"If we don't intervene, the Night Wolf Gang won't withstand the Fang Gang's invasion. The Night Wolf Gang's overall strength was already slightly inferior to begin with. The only reason they repelled the Fang Gang's previous incursion was thanks to their former leader, Oliver. Now that the Fang Gang has the Capone Family's support, their weaponry will undoubtedly receive significant upgrades, along with manpower reinforcements. On their own, the Night Wolf Gang stands almost no chance of resistance."
Robin paused briefly before continuing, "But if we intervene, we'll inevitably draw the Capone Family's attention. At that point, we might find ourselves in direct conflict with them."
"What if we just eliminate Capone Bege outright?"
Badak pondered for a moment. In his memory, Capone Bege did indeed eventually unite the West Blue underworld. After losing that goal, he formed the Firetank Pirates and set sail for the New World, becoming one of the Supernovas of Luffy's generation—collectively known as the Worst Generation."Taking out Capone Bege might end this chaos, but it could also trigger even greater turmoil. The key issue is that our forces are still too small—we wouldn't benefit from killing him at all, and instead would face the Capone family's frenzied retaliation. Moreover, the other four mafia families wouldn't be grateful either; they'd only grow more wary of us. Even if we could assassinate him, it wouldn't be necessary."
Robin didn't approve of directly killing Capone Bege.
"True, taking him down wouldn't be hard, but after doing so, others would reap all the benefits. Wouldn't that just make me someone else's blade? What's the point of killing him for nothing?"
Badak wasn't a bloodthirsty man by nature and had no interest in pointless killings.
"Another thing—Capone Bege is highly skilled at employing decapitation tactics against rival forces. He likely has thorough preparations for his own safety. Even if we wanted to kill him, it'd take considerable effort."
Somehow, Robin had even gathered intel on Capone Bege's personal habits.
"So we're just leaving the Night Wolf Gang alone? Honestly, I don't care much about factions like them. We're bound for the Grand Line and the New World eventually. If the Night Wolf Gang hadn't set their sights on us, I wouldn't have bothered subduing them. But since they've sworn allegiance to me and have been working for us, I can't just abandon them."
"It's not really troublesome. We should pick the softest target first—we need to demonstrate our strength to the Fang Gang and make them shift their expansion elsewhere. They've just pledged to the Capone family and won't want their superiors thinking they can't handle minor tasks. It's best to leave the tough bones for others to gnaw on, or at least save them for last."
Robin paused here, organizing her thoughts before continuing, "The Capone family has grand ambitions. By expanding their influence now and disregarding the unspoken rules long observed by the Five Families, they're directly provoking the other four. Those families didn't reach their current status without capable people. If they don't want to be gradually eroded, they'll surely back rival forces to counter the Capones. Eventually, it might escalate into open warfare. Once the situation reaches a stalemate, whether the Night Wolf Gang advances or retreats will be entirely your decision."
"I see what you mean—you want us to watch the tigers fight from the mountain. As long as we show enough strength to make the Fang Gang hesitate and redirect their focus, we can buy time until the Five Families are truly embroiled in infighting. By then, they won't care about a minor faction like the Night Wolf Gang. The key is controlling the intensity of our display—enough to make the Fang Gang think twice, but not so much that they give up entirely and bring the Capone family into the fray. Alright, Robin, this time we'll only deploy Perona's Negative Hollows. You handle the fine-tuning."
"No problem, leave it to me and Perona. I'll make sure the Fang Gang steers clear of the Night Wolf Gang without completely abandoning their plans against them."
"And if we end up provoking the Capone family prematurely, so be it. We can always crush them outright when the time comes. Act without hesitation—don't hold back."Capone Bege wasn't someone Badak needed to fear. If not for the man's excessive ambition—even Big Mom offering one of her daughters couldn't subdue him—Badak would have tried to recruit him too. Who could refuse a mobile castle? Badak still hadn't figured out how to transport all the gold from the City of Gold.
That night, the infiltrating scout teams from the Fang Gang were ambushed by the Night Wolf Gang. With Robin around, locating people was effortless. Less than fifteen minutes after her conversation with Badak, Robin had pinpointed all the enemies. She brought Perona along and assigned Andrew to handle the cleanup.
"Are these the bastards? Making me work so late—my skin's gonna suffer."
Perona stroked her face as if the enemies were unforgivable criminals.
"Enough, let's finish this quickly so we can rest. I wonder who it is that stays up all night and can't wake up in the morning."
Robin had no patience for Perona's complaints—it was her own late-night habits that caused her breakouts.
"Shut up! Negative Hollows!"
Suppressing the urge to shove the Negative Hollows into Robin's body, Perona sent them charging at the enemies.
Andrew really was just there for cleanup. All he saw were a few white Ghosts passing through the walls before Robin signaled him to move in and arrest them.
Every single enemy was kneeling on the ground, muttering things like:
"I'm sorry for being born human,"
"I'm so useless, even dogs wouldn't spare me a glance,"
"I too once dreamed of being a great dancer,"
"Coach, I want to play soccer,"
and other such nonsense.
After that, things were simple. Robin had Andrew negotiate a deal with the Fang Gang via Den Den Mushi—they agreed to pay in Belly and weapons in exchange for their captured men.
At first, the Fang Gang's boss, Alva, was furious. I sent you to gather intel, and you got captured to the last man? If you're this useless, why not go back to the countryside and raise pigs? Times had changed—now there was a gun pointed at his head too, and one wrong move could get them all killed.
But he was also curious. His sworn enemy, Oliver, had recently been confirmed dead. The Night Wolf Gang shouldn't have any capable fighters left. His men had better weapons now, thanks to his alliance with the Capone Family, and he'd sent his elites—how could his formerly inferior opponents pull off something like this?
As soon as the captured men returned, Alva summoned them.
"Explain. How did none of you escape?"
"Boss, there were Ghosts!"
"Yeah, yeah! You could see them but not touch them—they went right through walls!"
"That's right, Boss! They control Ghosts! The moment those things passed through us, we lost all will to fight!"
"..."
After listening to the chaotic explanations, Alva understood—the enemy had a Devil Fruit user who could manipulate Ghosts and sap people's will to resist. The legends of Devil Fruits had been around forever, but it wasn't until he saw Oliver transform into a cat-man that he'd confirmed their existence as treasures of the sea.
"Shut up. Besides making you lose the will to fight, what else can these Ghosts do? How many people can they affect at once? How long does the effect last?"The group exchanged glances until one bold member stepped forward and said, "Boss, we were all ambushed in small squads. We're not sure how many people their ability can affect at once, but the duration is definitely short. We only felt down for a brief moment before snapping out of it. But that brief moment was enough for the enemy to surround us."
"Useless! Get out!"
Alva dismissed his subordinates and pondered alone.
The opposing Devil Fruit ability didn't seem particularly lethal at first glance, but combined with the Night Wolf Gang's numbers, it proved extremely troublesome. If his first major operation after joining the Capone Family ended in failure, his life would be in jeopardy. Capone Bege was notorious for his ruthlessness—even close subordinates who made mistakes would be shot without hesitation.
"I'll have to shift focus elsewhere first. If I achieve some merits before reporting the difficulties, it might be more acceptable. I thought the Night Wolf Gang would be easy prey without Oliver, but now another Devil Fruit user has appeared. Why don't I have a Devil Fruit myself?"