Someone once proved through action: when traveling abroad, one's identity is whatever one gives oneself.
Seven was different; his identity relied entirely on the imaginations of his crew members.
Two years ago, when he gained the cultivation experience of Musou no Hitotachi, Seven forcibly controlled his body with his will and did not fall into a coma.
This time, during the Lunarian Tribe bloodline modification, his body gave no reaction time and simply rebooted.
Because the system initiated the bloodline modification, Seven fell into a deep sleep. The raging flames surrounding him, his hair as white as snow, and the blurred wings of fire on his back... After Mihawk's description and Fujitora's imagination based on his memories, they reached a conclusion—
Beelzebul is of the Lunarian Tribe.
The Lunarian Tribe, who were once called Gods.
Fujitora sighed with emotion.
"The World Government once issued a special bounty: anyone reporting the whereabouts of a member of the Lunarian Tribe could collect a bounty of one hundred million Berries."
"As far as I know, the Lunarian Tribe hasn't appeared on the sea for many years. If discovered by the World Government... the Captain will face relentless pursuit and arrest."
It all clicked; everything matched up.
Mihawk finally realized why Beelzebul opposed the World Government at every turn.
Two years ago on Sandy Island, not long after consuming the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Beelzebul dared to snatch a prisoner from the hands of the World Government.
Even though he didn't even know who the prisoner was.
Setting sail again two years later, he braved the gunfire of the Marine Buster Call just to go to Ohara.
Given that, it wasn't hard to understand why he joined the Roger Pirates and went to the Final Island to find the missing hundred years of Void History.
Beelzebul is preparing to overthrow the World Government to avenge those Lunarian Tribe members who have been persecuted by them for years.
The two imaginative thinkers each formed their own perfect logical loops.
"Then what about his current condition?"
Fujitora shook his head: "It is said that the Lunarian Tribe is born with control over fire and can survive in any extreme environment. I suspect the Captain's current state might be the awakening of his bloodline abilities."
"Let's just wait and see how things change."
There isn't much data left on the mysterious Lunarian Tribe. Rather than making wild guesses, it's better to wait for Captain Beelzebul to wake up.
"Fair enough." Mihawk nodded.
Fujitora leaned on his blind cane and smiled bitterly: "The Captain's Haoshoku can actually block Observation Haki perception. I truly regret... blinding myself back then."
"Blinding yourself? Why?"
The moment the Haoshoku Haki erupted earlier, Mihawk had already discovered that his own Observation Haki was being blocked.
He never expected to encounter one revelation after another. Just after processing the news about the God-like race, he found a new one: Fujitora Issho had blinded himself?
Fujitora said self-deprecatingly,
"At that time, I thought to myself—not being able to see might be a blessing, for there are simply too many things in this world that are unbearable to look at."
"I never expected to meet a guy like the Captain. Looking at it now, closing one's eyes isn't necessarily a good thing."
Mihawk nodded in deep agreement. A swordsman with closed eyes can only rely on Observation Haki to perceive their surroundings. Encountering Beelzebul... they'd be completely finished.
"The qualities of a King are already rare; there shouldn't be many like the Captain who can block Observation Haki."
Fujitora let out a long sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, he's one of us. Let's go wait outside; the Captain's Haoshoku makes one's mind uneasy."
Haoshoku Haki relies on one's own spirit to intimidate and shock enemies. The weak faint instantly, and even the strong are affected.
In Seven's comatose state, his Haoshoku Haki exerted pressure indiscriminately, regardless of friend or foe.
The four Ohara scholars, including little Robin, and the fish floating on the sea surface were the biggest victims.
Even someone as strong as Fujitora, while having his Observation Haki blocked and being struck by the Haoshoku, still felt uneasy.
Returning to the deck and seeing the few people who had fainted in the open-air banquet hall, Mihawk had no choice but to carry them back to their respective rooms.
Then he dropped the anchor to secure the ship.
Before Beelzebul's Haki dissipated, the east blue emperor was like a mobile vibrator, shaking everywhere it went.
Delaying the journey by a day shouldn't affect the plan to invite Kuma aboard... Sorbet Kingdom, the capital prison.
To achieve his goal of splitting the kingdom in two and thereby reducing the amount of tenryuubito tribute paid to the Celestial Dragons, the current King, Bekori, was arresting dissenters en masse.
The dissenters were mostly citizens from the southern countryside.
Inside the heavily guarded prison, Kuma was shackled with chains, locked up together with Ginny and the others.
"Dammit." Kuma slammed his fist onto the ground.
"How can such a thing happen in this world? Just because they live in the south, they have to become slaves?"
The current King Bekori dared to split the kingdom in two precisely because he believed that people would form misunderstandings based on status. Soon, the people in the north of the Sorbet Kingdom would look down on the country folk in the south.
The root cause was that the southern part of the kingdom consisted mostly of elderly people who could not generate more wealth.
Bekori firmly believed that by excluding the backward, aging burden of the South, the economic hubs of the North would become the true Sorbet Kingdom.
With the reduction in population, the tenryuubito tribute paid to the Celestial Dragons would naturally decrease, and the surplus could be used to plot other things.
As for the southern countryside, after losing its protection as an affiliated nation and becoming a lawless zone, it would become a paradise for Celestial Dragons, slave traders, and pirates to obtain slaves.
"Ginny, things are about to get chaotic here."
Sitting beside Kuma, Ginny's calm and clear eyes were visible beneath her long pink hair.
"Kuma-chin."
"King Bekori is just a lackey for the Celestial Dragons. This policy was learned from above. If we want to oppose this country, we must be prepared to fight the World Government."
Sixteen years ago, after escaping from God Valley, Ginny and Kuma parted ways with their friend Ivankov and had lived in Kuma's hometown, the Sorbet Kingdom, ever since.
During that time, Ginny had proposed to Kuma, but he had refused her.
"The World Government..." Kuma murmured softly.
Because he carried the bloodline of the Baccania Tribe, Kuma and his parents were captured and taken to Mary Geoise when he was a child, becoming slaves to the Celestial Dragons.
Kuma watched with his own eyes as his parents were tortured to death by the Celestial Dragons, and then he was sent to God Valley to act as prey for the Celestial Dragons to hunt.
Precisely because he had witnessed the power of the World Government, Kuma fell into a struggle.
As a Paw-Paw Fruit user, breaking out of the prison was easy, and killing King Bekori wasn't hard either. The difficulty lay in how to deal with the subsequent retaliation from the Marine and the World Government.
"I... am still too weak after all."
Kuma thought he had escaped from God Valley, but he couldn't escape the rules set by the World Government—bloody, man-eating rules.
Affiliated nations levy heavy taxes on their citizens, keeping a portion of the collected wealth and paying the rest as tenryuubito tribute to the Celestial Dragons to obtain the protection of the World Government and the Marine.
The Kings live well, the Celestial Dragons live well, and the World Government lives well.
No one ever asks: how are the commoners living?
A bone-chilling cold surrounded Kuma, and only Ginny, sleeping with her head on his stomach, brought a little warmth to his cold heart.
"What exactly should I do?"
Kuma asked himself: he had no ambition to conquer the world; he just wanted to live a simple life with Ginny and protect their hard-won peace.
But the tide of the times didn't care and pushed him, forcing him to make a choice.
That night, Kuma did not sleep at all.