"Fire Fist Ace is hunting you down."
Ivalis stood with his saber planted before him, hands folded over the pommel. From his stoic, poker-faced expression came words that carried the weight of an absolute command. He looked at Teach and said, "Go capture him and hand him over to the Marines."
Click!
Van Augur raised his rifle with blinding speed, but Benn Beckman was faster. A shot grazed the skin of Augur's right eye, knocking his sniper goggles to the ground. Augur's pupils contracted in shock. Simultaneously, Jesus Burgess slammed his massive fists into the bar's floorboards.
With raw, monstrous strength, he literally split the bar in two, hoisting the entire half where Ivalis and the others stood into the air.
"What a bunch of savages."
Cavendish flicked his thumb against the guard of Durandal, unsheathing it just an inch. In the next heartbeat, he appeared directly in front of Burgess, his blade erupting with a torrential golden flash.
"Biken: Blue Bird!"
Startled, Burgess threw up his arms to block, using Armament Haki to tank the initial impact. However, in the blink of an eye, countless sword points rained down upon him, forcing him back. Catching a gap in his defense, Cavendish delivered a powerful horizontal slash that sent Burgess flying out through the wall.
Half a minute later, Burgess trudged back through the hole he had made. He was covered in lacerations, and his wrestling singlet was reduced to tatters, revealing the fresh wounds from the exchange.
"Well? My technique... was it not beautiful?" Cavendish asked, his flamboyant personality on full display as he produced a rose from nowhere and took a sniff.
"Don't be impulsive! Augur, Burgess! They are the main force of the Immortal Pirates, we aren't a match for them yet!" Teach barked, raising a hand to restrain his agitated crew.
"S-Sorry..."
Burgess shot a resentful look at Cavendish, who appeared to be sliding into one of his narcissistic trances, but ultimately chose to obey Teach's order.
At that moment, Cavendish was playing two roles at once, skipping across the broken floorboards.
"Oh! Cavendish-sama! Please look this way! We must capture the perfect shot!"
"Ah, of course. Make sure you photograph me well. For my beauty to not be displayed in its most perfect form would be an unforgivable sin!"
By the end of his sentence, Cavendish was cupping his cheeks and spinning in circles, shrieking, "Aha! Ahahahaha!"
"How could I lose to a guy like that... I must have been careless," Burgess muttered, feeling embarrassed just watching Cavendish's antics.
Thump!
Ivalis stepped forward and punched the spinning Cavendish directly into the wooden wall of the bar. He turned back to Teach with a cold gaze. "Do you agree, or not?"
Teach remained silent for a long moment. He figured he had played the "obedient subordinate" for twenty years already; a few more months wouldn't hurt.
Originally, Teach had planned to kill one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea to usurp their position. He had set his sights on Sir Crocodile, believing him to be the one who relied most heavily on his Devil Fruit powers.
But it didn't matter if he added Ace to the list. After finishing off Ace, he would simply take the position from Crocodile afterward.
Thinking this, Teach let out a devious cackle. "Zehahaha! How could I possibly refuse a 'gracious invitation' from a Yonko? Leave it to me."
"We need to be sure you get the job done. Once it's over and Ace is handed to the Marines, come to the Sabaody Archipelago and report in. Otherwise... you know the consequences."
Ivalis finished speaking and delivered another rap to the head of Cavendish, who was back to posing in a mirror. "We're leaving!"
"Damn it, you made me look a fool again! One day, I swear I'll kill you!" Cavendish hissed, gritting his teeth.
"By then, he might have already died of old age," Beckman quipped with a dry joke.
As the Golden Hair Pirates departed, Teach waved his hand and began walking in the opposite direction. Perhaps to maintain his dignity as Captain, he offered a brief explanation: "It's a bit too early to have a falling out with a Yonko. Let's go."
"Zehahaha... just wait for me, Commander Ace..."
The seeds of war had been sown; all that remained was to wait for them to sprout. But this was not just one war, it was two.
Having concluded the final battle with Whitebeard, Alucard intended to return to his homeland in the North Blue. He planned to force a passage through the Calm Belt for his return journey.
However, en route, he received a call from Urdaha, who was guarding Arderay. Urdaha reported that a call had come in from Kozuki Oden in Wano Country, stating that Kaido was currently attacking.
Alucard knew instantly what Oden was planning: he wanted the Immortal Pirates to mobilize, raid the Beasts Pirates' home base, and relieve the crisis in Wano.
Urdaha asked Alucard if they should seize this opportunity to strike Kaido's territory.
Alucard thought for two seconds before rejecting the proposal.
Nonsense. The target that needed dealing with right now was the Government. He couldn't be bothered to deal with a mad dog like Kaido.
However, Alucard left the choice to his subordinates, saying whoever wanted to go could go.
The result? Not a single person remaining at the base was willing to move.
They shared Alucard's sentiment: their energy should be focused on the battle for Skypiea. As long as Kaido didn't actively provoke them, they would leave him be.
Kaido and his Calamities led the onslaught against Wano. On the other side, the samurai forces led by Kozuki Oden put up a desperate resistance. Surprisingly, they managed to hold out against Kaido's fierce assault for three full days without the city falling.
Kozuki Oden did not have a bounty, neither during his time on Whitebeard's ship nor on Roger's.
But a lack of a bounty didn't mean he was weak. Consider the man: a former commander under Whitebeard whom Gol D. Roger personally scouted and "headhunted." How could such a man be anything less than extraordinary?
By the third day, however, even Oden was reaching his limit. He prepared to risk the Shogun's wrath and demotion to commoner status by contacting Raizo in Zou, intending to call Inuarashi and Nekomamushi as reinforcements.
To his surprise, Kaido's army retreated.
Although Oden had sent word to the Immortal Pirates on the first day of the invasion, he assumed that if he just held out for a few days, Kaido would hear rumors of the Immortals raiding his home base and be forced to pull back.
In the end, he was half right. Kaido did retreat, but not because Alucard had raided his home. Kaido had simply chosen to withdraw on his own terms.