One of the Shichibukai, Gekko Moria, had been troubled recently, because two annoying guys had intruded into his territory.

Back then, when Moria’s figure hadn’t been like a round eggplant like it was now, he had also been a man who had been called a hero of the sea.

With the goal of becoming the pirate king, Moria had charged into the New World triumphantly all the way, and he had battled Kaido of the Beasts in Wano Country.

However, the difference in strength had been too large, and although Moria had escaped with his life, he had lost all of his comrades.

Having suffered this kind of blow, Moria had hidden in the Florian Triangle, transforming from a hero to a fat otaku all at once.

Like Crocodile, who had been defeated by Whitebeard, Moria had also begun to rely on external objects. But what he had been relying on had been the zombie army that he had created with his own ability.

By combining the shadows that had been cut out from the people who had passed through the Florian Triangle with corpses that had been modified, he could create an army that hadn’t feared death.

So Moria hadn’t been afraid of others intruding into his territory, because the intruders’ shadows had all been materials for him to create zombies. So he had even released bait to lure others into the Florian Triangle.

And he had received a report before this that someone had intruded into Thriller Bark. And he had then gone happily, planning to harvest shadows.

There had been a reason why the first half of the Grand Line had been called paradise, and the pirates here had either been rookies, or they had been failures who hadn’t had the courage or ability to enter the New World.

So Moria had believed that there hadn’t been anyone who could threaten him, appearing before Drake and Stella with full confidence.

Moria had been a shadow person who had eaten the Kage Kage no Mi, and he could freely manipulate shadows. He could even divide his body into shadow bats like a Logia.

You could only say that Moria definitely hadn’t been trash to have been able to become a Shichibukai.

Drake had wanted to see what Moria had been like back then, when he had been fighting Kaido, but it was a pity that the current Moria had had to rely on his devil fruit ability to move around nimbly.

Drake’s flames, which had devoured light, had even broken through darkness, let alone shadows, which had only been produced by relying on light.

Having first competed with abilities, and then having competed with body techniques, Moria had fallen into a disadvantage in both, and he had only been able to flee in a panic in the end.

And what had surprised Moria had been that those two people hadn’t had any intention of chasing after him, and had instead continued to tour around the island, as if they had just come to sightsee.

And they had been getting more and more excessive, and they had directly intruded into the mansion where he had been living after having toured the outside.

Damn it! This was his base, and it wasn’t a haunted house in an amusement park!!!

But what could Moria have done, who had made him unable to beat Drake, and he hadn’t had any other choice but to endure it.

The three weirdos under him hadn’t been useful either, and Absalom, the ability user of the Suke Suke no Mi, had been discovered as soon as he had approached, and his legs had been broken. Hogback, the surgeon, had been hung at the front door miserably.

Perona’s Horo Horo no Mi ability hadn’t been able to do anything to Drake either, and it had just been that Perona had been a girl, so the other party had shown mercy, but her butt had also been swollen by Stella.

And Moria, who had witnessed Drake’s flame abilities, wouldn’t have sent zombies before Drake to die.

So Moria had been acting as if these two people hadn’t existed as long as Drake hadn’t done anything that had threatened him.

But Drake and the two of them had been getting more and more excessive, and they had actually been living in the mansion openly.

It had been fine if they had just been living there, but these two guys had even been picky, forcing the zombies to do a general cleaning in the mansion, completely regarding themselves as the owners here.

Moria could only advise himself that it was good to be cleaner about this, and this was his residence after all.

In contrast to Moria’s troubles, Drake had also deeply felt that he had made a miscalculation.

Drake hadn’t been Moria, and he hadn’t liked this kind of place where not even a trace of sunlight could shine in.

Drake’s memory hadn’t been wrong, and the Straw Hat Pirates’ next stop after leaving Water 7 had been Thriller Bark.

But Drake had forgotten that the Going Merry had been completely damaged after having carried the group out of Enies Lobby, and the Straw Hat Pirates had had to wait for Franky to complete building the new ship, the Thousand Sunny, before they could have continued setting off.

So Drake hadn’t waited for the Straw Hat Pirates for a quite long time while staying on Thriller Bark, let alone Kuma.

To pass the time, Drake had even begun to research the zombies on the island.

You had to say that Moria had still been quite talented at grave robbing. He had had 899 zombies under him right now, and the general zombies who had been numbered 800 to 899 had all been made with the corpses of strong people who had been powerful in life.

Among them had been Captain John, the great pirate of the previous era, as well as Ryuma, the sword god of Wano Country who had slain dragons.

God knew how Moria had dug them out of their graves one by one, and how much effort he had put in to make them into zombies.

Even if they had only been corpses left, and they had also been processed and modified by Hogback, Drake could have still sensed their strength from when they had been alive from these corpses.

The traces that training and battle had left behind wouldn’t have been erased even in death.

To be honest, the shadows that Moria had stuffed in hadn’t been able to bring out even the power that had been left behind on the corpses completely, making the strength of these zombie soldiers just be so-so. He really didn’t know why Moria had been putting his hopes on them.

Drake had also taken the black sword Shusui, which had been a national treasure of Wano Country and had been listed among the Saijo O Wazamono, into his hands to research.

So Drake had also had more insights into the forging techniques of this world and the forging of black swords while Stella had been training his pet cloud fox Angel.

Just as Drake had been about to become impatient with waiting, the Straw Hat Pirates had finally appeared.

And Drake had also sensed that another powerful aura had arrived on Thriller Bark at the same time.

A tall and muscular man had been holding a bible, standing at a high point, looking down at this giant sailing ship.

Kuma had been paying attention to that boy who had been wearing a straw hat all along. He had always believed that the warrior of freedom, the sun god Nika, hadn’t just been a legend, and the straw hat boy had been the person he had been certain would become Nika.

Just as Kuma had been preparing to see how Luffy would overcome this difficulty of Moria, he had discovered that another person had appeared beside him at some point.

Kuma had looked at Drake with a face that hadn’t had any expression, opening his mouth, saying, "Drake, who calls himself a Fairy Tail mage, why would you be here?"

Drake had stretched out his finger, pointing at Kuma, saying, "It’s naturally for you! You also know that we do work after accepting requests, and someone requested me to find you, so I’ve been waiting here for you!"

Kuma hadn’t cared about other things, opening his mouth, asking, "Who did you say requested you?"

Drake had said, "There’s no need to say it, and only that child in this world would want to see you this much, right!"

Kuma’s expression had changed, as if the storm had suddenly scattered, revealing the sunlight, and it had been hard to imagine that such a burly man would reveal such a gentle smile. It had looked like he had also guessed who had requested Drake.

But Kuma’s face had then returned to being calm, shaking his head, saying, "Sorry, I can’t see her right now, and I’m going to make your mission fail. I hope that you can also convey my apologies to Bonney!"

Drake had smiled, saying, "That won’t do, and I won’t let a request that Fairy Tail has accepted fail, and besides, I didn’t discuss it with you!"

The mist between the two had scattered all at once, and although neither of them had had any hostility, the atmosphere of battle had already appeared.

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