Tossing the Devil Fruit in his hand, Queen displayed his array of weapons, showing his determination for this mission.
“Oh, right, this is for you. Even though you’re not a fan of using weapons, bring it along this time.”
As Onigashima’s current head of research, Queen had not only perfected his own arsenal but had also prepared a little something for Zeraora—a simple Seastone dagger.
In the outside world, creating items from Seastone isn’t easy. Due to its natural hardness and special properties, shaping it is extremely difficult. Typically, whatever size the ore is, that’s about the size of the object that can be created from it.
However, in Wano Country, they could shape it into almost any form they wanted.
Therefore, they had many weapons containing Seastone, though Zeraora had never really been one for weapons before.
His fists and feet were his strongest weapons.
“Say… you’re not lying to me, right? You’re really heading out because there’s a problem with your orchard, right?”
Looking at the preparations Queen had made, Setsuna couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. It was as if he was convinced there was a trap.
“Not lying! Your authority isn’t that much lower than mine, and Zeraora’s authority is pretty high too. You can check for yourself! If I’m lying, I swear I won’t eat Oshiruko for a year.” [TN: The name of the food Queen likes is Oshiruko. I have been using “red bean soup with mochi” before.]
Setsuna believed Queen’s promise. While he wasn’t exactly a good person, he loves food immensely. This was someone who would dare to fight over Oshiruko with Big Mom and even headbutt her.
It showed just how obsessed he was with food.
“You go wait outside. I’ll pack some clothes for Zeraora. Bepo! Escort our guest out!”
Finding an excuse to send Queen out, Setsuna pulled Zeraora aside.
“What’s up?”
“That guy’s acting weird. If anything goes wrong, just use him as a distraction and get yourself out of there.”
“Isn’t…Isn’t that a bit too much?”
“What’s there to worry about? Did you forget what his bounty says? ‘Only Alive.’ You’ll only put him in danger if you push it too far. And for a situation that both of you can’t handle, you can only rely on Mr. Kaido and Lord Arceus.”
Between her colleague and her husband, Setsuna cared far more about Zeraora.
While Queen was a comrade, he didn’t hold the same place in Setsuna’s heart as Zeraora.
“Don’t worry; I know how to handle it.”
With that, Queen successfully convinced one companion, and they left for the banana plantation together.
But as they were about to set off, Zeraora realized he had underestimated Queen’s caution.
“Is all this necessary?”
“I think it is, after all, you can fly. Also, we’re not going to fly the whole way—we’re just switching to a ship in a different place.”
Strictly speaking, the only official exit from Wano Country is through Mogura Port, making it the safest way to leave. For the bolder ones, there’s also the option of braving the waterfall. As long as the ship is sturdy enough, one could either sail up against the current or take the plunge right off the waterfall—both are doable methods.
Alternatively, they had another option: flying.
At this moment, Queen led Zeraora to a platform, and under cover of night, they quietly left Wano Country.
He was worried about being spotted by Marine surveillance ships if he set out on a ship, so he opted for a quiet method, figuring no one would notice two small silhouettes in the night sky.
A few days later, Zeraora and Queen arrived at the plantation. Gazing at the banana trees, whose leaves had mostly withered, Queen felt tears welling up in his eyes.
“Ba*tards! What are you staring at? Bring me to the lab, now!”
The extensive damage to the plantation soured Queen’s mood, and seeing his staff standing around confused only fueled his anger.
“Y-yes… but, Lord Queen, why have you come here?”
“If I didn’t come, everything on this island would be gone! Enough talk, lead the way—now!”
“Y-yes, this way, please!”
An enraged Queen was quite intimidating, and the ordinary workers quickly led him to the agricultural management area of the island. Before the researchers inside even understood what was happening, Queen shoved them aside.
“Get out of my way! If you can’t even figure out something this simple—what use are you guys?”
“Lord Queen, we tried our best, but…”
“No buts! Pay close attention and learn! How can you not understand such simple steps?”
With that, Queen turned on the equipment and began a live demonstration.
…
“As expected of Lord Queen—so that’s how you do this step?”
“So that’s it! This will save more than half the time!”
To save his precious bananas as quickly as possible, Queen’s arms moved so fast they left afterimages, and various instruments flew around in his hands. Before long, he had achieved the results he wanted. As a former member of MADS, he had a remarkable gift for research.
The members of MADS preferred arguing with each other everyday over wasting time with incompetents, and Queen’s skill in this field was indeed top-notch. The admiration from those around him wasn’t just flattery—Queen truly managed to do some things they couldn’t handle.
But as the last drop of liquid entered the beaker, a grayish smoke suddenly rose from the laboratory bench, followed by a loud explosion.
Zeraora, watching from the side, felt speechless. Even though he didn’t understand science, he could tell what had happened from the wrecked laboratory bench.
It looked like Queen had also failed.
As the smoke cleared, Queen’s face was covered in chemical residue, and he stood completely still, as if petrified.
Everyone around held their breath, too scared to make a sound, unsure if Queen would fly into rage from shame.
“Cough, cough! Alright, you see that? That’s exactly why you all keep failing! I just demonstrated how you’re all getting it wrong. Take this as a lesson!”
In a flash of quick thinking, Queen quickly came up with an excuse to cover up his failure.
“Now, let me show you what the correct method looks like.”
After cleaning the laboratory bench, Queen repeated his previous steps. This time, to prevent any mishaps, he had already activated his modified components, ensuring perfect precision. Yet, a few minutes later, another explosion occurred.
Queen’s eyes were filled with doubts. After several consecutive explosions, he was certain of one thing: the issue wasn’t with him—it was that something was wrong with the samples. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have failed this experiment so many times.
He kicked everyone out, then went to the banana field outside to collect fresh samples before restarting from scratch.
It wasn’t that the things he wanted to research were particularly secret—he was just worried about embarrassing himself if something went wrong.
“How many times have you done this? Still no result?”
Even Zeraora, watching the tedious experiment, began to feel impatient and urged Queen to speed up.
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