After arguing with Roger for quite a while over the topic of becoming an "ordinary rich man," Shiki finally turned his attention toward the rest of the Roger Pirates and could not help saying,
"Hey, all of you heard him just now. This bastard says he's planning to disband the Roger Pirates in the future. Don't tell me every single one of you seriously plans to go live some ordinary rich-man life too? Isn't there at least somebody who still wants to keep being a pirate? You can come join my crew, and we'll accomplish great things together!"
At this point, Shiki had already adjusted his way of thinking.
Before coming to Elbaf, his original plan had been to force Roger into submission. If Roger refused, then Shiki intended to join forces with Harald and wipe out the Roger Pirates entirely.
Yet now, given the reality of how things played out with Harald, it had hilariously flipped into him and Roger joining hands to take down Harald instead.
At the same time, Shiki had also completely reevaluated the true strength of the Roger Pirates.
Originally, the only people he genuinely considered dangerous were Roger, Gaban, and Rayleigh, the three core monsters of the crew. In his opinion, he himself also had Silver Axe, Babel, and others under his command, so if both sides truly fought head-on, it was hard to say who would ultimately win.
But during the battle in Elbaf, Valthior had also displayed terrifying strength.
The awakening of his Mythical Zoan ability, combined with his direct suppression of Harald—even if only for a short period—forced Shiki to admit one thing.
That insignificant brat from West Blue years ago had now become an extremely troublesome monster himself.
If another war really broke out now, even Shiki no longer felt confident about the outcome.
Originally, he still had concerns about Roger. Even if Roger was not yet his mortal enemy, there was always the possibility that Roger could change his mind in the future and become a major rival standing in his way.
Because of that, Shiki had still considered whether he should risk everything and attempt to eliminate Roger's crew here and now.
But then Roger suddenly announced that he planned to disband the Roger Pirates altogether.
That revelation completely caught Shiki off guard.
If Roger truly dissolved his crew in the future, would he still pose any threat at all?
And if there was no threat anymore, was there really any reason to keep fighting to the death?
More importantly...
If the Roger Pirates disbanded, wouldn't that mean Shiki had the perfect chance to take over and recruit their members for himself?
The moment he realized this, Shiki immediately changed strategies and began openly trying to recruit the rest of Roger's crew.
"Sorry, Shiki," Roger said with a mischievous grin, "but aside from the members planning to live their ordinary rich-man lives, everyone else who still wants to remain a pirate has already decided to form a new crew together with Valthior. So your recruitment pitch is completely pointless."
"With Valthior!?" Shiki immediately turned toward Valthior in disbelief. "What the hell is wrong with you!? You're a Celestial Dragon! Hanging around with Roger and the others for fun as some kind of life experience is one thing, but after their crew disbands, you still plan to rebuild another pirate crew!? Seriously, what's your problem? Wouldn't going back to Mary Geoise and living comfortably as a noble be way better!?"
"If you keep talking like that," Valthior replied with a laugh, "then maybe I'll just go become a Marine instead and spend every day bringing Marine Admirals over to cause trouble for you."
Shiki's face instantly darkened from anger.
"I seriously can't communicate with you lunatics anymore," he cursed loudly. "A bunch of hopeless idiots!"
After saying that, he grabbed his empty wine bottle and directly flew off the Oro Jackson, heading back toward the Flying Lion nearby.
Halfway there, however, he suddenly stopped and turned his head toward Valthior.
"Brat," Shiki called out, "being a pirate captain isn't nearly as easy as you think. Once this sea beats the hell out of you, if you somehow survive, then I'll invite you again. When that time comes, you can join my crew as my subordinate!"
Valthior looked at him suspiciously.
"You sure you don't just want me aboard your ship so you can keep drinking expensive liquor?"
Shiki's face immediately flushed red as he shouted back angrily,
"I'm not as shallow as that bastard Roger!"
"You penniless wretch, I have over sixty billion Berries!" Roger shouted proudly, hands planted firmly on his hips.
The corners of Shiki's mouth twitched violently.
As he flew farther away, he continued muttering curses under his breath like, "That's not what pirates are supposed to be like," and "What's so special about six hundred billion anyway? Isn't it just money?" while grumbling nonstop all the way back to his own ship.
After hearing Shiki continue grumbling to himself like that, the members of the Roger Pirates all burst into loud laughter, and for a moment the entire atmosphere aboard the ship became incredibly lively and cheerful.
After laughing for a while, Rayleigh—still the one with the most semblance of humanity among them—couldn't help but sigh. "Don't you think we might've gone a bit too far in hurting his feelings?"
As soon as he spoke, everyone turned to look at him in unison. "…"
...
Several days later, shocking news spread across the entire world.
The reports claimed that Shiki had led the Flying Pirates in an assault against the world's strongest nation, Elbaf, and that the King of the Giants, Harald, had vanished during the incident.
Throughout the report, however, there was not a single mention of the Roger Pirates.
It was as though they had never existed at all—exactly like what had happened during the God Valley Incident years ago.
Before this, due to the events at Whole Cake Island, the bounties of every member of the Roger Pirates had skyrocketed. Roger himself had reached a bounty of 1.8 billion Berries, placing him firmly at the very top of the great pirates in the New World and surpassing both Shiki and Whitebeard.
But now, Shiki had practically claimed all the "credit" for the battle of Elbaf.
At the same time, Imu had also begun viewing him as one of the "D" clan.
As a result, Shiki's bounty exploded upward at a terrifying speed, instantly making him the first and only pirate in the current New World to have a bounty exceeding two billion Berries.
He completely surpassed Roger's 1.8 billion and Newgate's 1.5 billion.
Not only that, but top officers under Shiki such as Silver Axe and Babel also experienced massive bounty increases, each breaking through the one-billion mark and reaching around 1.2 to 1.3 billion Berries.
After attacking the nation of giants and defeating Harald—the monster previously acknowledged by the entire sea as standing in a class of his own—Shiki's prestige reached unprecedented heights.
The Flying Pirates instantly became the hottest force in the New World, with countless pirates rushing to join under his banner.
Rumor had it that after returning to his home territory of Merveille, Shiki held banquets nonstop for nearly half a month, specifically to carry out the "sakazuki ceremony" for sworn sons while recruiting huge numbers of subordinate pirates.
Among those who joined him were even several notorious pirates with bounties exceeding one hundred million Berries.
From this alone, it was obvious that Shiki's trip to Elbaf had not been wasted at all.
Although he failed to eliminate the Roger Pirates, the prestige and influence he gained were enormous and pushed his ambitions forward tremendously.
For a time, neither his momentum nor his power could be matched, not even by the Whitebeard Pirates.
Even though he still had not officially settled things with Whitebeard, many people across the seas had already begun referring to Shiki as the new era's "Pirate Overlord."
....
Aboard the Moby Dick...
Newgate stared at the newspaper in his hand with an unusually puzzled expression.
"This doesn't seem right..." Newgate muttered as he frowned deeply. "Did Shiki really become strong enough to defeat a monster like Harald?"
Two years earlier, during their clash at Linderland Island, Newgate had fought Shiki personally, and although Shiki was undeniably powerful, he had not seemed outrageously monstrous to that extent.
At the very least, he had not reached the terrifying level Rocks once possessed.
And Harald had always been someone considered equal to Rocks himself.
Yet only two years had passed, and now Shiki had suddenly ascended to this level?
Still, Newgate did not dwell on the matter for too long.
He remained completely fearless regardless.
As long as Shiki minded his own business and stayed away from him, Newgate had no interest in interfering. But if Shiki dared to come looking for trouble, then Newgate would simply crush him.
After flipping past that section of the paper, Newgate shifted his attention toward one of the newspaper supplements.
The article there was also massive news that normally would have made front-page headlines by itself, but because Shiki's incident was simply too explosive, it had been pushed aside.
"Massive Explosion at Marine Research Island — Charlotte Linlin and Kaido Escape Prison and Return to the Seas! Marine Headquarters Issues Emergency Bounties!"
There was even a photo attached.
It showed Charlotte Linlin and Kaido wearing prison uniforms while rampaging across the research island. The entire island was engulfed in flames as the Marines retreated in defeat.
Standing beside Kaido was also a white-haired brat with wings growing from his back.
Then came the updated bounties.
Charlotte Linlin: 642 million Berries.
Kaido: 430 million Berries.
Compared to the top monsters of the seas, those bounties were not especially high.
Yet Newgate's expression became unusually serious.
"So you two siblings finally reconciled and decided to join forces..." he murmured softly to himself.
Back during the Rocks Pirates era, Whitebeard had maintained fairly good relationships with both Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, so he understood them better than most people.
Even though the two of them had not yet reached the absolute peak of the seas, Newgate knew with certainty that in the near future, those two would become figures capable of shaking the entire world.
After all...
Putting Charlotte Linlin and Kaido together was basically the same as combining "extremely high damage" with "even higher damage."
Two complete monsters of raw stats had now joined forces.
After forcibly pushing that troublesome thought out of his mind, Newgate continued reading the next piece of news.
"Marine Admirals Sengoku and Zephyr Lead Elite Marine Fleet to Vacation and Recover at New World Resort Island, Lansdin Hot Springs."
Whitebeard: "???"
Shiki's influence had just exploded, the World Government had upgraded his threat level to the highest category, Charlotte Linlin and Kaido had escaped prison, and the entire New World clearly looked ready to descend into bloody chaos at any moment...
And at a time like this, Sengoku had taken Zephyr and a large force of elite Marines into the New World...
To soak in hot springs?
What kind of logic is this?
Has the entire Marine organization collectively begun to sluff off and slack?
...
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