Battle, grow stronger, find someone stronger to fight, grow even stronger—Kaido has been repeating this cycle endlessly.
Ever since he was a soldier of a kingdom, he had been constantly fighting.
From the moment he first became a wanted criminal, to becoming an apprentice on the Rocks Pirates' ship, and finally to becoming an Emperor of the Sea, Kaido's goals had never stopped evolving.
The Summit War showed him even stronger weapons, which naturally gave him more goals for the future.
In order to make Yamato willingly act as his sparring partner, he set up this overt trap. Although Yamato saw through it, she had no way to counter it—and never even considered what Kaido might be planning next.
"Uncle Queen, why are you crying?"
Yamato gave up on arguing with Kaido—it was pointless anyway. If she voluntarily walked into the trap, Arceus wouldn't bother to save her. Instead, her attention was drawn by the sight of Queen crying.
"I'm just touched. Those b*stards from the World Government finally acted like humans for once. They only raised my bounty by 500 million."
That amount is still within Queen's acceptable range. Moreover, the Revival Herb that had restored Whitebeard's youth, as well as blocking of that mysterious attack hadn't been attributed to him. [TN: In chapter 1002, the Five Elders had decided to attribute deflection of that weapon' attack on Queen, but I think they may have changed their mind.]
The reports about the attack were vague and ambiguous, and the issue of the Revival Herb had been attributed to the Beasts Fruits medical department. The smokescreen they had set up back then had worked.
That genius medical team—which didn't actually exist—had successfully helped share Queen's pressure.
Because he had suffered so much persecution in the past, this time, with the persecution being a little lighter, Queen actually felt somewhat relieved.
"You really are easy to please, you piece of trash. That's all it takes to make you happy?"
"What are you saying, you torture-loving p*rvert? Oh, I get it. You're jealous that my bounty is higher than yours, right?"
"Heh. Queen, you'd better know exactly how your bounty came about. If you really have a problem with it, I don't mind giving you a good beating."
Looking at the smug Queen, King straightforwardly drew Enma and used force to shut him up.
The squabbling of his subordinates didn't disturb Kaido's mood, and once Genesis reached the planned location, it began to dive. They were heading to Fishman Island.
Because both Kaido and Arceus could fly—and even carry a ship while flying—they almost never bothered going to Fishman Island. But this time was different.
Whitebeard's death was merely the beginning—it will trigger a chain reaction due to territorial disputes.
Previously, because of Neptune's hesitation, Fishman Island had continued to fly Whitebeard's flag, but now the times had changed.
After Whitebeard's death, his deterrent power plummeted.
A dead Whitebeard no longer carried enough prestige for his flag to protect any islands. So for Fishman Island, changing the flag became the only option.
There was, however, some good news for Fishman Island: the flag of the Beasts Pirates was readily available. Thanks to Tiger's connection and past business dealings, Neptune was already prepared for changing the flag.
This time, he formally extended an invitation to Kaido as the king, intending to have him attend a banquet on Fishman Island to build familiarity—after all, Neptune's relationship with Whitebeard had been a bit better than with Kaido.
When the Summit War broke out, Neptune had already gained a good understanding of the war situation through messages relayed by members of the Beasts Pirates' mining department.
Although Whitebeard died at Kaido's hands, he could be said to have died without regrets. And as a king, Neptune couldn't let personal feelings interfere too much with national affairs. Fully adopting the Beasts Pirates' flag was the most beneficial choice for Fishman Island.
Under the influence of Arceus's power, the sea split open to both sides, revealing a special staircase of water that reached the ocean's surface, allowing the Beasts Pirates to smoothly make their way to Fishman Island.
Coating the ship would've taken too long, and neither Arceus nor Kaido had three days to waste, so Arceus simply used his own power.
Meanwhile, at the Sabaody Archipelago, some people were still waiting for their ships to be coated—such as the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates.
They had gathered near Sabaody Archipelago, preparing to return to the New World.
But they needed the coating, since they weren't using submarines. Even Shanks was no exception. Coating, being a one-time-use thing, could be quite inconvenient at times.
However, looking at the new bounty posters, Shanks wore a very complicated expression.
He understood why the Beasts Pirates had received bounty increases—Kaido and his subordinates had turned the Summit War upside down. It would've been strange if their bounties didn't go up.
The same logic applied to the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates. Even though Whitebeard was dead, the remaining members still had considerable strength, so bounty increases were inevitable.
But Red Hair didn't understand why his own bounty had increased.
Captain of the Red Hair Pirates – Red Hair Shanks: 4,348,900,000 Berries.
"That's strange, I didn't really do anything."
In a sense, Red Hair really hadn't done anything—but his appearance was too coincidental.
He appeared just before the decisive battle between Whitebeard and Kaido, as if it had all been prearranged.
And on top of that, the Beasts Pirates actually accepted his suggestion to end the war. There had long been rumors that Red Hair Shanks was playing both sides, but no one knew exactly what he was doing—there were even rumors of a secret alliance among the Three Emperors.
Now, even the World Government was beginning to suspect that Red Hair had made some kind of deal with Kaido, with the goal of forcing Whitebeard off the stage. That suspicion led to the rise in Shanks' bounty.
With Whitebeard now dead, there was no one truly qualified to fill this vacuum at sea. Even the Five Elders had begun to question Shanks' true motives. A return to the era of three Emperors, instead of four, wasn't good for the kind of order the World Government sought.
"Shanks, it's been a long time. So you've become one of the Emperors of the Sea now, huh?"
While Red Hair was feeling confused, Rayleigh appeared behind him.
"Mr. Rayleigh? You're still living here?"
"Yeah, I've gotten used to living here. And besides, if I didn't, I wouldn't get to see these youngsters anymore. Got any plans for them?"
"None, Mr. Rayleigh."
"That kid Luffy came to me before, asking if I could train him. I agreed."
Rayleigh mentioned the time when Luffy and his crew had just arrived at Sabaody Archipelago. Having witnessed the brutality of the war, Luffy had realized the limits of his strength.
Not to mention Haki, even his physical strength and skills fell far short of New World pirates. Someone like that couldn't protect his companions, so he wanted to stay and train.
Thanks to the connection with that straw hat, Rayleigh agreed to help and began teaching him.
"I see. What about Ace?"
"He hasn't recovered yet. Whitebeard's death hit him extremely hard."
These days, Ace has been living in a daze. Whitebeard's death dealt him a considerable blow, especially the words Marco said when he beat him up; they were etched into his body.
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