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Dak casually toyed with the three-headed dog before setting it back on the ground.
Bored now.
The Cerberus, newly back on solid ground, still seemed a bit dazed, its three heads visibly shaken, hesitating to come anywhere near Dak.
"Darkrai, how's it going?"
At this moment, Dak looked up at the sky, where Darkrai had been waiting.
"Dak."
"Oh? Take me there."
Dak raised an eyebrow, surprised.
Darkrai indicated that he had just seen a very tall person, who must be Gecko Moria.
Darkrai grabbed Dak's hand, pulling him through the pitch-black night sky.
Dak's current level of psychic powers wasn't high, and using telekinesis was quite draining; otherwise, he could have flown on his own.
As they moved, Dak gradually saw a massive black castle emerging into his field of vision.
In front of the huge castle, a dense crowd was gathering.
No, a crowd of the dead.
These were zombies with their own consciousness, created by Gecko Moria.
There were about three hundred or so, still a long way from the 900 expected nine years later.
The portly Gecko Moria stood in front of these zombies, instructing them on something.
"Let's go down."
Dak had no intention of waiting, so he and Darkrai floated down directly in front of Moria.
"Are you the head of the Mystery Hatchery House?"
To Dak's surprise, Moria recognized him.
However, Moria seemed somewhat uncertain, his tone filled with a bit of doubt.
That made Dak curious.
In this cloud-covered place where news birds couldn't reach, how did Moria manage to stay informed about the outside world?
"How did you recognize me?"
Dak voiced his confusion.
"I regularly go out to collect some shadows, and occasionally I catch up on the news and buy some information."
Moria's expression was serious, aware that the man before him was no ordinary character.
In fact, he hadn't really recognized Dak, as there was little information about Dak's appearance at sea. Hardly anyone had seen the man who existed more in tales than in sight, mostly knowing the hatchery through its public representative, Bon Clay.
But Moria had recognized Darkrai.
Darkrai had been active protecting Bon Clay while delivering eggs recently, having been photographed in action, making him recognizable by many at sea.
"I see. Just curious, what are you planning to do now? It's fine if you don't want to say, I'm just asking casually."
Dak thought there might be something he could do involving Moria, so he casually asked.
"I plan to visit Nia Island in the West Blue, where there's said to be a fine corpse."
Moria seemed to view Dak as some formidable force, his eyes full of caution.
Despite Dak's casual tone, Moria didn't dare not answer, though it wasn't something that needed to be kept secret.
"Just for a corpse?"
Dak furrowed his brow, unable to understand Moria's motivations.
A corpse, no matter how powerful, was just that—a corpse. Its capabilities would depend largely on the shadow within it.
Nia Island sounded familiar; Dak remembered setting coordinates for this location.
"You don't understand, that's the body of a great swordsman, second only to the 'Dragon Samurai' Ryuma. He was quite a formidable character."
Moria didn't seem inclined to elaborate to Dak, who, in his view, couldn't possibly comprehend the power of his 'undead army'.
"Suit yourself."
Dak twitched his face, now understanding whom Moria referred to.
Cyrano.
A swordsman ranked second in the world centuries ago, definitely skilled, though whether he was truly second-best could be debated, as such titles were often self-proclaimed.
Apologies for the cutoff. Let's continue the narrative:
...was truly second-best could be debated, as such titles were often self-proclaimed through embellished tales and not actual merit. Regardless, Cyrano was a formidable swordsman by any standard.
Dak didn't plan to linger, and he could tell that Moria wasn't particularly welcoming to him.
He pushed his hand through the air in front of him.
To Dak's satisfaction, a grayish semi-transparent door swung open. On the other side of the door was the familiar interior of the Mystery Hatchery House.
Success!
"Ha ha ha ha!" Dak let out a triumphant laugh as he and Darkrai stepped back into the shop and then closed the door behind them.
Meanwhile, Moria was left sweating on the other side. The sudden disappearance of Dak and Darkrai right under his nose, leaving him wondering if they were hiding somewhere on the island, was unsettling.
Moria was overthinking it.
"The Door-Door Fruit's ability is still quite basic, and the level is too low. It needs further development," Dak observed, looking at his hand.
Currently, the Door-Door Fruit's ability was elementary, allowing him to create doors anywhere—through air, walls, even on human bodies.
With a bit more development, he should be able to perform spatial jumps, appearing a few meters away from where he entered, a capability shown by Blueno during the encounter on the Sea Train.
Given that Blueno managed to develop such a technique, Dak felt confident that mastering spatial jumps would not be difficult.
In the future, Dak aimed to try longer-range spatial jumps, which could then perhaps be termed as spatial teleportation.
"I need to figure out how to open doors through space," Dak mused, pinching his chin.
Dak wanted to eliminate the need to physically push doors open, a motion he felt was entirely possible to bypass using his psychic powers. If Blueno ever charged at him, Dak could instantly open a door in mid-air in front of him, sending Blueno into the hatchery or potentially even into the ocean.
Of course, this was just a hypothetical scenario—Dak had no reason to fight Blueno.
All in all, the Door-Door Fruit was a formidable Devil Fruit, versatile for attack, defense, escape, or other auxiliary uses, akin to a superpower among Devil Fruits.
However, upgrading the Door-Door Fruit's ability level wouldn't be straightforward.
Dak could rely on his own training or see if a lucky draw could bring something useful.
"Speaking of which, it's been a while since I did a ten-pull. Let's go for it."
[Ten-Pull Draw]
[100,000,000 Belly/Each Pull]
"Get lost," Dak scowled.
He had thought about spending more on the ten-pull to try and boost his abilities in Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and his Devil Fruit, but now decided against it.
Saving money and focusing on developing Pokémon Island was the real plan.
"Right, Nia Island in the West Blue. I might as well take a trip there."
Dak felt a bit idle and decided to visit the place Moria intended to go.
There might be some unexpected gains.
While descending in front of Moria, Dak had noticed that aside from Absalom, the other two of the 'Mysterious Three,' Hogback and Perona, were not present.
It was highly possible that Moria had not yet recruited these two.
Interestingly, both were from the West Blue, and it was conceivable that Moria might encounter and recruit them during this journey.
Hogback was already mentally twisted during this period, and Dak had little interest in him.
But Perona was different.
At this time, Perona was still a 14-year-old naive girl, her worldview and morals not fully formed. With proper guidance, she could turn out to be a good person, much like Sugar.
(Ps: Perona was originally picked up by Moria at age 11, so this is a AU.)
Moreover, Perona had two 'bug-level' traits within the world of pirates.
First, her Ghost-Ghost Fruit, which had already demonstrated powerful abilities in the original story, full of fairy-tale magic and comparable to Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit in terms of rule-bending.
Unfortunately, both young ladies eventually succumbed to the awe of God Usopp, each fainting in fright.
Second, Perona's skills as a navigator.
Managing to transport Zoro from Thriller Bark to Sabaody Archipelago after the crew's two-year hiatus spoke volumes about her skills—a level Nami might find challenging to achieve.
But all this talk was moot if he didn't actually run into her.
As Dak stepped through the shop door, he appeared in a village on Nia Island.
Nia Island was a medium-sized island featuring one large town and several small villages, with the town being Cyrano's former home.
Most visitors to the West Blue only went to the town, leaving the other parts of the island rather deserted.
Dak casually asked a passerby for directions to the town, planning to head that way.
If Moria was planning to excavate Cyrano's grave, he would likely be in that town. If Dak was going to encounter Hogback or Perona, it would likely be there as well.
"With Hogback's reputation, if his hometown were that town, I should have heard of it by now," Dak pondered, frowning.
Suddenly, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye floating beside him.
Dak turned instinctively.
There, floating with a tattered umbrella, was a pink-haired girl staring blankly at him with big, dark eyes.
Well, Dak was right.
Moria was indeed planning to take Perona back with him this trip.
But, unfortunately for Moria, Dak decided to try and intercept.
(End of chapter)