New Enies Lobby. CP0 Headquarters.
Spandam had contacted his father multiple times, but the Den Den Mushi remained unanswered. This abnormality caused Spandam intense unease.
"Seriously... What is Dad doing?" Spandam complained internally.
"Why is there still no movement on such a simple matter? Did something really happen?"
"It shouldn't be, right?"
"Isn't Dad's strength more than enough to deal with the remaining people on that organization's ship? Did some major unforeseen event occur?"
Spandam spent every day in such mental torment, not understanding what had happened. Spandam had never imagined his father would die because of this plan. As days passed and Spandine's news remained completely unheard, Spandam felt he had to do something.
Spandam walked towards Lucci's office, knocked, and entered, feigning concern as he asked, "Officer... have Weevil and his group not reached Alabasta yet?"
Lucci, who had been deep in thought, looking out the window, turned to stare at Spandam without speaking after hearing his voice, which made Spandam feel a chill.
"Officer... is there something on my face?" Spandam asked, trying to maintain a smile.
Lucci still didn't speak. Hattori, the pigeon perched on Lucci's shoulder, spoke for Lucci, "Spandam... are you hiding something from us?"
Spandam broke out in a cold sweat at the question, but forced himself to appear calm as he replied, "No? How could that be... I am completely obedient and devoted to you, Officer..." Though Spandine answered this way, his thoughts raced.
"What's going on? Did some part of the plan get exposed?"
The truth was that Spandam's secret actions had indeed been discovered by Lucci. Spandine had originally intended to eliminate Katz, the captain of the auxiliary defense team who reported the situation, but unfortunately, Katz had remained with the auxiliary defense team and hadn't gone on any missions. Spandam's father hadn't found an opportunity to assassinate Katz, but couldn't delay, so he simply sank the trailing submarine and then led the fleet to follow Reno's ship.
As captain of the auxiliary defense team, Katz lost contact with the dispatched surveillance submarine and suspected an abnormal situation, so he reported it again to CP0 Headquarters. Katz didn't know of CP0's existence, only that of CP1-9. The report was also directly given to CP9. Spandam was originally responsible for CP9's external communications, and this call should have gone directly to Spandam, which is why Spandam dared to deceive his superiors.
However, it was an unfortunate coincidence that Spandam was not in his office when Katz called to report the anomaly. The office Den Den Mushi was answered by a staff member and the report went directly to Lucci. Lucci felt something was amiss when he received the call, so he directly contacted Katz to inquire about the details. That's when he learned that the enemy organization had separated from their ship, and the ship was heading towards Twin Cape.
Spandam's concealment of the ship's movements was clearly ill-intentioned. Lucci, knowing the situation, remained calm and secretly sent people to guard the coasts around Alabasta, monitoring the movements of passing ships. Lucci, who still hadn't seen any trace of the enemy, was also worried that the enemy organization had escaped. The initial intelligence had mentioned that some of the enemies had gone to the West Coast, but then disappeared without a trace.
Lucci knew Spandam was lying but didn't expose him. He planned to send Spandam to his death directly when they encountered the enemy organization this time, settling all old and new scores and eliminating future trouble. Lucci took the initiative to move past the issue, saying, "I know your loyalty to CP0... Send your informants to closely monitor the hiding place of the remaining Materials... The enemy organization will likely go back for them..."
"Weevil and Nero will arrive tomorrow... Once they do, Nero will lead Weevil there... You notify everyone to go and ambush them..."
Spandam secretly thought it was a false alarm, temporarily put away his little schemes, and quickly accepted the order, leaving the office. The next day, Pain and his group, leading Golden Lion's subordinates, were moving Materials at the hiding place, seemingly completely unfazed by the impending war. The Materials' hiding place was not far from the underground ancient city where the poneglyph was located, also in a desolate desert, with only a stone tower as a marker to prevent the Materials' location from being buried by sandstorms.
On the West Coast, Nero was leading a group of Marines, including the Shichibukai Weevil, quickly heading towards the Materials' hiding spot. The seemingly nonchalant Pain was monitoring the surroundings through his "Rain Tiger at Will Technique." As long as the enemies weren't hidden in the sand, they would be detected if they touched the rainwater.
Pain didn't sense the presence of anyone else through his perception, knowing that the CP0 group either hadn't entered the rain curtain or were hiding beneath the sand. Not long after, the figures of the Marine group appeared in Pain's perception, following a large individual towards Pain and his group. Pain and his group remained calm, standing in the rain curtain, waiting for the enemies to appear.
"Weevil... the murderer of your mother is right there... We need to hurry... Don't let them escape..." Nero said as he ran with Weevil, pointing towards the Materials' hiding place to guide Weevil.
"Ahhh! I'll kill them! Avenge Mom!" Weevil roared furiously as he sprinted in the direction Nero pointed. Around the hiding place, the CP0 members hadn't entered the rain curtain. Although they didn't understand the effect of this rain curtain, they knew it was created by the enemy's Ability.
Alabasta. West Coast.
A tall man, dressed in a white suit vest and dark blue shirt, with a slightly dark face, shiny black curly hair, and a lazy expression, was riding a bicycle on the sea, slowly heading towards Alabasta's capital. Everything in his path was frozen. A small penguin followed beside him, accompanying him every step of the way.
Because he loved to sleep, he always wore a green eye mask on his forehead, allowing him to lie down and sleep anywhere (though he occasionally slept standing up). This person was none other than one of the former Marine Three Admirals, Kuzan, code-named "Aokiji."
"Aokiji" is a Logia Ice-Ice Fruit Ability User, possessing immense strength, and was a student of former Marine Admiral Black Arm Zephyr. Later, he, along with Kizaru and Akainu, was known as one of the "Marine Three Admirals." After the Marineford War, he battled Akainu for ten days for the position of Fleet Admiral, was defeated, and subsequently chose to leave the Marine, establishing close ties with the Blackbeard Pirates.
On the surface, Aokiji left the Marine, but in reality, he was a secret weapon of the World Government, intended to infiltrate the Blackbeard Pirates. The World Government was very nervous about Blackbeard devouring Whitebeard's Ability, essentially listing Blackbeard as their number one enemy.
After the Marineford War, Blackbeard also temporarily hid his tracks with his subordinates, not causing trouble, which greatly eased the World Government's concerns. However, considering Blackbeard's potential enormous threat, the World Government high command still decided to send a powerful individual to infiltrate the Blackbeard Pirates to obtain first-hand intelligence, leading to Aokiji's departure from the Marine.
Although Aokiji was determined to infiltrate Blackbeard's inner circle, his former identity as a Marine Admiral made him a taboo for the Blackbeard Pirates. Aokiji could only strengthen his ties with Blackbeard, hoping to be accepted by the Blackbeard Pirates as soon as possible. Aokiji had a lazy personality but always maintained a calm mindset.
During the Ohara Incident 20 years ago, seeing what Sakazuki Akainu did, he became confused about the justice the Marine upheld. Because of this, Aokiji let Nico Robin go, helping her escape Ohara.
Aokiji was very polite. When he met the Straw Hat Pirates, he always treated them courteously, not someone who would immediately resort to violence. Aokiji was also very loyal. When he first fought Luffy, out of gratitude for Garp's kindness to him, he let Luffy go. He even saved Smoker's life from Doflamingo.
Although Aokiji's political views differed from Akainu's, and he even lost a leg in his battle with Akainu for the position of Fleet Admiral, forcing him to use his Ice-Ice Fruit Ability to create a prosthetic leg, Aokiji's nature was still to consider the bigger picture. Aokiji understood that Akainu was willing to risk exposing his continued close ties with the Marine and using him as a trump card, indicating that the enemy's strength and importance to the World Government outweighed the risk of exposure.
"This is truly troublesome, isn't it? Kozuki Oden is an incredible person... I hope I don't have to make a move..."
To be continued...