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When Ross came to, the first thing she saw was a deer's face.
"Ah!" she cried, sitting up in terror.
"Ah!" Chopper recoiled in fright and darted under the table to hide.
"... " Seeing Chopper's awkward, half-exposed hiding position, Ross sat on the bed and muttered, "You're hiding the wrong way, aren't you?"
"..." Chopper froze, then cautiously adjusted his position.
"Where am I?" Ross rubbed her forehead and suddenly realized, "Pirates! Ah, me?"
Startled by fear, she jumped at every sound. Suddenly, she heard a female voice say, "Awake?"
Ross looked up and saw the woman with streaked green hair and delicate, beautiful features. She was tall and well-proportioned, the terrifying female pirate Jolyne Kujo, with a bounty of 300 million Belly!
She was the pirate captain who had chased Chopper N.A. Giorno all over the sky while confronting the Shichibukai Crocodile.
"Don't worry," Robin said reassuringly. "Wapol has returned. It's fine that you've seen us now."
"... " Ross opened her mouth, then understood with a jolt. "Over two months ago, you deliberately let others think you went out to sea to chase Wapol? But you've actually been hiding here, waiting for Wapol to walk right into your trap?"
She lowered her head and murmured, analyzing, "Indeed, given Wapol's personality, he would never willingly give up the throne. After he assumed the kingdom was safe, he would surely return."
Suddenly realizing something, she covered her mouth and looked up to see Jolyne nodding with a smile. "You're clever."
Seeing that the fearsome female pirate didn't seem dangerous, Ross hesitated, then asked, "Why go through all this trouble? With your strength, you could have defeated Wapol and his men two months ago. Why, then, shout in multiple cities as if you were deliberately telling everyone you were going after Wapol when you could have just—"
"You're clever," Robin said. "So I suppose you've already come to a conclusion."
"But you're pirates." Gritting her teeth, Ross mustered her courage and said in a complicated tone, "'Act conspicuously, create an opportunity for the citizens to see the king's weakness, and let them take the crown themselves'—is that really something pirates would do?"
She curled up in bed under the covers, clearly frightened, making sure her clothes were properly on.
Robin thought for a moment and said, "Pirates aren't people capable of doing anything?"
"But…" Ross bit her lip.
"Pirates can be generous and good people, too," Robin said with a smile.
"Eh?" Chopper tilted his head. "International... generous... good... ideology...?"
This strange phrasing clearly exceeded the understanding of a Human-Human Fruit user, and the little reindeer grew confused. "You mean Giorno?"
Robin chuckled and exchanged a few words with Chopper. Then, she turned back only to realize that the bed covers were messy and Ross, the girl who had been there just a moment ago, had vanished.
B.I.B. stood at the doorway with narrow, white-glowing eyes and pointed at the treehouse wall where the bed had been. Calmly, he said: "She ran off using the Pipe-Pipe Fruit..."
Robin nodded and focused her Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki). She noticed that B.I.B.'s dual arm armor with red and blue flame patterns had disappeared. Liam had left with his Stand-equipped arms.
......
Along the coastline, a black buffalo wearing thick army armor charged at full speed.
They've really come back.
Dalton, fully transformed into buffalo form, thundered across the snow. His hooves barely touched the ground as he moved almost as if he were flying over the snow.
"Wapol, you will never poison this country again!"
......
In the former Winter Island Kingdom of Drum, at the coastal port, a massive, ironclad pirate ship surfaced from the sea and docked.
"Moo-haha! I'm finally back in my Drum Kingdom!"
Mad laughter echoed through the blizzard. In the snowy harbor, hunting guns and other weapons were scattered on the blood-soaked ground.
Crow Marrimon snorted. "They even stationed guards along the coast..."
Holding the head of a local, Jess said coldly, "They actually pointed guns at their own king. What are these people thinking?"
Wapol, draped in a hippo-like cloak, gazed proudly over the island's snow-covered landscape, laughing heartily. "Good thing I brought the Eternal Pose before leaving. Otherwise, who knows how long I'd have drifted at sea as a pirate before returning to my kingdom? Moo-hā hā hā hā..."
At his feet lay many of the island's residents, all battered and unconscious.
The two monster pirates of the JOJO crew didn't dare face them.
Suppressing these "rebels" of his own country was easy for Wapol and his subordinates.
"Really! Those two formidable pirates actually dared to trouble their king," Wapol said, frowning after laughing. "Hey, Crow Marrimon, did you ask? Those two shouldn't be on this island, should they? If they were still here, I wouldn't have come back and walked straight into a trap!"
"Indeed, Lord Wapol, you've thought of everything," Jess said.
Wapol glared at him, then quickly grinned and raised his two short arms. "Moo-hā hā! That's naturally so!" His disproportionately large mouth made him look like a child with a two-headed figure.
Crow Marrimon and the soldiers interrogated the patrolling residents sprawled across the snow. "Hey! Are those two pirates still here?"
Faced with the cruel Wapol and his men, some residents tried to resist verbally. But, after all, pirates aren't exactly good people, and these residents didn't know Giorno or Jolyne. There was no reason to keep information about the two pirates secret. Under interrogation and torture, many eventually spoke.
Crow Marrimon smiled and reported, "Lord Wapol, the two pirates who chased us at sea left over two months ago when we evacuated. They haven't appeared since."
"Excellent!" Wapol laughed heartily as he casually picked up a hunting gun and began to chew on it.
Jess returned and said, "I heard they flew into the sky to pursue us. We were lucky they didn't catch us at sea."
"Moo-hā hā hā! Of course my King's ship can dive! How would those two foolish pirates have found us?"
Overjoyed, Wapol continued stuffing hunting guns and knives into his mouth, laughing loudly and feeling completely at ease.
Ambitious and proud, Wapol admired the snowy mountain view. "Jess, is City Castle safe?"
Jess, who was carrying a bow and arrows, looked through a telescope at the summit of the highest Drum Peak. "Lord Wapol, City Castle is still intact... hmm, what's that?"
"Hm?"
Crow Marrimon raised a telescope to survey the area.
The two circular lenses of the telescope moved back and forth, suddenly catching sight of something—a dark shadow darting across the endless wind and snow.
Against the backdrop of the white mountains and blizzard, the shadow appeared tiny, bouncing rhythmically as if leaping.
Jess and Crow Marrimon's heads moved in sync with the shadow, twitching up and down.
"What is it? What do you see?"
Wapol was puzzled. He opened his abyssal mouth wide and swallowed Crow Marrimon's telescope in one gulp. Soon, his eyes appeared, surrounded by telescope-like lenses.
"Now I can see clearly. Let's see... What's that?"
By using the Munch-Munch Fruit to digest and integrate the telescope into his eyes, Wapol now had eagle-like vision. He could easily see the figure moving through the howling wind and snow several kilometers away, or rather, rapidly approaching them.
Smack!
The figure tore through the blizzard.
"King Wapol..." Jess, who was still holding a telescope, broke out in a cold sweat.
Smack!
With each leap, the figure's feet struck the air with explosive force. The figure used the rebound to rise and surge forward.
"Could that be...?" Wapol's expression stiffened. His eyes strained against the telescope lenses formed by the Munch-Munch Fruit, and snot ran down his face in terror.
Smack!
(To Be Continued…)