"Hohh, so Arton's actually had dealings with Whitebeard's Ace now? That's really pretty scary, y'know."
"But what's even scarier is the ability that Nojiko showed off. If I ever fell into their hands, would they dig the Glint-Glint Fruit out of my body too?"
"And if Arton really did get his hands on my Glint-Glint Fruit… I wonder what kind of Mythical Zoan he'd remodel it into." Borsalino rubbed his chin, then glanced curiously at Kuzan beside him.
"You stare at me like that, and I still can't give you an answer." Kuzan mumbled. "At the end of the day, with your speed, I don't really see Arton catching you."
"Yeah, you say that, but I did go through a pretty rough little failure of a trip with them already, y'know." Borsalino shook his head as he spoke. "That fight cost me quite a bit of effort."
Kuzan didn't bother replying this time; instead, his gaze dropped to the newspaper that had been handed to him.
More precisely, to the photo of Robin on the page.
'Is this your choice… or are you just joining another organization like always?' Kuzan thought to himself.
As Robin's invisible guardian, Kuzan naturally knew how many groups she'd joined in the past.
And after that, how many she'd betrayed—and how many had hunted her down.
Because of this, Robin's reputation in the underworld was in tatters; at this point, hardly anyone dared to take her in.
When he saw that Robin had joined the Flameblade Pirates, Kuzan's first reaction was that someday in the future, she might betray them too—just like she'd betrayed all those other organizations.
Only, this time, Kuzan felt a faintly different thought stir in his heart. He had a feeling it would be very hard for Robin to leave the Flameblade Pirates ever again.
Right then, Sengoku knocked on the table in front of him, drawing everyone's attention back his way.
"Just as you've all seen and heard, Blackbeard possesses certain special abilities. He's someone we need to keep an eye on."
"But compared to him, the one we should be paying even more attention to is Arton—and his Flameblade Pirates."
"Those of you who've known about Arton since earlier should remember that the Marines originally intended to recruit him."
"Unfortunately, that idea failed." Sengoku said with his face set in a hard line. "Now we have no choice but to treat him as a criminal who must be taken very seriously."
Even though Garp had told him Arton wasn't a bad person, but someone with a kind heart, and even though Gion held Arton in high esteem, believing he was a capable man—all of that had become meaningless the moment Arton took down a Celestial Dragon.
And now that Arton had even invited Robin—the very woman the World Government wanted so badly to erase—into the Flameblade Pirates, it was even less possible for the Marines to invite him to join.
"You all know Nico Robin is in pursuit of the Poneglyphs that record the true history, and the Poneglyphs are something the World Government absolutely forbids anyone to seek."
"Now that Arton has brought Robin into his crew, there's a real chance he'll go after those stones as well."
"So whether it's to prevent Arton from actually finding the Poneglyphs, or to give the World Government a proper response, we need to take active measures."
"In other words, we've gotta give the World Government an explanation, huh." Kizaru spread his hands. "Borsalino, how about you go bring Arton back?"
At the sound of Kizaru's voice, Sengoku immediately looked over at him.
Chapter 466 – Sengoku Says He's Very Worried
"Uh… you really need an admiral to move out for this?"
"Well, I guess with the kind of power Arton's shown, he does warrant an admiral making a move. But I've already gone out once before, haven't I? Arton's probably already figured out my abilities by now. He might've even used Observation Haki to memorize my aura—if I head over there, there's a good chance he'll just lock onto me with Observation the moment I get close. If it ends up like that, actually catching him is gonna be pretty difficult, y'know."
Kizaru put on an obviously evasive look, making it plain he really didn't want to go deal with the Flameblade Pirates.
Come on, even when Zephyr personally went out, the price he paid was having a beloved disciple captured.
Even facing Garp, Arton hadn't really come out the worse for wear.
With things like that on the record, just thinking about being put in charge of Arton's case again made Borsalino feel tired.
"You're just making excuses, Kizaru." Kuzan gave Borsalino a sidelong glance.
"How could you call it an excuse?" Borsalino shook his head, then suddenly brightened, looking over at Kuzan. "Come to think of it, you seem pretty curious about Arton and his Flameblade Pirates, don't you? How about you take this one instead?"
Not far away, Tsuru watched Kizaru's old–fox act and could only shake her head helplessly.
Sengoku's forehead veins were already bulging; just as he was about to call Kizaru out by name, Kuzan nodded. "Yeah. I can take this assignment."
"Hey now, don't be like that, think it over a little more—wait, you accepted?" Borsalino stared at Kuzan in surprise.
He'd thought he'd have to spend quite a bit of effort talking Kuzan into it. He hadn't expected Kuzan to just agree outright—this was way too easy.
It wasn't just Borsalino who was surprised; Tsuru and Sengoku were both taken aback as well.
"You're really planning to take this mission, Kuzan?" Tsuru asked. "The World Government's breathing down our necks on this. If you accept, they're going to focus all their expectations on you."
She knew very well that while Kuzan didn't act like as much of a sly old fox as Borsalino, he was actually the one of the three admirals who hated hassle the most.
And because he'd spent so much time around Garp, Kuzan had also become the admiral who least wanted to have anything to do with the Celestial Dragons.
No surprise there—Garp had said things like "the Celestial Dragons are trash" in front of Kuzan more than a few times.
Tsuru had originally thought Akainu would be the only one likely to accept this mission.
Sengoku had been thinking the same thing.
What they didn't know was that the real reason Kuzan nodded… was the Flameblade Pirates' new crewmate, Robin.
The woman he'd once spared had now joined a crew with the clearest potential to rise to the level of a Yonko–class pirate crew. One way or another, he wanted to see the current Robin with his own eyes—and talk to her face to face.
"I'll go take a look. I was planning to head to the Grand Line soon anyway." Kuzan nodded to Tsuru and Sengoku.
"Mm. It's unexpected, but since you've volunteered, we'll leave this matter in your hands." Sengoku gave Kuzan a satisfied nod, then turned his gaze back to Kizaru. "Borsalino, try learning a thing or two from Kuzan, will you?"
Borsalino shut his mouth and simply stopped talking. As long as he didn't have a mission in hand, getting chewed out a bit wasn't such a big deal.
Especially when the job in question was something as insanely difficult as dealing with Arton.
"Sengoku-san, can you send me all the intel you have on the Flameblade Pirates?" Kuzan stood up. "Once I have the information, I'll head out immediately."
"In such a hurry? …Fine, go on ahead." Sengoku said. "We'll keep you updated from here with any new intelligence on Arton and his Flameblade Pirates at all times."
"Remember, your mission is to apply some pressure and interference to the Flameblade Pirates. You don't have to arrest the entire crew. If you can capture Robin, that alone will be enough."
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