Chapter 355: Wano Country, New Three Disasters?
Aster, inside the guest reception room.
At this time, Uma was sitting properly in the room.
In his hands, starlight was continuously gathering and flowing on the "Book of Stars", revealing the scene of Luffy transforming into Nika and throwing that punch inside the Place of Trial.
On the other side, Red-Haired and Rayleigh were also in the reception room, similarly witnessing this scene.
So even the right-hand man of the Pirate King and the current Four Emperor on the sea couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
"That kid Luffy."
A gratified smile appeared on the corner of Shanks's mouth, as if he were a father seeing his son become successful.
His smile at this moment was not just because the danger triggered by the unexpected awakening of the "Nika Fruit" on Luffy had disappeared. More crucially, he saw what he wanted to see in Luffy.
"As expected, I wasn't wrong back then—Luffy, he's really so much like Captain Roger."
Shanks sighed like this.
Yes.
As early as back in Fuusha Village, he had already discovered it.
This guy Luffy was very much like Roger, who raised him and was almost like a 'father' to him.
That innate yearning and pursuit of the sea, and that dream which seemed ridiculous to ordinary people, were all the same.
And exactly because of this, Shanks decisively bet his arm, the Nika Fruit, and Roger's straw hat on Luffy. And now facts proved he didn't misjudge Luffy.
"Yes."
Rayleigh also smiled and nodded.
Similarly recalling his old friend, he picked up the flask he carried with him, took a couple of gulps "glug glug", and then let out a breath: "However, to think that the 'loss of control' caused by fruit awakening could be sorted out through this method, truly amazing."
He looked at Uma in front of him with a hint of admiration.
Faced with the probing in Rayleigh's words, Uma didn't respond directly.
He naturally understood what Rayleigh was talking about.
Yes—everything from the moment Luffy boarded the Aster to entering the Place of Trial was, of course, personally 'arranged' by Uma. The purpose was to confirm the state of the Nika Fruit in Luffy's body and help him master this power as much as possible.
And as for the question of how fruit awakening should be mastered, Roy could also confirm it during this process.
Currently, it seems the situation is going very smoothly.
"The essence of the Nika Fruit is the wish of 'freedom' plus the world's cognition of the Warrior of Liberation 'Nika' resisting oppression—once the fruit consumer conflicts with this wish and cognition at their profound core, they will directly 'lose control'."
"However, as the reincarnation of Joy Boy and Roger, although Luffy hasn't completely mastered Nika's power, his personality itself matches the personality Nika requires, so the fruit in his body didn't completely lose control, but instead presented the previous 'semi-out of control' state." So what Roy did was also very simple.
He utilized Monkey's Place of Trial, 'Mount Huaguo', to make Luffy closer to 'Nika'.
After all, coincidentally, the story of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven actually bears a considerable degree of similarity with Nika.
The Great Sage is a spirit monkey born of heaven and earth, who resisted oppression and declared war on the Heavenly Court and the gods.
Nika is the Warrior of Liberation, who resisted oppression and declared war on the Holy Land and the Celestial Dragons.
Both are spiritual totems pursuing 'freedom' and 'rebellion'.
"After the combination of the two, Luffy's spirit and personality will be closer to the needs of the 'Nika Fruit', and he can even preliminarily master the power of the Nika Fruit's awakening."
"And more crucially—the speed at which Lord Monkey's fruit is born will also accelerate, and it will carry part of the characteristics of the Nika Fruit!" To Roy, this was clearly a double blessing.
"I can exactly use this opportunity to make some preparations."
While Roy was pondering in his heart.
In a place neither Shanks nor Rayleigh noticed, a faint wisp of starlight actually slowly integrated into Luffy's body around him on the screen, slowly becoming a part of "Nika".
Roy had no intention of harming Luffy—in fact, as fellow resisters against Imu, he held no malice towards Luffy.
What he was doing right now was merely adding an extra layer of insurance for the future.
After all...
"If my guess is correct, the significance of the 'Nika Fruit' to Imu should be extraordinary."
"At a time when it's not very clear what exactly Imu is scheming recently, it's always right to be a bit more cautious."
While Roy thought of this, he also felt somewhat troubled in his heart.
To be honest, compared to the current false calm, he preferred returning to the time when the God's Knights and the Five Elders would launch surprise attacks on him from time to time.
After all, as long as Imu's side was still making moves, Roy could somewhat glean Imu's attitude and general direction from their actions. But now, with Imu and the entire World Government lying low.
It instead truly gave Roy an uneasy feeling of 'the calm before the storm'.
"No, it's not like I have no intelligence at all."
But exactly when he thought of this, Roy suddenly realized—to say he currently had no intelligence in his hands was not entirely true. After all, not long ago, Shanks had brought him a rather crucial piece of intelligence.
"Wano Country... Kaido..."
He whispered softly to himself in his heart.
Wano Country, Flower Capital.
Cherry blossoms fell, and the Flower Capital was as bustling as ever.
Inside the castle keep where the Shogun of the Flower Capital resided.
Pirates wearing the iconic attire of the Beasts Pirates were currently standing guard outside a room.
Inside the room.
"Troublesome..."
A tall man wearing a helmet with a face resembling a beast was standing here.
That was none other than the "Lizard King" Hanafuda.
Of course, to be more precise—that former Warlord of the Sea had actually died a long time ago. The one appearing here right now was actually Dog's Foxtail clone.
"If I had known the situation would be like this now, I shouldn't have chosen this 'special envoy' identity to avoid Kaido back then."
Right now, Dog was going crazy with regret in his heart.
"With the current situation, wanting to confirm the situation on Onigashima and the Beasts' current plans would seem somewhat abrupt..."
Yes.
Back when he eliminated the King of Assassins, he conveniently disposed of Hanafuda and Cracker, these two Four Emperor crew executives, and replaced them with his Foxtail clones.
But the significance of the two was different.
The main reason for replacing Cracker was that at the time he had already decided to make a move against Big Mom—after all, that Four Emperor was indeed pressing hard at the time.
Replacing Hanafuda, on the other hand, was something he had to do given the circumstances at the time.
But at that time, Roy actually hadn't thought about making a move against Kaido. Replacing Hanafuda was on the one hand to avoid Kaido seeking revenge against The Zodiac at the time, and on the other hand to conveniently plant a small nail.
So after the replaced "Cracker" and "Hanafuda" respectively returned to Totto Land and Wano Country, their behaviors naturally differed. Cracker secretly plotted everywhere in Totto Land, taking the opportunity to replace many members of the Charlotte Family, which led to the subsequent 'Battle of Totto Land'. But "Hanafuda" was different.
As everyone knew, although the entire sea knew Wano Country was "Kaido's" territory, the actual ruler of Wano Country was Kurozumi Orochi, while Kaido resided on Onigashima outside Wano Country as the nominal Guardian Deity.
The two cooperated with each other. Kurozumi Orochi obtained the identity and power of the Shogun, and needed to manufacture weapons to hand over to Kaido.
In exchange, Kaido would help him suppress the commoners and samurai of Wano Country.
But at the same time, deep in Kaido's heart, he already had a plan—sooner or later, he would support his own truly trusted person to the position of Wano Country's Shogun. To this end, he needed to ensure Kurozumi Orochi remained within his control.
This gave Dog an opportunity.
To avoid Kaido discovering anomalies on "Hanafuda", he specifically applied to Kaido for his current position—stationed in the Flower Capital, nominally responsible for liaising between both parties, but actually a "special envoy" dedicated to monitoring Kurozumi Orochi's movements.
This identity was considered a thankless job within the Beasts—it didn't hold much power, didn't have many opportunities to plunder wealth, and would even be guarded against by Kurozumi Orochi.
Before Kaido completely tore off the pretense with Kurozumi Orochi, his activities would also be extremely restricted.
So after Hanafuda proactively applied for this position, he naturally passed very smoothly. Kaido was even moved by this for a time, continuously inviting Dog to drink for many days, and whenever mentioning this matter would say "Brother Hanafuda, it's been hard on you".
Dog originally didn't mind.
His Foxtail clone only needed to be responsible for lurking anyway, nothing else mattered.
But now, the situation had changed.
The news brought by Shanks made the intelligence of Wano Country quite important.
What was the content of Kaido and Imu's cooperation? What were they planning to do next?
These were all questions Roy urgently needed to know.
But unfortunately, the identity of this special envoy kept him away from Onigashima, away from the core circle of the Beasts.
"If I actively mention wanting to go back to Onigashima now? Mm... I'll probably be suspected, right?"
"But not necessarily, after all, the Three Disasters have been dead for so long, yet the positions of the All-Stars are still temporarily vacant. This shows the Tobi Roppo cannot satisfy Kaido. He is exactly short on manpower right now..."
Dog pondered secretly in his heart.
And exactly at this moment...
"Lord Hanafuda."
Dog heard a crisp voice by his ear.
"Hm?"
He turned his head, and then saw that right by the window next to him, a crow had already landed on the windowsill.
On the crow's face was pasted a piece of paper, and an eye was drawn on the paper.
"It's me, Lord Hanafuda."
Under Hanafuda's gaze, the crisp voice continued to come from the crow's mouth.
"Bao Huang?"
After seeing the piece of paper, Dog naturally knew the other party's identity in his heart.
Bao Huang—one of the 'Headliners' of the Beasts Pirates, and simultaneously Kaido's secretary.
She possessed a special ability that wasn't a fruit ability, suspected to be related to the ninjutsu of Wano Country. By covering her face with this kind of paper, she could share the vision and hearing of all animals with the paper pasted on them, and could conduct "broadcasts" through this method.
In other words, she was the information transmission hub of the entire Beasts Pirates.
"Does Big Brother Kaido have instructions?"
So right now, Dog also reasonably asked.
"Yes, Lord Hanafuda."
Bao Huang didn't hide it either: "Lord Kaido has a matter he needs you to handle."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, the expression on Dog's face remained completely unchanged.
But in his heart, he was already surprised and delighted.
The delight lay in the fact that he was just worrying about not finding a reason to investigate the situation in Wano Country and Onigashima, and Kaido actually issued a mission to him. This truly felt like someone handing him a pillow just when he was feeling sleepy.
But the surprise also lay exactly here—he understood that the reason Kaido suddenly issued orders at a time like this was highly likely related to his cooperation with the World Government.
"I will immediately return to Onigashima now."
He decisively stated his stance like this.
But almost exactly as his words fell, Bao Huang interrupted him: "No, Lord Hanafuda, you don't need to return to Onigashima."
She looked at Dog: "You might not know yet—Lord Kaido has already appointed you as the 'Beast Disaster', one of the new Three Disasters."
"Your mission is to head to the Kuri region, take over the duties of the former 'Drought' Jack, serve as the 'Regional General Manager' of the Kuri region, and accelerate the weapon manufacturing in the area as much as possible, sending enough weapons back to Onigashima via ships in a short period of time."
"Besides this, there will be another All-Star, codenamed 'Ice Disaster'—she will inherit the duties of Lord 'Plague' Queen, responsible for managing areas like Udon."
"Also, entry and exit to Onigashima will be restricted in the coming period of time, managed by the final All-Star, 'Death Disaster'. Only ships transporting weapons are allowed to enter and exit."
As her continuous words fell, Dog's brows gradually furrowed deeply.
"All-Stars? New Three Disasters? Manufacture a massive amount of weapons in a short time?"
Something was indeed wrong.
He had already realized the abnormality of the situation in his heart.
One must know, after the Three Disasters fell in Dressrosa.
For such a long time, even though the 'Tobi Roppo' within the pirate crew had brought it up many times, Kaido had not appointed new "Three Disasters" as All-Stars.
Even the usual weapon manufacturing and trade of Wano Country had been much lower profile recently.
But now, not only did Kaido suddenly appoint new Three Disasters, but he also ordered him to manufacture a massive amount of weapons in a short period of time. All this indicated...
"Is Kaido preparing for war? Does he plan to attack somewhere?"
Wanting a massive amount of weapons manufactured could only mean Kaido was highly likely going to launch a war against somewhere next.
And not just that.
"He also blockaded Onigashima, this means there must definitely be certain changes happening inside Onigashima, and they cannot be known by anyone."
"And to actually have a Three Disaster responsible for managing Onigashima—could this mean Kaido is highly likely going to leave Wano Country recently?"
Dog pondered in his heart, but couldn't guess the specific situation within.
But clearly, he could at least be certain of what he should do.
"No matter what the enemy wants to do... I just need to sabotage their plans!"
☆☆☆
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you