"Right!" The round-faced Elder's voice cracked. "We can't hand it over!"
"Absolutely not!"
"Boss—please!"
The other three Elders spoke over each other. This was life or death. Of course they objected.
The flat-capped Elder showed zero surprise.
Instead, his eyes went vicious. A cold smile spread across his face.
"Relax. I have no intention of surrendering it." His voice dropped. "Besides—those Celestial Dragon bastards weren't exactly honorable either. They tried to break our contract centuries ago."
He leaned back.
"If I hadn't secretly leaked intelligence to the D Clan? The Celestial Dragons would've crushed them. But because of what I told the D—they managed to tap into their inherited power. Connected with the world itself."
His smile widened.
"And created the Devil Fruit Tree."
"Oh." The round-faced Elder's face lit up with understanding. "So that's why seventeen Celestial Dragons died. You sabotaged them."
"Boss." The blonde Elder leaned forward. "Is that when you got your Devil Fruit?"
"Yes."
The flat-capped Elder paused. Seemed to consider how much to reveal.
"The D Clan thought I was genuinely helping them. So they showed me their research—the Devil Fruit Tree they were cultivating. And one fruit caught my attention."
His eyes went distant.
"No patterns. Couldn't identify if it was Paramecia, Zoan, or Logia. The D Clan tested it—discovered it couldn't awaken. So they shelved it as a failure."
"I ate it by 'accident.'" The quotation marks were audible in his tone. "And gained the most miraculous ability of all."
He met each of their gazes.
"Prophecy."
Silence.
"Without your Prophecy Fruit..." The blonde Elder spoke slowly. "The D Clan would've overthrown us decades ago. Especially Gol D. Roger." His jaw clenched. "That man caused us more trouble than anyone in eight centuries. We're still dealing with the fallout."
"Don't forget Monkey D. Dragon!" The round-faced Elder's voice went sharp with hatred. "He's a massive threat right now!"
"Irrelevant." The flat-capped Elder waved a hand dismissively. "The D are favored by the world itself—we can't eliminate them completely. But they can't truly win either."
His expression hardened.
"Our real problem? The three surviving Celestial Dragons."
"Boss." The bald Elder's voice cut like his blade. "Why did they help us in the first place? It can't just be gratitude for waking them."
They all knew the Celestial Dragons' nature. Gratitude wasn't in their vocabulary.
"Hmph." The flat-capped Elder's snort was contemptuous. "Of course not. They thought they hid it well—but after eating the Prophecy Fruit, I saw their true goal."
"Which is?"
"This world."
The bald Elder frowned. "They already control the world's—" He cut himself off mid-word.
Can't say it. If I speak the full name, they'll know.
The flat-capped Elder understood anyway.
"They don't just want to control it." His voice went cold. "Their world was destroyed. Now they want to transform this one. Make it theirs."
"That's—" The blonde Elder's eyes went wide. "That's possible?"
"They built Uranus." The flat-capped Elder let that sink in. "What makes you think world transformation is beyond them?"
Even the blonde Elder—whose Haki had broken through the mortal-divine boundary—went pale at the mention of Uranus.
"My prophecies showed something." The flat-capped Elder continued. "When the nine-hundred-year deadline hits, a pirate will emerge. Someone who'll lead a world transformation."
He paused.
"I planned to use that pirate as a weapon against the Celestial Dragons. Push them to the forefront while we worked behind the scenes."
"But?" The bald Elder prompted.
"But then Sengoku submitted the proposal for a fourth Admiral." The flat-capped Elder's expression shifted. "The moment I saw Kai Mitarashi's name, my prophecy changed."
"Changed how?"
"Became unclear." Frustration bled into his voice. "Like he has the power to rewrite everything. My visions can't pin him down."
The Prophecy Fruit shows possibilities—not certainties. And this man makes even possibilities... unstable.
"So we wait," he concluded. "Let things develop naturally where he's concerned."
"Boss." The white-haired Elder—silent until now—spoke up. "Five years ago, when Kai was still a Vice Admiral at Sabaody Archipelago... someone broke through the mortal-divine boundary there."
All eyes turned to him.
"CP0 investigated. Found nothing." His eyes narrowed. "But now? I'd bet everything it was him."
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