"Boss Minatomo! Do you think this works?"
A worker from Wano Country, wearing a safety helmet, walked up to Minatomo. Safety during construction was very important, and even Minatomo, who usually stuck to his old ways, had put on a woven rattan safety helmet in addition to the cloth strip tied on his head.
At first glance, it seemed like ordinary vines, but these vines were actually byproducts of Queen's large-scale cultivation of Berries. The fruits could be eaten, the dried branches made excellent fruitwood charcoal, the leaves could be used in medicine, and even some of the vines were exceptionally tough.
Although Queen was the one who cultivated them later on, the seeds were provided by Arceus. In Wano Country, anything connected to Arceus was used to the fullest. Wasting anything related to Ame-no-Minakanushi was considered a grave disrespect in Wano Country.
These safety helmets were one such product. In the past, buildings in Wano Country were generally only one or two stories tall, and most of them were wooden structures, so wearing a helmet didn't make much difference.
But things are different now. The proportion of reinforced concrete was steadily increasing, the height of buildings was rising, and even among the helping workers, there were now large numbers of Pokémon.
If stray stones bounced up and struck someone's head, it could be deadly. Even though Minatomo was rather old-fashioned, he had no intention of testing the hardness of stone with his own skull.
"Mm, not bad. You two can graduate now as well."
As he grew older, Minatomo had started taking on apprentices to pass down his craft, or perhaps, learn together. After all, even he had never built this kind of structure before.
He had learned from immigrants who had come from outer islands. Possessing skills, one could thrive anywhere, and under the lure of the Beasts Pirates' huge benefits, many people had eventually chosen to migrate.
But talent was sometimes mysterious. In this field, Minatomo was simply a natural. Even when it came to architectural designs he had never touched before, he could master them in an extremely short time.
This upheld his title as Wano Country's legendary carpenter.
Having built Onigashima, monasteries, and taken part in the reconstruction of much of Wano Country, his name was destined to remain in its history. Yet, in the vast river of time, it would still only be a few fleeting strokes.
"Although I shouldn't say this… but it's a good thing this fire happened."
One of Minatomo's apprentices muttered softly. The next instant, with a sharp smack, Minatomo whacked him on the head with a wooden stick.
The rattan helmet absorbed most of the impact, so it didn't really hurt, but the apprentice immediately crouched down holding his head. It was a lesson learned from training under Minatomo.
If he didn't react, Minatomo would just keep hitting him.
"Watch your mouth. If the people here heard that, you'd get beaten for sure."
Minatomo scolded his apprentice for his words but did not refute them.
The reconstruction of Kuri was only lacking this area, and now the process would be sped up.
Hotei's response measures had been timely, and the firefighting squad hadn't been delayed, yet Minatomo still felt the fire was a little suspicious.
No one died from it, there was just some property damage, which was nothing considering the compensation for new houses.
And with the current construction speed, the street would be fully completed before long.
Pushing aside those thoughts, Minatomo told himself that whatever the reason, it had already happened. His job was simply to build houses properly; the rest wasn't his concern.
The design and layout had no problems. Minatomo began inspecting the construction site below, correcting mistakes here and there.
"Heave-ho, heave-ho."
Two people were carrying a wooden beam across the site.
Wood hadn't been abandoned entirely; some areas still required it.
From the slightly young hands and youthful face of the one in front, it was clear he was a newcomer to the trade.
"Damn it, why do I have to do hard labor here?!"
"Because you can't do anything else. You failed the Shinsengumi's written exam, you couldn't pass the special combat recruitment."
"When I suggested you go to the Flower Capital to be a waiter, you were too proud. When I suggested working in a factory, you said it was too boring."
"You don't have any technical skills, you couldn't handle further advanced studies. If you don't come here to do manual labor, what else can you even do?"
"But…"
"No buts. If I hadn't been following Boss Minatomo all this time, do you think getting this work would've been so easy?"
The man questioned angrily, but the boy's face was full of disdain.
"Just selling muscle. Anyone with a bit of strength can do that."
The words had barely left his mouth when he almost swallowed them back down. A short figure carrying an even larger wooden beam walked past them. It said nothing, but from its eyes the boy caught a clear message:
[Out of the way, weakling. Don't block the road.]
This wasn't a Machamp-family Pokémon. Though you could see plenty of Machamp-family on construction sites, they weren't just here; you could also find them in gyms, dojos, and many other places.
But these newly born Pokémon were different.
The one carrying the timber had a gray body, with pink "veins" across its gray skin. Those exposed, bulging veins, along with the massive timber on its shoulder, spoke volumes about the strength within its body.
The Muscular Pokémon, Timburr.
The larger the timber it carried, the older that Timburr was, and the closer it was to evolving. Unlike the Machamp family, which trained their bodies in many places, Timburr focused solely on construction sites.
In the Pokémon world, wherever Timburr lives, you can definitely see them at construction sites.
"Understand now? It can outwork the two of us put together, and it only needs one paycheck. With Pokémon like these around, plain old muscle work has long since lost its value."
Compared to Pokémon, human strength seems rather insignificant. Super Rookies are a rare sight. [*This is a fan-created word in China, so it doesn't have an English equivalent translation for it. Super Rookie is a nickname given to people like Ash Ketchum because of their incredible strength and constitution. ]
As Timburr, Machop, Machoke, and similar Pokémon grew in number, foremen everywhere realized these Pokémon were far more efficient than humans.
Still, they weren't skilled in technique and could only assist humans, which caused demand for skilled laborers to skyrocket while the status of mere muscle workers steadily declined.
Circumstances forced them to adapt, and pursuing further education was the best path forward. Otherwise, they might have to consider jobs like assembly line work.
The rise of Pokémon had improved people's lives, a good thing for most, and the shortened construction times were proof.
But their presence also squeezed out part of the human's living space. In these years of Pokémon growth, Wano Country's industrial transformation never paused for a moment.
For example, people who once made charcoal switched to producing fruitwood charcoal, and for simple heating, the pieces shed from Carkol were much more convenient.
Those who had joined the teams early were fine, but now construction crews had no shortage of newcomers. Without some skills or a master craftsman willing to take on an apprentice, there's nowhere left to simply sell your labor.
"What are you standing around for? The day's only just begun. It's still cool now. Once the sun comes out, you'll know what hot really means.
Always whining about being tired. Today you'll just work honestly alongside me, and we'll see if you don't shed a layer of skin."
The relationship between the two wasn't that of a newcomer and an old-timer, but rather father and son. This was nothing more than an ordinary lesson. The man did not understand any grand principle; he was just using reality to show his child what the future holds.
After all, the Beasts Pirates' policies didn't include social welfare for freeloaders. Those weren't the kind of people they wanted.
The Timburrs eagerly hauled timber back and forth, while the ruins left by the large fire were filled with clouds of dust.
Tufts of fluffy, curly hair, an oversized red nose like Buggy's, and muscles even more developed than Timburr. Though what they carried in their hands wasn't wooden beams, but I-beams.
Now, walking across the ruins with I-beams in hand, they inspected the site carefully, identified the critical load-bearing spots, and then swung the I-beams down with all their might at the center.
Bang! Thud! Boom!
The houses collapsed instantly, yet not a single piece of rubble fell outside the pre-marked circle on the ground. The Pokémon inside patted the dust off themselves and revealed satisfied smiles.
Though they wore no safety helmets, the falling debris didn't harm them at all. Their solid muscles and skin absorbed nearly all the impact.
Gurdurr, also the Muscular Pokémon, the evolved form of Timburr. Its hobby was showing off its muscles, and its favorite weapon was the steel I-beam it carried. It seemed as if every talent point this Pokémon had went straight into that steel I-beam.
With the I-beam in hand, they were the fiercest of warriors; but if you swapped it for another weapon, they became nothing more than reckless simpletons.
After evolution, their preferences also changed. While Timburr enjoyed hauling materials, Gurdurr liked demolition. With muscles that even professional wrestlers would envy, it spent its time training on construction sites.
According to Gurdurr's philosophy, this was true strength. The fake muscles from gym training could never compare to theirs.
And they weren't just skilled at demolition; steel-concrete structures were their specialty. But after they cleared the ruins and drove the I-beams into the ground to set the foundation, they realized one bundle of reinforcing bars was missing.
"Gur~durr?"
The Gurdurr looked at each other in confusion, but in the end didn't figure it out, simply assuming that workers from another section had taken it.
They were still too young. If an experienced worker noticed even a slight loss of steel, their first thought would be to check whether any pink figures had appeared on the site.
And indeed, just out of their sight, a few twin-tailed pink-haired figures snapped steel reinforcing bars like bamboo stalks, happily crunching them down.
In areas where the framework was already set, stood Pokémon with muscles even more developed than Gurdurr's, their noses much larger; so large that Buggy himself would've felt a kinship.
But their faces looked aged, with wrinkles on their foreheads and even beards sprouting on their chins. At this moment, they were holding massive stone pillars, stirring the concrete below.
Pokémon usually didn't handle technical work. For example, Machamp, the final evolution of the Machop family, though immensely powerful with its four arms, its fingers were no longer dexterous enough for delicate work.
But these Pokémon were exceptions.
Conkeldurr, Timburr's final evolution, born with a natural and powerful talent for mixing concrete.
The ratio of cement to sand and water, and what type of water should be used for what kind of concrete—
They could always produce the perfect concrete for the type of structure being built.
In the legends of the Pokémon world, humans learned their concrete-making techniques from Conkeldurr.
For Timburr to evolve into Gurdurr, the trial was one of strength. Once its strength broke through, evolution would come. But for the elder builder, the trial was no longer just brute force.
Their raw power was indeed terrifying, yet beneath that power lay skill.
They mastered techniques that didn't rely solely on strength, such as using centrifugal force to swing their concrete pillars. And even if they lost their tools, they remained formidable warriors.
Thus, the more experienced the Conkeldurr, the greater its combat skill. At the same time, this strength was applied directly to the process of mixing concrete.
Beyond materials' ratios, the rhythm of stirring was also Conkeldurr's unique gift. Using their special abilities, they could stir concrete with their stone pillars in ways that defied all logic.
From their first form to their final evolution, the Conkeldurr family's abilities are deeply intertwined with civil engineering—from relying solely on brute force for transporting, to understanding architectural structures, erecting frameworks, and carrying out demolition work.
In the end, they master unique skills and become a leader who vaguely reflects the reality of some civil engineers.
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