Chapter Ninety: "The Treasure"

A person's desire to change something may stem simply from obedience to the "id," or perhaps from a lofty pursuit of the "superego." So... since it's known that a woman's body is less advantageous, why not try changing into a man's instead? It's a perfectly reasonable experiment; life thrives on challenge.

Moreover, altering one's character is not some distant impossibility in this world—even an outsider like Qiubai knows two practical methods, which could be named "flesh alteration" and "soul alteration."

The so-called "flesh alteration" refers to directly transforming a female body into a male one. In the Kingdom of Kamabakka, the queen, the renowned medical expert known as the "strongest king of transvestites," and the user of the Horm-Horm Fruit, Emporio Ivankov, can easily accomplish such a task—and he is quite willing to do so.

Furthermore, Ivankov is a key officer in the Revolutionary Army, and in every sense can be called a "miracle worker" or "bringer of miracles." In fact, a few years later, Ivankov will not only arrive in East Blue, but will pause directly at Kuina's doorstep; sadly, by then, she will have long since become nothing but bones.

This is not a matter to be discussed deeply—it is a tragic tale.

As for the other method... if Trafalgar Law manages, as expected, to obtain the Ope-Ope Fruit, then gender transformation is also within his grasp. Whether or not he can perform surgery for gender transition is beside the point; at the very least, he can use the advanced "soul swap" technique to let someone acquire a male body, which is remarkably convenient.

The Ope-Ope Fruit is truly versatile—a fitting status for the most expensive Devil Fruit valued at five billion. Thus, even Qiubai, who cares not in the slightest for the "immortality surgery," has ample reason to try to obtain it.

Of course, he's not planning to eat it himself, nor, realistically, would he be able to. The crux is Law.

But at present, there's no inevitable connection between Qiubai and Law, and the latter has neither reason nor obligation to use his abilities for him. Still...

All in all, it's perfectly normal for Law to appear in Qiubai's various plans.

Ahem. In reality, after repeated persuasions and a period of waiting in East Blue, the idealistic young girl, driven by her lofty ambitions, finally gave a resolute answer for her dream.

Qiubai's sophistication lies in discussing matters directly with the person concerned, without considering that a guardian should be the one to make the decision. What? Minors lack civil capacity and judgement?

Isn't that just perfect for persuasion? Once the needs are understood, abducting a daughter behind her father's back is hardly difficult—swindling and trickery are among Qiubai's specialties, second only to reckless boldness.

For various reasons, the intricate details are omitted here; suffice it to say, someone ran away from home as a result.

This time, Qiubai's psychological preparation was thorough. If he had not intervened, Kuina would have accidentally died from a fall two years later. So, his actions now have nothing to do with abduction; he is saving a life.

Now, why not stop a girl from wanting to become a boy?

Please—why should anyone stop her? Haven't you, as a girl, ever worn men's clothes? She merely wishes to wear them permanently; it's a personal interest, neither excessive nor disruptive to others.

In Kuina's case, Darwin undoubtedly made a fatal mistake. So... what God owes you, Qiubai returns. He has never been so "noble and illustrious"—changing a person's gender is tantamount to building seven levels of pagodas.

There is not a hint of "curiosity or amusement" here.

Due to certain factors, some of Qiubai's monotonous activities in the urgent period cannot be described in detail.

Two months later, the Grand Line.

"Little Stone Island" is an embarrassingly rustic name for an island, belonging, on the map, to a nation called the Mosin-Nagant Kingdom. In fact, it is still a fair distance from the future kingdom, but Navy supply ships bound for the frozen nation first assemble here before departing.

Thus, Qiubai's deep-sea actions in the Grand Line ended here.

Such naval route intelligence is kept reasonably confidential. Qiubai's acquisition of this information was not easy, but can be summarized as either knocking someone out and interrogating them, or sneaking in and stealing it. The Navy outpost was right there; repeat a few times and he could always get the information he wanted—after all, it wasn't top-secret.

Naturally, Qiubai's target was only the outpost itself; he hadn't been reckless enough to break into any Navy base with a "G" in its name.

To save time, once the route was obtained, the group used a permanent pose to head straight to their destination; they had no time to hop from island to island, recording magnetic fields as beginners often do.

For novices like themselves, sailing the Grand Line was tough, but not impossible—they were all from the New World, which is far more wild than the first half of the Grand Line.

Though they suffered quite a bit of "pain," they finally reached their goal. The upside was, after such a voyage, the rookie navigator could handle the log pose with remarkable skill. Clearly, practical experience matters more than theoretical learning in navigation.

"So... what do we do now?" Ain asked, watching the Navy supply ship depart.

"Pray they don't get discovered, then... we need to go collect the cargo."

Qiubai answered solemnly.

Speaking of which, although the future kingdom of Baltigo is technologically advanced, it is poor in resources. The country receives continuous direct supplies from the World Government, not out of some humanitarian lie, but for one reason... Vegapunk.

This scientist can no longer be described merely as a genius; his value is immeasurable. As long as he continues working for the World Government, assistance to his homeland will continue.

Of course, some things are mere aid, some require payment... but even just keeping the shipping routes open is significant enough.

Frankly, had he arrived a few years earlier, Qiubai would have had plans to abduct the "world's highest brain," but now it's impossible—the World Government isn't foolish enough to allow that.

"By the way... how's your training?" Qiubai asked.

During the long voyage, everyone had something to do; at the very least, Devil Fruit users could try to further develop their abilities.

"Not much progress."

The abilities are fixed, but their usage depends on how well they're developed. In theory, Ain's powers could reduce the regression unit from twelve years to something shorter, but Qiubai felt that wasn't the priority.

He hoped Ain could boost her attack power, for example... since the Regression Fruit's ability requires direct contact to activate, perhaps with development she could control it to work after a delay, or project it as a bullet at a distance. But such training is extremely difficult—not something to achieve in mere months.

"If we collect the 'goods'... what then? Should we follow Doflamingo's instructions?" Ain asked, clearly unwilling to discuss her unproductive training.

What they were about to collect was, in a sense, even worse than drug trafficking; otherwise, how could it be so profitable?

"As if! No one's watching... of course, it's catch and release."

Qiubai said with a grin. Even for a deal worth over a billion, he did things his own way; otherwise, he wouldn't be Qiubai.

As for Doflamingo?

Who is that? Is he here? Can he stop them?