Because it was a gourmet festival, the streets of the Gourmet City were ablaze with lights even at night.
Stella rubbed her belly and sighed. She really couldn't eat another bite.
Turning and seeing Charles's serious face, she knew he wasn't troubled by the same thing she was.
Stella clasped his hand. "Charles, are you still thinking about that kid today?"
Charles nodded. "It's a bit of a tricky commission. But I've accepted it, so leaving it less than perfect won't do."
Stella smiled. "If it were truly troublesome, you wouldn't have accepted it in the first place, right?"
Charles chuckled. His girlfriend could see right through him.
Bonney's commission was simple: help her get her father back. And her father was no ordinary man.
Former king of the Sorbet Kingdom, now one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, "Tyrant" Bartholomew Kuma.
The Warlords' strength is hardly uniform, and Kuma's is absolutely first-tier, a heavyweight by any measure on the seas.
If that were all, it wouldn't be much trouble. Charles even felt he wouldn't need to use many trump cards to subdue Kuma as he is now.
Not because Charles looked down on him, but because after Vegapunk's modifications, Kuma hadn't grown stronger—he'd grown weaker.
Put bluntly, the Pacifista project's goal is to mass-produce war machines, not to enhance individual ability.
The cybernetic alterations only add weak points to Kuma's once-formidable body, and, most critically, interference with his consciousness severely blunts his Haki.
So for Charles, finding Kuma and capturing him won't be hard; what comes after is.
Kuma is the lynchpin of the World Government's Pacifista program. Touching him means a clash with the World Government.
You don't need to think hard to know he'll be wanted by the World Government and the Marines after that. Considering the power he's shown, the bounty won't be small.
Charles thought for all of two seconds before cheerfully accepting the commission.
Making trouble for the World Government… absolutely zero psychological burden!
The very existence of the Celestial Dragons made it clear what they were—scum, animals—and the events that followed only refreshed everyone's sense of the depths they'd sink to.
Especially after the God Valley incident's truth came out, the Marines—who never stopped mouthing "justice"—became clowns, beyond all salvaging. Even Roger's role in "helping" got people suspicious.
Frankly, Charles had always felt he'd clash with the World Government and the Marines sooner or later. He was sure he'd never kneel to a Celestial Dragon.
So wrecking a World Government plan was bound to happen eventually. Of course he'd take this commission.
According to known intel, Kuma's first appearance in the original plot is at Thriller Bark, on Moria's turf.
After that, if you wanted to find him, it'd be the Sabaody Archipelago or the battlefield at Marineford.
By the timeline, the Straw Hats should've just left the sky island, not yet reached Water 7.
Even if he waited to head to Thriller Bark after the Enies Lobby incident exploded, it would still be soon enough to run into Kuma.
But Charles forgot: the reason Kuma showed up at Thriller Bark was because the Paramount War was about to break out, and he was recruiting Warlords for the World Government when he went to find Moria.
Now that Blackbeard's grave grass is already sprouting, the plot has veered into unknown territory.
Overlooking that, Charles spent several days in the Gourmet City eating, drinking, and making merry with Stella.
Bonney and Charles agreed: once he found Kuma, he'd bring him to the Sabaody Archipelago. Then she set off to continue searching for Kuma herself.
After eating their way through the Gourmet City, Charles and Stella also departed for their next target, Carnival San Faldo.
As the name implies, San Faldo is an island that parties all year long. The moment they arrived, the festive atmosphere swept them up.
During their stay, Charles even took a commission from the mayor to drive off two pirate raiding parties.
After a few more days on the island, Charles saw news of the Enies Lobby incident in the papers.
The World Government's official paper only reported how vicious the Straw Hat Pirates were, that they had madly breached the never-fallen Island of Night.
Morgans's World Economy News, however, laid out the details, including the Marines' deployment of a Buster Call.
Charles had to admire that bird—he'd danced on the World Government's bottom line for years and hadn't been knocked off by CP. Real skill.
Much of the sensitive content wasn't there, of course—CP9 and Robin, the Pluton blueprints, and so on.
Whether Morgans's reporters missed it or deliberately held back, who knew.
After this battle, the Straw Hats were truly famous. They were the first to burn the World Government's flag and declare war openly.
In the new bounties, Luffy's jumped to 300 million—he could call himself a great pirate on the open sea.
Charles knew it was time to move, so the two took Zhongming toward the famed Florian Triangle.
The Florian Triangle is a mysterious sea in the first half of the Grand Line, shrouded in fog year-round; no one can confirm what's inside.
They say hundreds of ships vanish here every year, and many claim to have seen ghost ships. A singing ghost became a famous sea legend.
That "ghost" was likely caused by a certain afro'd pirate who died and is nothing but bones.
As for the Florian Triangle, that mysterious dark silhouette remains an enigma even the original never explained.
Charles glanced at the endless fog, crouched, and gave Zhongming a pat to head straight in.
He wrinkled his nose; it was truly hard to get bearings here. Thankfully, his sense of smell was good.
Thriller Bark, colossal as a small island, is still just a ship—there's no Log Pose pointing to it.
But by the scent of medicine and corpses on the mist, Charles still locked onto the location of the world's largest pirate ship.
Punching through the fog, he saw a gate shaped like a gaping mouth.
From the air, Charles could see that inside the outer wall lay a ring-shaped inner sea, and within that, a small "island."
On that "island" stood a castle, though poorly kept and somewhat dilapidated.
Around the crumbling castle were ranks of gravestones, making the whole "island" look like a horror-themed park.
Only the massive masts looming in the fog proved this was no island or park, but a super-giant sailing ship.
Zhongming crossed the wall and flew to the ship's main section, setting the two down.
Stella wasn't the sort of girl to be afraid; on the contrary, she looked delighted. Looked like they could have an offbeat date here!
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