Shanks studied Mihawk across the rain-soaked deck, his earlier smile fading as the pieces settled into place.
The Government notice had ordered the Warlords to report any contact with Zaraki, avoid Little Garden, and stay out of an operation the Five Elders refused to explain.
Mihawk had already known Zaraki survived Kaido, which meant the notice had not been sent to inform him.
It had been sent to control him—or at least to make him think twice before involving himself.
That alone said a great deal.
The World Government tolerated disorder when it could be measured, directed, and turned against its enemies.
It relied on pirates to restrain other pirates, Marines to suppress the worst excesses, and the Seven Warlords to preserve a balance everyone knew was rotten.
Zaraki threatened that arrangement because he did not behave like any piece the Five Elders had placed on the board.
He was a Marine who ignored political convenience, a swordsman Mihawk had chosen to test personally, and a man who had survived Kaido only to cross half the Grand Line and kill the Government's preferred Warlord candidate before Marineford even learned he was alive.
Now Kaido was moving toward Paradise with a route someone had quietly cleared for him.
Benn Beckman finished marking the probable passage on the chart and relit his cigarette.
"They are trying to keep the story contained while moving enough pieces to kill him," he said. "The notice to the Warlords is not a warning about Zaraki. It is a warning not to interfere with whatever Saint Nusjuro arranged."
Shanks nodded slowly.
"And if Kaido succeeds, the Government calls it an Emperor settling a grudge. If Zaraki survives, they deny helping Kaido and continue calling him one of their own."
"Convenient either way," Beckman said.
Mihawk remained near the covered table, his gaze resting on the route that connected the Red Line to Little Garden.
He had crossed the storm to confirm whether Shanks possessed information about Kaido's movements.
That question had been answered.
He still had another reason for coming.
"I require one more favor," Mihawk said.
Shanks looked up from the chart.
The request itself was unusual enough to draw the attention of every senior officer within hearing.
Lucky Roux stopped reaching for the next piece of meat, Yasopp turned away from the rain, and even Beckman's expression became faintly curious.
Shanks leaned one hip against the table.
"The world's greatest swordsman asking me for two favors in one visit? Careful, Hawkeye. People might start thinking we're friends."
"I would prefer they did not."
"That hurts, but I'll survive. What do you need?"
Mihawk took the sealed Government notice from the table and folded it once.
"Make my challenge to Zaraki public."
For several seconds, Shanks said nothing.
The storm filled the silence with rain drumming against canvas and waves striking the Red Force's hull.
Unlike the reaction the same words might have produced from strangers, no one aboard reached for a weapon or stared as though Mihawk had lost his senses.
Shanks already knew the two had fought on Kuraigana.
He knew Mihawk had deliberately allowed Zaraki to leave with an unfinished lesson between them.
What he did not understand was why Mihawk wanted the rematch announced to the world.
"You could send the challenge through Marine Headquarters," Shanks said. "You still have an official channel, and Zaraki already promised to return to Kuraigana. Why turn a private rematch into a public spectacle?"
"Because the Five Elders prefer their problems to disappear quietly."
Mihawk's answer stripped the last trace of amusement from Shanks's face.
"If the entire sea knows I am waiting to fight Zaraki, then his sudden disappearance before that duel will invite questions they cannot easily silence. The Government may still move against him, but it will have to do so beneath the attention of every major power watching the result."
Beckman exhaled a thin stream of smoke.
"A public challenge becomes insurance."
"Imperfect insurance," Mihawk corrected. "Kaido will not care about appearances, and the Five Elders may decide suspicion is an acceptable cost. But it narrows their choices."
Shanks looked at him for a long moment.
"You really do want that rematch."
Mihawk's hand settled lightly near Yoru's hilt.
On Kuraigana, Zaraki had arrived injured and burdened by a sword that consumed his strength more greedily than he could direct it.
By the time he left, he had begun learning how to choose the purpose of a cut before releasing its power.
He was still crude, still impatient, and still far from the swordsman Mihawk wanted him to become.
That was precisely why Mihawk had no intention of allowing the Government to erase him before their next meeting.
"He has not yet shown me the cut he believes will force me to move," Mihawk said. "I intend to see whether he can."
Shanks's mouth curved upward again, though the expression carried more understanding than humor.
"You could have simply said you found someone interesting."
"I just did."
"No, you gave a speech about cuts and Government assassinations. That is the Mihawk version of admitting it."
Lucky Roux laughed, and even Yasopp's shoulders loosened.
Shanks reached for a fresh bottle, but instead of immediately offering it to Mihawk, he turned toward Beckman.
"Keep Kaido's route off every public line. Our observers continue watching the Red Line, and no one outside the senior crew learns that the Government is helping him."
Beckman nodded.
"And the challenge?"
"That goes the opposite direction." Shanks looked back at Mihawk. "We release it through three independent underworld channels, enough that Morgans can confirm it without tracing the story to one source. We do not call it a deathmatch, and we do not pretend the Government arranged it. Hawkeye Mihawk is demanding the rematch Zaraki already owes him. Nothing more."
Mihawk gave a slight nod.
"That is acceptable."
Shanks finally held out the bottle.
"Then I'll help. Within five days, the whole world will know the world's greatest swordsman is waiting for War Demon Zaraki to answer him."
Mihawk looked at the bottle without taking it.
Shanks sighed dramatically.
"You crossed a storm, asked me to interfere with the Five Elders, and now you're refusing the drink that seals the agreement. Your manners are getting worse."
"The drink is the problem."
"My liquor is excellent."
"Your confidence in it is not evidence."
A groan rose from several Red-Haired Pirates who had apparently taken the insult personally.
Shanks pulled the bottle back.
"Fine. I have a condition. When the duel happens, my crew gets to watch."
"No."
"That was too fast."
"You would turn it into a festival."
"Obviously. A fight between you and the Marine who survived Kaido deserves a feast."
"It deserves silence."
"That sounds terrible."
Mihawk regarded him impassively.
Shanks tried another approach.
"If you win, I'll host the largest victory feast the Grand Line has ever seen. If Zaraki wins, I get the marked barrels in your castle's cellar."
Mihawk's golden eyes narrowed.
"You have been planning to steal those barrels for years."
"Steal is an ugly word. I am offering you the dignity of losing them in a fair wager."
"And if neither of us wins?"
Shanks's grin widened.
"Then we drink them together while you both argue about whose sword landed closer."
The corner of Mihawk's mouth shifted so slightly that only Shanks and Beckman noticed it.
He took the bottle.
"Agreed."
The glass struck Shanks's bottle with a firm click.
Cheers rose around them, but the maps remained spread across the table and Beckman continued calculating Kaido's progress even as new barrels were opened.
The feast resumed without losing sight of the danger beneath it.
Shanks drank, then glanced toward the dark sea beyond the deck.
"You realize what happens once Morgans gets hold of this."
"He prints lies around one useful fact."
"He'll turn your rematch into a declaration of war between the Marines and the Seven Warlords."
"That is why you will provide the wording through more than one channel."
"And he'll still call it a battle for the fate of the world."
Mihawk lifted the bottle, tasted the liquor, and looked faintly disappointed.
"Then the world can survive being wrong until the duel begins."
...
Over the next several days, Shanks's message traveled through brokers, information merchants, and pirate crews trusted to repeat exactly enough of what they had heard.
Mihawk had publicly challenged Zaraki.
The challenge was personal.
The duel would take place when Zaraki was ready to answer the rematch he owed.
Nothing in the message mentioned Kaido, Little Garden, or the Five Elders.
Those secrets remained on the Red Force beneath Beckman's maps, while the public challenge spread faster than any warship could sail.