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Byakuya changed out of his Night Organization attire and back into his Marine Vice Admiral uniform as he returned to the G-5 Marine Branch.
As he walked through the base's front gate, the Marines who saw him cheered excitedly.
During his absence, they had been nervously collecting tolls from passing pirates, worried they might accidentally provoke a powerful enemy who could take advantage of their commander's absence to attack.
Now that Byakuya was back, their confidence returned—they could freely collect tolls again.
A Marine asked, "Vice Admiral Byakuya, does this mean you've gotten even stronger after training?"
Byakuya smiled and nodded, "You can collect those tolls without any worry. If trouble comes, I'll take responsibility." The Marines laughed—Byakuya truly understood them.
Meanwhile, when the news of Byakuya's return reached Vergo, Fergus, Ain, and Tashigi, they all gathered in his office to await him.
Vergo, upon seeing Byakuya, briefly showed a flicker of disappointment.
Now that he was back, they had missed their best opportunity to act. Doflamingo would no longer need to search for Byakuya's whereabouts.
Ain ran up, holding onto Byakuya's arm.
"Senior Byakuya, you've been away training for so long—you must have gotten even stronger! Could you help train Tashigi and me sometime?"
While collecting tolls, Ain and Tashigi had fought off several pirates who refused to pay, some of whom were Supernovas with bounties in the hundreds of millions of Berries.
Their skills had improved, but they felt stuck at a threshold they couldn't quite cross. Since both focused on swordsmanship, they naturally looked to Byakuya, the master swordsman, for guidance.
Byakuya ruffled Ain's hair affectionately, then turned to Tashigi. "I'll be free over the next few days, but don't go complaining if it gets tough."
"Don't worry, Senior Byakuya! We'll work hard," Ain replied, flashing her little fangs in a grin. Tashigi nodded in agreement.
Byakuya turned to Vergo and asked, "Did anything happen at the base while I was gone?"
Vergo quickly responded, "Ever since you defeated Snack from Big Mom's Sweet Commanders, we haven't had any trouble from the Big Mom Pirates.
As for the weaker Supernova pirates, we've handled any that dared to stir up trouble, so everything has been peaceful."
"Good to hear." Byakuya's tone shifted. "But I heard a rumour while training that a certain force has been looking for me at sea, perhaps with ill intentions."
Ferguson frowned, "If this is true, Commander, we'll need to be vigilant."
"Yes, Lord Byakuya. We should investigate to find out who's targeting you," Tashigi said anxiously.
Hearing Byakuya's seemingly casual remark, Vergo's heart skipped a beat.
Byakuya had a habit of saying these ambiguous things as if hinting that he already knew Vergo's true identity.
Each time, it left Vergo feeling unsettled, unsure if he'd been found out. Try as he might, Vergo couldn't understand how Byakuya might know his secret.
For now, he could only assume Byakuya was baiting him. Attempting to appear innocent, Vergo quickly replied, "Vice Admiral, I'll order the soldiers to investigate right away."
Byakuya laughed, "No need to go through that trouble."
"As I see it, there are only three major groups with the courage to seek me out—the Big Mom Pirates, the Beasts Pirates, and the Donquixote Family."
"None of these forces would dare openly attack a Marine base, so they'd only try something while I'm away training."
"Now that I'm back, they've lost their chance. So, no need to worry."
Vergo's heart dropped. He hadn't expected Byakuya to mention the Donquixote Family by name, implying he already knew Doflamingo wanted revenge.
If Byakuya ever decided to investigate, Vergo's ties to the Donquixote Family could be exposed, leaving him with no escape. He'd need to accelerate his plans.
After the others left, Ain was the last to linger, looking at Byakuya with concern. "Senior Byakuya, are you sure nothing will go wrong?"
She worried about the potential threat posed by these groups—two were Emperor-level pirate crews, and the other a Shichibukai family.
Even the weakest of the three, the Donquixote Family, held considerable power in the New World.
Ain feared that if they ever launched a desperate attack while he was off guard, it could cause major trouble.
Byakuya reassured her, "Silly girl, when have you ever known me to make a mistake? Don't worry about it. I still have to train you and Tashigi tonight."
Ain nodded and left, a smile breaking over Byakuya's face as he watched her go. It felt nice to have someone genuinely concerned for him.
But he wasn't worried about these three groups at all. The Big Mom Pirates had their hands full managing their chaos; they wouldn't be bothering him anytime soon.
His feud with the Beasts Pirates stemmed from disrupting their trade deal with the Donquixote Family and capturing Jack the Drought.
Kaido's crew had already suffered losses in a Marine counterattack after trying to rescue Jack, and it was unlikely Kaido would attack a Marine base over such a small matter.
As for the Donquixote Family, Byakuya would be more than happy if they made a move—he'd have a valid reason to eliminate them.
Byakuya had brought up these potential threats mainly to shake Vergo's confidence, making him think his cover was blown and pressuring him to act.
If Vergo's true allegiance were revealed, it would provide grounds to take down the Donquixote Family for infiltrating the Marines with a spy.
For now, Byakuya just needed to wait for Vergo to slip up.
With everything clear in his mind, Byakuya opened his system panel to check how much World Source Power he'd gained from his recent actions in Totto Land.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully altering the plot]
[The Vinsmoke Family's alliance with the Big Mom Pirates" and "The Straw Hat Pirates' assault on Totto Land," earning 34,000 World Source Points.]
Combined with the points from defeating figures like Stussy, Niji, and Ichiji, he now had around 35,000 World Source Points.
It seemed like a lot, but it still fell short of his expectations.
If Sanji stuck to the plan and avoided returning to the East Blue, he might never have joined the Straw Hat Pirates.
This would essentially rewrite all the plotlines for one of the main crew members. The world power generated by this would far exceed just thirty-five thousand points.
Or could it be that even without Sanji heading to the East Blue, he'd still manage to join the Straw Hat Pirates?
Byakuya pondered this deeply for a while but ultimately set it aside for now, deciding to revisit the question later.
[World Power: 95,000 points]
Glancing at his current World Power balance, Byakuya immediately invested in a ten-point fusion increase, raising his Fusion Rate to sixty percent. He obtained another ability, and—just like last time—it was a duplicate.
[Draw Complete. Congratulations, Host has obtained S-Class Hero Flashy Flash's Flashing Swordsmanship]
Byakuya blinked, taken aback that he'd received a duplicate ability two times in a row. Last time, it was telekinesis; this time, swordsmanship. Both were duplicates of the main abilities showcased by his two identities.
[Ding! Due to the Host's mastery in the special skill: Swordsmanship at max level, Flashing Swordsmanship cannot automatically fuse.]
[Encountered a low-probability event. Two processing options are available for the Host.]
Low-probability? I've been stuck with this twice now! Byakuya inwardly fumed. Without even glancing at the options, he chose the second one. There was no way he'd let a reward slip away.
[Fusion Complete]
[Special Skill: Extreme Swordsmanship (Max)]
After the fusion was completed, Byakuya carefully sensed how "Extreme Swordsmanship" had changed.
If Atomic Samurai's swordsmanship philosophy was about "cutting anything and everything across the Four Seas," then Flashy Flash's was summed up in one word: speed—speed taken to the extreme, to the point where sword strikes approached the speed of light.
Of course, this was only achievable in theory; even Byakuya couldn't match light speed with his sword.
Still, the enhancement to his swordsmanship considerably boosted his combat strength in his Marine persona.
However, when he checked the World Power line, he was stunned.
[World Power: 19,500 points]
The swordsmanship breakthrough had cost him twenty thousand World Source points!
Yet the previous breakthrough in telekinesis had only used ten thousand. Did this damned system skim an extra ten thousand off the top?
His forehead pulsed with frustration as he barked, "Hey, system, you'd better give me an explanation! Where did that ten thousand points go?"
In stark contrast to Byakuya, the system calmly explained everything in detail.
The explanation, though lengthy, was essentially that Byakuya's maxed-out swordsmanship level made Flashing Swordsmanship a breakthrough catalyst.
However, Flashy Flash's swordsmanship level was far below Tornado's telekinesis.
As a result, more World Power was required to achieve a breakthrough, hence the twofold cost. Satisfied, Byakuya finally calmed down.
But instead of questioning his role, he muttered, "Honestly, why so complicated?"
"You should've just given me a 100% template right from the start, so I wouldn't have to quibble over every single point."
Examining his remaining World Power in light of his plans, Byakuya couldn't help but think how quickly it seemed to deplete.
After a moment's consideration, he purchased two specific characters from the system shop for his upcoming strategy.
Byakuya had expected their strength to be on par with senior admirals, but upon summoning, the figure's power was closer to that of a low-level admiral—much lower than Byakuya had projected.
It seemed the system imposed some restrictions on summoned characters, so Byakuya reluctantly spent another ten thousand World Sources points to elevate the character's power to a low admiral level.
This extra expense put a severe dent in his balance. What was nearly a six-figure amount had dwindled to just 8,390 points.
With a sigh, Byakuya reflected that going forward, the Donquixote Family might be the most convenient target to amass more World Power.
Meanwhile, back in his quarters, Vergo dialed Doflamingo's personal Den Den Mushi. "Young Master, Byakuya is back from his training."
"You can stop looking for him at sea." Doflamingo's voice snarled on the other end.
"Damn it! Where on earth was he training? I nearly turned over every island near the G-5 branch looking for him and still found nothing!"
"Young Master, that isn't the issue now."
"The critical point is that after he returned, he mentioned that someone out at sea was tracking his whereabouts while he was training and explicitly brought up the Donquixote Family."
"The troubling part is that every word seemed directed right at me."
Doflamingo instantly quieted, his tone suddenly sharp. "What are you saying? Has your cover been blown?"
"I'm not certain. Ever since Byakuya arrived at the G-5, I haven't done anything remotely suspicious, yet he always seems to imply he knows something about me when he speaks."
"So, he knows who you are but hasn't exposed you?"
"It seems that way. I even suspect he wasn't training these past two weeks but instead observing my movements from hiding. Otherwise, there's no reason we couldn't locate him at sea."
With Vergo's analysis, Doflamingo saw the logic.
"Young Master, we need to take action against Byakuya quickly. Otherwise, my infiltration in the G-5 serves no purpose. If he reveals my identity one day, both you and I will be in grave danger."
Vergo's concerns were valid, and Doflamingo, after hearing all this, resolved to eliminate Byakuya as soon as possible.
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