Split Up

"What happened?"

"It was an attack by Baroque Works! A man used bombs to destroy our ship!" an Alabasta guard said.

"It probably wasn’t bombs, but the partner of this Miss Valentine—Mr. 5, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit user!"

Charlotte Pudding, who had already obtained all of Miss Valentine’s memories, spoke up.

"Hehehe, Miss Valentine, it seems you were the one who leaked my information."

Following the voice, a man wearing sunglasses approached. He leaped forcefully from Princess Vivi’s ship, which was nearly completely submerged, intending to jump onto the Azure Dragon.

"Run! Our opponent is a Great Pirate with a bounty of one billion!" Miss Valentine hurriedly shouted as she watched her partner jump over.

"What?" Mr. 5’s expression changed. A bounty of one billion was enough to terrify people who had never even seen pirates with bounties exceeding a hundred million.

But now, Baroque Works’ ship was still some distance from the Azure Dragon. Princess Vivi’s flagship, which had served as a stepping stone between them, had already sunk beneath the sea. Even if Mr. 5 sensed that something was wrong and wanted to retreat, he had nowhere to retreat to. He couldn’t exactly jump into the ocean, could he?

He raised his head and looked at everyone present. With Miss Valentine’s warning, he finally recognized Yota. "Marauder Yota, could it be that you’ve also taken a fancy to the power of my Bomb-Bomb Fruit? You want to steal my Devil Fruit? Keep dreaming!"

As he spoke, the man picked his nose and flicked out a booger.

Yota already had little liking for this overly self-important fellow. Seeing him make such a disgusting move now made his anger flare. A strange glowing cube formed in his hand.

Dust Release—World Descent Technique!

The glowing cube shot out instantly, enveloping the booger Mr. 5 had flicked and the arm that had launched it. When the light faded, his entire arm, along with the booger, had turned to dust.

"Huh!?" Mr. 5 froze for a moment before finally feeling the agonizing pain from his arm. Blood gushed out at once. He let out a miserable scream and collapsed onto the deck, clutching his arm.

"Please mind your hygiene. If you don’t, I won’t mind turning your nose and head into ashes next time," Yota said coldly.

Then, black mist swirled from his hand and extracted the Devil Fruit from Mr. 5’s body.

"My Devil Fruit…"

Ignoring Mr. 5’s defeated whimpering, Yota looked at the two Devil Fruits in his hand.

"The Bomb-Bomb Fruit and the Light-Light Fruit… They don’t seem particularly useful. Fine, I’ll store them for now."

"Pudding, Mr. 5 is yours. Go take a look at his memories."

"And Princess Vivi, you can tell me more about Baroque Works now."

Princess Vivi still wore a face full of shock. She knew that Marauder Yota, a pirate with a bounty of one billion, had to be extremely powerful. But she had never expected him to be this powerful. It was far beyond the imagination of someone like her, who came from the first half of the Grand Line and had seen so little.

Hearing Yota’s question, Princess Vivi nodded somewhat mechanically.

Yet when Yota began asking for specifics, the princess knew nothing. After going through so much effort to infiltrate them, what exactly had she infiltrated? It felt like she had infiltrated absolutely nothing!

In truth, Yota, whose memories from his past life had long become blurry, did not know that Vivi’s intelligence-gathering skills were so poor they could bring one to tears.

In the original story, after Mr. 2 Bon Clay fell into the sea and was rescued by the Straw Hat Crew, he held a feast with them for most of the day. Then, shedding okama tears, they bid each other farewell, and he jumped back onto his Swan.

…After that, Bon Clay’s subordinates shouted, "Mr. 2, you’ve finally returned!" The entire Straw Hat Crew froze on the spot.

Only then did Vivi belatedly realize, "I was so stupid, really. I only knew that Mr. was a tall ballet dancer who liked referring to himself as a woman, and that the words ‘Bon Clay’ were written on the back of his ballet outfit…"

This astonishing level of intelligence work even made Luffy, who was famously bad at recognizing people and known for his rubber brain and abysmal intelligence, wear a contemptuous expression.

A moment later, the helpless Yota gave up on the idea of gathering intelligence from Vivi.

Fortunately, while he could not remember the rest clearly, Yota still remembered the most important details: Baroque Works’ boss was the Shichibukai Crocodile, and his secretary was Nico Robin.

Once he knew the boss, everything else became much easier. The formula for hot-blooded manga had always been simple. When the time came, he could just charge in, take out Crocodile, and all the problems would be solved.

After Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 were captured by Yota, Baroque Works’ ship seemed to realize something was wrong. Rather than continuing forward, it raised its sails and fled.

Yota did not go after Baroque Works’ ship. In truth, although Crocodile was no good person, the lower ranks of Baroque Works were not really villains. They were a legitimate bounty hunter organization.

Whether these Bounty Hunters were cunning and deceitful or not, objectively speaking, they had not actually done much evil. On the contrary, they had some positive effect on the peace of the seas.

Only the high-ranking agents of Baroque Works had truly participated in actions that undermined the nation of Alabasta.

"Um, you’re just letting us leave on our own? Didn’t you say you were going to help save Alabasta?"

Princess Vivi asked Yota, her face completely bewildered.

"It’s fine. Just keep hold of my Flying Thunder God Den Den Mushi. When the time comes, just give me a call," Yota said with a yawn.

Princess Vivi’s ship, which had just sunk beneath the sea, was directly salvaged by Yota with the Float-Float Fruit. Then, after he modified it with the Munch-Munch Fruit, it was completely restored to its original condition.

Afterward, Yota sent Princess Vivi and her group away, telling them to return to Alabasta on their own.

With the Flying Thunder God Den Den Mushi, Yota could simply wait until they reached Alabasta before teleporting there directly with the Flying Thunder God Technique. Meanwhile, his Azure Dragon could continue toward Drum Kingdom. That way, he would not have to waste time traveling to each country one by one.

Naturally, Princess Vivi still felt somewhat uneasy about this, but she had no way to change Yota’s decision. She could only pray that he would keep his promise.

In addition, Yota placed Baroque Works’ two senior agents directly aboard Princess Vivi’s ship. Those two had become senior agents entirely because of their Devil Fruit abilities. Now that they had lost those abilities, they were probably only slightly stronger than ordinary grunts. They might not even be able to defeat Princess Vivi, so there was naturally no need to worry about them trying anything.