Ultimate Fruit

Chapter 97: Colluding Together?

“Shall we start betting?”

Baccarat asked with a smile.

Kinnemon looked towards Lucas since he was the one holding most of the money. Kinnemon and Momonosuke had only won around 10 million but Lucas had 1.5 billion.

Law looked around and frowned as he felt this place was suspicious.

No matter what, Gild Tesoro won’t simply let them win a huge amount of money. Something was definitely fishy about this whole thing.

Hina didn’t say anything and simply stood beside Lucas.

Lucas patted Luna and asked.

“What do you think, Luna? Odd or Even?”

“Even!”

“Even it is! All in!”

All it took was one word from Luna and Lucas had betted the whole 1.5 billion.

The dice were tossed and revealed...Snake Eyes! Even!

Just like that, he now has 3 billion berries!

“W-well done. You are really lucky!”

Baccarat tried to keep up her smile and act natural. She definitely can’t let these people leave without losing their money!

Kinnemon and Momonosuke both swallowed a mouthful of saliva upon knowing that they had won big!

If they can get all this money back to Wano...they can reclaim their land!

Suddenly, people around called out behind them.

Lucas didn’t need to turn around to know that Gild Tesoro had finally shown himself.

“Well, well. Are you having a pleasant time?”

“Heh. Not bad. After winning 3 billion, I feel like going home already.”

Lucas chuckled and scared him a little.

Gild Tesoro didn’t seem to react as much and simply smiled.

“Oh? You seem to be having a lucky break. How about one more game? I’ll even match your wager.”

Lucas turned his head to the side and looked at Gild Tesoro.

Behind him, there was a slender beauty in shades. She had short indigo hair with a red rose stuck on it.

She was also present when Gild Tesoro sang earlier on the stage.

This is...Carina?

Lucas remembered the girl as someone who had grown up along with Nami supposedly. They are both thieves.

From what he remembered in the movie. Carina was after the so-called ‘Tesoro Money’ which is worth 500 billion berries.

Naturally, Lucas didn’t even think for a second of helping her achieve that goal. If there is such a thing as Tesoro Money, then he would be the one taking it for himself.

But he wouldn’t do anything against her on account that she’s Nami’s friend.

Anyway, for now, Lucas still wanted to scam Gild Tesoro some more.

“Hmm, I don’t know. I think I’m pretty satisfied with 3 billion.”

“How about this? If you win, I’ll pay you 10 times the wager. Isn’t it exciting?”

“Heh. Fine. But you better hold up on your words.”

“Don’t look down on me. I will naturally uphold my promise.”

Gild Tesoro smiled. He exchanged looks with Baccarat who smiled and nodded discreetly.

He then walked over and sat on a cushion on the ground.

Betty tried to stop Lucas but he had already made his decision.

He carried Luna to the other cushion for her to sit down.

Gild Tesoro looked at the child and asked.

“Is this young lady the one I’m betting against?”

“That’s right. Whatever my Luna says, that’s what I’ll bet.”

“Odd!”

Luna happily shouted, looking quite excited.

After hearing her bet, the dice were tossed once more and landed.

Before the cup was broken to reveal the result, Baccarat walked over with a smile.

“My, this little girl is really cute, isn’t she?”

She held out her hand which no longer wore a glove and patted Luna’s head.

Lucas didn’t do anything to stop her as he feels that luck won’t matter if he can cheat.

However, when Baccarat touched Luna, an unknown power seemed to have invaded her body and caused her to cough up blood.

The next moment, the cup broke and revealed the dice.

6-5

ODD!

The whole crowd was restless.

They actually won! Lucas had won 30 billion from Gild Tesoro!

Gild Tesoro’s eyes widened in surprise as he hurriedly looked at Baccarat who had coughed up blood.

Actually, Lucas was also confused.

He was prepared to cheat with his ability and make it look like the result would be odd no matter what the result was. With him cheating, it won't matter if they were lucky or not.

He didn’t think that Baccarat’s ability to steal luck from other people would actually not work on Luna. Rather, it even backfired? Such a thing was possible?

Was Luna’s luck so heaven-defying that Baccarat's ability can’t steal it at all?

My daughter is really so OP…the title of this story could even be 'I have an Overpowered Daughter in the One Piece World'!

Lucas looked at Luna in a new light. She was simply the Little Goddess of Gambling!

He was afraid that if Nami knew about this, she would definitely drag Luna along to all casinos around the world…

Lucas shook his head and looked back at Baccarat with a ‘concerned’ expression.

“Are you alright? What happened to you?”

“Y-you! What did you do to me!?”

“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”

Lucas waved his hands and acted innocent.

Luna just tilted her head cutely and didn’t know what happened. All she knew was that she won. If she won, then it means more money!

When she thought up to that, she started to cheer and hug Lucas in excitement.

Gild Tesoro’s expression was dark.

He clenched his fist but didn’t dare to retaliate for now.

“...You really...have some good luck!”

“Ahaha! We were just lucky~ Shall we bet again?”

“...”

Gild Tesoro gritted his teeth and had the urge to continue betting but he knew when to pull out. Before he can figure out what really happened, he won’t continue to throw his money.

This was the first time that Baccarat’s ability didn’t work. He can’t treat this incident lightly!

“I’m sorry, there are still some things I need to take care of and can’t continue to play.”

“Too bad. Alright, you go do your stuff. We’re gonna stay and continue betting.”

“...”

Dammit! Can’t you get the cue and leave!?

However, he couldn’t just make them leave without a good reason. There are plenty of VIPs around watching so he can’t embarrass himself further.

“Everyone. How about we pause the games for a while? Carina here will show you all a special performance.”

Using Carina’s performance as an excuse, he paused the games and stalled for time.

Lucas knew what he was thinking and scoffed.

“Oh, you guys can stay and listen. Luna, should we play some more in the Casino below? We’ll come back after that girl finishes singing.”

“Play! Play!”

Lucas’ logic was simple. Since they can’t continue to bet here, he would continue to get more money in the casino and come back here after Carina finished singing.

A vein popped out on Gild Tesoro’s forehead.

He wanted nothing more but to rip Lucas into pieces!

Momousagi, who was watching from the sides, snickered upon seeing such an interesting scene. She had long been irritated about not being able to make any moves against Gild Tesoro so seeing this scene was quite refreshing.

Not bad. It seems that Hina girl at least found an interesting man…if only he wasn’t a pirate, it would’ve been better.

Gild Tesoro said nothing. He no longer cared about the consequences.

He held out his hand and controlled the gold flakes around their body to solidify them but…

Nothing happened.

Lucas turned around halfway and smiled.

“That won’t work.”

“H-how!? This is impossible!”

Gild Tesoro’s eyes widened in shock.

Everyone should’ve been showered by the gold flakes when they arrive in Gran Tesoro. There’s no way they could’ve removed those flakes!

The only way was to use seawater to wash it off. But since they arrived, they have been under surveillance and Baccarat was also with them. There was no way they could’ve washed it off without their knowledge.

To begin with, there was no way Gild Tesoro would have seawater where people can access it easily.

So how!?

Since Gild Tesoro had already started making a move against him, Lucas no longer needed to act nice.

He passed Luna over to Hina first to ensure her safety before walking towards Gild Tesoro.

“W-what do you want!?”

“...”

Lucas didn’t bother answering him and continued to walk.

Gild Tesoro gritted his teeth and stretched out his arm as he controlled the gold in the surrounding area.

The golden dragon coiling on the pillar seemed to come to life as it flew towards Lucas.

Lucas glanced at the gold dragon and suddenly, it turned and shot towards where the marine Vice Admirals were sitting.

Suddenly being attacked, they all jumped away and drew their weapons!

Lucas shouted.

“Nice one Tesoro! Hit them again!”

After he said that, the dragon flew to the skies then dove back down on Momousagi.

When the marines heard Lucas’ shout, their expressions changed as a certain thought was played out in their heads.

They were being tricked! These two were colluding from the start to act against them!

“Tesoro! What is the meaning of this!?”

“I-it wasn’t me!”

“Good, continue to trick them and attack!”

Lucas gave an evil laugh as he spoke and controlled the golden dragon at the same time.

Right, Gild Tesoro was no longer in control of the gold dragon. It was simply Lucas controlling it instead and attacking the marines!

Not only that, he decided to use the other gold dragons on the remaining pillars and attacked the other VIP guests.

Lucas really looked like an evil pirate now as he laughed crazily.

“Hahaha! None of you are getting out alive!”

“Tesoro you bastard!”

“Get me a denden mushi quick! We need to report back!”

“This Casino King is just a sham! In the end, he is still a pirate!”

Momousagi gritted her teeth and stared at Gild Tesoro and Lucas hatefully. She was really angry this time!

“Tesoro! Don’t think you can still remain a part of the World Government after this!”

“I-it’s really not me! Fuck! Lucas! How are you doing this!?”

Lucas looked at Gild Tesoro with a ‘wronged’ expression.

“What do you mean? You're the one who has the Gold Devil Fruit. I’m not doing anything! You said that I will get 30% of the spoils if I act accordingly!”

Hearing more ‘evidence’ coming out of Lucas’ mouth, everyone was angered.

Gild Tesoro panicked and tried to explain but Lucas sneered at everyone else.

“Of course everything was an act! After all, with Baccarat’s ability to steal luck, do you think we could really win if it isn’t an act? You idiots, you were being played from the start!”

Gild Tesoro’s face started to turn pale. Especially when he saw countless VIP guests using their denden mushis to report what was happening.

Actually, everyone here knew more or less the dark inner workings of Gran Tesoro but turned a blind eye to it as long as Gild Tesoro wasn’t being excessive and it doesn’t concern them directly.

But now that they were being schemed against and even their lives were in danger, how can they still turn a blind eye?

It isn’t that they had completely believed Lucas either as all of this was suspicious. However, the fact was Lucas should really be incapable of controlling gold as this was the ability of someone with the Gold Devil Fruit.

Maybe if he had the Lightning Devil Fruit, that could also work as Enel could more or less control gold back then. But this isn’t something that most people knew.

Lucas’ point regarding Baccarat’s ability was also a good point so they believed him even more.

Watching all these happening, Hina, Betty, Law, and Monet were dumbfounded.

If they didn’t know better, they might’ve really believed that Lucas was collaborating with Gild Tesoro…

Kinnemon and Momonosuke stared at Lucas in shock.

“L-Lucas is...an enemy!?”

“N-no way!”

“...”

Hina and the others stared at them and shook their heads. They couldn’t be bothered with answering at all.

Lucas didn’t care about their reactions at all as he was having fun playing the bad guy.

“Wahahaha! Turn them into golden statues and sell them to their families!”

“BASTARD!”

Everyone else attacked Gild Tesoro, thinking that by attacking him, the attacks would stop.

Gild Tesoro tried to defend himself but found out that he couldn’t properly control the gold anymore so he could only take the beating while Baccarat and his people tried to help.

Carina was also dumbfounded as she watched the development.

...Let’s get out of here first…

She directly ignored the fact that her boss was being beaten up and disappeared somewhere.

Lucas saw that the situation was more or less chaotic enough so he slipped out and took the others with him back to the elevator. Naturally, he passed through the doors as well while they all held hands.

Inside the elevator, he carried Luna again and hummed.

“Well, that was fun. Right?”

“Haha!”

Luna seemed excited too. She was swinging her little fists and cheering at the sides earlier while the others were being beaten up.

Betty sighed and shook her head, not bothering to even comment.

Kinnemon looked at Lucas and asked.

“...That was all an act?”

“...”

Lucas looked at him and wondered.

...Is this guy joking?

After a while, they left the casino and found a restaurant to eat since Luna said she was getting hungry.

As they ordered some food, a person approached their table.

Lucas recognized her and saw that she had already changed outfits as she wore a round black hat and a white shirt with suspenders. Her shirt had about four buttons unbuttoned at the top, showing her cleavage.

“Is there something you need from us? Miss Carina?”

“Shishishi. I just want to see the person capable of scamming the Casino King.”

Lucas shrugged.

“Now that you’ve seen me, is that all?”

Carina smiled and didn’t mind that Lucas was being rude.

“I heard you are with the Strawhats? Do you know Nami?”

“Mommy?”

Lucas was about to say no but Luna had already spoken.

Carina looked at Luna in confusion.

What did this girl say? Mommy? Who’s the mommy?

Lucas sighed and no longer bothered to hide it. He patted Luna on the head and smiled.

“This is Luna. She’s mine and Nami’s...daughter.”

“WHAT!?”

The sudden news was too much for Carina and she couldn’t help but shout when she heard it.

Realizing that she had raised her voice and the other people in the restaurant were looking at her, she covered her mouth with her hands and sat back down.

“You’re saying...that cat burglar...Nami, is now a mother!? For real!?”

She still couldn’t believe it so she asked again.

Luna tilted her head and looked at Carina curiously.

“You know mommy?”

“W-well...yes...we can be considered as friends, I guess?”

Carina sighed.

“I can’t believe that THAT Nami would actually become a mother one day…”

She turned her attention back to Lucas and looked at him curiously.

“...Should I try stealing her man this time?”

“...”

Lucas was speechless.

This girl is indeed Nami’s friend. A thief through and through!