Jaya Island

After seeing off Brook and Ryuma, all that remained were the Moria Pirates and Yota’s own crew.

Aside from the Giant Ghost Ship, a vessel nearly as large as an island, the Moria Pirates had several more ordinary ships. They were now working hard to move their gold, silver, and treasures off the Giant Ghost Ship, which was about to sink.

Gecko Moria had spent over twenty years in Thriller Bark robbing other pirates, amassing quite a fortune. Although the pirates who had recovered their shadows had taken some of it back after his defeat, what remained was still far from a small sum.

Yet the entire Moria Pirates crew consisted of only four people. Gecko Moria was the only one who could truly be called strong. So despite their efforts, they would probably salvage only about half of their treasure at most.

No wonder Gecko Moria had been hopping mad even after witnessing Ryuma’s feat of cleaving an island in two with a single slash. If Ryuma had not been one of the absolute strongest on the seas, with strength nearly on par with the Four Emperors and Three Admirals, Gecko Moria would have charged forward and torn him apart long ago.

Unfortunately, if he had really rushed in, the one cut in half would likely have been Gecko Moria himself. Thus, although he had cursed Ryuma out in the end, he could only accept his bad luck and hurry to move the treasure, minimizing his losses.

"I’m exhausted!" Perona wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at the people aboard the Azure Dragon, who appeared completely unconcerned, as though they were merely watching a show. Her anger immediately flared, and she shouted at Yota.

"You bastard, when are you giving my Hollow-Hollow Fruit back?"

"Puru-puru!" Before Yota could answer, Charlotte Pudding, standing beside him, stuck out her tongue at Perona several times. "Your Hollow-Hollow Fruit is long gone. All that exists now is a Soul-Soul Fruit. What does it have to do with you?"

The Soul-Soul Fruit had been formed by combining the Soul-Soul Fruit, Hollow-Hollow Fruit, and Revive-Revive Fruit. It could be considered the ultimate power among soul-type abilities, so naturally Yota could not possibly return it to Perona.

Charlotte Pudding understood that as well, which was why she was utterly fearless when dealing with Perona.

"Damn it, you thief who stole my Devil Fruit…" Perona gritted her teeth, her face full of despondence.

Yota glanced at Perona, seemingly recalling something, and casually tossed her a Flying Thunder God Den Den Mushi. "If you want to, you can search for Devil Fruits yourselves. As long as you pay me enough, I don’t mind helping you fuse them."

With his Devil Fruit fusion ability, Yota might be able to create any number of fused Devil Fruits in the future. What restricted him now was simply the number of Devil Fruits he possessed.

Even the most ordinary Rabbit-Rabbit Fruit or Sparrow-Sparrow Fruit, if dozens or hundreds were stacked together, could let any random person beat the shit out of Devil Fruit users like Kirin or Phoenix!

Perona pouted as she accepted the Den Den Mushi, but Gecko Moria’s expression changed as delight appeared on his face.

"Thank you, Captain Yota! In that case, we’ll head to the New World next. That’s where there are the most Devil Fruit users!" Gecko Moria’s eyes once again shone with fierce ambition.

It seemed he would never be able to defeat a freakish monster like Yota, but if he could obtain a powerful fused Devil Fruit, knocking Kaido flying would by no means be impossible.

At that thought, Gecko Moria no longer bothered gathering treasure. To a pirate, personal strength was clearly far more important than wealth. He directly raised the sails and called out to his three subordinates, including Perona. "All right, stop packing. We’re heading to the New World!"

"It’s time for those people in the New World to hear the name Gecko Moria once again!"

With the show over and everyone gone, Yota left the Florian Triangle and began planning for the future.

"If I want to defeat the World Government, I can’t give them the chance to draw upon their hidden reserves. Otherwise, they might turn the whole world into a complete mess."

"So even though I’m already stronger than Imu, I still need to proceed cautiously. It would be best to absorb more Devil Fruits and suppress the World Government with absolute strength."

Even when playing computer games, Yota was the sort who liked to build his forces to the absolute limit before crushing everything in a single push. It could be said that before he had fully developed himself, he would not go looking for trouble with the World Government.

The Eight-Headed Dragon Fruit could still fuse quite a few Devil Fruits, and Yota had already thought of many possibilities.

"The Smoke-Smoke Fruit can be fused with Flame Clouds. There also seem to be two Snake-Snake Fruits on Amazon Lily. I can take those and fuse them too."

"Ace’s Flame-Flame Fruit is also decent. At worst, I can ambush Akainu, extract his Magma-Magma Fruit, and trade it to Ace…"

"Of course, the most important one… is the Rumble-Rumble Fruit on Sky Island!"

Yota no longer remembered Sky Island’s exact location, only that it was somewhere in the first half of the Grand Line.

However, he remembered one thing very clearly: Sky Island had a vast amount of gold, as well as the legend of the City of Gold. Therefore, if he wanted to find Sky Island, he only needed to locate that legendary City of Gold.

Jaya Island was said to be an island of pirates, as well as the City of Gold discovered by Liar Norland.

Today, a small pirate ship with an Azure Dragon figurehead arrived there.

"This place practically counts as a pirate island. I wonder why the Marines are so careless. This is the first half of the Grand Line, yet they don’t seem to be doing anything about it." Yota swept his gaze around and muttered a few words before looking at Charlotte Pudding beside him.

"Pudding, go gather some information. I remember there should be a Knock-Up Stream here, with Sky Island above it."

"Once you find the exact location, I can take you all flying up there."

"Don’t worry. Consider it done." Pudding said with a grin, then her entire body dispersed and transformed into bats, which flew toward the island.

A little over ten minutes later, Pudding returned in the form of a giant bat, with a man clutched in her claws.

"You bastard, put me down!" The man twisted about and shouted, but Pudding’s Vampire Fruit gave her physical strength equivalent to that of a top-tier Mythical Zoan. How could some weakling from the first half of the Grand Line, who did not even know Haki, possibly break free?

Once they reached the ship, the giant bat casually tossed him down directly before Yota, and Pudding returned to her original appearance.

"I caught an informant, and there’s a little bonus too. This guy is a Devil Fruit user, and he’s the most ordinary kind of pirate. There’s no need to feel guilty about doing anything to him."

Yota nodded. By an ordinary pirate, she meant the kind who robbed and plundered. Naturally, there was no need to be polite to him.