Chapter 57: Recruiting The Enemy
“You’re back, Aoxi. Is everything done?”
Burufaruto, who was organizing the crew, saw the small figure approaching from afar and asked.
“Yeah, it’s done.”
“Is there anything else to do next?”
Aoxi looked around; the shore, which had been a pile of ruins, had now been mostly cleaned up.
Scattered flames had been extinguished, and the corpses scattered on the ground had been neatly arranged, ready for unified disposal later.
Although Aoxi could still see some souls wandering with obsession this time, she didn’t pay special attention to these strange faces, just casually shoving all these wandering souls into the Underworld.
Burufaruto watched her suddenly wave her hands a few times like swatting mosquitoes, somewhat puzzled, but he didn’t ask anything more.
He then took out a sea chart just searched from the island, pointing to the many islands on it and said:
“Our next mission is to capture as many nearby islands as possible.
We’ll leave one of us three here to supervise the repair of the defenses, and the other two will split up to quickly strike and reclaim these islands.
This sea area has no enemy executives left now, so capturing them should be quick.”
“Wait, I’ll go with you. Aoxi stays on the island.”
Obei, who had finished arranging the defense work, returned and saw that Aoxi still seemed unenthusiastic, so he said to Burufaruto.
“No need, I’ll go.” Aoxi shook her head and refused.
“Are you okay? Just stay on the island and rest…”
“No need, I’ll have to get used to it sooner or later. Besides, as the Underworld God, I can’t fear death and desert in the face of battle~”
Aoxi showed her signature energetic smile again and patted Obei’s shoulder.
“Hahaha! Good to see you back to normal, brat.”
Burufaruto saw Aoxi’s usual smile return, which greatly improved his mood. Without this quirky little girl livening up the atmosphere, he had felt a bit unadjusted.
“But what do you mean by that Underworld God thing?”
“Nothing, let’s set off now, Uncle! Let’s go!”
Aoxi jumped up and patted Burufaruto’s thigh, then quickly ran outside.
“Hey! You brat! Don’t run so fast, resupply isn’t ready yet!”
Burufaruto watched the small red dumpling disappear in a flash and shouted as he chased after her.
“Haha! Osiris, full☆speed☆ahead☆go!”
The left-behind Obei: “…”
“Sigh~ Whatever, as long as she figures it out.”
…
The subsequent island conquest plan went very smoothly. Without executives in charge, most pirates saw the menacing Beasts Pirates and directly gave up resistance, raising white flags.
Some quick-thinking pirates even abandoned the island and fled early, their small boats powered solely by oars achieving speeds beyond rowing races under their survival instincts.
The remaining few who stubbornly resisted all surrendered and disarmed after Aoxi punched and exploded a small mountain, starting to sing and dance.
“Phew~ This is the last island.”
While her subordinate pirates were busy rounding up captives, Aoxi, sitting on a cannon on the shore, took out a pen and circled an island marked on the sea chart.
Thus, all six islands under her responsibility had changed flags.
Pulling a small Den Den Mushi from her pocket, Aoxi prepared to contact Burufaruto and report progress.
“Hmm… I think it’s used like this… Eww~ This slimy feeling is so gross!”
Aoxi dialed Burufaruto’s number, which he had given to her and Obei that morning, along with Kaido and others’ numbers.
The Den Den Mushi in her hand heard the disgusted voice but could only seethe inwardly, obediently connecting the line.
“Hello~ Hello~ One, two, three. Three, two, one. Uncle Burufaruto, can you hear me?
The price of shirts is nine…”
“I can hear you! Brat, what nonsense are you babbling over there?” Faint sounds of fighting came from the Den Den Mushi’s side; apparently not all pirates could read the situation.
“Oh, I mean my mission is complete. How’s your side?”
“Almost done here too. Once yours is finished, lead everyone back to Fenrir Island first, then leave some of your own people to guard each island.”
“Got it!”
Hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Aoxi followed Burufaruto’s instructions, leaving a team on each island, then returned along the original route, bringing back the captives from every island.
“Gulp gulp gulp… Ah!”
Burufaruto, arriving at Fenrir Island an hour after Aoxi, chugged a bottle of rum as soon as he landed, then tossed the bottle and started complaining.
“Damn it! Not a single one of these North Sea guys has a normal brain!”
Originally, Burufaruto had things going smoothly like Aoxi at first, with the pirates they encountered acting all “we’ve suffered under John for so long” and “we’ve long admired your rule.”
This continued until they landed on the last island.
The pirates there were unmoved by his persuasion to surrender, even shouting that without John it was better, the island was theirs now, and telling Burufaruto and the others to scram.
Good grief!
One had to admit, the North Sea bred heroes and talents.
Burufaruto was almost impressed by these brash guys from the North Sea; just a dozen or so dared to provoke a Beasts executive.
If there were more of them forming a pirate crew, they might even challenge Whitebeard directly!
So to prevent them from blindly challenging the real Sea Overlord later and ending up scattered corpses, Burufaruto sent them all intact to meet the Sea God early.
“With this, our goal is perfectly achieved.”
Obei looked at the two sea charts in front of him, cross-checking to ensure no island was missed.
“Yeah, Fenrir Island sea area, including one main island, two sub-islands, and twelve surrounding small islands, all now fly the Beasts Pirates’ flag.”
Opening another bottle of wine, Burufaruto looked at the sea chart full of circles and finally showed a satisfied smile.
“Our territory has expanded several times over; we’re now a major faction in the New World.”
Previously, the Beasts Pirates’ territory was just three barren small islands; their reputation at sea was entirely due to Boss Kaido’s personal martial prowess, at most plus Burufaruto and Ember.
Other pirates saw them as just an emerging small pirate crew; crews of that scale were a dime a dozen in the New World.
As for Sea Overlord? The Beasts Pirates were far from reaching that threshold.
“I wonder how Boss Kaido’s side is doing. And Sister La, hope she doesn’t run into enemies.” Aoxi looked toward the direction they came from and said.
“We’ll complete our task; trust them with the rest.”
Burufaruto sat down, patted Aoxi’s shoulder, and also turned to look toward Hachinosu Island.
…
