At that moment, if Dragon hadn't known perfectly well that Nico Robin was the user of the Flower-Flower Fruit, he would've started wondering whether she had eaten some kind of Information-Information Fruit instead.
Assuming such a fruit even existed in this world.
In any case, after that round of pressure from Robin, Dragon was genuinely convinced.
He no longer doubted her intelligence in the slightest.
Right after that, Robin told Dragon about Imu, the true ruler behind the World Government. She even told him the identities and abilities of the God's Knights, as well as the powers of the Five Elders.
This time, Dragon was truly stunned.
He knew the Five Elders were powerful, but he never imagined that every single one of them was a Mythical Zoan user—or that they were immortal.
And the God's Knights were immortal too.
More importantly, the Five Elders actually served a master named Imu.
It was unbelievable.
He had always known the World Government's foundations ran deep, but he had never imagined they were this deep.
The Five Elders, Mythical Zoans, the God's Knights, immortality, and above them all, a monster that even Rocks, Whitebeard, Roger, Garp, Kaido, and Charlotte Linlin together couldn't do anything about…
Imu.
It wasn't enough to make Dragon lose heart, but he had to admit that toppling the World Government was a tremendously long road.
After all, the Revolutionary Army's current strength was still nowhere near the level of the World Government.
At the same time, it only made him more and more suspicious of Robin.
In his eyes, getting ahold of information about the Revolutionary Army was already impressive enough.
But who would've thought she'd practically stripped the World Government down to its underwear too?
Was this really the Nico Robin he knew?
Had someone swapped her out?
Dragon was incredibly curious where all this information had come from.
He was full of questions, but he didn't dare ask, afraid he might offend her.
Of course Robin could tell he was wary, but she didn't bother explaining anything. Instead, she changed the subject.
"I need your help with something."
The moment Dragon heard that, he relaxed a little.
After all, he had just gotten a huge amount of intelligence from Robin, enough to give him a much clearer picture of the World Government.
That was an enormous help toward overthrowing the World Government and building a new world.
He had just been worrying about how to repay Robin when she suddenly said she needed help. Without hesitation, he agreed immediately.
"Please, Miss Nico Robin. If there's anything we can do, we absolutely won't refuse."
Robin said calmly, "On Punk Hazard, in the New World, there's an artificial Devil Fruit. Vegapunk created it using Kaido's lineage factor—the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon."
"Vegapunk may claim that this fruit is a failure, but in reality, aside from its color being different from the original Azure Dragon fruit, there's no real difference."
"And right now, that fruit is in the abandoned laboratory below."
"I want you to contact Bartholomew Kuma and have him get to that lab as quickly as possible. Then, using the Paw-Paw Fruit, send that fruit to a location in Alabasta."
Hearing that, Dragon was shocked all over again.
Because what Robin had just said revealed several key things at once.
First, Vegapunk had successfully created an artificial Devil Fruit—and not just any fruit, but Kaido's Azure Dragon fruit.
Second, she even knew exactly where that fruit was.
Third, Bartholomew Kuma was a member of the Revolutionary Army… and she knew that too, despite never having met him.
That only made Dragon even more alarmed by the source of Robin's intelligence.
But he didn't refuse, because in his eyes, this was the first step toward currying favor with Robin—or at the very least, establishing a working relationship with her.
So after hanging up, Dragon immediately contacted Bartholomew Kuma and told him to deliver the Azure Dragon fruit as quickly as possible.
Kuma didn't disappoint him. In the shortest time possible, he reached Punk Hazard and found the fruit.
After that, he contacted Nico Robin and got the coordinates from her.
Then, using the power of the Paw-Paw Fruit, he sent the artificial Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon to the designated location.
That was why, when Rowan came to see Robin today, she wasn't home.
Because she had gone to retrieve that fruit.
"So? Do you like the surprise?"
After explaining everything from beginning to end, Nico Robin looked at Rowan with a smile and asked.
"I like it. I really like it."
Rowan turned the artificial Devil Fruit over and over in his hands, examining it several times, but showed no intention of eating it.
Robin noticed that too. She could tell he genuinely liked the fruit, but for some reason had no desire to eat it.
So she couldn't help asking, "Why not eat it?"
Rowan sighed. "If it were the Door-Door Fruit, I'd eat it in a heartbeat. You know what my ability is—I can use doors to connect to other worlds."
"So in my opinion, the fruit that suits me best in this world is the Door-Door Fruit."
"With the Door-Door Fruit, I wouldn't need to go around looking for doors every time I wanted to travel. I could just open one in midair."
"Of course, I'm not saying this fruit is bad."
"If there were no Azure Dragon fruit, I could still accept a red dragon, black dragon, purple dragon, white dragon—even a yellow dragon would be fine. But a pink dragon? I'll pass. I don't like pink. It feels a little too feminine."
Rowan casually tossed the fruit to Orochimaru. "Take it and use it for research. Get results as soon as possible."
Orochimaru caught the artificial Devil Fruit and instinctively almost bit into it.
To be honest, he didn't care whether the dragon was pink or not.
But he held himself back.
After all, the fruit he truly wanted was the Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Yamata no Orochi.
This Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon, pink version though it was, was still excellent—but it didn't quite match what he wanted.
Compared to pure combat power, he cared more about the survival ability of the Yamata no Orochi.
So Orochimaru tossed the fruit to Kabuto.
"Eat it, Kabuto."
Kabuto clearly hadn't expected the fruit to land in his hands. "May I, Lord Orochimaru?"
Orochimaru smiled. "Of course. But once you eat it, you'll have to cooperate with our experiments. You don't have a problem with that, do you, Kabuto?"
Kabuto bit into the artificial Devil Fruit without the slightest hesitation.
"Of course not."
He knew exactly how powerful this fruit was. If all it took to get such a powerful Devil Fruit was cooperating with some experiments, then he was making out like a bandit.
As for whether it was pink or not, Orochimaru didn't care, and neither did Kabuto.
To a ninja, power was what mattered. Everything else was meaningless.