"Coo… coo-coo!!"
With a distressed squawk, the News Coo flapped its wings as Jim roughly tore open the overstuffed delivery pouch and turned it upside down, dumping its entire contents in one motion.
Stacks of newspapers and bounty posters tumbled out in a noisy mess.
At a glance, the bounty posters far outnumbered the newspapers.
The News Coo looked at the scattered mess of its hard work, eyes welling with tears.
It silently vowed: after this route, it was going to request a reassignment.
It never wanted to deal with this crew again!
Seeing the poor bird on the verge of tears, Perona—who had a soft spot for cute animals—couldn't take it anymore.
She walked over and gently tucked a small wad of beri into the News Coo's wing, comforting it, "Don't be sad. This is enough to buy several bundles of newspapers. The extra is for your troubles, okay?"
"Coo…"
The News Coo looked down at the berries in its wing and let out a few hesitant coos.
Perona couldn't understand exactly what it was saying, but she guessed it was a thank you.
"It's not a big deal, really! No need to thank me! I just hate seeing adorable little animals upset. Hoh-hoh-hoh…"
"…"
The News Coo stared blankly at Perona.
Nearby, Bepo, unofficial translator of the day, hesitated to speak.
Bailey casually strolled over, nonchalantly wiped a freshly picked booger onto Bepo's fur, and then looked at Perona, who was still basking in the glow of her own kindness.
"Perona, it said the money wasn't enough. You dumb ghost thought it was thanking you—Hah! I'm dying."
"?"
"If I get reborn, I wanna be a booger stuck to a stinky bear."
"??"
"You nasty weasel! You actually wiped your booger on the bear! Take this! Ah-da ah-da!!!"
Pow! Bam!
Not far away, Jim watched the chaos in silence, then bent down to gather the scattered bounty posters and handed them out to his crewmates.
Everyone took a copy and began flipping through them.
What drew their attention the most wasn't their own posters—but Maude's.
"Our Captain's bounty jumped a full billion this time, but it's still not as high as last time," someone noted.
Lafitte ignored his own new bounty completely. He held Maude's poster, eyes gleaming as he muttered with some regret, "If only it had gone straight to four billion."
"Four billion…"
Urouge's cheek twitched. From 1.9 billion straight to four? Might as well shoot for the moon while you're at it.
Hawkins stared at the number on Maude's bounty poster, seemingly understanding why Lafitte would say that. In a calm tone, he added, "All the Yonko have bounties above four billion."
"Right. If I remember correctly, Red-Haired Shanks has a bounty of 4.0489 billion, which is the lowest among the Yonko," said Arthur, not taking his eyes off Maude's poster.
Among the Yonko, aside from the late Whitebeard who was just over five billion, the rest ranged between four and 4.7 billion.
In other words, four billion was considered the baseline for a Yonko.
Of course, there was no official rule saying so…
But since all Yonko had bounties above four billion, that had become the general consensus among pirates in the New World.
So really, Lafitte's wish for Maude's bounty to reach four billion wasn't just about the number—it was about wanting Maude to claim the title of Yonko.
"Yohoho… So basically, to become a Yonko, the bare minimum is a four-billion bounty?" Brook mused with interest.
Puff—
Shakky exhaled a stream of smoke, smiling faintly. "You could say that. A bounty that high already speaks volumes about one's strength. But to stay standing in the New World… it's the size of your crew and power base that really matters."
"Yohoho, then our Captain… won't have any problem at all," Brook said as he glanced toward Maude.
Shakky followed his gaze, casually sneaking a glance at Aokiji—who was eyeing his own bounty poster with a strange look—then, like Brook, turned to look at Maude, her voice soft and certain:
"That's right. With Blackbeard and Whitebeard's crews defeated, little Maude is undoubtedly the strongest contender for the Yonko title."
"To fight for a Yonko seat…"
Trafalgar Law crossed his arms and said flatly, "But Maude has never expressed any desire for such a thing."
Everyone paused at that.
It was true.
Maude had never said anything about wanting to be Pirate King, Yonko, or anything like that.
With that realization, everyone turned to look at Maude.
At that moment, Maude happened to be next to Aokiji, laughing heartily while slapping the former admiral on the back—apparently amused by something he'd just seen.
Aokiji, for his part, let him slap away, holding up a bounty poster with a strange expression on his face.
...
Marine Headquarters – Conference Room.
The floor was layered with soft tatami mats.
Low wooden tables were arranged neatly on both sides of the room.
Behind each table sat a cushion for the officers to kneel on.
It was a meeting room steeped in a traditional Japanese aesthetic.
Click—
A shoji screen slid open.
A man with green hair, sunglasses, and a long Marine coat stepped inside, placing a stack of documents on the central table.
As he set them down, the side doors of the room began to slide open as well.
One by one, Marine officers in uniform and long coats stepped through the doors and took their seats at the low tables, their expressions solemn.
The man with green hair glanced at his fellow officers entering the room.
Before the meeting officially began, he walked over to the whiteboard used for briefings and pinned up the latest bounty posters.
In the center, most prominently displayed, were four posters: Maude, Aokiji, Bullet, and Shiryu.
The man's gaze moved from one to the next, finally settling on Aokiji's.
In the photo, Aokiji wore a white suit, hands in his pockets, body leaning slightly to one side.
His head was tilted back slightly, his eyes covered by a mesh visor, and from his left nostril dangled a large bubble of snot. Drool trickled from the corner of his mouth.
It was an utterly unflattering photo.
But unfortunately, it was the only picture the Marines had of Aokiji without his uniform.
"2.68 billion… For a first-time bounty, this is completely unprecedented," the green-haired man muttered, face conflicted.
Once one of the Navy's strongest assets—now a crewmate of the Maude Pirates.
The irony was hard to stomach.
He sighed inwardly, then turned his attention to the rest of the Maude Pirates' bounties, the look behind his sunglasses growing grave.
"The Maude Pirates… In less than three years, they've reached a combined bounty exceeding ten billion. That's… unheard of."
His eyes swept across the fresh set of wanted posters, a heavy weight settling in his chest.
Setting aside Bullet—the most notorious escapee in history—the Maude Pirates had become a force that the Marines now had to contend with as a threat on par with the Yonko.
Even without the official title…
With their strength and scale, it was only a matter of time before they replaced the Whitebeard Pirates as one of the Four Emperors.
And there was no stopping it.
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