortage of powerful people around these parts. The silver haired captain in front of them, however, clearly did not belong to that group. His lack of experience made him panic for a second.
Then his panic turned into elation.
"A moving island. Could that be the legendary One Piece?"
"No wonder nobody has found it all this time. So Laugh Tale is mobile."
"I knew it. I am destined to become the next Pirate King. Move. Forget that ship. Turn the rudder. Laugh Tale is right there. We cannot let anyone get there before us."
At his words, the pirates on board all became worked up as well.
"Long live the captain."
"Captain is a genius."
"Woooo."
Whipped into a frenzy by his speech, the pirate crew charged straight toward Moria's ship, Thriller Bark.
The poor fools still had not noticed the Sanctum and the Marine warship sailing quietly beside it.
Even more tragically, they were throwing themselves headfirst into Thriller Bark on their own initiative, when everyone else in the world would do anything to stay away from that place.
Blake watched it all with delight.
One could easily imagine what mood a thoroughly emo Moria would be in when a bunch of low level pirates barged into his lair to disturb him.
Compared to Moria himself, Blake was far more interested in the ship.
Right now, Moria had only just finished modifying the island and managed to get it moving. Its appearance was still very different from the Thriller Bark we know from the story. That was why those idiots had mistaken it for an actual drifting island.
Blake studied the architecture on the island ship.
"It really does look a bit like the buildings from God Valley."
In his previous life, there had been a popular theory that Moria's island ship had been converted from God Valley.
The first point was that Thriller Bark was said to be a West Blue island that Moria had modified into a ship after his defeat.
The second was that several of the zombies under his command looked suspiciously like former members of the Rocks Pirates.
Blake was still on the fence about that theory.