Chapter 431 - A Traitor Among the Straw Hats.
Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
New Word.
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The cry of a baby boy finally echoed in a room in the middle of the castle. Uta was lying on a bed, receiving treatment from Lami, who was also the doctor for other births.
Lami could have delivered the baby from the mother's womb painlessly in an instant, using her Ope Ope no Mi power. But deep down, Uta refused that.
Luffy agreed, as he believed it was good for the mother to experience the pain of childbirth, as a kind of sacrifice for the baby. The pain was part of creating the solid bond, the strongest bond a woman could have with someone: her own child.
At this moment, the child was already among them, and everyone looked at him as he filled the hall with his cries, showing he was a lively boy.
Luffy watched with a wide smile as the midwives there helped clean the boy, wiping the blood from his body.
"Give him to me!" Uta requested in a weak tone as the women finished wrapping the child and brought him to his mother, placing him at her side. She looked at him with joy.
"He's so beautiful, Luffy. He looks just like you," Uta murmured, gazing at the boy with black hair and red eyes. Luffy moved closer and gently touched his son's face with his fingers, softly caressing him.
"He really did take after my coloring… Our baby," Luffy said, smiling tenderly.
"How about a family photo!" one of the women suggested, grabbing a Den Den Mushi to take a picture as Uta moved to a clean bed.
They ended up taking a family photo, both agreeing to capture this moment.
"I'm a bit scared to send this photo to Grandpa… but I can send it to Shanks…" Luffy couldn't help but murmur.
Luffy spent some time with the newborn and the mother, giving them special attention. Days passed, and in the end, Luffy ended up setting aside his duties for three whole days, trusting his crew to handle training the others.
While he was absent, the training was gentler, lacking his usual intensity or the inhuman challenges Luffy would create. When he returned, everyone quickly realized how serious he was about maintaining discipline. Soon, they found themselves on the ground, bodies aching and bruised after Luffy ordered giant animals to attack them during that day's training as soon as he returned.
"Guys, I didn't expect I'd need to go so easy on you… how disappointing…" Luffy remarked, seeing their exhaustion, clearly dissatisfied with their progress.
"Come on! It's been four days since training began, and I haven't seen any results. You're falling to the ground within minutes! That's not enough! It's ridiculous, and you should be ashamed of yourselves!" Luffy exclaimed, now addressing the entire fleet.
Luffy had the Moa Moa no Mi to enhance his training at a beastly pace, intensifying the drills, demanding that everyone learn to master the Six Rokushiki Techniques and improve their Haki. He wanted these 30 days to equate to a year of intense training, at least for the thousands of soldiers before him. He expected everyone to learn the basics, and the captains to master higher levels of Haki skills.
Thus, the official training began. Luffy spent most of the days focusing on everyone's improvement while also managing the administration of his fleet. He met with kings to discuss and organize trade among allied nations, even within Paradise.
This movement also brought the Prudence Kingdom near Dressrosa a few days after Bepo received this mission from Luffy, where King Elizabello II explained the situation to everyone, seeking consensus that they now belonged to the territory of a Yonko. But it wasn't just these allies on the move.
*Baroque Works* also entered the New World at that moment to establish its information network. As soon as Luffy received the call from Galdino, he sent some of his crew members to escort the new Baroque Works ships to Dressrosa as they emerged from the depths, in case they ran into trouble.
"Finally, we made it past the Grand Line!" Jabra exclaimed on one of the ships, which sailed alongside other Baroque Works leaders. In addition to Jabra, Galdino, Blueno, and Bentham were also on the ship.
The other leaders whom Luffy had kept in Baroque Works remained in Paradise, while these ones were being transferred to the New World to operate in a far more powerful sea and attempt to establish their spy network here.
It might be a bit harsh to pull the strongest ones out of Paradise, but Luffy had trained the other members who had already mastered the Six Styles, preparing them to face most threats on that side.
Everything seemed in order, but Diaba was still agitated as he watched the Red Line behind the ships, towering into the sky, while his gaze rose upward.
"Look at that, guys!" he exclaimed, raising both hands and flipping off Mary Geoise. "You bastards tried to capture us once! Now we're pirates, you bunch of idiots!" he continued, as everyone looked at him and shook their heads, watching him curse the world nobles and the government with anger.
"I'm going to lie down for a bit!" Blueno said, heading inside the deck, while Galdino watched him leave with narrowed eyes.
"What a boring guy," Jabra murmured, seeing his colleague leave without enjoying the New World's sea on such a sunny day.
Blueno entered his cabin and quickly headed to the bed, but instead, he pulled out a box, took out a communication device, and grabbed some papers he kept hidden, scanning them quickly before turning on the device.
"Now that I'm close to Mary Geoise, I can inform them…" Blueno murmured, revealing that he was a double agent, as the papers held all the information on the Straw Hats he'd gathered over the past year. He was about to turn on the device when the door suddenly burst open with someone kicking it in. Blueno looked up, stunned, his eyes widening at the sight of who stood there.
"I remember when I found you in that bar in Water 7. It was obvious you were a double agent back then, and honestly, nothing has changed since then." Hugo commented as he approached, while Blueno took a step back, shocked.
"You're here… How did you know?" Blueno murmured, incredulous. He realized that Hugo had always known of his betrayal.
"We always knew. The Captain always knew that you might be a traitor…" Hugo said, leaving Blueno even more stunned.
"If he knew, why did he keep me with them for a year?" Blueno asked, frowning.
"The Captain wanted to see if you'd change your loyalty. You've become much stronger than before, but don't be mistaken, Blueno. You were about to hand over our information to the World Government, and that's unforgivable. Even for the Captain, there are limits he can't tolerate." Hugo spoke with a cold, indifferent tone.
Blueno didn't know how to respond as Hugo stepped even closer. "You know," Hugo continued, "the Captain once told me that, even after recruiting you and Jabra, Diaba remained loyal. But you've always been in our sights. After all, when a dog grows up with a collar, it's hard for him to forget his original master. Isn't that how you treat the World Government, Blueno?" he said calmly, moving closer, as Blueno found himself cornered, stepping back until he felt his back against the door.
"The Captain always said he wanted your fruit. That's why he kept you around. But he still wanted to give you a chance… and now you've lost it, so you're going to die." Hugo spoke with a tone that left no doubt—he was not joking, and he would follow through.
Blueno, in a desperate move, quickly activated his Devil Fruit power, opening a door in space with high speed and trying to escape.
However, just as he was about to pass through the opening, Hugo grabbed him, pulling him back. Blueno spun quickly, trying to break free as he felt his neck being squeezed and his body lifted. He used all his strength to struggle, but Hugo was far too strong. As he resisted, Blueno felt his hand begin to petrify, and a sharp pain spread through his neck until a snap ended his life.
Hugo wasted no time, killing Blueno quickly as ordered by Luffy—there would be no forgiveness for this. Hugo simply sighed, but he didn't release the body, carrying it out of the cabin with Blueno's lifeless form draped over his shoulder, startling Bentham and Jabra, who were waiting outside.
"What happened to him?" Jabra exclaimed in shock upon seeing Blueno's dead body.
"He was about to pass our information to the World Government," Galdino answered for Hugo, as he knew Luffy had asked him to keep an eye on Blueno. The Captain's suspicion had proven true.
"What? He was a traitor?" Jabra exclaimed again, even more stunned.
"We had a traitor among us… It can't be…" Bentham murmured, crying both for the loss of his friend and the possibility of his betrayal.
"Yes, the Captain was right. Either way, we've eliminated that rotten apple, and now we must head to Dressrosa," Hugo said. Shortly after, another crew member appeared—Usopp, who had also been selected to escort the fleet, along with two other crew members. Then, the ten ships set sail for Dressrosa along with Baroque Works.
Meanwhile, Luffy was monitoring the system at that moment with a Den Den Mushi in his hand. "Understood… just come back here…" Luffy spoke in a tone void of emotion.
He wasn't happy to have to kill someone from the fleet… but what choice did he have? The bastard was a traitor, and his gaze fell on the store system after Hugo confirmed and hung up the Den Den Mushi. The Door Fruit had now appeared in the inventory.
"Well, it seems that in the end, I'll have to use this power in a different way…" he said, considering that the Door Fruit was too valuable to be wasted. He decided to keep it in his stock and choose a new user for it in the future, purchasing it at that very moment.
Setting aside the matter of Blueno, Luffy turned his attention back to the fleet, which was training hard at that moment. Even though they were battered, everyone continued to push themselves to their limits, growing stronger each passing day—after all, each day was worth ten.
"Anyway, let's focus on training these guys. I'm sure they'll be unrecognizable when I'm done with them," Luffy said to himself, a smile spreading across his face.
"I heard you talking to yourself…" someone approached just then, and Luffy saw it was Uta, carrying the baby in her arms. She looked like a woman fulfilled with the feeling of being a mother.
"Oh, come and sit with me, my love," Luffy invited, and she did so. He took the child into his arms as soon as she handed him over to sit, calling him Dex, lifting and playing with him. The boy seemed curious.
"Look, my son… this is Daddy's army. Soon, they'll make the whole world tremble," Luffy said, smiling as little Dex looked on with curiosity at all the fights taking place in the open space.
And so, a month passed since that day, and that very scene looked vastly different from what it did in that moment.
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