— — — — — — —
"Yeah..."
Hearing this, Shakky let out a wry smile and nodded. "Back then, we already made some bold guesses, but even our imagination was too limited!"
"Heh!"
Kaito chuckled and said cheerfully, "Well, there was no way for me to tell you the truth before we made a contract!"
"So? Do you regret signing the contract with me now?"
"Oh, right! Here, take these Life Extension Pills! Five per person. If you take them all, you should be able to extend your lifespan by about 90 years."
"This is also the limit of what a person can take!"
As he spoke, Kaito flipped his hand, producing two porcelain bottles, and casually tossed them to Shakky and Rayleigh.
The two of them quickly caught the bottles, opened them up, took a sniff, and examined the pills inside. Their eyes lit up with excitement.
But instead of taking them right away, they closed the bottles and said in unison:
"No regrets!"
"Honestly, we're just glad we agreed in the end!"
"Otherwise, we wouldn't even know what an incredible opportunity we missed out on!" Shakky added.
"Exactly."
Rayleigh nodded in agreement. "Like you said, teleportation and these Life Extension Pills are just the basic perks of the contract. Everything else you've shown us is downright godlike!"
Far from regret, the two of them felt like they had hit the jackpot.
At the same time, they were relieved they hadn't refused. Otherwise, they might have regretted it for the rest of their lives… Or maybe not.
Because if they hadn't signed the contract, they would've never known what they had missed in the first place.
"By the way, about what you told us regarding our world…the information you just sent in our minds."
"You said Garp's grandson, Luffy, would become my disciple, and he's very likely to become the Pirate King, fulfilling Roger's dream?"
Kaito nodded firmly. "Yeah, if it weren't for me and the Ninja World interfering, that's how the future would have played out."
Rayleigh couldn't help but ask, "But now, with you and the Ninja World involved, plus the fact that we've signed a contract with you, the future will definitely be completely different, right?"
Kaito said with a little smile. "Who knows? We might not even have to wait for Luffy to set sail before we overthrow the World Government, turn the world upside down, and establish a new order!"
"As for whether you still want to take Luffy as your disciple, that's entirely up to you!"
"But even if you don't, I'll still find a way to bring him into my contract."
"After all, both his brother, Ace, and Sabo are already under my contract. Under my training, they're growing stronger at an incredible pace!"
"By the time they set sail in the future, their strength will probably be on a whole different level!"
"The future's path will be completely different from what it was meant to be!"
Changing the fates of characters he liked was something Kaito enjoyed doing.
Ace, Luffy, and Sabo were among them. But even if he couldn't contact someone, it didn't matter—he wasn't the one who lost. Like Luffy, he was just going to contact him himself, doing it for Ace and Dragon's sake.
After all, to Kaito, things like "main characters" didn't mean much.
Now that he was here, the only protagonist of these two worlds… was him.
Everyone else had to take a back seat.
---
"That's true..."
Rayleigh fell silent for a moment, then nodded with a complicated expression.
"Roger's plan was simply to use Nika's power and the prophecy, gather all forces from the world, wipe out the Celestial Dragons, and kill the one pulling their strings—Imu—to overthrow the World Government."
"But after toppling the World Government, what comes next? How do we change the world for the better? Neither he nor we ever thought that far ahead!"
"Or rather, we weren't capable of thinking that far ahead!"
"Compared to your plan, I have to admit… ours seems rather shortsighted, or we had different abilities back then."
Now that he thought about it, if things had gone according to their original plan—defeating the Celestial Dragons and overthrowing the World Government—it wouldn't necessarily have led to a better world.
In fact, there was a high chance it would've become even more chaotic and brutal.
And that was something Rayleigh definitely didn't want to see.
Sure, Roger had ignited the Great Pirate Era, dragging countless innocent people into the chaos and causing unimaginable suffering.
But back then, they had believed it was all for a brighter future.
Now, looking at things from a different perspective, that so-called "brighter future" might not have been bright at all. It might have been even worse.
Rayleigh couldn't come to terms with that.
At this moment, he felt nothing but gratitude.
Thankfully, Kaito had appeared.
"It's no big deal."
Kaito waved it off with a grin. "It's only natural that you couldn't think that far ahead!"
"Knowledge and perspective determine everything."
"But it's not too late! We can still plan carefully and build a truly better future!"
"I hope that in the future, the word 'pirate' will completely disappear from this world."
"In its place, there will only be adventure crews—people who sail the seas purely for exploration and treasure hunting, in a world that is peaceful and beautiful."
Hearing this, Rayleigh and Shakky were momentarily stunned.
Then their eyes lit up.
"Adventure crews, huh? That's actually… a great direction to take things!"
In a world dominated by the sea, completely banning people from setting sail was impossible.
Replacing pirates with adventurer crews and explorers could perfectly solve this issue.
Of course, both Kaito and Rayleigh understood one thing clearly—
Even if pirates were outlawed in the future and a proper adventurer system was introduced, it would still be impossible to completely prevent the emergence of new pirates.
There would always be people with bad intentions, those who wanted to take shortcuts, to seek power through force and crime.
That's just human nature—it couldn't be completely erased.
The only thing they could do was to continuously crack down on such people, raise the cost of becoming a pirate and committing crimes, and make the consequences severe enough to deter them.
That was the only way to greatly reduce the number of pirates.
"If Roger knew about your plan, he'd probably be thrilled! Because this is far beyond the dream he once had! Actually, he can combine your ideas with his! That's Roger." Rayleigh said with a grin, taking a swig of his drink.
"Well, it's not like there's no way for us to find out!"
Hearing this, Kaito raised an eyebrow.
"Huh?"
Rayleigh and Shakky were both caught off guard. But then, they suddenly remembered the information about the Ninja World that they had recently digested.
Rayleigh's eyes widened in shock as he stared at Kaito, his excitement barely contained.
"Oh, right! Kaito, you have the power to revive the dead with Edo Tensei and even a full resurrection technique! Does that mean... you could bring back that bastard Roger?!"
"By the way, do these forbidden jutsus from the Ninja World even work in this world?"
If Roger could be resurrected, Rayleigh would love nothing more than to bring him back and let him witness the new future with his own eyes.
"Of course, they work!"
Kaito nodded confidently. "I've already tested Edo Tensei in this world before, and it worked perfectly!"
"Since Edo Tensei can successfully summon a soul from the underworld, then the resurrection technique will work too!"
"However, as you probably already understand by now, for a full resurrection to work, Roger will have to sign a contract with me first."
"So, do you want me to use Edo Tensei to bring him back first?"
Rayleigh and Shakky exchanged glances, considering it for a moment. Then, Rayleigh lifted his head and looked at Kaito with a serious expression.
"Please revive him! I'm counting on you!"
"Once he's back, I'll figure out a way to make sure he meets the contract requirements and signs with you!"
"Besides, his strength is top-tier. He would be a great ally."
"The only concern is that if he's revived and the wrong people—especially the World Government—find out, it could bring a huge amount of trouble to you and to our plans. We need to think this through first."
After all, Roger had been to Laugh Tale and knew the hidden history that the World Government had buried for the past 800 years.
There was no way they would allow him to exist again.
If they found out he had been revived, they would stop at nothing to hunt him down.
At the same time, Kaito himself would be exposed to the World Government's watchful eyes, making him a prime target for elimination.
"That's not really a big problem!"
Kaito laughed and shook his head. "Worst case scenario, we just have him disguise himself and hide his identity for the time being!"
"There's no rule saying that just because he's resurrected, he has to appear in public for everyone to see!"
"Especially after he signs a contract with me—he'll be able to learn chakra, transformation jutsu, and more!"
"Changing his face and deceiving the World Government? That's going to be easy!"
"That's true!"
Rayleigh's eyes lit up as he nodded. "Alright then, please use Edo Tensei to bring him back!"
"As for his body remains, I'll have to make a trip to Loguetown to retrieve them."
That's right—Roger's body was buried on the island where Loguetown was located.
His homeland.
Of course, the burial site had been carefully hidden and disguised.
The world at large had no idea where it was.
Only a handful of people knew the truth.
"Oh? Loguetown, huh? Sounds good! No time to waste—let's go get his remains and bring him back!"
Hearing this, Kaito raised an eyebrow slightly before standing up, ready to set off. Then, he turned to Rayleigh and asked,
"By the way, the World Government doesn't know about Roger's burial site, right?"
"There aren't any government spies lurking around there, are there?"
"Nope!"
Rayleigh also stood up and shook his head. "Only a few people—me, Garp, Gaban, and some of our remaining crew—know about it. The World Government definitely has no clue!"
"So, are we heading out now?"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
The next moment, Kaito placed his hand on Rayleigh's shoulder.
In an instant, the two of them vanished from the spot, teleporting away.
.
.
.