It's naturally great if good relationships can be established with others during childhood. By the time Yamato grows up and takes over the Hundred Beasts Pirates, I'll probably be retiring, and this connection could secure me a good position.
Though it seemed a bit far-fetched, Mandfeish felt his idea was quite reasonable. So upon seeing Yamato's belongings fall into the water and hearing cries, he was the first to jump in.
Others saw Mandfeish dive into the sea and gave up the opportunity. In terms of swimming, Mandfeish was virtually unrivaled within the Hundred Beasts Pirates, and having abilities that allowed him to enter the water gave him a tremendous advantage.
This was the worst Yamato had cried since being taken back to the Hundred Beasts Pirates by Kaidou. Even Arceus was drawn over, and Chansey briefly described the situation before pointing to the ship's side.
"How long has Mandfeish been down there?"
"About five minutes, I guess..."
"You guys, go down and see what's happening." He had obtained the ability of Magikarp, so retrieving a Wolf Fang Club shouldn't be a drowning hazard.
Arceus casually glanced at a few people, and they immediately jumped in without a word, but quickly swam back up.
Repeated attempts all resulted in the same outcome.
"Sacred Beast Lord, the water is too deep; we can't dive that far!"
"Yeah, we've been swimming down for ages without seeing Mandfeish, and we can't even see the bottom. We might need diving suits."
Although they were considered elite pirates, they were still just ordinary people, neither possessing the Fish-Men lineage nor abilities like Mandfeish's. While they could swim, few had trained in diving, and they couldn't handle reaching certain depths.
Fortunately, only Ringo's climate in Wano Kuni was particularly cold. Besides Ringo's surrounding waters, Wano Kuni's waters were mostly warm, so after several diving attempts, their stamina remained fairly adequate.
A few minutes later, Mandfeish finally surfaced, holding Yamato's fallen small Wolf Fang Club. With a push of his feet in the water, he jumped back onto the deck.
After acquiring the Splash ability, the water became a new kind of ground for him.
"Sacred Beast Lord, there's a secret down there. Wano Kuni is not as simple as it seems on the surface."
"What did you find?"
"The terrain of Wano Kuni might be artificial..."
"Wait, hand over the item first." Saying this, he took the Wolf Fang Club from him and returned it to Yamato. After pacifying the child, he signaled Mandfeish to continue describing what he saw.
According to Mandfeish, when he jumped into the water to retrieve Yamato's fallen Wolf Fang Club, he quickly caught up with the descending club thanks to the ability bestowed by Arceus. However, he appeared to have seen something underwater.
Out of curiosity and because Magikarp allowed him to breathe underwater, he went down to investigate.
"Are you saying there's a submerged town down there?"
"Yes, Sacred Beast Lord, and the architecture closely resembles Wano Kuni's, or rather, it looks older. Then I swam towards the edge and found the cliffs surrounding it may be their walls..."
From the information Mandfeish returned with, it seemed someone had constructed an enormous wall here, enclosing this area. But for unknown reasons, the water level rose, resulting in the current situation.
However, Arceus had a hard time believing this, and the scenario felt somewhat familiar.
"Shaina, is the construction on Ghost Island finished?"
"Not yet, Sacred Beast Lord, is there a problem?"
"When you return, find some elders and ask if any of their ancestors were named Isayama Hajime."
Building enormous walls to enclose one's country felt like a familiar but bizarre strategy. However, he hadn't detected any dormant living entities within the rock walls surrounding Wano Kuni.
Not long after.
"Sacred Beast Lord, I've asked around. The current chief craftsman is named Minatomo, considered a legendary carpenter in Wano Kuni, but he hasn't heard of anyone with the surname Isayama in Wano Kuni.
Riko hasn't heard of such things either, and Queen subtly inquired with Orochi, but he seems unaware too. This matter appears to be a secret of Wano Kuni."
"Understood. Proceed as usual, and have Mandfeish thoroughly explore that underwater ruin to see exactly what lies within."
Thus, Mandfeish received a new task, exploring the nearby underwater ruin. Although Queen made a few diving suits, it was still less convenient than Mandfeish.
To avoid detection, they stealthily dived from Ghost Island, as Mandfeish alone could explore any area without being affected by oxygen, so this major responsibility largely fell on him.
...
Two days later, on Ghost Island, Setsuna jumped off the ship and started running. He had a small backpack filled with newspapers.
News Birds wouldn't enter Wano Kuni, so obtaining newspapers was only possible through the nearby islands. They served as the Hundred Beasts' outposts outside Wano Kuni, and external information generally came from there.
The biggest news, naturally, was the Battle of Edvaul. This grand-scale war was almost recorded in history, one of the few battles named after a conflict between pirates.
However, these events weren't closely related to the Hundred Beasts. Recently, rookies were challenging the territories of the Golden Lion, but as old acquaintances, they knew the Golden Lion was still the same Golden Lion, unchanged by the thinning of his crew.
Moreover, Setsuna was more concerned about the two wanted posters in his hands.
"Lightning" Zeraora - Bounty of 2.7 billion Belly
"Concealer" Arceus - Bounty of 11.9 billion Belly
This was the conclusion reached after the Navy's comprehensive analysis, raising it directly from 500 million to 11.9 billion. In this era, these were almost astronomical bounties.
At present, bounties exceeding 10 billion Belly belonged mostly to members of Rocks's remnants and Roger's crew, consisting solely of heavyweight figures.
Though Arceus possessed the strength to injure Sengoku, he fled unexpectedly after gaining the upper hand, causing the Navy to doubt his sustained combat ability.
While intelligence reports suggested Arceus wasn't the ruthless type, he allegedly possessed mysterious special abilities, leading to the final bounty amount after careful consideration.
Meanwhile, the Navy believed the Concealer was hiding his true form by always appearing in Beast Form, so they decided to accept all submitted intelligence, following a principle of grading on what was correct without penalties for errors.
This left Queen with a puzzled expression as he looked at his bounty.
"I've been farming and conducting research all along, so why is my bounty higher than that freak King's?"
Seeing the bounty of 444.4 million, Queen suddenly found it very inauspicious.