Chapter 744: Some Secrets Must Be Buried Deep
"Stop messing around! Go find your little brother!"
Ian pressed down on Bonney's head, turning her toward Ace's direction. Bonney didn't mind and lunged forward to hug Ace!
"What are you doing!?" Ace, with Bonney clinging to his neck, felt awkward and struggled to break free. Back when they escaped the prison, Bonney had briefly explained the situation to him, and Ace was skeptical about it. When he was born, his mother had already died, and he was taken away by Garp immediately. So regarding the Portgas family, Ace not only knew very little but had virtually no understanding at all. Suddenly having a sister like this pop up was hard for him to accept.
Not to mention that this sister of his seemed a bit crazy, a standard tomboy, who really didn't look like an older sister...
However, he wouldn't say he was resistant to it. He had a good impression of his mother's family. He refused to acknowledge his bloodline from Roger but was very willing to inherit the Portgas surname.
Bonney, on the other hand, really liked her little cousin. Now that she had finally met him, she wanted to stick to him all the time...
Ian and Fujitora walked over to Queen. During the earlier transformation, Queen's ninja outfit had been torn apart. Now that the transformation was undone, it couldn't come back. So Fujitora took off his cape and covered Queen with it. Then Ian crouched down, reached out a finger in front of Queen's long nose to check, and found that she was still breathing.
In Ian's metal storm, she had been tossed around like a washing machine. For any other type of ability user, they would have died long ago. But as a Zoan Devil Fruit user, protected by Armament Haki, Queen survived. However, her bones were now shattered everywhere, and her originally beautiful fiery red fur was riddled with holes. These holes were filled with iron sand, and blood flowed out, turning a dark red color.
It felt like she had been shot hundreds of times with a shotgun, a truly miserable sight.
Ian didn't act lightly, but when he did, his moves were all powerful. It wasn't surprising that Queen the Plague had ended up like this. Although Ian couldn't figure out why she had fought to the death without retreating earlier, whatever her scheme was, she had paid a heavy price. Beaten like this, she probably couldn't cause any more trouble, right?
"If we leave her alone, she might die!" Marco spoke up. "Ian, you have healing abilities. Give her some treatment. We still have questions to ask her!"
Ian nodded, reached out his hand, and swept it over her body. The light of the Twin Heaven Return Shield enveloped Queen's body. Then, the iron sand stuck in her body slowly began to be expelled.
After waiting for a while, Ian dispelled the Twin Heaven Return Shield. He didn't intend to fully heal this fire fox; just making sure she wouldn't die was enough.
A noisy sound came from the direction of the capital. For some reason, even though the battle here had ended, the troops guarding the capital arrived belatedly.
"Let's go. Let's leave here first!" Ian wrapped Fujitora's cape around Queen, then picked her up and said to the others, "This isn't a good place for interrogation."
Everyone nodded and followed Ian as they quickly ran off into the distance.
The samurai and soldiers who arrived at the battle scene checked around suspiciously for a while, then noisily returned to the capital.
In the capital's Tenshukaku, in a messy and chaotic room, several maids were cleaning up. Although they kept their heads down carefully, their eyes were still panicked, occasionally glancing at a pool of blood in the corner of the room.
The smell of gunpowder still lingered in the room, and a cool breeze blew in through the blown-open window...
Just then, the room door slid open from the outside. The strongest samurai of Wano Country, Mogami Yoshimori, walked in. He waved his hand at the maids in the room and said, "Leave!"
After the maids bowed their heads and carefully left the room, Mogami Yoshimori closed the door, walked to a spot in the room that looked like a closet, and knelt down. His entire body was almost flat on the ground as he said in a low voice, "Lord Shogun, I apologize for alarming you..."
With his words, the closet was opened, revealing a hidden room inside. At the entrance of the room hung a curtain, and behind it, a figure could be vaguely seen sitting.
"You've worked hard, Yoshimori!" A rather deep voice came from behind the curtain, asking, "Have the tracking soldiers and samurai returned?"
"Yes, Lord Shogun!" Mogami Yoshimori straightened up and replied, "As you instructed, the soldiers and samurai tracking the assassin delayed for a while before arriving at the battle scene. They did not encounter or conflict with the other party."
"Good! Wano Country can no longer make enemies now..." The shogun behind the curtain sighed. "The Four Emperors' Black Dragon Ian personally coming to rescue someone caught me off guard. Since he declined your invitation and didn't want to see me, provoking him again would be unwise..."
"Lord Shogun!" Mogami Yoshimori asked with some confusion, "I can understand not clashing with the Dragon Hunter Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates, but why let the assassin go? If I'm not mistaken, the one who came to assassinate you was Queen the Plague of the Beast Pirates! This..."
"Even if we catch her, what then?" The shogun behind the curtain sneered. "You know Kaido's intentions well enough. Capturing Queen the Plague would only give him an excuse to tear up the alliance and a pretext to attack Wano Country!"
Mogami Yoshimori gritted his teeth and knelt down again, advising, "Lord Shogun! Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but since you understand Kaido's wolfish ambitions, why do you still take the huge risk of cooperating with him!? This assassination attempt by Queen the Plague has already cost us one shadow samurai. If they don't give up..."
"Hmph! I understand that well! But I have no choice!" The shogun snorted coldly. "The world thinks I acted unjustly against the Kozuki family, but who understands how much trouble Kozuki Oden's ideas would bring to Wano Country!? I am the shogun of Wano Country. I must protect the entire nation, not just the Kozuki family. For the sake of the whole country, I had no choice but to sacrifice them!"
"Lord Shogun..." Mogami Yoshimori, hearing such a resolute tone, didn't know what to say.
"Alright, you may leave!" The shogun behind the curtain spoke. "Since you are an old acquaintance of the Dragon Hunter Pirates' first mate, Issho, don't give up trying. Use him to connect with the Four Emperors Ian. Understand?"
"Yes... I will do my best!" Mogami Yoshimori bowed again, then stood up and backed out of the room.
When there was no one else in the room, a tired sigh came from behind the curtain. The shogun of Wano Country seemed to mutter to himself, "Oden, Oden, why don't you understand! As a stonemason family that engraved the Poneglyphs, instead of lying low, you were bent on opening the country. What kind of bewitching soup did Pirate King Roger feed you? Is the truth of history really that important? Even if you wanted to convey the truth to the world, did you think the world was ready!?"
"Wano Country has been closed off for so many years, and it has also sheltered you and your family for all those years. You ended up like this because you brought it on yourself. So... don't blame me!"
This muttered monologue, as it went on, became firm again, as if the shogun of Wano Country was once again confirming that his actions were correct.
Just then, a purupuru sound suddenly rang out in the room. The shogun behind the curtain fumbled around on himself for a while and then pulled out a strangely shaped Den Den Mushi.
It was actually a special black-and-white Den Den Mushi!
In Wano Country, there had never been a culture of Den Den Mushi. But who would have thought that the supreme ruler of Wano Country would have such a strange Den Den Mushi in his hands?
Picking up the receiver, the Den Den Mushi stopped purupuru-ing. Instead, it simulated the image of the person on the other end of the line. From its changing appearance, the other side seemed to be an old man with no hair, wearing round glasses...
"..." The shogun on this side picked up the receiver but said nothing.
However, the other side didn't seem to mind. The Den Den Mushi transmitted a voice asking, "Lord Tokugawa Kiki, I heard you encountered an assassination!? Are you alright?"
"Hmph!" The shogun of Wano Country, Tokugawa Kiki, sneered from behind the curtain, "Five Elders, the World Government really has spies everywhere! It reached your ears in such a short time?"
The person speaking with the shogun of Wano Country was actually the supreme ruler of the World Government, the Five Elders!?