Nana first asked Ian to replace his hat with this white hat, and said, “This is the symbol of the guards. On this s.h.i.+p, you must wear this hat.”
Ian nodded, put it on his head, and folded his bear-ear hat into his pocket.
At this time, she introduced Ian to the two people she brought, and then, she pointed to the short girl and said, “This is Walnut!”
Standing in front of him, this girl, Walnut, didn't even reach Ian's waist. Although she was wearing a small armor, she didn't have a black rose on her hat. Ian looked at her double-bun black hair with two white bags covering them and her black eyes. He kept thinking of Chun Li while he was looking at her. She had a lovely face, which made her look so cute!
Ian felt so warm-hearted, so he squatted down and greeted Walnut with a smile: “h.e.l.lo, little beauty!”
However, what he didn't expect was that the little Loli, Walnut, had an angry expression, and with veins bulging from her forehead, she said, “What little beauty! I don't think that you are older than me?”
Nana smiled slightly and said to Ian, who was so embarra.s.sed: “Don't mind her, Ian! Walnut looks small, but she's twenty-three years old.”
Ian's eyes were about to pop-out. 'The F**K, how can I predict this!?'
“Sorry, sorry, my bad!” He apologized, but Walnut snorted and ignored him.
Nana pointed to the fully-grown man with a long beard and said, “This is Yardi!”
Ian stretched out his hand and said, “h.e.l.lo, uncle!” He thought that this time he won't get it wrong!
However, uncle Yardi scratched his head and said embarra.s.sedly: “Huh, Brother Ian… I'm only 17 years old…”
Huh! Ian was so confused. 'What the F**K is going on??'
'Did these two swap bodies?'
Ian looked at Nana gloomily, and she was covering her mouth and grinning, which made Ian understand instantly. She was deliberately waiting to see him making these mistakes.
Yesterday, she looked so serious, and now unexpectedly, she turned out to be evil.
“All right, that's enough!” Nana said resolutely, “I brought them over, just to introduce you to each other. On this s.h.i.+p, they are my subordinates. Now you are too, so you will follow us and do whatever you are asked to. Don't reveal your ident.i.ty to anyone, OK?”
Ian nodded and asked, “When will we reach Marijoa?”
“We will get there in four days!” Nana replied: “We have just received new information. The Marines have finally dispatched some manpower to fight against the criminals who want to rob the tribute gold!”
“Oh?” Ian asked: “Who did they send out?”
“It's the Admiral 'Akainu' with four battles.h.i.+ps!” Nana said: “Meanwhile, the gold has also been secretly transferred. It is estimated that the battle will burst when we reach the Marineford. I don't know how long the battle will last, but it will definitely attract the attention of the Marines. And at that time, we would be on Marijoa.”
Ian nodded, indeed, what k.u.ma guessed was totally right. The World Government and Marines would respond harshly to the group of people who were planning on plundering the tribute gold. What Ian didn't expect was that the World Government and Marines didn't just choose to avoid the robbery by transferring the goods secretly, but they went out and sent Akainu, which meant that they decided to crush them.
In fact, even if there were not enough manpower during the World Council, in front of all the world's leaders, the World Government and the Marines weren't likely to choose a defensive strategy. They probably don't want the leaders of these countries to look down on them, so they choose such a tough stance.
Well, in that case, it means that there's one less fierce Admiral in Marijoa.
“When you get into Marijoa, you can leave us!” Nana said: “Then we will carry out our respective tasks. If necessary, you can contact us, and we will help you!”
“Well, I understand!” Ian nodded.
“Also, when you about to leave, Walnut will help you!” Nana said with a smile: “Don't underestimate her, she's a Devil Fruit User!”
“Oh, really?” Ian lowered his head and looked at the two white bags on her double-bun. He just thought that they looked funny and wanted to touch them.
“Why, don't you believe it?” As soon as Walnut saw Ian's eyes, she knew what he was thinking. Then she stretched out her right hand angrily and touched Ian.
For a moment, Ian was surrounded by a strange power, but he didn't realize its effect and felt nothing, so he opened his mouth and asked, “What have you done to me?”
As soon as he asked that, he found something strange, he couldn't hear those spoken words!
Not only that, but all the sounds around him also seemed to disappear, all the noises and the voices. Ian saw Nana smiling, then opening her mouth, as if she was talking to him, but he didn't hear any sound.
“What are you talking about?” Ian was anxious.
Finally, Walnut raised her hand and made a finger-slap motion. After this movement, Ian heard a clutter immediately, he could listen to sounds again.
“Do you know now what Walnut's strength is?” Walnut looked at Ian proudly.
“This is… the power of the Silent Fruit!?” Ian finally understood what was going on, and couldn't help shouting it out.
“Yes!” Nana smiled and nodded, “it's not long since Walnut got this power, but it works well, isn't it?”
The Silent Fruit, in Ian's impression, was originally shown with Doflamingo's brother, Corazon!
This alias, Corazon, actually refers to his important position in the Donquixote Family, it's just a codename, and his real name was Rosinante!
But after thinking about it, Ian connected all the dots, The Calm-Calm Fruit was eaten by Rosinante, However, when Doflamingo killed his younger brother, Rosinante. So with his death, his fruit has returned to circulation, and then, it will randomly appear in the world. Then what Walnut may get was the regenerated Calm-Calm Fruit!
That's it…! Ian didn't know what to say.
“When you're going to take action, Walnut will create a silent force field for you. As long as she is conscious, the silent field will always exist!” Nana said: “By erasing all your noises, your action will be much more convenient!”
This could help him a lot. Ian couldn't help asking curiously, “Is this silent force field optional? For example, eliminate my noises, but let me hear other sounds around? “
“Of course!” Walnut said proudly while raising her small head.
At this moment, Ian was even more relieved. He looked at Nana and Yardi and asked, “Are you two also Devil Fruit users?”
Nana shook her head and said, “No, we are not…”
Walnut said to Nana: “Nana is the Captain of the second team of the Rose Guards. Her swordsmans.h.i.+p is very powerful. And Yardi is a huge bull. He has great strength!”
'I see.' Since Nana was a captain of Guards, Ian could fit comfortably on this s.h.i.+p.
After introducing everyone to know each other well, Ian, Walnut and Yardi followed behind Nana and went up to the deck together for a routine patrol.
In their way up to the deck, no one has paid attention to Ian. As Nana said, there were too many people on the s.h.i.+p. Ian's current clothes weren't different from an ordinary guard, so he won't attract attention.
At this time, under the guidance of the Marines frigate, the s.h.i.+p sailed into the currents of Enies Lobby. The Tarai Current is running in a fixed direction, belonging to a circular ring, so they should first go to Impel Down, and then to Marineford.
When arriving at the Impel Down, Ian thought about seeing how it look like, but now the Impel Down was far away on the sea, only a small part of it emerged, and the rest was all buried in the seawater. They weren't going to stop in Impel Down, just pa.s.sing by!
He couldn't see much currently, Ian thought for a second, 'By staying on this s.h.i.+p for four days, I would finally be able to see the mighty Marineford.'
In fact, Marineford is a vast city. The Marine Headquarters was just the largest building in the city. When their s.h.i.+ps finally docked at the bay, they saw the Marine Headquarters from a far distance.
The manpower there was really very tense, because Ian also noticed that there were many s.h.i.+ps from a lot of countries on the other three wharves. Because there were many kings and queens coming to the World Council with members of their royal families, so it became very crowded, and the Marines' inspections looked very busy.
The king of the Rose Kingdom also landed. Ian and Nana, as guards, followed the Royal family to the sh.o.r.e. As they walked, Ian whispered to her, “Do you know when the s.h.i.+p that was going to be robbed will land? Also, the gold and things on it are sent to which Celestial Dragon?”
“I don't know!” Nana whispered, “But when you get to Marijoa, you should inquire about it. This was a big deal, and it is estimated that many people will talk about it!”
Ian nodded, stopped talking, and quietly walked back to his team. At this time, Ian heard a familiar voice saying: “it's a pity that Princess Vivi didn't come this time. I really want to see her!”
Ian heard this tone, and immediately knew that the person who just talked was Hina. She was still the same, wearing a coat and smoking a cigarette, but at this time, she was talking to Alabasta's King Cobra!
At this time, Cobra looked worried and said, “Well, she was not in the mood to come and leave Alabasta. Now, in Alabasta, it hasn't rained for a long time. With the continuous drought, peoples' lives have begun to deteriorate. We almost couldn't gather the tribute this time…”
When the two talked, Ian walked behind Hina and lowered his hat.
The so-called tribute gold was actually a way to suck the blood of the folks in every country. If the country was rich, that could be fine. But once the country suffers a disaster, such as a drought and a flood, it could be very troublesome.
However, Celestial Dragon doesn't care about such things, all the leaders have to pay it out, and they don't even have any mercy. This has also led to many countries falling into famine because of Tribute Gold: the people tighten their belts to raise the Tribute gold, but in the end, they don't find money to buy food!
Despite the fact that Celestial Dragons were still at the top, in fact, people's hatred towards them has acc.u.mulated to an irrefutable level. Not to mention those non-partic.i.p.ating countries, even the national leaders and members of the royal family of some partic.i.p.ating countries, have started complaining about the Celestial Dragons, but it was hard for them to talk up.
Cobra, Alabasta's King, is supposed to be one of many…
At this time, Princess Vivi was already looking into Crocodile's Baroque Works, right?
Ian thought about it this way, as the team moved forward slowly, after a simple inspection, they began to climb up obliquely to Marījoa at the top of Red Line…