"Oh!!!"
"These devil wings and that tail… pretty special, huh!!!"
Ignoring the icy glare from those cold, ringed eyes, Ozz reached out with curiosity and gave them a pat, completely unselfconscious, as if he'd been doing it for years.
And Imu?
Right now, Imu was still just a king of a nation, nowhere near the version that would be tempered by eight hundred years and grow into someone who looked down on everything in existence.
Even with pride, Imu had no good way to deal with Ozz, a man who cared about only one thing: whether it was fun, and if it was, he didn't care about heaven or earth.
Especially not when Ozz possessed that unsolvable Devil Fruit ability and Conqueror's Haki that didn't lose to Imu's.
Ozz wasn't worried Imu would suddenly turn hostile either.
Right now, the gap in strength between the Twenty Kingdoms and the Great Kingdom wasn't so absurdly lopsided, and the future direction of the world still hadn't been decided.
A "mysterious king" like Ozz, someone who could sway the entire battlefield just by choosing a side, was exactly the kind of existence worth pulling close.
Imu could tell what mattered more.
Ozz, of course, wasn't going to push things too far, either. For the moment, he favored the Twenty Kings' side.
After a brief bit of interaction with Imu, he simply smiled and moved aside, going to greet King Donquixote.
Even though he brought no real territory, no soldiers, no flag, Ozz's presence among the Twenty Kings didn't feel out of place in the slightest.
His strength, his aura, his appearance… among everyone in the room, he was the one most deserving of the word "king."
No one could even summon the instinct to reject him.
Even Imu, that ambitious devil who held themselves in the highest regard, both acknowledged Ozz and feared him.
And Ozz…
He noticed that gaze, too.
He was just as curious about Imu's "magic."
Possession.
Teleportation across extreme distances.
Turning people into devils.
An undying body…
If Ozz was a one-sided, rule-breaking monster, then Imu was a multi-layered bug, a walking cheat in every direction.
Catching Ozz's look, Imu's mood sank slightly.
"Why are you staring at Mu like that?"
…
"Are you sure it's okay?"
Vegapunk couldn't bear it.
Bonney was bawling her eyes out, forced onto the ship by Ginny while still yelling for her dad. Ginny herself was crying just as hard.
Vegapunk looked up at the towering figure beside him, patted Kuma's leg, and spoke softly.
Kuma watched the ship pull away with Ginny and Bonney aboard.
He tried to smile, tried to keep it together, but in the end… he cried anyway.
Only when the ship's silhouette vanished beyond the horizon did he finally speak.
"It's fine. If it weren't for Mr. Ozz… I wouldn't have had a chance to meet them in this life. So it's all worth it."
Vegapunk fell silent.
Seeing Kuma with tears and snot all over his face, he could only shake his head and turn back.
"If you're determined to help… then come with me, Kuma."
Kuma's massive body turned.
He followed Vegapunk without hesitation.
"Yes, Dr. Vegapunk."
One big, one small, the two of them headed toward a special passage on Egghead.
It was a hidden tunnel, an underground route that led straight to a secluded shoreline where a submarine waited to pick them up.
They disappeared into the darkness.
And they never noticed…
A figure in white, hiding behind a building, staring at the ship sailing away, then at the two vanishing silhouettes, lost in thought.
…
"Dr. Vegapunk… this is?"
From the deepest pit beneath the lab to a secret submarine, the whole procedure left even Kuma stunned.
"Don't worry," Vegapunk said calmly. "This is all Mr. Ozz's work."
Vegapunk moved like he'd done this a hundred times.
With Ozz backing him, he received plenty of "vacation time" every month. During those periods, he always took a submarine made from Seastone and traveled to a hidden research facility.
And the World Government never questioned it.
One, out of respect for Ozz, they had to give face.
Two, they had absolutely no idea how dangerous the experiment Vegapunk was doing for Ozz truly was.
"Dr. Vegapunk!!!"
The one responsible for receiving Vegapunk was a subordinate of "Shipping King" Umit.
The moment he saw the unfamiliar giant behind Vegapunk, he broke into cold sweat and went on guard.
Ever since obtaining Pure Gold, Umit had become Ozz's diehard loyalist.
After all, Ozz was the man who had bestowed immortality on him.
Umit knew a little about Ozz's experiment, since he was part of Vegapunk's escort network. But he never hesitated, supporting it with everything he had.
His men understood their boss's stance.
They didn't dare take this lightly.
"Oh!!! Right, I forgot to tell you," Vegapunk said, waving a hand. "This is Kuma, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. He's here to assist me."
With that explanation, Vegapunk led Kuma into the submarine.
The subordinate didn't dare block them. He'd heard of this arrangement already.
That "Warlord" was under the same boss as his own boss, the Shipping King. If they ever met, they were not to interfere.
Still…
The man swallowed hard, staring at Kuma's glasses, his stern expression, and that absurdly muscular frame.
So this was one of the Seven Warlords… a pirate of the sea's highest tier?
The submarine quickly got moving, heading toward a predetermined direction.
After a long time, accompanied by a slight jolt, Vegapunk and the others finally saw daylight again.
An island appeared… wild, primitive, almost untouched.
"This is…"
Kuma was about to speak, but Vegapunk raised a finger to his lips.
Silence.
Only after passing through layers of defenses, in plain sight and hidden, did they enter a mountain that had been almost hollowed out.
Inside, countless researchers hurried back and forth.
"Dr. Vegapunk!!!"
"You're finally here!!!"
People greeted him the moment they saw him.
Kuma didn't know what to say, so he stayed quiet, following behind.
They walked deeper and deeper until they reached the innermost lab.
The room was enormous, impossibly so, stretching up until the ceiling couldn't even be seen.
Maybe they'd carved out an entire mountain range just to fit this place.
Kuma's thoughts were still catching up as his curious gaze drifted toward the center, the most obvious focal point.
He took a step closer.
And then, suddenly, several darts sliced through the air and slammed into the floor right at his feet.
"Huh?!"
Kuma jumped, startled, quickly looking around, trying to find where the attack came from.
Vegapunk, however, wasn't surprised at all.
He just waved his hand.
"Don't be so tense. That's not an enemy. Just endure it."
As his words fell…
A seductive woman stepped out, her back bearing black wings, flames dancing around her, skin a deep bronze.
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