Under Crocus’ treatnt, 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 mbers of the Hell Pirates, aren’t you?” Fujitora said solemnly, his sightless eyes rolling slightly toward Brook’s voice. A clash with the World Governnt did not an he wanted to beco a pirate.
“Yohohoho.” Brook chuckled. “Your na is Fujitora, right? Not bad. You dared to stand against the World Governnt, 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 na. But that World Governnt expert did say he wanted to recruit 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 beco their slave.”
He paused, then spoke with rare sincerity.
“Fujitora, join the Universal Governnt. Fight for peace among every race.”
He did not invite him as a Hell Pirate.
He invited him in the na of Universal Governnt.
Fujitora’s heart tightened.
He had been preparing a careful refusal, sothing polite, sothing that would let him leave alive. But Brook’s words struck at an awkward place, because Fujitora had heard plenty about Universal Governnt.
Its reputation was real.
And it sounded dangerously close to the world he had always wanted.
“Captain Brook… let 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 aning behind it sharpened.
“Brother Fujitora, please co 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 ssage was clear.
The World Governnt wanted it.
The Hell Pirates wanted it too.
So do not even dream of quietly walking away.
Fujitora understood imdiately. 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! Welco, Brother Fujitora!” Kozuki Oden bood, gripping his swords like a starving man spotting dinner. The swordsman in him was already itching for a spar.
Brook did not waste ti. He ordered the fleet to turn back toward the Edd War Sea.
The World Governnt 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 imdiately 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 Governnt 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 rcy.
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 beca a thousand ter 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 rcy.
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 ant 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 imdiately. Private Devil Fruit auctions would be forbidden.
If soone 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 Governnt 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 Governnt.
In the Holy Land, the Celestial Dragons were gathered and herded one after another, ready to beco sacrifices. If Brook launched a general assault, they would be fed to whatever final weapon the World Governnt 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 co.
After slaughtering the CP forces, he did not challenge the Four Elders or clash with the Navy. Instead, he withdrew imdiately.
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 co 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 Governnt bleed in silence.
------------
If the World Governnt 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 Governnt 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 imdiately. They began pulling masters from the royal guards of mber nations into Mary Geoise and the Navy, stripping countries of their best fighters.
That only worsened the resentnt.
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.
So pirate aligned mber states had already felt the World Governnt’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 Governnt 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 Armant Haki experts to the World Governnt.
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 disappointnt.
Civilians pitied the dead, but more and more mber nations asked the sa 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 fernted. 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 mont he did, Dr. Vegapunk knew the world was about to tilt.
Crocus had used the ultimate technique of the Heal Heal Fruit to nd 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 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 mont 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 sa 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 sa 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 fla 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 mont, 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 sothing 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 temperant so violently.
No wonder Kuzan grew lazier. No wonder Borsalino moved like ti 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 rembered 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 ti the laugh had restraint.
The Sun God’s power ca from laughter and freedom.
The Dark Dark Fruit felt different. It felt like the more conceited you beca, 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 developnt, 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 ters tall.
The ti had co.
On Doragonzo Island, Brook and Linlin publicly announced the establishnt of the Universal Governnt.
A new world level organization, ant to stand against the World Governnt itself.
News Coo birds flew across the seas, delivering invitations everywhere. mber nations and non mber nations alike were invited to join, openly, shalessly, boldly.
The Universal Governnt would compete with the World Governnt for mbership.
Directly.
At the sa ti, the World Economic News Agency revealed the existence of the World King Imu and exposed the Void Century.
The seastone warships of Universal Governnt 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 Governnt imdiately. It beca the first core country under the Universal Governnt’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 mber of the World Governnt.
Or beco a core nation of the Universal Governnt.
And if you chose neither, you would be standing alone in the open, with no umbrella at all.
The mont of decision had arrived.
Now it depended on the royal families.
This would be the choice that decided their fate.
.....
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