One Piece Gunslinger

"If immoral people can form a force when they come together, then honest people should do the same."

"Wow, I'm famous now?" Jack stared blankly at the newspaper in his hand, incredulous.

Chapter Sixty-Two: The Power of a Single Sentence

Two days earlier, while Jack was still in bed, Haku volunteered to take over this mess. He was responsible for organizing personnel, arranging affairs, taking stock of assets, further eliminating small gangs with just over a hundred members, and even smaller thug groups, managing changes in the business, and so on.

With Jack down, all the blame fell on Haku, since there was no one else who could handle these things except Haku. Fujitora was only good at fighting, but he didn't really have any experience in this area.

"I've been working myself to death. I haven't slept a wink since I sent Kerla back to headquarters yesterday morning," Haku complained. "And I probably won't get a moment's rest for the next day either."

Fujitora, standing to the side, could only awkwardly scratch his head, since no one could help him right now.

"I'm truly sorry. Although I officially became a general of the Revolutionary Army yesterday due to Dragon's orders, I really had no way to deal with this matter at the time."

However, Haku sighed and said, "I already feel overwhelmed just dealing with this day's events. I wonder if that monster Jack went through the same thing back then. Jack has always been the one handling these things."

Fujitora thought about it again. In the past, Jack had always done these things, and he didn't feel that they were difficult. He even had a lot of time to practice boxing with Haku and go out for drinks. Now that Jack was down, he immediately felt that government affairs were like a mountain, pressing down on him and making it hard to breathe.

"Oh? A news bird?" Just then, a news bird appeared within Fujitora's perception range.

Haku looked up and, at the limit of his vision, where the sea met the sky, there was indeed a small black dot, almost invisible unless you looked very closely. After waiting for two more minutes, the small black dot gradually grew larger, and Haku finally confirmed that it was a newsbird carrying a newspaper.

Seeing only the tip of the iceberg, Haku couldn't help but think more highly of this blind, burly man who had never shown his true strength, praising him: "Mr. Fujitora is truly a god."

Fujitora simply smiled and said, "Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. This is just one of my insignificant strengths."

After a round of mutual flattery, Newsbird also approached the shore.

Haku quickly waved to the newsbird in the sky to attract its attention.

“However, newsbirds don’t usually come to the doldrums,” Haku said, puzzled. “Could it be because this place is on the edge of the doldrums? Does it just glide along the edge and then fly away?”

Regardless of what Haku thought, the newsbird flew up and landed in front of him.

Because of his gambling addiction, Fujitora always carried some money with him. He took out a few coins from his pocket and gave them to the news bird in exchange for a newspaper.

But to everyone's surprise, the newsbird shook its head, stretched out its wings, and let out two strange cries, indicating that it wanted to raise prices!

This made the two even more curious, as this situation was very rare and usually only occurred when extremely important news broke.

After the newsbird turned and flew away, the two picked up the newspaper, which was several times more expensive, and began to read. Of course, Fujitora couldn't read it; Haku had to read it aloud.

After reading the first news article on the front page, the two realized the seriousness of the situation and that things were likely to deviate from their original plans.

"Fujitora, you can't be of much help here. I'll handle it myself. Go to Jack's bedside, just in case."

Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Baltigue.

"Lord Long, come and take a look at today's newspaper."

At that moment, Dragon was instructing Sabo in his training, while Koala was with Sabo. A Revolutionary Army soldier, holding a newspaper, ran over excitedly and shouted, "This Captain Jack is really something! Let's recruit him into the Revolutionary Army!"

Dragon took the newspaper from the excited revolutionary soldier. Sabo, after all the commotion, also stopped what he was doing and pulled Kella over to look at the front page of the newspaper with Dragon.

“An upright person should do the same.” Dragon remained silent, but Sabo, standing beside him, seemed deeply moved by those words. He kept repeating that last sentence over and over.

On the other side, Kerr looked at the photo of "Captain Jack" in the middle, and then at Sabo's silly look on the side, and an idea suddenly popped into her head.

Kella's eyes sparkled, and she said with feigned admiration, "You admire him, right, Sabo? I admire him too. I really want to see what he looks like and hear what his voice is like, right?"

Upon hearing Koala's words, Sabo snapped out of his reverie and said, "Yes, it would be great to meet Captain Jack Sparrow. I want to thank him properly."

However, seeing Kelra hiding behind her and chuckling, and then looking at his silly apprentice, Long couldn't help but shake his head and say, "But, Sabo, you've seen this guy quite a few times. Jack is Chief of Staff Leon in disguise."

"Huh??"

"Eh!!~~~~"

Sabo let out an exaggerated shout, his tongue sticking out in a curved shape, his eyes bulging as if they were about to burst out of their sockets.

Of course, Sabo wasn't the only one with this expression; the Revolutionary Army soldier who brought the newspaper was just as bad as Sabo at this moment.

Seeing the exaggerated expressions on Sabo and the other man's faces, looking as if their wicked scheme had succeeded, Kella lay on the ground clutching his stomach, laughing loudly and rolling around.

Naval Headquarters, Marineford.

"Hey, Sengoku. Want some senbei?"

The speaker was none other than Garp, the Iron Fist, known as a naval hero, who was sitting in Sengoku's office, leisurely eating senbei (rice crackers).

While Garp appeared relaxed, Sengoku was undoubtedly overwhelmed, sitting at his desk dealing with his never-ending workload.

"Ah~~, crunch." Seeing that Sengoku didn't answer, Garp grabbed a senbei and shoved it into his mouth, mumbling, "If you don't want it, I'll just eat it all."

Zhan Guo handed a discarded, useless document to the "trash can" next to him. The trash can bleated and started gnawing on the paper.

"Speaking of which, Garp, you didn't come here today just to treat me to senbei, did you?" Sengoku asked his relaxed friend.

Garp swallowed the senbei, the playful expression vanishing from his face, replaced by a serious one: "I've seen today's newspaper. Sengoku, you didn't, did you?"

"You mean to talk about Captain Jack Sparrow?"

"Yes, this is the first time I've ever heard such inspiring words, Sengoku. There are no fancy words, no obscure vocabulary, every word is so ordinary, and even the whole sentence is quite simple. But it is these words that have kept me so busy, even after eating so many senbei and drinking so many cups of tea. But..." When he said the word "but," Garp's eyes narrowed, and an imposing aura involuntarily emanated from him.

“Garp, I understand all of this. This text does indeed have a strange magic.” Sengoku sighed. He knew, of course, that Garp was trying to say something, given his personality. “However, due to our stance, we have to make some modifications and appropriate changes to the report. There’s nothing we can do about it. You wouldn’t want to see the world descend into turmoil and chaos, would you?”

Dressrosa.

"Hahaha, that's hilarious. What kind of upright person should do that? A bunch of ants are still ants." Doflamingo sat cross-legged in the palace, looking at the newspaper in his hand, and laughed exaggeratedly.

"Hahaha, yes, even if ten thousand ants gathered together, they couldn't defeat a lion." Diamante laughed along. Diamante was one of the Donquixote Family's top executives and a user of the Fluttering Fruit. "There's no need for a lion to step in. I, Diamante, this jackal, can wipe out ten thousand ants."

As soon as Diamanti finished speaking, the others burst into laughter, and the entire palace was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Unbeknownst to them, they had already positioned themselves on the side of "immoral people," and no one noticed that amidst the laughter, each person's voice seemed to tremble slightly.

Meanwhile, a one-legged toy soldier, holding a newspaper, muttered to himself, "Should upright people do the same?"

Around the world, people are pondering this statement that transcends time and space, a situation that was last seen before Roger's death.

A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest of South America can cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later.

So what now? What changes will Jack's vigorous flapping of his wings bring later? No one knows.

Chapter Sixty-Three: Fruit

After reading the entire text, Jack realized that not only the words but also the actions had been modified and misinterpreted, slightly favoring the World Government and deviating from the original meaning. Jack exclaimed that the World Government was shameless.

"These reporters are only interested in making a big news story, and they don't take responsibility when their reports are inaccurate. Don't let me catch you, or I'll make you regret it."

At that moment, Jack felt like he wanted to devour the reporter who had secretly taken the photos. More troubling than the distorted facts was the resulting "fame" Jack had gained.

It's said that people fear becoming famous, just as pigs fear growing fat. For Jack now, becoming famous, something that wasn't part of his original plan, is particularly troublesome.

The original plan was to consolidate the forces in Pacqui City first, then take down the "Shadow" intelligence organization established by CP3 to avoid being traced back to their identities, and then turn around and fight those people.

As a result of this fame, the whole world knew about Jack's heroic deeds, and the gangsters were transformed into white gangs, giving everyone a chance to be a good person.

But regardless of whether it's been modified or misinterpreted, when those large gangs see such news and such a Jack, how could they let him go? They would have to act quickly and eliminate Jack, their adversary, to demonstrate their power in the country.

Otherwise, if this continues, those disloyal subordinates, other small and medium-sized gangs, and even the already resentful King Donald will seize the opportunity to act, and then things will become difficult.

To be honest, Jack was getting a little anxious seeing the current situation. This had actually alarmed two gangs working together to attack the Red Rock Society. The last time these two cooperated was ten years ago when they forced King Donald to pass legislation legalizing organized crime.

However, there was a tiny bit of good news amidst the bad news: the Wolf Fang Gang, far away in Asia City, did not follow suit. Jack was relieved, whether it was due to the long distance or some other reason.

Jack could no longer sit still, and he no longer cared about having a leisurely life. He immediately jumped out of bed and started making arrangements.

"Hey, by the way," Jack asked Fujitora after getting out of bed, "did you leave any survivors from that last battle?"

Fujitora shook his head and said, "Sigh, when those people saw that the situation was hopeless, they all committed suicide by various methods. In the end, not a single one of those spies was left. Only that Black Bear Benny was captured and is now locked up in a secret dungeon with Seastone handcuffs."

"Oh, right, while you were unconscious, a man claiming to be General Hatton came to our door, but you were still unconscious at the time, so we couldn't make a decision."

“Oh? Did he mention anything?” Jack asked.

"No, but thinking about it, it's obvious that they're trying to recruit us into the World Government's profit chain, just like they recruited Benny the Black Bear," Fujitora said, shaking his head.

“That’s true. He knows he’ll come looking for me again once I wake up.” Jack nodded in agreement. “Alright, let’s go check on Benny the black bear in the dungeon first.”

After getting out of bed, Jack thought to himself, "After improving his physical fitness, his recovery ability has obviously improved as well. If he were on Earth, he would not be able to get out of bed for at least ten days or half a month, but now he is almost fully recovered in two or three days."

Led by the two Fujitoras, Jack arrived at the door of Benny the Bear's cell. For some reason, Jack also called Johnny, who had performed well in the square that day.

It has to be said, the location of this dungeon is incredibly well hidden; it's practically impossible to find. And without sufficient strength to move the boulders, or a unique ability like Kevin's, even if you find the entrance, you can't get in. It must have been Fujitora who forcibly carved it out using his abilities.

Jack thought Benny was a tough nut to crack, but before he could even use any tricks, Benny confessed everything, including his relationship with Hatton and their connection to the World Government.

Jack was speechless. "I haven't even put in any effort, and you've already given in. It's pointless."

However, this little bit of information from Benny wasn't very meaningful to Jack and the others. Jack had already guessed most of it, and Benny was just confirming it for them.

After all, Benny had only been in contact with the World Government for a few days and could only be considered an outsider. It was impossible for him to obtain any more meaningful intelligence, let alone classified information.

"Sigh, alright." After repeated questioning, Jack realized that this guy was unlikely to come up with any more useful clues.

He could only shake his head in disappointment, draw his flintlock pistol from his waist, and aim it at Benny's head.

Benny, handcuffed with seastone, was powerless and could only frantically beg for mercy, "I'm willing to be a good person now. I'm an ability user, I'm very strong in combat, I'm willing now..."

"boom!"

“Sorry, I already gave you one chance before.” Jack didn’t listen to Benny’s nonsense and calmly pulled the trigger.

"Besides, ability users?" Jack scoffed. "Only when you're dead can we become ability users."

Fujitora and Johnny could understand Jack's first statement; this kind of typical cowardly bully and traitor was not trustworthy at all. However, his second statement was somewhat intriguing.

Ignoring their questions, Jack walked straight to Benny's body and reached into his clothes.

Johnny, puzzled, said, "We already thoroughly searched his body before he went into the dungeon, and there was nothing there. There's no need to search him again after he's dead."

Less than a second after he finished speaking, Johnny's eyes widened. Fujitora, though unable to widen his eyes, also let out a sound of "Ouch!" upon sensing the object in Jack's hand.

"This, this is..." Johnny felt his lungs fill with cold air as he stared blankly at the object in Jack's hand.

“That’s right, this is a Devil Fruit, and I can assure you that it’s none other than the one Black Bear Benny mentioned possessing.” Jack said with a smile, holding up the strangely shaped fruit.

Fujitora could no longer remain calm and chuckled, "Your ability is truly terrifying. If the world knew that you had the ability to steal other people's Devil Fruits, it would surely cause a huge uproar."

Jack didn't reply, but simply handed the Devil Fruit in his hand to Johnny, who was standing there dumbfounded.

“Now, you are a Devil Fruit user.” Jack said to Johnny, who still looked completely bewildered.