After defeating CP9, Noah also collapsed on the ground.
Robin ran over from a distance.
Before landing on the island, the two had already agreed.
Once a fight broke out, Robin would try to leave the battlefield immediately and hide far away, so she could use her Flower-Flower Fruit ability to sneak attack the opponent at a crucial moment.
After a simple treatment of his wounds, Noah asked Robin to use her Flower-Flower Fruit ability along with Observation Haki to clean up the battlefield.
They collected bloodstains, hair, and torn clothing.
Then, in some corners, they left some pheromones, hair, and nails collected earlier from other pirates.
With magical items like Life Paper in this world, plus the advanced technology of the World Government, Noah would not leave behind information about himself until he reached a certain level of power.
He warned Robin to absolutely erase all traces of her presence, to create the illusion that only Noah had landed on the island.
Robin’s trail from the fight was minimal, so it could be concealed.
The difficulty of searching for someone who landed alone and then escaped was far greater than for two people.
He made a copy of the Poneglyph’s text.
If they saw this stone tablet again, it would likely be in a flower room in Mary Geoise.
The World Government would not leave known Poneglyphs out in the open unless it was to lure someone.
Completely deceiving the World Government was impossible; they could only present misleading information.
They rowed a small boat with CP0’s bodies away from Ohara Island.
The traces on the bodies would reveal Noah’s current strength and some information, so they couldn’t be left behind.
After putting some distance between themselves and Ohara, they threw the bodies into the sea.
The carnivorous fish in the ocean would devour the corpses completely, leaving not even bones.
They continued rowing, aiming to reach another small island before dawn to change their disguise.
Traveling with a merchant ship to a new island would facilitate the next stage of their diversionary tactics.
Sok Island was a very chaotic trading island in the West Blue.
Far from any Marine branch, it was a melting pot of people: ordinary merchandise traders, weapons dealers, pirates, bounty hunters, black market merchants, slave traders, and more.
Such an island was a crucial step in Noah’s diversion plan.
First, through a convoluted three-step process, they commissioned five people to take swords and wear rather crude disguises, then depart separately on ships going in different directions.
As long as there was Belly, the people taking the jobs wouldn’t care about the danger.
In reality, these jobs were all about earning money for taking risks.
Noah and his group, meanwhile, rowed their small boat to an island near the closest West Blue Marine branch to lie low again.
Since he was recovering from his injuries and couldn’t train, and needed to assess his progress, he decided to simply disappear quietly for a while.
The battle on Ohara, as expected, couldn’t be kept secret for long.
The CP9 unit was very vigilant.
Two days after losing contact with their members, they realized something was wrong.
They should have discovered it in one day, but the CP9 on that island was very unhappy about being stuck on the island for surveillance duty and often reported only every other day, which caused the delay in information.
The survivors of Ohara reappeared, and the CP9 unit was immediately dispatched to Ohara Island for an investigation.
“Captain, the basement door has been tampered with, the internal power switch was activated, and there are signs of a struggle.
There are also signs of a fight on the island, but they’ve been cleaned up.
We can only deduce that one side was our people, and the other was a swordsman.”
“Captain, we found some bloodstains and tissue fragments in a corner.”
“Extract the blood and give it, along with the fingernails, to the science department to create a Life Paper.
Also, bring in a user of the Gust-Gust Fruit to track the enemy. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Notify the Marines in the surrounding areas for a thorough search.
A swordsman who can single-handedly defeat my team members must be quite skilled, so they should be easy to find.
This time, we will bring an end to the Ohara incident completely.”
Even though one of his team members was missing, the CP9 captain was still excited.
It was an unexpected bonus that he could complete the orders of the Five Elders this time.
This fishing operation was his plan; although he wasn’t sure if he could lure out the Ohara survivors, if he succeeded, it would be a great accomplishment.
Just as Noah had predicted, the power mobilized by the World Government was indeed terrifying.
The Life Paper was ready in two days, and the captain personally led the pursuit.
Another group remained in place, awaiting the Sniff-Sniff Fruit user and coordinating the search plan with the surrounding Marines.
Within a week, the CP9 captain caught up to some pirates in the South Blue.
However, they were knocked out with a single punch.
After that, the captain knew he had been tricked.
This strength was supposed to be capable of defeating his team members?
A simple investigation revealed they were the captain of a small pirate ship with a bounty of less than 5 million Belly, who had been operating in the South Blue.
“Bastard!”
A fierce killing intent erupted.
Slaughtering the entire pirate crew didn’t appease the captain’s anger.
Just then, a crew member approached holding a Den Den Mushi.
“Captain, the Sniff-Sniff Fruit user says the scent of our team member has disappeared at sea.
To be precise, it’s been broken into thousands of pieces.
The enemy seems to have sprayed some unique scent agent before landing to mask their true scent.
After leaving the island, they also bathed in seawater, making tracking impossible.”
Rage!
The CP0 captain’s fury was vividly conveyed through the Den Den Mushi.
“What were the results of the Marine search for swordsmen in the area?”
“Uh, there are no well-known swordsmen in the vicinity.
However, on Sok Island, five disguised swordsmen were found fleeing in different directions.
We’ve captured all of them, and upon verification, their strength doesn’t match.
They were just hired for a mission, to travel to different locations in disguise.”
“Good, good, good.”
Gritting his teeth, he said “good” three times.
With a punch, he smashed the entire pirate ship to pieces.
“All of you, return to Mary Geoise with me to confess your sins.”
He organized the report of this operation and submitted it to the head of CP.
As expected, the head of CP was also furious.
However, instead of smashing a ship, he punched the captain.
“Hmph, I will report this to the Five Elders.
Bring back the Poneglyph, and then all of you can go stand guard in the Calm Belt.”
“Yes.”
Later, another meeting was held at Marine Headquarters.
Yes, the three vice admirals had officially stepped onto the world stage.
They had used their strength to awe the first half of the Grand Line and suppress the early era of great piracy.
Garp was reportedly taking care of his grandson and was not at Marine Headquarters.
Tsuru distributed the report of this CP9 operation.
“~Oh, how scary.
CP9 failed, and the Marines have to deal with it?”
Only the actor Kizaru could say something like that.
It proved that some people weren’t just lecherous when they got old, but were lecherous from the start.
“Hmph, there’s no need to discuss such a trivial matter happening in the Four Seas.
If that criminal appeared before me, I would just eliminate them.
They’re just Ohara survivors.”
Akainu didn’t care about the Ohara survivors at all.
He had killed so many pirates and civilians that he didn’t care about these.
He was merely displeased that there were any escapees.
Aokiji remained silent.
He had a feeling that this mysterious swordsman was related to that burning-eyed youth, but there was no need to say it.
He didn’t want to deal with the mad dogs of the CP department.
“The strength of this swordsman is considerable.
Regardless of CP9’s reputation, they possess the strength of a Marine Rear Admiral.
Being able to defeat them is a skill.
What’s more terrifying is the enemy’s mindset; caution and meticulousness are not enough to describe it.
They even deliberately left misleading clues to scatter the pursuers and buy time.
Such an enemy, once they grow, will be extremely formidable.”
Vice Admiral Tsuru, as the headquarters’ chief of staff, took such a cunning and cautious enemy quite seriously.
Because pirates at sea rarely used their brains this much, the sudden appearance of a mysterious swordsman piqued her interest.
However, she only thought about it.
Tsuru would not seriously help CP9 pursue the target.
The CP department, as the intelligence agency of the Celestial Dragons, has always had friction with the Marines, and there were constant disputes.
Tsuru also knew that spies were placed near Vice Admirals and above in the Marine Headquarters to monitor them.
She also knew that one of her subordinates was from the CP department, but such an arrangement was made by the World Government, so she had to turn a blind eye.
Otherwise, with Tsuru’s capabilities, one spy would die every day without repeating the method.
Sengoku called this meeting as a formality, to show the World Government.
See, I specifically summoned the highest echelons of the Marines to discuss, but there’s nothing we can do.
This meeting ended inconclusively.
The CP department, upon learning this, could only vent their impotent rage.
What could they do when their department messed up?
If they pointed at Sengoku’s nose and demanded he figure it out, Sengoku would smash them into a pancake with a single palm strike.
Do you really think you’re also named Monkey?
Can you withstand my “Mercy Palm”?