"Ah, finally back. Three months flew by in the blink of an eye. I wonder if the Night Wolf Gang is even still around," Bardock stretched lazily as he stepped off the White Dragon and onto the docks.
"Snakes have their paths, and rats have theirs. I'm sure they're fine," Robin replied casually, stepping off the gangway with a stack of books in her arms. "And the worst-case scenario is that they just got wiped out while we were gone."
Mansherry and Leo, having no idea what the Night Wolf Gang was, happily looked around the bustling port. One sat on Robin's shoulder, and the other on Perona's. This voyage had been quite a long one. Even though they had made brief stops at other islands along the way, the visits were always too short. They had almost forgotten what it was like to live on solid land.
"So this is Bardock's hometown?" Perona, visiting for the first time, curiously examined her surroundings. To her, it felt no different from any other ordinary island.
As the group walked through the streets purchasing various supplies for the villa, Leo and Mansherry once again drew countless stares and excited whispers from the locals. This time, however, there were no greedy or malicious eyes lingering on them in the shadows.
By the time the crew returned to the villa and finished giving the place a deep clean, Andrew had already received news of their arrival and shown up at their door on his own initiative.
Over the past three months, Andrew's life had started out wonderfully. Initially, using Bardock's terrifying reputation as a shield, he easily subdued the rest of the Night Wolf Gang's executives and secured the boss's seat. As long as he didn't cross Bardock's bottom line, he basically had the city's entire underworld at his fingertips.
Though the gang members weren't entirely convinced of his personal leadership, they knew he was backed by someone untouchable. They had to follow someone anyway, and since their previous, powerful boss Oliver had been effortlessly crushed by Bardock, working for Bardock's proxy meant they technically had an even stronger umbrella over their heads.
Later, when Bardock ordered the gang to prepare supplies for a sea voyage, Andrew was overjoyed. He knew this monster was too restless to stay grounded forever. Once Bardock set sail and left for good, Andrew would become the sole, undisputed boss of the Night Wolf Gang.
But things slowly started to change. Bardock had been gone for a bit too long—three whole months without a word. Andrew found his authority over the gang's executives beginning to slip. Now, he desperately wished Bardock would just stay put and never go out to sea again. Even if it meant being a puppet boss, being a boss was still being a boss! After all, Bardock never actually interfered with the gang's daily operations anyway.
Things got even worse as the news of the Night Wolf Gang's change in leadership spread to other cities. Their bitter rivals, the Fang Gang, had begun aggressively infiltrating their territory. With his own limited strength, Andrew stood absolutely no chance of defending against a full-scale invasion.
Right at that critical breaking point, a lackey from the docks brought him the best news he had heard in months: Bardock had returned. Andrew immediately rushed over to pay his respects.
"Mr. Bardock! Miss Robin! It's been so long, I've missed you both dearly. I trust your voyage was smooth?" Andrew bowed deeply at the door.
"Andrew, you're pretty quick on the uptake. Did anything major happen recently?" Bardock skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.
"Mr. Bardock, here is a detailed report of everything that occurred in the city and neighboring towns over the past three months. And this second file contains intelligence regarding the surrounding islands, gathered from merchant sailors at the port. Please take a look." Andrew respectfully handed over two thick folders. This was undoubtedly Robin's doing; before her, Andrew had just given Bardock disorganized, verbal reports.
"Alright, you can head back for now. I'll let you know if I need anything," Bardock said, casually flipping through the reports before handing them straight to Robin. She was the professional when it came to intelligence analysis, and he had training to do.
"Yes, Mr. Bardock, Miss Robin. I will take my leave."
Watching Andrew scurry away, Bardock turned to Robin. "Take a look and see if there's anything urgent in there. I feel like I'm on the verge of breaking through to become a Master Swordsman, so I'm going to go run my sword drills in the yard!"
"Mhm. Leave it to me," Robin smiled.
Bardock's intuition was spot on. He was indeed on the precipice of becoming a true Master Swordsman, missing only that final, elusive step. Yet, it was a step that many swordsmen spent their entire lives failing to cross.
'Devil Fruit awakening requires gradual progression. Pushing it too fast might just turn me into a mindless beast,' he analyzed his current progress as he walked out to the yard.
'I've mastered all six of the Rokushiki techniques, though my Life Return (Seimei Kikan) still needs some work. Once my overall proficiency with the Six Powers peaks, that shouldn't be an issue.'
'My Conqueror's Haki control has improved—I can finally exclude allies from the blast radius. But why haven't I awakened Armament or Observation Haki yet? Do I really need a life-or-death battle against an evenly matched opponent to unlock them?'
'And my swordsmanship has finally hit a hard bottleneck. Whether I use my left or right hand, the next step is cutting steel.'
Tallying up his skills one by one, Bardock realized his current strength was already quite formidable. Finding a worthy, evenly matched opponent in the West Blue was going to be difficult. They would either be completely crushed by him, or they'd be strong enough to completely crush him.
'I wonder how strong Moria is right now? Problem is, I couldn't find him even if I wanted to. And what about Don Chinjao over in the Kano Country? He's pretty washed up over a decade from now, but right now, I probably still can't beat him. I'll hold off on that until I unlock Haki.'
Pushing these stray thoughts aside, the moment Bardock drew his blade, his mind instantly sharpened into absolute focus. He knew that the key to becoming a Master Swordsman was sheer willpower. Back on Sabaody, he had watched the one-eyed swordsman Walli break through right in front of him. Combined with Koushirou's teachings to Zoro from the manga, Bardock had grasped the secret: feeling the 'Breath of All Things' and transmitting one's will directly into the blade.
Swing after swing, Bardock poured everything he had into each strike, desperately trying to trigger that breakthrough. Unfortunately, even after completely exhausting his stamina, he still couldn't manage to seamlessly channel his will into the steel. Thankfully, he had mentally prepared himself for this; he had been stuck at this "almost there" stage for a while now. Becoming a Master Swordsman wasn't supposed to be easy. He popped a Blood Dandelion into his mouth, his energy instantly replenishing, and moved right on to his next training exercise.
After dinner, it was time for Robin's General World Knowledge class. She covered the customs, cultures, and histories of various islands. Bardock, Leo, and Mansherry usually just treated it like an entertaining storytime. Perona, however, had absolutely zero interest in it.
Bardock had quickly realized that Perona was essentially a massive shut-in. She didn't care about the outside world at all. Her only real passions were her stuffed bear Kumashi, gothic lolita fashion, and anything related to cute-but-creepy ghost aesthetics.
After class concluded and everyone went their separate ways, Robin asked Bardock to stay behind in the living room.
"Bardock, I need to talk to you about the Night Wolf Gang."
"Sure. Did you find something in the intel Andrew dropped off today?"
"Yes. On the surface, nothing major has happened in the Ilusia Kingdom over the past three months. But in the shadows, a massive whirlpool is forming," Robin said, spreading a map across the table. "The underworld of the West Blue is dominated by five colossal entities—the Five Great Mafia Families. Aside from them, there are numerous smaller gangs that occupy the buffer zones between their territories, existing solely to prevent open warfare between the Five Families."
"And the Night Wolf Gang is one of those buffer gangs?"
"Exactly. The Night Wolf Gang and the neighboring city's Fang Gang both serve that exact purpose. However, recently, one of the Five Great Families—the Capone Family—has begun making aggressive moves. It seems they intend to conquer the entire West Blue underworld. Over the past few months, the Capone Family has been systematically swallowing up these small buffer gangs, using them to probe the defenses of the other four Mafia Families."
"Have they targeted the Night Wolf Gang yet?" Bardock asked, leaning over the map.
"Not directly, no. But they have already subjugated the Fang Gang. It looks like they plan to use the Fang Gang as a fulcrum to pry open the entire underworld of the Ilusia Kingdom."
"Is that so!" Bardock leaned back, crossing his arms with an intrigued smile. "What's your take on this, Robin?"