In the Flower Capital, Oden continues with his foolish plan, but today is somewhat special as Kurozumi Orochi has secretly approached him.
After all, Orochi is now forced into a certain role with Oden, so there is some information he must proactively reveal to the latter.
"Lord Oden, this is a newspaper obtained from Kaidou."
"Roger, he!"
Upon seeing the news of Roger's death, Kozuki Oden wept uncontrollably on the beaches of Kuri, further solidifying his resolve to open the country.
Meanwhile, around the world, the members of Roger's crew are being hunted down.
In Water Seven, Fishman Tom received a death sentence for building the pirate ship for Gol D. Roger, but eventually secured a ten-year suspension by crafting the Sea Train plan.
In the Udon factory, a new problem has arisen, not one of manpower or disorder, but pollution.
Alola Muk handled the industrial wastewater issue, but as the number of factories increased, industrial gas has become the new challenge.
Though Muk can consume wastewater and toxic residue, it has no means to handle airborne gases, prompting the appearance of new Pokemon in Wano Kuni.
On Ghost Island, Arceus made a rare appearance.
"Lord Arceus? What brings you here, hey! You guys, make some room!"
During sea voyages, they might go a long time without a bath due to scarce freshwater resources, but when stationed on land, even pirates pay attention to hygiene.
With Queen at the forefront, a group of pirates was relaxing in the bathhouse.
This was Queen's most relaxed time, as neither Shaina nor Setsuna could appear here; the women's bath on the rooftop of Ghost Island was much smaller, after all, the gender ratio in the pirate crew was still quite imbalanced.
"Continue on, I'm not here for a bath."
Arceus came to solve the factory pollution problem. Alola's Muk can consume wastewater, naturally, there are Pokemon that can consume waste gases, such as the Weezing and Koffing from the Galar Region.
As to why he came to the bathhouse, it's common knowledge that the first Koffing appeared in a bathhouse, and it's truly using gas to heat water here; below lies the newly constructed gas pipeline.
Those who entered Ghost Island first were the elite of the Hundred Beasts Pirates, considered veteran members, and were accustomed to Arceus's public displays of power.
Purple, strange balls gradually appeared in the bathhouse, some singular, some in bizarre conjoined twin forms.
Their bodies then gradually turned gray, with high chimney-like objects appearing on top of their heads.
In the past, the Galar Region was full of factories, with severe air pollution, and Weezing and Koffing naturally thrived on atmospheric waste gases, uniquely evolving during those heavily polluted times.
Unlike ordinary Weezing that absorbs and produces toxic gas, Galar's Weezing absorbs polluted air and toxic gases as food.
These gases taken into their bodies are filtered of toxins by special internal organs, much like human cells absorbing nutrients, absorbing beneficial substances and excreting waste.
For them, toxic gas and waste are food, and fresh air in their bodies is waste.
The chimneys on their heads expel fresh air, which, after purification, becomes extremely clean and fresh—the way Galar Weezing and Koffing expel waste.
Due to their regional forms, the Galar Weezing has also become dual Poison and Fairy type, and with the return of the Pixie Plate, these air-filtering Pokemon were born.
"As expected of Lord Arceus, creating another amazing new creature."
"Yes, and this creature feels like a natural pirate."
They were referring to the pirate flag-like emblem on Weezing's abdomen, a design that made them, as pirates, feel even more connected.
The appearance of Weezing and Koffing significantly refreshed the murky air in the bathhouse, and Arceus was planning to have them taken to the factory area, which would henceforth be their cafeteria and dormitory.
However, someone always decides to do something dangerous, like Queen.
He daringly touched Weezing's mouth corner; previously, the creatures Arceus created were very safe, even Alola Muk, as long as you don't touch its poison crystal, posed no issues.
But Galar Weezing is different; Pokemon with the Poison Attribute have an extremely toxic area, for Galar Weezing it is their facial whisker-like structures.
The toxins accumulated within Galar Weezing turn into high-concentration toxic gases leaking from their bodies, forming their unique whiskers around their mouth.
Even minute inhalation of this gas can paralyze and incapacitate a person.
But this gas is under Weezing's control and usually doesn't disperse, unless someone tempts fate.
As someone who studies chemical toxins every day, Queen poked at the toxic gas at Weezing's mouth corner, then held a green gas cloud to his nose to sniff it.
"Big Brother Queen!"
Watching Queen suddenly stiffen and fall to the ground, the nearby pirates were startled, but in less than a minute, the paralyzed Queen had surprisingly recovered.
"What... did you do?"
Even Arceus didn't see what Queen had done; though he was clearly poisoned, now he seemed completely unaffected. He wasn't resisting but truly detoxified.
"It's Pecha Berry, after modifying my body back then and removing the internal ammunition compartment, I modified myself again, placing some antidote made from Pecha Berry inside me.
Whenever I encounter a problem, it automatically injects; it's the most potent antidote I've ever seen."
Ever since making this modification, Queen had a new approach to testing new toxins, personally experiencing them. Only that way could he ascertain the toxins' effects, just as now; otherwise, with his constitution, there was no way he'd get poisoned so quickly.
He deliberately did this to test the effect of the clearly toxic gas.
"Lord Arceus, where do you plan to deploy them?"
"To the factories in Udon, the air quality has recently been poor there."
"I understand, like with those Muk, Lord Arceus, leave them to me, I'll take them over, those gases around their mouths are invaluable materials."
Since Queen had requested, Arceus entrusted Weezing to him.
"Don't delay too long, these little guys are a bit hungry too, the bathhouse fumes aren't enough for them."
"Got it, don't worry, sir."