Chapter 79: Unlucky Shiki
“Does Embers know about this?” Burufaruto asked, coming back to his senses.
Ra shook his head.
“I didn’t encounter Embers, so I’m not too clear. But I think he should be right away…”
“Mr. Kaido, the Golden Lion has clashed with the Navy!”
Before Ra could finish, Embers in black leather clothes directly stepped through the door holding a newspaper.
“Mm, I already know.” Kaido shook the identical newspaper in his hand and said.
“Embers, what do you think about this?”
“Why did that guy Shiki suddenly conflict with the Navy, and even after knowing Garp and Zephyr were on the ship, he still chose to fight them head-on?”
“I’m not clear either.”
“Could it be because he didn’t find John’s treasure that he’s in a bad mood?” Embers voiced a guess he himself didn’t quite believe.
“Could it be that the Navy has clues to John’s treasure?”
Ra had already heard from Aoxi and the others on the ship about the outcome of the battle at Hachinosu Island.
Aoxi had even vividly described some battlefield details heard from the pirates who returned from the front lines.
“How is that possible? The Navy didn’t even catch a glimpse of Hachinosu Island this time, so where would the clues come from.” Burufaruto didn’t agree with Ra’s guess.
“They don’t necessarily have to be there in person; maybe they discovered something on the way back.”
“For example, did that John really die? Or has anyone seen his corpse?
Captain Kaido, has all this really been confirmed?”
Ra adhered to the principle of ‘eliminate all impossibilities, and what’s left, no matter how improbable, is the truth,’ and didn’t easily believe in John’s death.
“Shiki said he was directly blasted into fragments, and the subordinates at the scene said the person was gone right after that explosion. Mm…”
As he spoke, Kaido also began to recall the scene at that time.
『No John corpse was seen, nor were remains found. And Shiki’s reaction at the time, as well as his somewhat deliberate attitude when dividing the treasure later…』
His thick fingers unconsciously rubbed together, and the fragile newspaper in Kaido’s hand gradually turned into powder and sprinkled to the floor bit by bit.
Ra sighed, wanting to find a broom to clean it up.
But a gust of wind blew through, sending the paper scraps flying all over the place.
“!”
Kaido seemed to think of something, directly took Embers’ newspaper, and stared carefully at the photograph on it.
Since this was the Navy’s first large-scale battle with pirates in the New World after Rocks’ death, the related reports occupied almost the entire page of the newspaper.
Between segments of text were interspersed several on-site photos taken from different angles.
Kaido carefully observed the photos in the newspaper, his eyes scanning inch by inch over the somewhat blurry ink spots.
Suddenly, he seemed to find something and directly slapped the newspaper onto the table.
“Uro-ro-ro-ro~ So that’s how it is!”
“Shiki and John, as expected of the two most insidious guys on the ship back then!”
Seeing Kaido like this, the others also gathered around the table; Ra, due to his short height, directly stepped onto a stool.
“Do you see this ship?”
Seeing everyone gather around, Kaido stretched out his finger and pointed to one of the photos.
In the background of the photo was a pirate ship with only the ship’s prow visible.
The ship in the picture was very small, and very blurry because it was out of focus, but Burufaruto recognized it at a glance.
“This ship’s prow… it’s that guy Foll’s ship! How could he be there?!”
As Foll’s old rival, Burufaruto was very familiar with his flagship.
When he heard that Kaido and the others didn’t encounter him at Hachinosu Island, Burufaruto thought he hadn’t made it to the battle and even felt a bit relieved.
Now seeing the opponent’s ship appear in a sea area totally unrelated to Hachinosu Island…
After ruling out the option that Foll was cowardly and fled, he could only think that this was an order from the opponent’s captain, John.
John is still alive!!!
“That guy John is most likely still alive!” Kaido directly gave the conclusion.
“And after that, Shiki also caught John’s trail!
But unfortunately, the Navy suddenly appeared in the same sea area, even stumbling upon the pirate ship where John was hiding!”
“Mm, that makes sense.”
Ra nodded lightly, then smoothed out the somewhat wrinkled newspaper that Kaido had crumpled, and remarked:
“But now it seems the goddess of luck doesn’t favor these two scheming individuals.”
“Uro-ro-ro-ro~ That guy Shiki has never had great luck since before.
He always schemes this and that, but in the end, it always goes wrong at the last step; this time, he probably got nothing again.”
Thinking of Shiki’s possibly exasperated expression right now, Kaido wished he could fly over and see it with his own eyes.
In his elated mood, he unconsciously picked up his own wine gourd again, just preparing to take a big gulp, but an unexpected resistance came from his arm.
“Captain Kaido, you already drank plenty last night.
For the future long-term plans of the pirate crew, I hope you can lead by example in the future, control yourself a bit, and not drink excessively.”
After witnessing last night’s debauchery, Ra formally made his suggestion to Kaido.
“Naggy! What kind of pirate doesn’t drink!”
Kaido didn’t care, forcefully tugged his arm—but it didn’t budge.
“I’m not opposed to you drinking, but excessive alcohol will cause irreversible harm to your thinking ability and physical health, so I hope you can exercise some restraint.”
Ra still held onto the spiked decoration on Kaido’s wrist without letting go, speaking with a serious expression.
“Uro-ro-ro~ You little brat are managing me now.”
Seeing the other not yielding at all, Kaido wasn’t angry.
“Don’t worry, this old man has drunk more alcohol than you’ve drunk water; do I look like I have a problem? Let go, let this old man have a drink to sober up.”
Ra: “…”
“Are you sober?”
……
“Pa!”
An exquisite lacquer sake cup was fiercely thrown to the floor, flying far away.
“Damn Garp!”
On the flagship of the Flying Pirates, the Golden Lion Shiki, wrapped in bandages, stood in the center of the meeting hall, uncharacteristically losing control and smashing things to vent his anger.
And on both sides of the hall were still those executives.
At this moment, almost all of them were injured, the air still carried the faint smell of blood and medicine, a few positions were empty, and the atmosphere in this hall was extremely depressed.
“No news yet from those two ships sent to pursue?!”
“Te… Temporarily no news.” Chete, with his arm in a sling, stepped forward to respond.
“Useless trash!”
Another valuable low table was kicked over with one foot.
“Captain Shiki, please calm down.”
Hainar, also bandaged, advised from the side.
“This is unavoidable; after all, no one expected Garp and Zephyr to appear on John’s escape route at the same time.”
“Yeah, Boss Shiki, this was an accident; next time we’ll definitely catch that guy John.”
“That’s right! Next time we’ll show those Navy a thing or two!”
“Right!”
……
“But after this, John should be more cautious; if he escapes to the Four Seas, then we…”
Unlike the crowd’s consoling tone, Chete lowered his head and said dejectedly.
Everyone hearing this also fell silent.
Yeah, if John really escaped to the Four Seas, even with the life card, it would be hard for them to find him again.
“Hoo~”
“Forget it, let’s leave it at that for now.
Keep people watching John’s life card; you all go back and recover first.”
After venting, Shiki gradually calmed down.
This operation’s failure could be called a heavy loss for his Flying Pirates.
Not only did they lose several executives and countless ordinary members, he himself was seriously injured, and in the end, they gained nothing.
However, the Golden Lion was, after all, one of the top great pirates of this era, a hegemon on the sea, and he quickly emerged from the shadow of failure and began formulating a new plan.
『This surprise attack failed, so that guy John probably won’t show his face easily again.
Since that’s the case, then next, shift the focus to『Ancient Weapon』.』
【Wealth】, 【fame】, 【power】—these three things that almost everyone on this great sea pursues, Shiki had already obtained all of them.
At this time, he was undoubtedly one of the people standing at the top of the world, but his ambition went far beyond that.
For him, so-called wealth and fame were merely appendages to power; what Shiki had always pursued was the power to dominate the world!
For Shiki, who possessed the Fruity-Fruity Fruit ability, this world had been regarded as a treasure he would eventually claim ever since the first time he overlooked it from high altitude, taking the earth and ocean into his eyes.
……
