This was probably the day Vivi felt the least in control of her own fate.
Being carried directly in someone's hand like this... was somewhat embarrassing.
Yet along with the embarrassment, it also made Vivi instinctively focus her attention.
After leaving the cabin, faint sunlight seeped through the gaps of the blindfold.
Then, in the next moment, the "blindfold" covering her eyes slowly loosened.
Regaining her vision, Vivi immediately squinted, struggling to adjust to the sudden brightness.
After some time, she gradually began to make out her surroundings.
Just as the voice earlier had said, they had now arrived at Mary Geoise.
By the docks stretched an impossibly long staircase leading up to the Red Line.
At the top of those stairs stood Pangaea Castle—the stronghold of the Celestial Dragons.
What had been covering her eyes wasn't actually a blindfold, but an arrow-shaped projectile extended from the hand of the woman called Gunko.
She had never heard of a Devil Fruit ability like this before.
Turning her head slightly, Vivi caught sight of the Mythical Zoan user—the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Qilin—maintaining his human-beast form.
Though his entire demeanor exuded laziness, his eyes were sharp with vigilance.
A relaxed exterior masking tension within—the kind of person who easily lulled others into lowering their guard.
As the diplomatic ambassador and sole princess of the Alabasta Kingdom, Vivi had already learned from her father Cobra about all the relationships and grudges between the Nefertari family and the Celestial Dragons.
This meant... she understood perfectly well that now that she had fallen into the hands of the Celestial Dragons, it would be extremely difficult for her to come out unscathed.
To say she wasn't afraid at all would be a lie.
She was just an eighteen-year-old girl—compared to true powerhouses, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she was utterly defenseless.
Facing death so suddenly, her heart was inevitably filled with terror.
But...
During these days of complete iSoration from the outside world, Vivi slowly regained her rationality in the darkness, and that rationality gradually overpowered her emotions.
Her already sharp mind began operating swiftly and accurately.
The fact that the God's Knights had captured her but hadn't immediately killed her... suggested their goal wasn't simply to eliminate mid-to-high-ranking members of the Angel Alliance.
Instead, they had specifically targeted her, hoping to use her to achieve some objective.
No matter what, it had to be something that required her to be alive.
So, at least in the short term, her life wasn't in any immediate danger.
But... what exactly did the World Government and the Celestial Dragons want to accomplish through her?
Simply to restrain the Angel Alliance? Her individual importance didn't seem sufficient for that.
Or did they want to turn the Nefertari family—originally of the same lineage as the Celestial Dragons—against their allies?
That was possible, but her father would never compromise for such a reason...
She herself couldn't accept it either!
Beyond that, Vivi couldn't think of anything else.
However, all her thoughts vanished the moment she saw the so-called "commander."
This towering, burly man was draped in a military uniform adorned with noble patterns, his coat hanging open to reveal his dark, bare torso as he shoved a piece of cherry pie into his mouth.
"Zehahahaha! Looks like you guys did a fine job! You actually managed to snatch this princess right out of Sabaody Archipelago!"
"Though you're our commander now, don't look down on us, the God's Knights..."
"Zehahahaha! I'm not looking down on you! You're just the scraps that got wrecked by that bastard Michael... Now that you can still be of some use under my command, you should be groveling in gratitude, you idiots!"
Blackbeard laughed heartily, his words dripping with insults.
Though Figarland Garling and the other God's Knights wore expressions of extreme displeasure, none of them dared to refute him.
Because if they stripped away the vulgar language, they'd realize—everything Blackbeard said was simply stating facts.
Angel D. Michael.
That name was the nightmare of every single member of the God's Knights, from top to bottom.
All the God's Knights who had participated in the human hunting games at God Valley had died by Michael's hand.
Their former commander-in-chief, Figarland Garling—a man fierce enough to have once wounded Whitebeard at God Valley—had even sunk to the point of despair, mingling with lowlifes after his defeat at Michael's hands!
Only Shamrock had never truly faced Michael and still harbored doubts about his strength.
As for the three God's Knights present... they weren't even qualified to question Michael's power.
The man frequently mentioned by Imu-sama and regarded as a target was far beyond their league.
Though the God's Knights remained silent, Vivi did not.
She stared in shock at the grubby, dark-skinned man, stammering as she spoke.
"You—you you you!"
"You're Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach! The most notorious pirate captain on the seas!"
"Wow, seems our princess holds quite the prejudice against me..." Blackbeard turned his head, theatrically stroking his greasy beard as he looked down at the blue-haired princess bound hand and foot.
"But I'm now one of the so-called 'Celestial Dragons'—approved by the Five Elders under Imu-sama's directive... As for my pirate status, well, there are still a few Celestial Dragons among pirates, no? Like that 'Wise King' Doflamingo, or Red-Haired Shanks who looks just like Shamrock..."
"A Celestial Dragon!?"
Vivi's jaw dropped, her shock deepening.
The moment she saw Blackbeard, she'd already wondered what kind of deal he'd struck with the World Government...
But she never imagined Blackbeard would become a Celestial Dragon outright!
Had the World Government really resorted to recruiting even someone like Blackbeard into their ranks?
It seemed... the World Government truly was losing allies.
But Blackbeard becoming a Celestial Dragon also meant his crew's army of artificially created Devil Fruit users—harvested through the Dark-Dark Fruit's transplantation—now belonged entirely to the World Government.
Worse still, those abilities might have been directly implanted into the already significantly empowered Celestial Dragons.
This... was no laughing matter.
The Celestial Dragons, averaging vice-admiral level in strength, were already formidable enough... Now they'd gained Devil Fruit powers on top of that.
The World Government...
had finally reached the point where it could fight the Angel Alliance to the death.
"What I don't understand is—why capture me? I'm just a princess... nothing more."
"Ah, that I don't know much about." Blackbeard grinned strangely. "But I can tell you—it's precisely because you're the princess of Alabasta."