Blackbeard and four members of his crew were being held in the Desert Black prison, awaiting Ezekiel.
Naturally, downloading his ability was necessary, but its usefulness was not as high as expected. The Shadow Fruit was renowned as the most sinister and powerful Devil Fruit in history, yet its development was hard to sum up in a single word.
At the very least, it didn't take up as much as Ezekiel initially thought—only 80 GB. After all, no matter how talented this guy was, he'd only had the fruit for a month or two, right?
Ryuma's swordsmanship and Roger's Observation Haki had reached 101 GB, which had greatly enhanced Ezekiel's own combat abilities. However, it turned out that even 101 GB of Observation Haki could not produce the Voice of All Things ability.
It seemed to be a kind of bloodline inheritance. But then why did Luffy, Oden, and even Momonosuke all possess the same ability?
The Voice of All Things allowed its user to comprehend and receive information from beings that didn't share the same language or didn't speak at all. These words were either inaudible or incomprehensible to ordinary people, but certain individuals could understand this speech because of an innate talent.
Perhaps you could hear special sounds made by nature and instinctively sense changes in the weather.
Or perhaps you could communicate with magical, intangible beings, such as a ship's spirit.
As for listening to inanimate things, that was nearly impossible. Otherwise, why would Roger have sought out Oden to decipher the text of the Poneglyph?
Ezekiel already possessed a power like this. It was the power of Poseidon. He had Poseidon's ability to communicate with the Sea Kings.
Meanwhile, Roger was using his abilities to Hear the entire ocean discussing Ace's arrest and sentencing.
The hottest topic was whether Whitebeard's crew would be able to rescue Ace People believe the likelihood of such an event is extremely high, and that the World Government's ultimate goal may actually be to lure Whitebeard to Marineford.
On the open sea, it's almost impossible to kill an Emperor. But if Whitebeard recklessly fights the Marine Patrol on their own turf, the odds of his eventual defeat become extremely high.
It's a true conspiracy.
But this time, Alabasta will be taking part in these events.
After all, Ace is Roger's son. There is no other way. And even though Alabasta possesses the power of resurrection, Ace's potential for growth after being revived would be greatly limited. Anyone who can only develop the Flame Fruit up to 100 GB is just pitiful.
Moreover, Alabasta and the World Government would have to fight to the death. How could Ezekiel pass up something like that?
As the time for the War of the Best drew near, Ezekiel refined his plan for taking part in the war. First and foremost, he needed to put enough pressure on the World Government and the Marine Patrol.
In the original manga, almost all troops were sent to Marineford to deal with Whitebeard, and among them, at least six could be classified as having Admiral-level combat strength.
Sengoku, Garp, Aokiji, Kizaru, Akainu, and Hawk Eye.
Honestly, with such a balance of power, what is Whitebeard counting on?
But Ezekiel's focus wasn't on the war itself, but on one of the Shichibukai.
He'd been waiting for this day for at least a year. The reason he hadn't stopped everything in advance, even though he knew Ace would be arrested, was because he wasn't in a hurry to save him just yet.
Not at all.
He was simply hoping to wait for this day so that everything would unfold in an orderly fashion.
Bartholomew Kuma was also a King. There are truly many unknowns about his fate.
If he had wanted to escape, no one would have been able to catch him. Kuma made this choice on his own.
When he saved Luffy, he told Rayleigh that he didn't have much time left, and he also told Luffy that they would never meet again, which meant he had already decided to undergo the full transformation. Even the Revolutionary Army didn't know about this; otherwise, they would have tried to rescue Kuma.
There are just too many events…
Ezekiel rubbed his aching temples. In the past, he just watched the anime, but now he had to think deeply about the meanings behind these events, because he himself had become deeply integrated into this world and an indispensable part of this vast story. Now, these memories were his most valuable asset, and digging into the secrets was the most prudent path.
The transformed Kuma is the work of Vegapunk. If this wasn't a wish to end his own life, then Bartholomew must have had a profound purpose. And to achieve this goal—even as a cyborg—he needed to be in Vegapunk's hands. It's complicated.
In any case, one thing is certain: there was a direct connection between Vegapunk and Kuma.
And according to Doflamingo, Vegapunk could have completed Bartholomew's full transformation just two days before the War of the Best.
In other words, Bartholomew would need to complete the transformation and reach Marineford within two days.
Calculating the speed of a Watch warship, that meant Vegapunk was less than a thousand kilometers from Marineford!
With this information, Ezekiel still has two months to determine Vegapunk's location.
Ezekiel won't share this information with the Revolutionary Army; as soon as they find out, regardless of his own plans, they'll track down Kuma without hesitation and do everything in their power. That could seriously disrupt Ezekiel's plan.
So, he'll have to handle this on his own…
After some deliberation, Ezekiel smiled—every problem seemed to have a solution.
It was time to meet Blackbeard. After all, this guy is the central figure in the events of the War of the Best.