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—
### [Side Story: “Isn’t His Name Liam?”]
*West Blue, merchant ship. Old Henry and the sailors were collectively shocked, their eyeballs nearly popping out. A homeless man who barely managed to pay off his debts with the money Liam gave him was doing odd jobs on the ship when he picked up a scattered newspaper from Old Henry and his crew. After a quick glance, a thought bubble appeared over his head: Giorno? Liam?*
—
Inside the cave research facility, Liam was quickly browsing through stacks of research papers.
Despite not being completely reckless, he had a vague idea of what the Marines might do in response to his earlier actions.
So, unlike his previous leisurely tour of the other research facility, Liam was now in full-on “quantum reading mode,” glancing at each document for just a moment before discarding it. No time was wasted.
He needed to copy all the data here as quickly as possible!
Robin stood nearby with her hands behind her back, watching Liam’s frantic reading with a slightly bemused expression… Suddenly, Liam’s “quantum reading” was interrupted. He frowned and looked up.
『B.I.B.』 tapped Liam on the shoulder and pointed outside the cave.
The Stand armor, while scouring Vegapunk’s hidden research facility, would occasionally fly out to check if anyone else had noticed the place.
Liam took a step back, then stopped.
After a moment of thought, he didn’t walk to the cave entrance himself but instead removed the Stand’s “headphones” and put them on.
Whoosh… A virtual screen appeared in front of Liam, displaying 『B.I.B.』’s perspective.
The black Stand returned to the cave entrance and looked toward the sky.
Through 『B.I.B.』’s eyes, Liam squinted. On the virtual screen, he could see faint flashes of golden lightning— or rather, golden light— in the stormy sky.
“Whoa! That’s intense.”
Liam immediately understood the urgency of the situation and had 『B.I.B.』 retreat inside. “B, you too! Those documents over there are all yours.”
『B.I.B.』 nodded silently.
Robin watched as Liam mumbled to himself, and moments later, the remaining pile of documents began to float on their own, flipping through them with the same frantic speed as Liam.
“Whew, done~!”
Liam threw the pile of papers into the air like a student after final exams, scattering them all over the place.
“Come here,” Liam called to Robin, who quickly ran over. He casually placed her inside 『B.I.B.』’s city fort. “After all, he’s a future Admiral… Even if his Haki isn’t that great, we should still give him some respect!”
Liam looked at his Iron Man-like Stand.
“I’ve known about this glitch for a while now, so I might as well test it out this time…”
『B.I.B.』 nodded and floated toward the cave entrance.
Once inside the miniaturized city fort, Robin turned around and saw Liam climb inside as well.
“What about that little guy?”
Liam called out as the city fort’s walls began to move like a living creature, bringing a sleepy Den Den Mushi from the bottom level to him.
“Polu?” The green Den Den Mushi blinked groggily, still a bit dazed.
Liam smiled and patted its head…
A green Den Den Mushi appeared out of nowhere and plopped into the snow with a puff… It looked around blankly, vaguely remembering that its caretaker had said that if it didn’t do a good job, it might never have such an easy life again… So it had to complete its mission with all its might!
Just as the little green Den Den Mushi was thinking this, 『B.I.B.』 took out a glowing triangular chip from the reactor in its chest and inserted it directly into the creature.
“Polu!”
As if receiving a signal, the green Den Den Mushi’s body color rapidly changed, blending completely with the surrounding snow…
One of its eyes transformed into the entrance to the city fort.
The black armor 『B.I.B.』 took a step forward and jumped straight into the Den Den Mushi’s city fort entrance.
In the snow, the green… now white Den Den Mushi closed its eyes slightly as if going into hibernation, completely motionless.
A golden figure streaked across the snow and arrived at the cave entrance on the mountainside.
Soon, the golden figure leaped inside.
—
A piece of the faceplate slowly emerged from the Den Den Mushi’s body.
The shrunken faceplate, with its glowing white eyes, observed the sky above the island, where golden streams of light intertwined like falling stars.
“Comrade, do you really need to work this hard?”
Inside the city fort, within the Den Den Mushi’s body…
In a bizarre, twisted, and chaotic environment that looked like it could change at any moment and burst into madness, there stood a black armor, missing its faceplate.
Inside the Stand’s city fort…
Liam muttered to himself as he watched the outside world through a virtual screen.
“How much of a pay raise did the Marines give Kizaru for him to come all this way…?”
Robin glanced at him, but in truth…
She had no idea what was going on.
From her perspective, all that happened was Liam pulling her into the ghost City Fort, and that was it.
After that, Liam started mumbling to himself…
However, judging from his reaction, it seemed like something urgent had occurred.
So, Robin decided not to disturb him and quietly walked to the upper levels of the City Fort.
She browsed through the bookshelf filled with books in square characters, exploring the place with interest. Eventually, she returned to the lowest level, which Liam called home, boiled some water, made a cup of tea, and began reading.
After getting tired of reading, she warmed up some milk and added a few flower petals to it. Robin carried the floral milk tea and went to find Liam.
Liam was still sitting in the empty training ground, focused, but his eyes seemed unfocused, staring at something.
After a long while, it seemed Kizaru had grown impatient. The golden flashes in the sky were becoming less frequent…
“Here,” Robin handed him the floral milk tea and sat down beside him.
Liam drank it in one gulp.
“Shall we go out and take a look?”
—
By “out,” they meant leaving the ghost City Fort.
The two of them entered the City Fort inside the Den Den Mushi.
Looking around at the eerie and surreal style of the City Fort… Liam heard Robin chuckle, “This is so interesting!”
Liam was speechless as he watched Robin curiously examine the City Fort inside the Den Den Mushi.
“But, how is this possible…” Robin, being sharp, quickly noticed something amiss. She pointed at the strange City Fort around them, then at the spot beside Liam, where they had just appeared out of thin air, which was where the ghost City Fort was located. “How can there be two Shiro Shiro no Mi (Castle-Castle Fruit) ability users?”
Liam smiled slightly.
Robin might not have realized it yet, but she had seen “two ability users” before.
Back when Liam took Robin’s Flower-Flower Fruit (Hana Hana no Mi), he had 『B.I.B.』 copy the Flower-Flower Fruit ability, growing “armor” arms in front of Robin…
At that time, both Liam and 『B.I.B.』 were essentially two Flower-Flower Fruit users.
The ability of Liam’s Stand is to fully copy the body, including the Devil Fruit abilities the body possesses at the time of copying! Even if the Stand manifests and copies the ability, then removes the Devil Fruit chip from the body, the Stand’s copied Devil Fruit ability won’t disappear… Which leads to this fact:
A Stand that hasn’t consumed a Devil Fruit (chip) still possesses the Devil Fruit ability!
As a result, a natural glitch occurred… Liam could take the extracted Devil Fruit chip and grant the same Devil Fruit ability to someone else!
“What can you do,” Liam said, slinging an arm around 『B.I.B.』’s shoulders and laughing, “After all, it’s just a ghost!”
Robin tilted her head, puzzled.
—
Since they weren’t sure if Kizaru had left or not…
Liam and Robin decided to lie low for a while in the Stand City Fort, living off the stored food and water.
Before they knew it, five days had passed.
The green… now white Den Den Mushi had fully embraced its lazy and leisurely nature as if it had truly returned to the wild.
It would nibble on fallen leaves, lick the snow, wander by the river, doze off on the cliffside, and bask in the wind and snow…
It was quite a comfortable life!
On the other hand, although they had been holed up in the Stand City Fort for five days, Liam and Robin didn’t find it too boring.
Even when fresh water ran low, they made do by having the little green Den Den Mushi absorb some snow.
Thanks to the mobility of the Shiro Shiro no Mi (Castle-Castle Fruit) user, five days later, under Liam’s urging, it snuck into Karakuri Island’s town without being noticed.
After spending a day around the Marine base on the island, they were able to confirm that Kizaru had long since returned to Marine Headquarters to report back.
However, the hidden research facility on the mountainside, Vegapunk’s lab, was now under Marine protection.
Liam didn’t mind, though; he had already copied most of the important data that could be taken.
Initially, he had considered stuffing all the research data into the City Fort and taking it with him, but he decided to leave some behind to stall Kizaru and buy himself time…
In the snow, the white Den Den Mushi opened its mouth, and a hand covered in red flame patterns emerged, pressing against the snowy ground.
『B.I.B.』’s phantom leaped out!
Its chest opened like a door, and Liam and Robin sat side by side, taking a deep breath together and smiling in satisfaction.
Fresh air!
“Polu?” The green… now white Den Den Mushi looked up in confusion, only to be grabbed by 『B.I.B.』 and stuffed back into the City Fort within its body.
Liam said, “This place isn’t safe; we should move on! Let’s head to the next island and get some proper rest.”
Robin nodded, “Okay.”
『B.I.B.』 leaped into the air, flying into the wind and snow, heading deeper into the Grand Line.
—
As the dark ghost flew over Karakuri Island…
“Hmm?”
A blind swordsman in a purple robe, walking through the snow, suddenly looked up.
“Oh? Isn’t the one up there a friend of those two little brothers from before?”
His scarred face twisted as he opened his pale eyes.
“Why not come down for a chat?”
Sching… The blind swordsman drew his sword and aimed it at the snowstorm in the sky.
Gravity beam!
……
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