Chapter 67: Sabaody Archipelago, Winds Of Change
The pirate ship was docked at the port, and the island’s top coating craftsman was diligently working on the pirate ship. This was already his third day working on this pirate ship. The coating was nearly complete. Thinking of the hefty reward he would soon receive, the old craftsman worked even harder.
As for the black skull flag hanging at the top of the mast.
The old craftsman didn’t care at all!
As long as they paid, no matter who the hell they were, they were good customers.
In a mixed place like the Sabaody Archipelago, good people who can’t tolerate sand in their eyes can’t survive.
“Yo, Skar, has Boss Ace not come back yet?” A shout came from the shore.
“Not yet!”
Skar, sitting on the deck at the ship’s side, waved his hand. As the intelligence officer of the Spade Pirates, he represented all the members on the ship and was responsible for supervising the old craftsman’s coating work. The old shipwright had worked for three days, and he had been guarding here for three days.
This was unavoidable,
After all, their captain was a willful and reckless guy!
The default first mate, also the ship doctor mister, though he had a little hobby of writing novels, was top-notch in being steady and reliable. Unfortunately, because he was too reliable, he had to follow their beloved captain everywhere to clean up the messes.
Otherwise, with the captain’s temper, as soon as he entered the town, he could cause a chaotic scene within ten minutes. But the Sabaody Archipelago was different from other places. If you accidentally offended a Celestial Dragon here and caused trouble, it would attract a Navy Admiral.
So,
The ship doctor mister could only tirelessly monitor the captain, who was like a humanoid troublemaker, around the clock.
Skar pushed up the skull mask on his face and looked at the scorpionfish fish-man carrying a large wooden box up the gangway, asking curiously, “Wores, what’s that you’re carrying?”
“It’s ammunition!”
The scorpionfish fish-man, Wores, answered with a hearty smile.
“And a few books, all procured on Teacher Mihal’s orders.”
“Teacher… he’s already been out of the cabin for three days.”
Wores carried the books and ammunition into the cabin and delivered them to the sniper Teacher Mihal, who didn’t like going out. Because he was a man with a teacher title, everyone on the ship called him teacher, including the captain.
Next,
The members of the Spade Pirates returned one after another.
And basically, everyone brought back more or less some things: food, repair materials, alcohol, and some miscellaneous items like souvenirs that no one knew what they were for but were inexplicably bought.
Even the pirate crew’s pet, the lynx named “Kodaz” by the captain, dragged a wild boar three times its size onto the ship.
Skar was stunned.
“Are there wild boars this big on the Sabaody Archipelago?”
“It’s a pig caught from another island by the colosseum! Those idiots at the colosseum tried to catch Kodaz, but Kodaz beat them all down, and they caught a wild boar to appease it.”
Yanliu of the longarm tribe, who returned with Kodaz, explained.
“Oh oh! Kodaz, you’re awesome!”
Skar gave a thumbs up, praising the lynx that had prepared dinner ingredients for everyone.
The wild boar was thrown on the deck, and Kodaz squatted on its belly, proudly raising its head and meowing twice.
“Skar, has Boss Ace and Mister Deuce not come back yet?”
The same question was raised again.
This time,
It was asked by the swordsman on the ship, Konghai.
“They should be back soon, right? The coating is done…” Skar looked toward the island, answering somewhat absentmindedly. Half an hour ago, the old craftsman had finished the coating, taken the remaining reward, and left happily. The pirate ship could set sail for the New World at any time.
However, the biggest problem now was,
Their captain was still out wandering and hadn’t returned.
“At this time… he should be back soon!”
Skar muttered.
Meanwhile,
A Navy warship docked, landing on the soil of the Sabaody Archipelago.
————
Time,
Rewind a little bit.
Navy Headquarters, Marineford.
“Major Tina, we meet again!”
“Prince Elus, please come this way. Fleet Admiral Sengoku is waiting for your arrival.” The beautiful major with a unique speech quirk was sent to receive Elus, for a simple reason: there was no other colonel at Navy Headquarters more familiar with Elus.
That bad-tempered mad dog Smoker hadn’t even stayed at headquarters for a full day before being assigned a mission and leaving Marineford; he was still drifting on the sea!
Even Admiral Kuzan had no objections.
Although Vice Admiral Garp and three rear admirals were still at headquarters, Navy Headquarters also had a face to save. Generals and colonels are often collectively called general officers, meaning the high ranks in the military, but obviously, general officers were the true high ranks of the Navy, while colonels were just the backbone.
The road to the fleet admiral’s office wasn’t far.
But on this not-too-long journey, they still received many curious glances. It seemed that even at Navy Headquarters, there were many people who liked to watch the fun, or rather, watching the fun was a common human trait?
Though the journey was short, it didn’t prevent Elus and Tina from chatting.
Well, though the topics were mostly about Smoker, the mad dog who was chased out of headquarters.
“Sent to East Blue? Isn’t that… a bit too far?”
Kicked straight from Navy Headquarters to East Blue, called the “weakest sea.” Though promoted directly from major to colonel, could a branch compare to headquarters? Not to mention Smoker was a Logia ability user. Not properly honing such talent at headquarters but letting it rot in East Blue… was really a waste!
“Smoker is too willful. Sending him to a branch to try being an officer is good for his future… These are Admiral Kuzan’s exact words.”
Tina repeated the words she had heard.
She wasn’t worried about Elus hearing these words causing any issues, because unlike other Seven Warlords members, Elus was a prince of a World Government member nation, and not a pirate nation, so essentially he naturally belonged to the government side.
Though the Navy, World Government, and various member nations had constant dirty dealings, those were family matters, completely different from pirates.
So,
Tina spoke to Elus without much restraint.
As long as it wasn’t explicitly prohibited intelligence that couldn’t be leaked, there really wasn’t much to hide otherwise. Even military secrets depended on the person.
“To temper his temper? Not worried about him being ruined in a place like East Blue?”
“That’s not for me to comment on. Also, the fleet admiral’s office is here.”
The brown-red purpleheart wood door carved with a seagull was tightly closed, with a gold-framed black plaque hanging at the door reading [Fleet Admiral’s Office].
Major Tina reached out and knocked on the door.
“Knock knock!”
The knocking echoed in the empty corridor.
“Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Prince Elus has arrived.” The moment the knocking stopped, Tina announced loudly.
“Come in.”
The response came quickly.
Upon getting the reply, Tina pushed open the unlocked door, stood aside at the entrance, and gestured for Elus to enter first.
“Hm? Surprisingly simple!”
He strode into the office of the highest authority at Navy Headquarters.
After entering, his first impression was simplicity: a large, plain brown-red desk, a dark blue sofa placed against the wall, plus a coffee table, bookcase… Aside from these practical items, there were no fancy decorations. Most eye-catching was the large calligraphy behind the sofa.
Absolute Justice—
Black ink on white paper, framed and hung on the wall.
“This is Navy Headquarters; it can’t compare to Prince Elus’s palace, of course.”
The man sitting behind the desk stood up, smiling to welcome Elus. He walked out from behind the desk and extended his right hand to Elus, “Prince Elus, honored to meet you. I am the Fleet Admiral of the Navy, Sengoku.”
“I should be the one saying that, Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Honored to meet you.”
Elus extended his hand.
Handshake,
Released.
After some pleasantries, Sengoku invited Elus to sit on the sofa. A secretary timely brought tea and sweets. Tina, as a major officer with some rapport with Elus, also stayed to act as an attendant.
After sitting down,
Elus held the hot tea, finally calming down to carefully observe this fleet admiral Sengoku, known as the wise general.
He wore a snow-white military cap, but unlike ordinary ones, a seagull ready to take flight stood on top of his cap—this was the Navy’s symbol. His mild smiling face wore black-framed frog glasses, and his long beard was braided into a pigtail.
Of course, this was just the appearance.
Elus’s neuro-scan clearly detected the terrifying power deliberately suppressed under this fleet admiral’s mild smile, especially that immense vitality, which could absolutely crush Whitebeard, who had become a medicine jar. They were from the same era…
One could only say that Old Man Whitebeard had squandered his body too much in his youth; Fleet Admiral Sengoku knew how to take care of himself better.
“Prince Elus, did I do something rude?”
Sengoku keenly caught Elus’s scrutinizing gaze.
“No, sorry, just momentarily curious. If I remember correctly, Fleet Admiral Sengoku is also a Mythical Zoan ability user?” Elus withdrew his scrutinizing gaze and made up an excuse offhandedly.
“…Didn’t expect anyone to remember an old man like me who hasn’t fought in nearly twenty years.”
Sengoku, smiling, gave Elus a deep look.
“Where? I’ve read the reports of you and Vice Admiral Garp capturing the Golden Lion dozens of times. Unfortunately, I was just a little kid then and couldn’t witness the legendary great pirate… cough cough, couldn’t see the scene of the Fleet Admiral and the Navy Hero joining forces. Truly regrettable.” Elus said earnestly.
Sengoku rolled his eyes.
Legendary great pirate… what?
Probably regretting not seeing that bastard Golden Lion show off, right?
Indeed,
The current young people were heavily poisoned by the Pirate Era stirred up by Roger; even a prince like Elus was influenced. Truly headache-inducing!
“I am a Mythical Zoan, Human-Human Fruit, Model: Daibutsu ability user.”
Sengoku straightforwardly revealed his fruit’s name.
Though after the battle where he and Garp captured the Golden Lion at Navy Headquarters, he basically never experienced battles of that level again, he knew that as long as one inquired carefully, it wasn’t hard to learn the details of his fruit ability.
“I heard Prince Elus is also a Mythical Zoan ability user? Wonder if you could satisfy this old man’s curiosity?”
Sengoku probed.
Regarding Elus’s specific abilities, though the Navy had gathered quite a bit of intelligence and shared some documents from the World Government, it was still quite vague.
Completely unrecorded in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia,
Based on the intelligence gathered so far, it wasn’t enough to pinpoint what Elus’s Mythical Zoan-specific ability was.
Of course, he didn’t expect Elus to explain the specifics in detail. Any gain would be good; if nothing, it was just chit-chat with no real loss. Besides, Elus brought up the topic himself.
He was just going with the flow.
“Well… how to put it! Our family’s Devil Fruit Encyclopedia is incomplete, so I don’t know the official name of the Devil Fruit I ate. Anyway, my ability’s foundation is the Bat-Bat Fruit. I named it Black-Winged Great Demon Model.”
Elus also candidly revealed it.
Anyway, unlike some Paramecia ability users who loved playing mysterious, Zoan users’ strength wasn’t in that mystery; it lay in vitality, endurance, recovery, and animal traits like flight, burrowing, charging, etc.
Moreover, he didn’t believe Sengoku could figure out the various traits of ‘spiritual pressure’ from this name.
He himself hadn’t fully developed spiritual pressure’s uses yet!
“Bat-Bat Fruit, Black-Winged Great Demon Model? Indeed unheard of.”
Sengoku thought about it. Not only was it unrecorded in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, but even in the many history books and documents he had seen, there were no similar records. Other than sighing at the wonders of fate, there wasn’t much else to say.
“Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Devil Fruit matters can be researched slowly. Now, shouldn’t we talk about Fire Fist?”
Seeing the topic might veer off, Elus, unwilling to dwell on it, tried to steer it back.
“Fire Fist… Prince Elus, you should already know the mission details, right?”
In an instant, the mild smile on Fleet Admiral Sengoku’s face receded, his awe-inspiring presence filling every corner of the room.
“Recruit Fire Fist to join the Seven Warlords, but I’m just there as backup. The specifics aren’t my responsibility; the Navy handles the execution… That’s correct, right?”
“Colonel Dolo will act together with you, Prince Elus. We’ve already arranged eyes on Fire Fist’s movements on the Sabaody Archipelago. Once on the island, someone will guide you. Prince Elus… please trouble you to back up Colonel Dolo.”
Though,
He didn’t think a Navy Headquarters vice admiral dealing with a rookie pirate without Haki would have any issues.
But since the World Government arranged it this way, he had no opinion.
Even if he knew Elus might have other tasks, as long as it didn’t harm ordinary civilians, he couldn’t be bothered to dig deeper. After all, it was just a pirate; whatever end it met wasn’t worth his sympathy.
“Colonel Dolo? I understand.”
Elus nodded, then looked up at the clock on the cabinet—it was already 1:30 p.m. “So, can we set off now?”
“Yes, the warship is prepared and docked at the port. After Prince Elus and Colonel Dolo rendezvous, it can depart anytime.”
Sengoku nodded in reply.
