"Impossible!"
Moria simply couldn't accept the fact that his efforts would not succeed.
Vane continued to press at his heart: "Your zombies need powerful corpses and powerful shadows. Where do powerful corpses come from?"
There were simply too many things about Moria's zombie-making process that deserved criticism. In Naruto, the Edo Tensei army only needs corpses plus jutsu.
Those resurrected can only be sealed, can't be killed, and they can even have their former combat power.
What about Moria? A corpse is just a corpse. With only a corpse, you can't even resurrect it—you also need a powerful shadow.
Without a powerful shadow, having only a powerful corpse is completely useless. The Ryuma zombie under Moria's command was clearly a famous swordsman from Wano Country, yet once it used Brook's shadow it turned into that state.
"You can make a gravedigger and dig up powerful corpses everywhere, but what about the shadows of powerful living people? The shadows you can cut off—those will definitely only be about as strong as you."
"You're the shortest plank in the barrel. The zombies you create can't possibly surpass your own strength."
Moria had worked so hard for so many years, yet the only zombies he produced that could even show up on stage were the Ryuma zombie and the Oars giant zombie—on the kind of stage where, once you enter the New World, you'd easily get wrecked by the Yonko's officers, big or small.
"At least—zombies won't die! Zombies won't die!"
Perhaps this was the ultimate reason Moria made zombies.
"So you're saying you don't actually want to take revenge on Kaido at all? You just want to turtle up in the first half of the Grand Line and bully some low-level pirates?"
"Are you really willing to accept that?"
"The opportunity is right in front of you—spend decades making a pile of zombies that can only bully low-level pirates,"
"or join my team, kill your way back to the New World, and go give that Beast Kaido some fun!"
His plans were denied again and again, and Moria had to admit Vane was right: even if he got the corpses of strong people, he couldn't get the shadows of strong people.
If that person could have their shadow cut off by him so easily, how could they possibly be strong enough to challenge that monster Kaido?
Of course, at this point in time Moria still hadn't found the corpse of the demon Oars. Otherwise, he would definitely have stuck to his path.
The enormous body of an ancient giant really does give a lot of people blind confidence.
Moria gritted his teeth for a long while and said, "You… will challenge Kaido?!"
"Why not? Of course I know how strong Kaido is. Before I have that kind of strength, I'll give him some trouble. Once I have the strength, I'll go and flip him over."
Charging from start to finish like Luffy, the most likely ending is becoming Moria, not Luffy.
Kaido has ruled a vast sea area for so many years. Every year some restless pirates challenge Kaido's position. Most of them probably get wiped out by Kaido's subordinates before they even see Kaido.
A small portion end up like Moria; only after more than ten years does a Luffy appear.
"I thought you were already so arrogant that you didn't put those great pirates in your eyes."
Moria wasn't looking down on Vane's thinking. If he hadn't been so impulsive back then, and had been a bit more rational, he wouldn't have ended up with not a single crewmate left—all dead in Wano Country.
"Moria, weakness isn't the reason for failure. Arrogance is."
Weakness isn't the reason for failure. Arrogance is.
"Geh shishishi~~ Captain Vane, if I say I'm willing to join your pirate crew, would you dare use me? Aren't you afraid I'll turn on you?"
This really was a test of people's hearts. One pirate bows his head to another pirate—would you dare use him?
Especially when the other party's bounty is higher than yours and their strength definitely counts as powerful.
Without Kaido's kind of crushing strength, ordinary people really wouldn't dare use him.
Unfortunately, Vane can read minds—something others don't know.
Moria's thoughts had already been read by Vane completely. He didn't have Blackbeard's kind of murderous, violent urge to kill at all costs. He could join Vane's pirate crew, and the reason was simply that Vane would challenge Kaido in the future and give Kaido trouble.
That's all.
After Vane had torn apart his delusions about a zombie army, the only goal he had left was probably to give Kaido trouble.
"I have reason to trust you, Moria. Join us."
Vane gave Meowth a look. Meowth manipulated the castle walls to bring over the Seastone handcuff key and unlocked Moria's restraints.
"Geh shishishi!"
The moment Moria regained his freedom, he immediately laughed in that gloomy voice of his. At the same time, his shadow kept stretching, and a large number of shadow bats began to fly around him. From that momentum, it looked like he was about to fight again.
Meowth was so nervous he was ready to throw him out of his body.
"Welcome aboard."
Vane released his blue Conqueror's Haki at just the right time.
Moria released the bats just to see how steady the other side was. He didn't expect to see Conqueror's Haki.
"Geh shishishi~~ I hope you won't disappoint me, Captain Vane."
Moria joins Team Rocket.
At last, there's an old pirate who can hold the field.
Vane's team's officers are relatively young. In the early days, Luffy's ship was also a bunch of young guys charging around the sea.
Young people have vigor, but a ship also can't lack some steadier crewmates.
So Robin joined the pirate crew, and later Franky, Brook, and Jinbe—all relatively older.
And now, his own ship has also welcomed an older Moria, whose strength is also very solid.
"I'll take you to meet the crew, and show you how our ship is different from other pirates."
"This is our ship's doctor, Martha, a Paramecia Grow-Grow Fruit user. She leads the medical squad."
"This is the firearms squad captain, Lena, a Paramecia Through-Through Fruit user."
"The current combat squad captain is Lion-Man Tant, a Zoan Lion Fruit user."
"Dice and Burgess are excellent combat members; in the future they'll be the backbone of our fleet."
"Baccarat and Monet are my secretaries. They're Vision-Vision Fruit and Clear-Clear Fruit users, respectively."
"The Guard Squad's Bear Guard—his responsibility is to protect non-combatants at all times."
"The Science Squad's Meowth and Caesar. Meowth is a Castle-Castle Fruit user."
"And our ship's reserve team are all children—Perona, Sugar, and Kaku are the more outstanding among them."
Vane took Moria around to meet all the core crew first.
Moria hadn't expected that this small ship would have so many hidden power.
There were as many as nine Devil Fruit users [including Dog-Gun Lassoo; Vane didn't count himself].
Grow-Grow, Through-Through, Clear-Clear, Lion, Dachshund Dog, Castle-Castle, Vision-Vision, Hollow-Hollow...
It really is a gathering of talent.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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