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Liam jumped straight out of the fortress.
“Vegapunk is seriously a madman… Holed up on this harsh winter island, and he’s actually pondering things about the moon?”
Liam flipped through the pile of documents, skimming them quickly. Most of it, he couldn’t understand.
Additionally, many parts had been smeared out, as if someone had deliberately covered up key information…
Atmosphere on the moon?
A human-habitable environment?
Robin didn’t quite get it— modifying the moon was indeed a surprising subject of research, but honestly, there were plenty of scientists with wild ideas that sounded more like science fiction.
They’d already seen blueprints that were even more outlandish than this research on the moon. She didn’t understand why Liam was so shocked by these documents in particular.
Liam was naturally surprised. In his past life, many clues in the manga hinted that the ultimate secret of the One Piece world might be intricately linked to the moon!
Whether it was the winged Skypieans or Dr. Tsukimi in the cover stories…
The cover story after Enel was defeated by the Straw Hats was even more revealing! On the moon, Enel discovered an abandoned city and used his Goro Goro no Mi (Thunder Fruit) powers to reactivate hundreds of robots!
On the walls of the moon’s underground chambers, Enel found murals that seemed to depict ancient stories, possibly even featuring ancient text similar to that on the Poneglyphs…
The ultimate secret that Pirate King Roger and his crew struggled to uncover on the final island, Laugh Tale, was something Vegapunk seemed to be researching on this winter island…
Such an extraordinary act might not have left an impression on Robin, but how could Liam not be shocked?
“Liam, look at this…” Robin pointed to a large button on one of the walls. The button had a huge skull emblem on it. “Isn’t this the self-destruct button that the father and daughter mentioned?”
Liam pondered aloud, “It’s really designed in a way that makes you want to press it just to see what happens…”
Robin: “…” Why does it feel like he’s not joking?
“What’s that noise?”
Just as Liam and Robin were examining the self-destruct button on the wall, they heard the voices of the stationed marines in the hallway outside.
Liam and Robin exchanged glances.
A series of footsteps approached the door.
The marines, guns at the ready, pushed open the door to investigate.
The room was empty…
Unseen by the marines, the ghostly black armor passed through them nonchalantly, walking through the walls as it left Vegapunk’s old research lab.
Inside the fortress, Liam rubbed his stomach and asked, “Are you hungry? What should we eat tonight?”
“You’re getting hungry pretty quickly today.” Robin poked his stomach with her finger.
“It’s all because of this guy!” Liam patted the walls of the fortress. “Gotta eat more to fully digest those ‘experience points’!”
—
“Someone has definitely been here!!”
Inside Vegapunk’s research lab, the marines noticed the blueprints haphazardly shoved into a pile, and they realized—this was serious.
Cold sweat formed on their foreheads.
“Notify the branch on the island immediately! As for whether to inform Headquarters… that’ll be up to the senior official at the branch! But first, we need to search the island and find the intruders!”
“Yes, sir!!”
**As the marines busied themselves, Liam and Robin walked through the snow towards the inn in the town.**
Along the way, under another tree, they spotted Sentomaru again.
As Liam passed by, he saluted the chubby boy who was diligently training his Haki in the freezing cold, greeting him with, “Respect!”
“…” Robin and Sentomaru were momentarily unsure how to respond.
Back in town, Liam didn’t bother going to a restaurant to avoid running into Fujitora again. Instead, he ordered a huge amount of food to be delivered to their room at the inn.
They ate, digested, and rested.
Inside the Stand fortress, Robin quietly sipped tea and read a book, while Liam grabbed his iron rod and engaged in a vigorous 1v1 battle with the battle armor.
Robin read for a while, then hugged her knees and started to stare off into space.
Exhausted, Liam rolled over, and ‘B.I.B.’ began massaging his shoulders. Lazily, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“In those documents we looked at today…” Robin hesitated before finally continuing, “I think… some of Vegapunk’s research seems to have similarities with the findings of the scholars on Ohara Island… It’s just that many of the key details were smeared out…”
Liam rolled over, “Most of the research in that lab was about cultural aspects… It seems normal that there would be studies involving history!”
But still, researching history led to Ohara’s destruction by a Buster Call, while Vegapunk got recruited by the Marines, well-fed and well-cared for…
“…” Robin tapped her foot on Liam’s shoulder, resting her chin on her hand, lost in thought.
—
**Karakuri Island, Baldimore, ‘The Land of the Future,’ Marine Branch Headquarters.**
“What?!”
“Someone broke into Dr. Vegapunk’s research facility?!”
The senior official at the branch was furious and ordered a thorough search of the entire island to find the intruders.
“Send more personnel to the research lab!”
“Check if any documents are missing from the facility… But damn it, the branch doesn’t have the authority to review the documents inside the lab! We’ll wait and consider notifying Headquarters afterward…”
“Yes, sir!” The marines saluted and scattered.
Some headed to the research facility, while others went to the various towns, questioning the residents about any suspicious individuals seen near Dr. Vegapunk’s lab.
With his hands wrapped in dirty bandages, Sentomaru passed by some marines questioning a father and daughter. Hearing a familiar description, he stopped to listen for a while.
—
The next morning, Liam, aboard the ‘B.I.B.,’ took Robin back to Vegapunk’s research facility, continuing their exploration as if nothing had happened.
“There are way more marines outside the research facility today…”
Robin, sitting in the fortress’s chest cavity, looked down at the area around the lab from above.
It was clear that there were more marines patrolling the area compared to yesterday, with none of them slacking off like before…
“Who cares about them,” Liam said dismissively, piloting the ‘B.I.B.’ as it phased through the fortress-like walls of the research facility like a ghost.
Continuing from where they left off, they resumed flipping through the piles of Vegapunk’s research documents.
Even if he didn’t understand them, Liam only needed to glance at them once. With a vague memory stored, he could use the Stand’s ability to copy everything about his body, allowing him to reproduce the documents whenever needed.
……
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