"...I see."
Somewhat surprised after hearing Teach's words, Orin stared blankly for a moment and couldn't help but marvel — no wonder he was a king of his era; he really had left so many contingency plans behind.
If this had been a world without fatalism, this father and son duo would never have failed— it's just a pity, they were born in the wrong age.
This was the age of the D clan.
"Wait a bit. In a few years I'll give you the Dark-Dark Fruit, but not now."
Orin stood up, snapped his fingers, and produced a glass tube from his hand; a vial of blood appeared inside it at once.
At this strange sight, Teach swallowed and stared fixedly at the vial of blood with his mouth slightly open; he was certain—that was his own blood.
Combined with the method Orin had just asked about, Teach's heart filled with unease, but he didn't dare say anything.
His intuition told him Orin was planning something that would definitely overturn the world— after all, this was a man with comparable, even surpassing, strength to his father.
Still...
Watching Orin's figure slowly fade away, Teach sat on the bed exhausted, though an excited smile lingered on his face.
"Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha..."
There was a cold, cutting light in Teach's eyes that he had never shown before.
"No matter what, there's at least hope for the Dark-Dark Fruit. For now, let this Orin stir up the seas and turn everything upside down!!!"
"Now is not the time to clash with him..."
...
"Already so fast!???"
Inside the precision laboratory, countless instruments whirred without stop, but Vegapunk's attention was entirely fixed on the several vials of blood on the table.
He knew that in the past, whenever he needed something, every request had to pass through layers of supervision; the World Government guys watched him like hawks.
Every time things dragged out — how could it compare to Orin, who paid when asked, supplied materials on demand — it was a researcher's dream client.
"Of course!!!"
Orin sat at the experiment table, legs crossed, smoking a cigar, smiling at the excited Vegapunk, and explained which sample should be used as an appearance prototype, which one was key to the multi-fruit ability, which had superior innate potential...
Of course, extracting certain [traits] of the original owner from only some blood and tissue cells might sound like fantasy to others, but Vegapunk was different.
His mind was constantly expanding; the Brain-Brain Fruit had been endlessly increasing his intellect. Even if he couldn't do it now, he surely could in the future.
There was still plenty of time—Orin had all the time in the world.
"With these materials I can basically produce some results, cultivate a basic embryo."
Vegapunk sketched and wrote, then left carrying a pile of experimental material. Orin smoked his cigar and toyed with some of Vegapunk's small inventions— a hovering skateboard, a pistol that could fire air cannons...
Just as he was thinking whether he could swipe something, a little baby crawled over.
"Oh? Isn't this Bonney?"
Orin stubbed out his cigar and hooked a finger; the baby Bonney who had been crawling about suddenly appeared in Orin's hand.
The little one curiously looked at Orin, smiling broadly, seemingly fascinated by the sudden teleportation.
"Bonney!! Bonney!!!"
At that moment, Kuma hurried over in a panic, his face full of concern; when he saw the little one in Orin's hand he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you. I was worried Bonney would crawl into some dangerous place~"
"Here, Bonney~"
Kuma greeted Orin with a goofy grin, then opened his arms to Bonney.
But strangely, baby Bonney shook her head at Kuma's waving and crawled into Orin's arms instead.
Click—
This scene instantly shattered Kuma; he looked devastated as if his soul had split apart.
"Hahaha..."
Orin smiled, picked up Bonney—who was still chewing on her hand and blinking her big eyes at Orin—and placed her into Kuma's arms.
"Since you can be with family, cherish it a little, little Kuma."
"Li... little Kuma?"
Flustered as he steadied Bonney, Kuma was surprised at the name; the whole man looked dazedly simple.
Orin didn't say much, just patted his arm.
"It's nothing. Don't mind it."
...
Orin left,
his target: Wano Country, to obtain the Ripe-Ripe Fruit's ability.
And since he had come, he certainly had no intention of doing it stealthily.
...
Within the shogunate,
Wano's shogun Orochi was currently entertaining Kaido with drinks, and Kaido's attitude was far from pleased, because Wano's recent seastone output had been far below his expectations.
"Then... give me an explanation, Orochi."
gulp gulp gulp...
Kaido guzzled wine, his massive body in the room looking like a demon god as he stared down the trembling Orochi.
But Orochi had no good answer.
There was nothing he could do—Orin had threatened him to supply seastone to the underground world, or he'd be killed.
Now Kaido was interrogating him; whatever he did, it was a dead end!!!
But the drunken Kaido didn't care about that. Seeing Orochi stammer and refuse to answer his question, he flew into a rage and swung the club in his hand.
After all, this guy has nine lives, it should be okay, right?
Just then, under Orochi's horrified gaze, a pitch-black hand reached out to intercept the club.
Crack crack crack crack—
At the instant of contact, clusters of black-red lightning burst forth, exploding in midair and shattering the entire shogun's mansion and the surrounding area.
A terrifying shockwave scattered; Orochi tried to grab hold of something to steady himself, but he couldn't—he was sent flying by the air currents.
At the collision's center, two figures—one large, one small—stood opposite each other, their garments whipping in the wind.
Kaido hadn't used his full strength on that swing; he had only imbued his club with a little Haki. He never expected someone would hard-block it.
Under the interaction, the clash produced tremendous force, and it sobered him a bit.
Looking closely, who else could that person be, the one who directly took his swing, if not Orin?
"Orin!!!"
"Sa-shi-ro-ro-ro-ro—"
"You came here to fight me?!!!"
Clearly, Kaido was truly drunk now, to the point that his basic judgment was gone.
Seeing Orin, his instinctive excitement rose; the usual heaviness and suspicion were gone.
The difference between drunk Kaido and sober Kaido was enormous.
Orin obviously knew this; since the drunk Kaido wouldn't listen to reason, he didn't bother speaking either.
He was feeling a bit itchy for a fight anyway.