"Want to guess how I figured it out?"
Kizaru said with a cheerful squint. At this close distance, and with the vast disparity in power between them, Kizaru could "see" even the identity of Dr. Bofoi's first childhood crush.
"I've got it! Mind reading! You can read minds! Incredible! This is the first time I've ever met a psychic with true telepathy! Can you explain how it works? How did you learn it?"
Dr. Bofoi's eyes lit up, shouting with excitement. He really was a textbook mad scientist—caught up in a subject that intrigued him so much, he completely forgot he was a prisoner and got visibly excited instead.
"I don't really mind, but the malice you're radiating is practically material at this point. Still going to keep pretending to be unconscious, old hag?"
Kizaru ignored Bofoi's questions and turned toward Madame Perus in the cage.
He honestly had no idea when he'd managed to make such a mortal enemy out of her. Even for someone who had wiped out entire bloodlines, it was rare to see such concentrated, almost physical hostility.
In Kizaru's sight, the malice pouring off Madame Perus was like thick black smoke rising straight into the sky.
Almost all of it was directed at him, with a small portion split between the two sisters—Tatsumaki and Fubuki.
What stood out was that the malice toward Fubuki was stronger than that toward Tatsumaki.
Coward picking on the weak?
Did she think Fubuki was easy to bully just because she was a B-class hero?
But the bulk of her killing intent was clearly aimed at Kizaru—surely she didn't think he was more vulnerable than Fubuki?
Even after he called her out, Madame Perus continued lying motionless, without the slightest change in her breathing.
If not for the fact that the malice had slightly subsided, Kizaru might've thought she was deaf and hadn't heard him at all.
"Malice? So you sensed it through your telepathy, right? Can you sense my malice toward you too?"
Bofoi leaned in eagerly, completely disregarding the fact that he was a prisoner. If he wasn't shackled, he probably would've complained about Kizaru not being more cooperative.
"I get that you're a science maniac, but could you please act a little more like a prisoner?"
Kizaru rolled his eyes. As the direct superior of the Navy's science division, he'd dealt with his fair share of eccentric geniuses like Vegapunk. Even so, he could never quite get used to their madness.
Thankfully, compared to Dr. Bofoi, Vegapunk had at least some baseline ethics and moral boundaries. And in just this brief conversation, Kizaru had already "seen" enough in Bofoi's mind to put him in Impel Down for ten thousand years.
Human experimentation? That was child's play. Bofoi's research logs showed repeated violations of basic human decency and moral codes. Just testing a new weapon's effectiveness had directly or indirectly cost tens of thousands of human lives.
And that wasn't even counting the poison gas experiments and cybernetic conversions. Calling Bofoi "scum" might actually be too flattering.
"Since you can read minds, there's no point in lying to you anyway. So what—if I beg for mercy on my knees and cry my eyes out, would you let me go?"
Bofoi asked coldly, not showing the slightest fear despite his circumstances.
He had been terrified when he was first captured, but now it seemed like he'd decided to go down swinging.
"No. Let me be perfectly clear—you're dead."
Kizaru could have spared someone like Boros, an alien warlord—but he would never let Bofoi walk away alive.
"Then why should I act all scared and pitiful? If I'm dead either way, I might as well satisfy my curiosity before I go."
Dr. Bofoi spoke indifferently. As a genius among geniuses—or rather, a madman among mad scientists—his rationality had long overridden any fear of death.
Put less politely: he'd given up. And if ordinary humans could travel to other worlds via the Dimensional Chat Group, Kizaru would've already tossed him into Impel Down's deepest level, leaving him to the mercy of those very skilled jailers to "re-educate" him.
"Whatever. Just get ready to be alien chow later… As for you—still playing dead? This isn't a courtroom. I don't need hard evidence or a confession."
Kizaru couldn't be bothered to argue with Dr. Bofoi. He'd already used his malice-sensing ability to confirm everything he needed. Feeding this guy to Groribas would be the end of it.
Lady Perus, still clinging to a shred of hope, began breathing more heavily. Her heart rate quickened.
Even though Kizaru had already exposed her, she stubbornly insisted on playing the part all the way through, pretending she had just woken up.
"Where am I…? Swift Flash? Terrible Tornado? Why am I here?"
Lady Perus asked with feigned confusion. If Dr. Bofoi's attempt at playing dumb had earned a perfect score, then Lady Pelos' acting was textbook-level.
Even Tornado and Fubuki—fully aware of her crimes—almost wavered for a moment.
"Tch. You sewer rats just can't come clean, can you? Do I really need to drag all your secrets into the open to break you? Here's a little hint: Project Immortality, the Broman Tribe, Monster Cells…"
Kizaru smiled as he spoke, but every word from his mouth made Lady Pelos' pupils visibly contract.
Back then, in order to push forward the Immortality Project, they had secretly captured a tribe famous for their longevity. The plan was to study their genes through human experimentation.
But when results stalled, it was under Lady Perus' command that the researchers injected Monster Cells into the Bromans, forcing them to undergo monsterization. Only then did they begin to isolate the unique cellular fluids that revealed the secrets behind their longevity.
Not long after that, the researcher who carried out her orders died of a "heart attack" in the hospital.
In other words, Lady Perus was the only person left who knew the full truth.
"Cut the act. That guy reads minds. Whatever you're thinking, he already knows."
Dr. Bofoi chuckled darkly from the side. Now that he was doomed, he had no reason to stay friendly with his former sponsor.
Besides, if Lady Perus hadn't dragged Swift Flash here, Bofoi could've remained in hiding. There'd have been no risk of exposure.
"There's really no personal grudge between us, is there? If you let me go now, I can pretend none of this ever happened—I didn't see a thing. No, actually, I could help you. I can offer you even more benefits!"
Lady Perus forced a stiff smile. It wasn't that her acting skills were lacking—it was just that, under the threat of death, even someone as pampered as her found it hard to stay composed.
In fact, the fact that she was still trying to negotiate with Kizaru already spoke to her impressive mental fortitude. After all, not everyone could suppress their fear of death with reason the way Dr. Bofoi did.
"Benefits?"
Kizaru yawned. These stuck-up elites really had no imagination at all. Even with death looming over them, they still clung to the same old tricks—bribery and backroom deals.
It was almost as if, despite being in an entirely new world, he'd somehow been transported back to the world of pirates. Back to when he was a Navy admiral, constantly butting heads with the rotten high command.
He even remembered a particularly dumb Vice Admiral once sneaking off alone to Pleasure Street. Kizaru had caught wind of it and nabbed him on the spot—and just like now, the guy had tried to bribe his way out of it using his so-called "influence."
Kizaru had tossed him to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish. It was proof that when true power was involved, all the status and influence in the world couldn't save these pompous fools from dying.
"Like… a hero ranking? Tornado of Terror has been holding onto Rank 2 in the S-Class for quite a while now, hasn't she? Perhaps it's time for her to move up to Number 1? And you—you're currently ranked 9th, right? After the alien invasion incident, you were supposed to be promoted to 5th. Why not just jump straight into Tornado's spot?"
Perus tried hard to make her offer more enticing. At least she had the sense to realize that money didn't hold much appeal for someone like Kizaru, and she didn't bother attempting a financial bribe.
"Not bad. At least a little more creative than usual… but that's it?"
Kizaru nodded thoughtfully, then frowned in mock disappointment.
No matter what she offered, Mrs. Perus was still going to die. But before that, there was no harm in letting himself have a little fun.
Compared to Dr. Bofoi—whose crimes could easily net him ten thousand years in prison—Mrs. Perus wasn't actually that guilty. In many cases, she'd merely played the role of a facilitator rather than a direct perpetrator.
Take the case of the Broman people, for example. In the pursuit of the Immortality Project, she hadn't even needed to give a subtle hint—others involved, upon seeing genetic data suggesting long lifespans, had eagerly given the orders to capture them en masse.
Mrs. Perus hadn't directly involved herself in the operation. All she'd done was commission a simple age-related demographic report. From there, some overly ambitious researchers noticed the anomaly, and their findings had naturally found their way to the oldest and most desperate figures in the leadership—those who needed the Immortality Project to succeed the most.
In the grand scheme of things, she hadn't committed any concrete crimes. But to claim that the Broman tragedy had nothing to do with her? The souls of the dead would crawl out of hell themselves to object.
"What do you want?"
Her face suddenly looked twenty years older, yet carried a glimmer of desperate hope.
If it meant staying alive… she was willing to do anything.
°°°
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