"Vacation Island, huh!"
Momoiro Island, also known as the "Other Amazon Lily", home to the Kamabakka Kingdom, stood tall in front of them. Liam held the Eternal Pose in his hand at the gates of the royal palace city.
"If I remember correctly..." B.I.B. reminded him, "This is where they host the 'World's Number One Swordsman Tournament'..."
It's also the place where the manga characters Mr. 3, the Wax Man, and Miss Goldenweek first made their appearances.
"Vacation Island was the tournament location we saw in the newspaper over a month ago when we left the Calm Belt," Robin said. "For the past month, besides the constant promotion of this world-famous tournament in the newspapers, we've also heard random chatter about it from passersby..."
"Huh? Really?" Liam looked a bit confused. "The newspaper promoted it a lot? People talked about it, too?"
Robin reminded him, "You don't really read the newspaper..."
"Oh~ I see!" Liam scratched his head.
"And you don't really pay attention to idle gossip either..."
Robin, on the other hand, always paid close attention to her surroundings whenever they arrived on a new island, especially unfamiliar ones. Even while disguised under her "Jolyne Mask," she never let her guard down.
Even with Liam around, Robin never gave up her basic sense of caution. To this day, Liam still had no idea how many times Robin had used her Hana Hana no Mi (Flower-Flower Fruit) to sprout eyes and ears in countless hidden corners...
"Ha ha, that's true!" Liam laughed heartily and weighed the Eternal Pose in his hand.
"It's been over a month, and this 'World's Number One Swordsman Tournament' still hasn't ended?"
"Actually, it hasn't even officially started yet..." Robin said.
"..." Liam rubbed his chin seriously, falling into deep thought.
"What's wrong?" Robin asked, puzzled.
Liam replied, "Ah le le~, that's really weird, Captain Jolyne."
"The way you're talking is even weirder..." Robin muttered under her breath.
B.I.B. reached out to pat Liam's shoulder but was casually brushed away. Liam kept a straight face as he continued to Robin: "We heard about this tournament when we left the Calm Belt over a month ago. Now, over a month later, we just happen to get the Eternal Pose to its location. And it just so happens the tournament hasn't even started yet... This whole string of coincidences, it's like fate is telling me I must go check out this tournament on Vacation Island!"
"You're overthinking it," Robin said, half amused, half exasperated. "It's just that the registration period is pretty long..." She explained what she'd read in the newspaper:
"Because it's a global tournament, they set a long registration time to give people from all over the world a chance to make it to Vacation Island in time to fight for the title of 'World's Greatest Swordsman'..."
"People from all over the world, huh..." Liam mused, wondering if he'd bump into a certain someone who liked throwing knives and had a sharp gaze.
"There'll probably be lots of pirate swordsmen joining too, right? Isn't this basically a world-class criminal gathering out in the open? Don't the Marines care?"
This was still the First Half of the Grand Line. If you wanted to know how strong the Marines' control was, just look at how few pirate emperor flags were flying here.
"I'm not too sure about that," Robin shook her head, thought for a moment, and then speculated: "If the World Economic Journal, literally the world's top newspaper, is fully promoting this tournament, then the organizers must be extremely powerful too..."
But... who could possibly be more powerful than the Marines or even the World Government?
Could it be those legendary Underworld Kings hosting it together? After all, the boss of the World Economic News, Morgan, was one of the underworld rulers. There were also others, the Loan Shark King, the Undertaker, the Shipping King, the Storage King... Liam pondered.
If that's the case, what's their goal? Surely, it wasn't just to launder money...?
Off in the distance, they could still see some burly okama (cross-dressing fighters) chasing after a bunch of panic-stricken swordsmen from the outside world...
The sky was getting dark. The okama on this island were like tireless demons, all thanks to their special hormone-enhanced cuisine: "Attack Dishes."
"Those guys must've stumbled onto this island a while ago, huh?" Liam remarked. "To still be on the run after being chased so relentlessly, gotta admit, they're tough."
Next to him, a burly okama, probably one of the Kamabakka ministers, fluttered a hand flirtatiously and replied in a deep, sultry voice:
"Aww~ don't be silly! We're not gonna eat them~~ we're just helping them unlock their true inner strength! Too bad~~ Iva-Queen isn't on the island right now, otherwise they could've transformed much faster into their most beautiful selves~~!"
Robin imagined the scene, bubbles popping above her head like a child's doodle, those swordsmen being gender-swapped into panicked female warriors by Iva's Hormone Fruit powers...
"Unlocking their true strength... You mean, chasing them while feeding them 'Attack Dishes' to boost their stamina, or, you know, 'condition their bodies'?"
Liam recalled his first visit to this island. Other than the fact that he had Ghost City Fortress backing him up and was able to keep his cool, he didn't receive much different treatment. He, too, had been relentlessly chased by these okama all day, even got into brawls with them, and had to eat those same attack dishes...
Liam had no issue with okama, as long as they didn't interfere with his business.
With a casual toss, he threw the Eternal Pose of Vacation Island into Little Green's Fortress Body.
…
After resting for the night, Liam continued studying the Magnet-Magnet Fruit the next day.
He had no intention of staying too long on Momoiro Island. Knowing his own talent with Devil Fruits, the fact that he'd spent most of the previous day without making progress meant that he must've taken the wrong approach from the start.
Sitting beneath a pink tree, just like yesterday, he held a green Den Den Mushi in his hand, deep in thought.
The green Den Den Mushi, mimicking Robin's Jolyne disguise, spoke with Robin's voice: "You don't necessarily have to precisely capture the Den Den Mushi's communication signals. You might be able to interfere with the signal by generating a strong enough, chaotic and disordered electromagnetic field…"
"What a low-tech method! That just makes me sound dumb," Liam commented into the receiver.
The green Den Den Mushi vividly simulated Robin's expression and voice from somewhere else on Momoiro Island, replying, "Then instead of experimenting with the Magnet-Magnet Fruit, shouldn't you be researching Den Den Mushi and reading up on professional books about electricity and magnetism?"
Liam sighed, "Then let me be dumb!"
He stopped thinking about technical procedures. With a raised hand, he gathered a ball of wild magnetic energy, unseen to the average person, into his palm.
He moved this chaotic magnetic energy closer to the green Den Den Mushi in his other hand.
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