New World, Frost Island.
Heaven Capital, Seireitei.
The moment Valthior returned, a mountain of matters awaited his attention.
"You instructed us to pay special attention to information about these pirate crews. Here—this is the newest recruit of the Flying Pirates, and also their only apprentice crew member. His name is Marshall D. Teach," Lincoln said, handing a stack of documents to Valthior.
"Is this intelligence from Onigashima?" Valthior asked curiously as he took the documents.
"Yes, from Onigashima. More precisely, we bought it through Onigashima's underworld. Looking at it now, just as Lord Spencer said, the formation of Onigashima's underworld has gradually freed us from being too closed off from the outside. We are much better informed on the island now. Two weeks ago, weapons worth thirty billion Berries were successfully sold on Onigashima," Lincoln said with a smile.
Before Valthior and the others left Frost Island, they had already arranged matters regarding Onigashima. They wanted to build the closest underworld stronghold to their main base, Frost Island.
Afterward, Spencer used his connections and invited many major figures to visit. People like the Shipping King Umit and the Loan Shark King Du Feld had all come, leaving behind their influence.
The Valthior Pirates had also publicly announced that they would provide full protection to Onigashima. No one was allowed to cause trouble there. Anyone who did would be making an enemy of the Valthior Pirates.
In return, every business on Onigashima had to pay protection fees to the Valthior Pirates—essentially a form of taxation.
Generally speaking, a new officer joining the Flying Pirates was not especially important news for intelligence forces.
But the more elite a pirate crew was, the more attention had to be paid to the group known as "apprentice crew members."
After all, only outstanding young talents recognized by the captain could become apprentice crew members. No captain would willingly take on dead weight.
Whenever an apprentice crew member appeared, it meant that pirate crew had found a promising youngster worth grooming into a future pillar of the next generation.
For example, in the Whitebeard Pirates, the apprentice crew member was Marco. Although the Phoenix Fruit had been snatched away by Valthior and his crew, Marco had still performed brilliantly in the Whitebeard Pirates' activities over the past two years.
In the former Roger Pirates, Shanks, Buggy, and Bullet had all once been apprentice crew members.
After the Roger Pirates disbanded, the Valthior Pirates took over those young seedlings. Shanks and Buggy were indeed being raised as future pillars, and their performance had been quite outstanding.
As for the Flying Pirates, they had never had any so-called apprentice crew members. Clearly, Shiki had never planned to raise young seedlings himself before. He had always directly expanded by recruiting strong fighters who were already fully formed.
However, not long ago, the Flying Pirates welcomed their first—and currently only—apprentice crew member.
Teach!
Staring at the somewhat blurry photograph in the file, Valthior smirked. "So it really is him..."
As an intelligence officer, Spencer was also somewhat curious. He leaned closer, glanced at it, and asked, "You have seen this brat before?"
"Maybe none of you noticed him. Back then in God Valley, he was brought to the center of the stage as a member of the Davy clan and displayed. In fact, this kid is Rocks's biological son," Valthior said, raising a brow.
"Rocks's son?" Spencer said in surprise. "Rocks had a son? And he joined Shiki? Ah… right. Shiki is a member of the Davy clan too. It seems his relationship with Rocks is not as simple as we guessed. No wonder…"
Valthior had no idea that Shiki being part of the Davy clan was something his old man had casually made up in front of Lord Imu. So he nodded emotionally as well.
"Yes. The Davys have gathered together again. That clan really does have stubborn vitality."
"Ah, I remember him!" Bartholomew Kuma stood behind Valthior, stared at the photo for a while, then suddenly clapped his hands and said excitedly, "Back then, he and his mother were almost hit by a cannonball. I sent them out of God Valley!"
"Bwahahaha! Now that's what I call fate. A life-saving debt..." Valthior stroked his chin and thought for a while. "We have to make Shiki pay that back for him!"
"He does not exactly have the virtue of paying back debts. Usually, he kills his creditors," Doringo said with a smile, teasing.
"That depends on whether he has the ability," Valthior said disdainfully.
Just as Charlotte Linlin had said, Shiki's Float-Float Fruit ability allowed him to stand undefeated from the start. On this sea, there might be people stronger than him—but no one dared say they could kill him.
Unless his head overheated and he insisted on fighting to the death.
Like in the original story, when he insisted on taking on Marine Headquarters alone and was taken down by Sengoku and Garp together.
If he truly wanted to withdraw from a fight, who the hell could catch him?
Valthior was quite confident in his own strength now. In fact, deep down, he was even looking forward to clashing with Shiki one day.
"What do you want him to repay the debt with? Money?" Spencer asked as he lit a cigarette.
Bartholomew Kuma, standing nearby, had a troubled expression. "Young Master, when I saved people, I did not think about using that kindness to ask for repayment…"
"Do not worry. I will not make things difficult for you. I am just asking Shiki to send me a suitable island. That does not count as making things hard for him, right?" Valthior said, patting Kuma's arm.
Hearing this, Kuma smiled and nodded. "Alright then!"
It was common knowledge that Shiki was an island collector. When he had nothing better to do, he liked to drag dozens, even hundreds, of islands through the sky.
When the sky above Merveille was clear, one could look up and see floating islands in every direction.
So asking Shiki to send over one island was a perfectly reasonable condition.
"Are we going to use it to modify the ship?" Bullet asked, stroking his chin.
"That is right. When I met Master Tom at the harbor earlier, he said he had already fully understood the technology to turn an island into a battleship. He has also figured out the flying ship technology we took from Skypiea. Now, as long as the materials are ready, he can immediately begin building our new flagship… The other materials are easy enough to handle. The only thing we cannot deal with is the island used as the base. Now it is perfect. I have a proper reason to make Shiki help me," Valthior said with a laugh.
The original plan had been to use Onigashima to build the ship.
But now Onigashima had already been transformed into an underworld hub. It could be called the largest underworld stronghold in the nearby seas, so naturally, it could no longer be remodeled.
Although Valthior had plenty of talented people under him, moving an island was still something that left everyone helpless.
If one asked them to destroy an island, that would be easy.
But moving an island and delivering it to Frost Island's harbor? That was beyond them.
Across this sea, there were truly not many people who could do such a thing easily.
Without wasting time, Valthior immediately called Shiki through a Den Den Mushi. "Quiet down, everyone. Watch me shake down Shiki!"
Meanwhile, over in Merveille, Shiki was busy overseeing the post-war reconstruction of his territory.
"Make this area wider. I was never satisfied with this place before. Now that it has been destroyed, rebuilding it is even better… Pay attention to transplanting the special isolation trees, so the beasts outside do not break in. Good thing that bastard John did not damage my experimental base, or the losses would have been huge!" Shiki cursed while speaking to the designer beside him.
Just as he was about to head to the next area and offer his ideas and opinions, the Den Den Mushi he carried rang.
He casually took out the Den Den Mushi and glanced at it. Then Shiki immediately raised his hand. "Quiet down! Everyone else, clear out!"
Silver Axe, who was standing beside Shiki, asked curiously, "Who is it?"
"Valthior!" Shiki frowned. "Why is he suddenly contacting me at a time like this?"
Hearing that it was Valthior on the line, Silver Axe's eyes lit up.
"Then answer it! What are you thinking about? I happen to have something to ask him too…"
Shiki hesitated for a moment but still picked up the Den Den Mushi. His trademark arrogant grin returned.
"Jihahahahaha! Valthior? If I remember correctly, this is the first time you've contacted me on your own... What is it?"
"Hahaha, Shiki, congratulations on getting rich!" Valthior laughed loudly.
"Getting rich?" Shiki froze and asked in confusion.
"Look at you, pretending with me. What? Are you afraid I will ask you for money? Do I, Valthior, look like someone short on money?" Valthior said grandly. "Everyone knows Captain John had a huge amount of treasure. Now that you killed him at Merveille, didn't his treasure all fall into your hands? If that is not getting rich, what is?"
At the mention of this, Shiki immediately became furious.
"Rich, my ass! That son of a bitch John came to Merveille empty-handed to cause trouble for me. He did not even bring his coffin money with him. Forget getting rich—I suffered huge losses this time!"
"Exactly, Valthior! That brooch you gave me, the symbol of our friendship, was also broken by those bastards. I am about to explode from anger!" Silver Axe quickly cut in and said.
"That happened too?" Valthior said in surprise. "Then they really deserved to die!"
"I have saved some money over the years, but I have no proper channels. Before, I was too embarrassed to ask. Could you help me ask whether anyone in Mary Geoise is willing to sell some jewelry or gems? You know me—I just love these things," Silver Axe said smoothly.
He really was an expert in this area.
Back in the West Blue, among all the pirates, he had been the only one who noticed at a glance that the accessories on Valthior were unusual.
"What kind of thing is that to say? It just so happens I also want to invite Boss Shiki to Frost Island to help me with something. Why don't you come along too? Not long ago, I moved a pile of good things from Mary Geoise. When the time comes, you can choose for yourself," Valthior said generously.
After all, as a proper Celestial Dragon lord, Valthior cared greatly about his image.
Even when facing the world's strongest fighters, he always appeared in full formal attire, decked out in gold and silver.
As a result, every major battle cost him at least twenty or thirty billion Berries in clothing and accessories. Either his ornate headpieces were lost, or his custom-made garments ended up in tatters.
In short, money burned away like flowing water.
This time, before Silver Axe could speak, Shiki frowned and asked, "Help? Help with what?"
"I need an island roughly this size…"
Valthior held the blueprint Master Tom had given him and began directly listing requirements to Shiki.
Shiki was dumbfounded.
Wait... what the hell do you take me for? A moving company?
I am the Pirate Overlord, one of the Three Emperors of the New World!
You want me to send you an island, fine—but you even have this many detailed size requirements? Is that appropriate?
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