Konoha's Mission Master

"He did intend to use this as a bargaining chip, but I refused outright at the time."

Yakumo said with a regretful expression.

At the time, Whitebeard intended to exchange Yakumo for two years of protection for the Whitebeard Pirates. Yakumo had no reason to stay in this world for long, so he naturally refused without hesitation.

This also caused Yakumo to lose the opportunity to obtain the ultimate secret. However, he was not too sad about it. Even if he had to choose again, Yakumo would not stay for two years for a secret.

"That's the world's ultimate secret, aren't you curious?"

Long asked with some surprise, after all, he had been curious about that secret for a long time, but it was very different from what he was planning, so he had no choice but to give up exploring the secret.

He is now closer to his goal, but he has lost the will to explore the secret. He seems to be very close to true success, but in reality, he is walking on thin ice.

One wrong step could lead to total defeat.

"Curious? Of course I'm curious, I'm definitely curious."

Yakumo said matter-of-factly, after all, this is the most core secret of the One Piece world, and the great treasure that runs through the entire story.

"But this secret is not enough for me to wait two years."

"Then why didn't you figure it out?"

Yakumo continued to ask, "Logically speaking, given the current influence of the Free Federation, figuring out this matter shouldn't be too difficult."

"This secret has nothing to do with the goal I'm pursuing."

The dragon opened its eyes and answered calmly.

"Currently, the biggest problem for the Free Federation is the Red-Haired Pirates and the remaining forces of the Celestial Dragons, right?"

Yakumo didn't dwell too much on that question, but instead steered the conversation back to his goal of coming to the pirate world.

Not for the mission, not for the gold coins.

Just for inner peace and to set things right.

"Those great pirates in the New World are also very troublesome, especially since we've been dangling too much energy from the remnants of the Celestial Dragons."

Long stood up and lifted the beige cloth covering the wall next to him, revealing a transparent glass panel with a world map underneath.

The New World section was covered with sticky notes representing the pirate forces that were fighting against the Free Federation. The Red-Haired Pirates had drawn a circle around one of them with a red pen.

This shows that Ryukoku attaches great importance to the Red-Haired Pirates. In addition, there are many documents on the table next to him, including the abilities and characteristics of the various officers of the Red-Haired Pirates.

In fact, the Free Federation did not intend to completely eliminate the Red-Haired Pirates; it only hoped to confine them to a certain area as much as possible and force them to take the initiative to negotiate.

Although they wanted to wipe out the Red-Haired Pirates, the Free Federation could not afford the cost of destroying a Yonko-level force. Back then, the Navy had sent out its strongest lineup to deal with Whitebeard.

In an era where many powerful figures have passed away, the Free Federation simply cannot assemble a force of that caliber. Furthermore, the Celestial Dragons' interference prevents the Free Federation from focusing all its efforts on the New World.

Yakumo looked at the world map under the glass panel. Apart from the New World, only the Calm Belt was marked, and a certain region was even marked with several huge black circles.

"Are the Celestial Dragons hiding in the Calm Belt?" Yakumo asked.

"This is a hypothesis, and our intelligence department has already begun to explore the Calm Belt, not only to find the Celestial Dragons, but also to find Vegapunk's whereabouts."

Before they disappeared, the Celestial Dragons not only took away a lot of treasures and Devil Fruits from the treasury, but also the research team of Vegapunk, the world's greatest scientist.

Perhaps one day, the Celestial Dragons will return to the forefront with their terrifying, fully mechanized army and reclaim their dominant position.

It was because of this speculation that the Free Federation devoted more of its efforts to the mission of finding the Celestial Dragons, but unfortunately, it made no progress in a year and a half.

On the contrary, the Celestial Dragons sent assassins to kill high-ranking officials of the Free Federation, and even massacred civilians to achieve certain goals.

"I've heard that the Celestial Dragons even send people to massacre civilians. What's the point of them doing that?"

Yakumo asked, puzzled, "The purpose of doing this seems to only give the Celestial Dragons a reputation for cruelty and inhumanity, without any other benefit."

At this, the dragon's eyes revealed anger.

"The Celestial Dragons left a threatening letter at the site of the massacre, saying that they would give up massacring civilians if I were willing to commit suicide."

"That's so despicable..."

Yakumo sighed. Revolutionaries rise from the common people, and their own slogans are to fight for the true freedom and fairness of the common people, which is equivalent to fighting for the well-being of the basic class.

The Celestial Dragons' approach is... if you care about civilians, then I'll force you to make a choice: sacrifice yourself to save tens of thousands, or ignore the lives of those people?

If you choose the former... the Celestial Dragon will definitely make a profit.

If the latter option is chosen, in the long run... the Free Federation will lose the hearts and minds of the people at the grassroots level. After all, when fear is not relieved, people will have a lot of negative emotions that need to be vented.

When they are unable to influence the perpetrator, they will turn their attention to the innocent on the other side.

The theory of blaming the innocent was born in this way.

When the existence of dragons means the deaths of tens of thousands of people, then for the vast majority of people in the world, dragons become the ones who deserve to die, because they don't know when the Celestial Dragons' swords will fall.

Kind people are the most easily threatened.

Unfortunately... although Long is kind, he is also a ruthless and cunning man, the kind of werewolf who is even willing to give up the lives of his family for his own goals.

Such a person will not be threatened, nor will they accept being threatened.

The Celestial Dragons' continued slaughter will not shake his resolve.

Then there are the common people, who are captured by fear and willingly become slaves just to get back the lives that are rightfully theirs. In fact, fear is the most direct and simple way to gain dominion.

Yakumo could imagine the immense pressure that Dragon was under, and of course, his pressure was no less. Every civilian slaughtered by the Celestial Dragons was related to his annual gold coin earnings.

Even disregarding the monetary value, the Celestial Dragons must be eliminated simply for the sake of their lives. Such a terrifying and sinful race has no reason to exist; their continued existence is a form of harm to the rest of the world.

"Can we confirm now that the Celestial Dragons are in the Calm Belt?" Yakumo asked.

"Basically...it's pretty close."

The dragon's tone wasn't exactly firm; it was merely a deduction made by the intelligence department based on a combination of various intelligence reports.

"Then I'll take charge of the Celestial Dragons' side."

The plan that Yakumo once devised did indeed have many flaws, or rather, he had become overconfident and even arrogant after being tempered in the world of One-Punch Man.

This not only gave Shanks the opportunity to break his promise, but also gave the Celestial Dragons a chance to escape, which led to the current situation.

He should have gone straight to Mary Geoise and resolved everything.

"I'll let Masako Mori and the others handle Shanks. They're strong enough to wipe out the Red-Haired Pirates," Yakumo continued.

"Alright, actually the Red-Haired Pirates' resistance wasn't that fierce; it was more like a test from us. Unfortunately... he shouldn't have broken his promise."

The dragon's consciousness is very simple...

Since they're unwilling to comply, then we have no choice but to destroy them.

This is a clash of ideologies and systems; sacrifice is unavoidable...

.............

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Chapter 427 Departure, New World

Deep inside the study, Yakumo sat on the sofa with a coffee cup in his hand. The drink, which his secretary had just brought, interrupted their conversation.

In some ways, Ryu's thoughts are the same as Yakumo's.

That means the Red-Haired Pirates, who broke their promise, must be dealt with; only then can the foundation for shattering the chaos in the world be broken.

When did you think Shanks deserved to die?

Yakumo took a sip of coffee and found it slightly bitter. He then placed the teacup on the wooden table, his brow furrowing slightly. He didn't like the taste.

“I’ve wanted to kill him ever since he broke into Mary Geoise. Uninvited guests are just unwelcome guests. If you hadn’t been there that day… his cooperation might have turned into a demonstration.”

Ryu stood up, sat down opposite Yakumo, and took a big gulp of coffee. Although he also hated the taste, he had no choice but to rely on it to keep himself awake, as he hadn't rested for five days in a row.

The massacre of civilians by the Celestial Dragons put immense pressure on him.

"Then why didn't you make a move last time?"

Yakumo realized the gap between himself and Ryu. He was too kind in some ways and easily swayed by emotions, thus losing the ruthlessness and decisiveness that a hero should possess.

“Back then, I saw admiration for Shanks in your eyes, and for your sake, I couldn’t fall out with Shanks,” Dragon replied.

Essentially, Shanks was on his kill list.

The Red-Haired Pirates once clashed with the Revolutionary Army in the New World. Although no high-ranking officers died, more than one mid-level fighter was killed, and countless ordinary combatants perished.

From that day on, Dragon decided to kill Shanks.

"It was indeed my fault, so I came back."

Yakumo openly admitted his problem, which can be considered a kind of growth, a growth of the mind.

"It's not exactly a mistake; everyone makes mistakes in judgment sometimes."

Ryu offered sincere words of comfort, explaining that there were things Yakumo could reflect on himself, but he couldn't say them...

"Did you lose your fight with Luffy?" Yakumo asked.

"Yes."

Dragon nodded, confirming a certain guess in his mind: even if Yakumo returned to his own world, he still had a way of knowing about the big and small things happening in the pirate world.

This was not a good feeling, but the dragon did not show any abnormality. Instead, it quickly suppressed its thoughts and ideas.

"Luffy didn't intend to kill you?"

"After all, I am his father. The boy is kind-hearted and would never do something like killing his father. But our relationship has completely plummeted to a freezing point because of this."

When Luffy is mentioned, Dragon's expression inevitably becomes complicated. He once made a choice, giving up his identity as a father and taking on the responsibility of being the leader of the Revolutionary Army, but that does not mean he does not love his son.

When Luffy was in Loguetown, he saw him off from afar.

Yakumo raised his hand, and a bright green light enveloped the dragon's body. He instantly used his life control ability to examine and analyze the dragon from the inside out, searching for any hidden injuries sustained in the battle.

"Although I didn't intend to kill you, this was still quite a heavy blow."

The dragon's body suffered varying degrees of damage to many organs. Although some blood vessels had healed, there were still various hidden injuries, and several muscle cells showed signs of necrosis.

"These injuries are not only due to Luffy, but also the result of assassins sent by the remnants of the Celestial Dragons, who caught him off guard. Even though the Navy has undergone three rounds of inspections, I believe there are still Celestial Dragons' spies within the Navy."

Dragon felt the warm energy within his body surging and flowing rapidly through his muscles and blood vessels, as if countless tiny hands were massaging him from the inside out, making his breathing lighter, his heartbeat stronger, and his previously sore shoulders seem to have regained their vitality.

"After all, they are a race that has ruled the world for eight hundred years. Even if their overt power has been completely eradicated, who knows what kind of power they still have hidden in the shadows?"