Careless.
He had really been too careless.
This woman was far more shameless than he had expected. Even after what had happened earlier, she was still willing to go this far.
Inside the luxurious private room, Stussy sat on the carpet, staring resentfully at Kaito, who was sitting on the sofa opposite her.
"Captain, if there's nothing else, I'll leave."
Law glanced at Stussy, who looked like a woman nursing a grudge, before asking Kaito for permission.
"Yeah, go ahead and have some fun."
The captain nodded casually.
Law, who had been playing with a square, transparent object in his hand, soon left the private room.
Once the door closed, Kaito turned his attention toward Stussy.
"Don't look at me like that. It's just one of my basic precautions. As long as you behave yourself from now on, I'll return your heart to you sooner or later."
Kaito spoke as though Stussy's resentment was completely natural.
The square, transparent object in his hand was none other than Stussy's heart.
More precisely, Law had removed it from Stussy's body with the power of the Op-Op Fruit.
"So this is also part of the proof of my submission?"
Stussy was, after all, a master of physical techniques and was also capable of using Life Return.
Although she had been seriously injured inside Kaito's Munch-Munch Space earlier and had been tormented for quite some time afterward, after using Life Return to heal herself, her injuries had already recovered considerably.
As she spoke, Stussy slowly stood up from the ground.
Her gaze fell upon her heart, and a bitter expression appeared on her face.
She had originally thought that when Kaito said her previous submission was insufficient, he merely wanted to take possession of her body.
She had never expected that he would go even further and take her heart as well.
"Of course. Otherwise, how could I possibly feel at ease?"
Kaito answered calmly.
Although Stussy was extremely beautiful and possessed an excellent figure, if he believed that merely taking her body would be enough to make her genuinely submit to him, even he wouldn't believe that.
The best method was to control her life directly.
That way, Stussy would lose the capital to resist him.
"Come here. I'm going to make some adjustments to your body and create a fake heart for you so that the people from the World Government won't discover anything."
Kaito waved toward her.
After Law removed the heart with the Op-Op Fruit, there would naturally be a hole left in Stussy's chest.
Even if her clothing concealed it, the disappearance of her heartbeat would still be easy to detect by someone with exceptional hearing.
Since Kaito intended to develop Stussy into a spy embedded within the World Government, he naturally had to cover up this flaw for her.
With her life now in someone else's hands, Stussy was undoubtedly depressed.
She had not reached the point of completely giving up, but until the threat to her life was removed, she understood that she could only obey the man standing before her.
Stussy walked forward obediently.
Soon, Kaito swallowed her into his body once again with the Munch-Munch Fruit.
After a while, Stussy was released.
The hole in her chest had disappeared, and there was even another heart inside her body.
Only this heart was fake.
Its sole purpose was to beat normally and allow people to hear that Stussy still had a heartbeat.
When he released Stussy, Kaito also stored her real heart inside the Munch-Munch Space within his body.
"All right. Next, you—"
Kaito looked at Stussy and was about to continue speaking.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!"
Kaito looked toward the door and allowed the person outside to enter.
The door to the private room quickly opened.
The person who entered was one of Stussy's subordinates.
"My lady, your phone."
The subordinate glanced at the situation inside the room without showing any unusual reaction.
After his gaze briefly passed over Kaito, he reported the matter to Stussy as he normally would.
"All right. I'll be right there."
Stussy remained calm and waved toward her subordinate.
Seeing that everything was fine, the subordinate respectfully left the private room.
"Go. Take care of your business first."
Using Observation Haki to sense the departing presence, Kaito casually waved at Stussy.
Stussy's mental fortitude was indeed excellent.
Even though so many things had happened, she had still managed to force herself to accept her current situation in a short amount of time.
After adjusting her emotions, she quickly left the private room.
About half an hour later, Stussy returned.
Inside the private room, Kaito had not called in another woman.
Instead, he was sitting quietly on the sofa with his eyes closed.
The door opened.
Stussy entered and walked directly over to Kaito.
"Sir, I have something to report to you."
Stussy had quickly adapted to her new identity.
She respectfully bowed before him.
Kaito slowly opened his eyes, and his gaze settled on her.
"What is it?"
"The call just now came from the World Government."
Stussy spoke respectfully.
"They asked me to investigate your information and delay you here. I suspect Marine may be planning to send someone here in advance to ambush you."
She explained the situation without hiding anything.
Stussy no longer concealed her identity as a CPO agent.
The situation had already been completely reversed.
Compared with her status as a CPO agent, she was now more worried about being discarded because she was no longer considered valuable enough.
Therefore, she had to demonstrate her usefulness.
Kaito touched his chin thoughtfully.
"Is Marine really that eager to deal with me?"
"The main reason is that you're too powerful, sir."
Stussy answered immediately.
"I heard that you fought Admiral Kuzan while you were in East Blue. It's said that Kuzan was unable to do anything to you at the time, so it's only natural that Marine would pay special attention to you."
She paused briefly.
"Besides..."
"I also attacked member countries of the World Government."
Stussy nodded.
"Yes. You killed the kings of two World Government member countries, which caused many countries to complain to the World Government and Marine."
"I see."
Kaito nodded.
"No wonder Marine values me so highly."
After communicating with Stussy about Marine and the World Government, Kaito began making arrangements for her.
There was nothing particularly complicated about it.
From now on, Stussy simply needed to provide him with information whenever necessary.
Stussy had already expected this and naturally agreed obediently.
If possible, Kaito naturally wanted to completely subdue Stussy with Conqueror's Haki.
After all, compared with taking her heart and threatening her life, using Conqueror's Haki to make her submit would be far more reliable.
Unfortunately, time was not on his side.
After learning that Marine intended to come to the Spring Queen City to ambush him, Kaito naturally could not remain there for long.
As for taking Stussy away and trying to subdue her along the way, that would be even worse.
If he really did that, the World Government would certainly become suspicious of Stussy.
That would cause him to lose the greatest value Stussy currently possessed.
Of course, there was still plenty of time in the future.
Just because there was no opportunity now did not mean there would never be one.
Kaito understood that as long as he remained alive and continued growing stronger, completely subduing Stussy would only be a matter of time.
Therefore, he was not particularly anxious.
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