Aside from that ordinary Poneglyph, the other one recorded information about the Nika Fruit.
It covered Nika's origins—how the Sun God had been a figure of worship among many races. The giants had records of it, the Buccaneers as well.
But one detail caught Valthior completely off guard.
The earliest faith in Nika seemed to originate from atop the Red Line—from the Lunarians.
The Lunarians were also known as the "God Tribe," said to have once lived in the "Land of Gods."
Due to the limited space on the Poneglyph, the details weren't extensively recorded, but it was clear that the Lunarians once had a magnificent past.
Unfortunately, they were now nearly extinct.
At present, the only known survivor was likely King—Kaido's right-hand man in the future.
For all anyone knew, he might currently be lying in some laboratory alongside Kaido.
In any case, Joy Boy had obtained the Nika Fruit from the Lunarians on the Red Line.
He had also described the fruit's abilities in detail—essentially matching Valthior's understanding. Before awakening and after awakening were like two completely different worlds.
...
Flower Capital, Shogun's Palace courtyard.
Valthior sat beneath a cherry blossom tree, drinking an ice-cold beer, casually holding the Den Den Mushi he had just hung up on.
"Hey, Valthior! Look what we found!" Roger came running in excitedly from outside, holding up two Devil Fruits like trophies.
"Devil Fruits?" Valthior raised a brow. "Wano really does hide quite a few treasures."
In Wano, most people referred to Devil Fruit abilities as "sorcery," and ability users as "sorcerers." The general population had little understanding of Devil Fruits and even rejected the idea of becoming one.
As a result, over centuries, there hadn't been many ability users in Wano.
But since Devil Fruits reincarnate randomly, many ended up in Wano and simply went uneaten—never circulating beyond the country.
"Mythical Zoans—two of them!" Roger bragged. "You're always going on about how rare your Mythical Zoan is. Doesn't look so special now, huh? I just found two in one go! Hahaha!"
As he spoke, Rayleigh and the others entered as well. Rayleigh held a Devil Fruit encyclopedia.
"One of them is quite similar to yours," Rayleigh said. "Yours is the Cat-Cat Fruit, while this one is the Dog-Dog Fruit. Here—Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan: Okuchi no Makami. It looks just like a persimmon."
"That's right, that's right! And the other one is a Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan—Yamata no Orochi," Roger added before asking, "What were you doing just now?"
"Calling my old man," Valthior replied. "But he hung up on me."
"Selling out our Roger Pirates' location again, huh? You damned traitor!" Roger instantly put on an exaggerated angry face.
Gaban chimed in, "That's right! This kind of thing costs at least five billion Berries for us to pretend we didn't see it!"
Before coming to Wano, Valthior had already informed Saint Saturn that the Roger Pirates would head to Whole Cake Island next.
Naturally, Roger and the others knew about it.
After all, from a certain perspective, that was leaking their movements. Not telling them would've crossed a line.
But Valthior's reasoning left them with no room to argue.
Searching for the Poneglyphs and uncovering the Void Century was an extremely serious matter. If he didn't take precautions, there was a real chance he'd be stripped of his Celestial Dragon status.
So in order to maintain that status, he had no choice but to leak some information.
At first glance, that sounded ridiculous.
To protect your own status, you sell out your crew's whereabouts? How is that not betrayal?
So why did no one in the Roger Pirates object?
The answer was simple.
Because Valthior being a Celestial Dragon had brought them massive benefits over the years.
For example, not long ago, he had used his status to obtain Professor Clover's whereabouts from CP, which led them to a new Poneglyph rubbing.
And throughout their adventures, the Marines often turned a blind eye to them—that alone was a huge advantage.
But most importantly…
Thanks to Valthior's backing, they were able to deposit their vast wealth—plundered from raids and adventures—into legitimate World Government banks, earning interest and investment returns.
Every member of the Roger Pirates had deposits worth over ten billion Berries.
If Valthior lost his Celestial Dragon status, what would happen?
Simple—their accounts would be frozen and confiscated immediately.
Was that acceptable? Of course not.
They were all counting on that money to retire someday and live like wealthy elites.
So when Valthior mentioned the possibility of losing his status, Roger and the others were even more anxious than he was.
It was as if their future happiness was on the line—not his.
Well… that wasn't entirely wrong.
If Valthior lost his status, the entire crew would lose their financial safety net.
So when Valthior proposed leaking some accurate movement intel in exchange for maintaining his identity, the crew held a vote—
Unanimous approval.
Not only that, they were worried it wouldn't be enough. They practically urged him to leak even more—might as well hand over their birthdays while he was at it.
After all, they were pirates with nothing tying them down.
As for attracting powerful enemies?
Please. They were pirates.
Bring it on.
...
While joking around, Valthior casually took the Okuchi no Makami fruit from Roger's hand. Since it was so similar to his own ability, he wanted a closer look.
But the moment he held it—
A strand of icy energy suddenly seeped out of the fruit, slipping into his palm.
Before anyone could react, the cold aura spread rapidly. In the blink of an eye, the once-plump fruit shriveled up, as if it had been left to decay for years.
"…Huh?" Valthior froze, utterly confused.
"What the hell is going on?! Where's my Mythical Zoan? My big, beautiful Mythical Zoan?!" Roger shouted, looking like he'd seen a ghost.
"Are you okay?! I've heard eating two Devil Fruits makes you explode!" Rayleigh exclaimed.
Gaban rushed forward. "Ship doctor! Get the ship doctor—ah, wait, we don't have one!"
Valthior carefully sensed his body, frowning. After a long pause, he said hesitantly, "...I don't feel anything different?"
Everything felt completely normal.
No explosion. No surge of power.
It was as if nothing had happened at all.
"…Maybe it's just not obvious externally?" Spencer suggested. "Why don't we have someone try eating it?"
Everyone stared at the shriveled, persimmon-like fruit in Valthior's hand—with visible disgust.
Even if it were a Mythical Zoan, they might not eat it.
Now?
No chance.
What if something went wrong?
Their ridiculous pirate crew didn't even have a doctor!
All Roger's fault for being such an unreliable captain.
"Let's grab a prisoner to test it… or maybe that Kurozumi Orochi guy?" Gaban suggested.
"But what if it still works? That'd be a waste of a Mythical Zoan!" Roger protested.
"You really think that thing still works?" Rayleigh scoffed. "Even if it doesn't kill you, it'll probably just give you diarrhea. Forget about gaining any powers…"
In the end, they decided to find some unlucky Wano scapegoat to test whether the fruit still had any effect.
As for Valthior, after some discussion, they concluded that any changes might only appear with deeper mastery—or perhaps only after awakening.
After all, he had just absorbed a Mythical Zoan.
If there was a change… it was probably for the better.
...
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