When the Navy's top fighting force arrived, Jotaro had already sailed away from the waters near Alabasta.
With a navigator like Nami, the chances of the Navy catching up were close to zero.
"Within the range of my Observation Haki, there are no enemies chasing us."
Shinobu reported this situation to Jotaro, confirming that everyone's current location was very safe.
"Even if we're running for our lives, we need a destination, right? Jotaro, where should we go next?"
Nami poked her head out of the cockpit and asked Jotaro.
Jotaro didn't immediately answer the question. Instead, he called everyone together.
"What is it? You look so serious…" Nami muttered under her breath as she looked at him.
"Jotaro-san, do you have something to say?" Shinobu also noticed that Jotaro's expression didn't seem right.
"You all should get off the ship."
Jotaro said these words with a stern face, clearly not joking.
"Little Jotaro! Don't tell me you want to throw me off the ship? I already have nowhere else to go, you're too heartless."
Bon-chan was extremely aggrieved and burst into tears on the spot, her resentful eyes like those of a woman abandoned by a faithless man.
Robin frowned and said, "Although we've escaped, we're still not completely out of danger. The Navy could catch up at any time. Getting off the ship now is no different from courting death."
"That's not what I mean." Jotaro knew his poor way of expressing himself had caused another misunderstanding.
"I'll send you to a safe place."
His gaze fell on Nami.
"Nami, when I first let you on the ship, it was because I wanted to use your knowledge to navigate this sea safely. I never expected things to turn out like this."
At the start, Jotaro only wanted to collect the Poneglyphs, complete the system's missions, and leave this world as soon as possible.
He had no desire to get caught up in unnecessary battles.
But things didn't go as he wished. Even if he didn't stir up trouble, trouble still came knocking.
Even if the enemy was the colossal power of this world, the dreaded World Government, Jotaro would never swallow such humiliation.
That's why what he was about to do next was extremely dangerous.
"Whether you leave or not isn't for me to decide, but for you to decide yourselves."
"Continuing to follow me will be dangerous. If you have any place you want to go, just say it. I'll prioritize sending you there."
Jotaro looked at them with a solemn expression.
"Why so sudden…"
Nami felt the heavy pressure of being forced to make a choice.
"Uuu, so Little Jotaro actually does care about us. I'm so touched…"
Bon-chan wiped her tears away and then turned serious, saying, "No matter how dangerous it gets in the future, I will never get off this ship!"
"So what exactly are you planning to do?" Robin suddenly recalled something Jotaro had said before and froze in shock. "Could it be…"
Jotaro's aura grew sharp, killing intent pouring off him, his voice cold as ice.
"I'm going to overturn the World Government!"
"They've pissed me off for the last time!"
———
[Holy Land Mary Geoise]
"With all that manpower and he still managed to escape? The Navy really is a bunch of useless fools!"
Upon receiving the news that Jotaro had escaped, the Five Elders' faces were dark and terrifying.
"This was such a good chance, and we missed it." Saint Warcury felt deep regret. "After this, he'll definitely be even more cautious."
Saint Mars nodded. "Once he enters the New World, it'll be much harder for us to strike!"
The New World wasn't controlled by the government alone.
The Four Emperors all commanded formidable military power.
Even the World Government had to carefully maintain a delicate balance between them.
Once that balance was broken, they too would be affected.
Saint Nasjuro, "What I worry about is that once Dragon learns of this, he'll send people specifically to protect him."
Since his ideological shift, Dragon's revolutionary movement had grown fiercer. In less than a year, he had toppled several kingdoms' tyrannical rule, delivering unprecedented blows to the World Government.
They worried Dragon might gain even more dangerous ideas from Jotaro.
The vast meeting room fell into a brief silence.
Saint Garling spoke, "I think Dragon's offensive has thrown us into disarray."
"There's no doubt that anyone who can provide him with developed ideas is extremely dangerous."
"That's why, from the start, we regarded Kujo Jotaro as a target to eliminate."
Saint Warcury shot him a sideways glance. "And what's wrong with that?"
Saint Garling, "If he and Dragon aren't on the same side, then our heavy-handed actions might have only created a terrifying enemy for us."
Thinking of that cunning man Dragon, Saint Warcury muttered after a pause, "True. Just like you said, Dragon really has thrown us into chaos!!"
Seeing the puzzled looks from the others, Saint Warcury explained, "Dragon wrote down the ideas Jotaro gave him, and ever since then, his revolutionary offensive has intensified, making us feel an even greater crisis."
"So much so that we couldn't wait to strike at the one who started it all!"
"Even without concrete evidence of Jotaro and Dragon's relationship, we still launched an attack on him."
"But thinking it over now, this could very well have been Dragon's scheme all along!"
The other three, except Saint Garling, were stunned.
Saint Warcury continued, "If Jotaro really was part of the Revolutionary Army, his appearance in the first half of the Grand Line would already be strange."
Saint Mars cut in, "Why? We already discussed this before, the Revolutionary Army's influence was mainly outside the Grand Line, in the Four Seas."
"With their growing power, it's natural that Dragon might shift his main battlefield to the Grand Line."
"Jotaro could very well be the vanguard he sent ahead!"
Saint Warcury, "But now it seems that was just us worrying too much!"
After gaining new ideas, Dragon's revolutionary cause had grown more smoothly, so the Five Elders speculated he would soon expand his battlefield, focusing on the Grand Line.
But reality was not like that.
Seizing power was easy, keeping it was hard.
After Dragon liberated several kingdoms, those same kingdoms quickly started restoring their old rule again.
The Revolutionary Army found itself in a tough situation without the World Government even making a move.
Dragon still hadn't realized how limited his idea of freedom really was.
Saint Garling and Saint Warcury's subtle change in attitude toward Jotaro came from recent intelligence on the Revolutionary Army's predicament.
The Revolutionary Army simply didn't have the strength to launch large-scale movements in the Grand Line.
"So Jotaro absolutely cannot be his vanguard." Saint Warcury asked rhetorically, "Would any of you expose a talent like Jotaro to the enemy's eyes?"
The Five Elders all shook their heads in unison.
Even a pig wouldn't do something that stupid.
Brrr… Brrr… Brrr…
"Oh? It's Spandine!" Saint Garling took out a Den Den Mushi and explained, "I specifically sent him, leading CP0, to the East Blue to investigate the relationship between Dragon and Jotaro."
"He might have results now!"
The line connected, and Spandine's sycophantic face appeared.
["Honorable Five Elders, I have lived up to your expectations. At last, I've uncovered the truth…"]
After listening to Spandine's report, Saint Mars exploded with fury.
"Damn Dragon! We've been played! They only met once!"
"He wanted to use us to push Jotaro into his camp!"
Saint Nasjuro's expression turned extremely grim.
"Jotaro has the potential to become one of the Four Emperors. If he bears hostility toward us, the future situation in the New World will be very unfavorable for us!"
Saint Garling, "There's still room to turn this around!"
"We can extend an olive branch to Jotaro! Invite him to join the World Government!"
The others looked at each other, then nodded in agreement. "Someone like him joining the World Government would definitely be a great help to us."
"We can give it a try."
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