"Sorry, but what you're describing sounds like a fairy tale. To me, it's practically impossible, so I'll pass."
Robin let out a soft, mocking laugh. She played the part of the skeptic perfectly, though Dragon frowned; his Observation Haki picked up a strange ripple in her emotions—something he couldn't quite place. Since he didn't have any concrete proof of his theory yet, he didn't push the issue.
"Fair enough. It's not exactly something I can guarantee yet," Dragon replied. "I only came to tell you that once we've gathered the necessary intelligence and the key 'materials,' we might need your help."
No one knew what had happened during those blank centuries. Roger's resurrection could be a Devil Fruit power, or it could be some ancient artifact from the past. Since Robin was the only one who could read the Poneglyphs, she was the linchpin. If they wanted to solve the mystery, they needed her.
"I won't lie to you—within our ranks, you're known as 'The Light of the Revolution.'"
With that parting shot, Dragon vanished with incredible speed. Simultaneously, the sky opened up, and a sudden downpour began to douse the harbor, washing away Smoker's suffocating clouds.
The Light?
What the hell did I do to become a 'light'? Robin thought, bewildered. Is it just because my entire family was slaughtered and I'm the only one left standing?
She opened her mouth to say something to Li Ke, but he had already stood up, his eyes narrowing.
Luffy was coming. And he was bringing his whole crew with him.
"Oh... for god's sake..."
Watching Luffy stretch his arms out to slingshot himself and his friends toward their deck, Li Ke knew exactly what that rubber-brained idiot was thinking.
Li Ke's ship was fully stocked, had the "talent" Luffy wanted, and from a distance, didn't look like it was packed with top-tier fighters. To Luffy, hijacking this ship was the easiest ticket out of Loguetown. But most importantly—it was the only ship Luffy actually recognized in the entire harbor!
Li Ke didn't give a damn about Dragon. He actually wanted to laugh at the man's pitch to Robin—Dragon had no idea that the "secret to resurrection" was literally standing right in front of him. But if both the father and the son thought they could just use him as a convenience store, they had another thing coming.
His Blood Secret Technique surged to life instantly. Even though he'd had no intention of training it, his Armament Haki manifested like a dark mist, coiling around the hilt of his sword. With a violent sweep, Li Ke swung at the cluster of people hurtling through the air toward his deck.
"Don't go dragging your mess onto my ship, Straw Hat!"
With his Observation Haki active, Li Ke's mind instinctively flashed back to Roger's legendary strike. Operating at the level of "Cutting Steel," his chilling sword-wind was instantly coated in that pitch-black Haki.
In that split second, Li Ke finally understood the mechanics behind this world's flying slashes.
Theoretically, they were just shockwaves created by a blade slicing through the atmosphere. While they looked formidable, their true power was limited. Without high-intensity Armament Haki, a flying slash was mostly flashy window-dressing—it couldn't even deliver eighty percent of the damage of a direct hit; it was just a way to add some range to a melee build.
And more importantly... it was a nightmare to control.
As his blade tore through the air, it compressed the atmosphere into a vacuum blade. His meager Armament Haki acted as a stabilizer, helping the slash propel forward at high speed.
But the moment he released it, Li Ke felt something was off. In this world, the threshold for splitting the air and creating a vacuum wave seemed... incredibly low? At least compared to other worlds, it was suspiciously easy.
Is it because of the Haki?
Li Ke hesitated, causing the vacuum slash to become erratic and unstable.
"Look out!"
Zoro—his chest still wrapped in heavy bandages from his duel with Mihawk—had his eyes nearly pop out of his head. He had only seen a slash with that kind of "weight" from Hawkeye himself. Perched on Luffy's back, he didn't hesitate; he drew his blade and slammed it into the incoming shockwave with everything he had, deflecting it off to the side.
The force of the impact was enough to ruin their trajectory, forcing the four of them to crash-land onto a different ship nearby.
"Hmm? Observation?"
Li Ke watched Zoro with a hint of surprise. He could sense a faint trace of Observation Haki within the swordsman—something young, growing, and feeling as if it were just about to sprout.
"Interesting."
Li Ke rotated his wrist, testing the weight of his blade. Meanwhile, Zoro scrambled to his feet, staring in utter disbelief at the black mist still swirling around Li Ke's sword.
"That black aura... it's the same thing Hawkeye used! And that flying slash! What the hell is your connection to Mihawk?!"
Li Ke ignored the question and slowly sheathed his blade. As long as Luffy didn't land on his deck, he didn't give a damn if the kid ended up at the bottom of the harbor.
"No connection," Li Ke replied flatly. "It's just a matter of insight. Once you've truly mastered the realm of 'Cutting Steel,' these things will come to you naturally."
His dismissive tone immediately set Zoro's teeth on edge. Li Ke glanced at the swordsman's waist and noticed his new blades: Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri. Even with the timeline in absolute shambles, those two swords had still found their way to him.
The 'destiny' of the Pirate King? The pull of the Nika fruit? Li Ke looked at Luffy, who was currently grumbling as he picked himself up, and shook his head. The stench of "fate" in this world was becoming unbearable.
"Hey! Are you trying to kill me?!" Luffy shouted, sounding genuinely offended. "I was just gonna borrow your ship for a sec and try to kidnap you guys! Was that really worth a death-blow?! You're so violent! So stingy!"
Luffy's logic was infuriatingly brazen, but the two idiots behind him were actually nodding in agreement.
"Exactly! What's the harm in letting me admire three beautiful ladies for a bit?!" Sanji roared, his eyes bloodshot with envy as he glared at Li Ke. "You harem-hoarding bastard! Scumbag! Disgrace to perverts everywhere!"
"Yeah! We're all pirates here! What's wrong with letting us take a little cover?!" Usopp chimed in, baring his teeth. Halfway through his rant, he realized what Luffy had said and slammed a fist into the captain's head. "And Luffy! You just blurted out the whole plan! You moron!"
Luffy's face shifted from indignant to his signature vacant, wide-eyed stare. "Oh... right. I accidentally said it out loud. Hahaha..." He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his straw hat with a look of pure, innocent idiocy.
Li Ke felt his blood pressure spike. His hand clamped back onto the hilt of his sword.
When you watch these guys in an anime, it's hilarious. But when you're the one standing on the other side of their "logic," it feels less like a comedy and more like these three bastards are collectively looking down on you.
"Whatever. Why am I even wasting my breath on you morons? It's not like any of you have a pair of gloves as badass as these!"
With a flourish, Li Ke snapped on a pair of high-tech climbing gloves Erina had bought for him. They were sleek, designed with built-in grappling hooks and a metallic finish that made them look like something straight out of a Kamen Rider suit. Erina had picked them out so he'd be prepared for anything... though, in reality, he'd barely found a use for them. Between his MC-tier abilities and the lack of actual mountains to climb, they'd mostly been collecting dust.
But the moment Li Ke "accidentally" fired one of the grappling claws into a nearby wooden piling with a satisfying clank, all three of them froze. Their eyes turned into literal stars.
"You bastard! How does a creep like you end up with gear that cool?!" Sanji roared, crushing his cigarette in a fit of pure envy.
"You're totally showing off! You're doing it on purpose!" Luffy's neck stretched out, his head inflating with indignation.
"Damn you! You're loving this, aren't you? You're gloating! I can see you gloating!" Usopp shrieked, once again reaching the point of "cellular disintegration" from sheer jealousy.
"I knew it! These are useful! You idiots are dying of envy, aren't you?!"
Li Ke wore a look of supreme triumph. He knew it—deep down, these three were nothing but overgrown, gear-obsessed toddlers.
Watching from the sidelines, Robin stared at Li Ke's smug face and the trio's combination of drooling lust for the gloves and stubborn refusal to admit they liked them. She let out a heavy, weary sigh.
"Captain, your IQ is being dragged down to their level as we speak."
"Eh?"
Snapping back to reality, Li Ke hurriedly stuffed the gloves back into his inventory, trying to reclaim his "cold-blooded master" persona. But the damage was done. Nami was already rolling her eyes as she steered their ship to give the Straw Hats' barrel-raft some room to maneuver.
As the two vessels drifted past each other, Li Ke took great pleasure in watching the four of them waving their arms and shouting, yet not daring to stop and waste more time. He gave them a classic two-fingered salute from his forehead.
"Farewell, you bounty-less nobodies. Next time we meet, you'll probably have a price on your heads, and I'll officially be a Bounty Hunter."
He grinned, and for a brief second, Luffy's expression actually turned serious.
"Man, what a pain. What's so great about being a Bounty Hunter? Just be my logistics officer already!"
"Like I said—I'm not raising women and kids on a pirate ship."
"Hm. Well, that's too bad. If we get the chance, let's team up then!"
Luffy waved back, looking genuinely bummed out. Even with Smoker breathing down his neck and the Grand Line ahead, he clearly still had his heart set on Li Ke's "logistics" and his crew.
Li Ke didn't bother engaging. Since Luffy had highjacked a Marine ship—of all things—there was no way Smoker was going to catch him on foot. He just sat back and waited for the chaos to die down.
It didn't take long for Smoker to suppress the riots in Loguetown. He eventually marched over to Li Ke's ship, where the latter was waiting patiently.
Smoker, puffing on his dual cigars, glared at Li Ke with visible irritation. "Why did you let them get away?"
He looked Li Ke up and down. He could sense that if Li Ke had wanted to, he could have easily intercepted the Straw Hat crew.
"I'm a Bounty Hunter," Li Ke replied, looking completely unimpressed. "Why would I stop them for free? Where's the profit in that?"
"Hmph. Bounty Hunters."
Smoker looked down on the profession from the bottom of his heart. To him, they were just hyenas chasing scraps of gold, barely distinguishable from the pirates they hunted.
"Fine. You can catch them later then. Tashigi! Get them their Bounty Hunter sailing permits. Then, we're heading for the Grand Line!"
With a cold snort, Smoker turned on his heel and stormed off.
Li Ke was technically right. Before this moment, he was legally just a civilian. There was no law requiring a civilian to risk their life to stop a pirate for the Navy. Until that permit was signed, he had no skin in the game.
Tashigi, unlike her boss, didn't seem to have a problem with them. She quickly processed their paperwork, granting Li Ke's ship the legal right to navigate the open seas.
However, the "fine print" was a nightmare.
First off, a Bounty Hunter's vessel was strictly prohibited from engaging in commercial trade. Any cargo recovered from a pirate ship had to be surrendered to a Marine base in exchange for a "fair compensation" fee. If they were caught hoarding loot or running their own trade routes, they'd be branded as pirates instantly.
Furthermore, they were required to turn in a quota of pirates to a Marine base at regular intervals. If they failed, their license would be revoked.
It was a brilliant, predatory system. The World Government essentially turned Bounty Hunters into outsourced, "gig-economy" employees. No benefits, no rank, no status—just cash for kills. They didn't even have to pay out death benefits if a hunter got slaughtered. It was enough to make a modern-day temp worker weep.
"Tsk, tsk. No wonder Bounty Hunters barely get any screen time in the anime," Li Ke mused, looking at the permit. "This is a total scam. The only real perk of this license is the freedom to sail, but the biggest profit in sailing is trade—which they've specifically banned us from doing..."
Robin let out a light laugh and shook her head as she looked at the document in Li Ke's hand.
"Well, it all depends on who you are. If you've got the skills to trick the Navy—or if you've got friends on the inside—rules are really just suggestions."
Robin knew what she was talking about. Baroque Works ran an entire smuggling empire using exactly those kinds of "independent contractor" trade routes.
"But seriously," she said, her eyes shifting to Li Ke. "Are you truly ready for the Grand Line?"
She studied his face, her voice dropping a notch. "This is Crocodile we're talking about. A Warlord of the Sea."
She was genuinely worried he was going to crash and burn. Crocodile wasn't some East Blue bottom-feeder; he was a monster who had survived the New World.
"Yeah," Li Ke nodded, his tone casual. "I'm ready."
In his mind, Crocodile was a victim of his own success; the guy had spent so long bullying weaklings in Alabasta that his actual combat edge had dulled. But more importantly, Li Ke had a literal cheat code. If things went sideways, he could just bail, heal up to full, and use World Power to jump back to the exact second he left to finish the fight.
"If you say so."
Robin let out a resigned sigh, then added with a pointed look: "You'd better step up your training, then. Fire isn't going to do much against sand."
Li Ke just smirked, offering no defense as he stepped onto the deck. The ship was already Grand Line-ready, so there was no need for an upgrade until they hit Water 7.
"Small potatoes. Besides..."
"Besides what?" Nami asked, looking at him with suspicion.
"I want to see just how much 'Destiny' weighs in this world."
Li Ke stared toward the horizon, in the direction of Reverse Mountain.
Even without Nami and Robin on his crew, he wondered if Luffy would still run into Vivi, still find Chopper, and still make it to Alabasta. If the script was that strong, Li Ke didn't mind playing the role of a "guest star" in the Straw Hat's story for a while.
After all, he didn't actually hate Luffy. Back when he was just a fan watching the show, he'd often imagined what it would be like to be part of that crew.
But the biggest reason was his curiosity about "Fate." If this world truly had a predestined script, then the Straw Hats' legendary "infinite retry" ability—the way they could get knocked down a dozen times only to bounce back stronger—was bound to kick in.
That special treatment, where you face an unbeatable foe but somehow survive while your skills and power skyrocket out of thin air... Li Ke wanted a piece of that action.
Thinking about poor "Teacher" Kaido's fate, Li Ke felt a genuine surge of envy. Look at Eustass Kid—a guy who got one-shotted by Shanks later on—but under the protective glow of the Straw Hat protagonist aura and Law's support, he was able to go toe-to-toe with an Emperor like Big Mom and actually win!
He wanted that kind of plot armor.
Just a few months prior, Law and Luffy were struggling to take down Doflamingo—a guy who couldn't even stand up to an Emperor's top commander. They had barely managed to scrape a win against a Warlord! And now? They were toppling gods.
Under the watchful, irritated eyes of Smoker and his crew, Li Ke's ship finally surged forward toward the Grand Line.
The journey was peaceful enough, but when Reverse Mountain finally loomed on the horizon, Li Ke couldn't suppress his shock.
The peak vanished into the clouds, an endless wall of rock that radiated a crushing sense of pressure. Just looking at it made his heart hammer against his ribs. But it was the sight of the water—an entire ocean's worth of current defying gravity and surging up the mountainside—that truly left him breathless.
That was the raw, unbridled power of the entire planet's tides at work!
Li Ke tried to manifest his Waterbending to influence the current, but he quickly realized his power was useless here. The water was too violent, too massive, too possessed by its own momentum. He could pull a few gallons into the air without an issue, but trying to change the direction of the flow was like a mantis trying to stop a freight train.
Still… while changing the tide was impossible, weaponizing those chaotic currents was a different story. In a place like this, his combat potential was effectively pushed to the absolute limit.
"The power of this world... it's terrifying," Li Ke muttered.
Under Nami's frantic directions, he focused on manipulating the surface water to steady their course, nudging the ship into the perfect slipstream. With a violent lurch, the vessel surged upward, officially entering the Reverse Mountain passage!
The rampaging currents propelled the ship with the velocity of a bullet train. Despite the blistering speed of the ascent, Li Ke was surprised to find no change in air pressure. He didn't have a second to dwell on the physics, though; the current was already hurtling them toward the solitary exit into the Grand Line!
However—
A massive wall of blue-black flesh blocked their path. A whale.
"Laboon? Of course. Luffy and his crew haven't made it here yet."
Li Ke took a sharp breath, staring at Laboon's colossal silhouette. He didn't have Luffy's rubber body to cushion the impact, so the "Gomu Gomu" method of stopping the ship was off the table.
So—what now?
Li Ke's hands began to move in a frantic blur. He reached out with his senses, trying to grasp the power of the converging seas, but the water here was too fast. The moment he perceived a current, it had already vanished kilometers behind them.
The gargantuan whale loomed closer, filling his entire field of vision. Li Ke inhaled deeply, his heart hammering.
Should he bail? Use his travel ability to escape?
He never expected a life-or-death crisis to hit this fast, and there was zero room to dodge.
But then, he thought of Nami—her body finally filling out thanks to his strict diet and training, her "skills" getting more refined by the day. He thought of Nojiko and Robin waiting on deck.
"Run? Like hell I will!"