"Leave a team here to keep watch on them. Have the communications officer report the situation to Fleet Admiral Kong. Everyone else, board the warship and patrol the nearby waters."
"Yes, Vice Admiral."
As the highest-ranking officer here, Kuzan was only responsible for giving orders. As for carrying them out, that was left to his subordinates.
"Vice Admiral, we've received word that the people in the village seem to be making a pirate flag for him."
"Making a pirate flag? Then he'll definitely be coming back here soon. Send another team to keep an eye on those villagers and see if they make any unusual moves. Remember, don't get rough with them."
"Yes, Vice Admiral."
Meanwhile, Shirakawa was searching from one pirate ship to another. There were plenty of pirates, but the sea was even bigger. Trying to find a pirate ship that suited his tastes really was not easy.
Flying through the air was faster, but it also drew attention, especially from the Marines. The Marine higher-ups all knew that Shirakawa was their target, so naturally, someone reported his movements back to Marine Headquarters.
They had only just received news that Shirakawa had disappeared, and right after that came reports of him showing up again.
But by the time the Marines arrived, Shirakawa had already vanished once more.
"Damn it. Just like the Golden Lion, this is a seriously troublesome ability."
Fleet Admiral Kong slammed his fist against the desk.
"If I'd known, I should've sent Borsalino. Shirakawa definitely wouldn't be faster than him."
"Don't worry. We've already received intel that he'll be returning to that village again. Kuzan has already made preparations for an ambush there."
It was Sengoku, one of the Admirals, who said this.
"I just hope Kuzan brings me some good news."
Kong let out a sigh. Even he had not expected dealing with a nobody to be this troublesome.
While flying through the air, there would occasionally be some blind fool of a pirate who tried to shoot him down. When it came to pirate crews like that, Shirakawa never showed mercy.
That was why, from time to time, some people would come across pirate ships split cleanly in half out at sea. There would not be a single person left aboard, nor would there be any survivors anywhere nearby.
"Oh? This pirate ship's not bad."
After searching for three whole days, he had finally found a type he liked. It was not a very large sailing ship, but for the current Silver Pirates, it was more than enough.
At that moment, the pirates aboard had yet to notice Shirakawa's presence. They were happily drinking and partying, probably because they had run into something worth celebrating.
Shirakawa landed on the ship and greeted the crew.
"Yo, hello there."
"Hello."
It seemed the pirates still had not realized that the one greeting them was a complete stranger, and one of them even answered back.
But then they quickly realized something was wrong.
"Who are you? How did you get onto our ship?"
One pirate who had come to his senses immediately questioned Shirakawa. Hearing his companion's voice, the others also instantly snapped awake.
"Who I am isn't important. How I got onto your ship isn't important either. I just want one thing from you."
"What thing?"
Shirakawa tapped the deck lightly with the tip of his foot and said, "Would you mind getting off? I've taken a liking to this ship of yours."
"Haha! Hahahahaha!"
The pirates, who had been a little tense at first, burst into laughter the moment they heard Shirakawa's words.
"You? You want our ship? Kid, do you even know who we are?"
"And who might you be?"
"We're the Tyrannosaurus Pirates! Our captain is Tyrannosaurus Riddle, with a bounty of 170 million berries!"
"170 million? That's pretty high."
In the first half of the Grand Line, any pirate with a bounty over 100 million was already considered very impressive. If they entered the New World and joined under one of the overlords, they could even get themselves a pretty decent position.
"But that's a shame. It's only 170 million. My bounty is even higher than your captain's."
"What?"
The crew clearly did not believe him. In their eyes, Shirakawa looked like some pretty boy.
"Kid, don't think you can scare us. We've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice."
At that moment, one pirate began flipping through the wanted posters in his hand. At last, he found one with a photo matching the person in front of him.
"There really is a wanted poster for him."
"Oh? Then read the bounty out loud so we can see just how much higher it is than our captain's."
"Let me see... Haha, I was wondering how much it was. So it's only 23 million."
"23 million? That's it? And you still dared say it's higher than our captain's bounty?"
The crew immediately began mocking Shirakawa mercilessly.
"Brother, are your eyes broken? I wouldn't mind getting you a pair of glasses. Or maybe your math's just terrible and you can't even count properly."
"What did you say?"
"Count the number of zeroes again and shout it out nice and loud, would you? I'm getting embarrassed for you."
"You..."
He pointed at Shirakawa, then lowered his head and looked back at the wanted poster.
"One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million..."
Slowly, he found himself unable to go on.
"What's wrong? Keep going."
Even his companions were getting anxious for him.
"Two... two... 2.3 billion..."
The pirate stammered those words out.
"What? 2.3 billion?!"
The whole pirate crew cried out in shock.
Hearing that, Shirakawa helplessly covered his forehead, as if he had a headache.
"Guys, it's 230 million."
He really could not stand watching anymore, so he said his own bounty out loud himself.
"Oh, so it's 230 million."
The pirates all let out a sigh of relief.
If it had really been 2.3 billion, they would not have even had the courage to resist.
"But even that's still higher than our captain's bounty."
"230 million, huh?"
At that moment, the captain of the Tyrannosaurus Pirates, who had not spoken until now, finally opened his mouth. He snatched the wanted poster straight out of his subordinate's hand.
That earlier mention of 2.3 billion had scared even him badly enough that he had nearly prepared to abandon ship and run. Fortunately, it had just been a false alarm.
"Then doesn't that mean that if I kill you, my bounty will rise past 200 million too?"
It sounded like he was asking Shirakawa a question, but his tone was full of certainty and arrogance.
"Of course. If you can kill me, your bounty might even go past 300 million. But can you do it?"
As one of the standards used to judge a pirate's strength, bounty naturally made many people hope theirs would be as high as possible. Even someone weak, if they happened to get a high bounty by chance, would definitely become wildly overinflated with confidence.
"Heh, brat, then let Grandpa Tyrannosaurus show you just how strong he is!"
Riddle let out an extremely arrogant laugh, as though Shirakawa was already in the palm of his hand. Even his crew began cheering him on.
It was obvious that this pirate crew was being carried entirely by their captain alone.
/-\
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