"Here—"
The unconscious Moria finally woke up. He glanced around at his surroundings. Where he was didn't feel like a ship, but rather like he was inside an ancient castle.
There were quite a few creatures imprisoned around him. Some might be pirates, and some might be people from the World Government.
There was also a massive creature that looked like a fusion of a human and a cow, with a vacant, foolish expression.
Ka—
The door to the room was pushed open, and a strange creature with a mainly yellow body and black stripes walked in.
That creature tossed a few pieces of dry bread to the prisoners to eat, then walked over to the cow. It suddenly opened its mouth wide and actually spat out a pile of fresh fodder as large as its own body.
It was Electivire who had eaten the Munch-Munch Fruit. Normally, the ones active inside Meowth were basically Pokémon, so the Pokémon also took on the responsibility of delivering meals to these captives.
After Electivire ate the Munch-Munch Fruit, its belly was basically like a relatively small storage space. It could swallow a large amount of things and then spit them out while still keeping them fresh.
"Eh?"
Electivire only noticed that Moria had already woken up after finishing feeding Minotauros.
Bzzz—
A small arc of electricity appeared beneath Electivire's feet.
"I already told you, if something happens just shout, meow. The current you control doesn't really hurt, but suddenly getting zapped like that is really scary, meow!"
Under Moria's slightly incredulous gaze, the floor turned into clay. After a bout of twisting, it turned into a talking cat.
Oh, a Devil Fruit user.
Moria, himself a Devil Fruit user, quickly accepted Meowth's existence.
"Seriously… so it's you, this onion, who woke up."
Moria's chubby appearance looked a lot like an onion. This was probably because Moria had a lot of vampire elements in his design, so Oda made his obese form look very much like an onion.
"I'm Moria! Not an onion!"
"Moria-onion, meow."
Moria is a name, not a brand. This cat really has no manners at all.
"Come with me. Vane wants to see you."
With Seastone handcuffs locking him up, Moria lost his powers, and people who weren't used to wearing Seastone cuffs usually didn't have much strength at first.
Once you got used to it, it would be much better. You only lost your ability; your physical body was still there. In the future, in Kaido's Udon Prison, Kid and Luffy could still run while carrying big stones even with Seastone cuffs on.
Wearing Seastone cuffs, if you can endure it, it's great training; if you can't, it's pure suffering.
Right now Moria was in the suffering state. He didn't have much strength left.
But he didn't need to move himself. With a thought from Meowth, the ground beneath Moria turned into something like a conveyor belt and carried him out of the room.
...
In the large open space outside, Moria saw a dragon and two lumps that looked like mud.
The Gyarados submarine wasn't here. It was used to staying in seawater; when it rested, it hid in the lower hold above and below the submarine.
Humm—
Vane also entered the Castle-Castle space.
"Moria. As a senior whose bounty was even higher than mine, in principle I should respect you a bit more. But you lost to me, so for now I won't take off your cuffs."
He had won, after all. There was no need to be obsequious, even if he had the intention of recruiting the other party.
"Gehehehe—kids these days really are getting more and more impressive. I've already lost. What are you going to do with me—hand my head to the Marines in exchange for the bounty?"
After losing to Vane, even if the other party let him go, the World Government would have a hard time giving him the Shichibukai position.
Without the Shichibukai title, his grand plan of making zombies would become extremely difficult.
"A mere 320 million Belly bounty. My team doesn't lack that little bit of money… I'll be direct, Moria. Join me."
Moria had already been mentally prepared for Vane to try to recruit him.
This was something many pirates did. The Beasts Kaido did it, and Whitebeard Newgate did it too.
"There were once great pirates who tried to recruit me. They were even called the Sea Emperors! I didn't agree back then. Why should I agree to become your subordinate?"
The concept of the Yonko hadn't fully taken shape yet, but the title "Sea Emperor" already had a prototype.
In the New World, there were currently four pirates you absolutely couldn't afford to provoke.
After Pirate King Roger's death, the man known as the world's strongest man, Whitebeard Newgate.
The Beasts Kaido, who occupied the country that produced Seastone, Wano, and had many Zoan-type users under him.
Big Mom Charlotte Linlin, centered around Totto Land, who claimed she would build a nation of all races.
And one of the remnants of the old era, the Pirate Alliance's Ochoku, who occupied Hachinosu.
Whitebeard was the oldest, followed by Ochoku.
However, Ochoku's territory was comparatively much more chaotic. The other three all had a fixed territory and dominated the surrounding seas.
Because Ochoku's crew composition was far too complex, the territory he actually controlled was only Hachinosu. The captains under him were ambitious and didn't necessarily wear the same pants as Ochoku.
Among these people, both Ochoku and Kaido had once tried to recruit Moria.
That's right—even though Kaido had killed all of Moria's crewmates, he still tried to recruit Moria. That was just the kind of person he was.
He'd catch you, give you a brutal beating, and then still try to subdue you.
As for Ochoku, whenever he saw free pirates, he'd look for a chance to recruit them.
Whitebeard took sons everywhere; his subordinates basically called him Dad, and people lacking fatherly love were easily won over by him.
The latter part was obviously talking about Kaido, Teacher Kaido.
"Let me put it bluntly. Don't you want to return to the New World? Don't you want to take revenge on Kaido?"
Moria's eternal pain: all of his crewmates had died at Kaido's hands.
In the pirate world, competition and slaughter were the norm. Moria had certainly killed plenty of people too, so there was no right or wrong in this.
It was just that, to Vane, Kaido was destined to be only an opponent, while Moria was someone who could be recruited. So naturally, he would choose Moria between the two.
"Kaido!! Of course I'll take revenge on him—with my Shadow-Shadow Fruit…"
"By creating immortal zombies, and using zombies to help yourself become the world's strongest pirate?"
Moria's eyes widened. "How do you know!"
"Don't worry about how I know. I can only say your idea is very stupid."
"God can't create a stone He can't lift, and an ability user can't create zombies stronger than themselves!"