"The Davy Family, ever heard of them?"
"You mean..."
"That's right. You should know it, just like the Buccaneer race, the Davy Family's bodies also have special traits."
A strange gleam flashed in Ian's eyes as he continued: "But what can you offer?"
"I... What do you want?"
Vegapunk asked seriously. "Do you want me to build you a weapon? Or a ship?"
"No need for those."
Ian thought for a moment. He realized he didn't particularly want anything, no, more accurately, compared to objects, he wanted Vegapunk himself.
After thinking briefly, he said, "The metal formula used to craft my weapons and ship. Oh, right, and... The inheritance from Ohara, you took part of it, didn't you?"
"Huh, how do you know that too?"
"Don't worry about how I know."
Ian said casually. "That's it. I want the Ohara inheritance you have and the metal formula. Of course…"
He added with a teasing smile: "If you could leave me one of your weapons, that'd be even better."
"... That's impossible, Ian. That weapon is meant to protect the world. If the World Government found out, I'd be done for."
After saying that seriously, Vegapunk suddenly laughed cheerfully. "Now, can you tell me? I'll be very grateful. If possible... I'll prepare a special gift for you in the future!"
"How nice of you."
Ian responded irritably, then didn't dwell on it and spoke seriously: "You know the Whitebeard Pirates, right? The person you want is on their ship."
Vegapunk: "...?!"
The Whitebeard Pirates?
Hearing that, Vegapunk couldn't help but remember that terrifying pirate crew from long ago.
After a moment of silence, he scratched his head and asked, "There are many members in Whitebeard's crew. Who do you mean?"
"A guy named Teach. He's not famous yet, so he's easy to find. He's missing a few teeth."
Ian didn't hide anything. "But he's Whitebeard's son now, do you dare draw the blood of Whitebeard's son?"
"I have to say, you really gave me a troublesome choice."
Vegapunk scratched his head irritably. "Can't you really just—"
"No."
"Fine."
Vegapunk sighed. "I'll think of another method. What a stingy guy!"
"All right, if there's nothing else, I'm hanging up."
"Goodbye... Wait!"
Vegapunk, who was about to hang up, suddenly stopped.
Before Ian could even wonder what else he wanted to say, Vegapunk fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a serious tone: "Ian, you are not the God of Sun."
As soon as he finished…
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The Den Den Mushi was hung up, leaving Ian staring helplessly at it.
That's it?
Does he not know whether he is the God of the Sun or not?
He didn't think further. He put away the Den Den Mushi and looked at Robin, who seemed like she wanted to speak but didn't.
Smiling, he shook his head and said, "Eat first, we'll talk later."
...
On the other side, Vegapunk, who had also hung up, silently stared at the Den Den Mushi in his hand and muttered: "A pity... You are not the one everyone has been waiting for."
But after he finished, a troubled expression appeared on his face again as he scratched his head. "The Davy Family... Whitebeard... Teach... Could it be the blood left by that terrifying man from back then? I must say, this is truly terrible news. The World Government must not find out."
...
At the same time, in the New World, aboard the Whitebeard Pirates' ship.
"Achoo!"
A sneeze loud enough to shake the whole ship suddenly echoed out, and all the crew turned to look at the one who sneezed.
"Teach, what's up with you?"
"Don't tell me you caught a cold? Your body sure is weak!"
"Don't joke around. With a body as tough as Teach's? No way he's weak. Maybe he's sick?"
"It's fine, it's fine, just a bit itchy in the nose."
Hearing their concern, Teach waved his hand cheerfully, not caring that they said he was weak.
"I feel much better after sneezing!"
Then he curiously looked at the brothers gathered ahead. "Right, what were you talking about just now?"
"Nothing much, we were talking about how an unbelievable bounty popped up in a black market in East Blue."
Hearing Teach's question, the other crew members didn't hide anything and instead said with amused smiles, "Someone put up a bounty of ten billion for a logia Devil Fruit. That already surpasses even the value of the Op-Op Fruit back then!"
"A Logia Devil Fruit? Ten billion? That's an insane bounty!"
Hearing that, Teach didn't think much and laughed as he asked: "Which Devil Fruit?"
"The Dark-Dark Fruit!"
Teach: "...?!"
The moment those words came out, Teach froze on the spot. Even the cherry pie in his hand fell to the floor. The others who were discussing the bizarre bounty looked over in confusion.
Seeing Teach frozen there, they seemed to understand something.
"It's unbelievable, right? Who knows what's so special about that Devil Fruit for someone to offer such a huge bounty"?
Thinking Teach was shocked by the reward, one of the crew joked: "Don't think too much, Teach. Finding a Devil Fruit on the sea isn't that easy. Oh, right, there's intel saying someone saw it in East Blue, who knows if it's true. Teach? Teach, why are you still frozen? Don't tell me you really want to look for it!"
"No, no! I just ate too much cherry pie. My stomach felt uncomfortable, but I held it in."
Teach snapped back to reality and he laughed awkwardly, and said: "As long as pops and our brothers are here, I'm already happy. I'm not interested in stuff like that!"
Hearing that, all his brothers immediately cheered in agreement.
"That's right! Who cares about Devil Fruits? As long as we have pops and our brothers, that's all we need! Cheers for pops and the family!"
But as everyone prepared to drink happily together, Teach, still eating cherry pie, lowered his head.
His eyes glimmered with an eerie light.
[Dark-Dark Fruit... East Blue... ]
…
The wind swept across the entire ocean, reaching all the major powers.
You have to know that was a ten billion bounty!
No matter which force you put that amount of money in front of, it was an enormous figure.
Countless forces all turned their attention to the Dark-Dark Fruit, all guessing which force would actually spend so much money to put a bounty on a Devil Fruit.