One Piece: The Archangel's Guide

Chapter 42: A Grand, Bad Idea

"Why the sudden call, Arcordon?"

Louis landed on the branch of a large tree, holding the Den Den Mushi, and slowly folded his wings. He looked at the brightly lit courtyard not far away, his face full of confusion and doubt.

A voice, very familiar to Louis, answered his question.

"I handed over the tribe on Baal to that old muscle-head and came to the Blue Sea..."

"You were right. Baal, and even the Calm Belt, are too peaceful. Those ferocious beasts in the Calm Belt can no longer make us stronger."

"So, what's your plan?" Louis asked softly.

"I'm preparing to find a way to infiltrate the Marines and give them a big surprise from behind in the future!" a confident voice came from the other side of the Den Den Mushi.

"???"

Louis's expression was a picture of bewilderment. He was completely thrown. His voice couldn't help but rise a few octaves. "Are you treating the World Government and the Marines as if they're blind?"

To this, Arcordon replied with utter confidence, "I've already thought of a solution!"

"Explain!" Louis narrowed his eyes. He wanted to know what kind of brilliant idea this guy, who was a disaster in everything except his physique and swordsmanship, could possibly come up with.

"It's simple. I'll just turn myself into an ordinary person!"

"And how are you going to 'turn' into one?" Louis was extremely skeptical. How could a five-meter-tall, dark-skinned, winged giant possibly become an ordinary person?

On the other side of the world, atop a mangrove tree in the Sabaody Archipelago, a tall man with black wings, dark skin, short white hair, and two strange longswords at his waist explained in a relaxed tone: "I plan to cut off my wings, dye my hair, and then, like you, stop igniting the flames on my back."

"That way, I'll become a relatively tall, dark-skinned ordinary person. I can use my Logia ability to get into the Marines."

"With my Devil Fruit ability and swordsmanship, I'll definitely be able to rise to the high ranks of the Marines in a very short time!"

"When that time comes, I'll coordinate with you and the old muscle-head to put on a good show for the Marines and the World Government!"

A confident smile appeared on Arcordon's face, as if he could already see the day he would become a high-ranking Marine and backstab them.

However, far away in the East Blue, Louis immediately threw a bucket of cold water on him. "Give it up! You won't be able to get in!"

Louis looked disgusted. He had thought this guy was going to do something big to the World Government. But in reality, the guy had just been building up a grand, bad idea.

"Why do you say that?" Arcordon's smile vanished, his face full of confusion. He had thought it over and over and couldn't find any loopholes.

To this, Louis ruthlessly stabbed him with the truth. "Have you ever thought about how you're going to get through the medical examination during recruitment?"

"The World Government can determine a person's race through their Lineage Factor!"

"If you dare to try and infiltrate, the World Government will gladly accept a brand-new test subject!"

This was not alarmist talk; there had been such a case decades ago. Bartholomew Kuma. He and his father were discovered to have Buccaneer blood through a hospital visit, and the World Government used their medical records to find their identities, turning them into slaves for the Celestial Dragons.

"The Marines require a medical exam?"

"How come I've never heard of that?"

"And what's a 'Lineage Factor'?" Arcordon was completely bewildered. He thought that in his time in the Blue Sea, he had already figured out how to join the Marines.

"Without a medical exam, how would the Marines know if you have any diseases? If you're injured, how would they give you a blood transfusion?" Louis scoffed. He felt that Arcordon was so naive it was almost cute. He hadn't even figured out the medical exam part, let alone the Lineage Factor, yet he dared to propose infiltrating the Marines. Did he really think the Marines were as easy to fool as most pirates?

For special races marked by the World Government, even going to a hospital was a risky act. Daring to join the Marines? He wouldn't even know how he died!

On the treetop in the Sabaody Archipelago, Arcordon looked at the distant Marine base and fell into thought. After a long while, he scratched his head and muttered with a headache, "Well, this makes things difficult!"

"Don't even think about it. Infiltrating the Marines is not feasible," Louis continued to persuade him through the Den Den Mushi.

"Alright..." Arcordon sighed. "In that case, I'll just continue to lie in wait here and catch a few Celestial Dragons..." Since Louis said infiltrating the Marines was impossible, he could only go back to his idea of ambushing Celestial Dragons.

On the other side, Louis breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Arcordon had given up on that ridiculous idea. He had already given up the dignity and beliefs of a swordsman for their people. If he were to give up his wings now, it would be too much.

Ambushing Celestial Dragons it is! That's a hundred times better than trying to join the Marines. If he killed a Celestial Dragon, he just had to run before a Marine Admiral arrived. With Arcordon's speed, if he struck and ran, not even Kizaru could keep up. But infiltrating the Marines was a different concept entirely. That was a sheep walking into a pack of wolves.

"It's good that you understand. Just honestly lie in wait for your Celestial Dragons. Even ambushing them, killing them from a distance with some other method, and then heading to the New World with your Lunarian features on full display is better than thinking about joining the Marines!"

Honestly, if Arcordon had proposed ambushing a few Celestial Dragons from the start, Louis wouldn't have been so angry. How many drinks did he have to come up with that?

On the other side, the white-haired man on the mangrove top looked embarrassed. "Got it," he said. "I'll be careful with the Celestial Dragons too. I'll try to follow them to a sea area far from Marine Headquarters before I make my move. I won't give them time to react. If there's no opportunity, I'll choose to give up and leave directly."

Hearing this, Louis's expression softened. Although the guy was a disaster in many ways, if he made a promise, he would do his best to keep it.

Then, Arcordon asked, "Where are you now? Have you found Mr. Momora?"

"I'm still in the East Blue. I'm preparing to leave my footprints across the world before everything begins. As for Mr. Momora, it seems that person has changed his name and is now active in the world under a different identity."

Arcordon was taken aback. He didn't immediately ask about Mr. Momora's current situation, but instead grinned and said, "Leaving your footprints across the world? That's a very romantic thing to do! It's okay, you can take your time. We still have a lot of time. If it weren't for you, we might have waited a hundred or two hundred years and never returned to the sea. Compared to one or two hundred years, the time you need is nothing."

Then, Arcordon seemed to remember something and confided in Louis in a slightly troubled tone, "Louis, I saw a guy on a newspaper and a bounty poster who looks like one of our people! After I've staked out the Sabaody Archipelago for a while, I'm planning to go to the depths of the New World to check him out."

"King the Conflagration of the Beasts Pirates?" Louis asked thoughtfully.

"!!"

"That's right! So you've seen his bounty poster too, and you think he looks like one of us?"

"He is one of our people."

"..."

"Is that... true?" Arcordon's hand holding the Den Den Mushi trembled, his voice unsteady.

"It's true. You can go to Grove 13 and find a person named Shakky. Ask her to use her underworld connections to find King's contact information and try to talk to him. The Rayleigh you know is also at Shakky's place!"