Two days later.
By this time, Shining and his group were already on their way to Alabasta alongside Moria and his crew.
For this trip, Moria brought only Absalom with him. Because of the fallout from the Kaido incident, having his usual crew around would only restrict his movements and tie his hands.
Thus, he brought only Absalom, the user of the Clear-Clear Fruit. Their abilities would complement each other, ensuring they could safely retreat no matter what happened.
The reason their departure had been delayed for so long was twofold. First, Shining needed to consult Eleco, and since Eleco was only awake for a brief period each day, they had to wait on his schedule.
Second, they had first gone off to track down two individuals: Charlotte Lola, Big Mom's daughter, and Brook.
Both of these figures were tied to a part of Eleco's upcoming plans.
Charlotte Lola could provide him with a connection to Big Mom. All he had to do was capture her and present her as a gift to Big Mom, and everything else would fall into place smoothly, wouldn't it?
You might call her pitiful? Oh, please—he was a Celestial Dragon!
Then there was Brook. Eleco definitely intended to copy his Devil Fruit ability. The original story had mentioned that Brook once briefly used his fruit's power to reach the outer fringes of the underworld.
He only turned back because he found it terrifying, fearing he would never return.
This proved that an afterlife truly existed in this world, which deeply piqued Eleco's interest.
Furthermore, he needed to fulfill the promise between Brook and Laboon.
Of course, this wasn't out of a sudden surge of kindness; he simply intended to use Brook to get close to Crocus.
That's right—the former doctor of Roger, the King of the Pirates, and the lighthouse keeper at the Twin Capes.
Viewed from an omniscient perspective, if one were to ask who in the original story came closest to Laugh Tale, the Laugh Tale, nobody else could rival Blackbeard.
Among the current Four Emperors, both Red-Haired and Buggy had accompanied Roger to Mercury Island, the island where journeys began.
However, because Buggy fell ill near the end, Red-Haired stayed behind to take care of him, causing them to halt their voyage at a town on a nearby island.
As for Luffy, he had successfully gathered rubbings of three Road Poneglyphs.
Blackbeard had even seized a rubbing from Law and was suspected of having taken the one from Big Mom's territory as well.
Yet Blackbeard undeniably held the greatest advantage.
First, he had kidnapped Pudding, the user of the Memo-Memo Fruit. Second, when he attacked Empress Boa Hancock in an attempt to steal her power, Rayleigh had shown up.
How utterly fascinating that was.
Keep in mind that Rayleigh, as Roger's first mate, had walked the entire path and actually reached Laugh Tale, the Laugh Tale.
What would happen if the Memo-Memo Fruit were used to extract his memories?
Could one directly figure out the correct sea route?
One had to know that a first mate like Rayleigh must have witnessed Roger and Oden marking the locations corresponding to the four Poneglyphs on their map.
You might argue that Haki could be used to defend against memory extraction via Devil Fruit powers?
Well, what if the entire Blackbeard Pirates swarmed him and knocked Rayleigh unconscious?
While that was said somewhat in jest, in the original story, Rayleigh at two years prior was already struggling quite a bit when fighting Kizaru. Since Aokiji was also one of the three Admirals, his strength certainly wouldn't be inferior.
Therefore, an all-out assault by the entire Blackbeard crew was entirely feasible.
Besides, this was Blackbeard we were talking about—he would use any scheming trick that worked, as long as it achieved his goal.
So, from an omniscient perspective, Blackbeard was actually the closest person to Laugh Tale, though Oda certainly wouldn't write it that way.
What Eleco wanted to do was replicate this exact method. Rayleigh was a bit too tough to handle, so he would use Crocus to practice first, hoping the old man knew what was good for him. If that didn't work, he would reconsider Rayleigh.
And this was why Eleco needed Moria to return Brook's shadow and grant him his freedom.
Of course, capturing Brook and Lola wasn't going to be all that easy, which was why Shining and Moria's group still spent a fair bit of time on it.
While they were hunting down the pair, Eleco also sent his reply regarding Moria's request.
That actually turned out to be quite simple, with multiple viable approaches, all of which tied into Eleco's subsequent plans, so he readily agreed—it was just a matter of convenience, after all.
For instance, he could spend a hefty sum to hire a pair of sea turtles to pull the Thriller Bark—the two giant turtles that towed the Gran Tesoro in the film version.
The Golden Emperor had relied on those two giant turtles as a power source to cross the Calm Belt and travel back and forth between North Blue, the New World, and West Blue.
(Author's note with a manual doge face: with the Red Line blocking the way, there really was no way to reach East Blue and South Blue unless one flew across using the Gravity-Gravity Fruit or the Float-Float Fruit.)
Alternatively, he could borrow a user of the Book-Book Fruit from Big Mom and use its power to take the entire Thriller Bark with them.
Or he could enlist the Golden Lion to float it across using the Float-Float Fruit.
Naturally, all of these options required an exchange of mutual interests, but fortunately, they aligned well with his upcoming agenda.