Moving their attention away from the gradually shrinking island, the crew aboard the Black Nova ship withdrew their gazes from the distance and looked at Jerry—who was helplessly spreading his hands—and little Bonney, who was pouting with obvious anger.
"Hmph! You two are both meanies! Having a secret meeting without bringing me along!" Bonney complained indignantly, clutching a beautifully wrapped gift box tightly in her right hand and a Tone Dial commonly found on Sky Island in her left.
Despite her irritation, her expression soon shifted to pure joy as she listened to Kuma's recorded voice emerging from the shell.
Jerry coughed lightly into his fist and shrugged apologetically. "Ahem... that was Kuma's choice, not mine. I did ask him to record that message for you, though I didn't expect he'd have so much trouble explaining the situation clearly."
Most of the message Kuma had left in the Tone Dial expressed his deep love and concern for Bonney, followed by a simple, somewhat awkward explanation that he couldn't bring her along due to "work responsibilities."
Staring down at the gift box and Tone Dial in her hands, Bonney realized Jerry was telling the truth. She simply couldn't understand why her father wouldn't let her see him if he was already there in person.
Fortunately, Bonney didn't remain trapped in that emotional confusion for long. She took her carefully wrapped present and ran over to join Carrot and Carina, excitedly sharing her happiness and anticipation with her fellow crewmates.
"So that was Kuma's presence I've been sensing," Cavendish said thoughtfully, stroking his chin. "I've detected something like that occasionally before, but it always vanished almost instantly."
During ordinary days without combat, most people who had mastered Observation Haki didn't keep it constantly activated—it required too much mental energy for casual use.
As the conversation continued, Deuce, Skull, and Brook joined the discussion. After chatting casually for a while, everyone gradually returned to their normal daily activities aboard the ship.
One morning several days later, the sky hung heavy with thick, dark storm clouds that promised rough weather ahead.
Skull, holding the newspaper freshly delivered by a News Coo, suddenly shouted across the deck with obvious excitement. "Everyone, come look at this! Alabasta has..."
He paused mid-sentence, scanning the headline and main article more carefully to make sure he'd read correctly.
"Oh?" Jerry's eyes revealed a hint of understanding, as if those words had already painted a clear picture of recent events in his mind.
As expected, the announcement drew everyone's attention, and Skull continued with building enthusiasm. "Sir Crocodile... was completely defeated by Ace's little brother, Straw Hat Luffy!"
Overall, the outcome was consistent with Jerry's expectations based on his knowledge of the original timeline.
After Luffy and his friends had dock in Alabasta, they'd traveled throughout the kingdom and engaged in numerous battles against the Baroque Works organization.
In the end, they'd successfully dismantled the entire criminal network, including its mastermind Crocodile.
Simultaneously, the civil war that Crocodile had carefully orchestrated behind the scenes was finally brought to an end, and the crimes he'd committed in secret were naturally exposed to public scrutiny.
As the captain of the pirate crew that had defeated a Warlord of the Sea, Luffy's bounty had skyrocketed from a relatively modest 20 million berries to an impressive 100 million—officially marking him as a serious threat.
Looking at the new bounty poster in his hands, Cavendish fell into deep thought, muttering to himself with a mixture of respect and concern. "Ace's brother really is incredibly strong. When I fought Crocodile, we were pretty evenly matched..."
"Well, Crocodile is basically just sand when you get down to it," Jerry commented with a dismissive wave. "As long as you have the right approach, there's no reason to fear a little flying dirt."
He paused, and a mischievous glint flashed in his eyes as he continued with obvious amusement. "Besides, Cavendish, you're not that much weaker than Luffy. If you only relied on your Rumble-Rumble Fruit powers to fight Crocodile, you'd probably have a fifty-fifty chance at best—assuming you could dodge his attacks fast enough."
"Wait, what?" Cavendish leaned back in tactical confusion, squinting at Jerry suspiciously. For a moment, he couldn't determine whether that assessment was meant as a compliment or an insult.
"These young people just keep getting stronger and stronger," Brook observed with his characteristic laugh. "They make my soul burn with excitement—even though I no longer have blood that can actually boil! Yo ho ho ho!"
Hearing this comment, Carina curled her lips with obvious skepticism. "You might not have blood to boil, but you definitely still have a perverted heart beating in that ribcage."
After everyone had exchanged jokes and commentary for several minutes, Deuce's attention fell on the intelligence reports Skull had compiled earlier, and his brow furrowed with concern.
"Jerry, should we continue toward Alabasta as originally planned, or change course for the Kingdom of Lulucia instead?"
According to the latest information Skull had received through his network, someone claimed to have spotted Marshall D. Teach in the Kingdom of Lulucia recently.
Jerry felt genuinely uncertain about the reliability of this particular intelligence.
At present, Teach remained a largely unknown figure in the wider world. Even though he'd established the Blackbeard Pirates and begun operating independently, he still didn't have a single bounty poster to his name.
This anonymity made gathering reliable information incredibly difficult for Jerry, Skull, and Ace. Sometimes they received virtually no useful leads for weeks, while other times they got simultaneous reports of Blackbeard sightings in multiple locations, making it nearly impossible to distinguish truth from rumor.
Since certain major events had already changed from what Jerry remembered, he could no longer predict Teach's movements based on the original timeline he'd known.
Drum Island served as a perfect example—Ace had personally traveled there to investigate, but the results confirmed that Teach had never appeared on that particular island.
Based on this pattern, Jerry firmly believed that the only thing he could predict with high confidence was that Teach's ultimate ambitions would never change.
Since Teach was no longer choosing to maintain a low profile within the Whitebeard Pirates, he would definitely pursue every possible avenue to realize his dreams of rapid advancement and ultimate power.
However, even with this general knowledge, Jerry couldn't determine too many specific details about Teach's current strategy.
For example, whether Teach was still following routes similar to Luffy's crew, whether he planned to target and destroy other kingdoms for their resources, or whether he'd focus specifically on capturing pirates with bounties exceeding 100 million berries—these questions remained frustratingly unknown.
Jerry didn't possess a crystal ball and had never learned fortune-telling techniques. With the world already substantially changed from what he'd expected, he could only rely on available intelligence and make each decision carefully based on current conditions.
"What's your professional opinion, Skull?" Jerry asked, turning to seek advice from his resident intelligence expert.
Skull gently rubbed his temple with one finger, appearing to consider the situation carefully before slowly voicing his thoughts.
"Going to Alabasta and then continuing to Jaya Island was your suggestion from a few days ago, Boss Jerry. If you've concluded from certain information that Teach will definitely appear there, you could insist on sticking with that plan. But ultimately, the specific choice depends entirely on your judgment."
Jerry slapped his forehead and sighed with obvious exasperation. "Wow, thanks for that incredibly helpful non-answer, Skull. Really cleared up all my confusion there."
"Uh... you're welcome?" Skull replied with an awkward smile, clearly recognizing the sarcasm.
He understood that if their target had been a well-known, easily recognizable figure, his intelligence network would have been able to track them effortlessly. But the current version of Teach remained quite unfamiliar to most people, and many inhabitants of this world suffered from severe face-blindness when it came to identifying strangers. These factors combined to make their search frustratingly difficult.
Glancing at Deuce, who remained silent but wore an encouraging smile, Jerry realized his navigator probably didn't have any brilliant ideas either. He stopped wrestling with the decision and made his choice.
"All right then, let's head for the Kingdom of Lulucia."
After comprehensive consideration of their limited options, Jerry decided to follow their most recent intelligence lead.
This decision was influenced primarily by the fact that Skull's latest report included a photograph of someone's back, and the figure bore a strong resemblance to Teach's distinctive silhouette.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~