The Holy Land Mary Geoise stood on top of the Red Line. To get there from the sea, one first had to stop at the "Red Port" at the base of the Red Line, then ride the "Bubble Cable Car" from Sabaody up into the sky.
Toguro got off the ship and stepped into the bubble, preparing to ascend. Meanwhile, inside the dark space on his shoulder, Genichi began his item lottery.
With one hundred thousand positive emotion points, he should at least get something useful—hopefully something that could help right away.
"Sheep Talisman: from Jackie Chan Adventures, one of Shendu's twelve powers. Allows the soul to leave the body, lets the spirit enter the body of someone without a soul and control them, can also enter dreams, and even force another person's soul out of their body."
It turned out to be that. Inside the dark space, a regular octagonal stone talisman appeared in Genichi's hand, with a faint green sheep engraved on it. This was the magical talisman he had drawn, traded for with one hundred thousand positive emotion points.
"Too bad it's not the Dog Talisman or the Horse Talisman. The Ox and Rabbit Talismans would've been good too…"
The Dog and Horse Talismans gave immortality or healing powers. With either one, Toguro could more easily use the "100% of 100% Mode," basically his "120% power." Otherwise, the physical strain would be too great, and he could easily be crushed by his own strength.
If he had Haki, maybe he could hold out a bit longer. That was one of the reasons he wanted Haki—without his final form, it was hard for Toguro to fight the top-tier powerhouses of the pirate world.
The Ox and Rabbit Talismans were also great—one boosted strength, the other boosted speed, both directly useful in battle. As for the Sheep Talisman…
The description sounded impressive, letting him take over others' bodies. But surely strong Haki could block it. Plus, even if he took someone else's body, it wasn't guaranteed that he could use it well. In that sense, it wasn't very useful for him.
But still…
Going into someone else's dream was kind of interesting.
If he could enter dreams, then maybe he could also enter thoughts. Wouldn't that mean he could directly learn how to train Haki from another person's subconscious?
"Perfect timing… I caught up with them."
Genichi's lips curled into a smile. In Mary Geoise, there was definitely someone who knew how to train Haki.
Garp!
"Did you really think eating the Nine-Tails' flesh would come without a price?"
Genichi muttered to himself.
Back when he fought the Nine-Tails, Garp was swallowed whole. But instead of giving in, he actually copied the beast—inside its stomach he bit off a chunk of its flesh. The Nine-Tails might have been a mass of chakra, but its body could still be eaten, though it was extremely dangerous.
In the world of Hokage, there were two men called Kinkaku and Ginkaku. They had gained great power by eating the Nine-Tails' flesh. But apart from them, everyone else who tried had died.
In Kumogakure, they even experimented with eating the Eight-Tails' flesh, but no one ever succeeded.
So of course Garp suffered a backlash after eating the Nine-Tails' flesh. But the people of the pirate world had freakish bodies, and Genichi didn't want to lose such a huge source of emotional energy, so he worked to suppress the poison of the Nine-Tails' power.
Because of this, the poison hadn't broken out inside Garp yet, and Genichi had gained two unexpected benefits—two new uses for his ability.
The first use was that he could track Garp's location at any time, like a radar, because Garp had eaten the Nine-Tails' flesh.
The second was a discovery: after Garp ate the flesh, the emotional energy he gave Genichi suddenly spiked. Genichi guessed that maybe the people of this world could give him emotional energy, and when he used that energy to create things that fed back into their world, it would deepen their link to him. The closer the link, the more emotional energy they would provide.
But there was also something strange.
The three admirals—at least right now—weren't that different in strength. Yet even before Garp ate the Nine-Tails' flesh, the emotional energy from him was higher than Sengoku's, which was higher than Zephyr's. Their strength and emotions should have been about the same at this stage.
Later, as emotional energy from all over the world poured in, Genichi made another guess based on the numbers.
The more important someone was to this world, the more emotional energy they gave!
For example, Roger's strength right now probably wasn't as high as Rocks', maybe only about the same. But the emotional energy Roger provided was far beyond Rocks'—they weren't even in the same league!
After realizing these things, Genichi felt that gathering one hundred million emotional energy might not be impossible.
Because the most important person in this world hadn't been born yet…
Monkey D. Luffy, the future Pirate King, the Sun God, Joy Boy. If it was him, he would definitely give Genichi an unbelievable amount of emotional energy! Especially since Luffy was a person whose emotions always swung wildly. Maybe in the future, when emotional energy became harder and harder to gather, Luffy would be his biggest hope to keep going further!
"So I can't let Luffy not be born. Before that Sun God appears, I should treat this world a little more gently."
Genichi whispered. "But… I also can't let this world get too peaceful either."
And so, Toguro successfully arrived at Mary Geoise. According to Genichi's "radar," Garp and the others were there too, preparing to set out for the New World.
"It's already this late…"
Toguro looked up at the darkening sky as he quietly walked along the roads of the Holy Land. He could clearly see that one part of this grand city was being rebuilt in a hurry, and of course the main force behind the rebuilding was a mass of slaves.
Mary Geoise might have been called a holy land, but it was actually the darkest, filthiest place in the world, because it was where the most disgusting Celestial Dragons gathered. The whole city ran on slave labor, endless and never stopping, except by death.
What Toguro could see, Genichi could also see.
And what he hated most of all were the ones who toyed with slaves!
"Sleep well tonight…"
Toguro and Genichi spoke at the same time.
"Let's meet properly in your dreams."