After retrieving the Stand, Liam naturally obtained all of its memories from the time it had been away.
He also instantly understood why it had run up to Zou.
While climbing onto Elephant Island, Liam himself had tried to see whether he could hear Zou's voice like Oden, Momonosuke, Roger, or Luffy could. The result was no. But Stand B.I.B. had discovered something else. As it approached Zou's body, especially after reaching Elephant Island, it began to feel an increasingly strange sensation.
The feeling was very familiar to it.
Not long ago, it had sensed the same thing from that cat mink girl who had jumped into the sea.
It was an instinctive feeling that the other party possessed a Devil Fruit ability that it could extract.
Zou was actually a Devil Fruit Ability user.
Both Liam and the Stand were shocked. If it had been Liam himself, he too would have wanted to run up to Zou's head and ask what exactly was going on. But unfortunately, he could not hear Zou's voice, and neither could the Stand.
In the recovered memories, the Stand repeatedly questioned Zou, but received no response.
Perhaps Zou never answered. Or more likely, Zou did answer, but B.I.B. simply could not hear it.
Whether it was the Kozuki bloodline that shared some sort of connection with Zou, or the "Voice of All Things" possessed by people like Roger and Luffy, these were all extremely rare abilities; neither Liam nor his Stand possessed them.
After hearing Liam's explanation, Sicilian was the first to express doubt.
Robin pondered briefly before saying, "Devil Fruit Ability users aren't completely unable to touch seawater…" She looked toward Inuarashi and Sicilian. "Before we landed on the island, we saw Zou walking through the dense fog above the sea. Its four legs rose more than a hundred meters above the surface. I don't know how deep this sea is, but since Zou can walk through seas of varying depths all across the New World, the proportions of its limbs must be completely different from those of an ordinary elephant. At the very least, its legs must each be over five hundred meters long…"
Liam said, "If even all four legs couldn't touch seawater, then wouldn't Devil Fruit Ability users be unable to bathe? They'd stink all day long."
He shook his head. Sister Robin smelled wonderful, after all!
Inuarashi thought for a moment and muttered, "For a thousand years, among the surviving records of the mink race, there has never been any account of Zou collapsing or lowering itself into the sea. All these years, Zou has always slowly wandered across the ocean like this…"
Robin said, "In other words, there's no actual evidence proving that Zou isn't an Devil Fruit Ability user… Even if your country possesses Seastone, compared to Zou's gigantic body, the effect of Seastone might not even compare to the seawater submerging its four legs. Do you have Seastone here?" she asked casually.
Inuarashi shook his head.
"Wait a second! Are you people serious?"
The lion mink Sicilian spread his arms wide in disbelief.
"Zou, is this huge! Our entire country is on its back! It's like an enormous mountain… How could there possibly be such a gigantic Devil Fruit Ability user?!"
Inuarashi muttered thoughtfully, "Perhaps Zou was originally a Giant…"
Robin objected. "Even Giants are far too small compared to Zou. In some historical records, I've read about a race called the 'Ancient Giants'… According to legend, the Ancient Giant Oars was unimaginably huge, and once stole an entire country by himself."
Ancient Giants…
A black shadow flew out from Liam's body. He and the Stand exchanged glances, both clearly thinking of the same thing.
Wasn't there a gigantic skull on Onigashima in Wano Country?
Onigashima… Ancient Giants…
Could that horned skull once have belonged to an Ancient Giant like Oars the Continent Puller?
And could it have some connection to Zou?
In the manga, Zou had once told Momonosuke that it had committed a grave crime in the past, and had therefore been punished to wander the seas carrying a nation on its back…
Wano Country, Zou, the Ancient Giants, the mink race…
Hundreds and thousands of years ago, these people and events seemed to have been connected somehow.
But all of it had long since vanished into the mists of history.
Even if Zou could speak, its voice could only be heard by the Kozuki bloodline or by the exceedingly rare individuals fated to possess the "Voice of All Things." No one else could hear its tale.
Liam laughed and clasped his hands behind his head.
"I never said Zou definitely used to be human! I'm only certain that it's an Devil Fruit Ability user… Animals can be Devil Fruit Ability users too, right?"
Inuarashi and Sicilian were left speechless.
Still, in the end, this was all just a sudden claim made by the pirate Giorno. They were shocked, certainly, but believing it completely was another matter entirely.
So the subject was dropped.
Inuarashi said to Robin, "Jolyne Cujoh, I'll have members of the Fire Gun squad accompany you around the island…" He stroked his canine chin, searching for the right word.
Robin smiled and supplied it for him: "Archaeology."
"Should you find anything similar to this stone," Inuarashi said seriously, "please inform me. We too wish to learn the hidden history buried within Mokomo Dukedom."
Robin smiled and agreed before walking out.
B.I.B. floated after her.
Its narrow eyes flickered as it folded its arms and walked beside Robin.
Zou said that because it had committed a grave mistake, it had been punished to carry this nation across the sea forever…
"So Zou really can speak?" Robin was genuinely astonished upon hearing this, and began stroking her chin thoughtfully.
B.I.B. added, "What the main body didn't say in front of the mink race just now is this, if our speculation is correct, and Devil Fruits were very likely artificially created by an ancient civilization, then it's not impossible that, a thousand years ago, someone specifically created an 'Elephant-Elephant Fruit: Giant Form' in order to punish the original 'Zou.'"
"A thousand years ago…" Robin walked out of the palace and gazed over the city of the mink race. Suddenly she said, "In the Devil Fruit encyclopedia, I don't think I've ever seen any abilities related to enlarging or shrinking body size…"
B.I.B. joked: "If such powers existed, then races like the Giants or the Dwarves would end up in a pretty awkward position."
"Do Dwarves really exist?"
"They probably do…"
As they chatted, they gradually walked farther away, heading toward the forest on the right side of Zou's back, where the Flower Clone had discovered the ancient inscription.
Two members of the Fire Gun squad hurried out after them from the palace, following at a moderate distance.
If they had been ordinary pirates, the treatment they received would probably have been far stricter than merely having Fire Gun squad members or heroic travelers trailing behind them. Most likely, they would only have been allowed to remain within a designated area, and once their time was up, politely told to leave.
But unfortunately, the JoJo Pirates only had two members, and neither of them was ordinary.
Not to mention that both of them carried bounties exceeding 300 million…
Just the fact that they had openly provoked the legendary pirate Whitebeard and still survived unharmed was enough to earn the awe of anyone on these seas.
As long as the two showed no hostility, the mink race could do little more than assign people to follow them around.
…
Inside Duke Inuarashi's palace, after Robin and B.I.B. left, Liam remained where he was.
"Archaeology is her thing. I'm more interested in fighting.
"Dog-head uncle, that big cat said the night belongs to him while the daytime belongs to you. Now he ran off to sleep halfway through our fight, so logically speaking, "
Liam smiled and pointed at Inuarashi.
", you should be the one taking his place and continuing to get beaten up, right?"
"How rude!" shouted the lion mink Sicilian. "And Duke Inuarashi is the strongest warrior in this country! 'Getting beaten up'? How can you talk so arrogantly?!"
"…"
Inuarashi looked thoughtfully at the pirate Giorno.
"So that monster cat couldn't defeat you after all…"
Sicilian froze for a moment. Naturally, he knew the "monster cat" the Duke referred to was the Night King of the mink race, the mighty warrior equal in strength to the Duke himself.
Liam smiled.
"If you want to know how big the gap between us really is, why not try it yourself?"
Inuarashi laughed.
"That was exactly my intention."
Sicilian said indignantly, "You should get past me first!"
Half an hour later, in the forest outside the city, Sicilian lay sprawled on the ground with bruises all over his face.
Liam stood there completely unharmed, his golden iron staff planted in the ground beside him.
"Well, little lion? Lost your spirit already?" he said with a grin, rubbing his hands.
Inuarashi watched seriously from the side.
The three of them had walked from Kurau City into this forest while talking along the way, which had already taken nearly twenty minutes.
The moment Sicilian fought Giorno, he unleashed his full strength without hesitation, fully displaying the explosive power and agility of the Lion Tribe, along with the mink race's natural Electro techniques.
But despite using every trick at his disposal, none of it achieved any effect against the pirate Giorno.
Faced with Sicilian's explosive assault, Giorno didn't even bother dodging. He simply stood there and took the attacks head-on without suffering the slightest injury. Afterwards he even muttered something incomprehensible:
"Combat power… hmm, 5000. A bit weaker than that other kitty."
Naturally, Inuarashi had no idea that Liam wasn't B.I.B., and had long since forgotten that Lucci's Doriki had actually only been 4000. He was just casually making things up.
As for Sicilian's lightning-fast speed, Giorno dealt with it calmly and effortlessly. His reaction speed, adaptability, and hand-to-hand combat techniques all ranked among the very top human fighters Inuarashi had ever seen.
There was no doubt that Giorno's Observation Haki was also extraordinarily powerful.
Even Sicilian's Electro attacks could not truly injure Giorno. Instead, Giorno seized an opening, endured the electric current head-on, and knocked Sicilian down with a single punch.
Bang!
The fist wrapped in lightning struck Sicilian with a heavy crash, causing rustling tremors throughout the surrounding forest.
Liam knew that the sounds came from the mink race spectators hiding nearby.
After all, Duke Inuarashi had brought a pirate outside the city looking ready for a duel, how could the battle-loving mink tribe not be curious?
Seeing Fire Gun commander Sicilian defeated so easily by Giorno, the mink race members hiding among the trees were all shocked.
"Want me to leave you a little dignity?" Liam joked while rubbing his hand.
Although the lion's Electro no longer injured him after all the training he'd done with Nekomamushi, getting shocked directly still left him feeling numb.
Inuarashi removed his robe and cloak, tossing them aside. Drawing the western-style sword from his waist, he said:
"The strongest form of the mink race appears beneath the full moon. If Sicilian transformed into his Sulong form, he wouldn't have lost so quickly…"
"Got it."
Liam reached out and pulled the golden iron staff from Zou's skin.
(End Of This Chapter)
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