But that's not the point.
The point is intuition.
The fact that the three officers have such an intuition means they are beginning to touch upon Haki. What's left is a catalyst.
Gin is also doing reasonably well, sensing it, but still not quite enough.
"Gotta keep training, you know."
Sage chuckled, turned around, and walked into the Captain's quarters, "Marika, I'm hungry, make something to eat!"
"Alright, I'll get it ready." Marika responded with a smile.
...
Nightfall.
The night sky tonight was dotted with stars, the moon like silver gleam, akin to a magnificent galaxy in the sky.
It was rare to have no stormy weather.
It seemed the tropical climate made it so hot that it was hard to sleep. Lily and the others simply came out to stargaze, while Marika prepared some ale and barbecued skewers as midnight snacks.
Originally she was going to make something else, but Sage specifically requested these, saying that at night you must have skewers and ale.
"Sage, how long are you going to fish? The skewers are going to get cold."
Renedia fired up the iron skewer sparkly with flames, quickly eating, then shouted at Sage who was sitting with his back to them on the ship's railing.
"Fishing requires waiting, it's only been a few hours, how can you give up easily? The true fishing Immortal can sit for several days; in times like these, you need to calm down."
Sage smiled slightly, "You don't understand, the joy of waiting quietly for the big fish..."
Suddenly, the fishing rod in his hand had a slight tremor, and the fishing line tightened.
"It's coming!"
Sage's eyes shone, he lifted the fishing rod upwards, and instantly a pitch-black object burst from the sea.
"Oh! Looks decent, is it a black fish?"
Sage chuckled for a while, lifting the rod higher, bringing the line closer, revealing what's hooked...
"A black boot!!"
Bam!
Sage twisted his five fingers, releasing Tenha Kassatsu, exploding the boot along with the fishing rod into smithereens.
"Who's so boring! Throwing trash into the sea, looking for death!!" He muttered with veins popping on his temple, words bursting from between his teeth.
"It might not be trash, perhaps someone died and the boot floated here," Lily analyzed seriously.
"Thank you! I wouldn't have known if you didn't tell me!"
Sage rolled his eyes, jumped down from the railing, walked to the barbecue rack, grabbed a skewer mixed with vegetables and meat, and devoured it whole.
"0.01%, I've calculated, your goal will certainly fail... I just didn't expect the failure to start with this."
Suddenly, a flat voice sounded from the entrance of the cabin.
In the cover of night, Hawkins, bandaged all over, stood at the doorway to the cabin, watching a few people on the deck.
Behind him was a timid man with three braids.
Hawkins' crew followed him on board after Sage brought him aboard, half of them came up, including this one guy who wasn't wearing a robe.
The others were sailing away.
Pirates are such creatures; when they fail, some will always leave.
Sage didn't stop them; just getting Hawkins was enough. As for the others, his ship was already full; there's no need to force them aboard.
Hawkins' ship had only about a hundred pirates in total, not many, half came up, which was fifty-something, his ship had a full capacity of fifteen hundred, and now a thousand were onboard; a few dozen more people could certainly fit.
"Awake quickly, can you move?" Sage glanced at him and said, "Moreover, as long as there is any probability, it means it's possible to achieve. Don't say one percent, even one-tenth of a percent is still an opportunity. Human strength can turn tiny chances into a hundred percent."
He said, sitting on a small stool, picked up a glass of ale, gulped down several mouthfuls, and said, "So have you calculated? What should be done?"
Hawkins was silent for a moment, took out the Tarot Cards with some effort, shuffled them, and started divination again.
"Battle victory probability is 0%, escape rate 0%, survival rate..."
He paused and said, "I have a question, no matter how I divine, whether to choose to refuse or agree, my survival rate is 100%, indicating I won't die on this ship, so why should I agree with you?"
He wouldn't die on this ship; that's the result of the divination.
He was very confident in his ability and since the divination was accurate, it indicated things would develop this way.
"Hmm hmm hmm..."
Sage chuckled lowly, "A very accurate divination, very good, your ability is indeed excellent, Hawkins, perhaps you don't quite understand, I'm more interested in your ability than yourself, if you agree to my recruitment, it's all good, if you disagree... I only want the ability!"
Lily thought of something, slightly stunned, then resumed normalcy, quietly eating skewers.
"Seems there will be danger in the future, I understand, then the answer is only one."
Hawkins hesitated for a while, gently nodded: "I join your Pirates."
He's not a stubborn person; on the contrary, he moves according to the divination results, that's his habit.
Though the divination results showed survival, no escape, it indicated that he wouldn't be able to leave, which means he would stay on this ship forever until this guy reveals a new purpose.
In that case, it was better to join directly.
"Wise choice!"
Sage laughed heartily, picked up the wine bottle, poured a glass of ale, and handed it to Hawkins, "Drink this acceptance wine, and you are my subordinate, from now on, there will be a place for you among the officers of the Disaster Pirates!"
Unlike Lily's leadership expertise, Hawkins is a typical strategist, aside from divination, he can also use the divination results to make plans for Sage.
He's a very useful subordinate.
If he couldn't be recruited, Sage wasn't actually planning on killing him...
After all, he liked that ability, at that time he'd just use North Star Divine Fist to make him lose mobility, imprison him first, then... find Teach!
Simply for the fruit ability, Sage had ways to obtain it!
He was cooperated with Teach, letting him extract the ability would do.
Sage himself had no interest in the Straw-Straw Fruit, but that didn't prevent letting a subordinate eat it, recruiting someone of similar type to Hawkins as a subordinate, letting them eat it would be fine.
But now, it wasn't necessary.
Hawkins was a decent guy, as long as he was loyal to him, he didn't mind giving him an officer position.