To Crocodile, what Cyrus had just revealed was anything but minor.
After becoming vice-chairman of the Hunter Guild, Crocodile had no intention of surrendering the tremendous authority he now possessed.
Cyrus might officially stand above him as chairman, but he rarely involved himself in daily affairs.
For all practical purposes, the vast Hunter Guild was in Crocodile's hands.
Naturally, he cared deeply about the coming conflict between the Guild and the World Government.
If the Marines—the World Government's greatest military force—remained neutral, they would effectively be cutting off one of the Government's arms.
"Important? I suppose. But do you really think the World Government will simply let the Marines go?"
Cyrus turned toward him.
"Chairman, do you think Sengoku was lying?"
Crocodile paused.
He was no fool. He understood the implication in Cyrus's voice, but that only made him more confused.
Sengoku had just asked Cyrus to kill Kong, his former superior and the previous Fleet Admiral.
Surely that proved he was serious.
"I don't think he was lying. This is simply the choice he believes offers the Marines the best future."
"A choice?"
"Sengoku understands that every decision he makes now could determine whether the Marines survive."
Cyrus spoke calmly.
"If he chooses poorly, the organization could disappear entirely, and countless Marines would die in the process. After weighing his options, he chose the path that seemed least destructive."
"So he chose us?"
"Not completely. Right now, he's still watching and struggling with the decision."
Cyrus looked directly at Crocodile.
"The World Government won't willingly release a military organization as powerful as the Marines. Even if I kill Kong, someone else will eventually try to reclaim control."
"Then should the Guild interfere?"
Crocodile's eyes sharpened as he immediately asked for Cyrus's opinion.
"We'll wait until the Marines make their choice. There's no need to intervene yet."
Cyrus shook his head.
Crocodile fell into thought, then his eyes suddenly widened.
"I understand. You want the World Government and the Marines to fight each other. No matter which side wins, the Hunter Guild benefits."
Any losses suffered by either faction would weaken potential enemies of the Guild.
"Was that what I was thinking?"
Cyrus rubbed his chin, then nodded.
"Sure. Let's wait and see."
He waved dismissively.
"Understood. I'll have people monitor both the World Government and the Marines."
Crocodile transformed into sand and swept away.
"He makes me sound like some grand schemer."
Cyrus shook his head and looked toward the sky.
…
"So you chose me."
Mihawk sat atop a raised platform overlooking an enormous circular arena, his sharp gaze fixed on the group entering below.
"We originally planned to challenge Whitebeard."
Doflamingo swaggered ahead of the others, speaking with a smile full of ill intent.
"But once we discovered you were participating too, we realized we had another option. It seems you've finally joined the Hunter Guild."
"I see."
Mihawk rose calmly and placed one hand on his sword.
"So you believe I'm the weaker opponent."
He drew Yoru and held the long black blade horizontally before him.
"The Black Blade, Yoru!"
A middle-aged man beside Moria stared at the weapon with burning greed.
He carried a sword of his own and appeared to consider himself a swordsman.
Like countless others who followed the blade, he coveted the strongest black sword in the world.
A fine weapon could greatly increase a swordsman's strength, but famous blades were exceedingly difficult to obtain.
Anyone fortunate enough to find one of the Skillful or Great Grade Blades could already consider themselves lucky.
Most swordsmen used nothing more than well-forged ordinary weapons.
It was not that an unnamed sword could never rival a famous blade, but few swordsmen would reject a celebrated weapon if given the opportunity.
Whoosh!
Mihawk had never been fond of wasting words.
Since they had chosen him because they considered him weak, he answered with his sword.
A vast green slash split the stone floor and raced straight toward Doflamingo.
Doflamingo leapt aside.
"Kishishishishi! Excellent!"
Moria decided to test the attack himself.
He gripped his enormous blade with both hands and swung at the approaching slash.
Boom!
The two attacks collided, releasing a violent shock wave.
Moria's expression changed instantly.
Despite his enormous body, he twisted aside with startling agility.
The slash cut cleanly through his weapon, leaving behind a perfectly smooth surface.
"Hah!"
The muscular man standing behind Moria had assumed from his confidence that he would stop the attack.
When Moria's defence collapsed immediately, the man had no time left to dodge.
He coated his entire body in Armament Haki and tried to withstand the slash directly.
There was a brief sound like a blade passing through leather.
Then silence.
The flying slash continued into the distance.
The man who had tried to block it collapsed in two separate halves.
"Don't destroy Sky Island."
Mihawk held Yoru in one hand, its tip barely touching the ground as he prepared to attack again.
Cyrus's voice suddenly reached his ear.
The first slash had split the entire arena, leaving behind a bottomless fissure.
"I understand."
Mihawk raised his eyes slightly and studied the remaining challengers.
"A competent swordsman should be able to control his strength with ease."
"Are you taking a shot at me?"
Cyrus's irritated voice immediately answered.
"I was merely stating a fact."
Mihawk sprang from the platform and attacked Doflamingo's group directly.
As he raised Yoru overhead, faint black lightning flickered around the blade.
"That bastard."
Cyrus, whose Observation Haki allowed him to see everything happening in the arena, clicked his tongue.
Mihawk had mastered Conqueror's coating as well.
It seemed he had not wasted his time after fighting Rayleigh.
Learning it so quickly was still impressive.
Had he asked Red-Haired Shanks for advice?
With that technique added to the finest swordsmanship in the world, Mihawk had become even more dangerous.
As Cyrus considered it, his figure suddenly disappeared.
A moment later, he returned in a burst of fire with another Devil Fruit in hand and tossed it into the clearing behind him.
More than a dozen fruits of various shapes and colours already lay scattered there.
Footsteps approached from the front.
A sizeable group entered, surrounding a short man whose body resembled a potato.
Cyrus beckoned.
The short man waved his own hand, ordering his guards to remain where they were, then approached alone.
"So you didn't go to the New World after all."
Cyrus smiled at him.
"I intended to, but the sea is too dangerous right now. Even I couldn't guarantee a safe journey, so I decided to come here instead."
The short man spoke around the cigar in his mouth.
He was Capone Bege, captain of what had once been called the Fire Tank Pirates.
Now they were technically the Fire Tank Pirate Hunter Crew.
Cyrus had met him once before on Sabaody.
"I never received word that you arrived on the island."
Cyrus studied him.
"I only reached Sky Island recently. I also brought you something."
Bege struck his chest.
A castle gate opened across his torso, and a shrunken object was pushed out from within.
A gift?
Cyrus was mildly surprised.
If Bege had personally brought something to him, then he clearly believed it would be valuable.
The man was far too calculating to waste his time on a meaningless gesture.
Boom!
The object looked tiny while emerging from Bege's body, but the moment it left the Castle-Castle Fruit's influence, it expanded into an enormous creature and crashed onto the ground.
Cyrus's expression shifted.
He instantly appeared beside its head.
The creature resembled a gigantic serpent covered in white bone plates. Numerous skeletal arms and legs protruded irregularly from every part of its body.
Even lying on the ground, its head stood taller than Cyrus.
A huge bone mask completely covered its face.
"It's a strange creature, and extremely powerful."
Bege walked over, looking at it with a grim expression.
"At first, its regeneration made it nearly impossible to deal with. But it gradually weakened as time passed, and I eventually managed to defeat it."
"A Hollow...."
Cyrus drew a slow breath.
"You really do recognize it."
Bege had expected as much.
"The Guild issued a mission asking Hunters to report or capture unusual creatures and plants. I thought this might interest you."
"It certainly does."
Cyrus had not expected Capone Bege, of all people, to bring him such an enormous surprise.
He gripped one edge of the creature's bone mask and applied a little pressure.
Crack!
A large piece snapped free.
Bege's eyelid twitched.
The creature had been extraordinarily difficult to injure, especially the bones covering its body.
Even after it weakened enough for him to defeat it, Bege had tried to remove samples for further study and accomplished almost nothing.
Its skin had been nearly as hard as its armour.
"This doesn't make sense." Cyrus examined the fragment in his hand.
"You shouldn't have been able to see it."
If this was truly a Hollow, most living people should have been incapable of perceiving it.
Of course, the rules might have changed when it entered this world, transforming it into a tangible living creature.
"Where did you find it?"
Cyrus tossed the bone fragment aside and turned toward Bege.
"On an island covered entirely in yellow sand. I only stopped there to rest after seeing land."
Bege glanced at the monster.
"Then I encountered this thing. After I defeated it, the island disappeared."
As he spoke, Bege remembered the rumours recently circulating within the Hunter Guild.
Could Cyrus truly have come from another world?
The giant creature before them certainly looked like nothing native to this one.
If monsters like it had existed here before, there was no chance they would have gone completely unrecorded.
It had been incredibly difficult to deal with. If it had not mysteriously weakened later, Bege doubted he could have defeated it at all.
"How long did the island remain?"
"About four or five hours from the time I arrived until it disappeared."
Bege thought briefly before answering.
"That won't be enough."
Cyrus nodded slowly.
It was now almost certain that this world occasionally intersected with others.
The problem was finding those intersections in time.
A portal that vanished after only a few hours was useless.
Cyrus needed a stable passage connecting both worlds for at least several days.
A permanent one would be ideal.
"You remember the location?"
"I already submitted the coordinates to the Hunter Guild."
Bege smiled with faint pride.
The mission had offered a generous reward.
He had already received the Guild points, and now he seemed to have earned Cyrus's personal gratitude as well.
That made at least two favours Cyrus owed him.
Bege wisely avoided asking what the creature truly was.
After saying goodbye, he led his men away.
Cyrus stared at the monster for several moments, then struck its mask with his knuckles.
Its enormous body convulsed.
Black light shone from the hollow openings where its eyes should have been.
"So you're still alive."
Cyrus smiled.
"And it seems you've already passed beyond the mindless stage."
An Adjuchas.
A high-level Hollow with far greater intelligence than an ordinary Gillian.
If it continued evolving, it might eventually become a Vasto Lorde.
"Hey. Can you understand me?"
Cyrus lightly kicked its head.
The enormous skull shifted until its hollow eyes faced him.
The previously seamless bone mask split apart, revealing a vast mouth that lunged toward him without warning.
"Hmph."
Cyrus's expression cooled.
Before the jaws could close, he caught the upper half of its mouth in one hand.
Crack!
He tore away another enormous section of bone.
A scream that seemed to strike directly at the soul erupted from the Hollow.
Cyrus frowned.
The sound spread across the entire examination ground in an instant.
Countless candidates clutched their heads and cried out as though steel needles were being driven repeatedly into their brains.
Boom!
Two figures leaping between the giant trees suddenly lost control.
They traced matching arcs through the air before slamming into the ground.
Their bodies bounced and rolled until they crashed into an enormous tree, making the trunk shake violently.
A dizzy Luffy sat up and rubbed his head.
Ace was in no better condition nearby.
"What was that?"
The scream had come and gone in a single instant.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
More bodies crashed down around them.
Luffy and Ace looked up as several other figures landed in much the same way.
The first was a blond swordsman whose face wore a disturbing, unnatural smile.
"Run!"
The brothers did not hesitate.
The moment they saw him, they sprang to their feet and fled.
Whoosh!
The strange man's head lifted from the ground at an unnatural angle.
As soon as he saw them, his figure disappeared.
…
Back beside the Hollow, Cyrus planted one foot on its neck and forced its scream back down.
He smiled at the creature, half of its facial armour now torn away.
"So, can you understand what I'm saying?"