Sabody Archipelago.
Lucci and the rest of the former CP9 had finally landed in this place as directed by Lucas.
When they first saw this place, they didn't quite understand what Lucas meant. From what they can see, this seemed to be a fun place with lots of attractions and novelties.
Then they saw a world noble.
He was wearing some kind of hazmat suit as if he can't stand breathing the same air as the others.
The world noble was riding on some bloodied man walking on all fours and in chains.
Behind him, he was also dragging on several women with bruises all over their bodies. Behind them, there was a giant who was also trailing along. There were collars in all of their necks.
"...These are the so-called World Nobles?"
"..."
Kaku raised a brow while Lucci just remains silent.
None of them really minded what they saw that much. At most, only Kalifa looked uncomfortable.
Jabra snorted.
"I guess this is what that Lucas wanted us to see. What a joke, he thinks that if we see this scene, we will turn to him?"
"Lucci, what do we do?"
Blueno asked.
"...Let's go. There's nothing to see here."
Lucci turned around and no longer bothered with Lucas.
The only reason they tagged along with what Lucas said was to get away from him and the marines. As for going to Sabody Archipelago, it was simply to satisfy their curiosity.
Now that they saw it, there was no use staying anymore.
Everyone else looked at each other and shrugged. Soon, they turned around as well and followed Lucci.
"Hold it! You lot!"
"..."
Hearing someone calling them out, they stopped.
"Why are you not kneeling!? Can't you see I'm here!?"
"...Huh?"
As the world noble had said, everyone around was on their knees. Only they were still standing at this moment.
"Damned snotty brat! Why would we kneel to you!?"
Jabra was pissed! This was the first time some kid asked him to kneel before him!
"You-! I'm Bevis! A world noble! You lot are just lesser people! Do you understand!? I am your God!"
"Why you-!!!"
"Jabra, don't!"
Kaku quickly held Jabra down when he saw that he was about to kill the world noble.
The world noble seemed to have noticed something and nodded.
"Un, that girl, give her to me. As for the rest, kill them. Especially that guy that's still not turning around."
"...Yes."
The giant behind him nodded and charged towards Lucci and the rest!
Seeing the situation turn for the worse, Blueno quickly opened an Air Door and pushed everyone in!
"Huh? Where did they go?"
The world noble looked around but no longer saw them in the area.
Pissed, he shouted at the giant angrily.
"Go! Kill everyone in the area!"
"...Yes."
Everyone paled and they all quickly ran for their lives!
Soon, the area was filled with screams and horror. After some time...there were only bodies and blood all over the place…
Even his own slaves were killed as well.
Lucci and the others watched this happen from Blueno's door dimension.
"These world nobles are…"
"...Just where is the justice in this?"
Suddenly, they heard a growling sound.
Turning around, they saw Lucci had already transformed.
Actually, he was already mid-transformation when Blueno had pushed everyone in his Air Door.
Lucci pulled out the denden mushi that Lucas gave them and gave Lucas a call.
"...Have you made a decision?"
Lucas went back to his room to get out of Hina and Betty when he got Lucci's call.
"...Tell me, these world nobles...are you going to kill them?"
"I take it you already met them? Wait, you didn't go and kill them, right?"
"...I'm not an idiot. I know this isn't the right time."
Lucci gritted his teeth. Actually, he was already about to kill one but there's no need to tell him that…
"Well, you're right. This isn't the time."
"...If I follow you, will I get to kill one someday?"
"You must really hate them huh? What happened?"
Lucas asked.
At first, he thought that he won't be able to gain Lucci as this guy really only wanted an excuse to kill. At most, Lucas thought he could gain 1 or 2 of the former CP9 but he didn't expect the world noble to 'help' him so much!
If that world noble called Bevis or whatever didn't bother with Lucci, then this wouldn't have happened.
After hearing the situation, Lucas was angered as well.
"Why wait for someday? Go kill that guy now."
"...Huh?"
"Everyone is already dead, as long as no one else sees you...well, you get what I mean."
"...What about his giant slave?"
"I reckon after killing the world noble, he would ask you to kill him as well. If not, then take him with you when you return. Or, don't tell me you can't do it?"
Hearing Lucas' provocation, Lucci let out a menacing grin.
Besides him, Jabra had also transformed.
"Let me do it! Let me kill that turd!"
"How about we race for it?"
Lucci smiled. He truly wanted to try...and kill a God!
Blueno looked at the two and sighed.
He found a blind spot and opened the Air Door for them. The two disappeared from their view.
In an instant, the world noble Bevis acting so haughtily before...was sliced into ribbons!
Lucci and Jabra reappeared beside Blueno the next moment and Blueno closed the Air Door again.
As for the giant, Blueno already got him in his air door while Lucci and Jabra killed the world noble.
"Dammit! I was only able to slice the corpse!"
"Hmph, you were too slow."
Lucci looked at the giant and asked.
"Live or die? Choose."
"...Let me go. I will...take the blame...for killing that bastard…"
"...Very well."
Blueno opened the Air Door and released the giant who went to the world noble's corpse and started stomping on it!
Once the world noble was reduced to minced meat, no one should be able to tell the cause of death. This should be enough to take the blame.
The former CP9 members watched as the giant was found by marines and started to give chase.
Lucci picked up the denden mushi once again.
"We're in."
Lucci grinned.
It seems...following Lucas might very well be worthwhile…
The others also didn't have any opinion, they were willing to join as well since Lucci has already spoken.
Lucas hung up after telling Lucci and the rest where he was so they can meet up.
Hina saw Lucas leave his room.
"What was that about?"
"Hn? Lucci and the others called. They'll be arriving here after a few days."
They should be able to reach Alabasta in a bit over a week at least. There should be eternal log pose for sale as well in Sabody Archipelago so there's no worry of them getting lost.
"..."
Hina's eyes narrowed. She felt that Lucas is hiding something else but she had no way to find out what.
Lucas just shrugged and made his rounds in the kingdom. Helping here and there, making some rain... those kinds of things.
Eventually, the citizens did change the way they looked at him.
In his free time, other than chatting with Vivi, he would train on his body and haki as well.
As always, Hina and Betty watched Lucas train on his own.
One day, Vivi asked.
"Why do you keep training physically? Do you even need to? I mean, you can turn into and control water...actually, they say that a human is mostly made of water as well, using that logic, can't you control the water in a human's body, then…"
Lucas looked at her and suddenly laughed, causing Vivi's face to blush.
"W-why are you laughing!? Isn't that the case!?"
"Hahaha, sorry. Well, I actually thought the same when I first got this power...unfortunately things don't really work that way."
Lucas waved his hand and gathered the water vapor from the air to create a small water orb above his palm.
"Though I control water from afar, I can't do the same with the water inside a person's body. For that, I will need to touch the person and concentrate deeply to focus on the water molecules for it to work. It isn't really too practical and it's too much work. It's better for me to make a water spear, stab someone, and use the water from that to achieve a similar effect. Plus, doing that is too bloody and gross."
Lucas remembered doing something similar to Blackbeard's crew. It was really too nauseous!
"But...how come that's the case?"
"Hmm, well, I have a theory. If the water, or anything, comes into contact with a living being for a period of time, it will gain some sort of essence that shrouds itself from the devil fruits' powers. For example, there is another shichibukai named Gecko Moria. He can control shadows with his devil fruit ability. If he can control all shadows at will, then wouldn't he be too powerful? After all, everyone has a shadow. If not the one beneath your feet, it would be under your clothes, hair, even inside your body."
"..."
"But he's unable to do that. He has to touch the shadow, peel it, and sever it from the host before he could control it. There's also Caesar Clown who can control gas. Even he can only take control of the air around the person rather than inside the person himself."
"I see...I think...I somehow get it…?"
Vivi appeared to still be confused but nodded anyway.
Hearing their conversation, Hina sighed in relief. It seems she was also afraid that Lucas would suddenly control the water in her body and burst her from the inside…
After sighing, she picked up her glass of water and drank from it.
"Ah, but if a person recently drank water, I can still control that."
*Cough*cough!*
Hina glared at Lucas.
You should've said that sooner!
Lucas shrugged.
"Hey, if I wanted to kill you, you wouldn't be here now."
"..."
Hina knew what he said was right. Still...she looked at her glass of water and placed it back on the table…
Lucas ignored her and looked back to Vivi.
"Besides, that's just my theory. It could be something else, or something simpler as well. Anyway, the fact is that I can't control water inside a person's body from afar."
"I see. How about seawater then? Can't you simply carry them and use it to deal with devil fruit users?"
"If that were the case, I would grab a barrel like Luffy and fill it with sea water...alas, once the seawater is disconnected from the sea itself, it loses that effect on devil fruit users. Otherwise, even salt will be deadly to devil fruit users."
"Ah, you're right…"
But there is a workaround to that.
Back when he captured Blackbeard in his water prison, he left a thin water line connecting it to the sea which was why it was able to restrain Blackbeard.
Naturally, there was no need for him to tell this with a marine captain present...
Vivi continued to ask as if to satisfy her curiosity in Lucas' powers.
Lucas smiled wryly but still answered.
"How about Aokiji's ice? Isn't that water as well?"
"Yes, but controlling water and ice are two different matters."
"What do you mean?"
"Hmm, imagine two very powerful magnets."
Lucas controlled the water orb above his hand to split into two smaller orbs.
"These two magnets are so strong that it's hard to pry them away from each other."
The two small orbs stuck together and didn't budge.
"This is what happens to water's molecules when water freezes. I can control ice, that's fine...if it was normal ice. Aokiji's control over ice is much better than mine as he has had his powers for years now while I only got mine for a bit over a month at most...so I thought, if I control the water molecules enough that they don't stick to each other and create ice, then Aokiji wouldn't have control...if it was just 2 molecules, then it's easy, but do you have any idea how many molecules are there in a single drop of water?"
"Umm...a lot?"
"A whole lot!"
Lucas sighed.
"It's easier to make the water hot to loosen up the molecules and create steam. Steam is very light when compared to normal water so it's easy to control. The problem is, Aokiji can create ice faster than I can melt! This is why that Aokiji is so damn annoying to deal with…"
He still needed to level up his Heatman mode to burn even hotter!
"It would be best if I can learn Armament Haki too…"
"...You already took our Rokushiki technique, don't even think about learning Haki from us."
Hina spoke but Lucas pretended to be oblivious.
"What Rokushiki? I don't have it."
"...Where is it?"
"Ah, that...it seems a thief stole it from me back in Water 7. Tsk tsk, how careless of me…"
A vein popped from Hina's forehead.
What do you mean stole!? You gave it away, didn't you!?
Hina could only think of this and not speak. Instead, she stood up to take her denden mushi and report this to Sengoku…
Suddenly, they heard Betty finally speak.
"Trash, I can teach you if you want. Armament Haki, that is."
"Eh? Really?"
"But you'll have to come with me to meet Dragon."
Lucas was about to answer when suddenly, another voice shouted and came crashing in the training grounds.
"That won't happen!"
*BOOM*
Betty's eyes narrowed and quickly dodged.
After a loud boom, another figure could be seen standing on the spot where Betty used to be.
It was a woman with black hair and long legs. She had a spider tattoo on her left thigh and a sword on her waist as well as a cloak of justice on her shoulders.
Lucas tried to remember her but can't quite think of a name.
Luckily, Hinaemon was nearby.
"Vice Admiral Momousagi!"
Hearing the name and title, Lucas finally remembered.
What the hell!? Isn't she supposed to be one of the Admiral Candidates!? A potential admiral level officer is here!?
Seeing Momousagi, Betty clicked her tongue.
"Tsk, times up huh? Lucas, think about what I said. I'll be leaving now!"
"Come back here, Revolutionary!"
Momousagi pulled her sword and started to give chase to Betty.
After some time, Lucas snapped out of it.
"Huh, did she call me using my name just now?"
"..."