216. Traitor among the midst

216. Traitor among the midst

Their ships were far away, so they had time to leave, and the Straw Hats just waited. Except for Ken, everyone was tensed, especially after a person vanished from the ship. After almost 20 minutes, a man emerged from the depths of the dark forest.

Thriller Bark had always been a dark place thanks to its position and Moria's love for darkness, so when the man emerged from the Forest, it took some time for them to see the face of the person. At first, they were captivated by his imposing and enigmatic presence.

This person was an impressive, towering figure with bear-like features, sharp eyes, and neatly trimmed black hair. He wore a formal gray and black suit, complete with polished black leather shoes.

This was Bartholomew Kuma, with the Bible in his hand.

"Straw Hats. The ones with the highest bounty among the supernovas." Kuma spoke in a very calm and unhurried tone. One would think that the person was at the beach or on vacation when he talked.

"Is that a problem?" Zoro asked while he held the handle of his katana.

"Oye, what happened to the person? What did you do?" Luffy asked, and he seemed quite angry that this person 'killed' someone. His observation haki was only able to sense the loss of someone's breath and not the fact that the person might not be 'obliterated'.

"This is Bartholomew Kuma. One of the Shichibukai." Robin said that she had always paid attention to the news and Marines.

"You don't need to care about them." Kuma said it in the same relaxed tone. Meanwhile, Ken just looked at Kuma up and down and said loudly,

"You can come out. I know you are there."

There was a rustle behind Kuma, and soon a man came out, almost from the shadows of the huge figure of Kuma.

"It's been a long time since we brothers have shared sake. I wonder if Dadan ever came to know that she had lost her bottle and we drank it all." A recognizable voice was heard. The voice instantly made Luffy's angry face change.

"You too, my brother," Ken said. Sabo and Kuma were properly introduced to the crew, and Sabo spoke of Kuma and how he had trained him before. Luffy went on about his crew and his adventures. The Straw Hats finally warmed up to the two, and thus the banquet started.

Kuma didn't speak much, but whenever he did, one could easily see that he was a very kind and gentle soul. Ken came forward and sat next to Kuma.

"How much have you transformed?" Ken asked Kuma directly.

"I don't understand." Kuma was a little taken aback.

"Your body... How much have you transformed with the help of Vegapunk?" Ken asked again.

"How do you know?" Kuma was surprised.

"Doesn't matter. Have you taken the decision to change yourself into a robot?" Ken asked.

"I did." Kuma still couldn't understand how Ken knew what was going on since only Dragon knew of the plans. Even Sabo didn't have any idea of it.

"Hmm.. Tell Vegapunk that he has a traitor in his midst. His own clone is going to betray him." Ken said.

"What?"

"Yeah. Punk -06: The Greed, or as York is called, is the traitor, and she is ready to give up Vegapunk in the future once she could get herself the title of a Celestial Dragon." Ken said. At first, when Kuma heard that there was a traitor among Vegapunk, he didn't believe it, but when Ken mentioned the actual name of the traitor, including the Punk number, it meant that Ken actually knew what was going on.

He trembled when he thought of the fact that one of the closest members of Vegapunk and literally a clone of himself was the traitor to Vegapunk.

"But... But how do you know?" Kuma's hands trembled a bit when he thought a traitor might be operating on him soon.

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