“Hasn’t this kind of thing happened before? Didn’t you do divinations back then too? I’m asking you to divine my situation, not Lord Arceus’s. What are you scared of?”
“Lord Queen, you said it yourself. That was in the past.”
“You b*stard…”
Queen realized that he seemed to have inexplicably triggered some kind of misfortune rule again. After the Divine Blessing Ritual, quite a few people had gained new abilities; the underlings were fired up, and it also served to intimidate internal factions.
Clearly, it was something that benefited the group as a whole, but when it came to him, things were different. Why had his reliable method of avoiding bad luck suddenly disappeared?
Hawkins’s behavior made Queen suddenly realize a very serious issue. This specially recruited subordinate of his was originally just a charlatan, spending his days doing tarot readings. After coming to Wano Country, he had even broadened his knowledge.
Crystal balls, fortune sticks, tortoise shells—he had dabbled in all of them, but his main tool was still tarot cards. They complemented his Devil Fruit ability; by drawing cards, he could occasionally pull off a moment of brilliance.
It was perfectly reasonable for a charlatan to feel awe after witnessing the Divine Blessing Ritual. Aside from Queen somehow getting caught in a vicious circle, there was no real problem overall.
“Lord Queen, there’s an event at the monastery this afternoon. I’ll go attend it first… please take care.”
Hawkins’s reply gave Queen no reason to stop him. Hawkins had already been participating in church activities over there; now he was simply becoming more active.
If word got out that he was preventing others from participating in church activities, that would cause real trouble.
But for Queen, Hawkins might as well not have said anything.
Hawkins only gave a rough judgment of good or bad without any details. To Queen, this was even more terrifying. The slap hanging beside his face that could fall at any moment was far more frightening than one that had already landed.
“Why is the future such a headache…”
Queen slumped onto the large sofa behind him. The layers of fat piled on his body seemed to hold countless worries. This ranking battle didn’t have many participants, since it wasn’t a large-scale rotation held on a designated island. By now, his hosting duties were basically over.
Because of the previous Divine Blessing Ritual, Onigashima was currently in an open state, its dome above not yet closed. Watching a Millennial Dragon fly across the sky, Queen suddenly remembered something.
“Apoo, I’ll leave things here to you. Handle anything that comes up.”
“Lord Queen, what do you mean by that?”
Queen’s words confused Apoo. For someone who loved the spotlight like Queen, handing over such an opportunity was completely abnormal. It couldn’t be that Hawkins had gotten under his skin and he wanted to vent his anger on him, right?
“I suddenly have something very important to take care of. Remember to stay alert, our ranking battles don’t forbid attacking the referee, and you might not be able to handle it.”
Wide leaf-like wings appeared behind Queen. With a surge of powerful air currents, he displayed agility completely mismatched with his size, disappearing from in front of Apoo almost like a teleport, leaving behind only a large black dot shooting toward the sky.
At the same time, in the sky above, Charlotte Katakuri, who had just boarded a flight to return to the waters of Totto Land, sensed the change below. Although this was Beasts Pirates’ airspace, he did not lower his guard and instead activated his Future Sight ability.
Only after seeing a brief glimpse of the future did he relax.
“Wait, that Millennial Dragon up ahead, stop for a moment!”
Queen didn’t call out to Katakuri directly, but used a more straightforward method to make the other side halt.
As soon as the words fell, before the Millennial Dragon could even enter a hovering state, Queen had already rushed over.
“Queen? What are you trying to do?”
“I suddenly remembered something very important.”
“What?”
“How can Observation Haki be trained to the level of seeing the future? Is there any trick to it?”
This was the conclusion Queen had just come to. Since relying on external help didn’t work, he would rely on himself. As long as he could master the ability to see the future, ideally looking two or three days ahead, he wouldn’t have to worry about what came next.
“Uh… fight, and rely on talent. If someone teaches you, it might be easier, but in the end, it mostly depends on yourself.”
If Future Sight was really that easy to teach, Katakuri would have already taught it to his siblings. Although the core of the Big Mom Pirates was Charlotte Linlin, Katakuri was more like the head of the family than anyone else.
Even though the ability to foresee the future was powerful, he wouldn’t keep it to himself because of that.
“I don’t have much time. You should be asking your Governor-General about this.”
Charlotte Katakuri knew that Kaido possessed this ability, so he had no reservations. After all, Queen wasn’t without other channels.
Likewise, Queen knew this too, but he chose to avoid Katakuri’s remark and quickly changed the subject.
“Boss Kaido should be pretty busy right now. There’s really no trick to it?”
“No.”
“Damn it… go ahead and send him back. Make sure to return on time.”
Queen didn’t continue pestering Katakuri. After giving a few instructions to the Millennial Dragon, he let them continue their journey. He didn’t want to delay the meeting a few days later.
“Should I really go ask Boss Kaido? No, that’s suicide…”
As one of the founding members, Queen understood Kaido well. With Kaido’s personality, if he knew Queen wanted to learn Future Sight, he definitely wouldn’t refuse.
But the next moment, he’d excitedly drag him into training. In Kaido’s way of thinking, whether it was Haki or control over Devil Fruit abilities, everything could be strengthened through battle. If you couldn’t learn it, then it just meant you hadn’t been beaten hard enough.
By then, he’d probably make Queen constantly experience the brink of death to help him learn.
As for how he knew…
That was exactly how Yamato had grown up. Queen had no intention of experiencing Kaido’s “loving education”. That stuff was truly deadly, even if it only took half your life.
If seeking Kaido weren’t so dangerous, he wouldn’t have bothered stopping Katakuri. Even though Katakuri was famous across the seas for this ability, compared to Kaido, the difference was like heaven and earth.
“This doesn’t seem to have any shortcuts… maybe I should go ask Red Hair? But that guy is pretty scheming, I might end up getting played by him again…”
Queen fell into deep indecision. He was facing a dilemma: was he destined for misfortune if he did nothing, or would his attempts to avoid bad luck ultimately lead to it anyway?
However, Katakuri couldn’t see the thoughts deep within Queen’s mind. If he knew Queen wanted to foresee several days into the future, he would have bluntly told him to give up. That level had already exceeded what humans could achieve.
Even Queen himself hadn’t realized it, but somewhere along the way, he had developed a kind of intuition. His sense that he was about to run into bad luck had already become a peculiar personal talent. Perhaps this was a form of human evolution.
While Queen was lost in hesitation, some of the Numbers had already left the temporary arena at Onigashima, and like Queen, they were also in a state of questioning their lives.
“Something’s wrong… this isn’t right…”
Page One sat by the shore of the inland sea, holding a brand-new fishing rod. The fishing line was taut, and the rod bent downward; the force transmitted to his palm told him another fish had taken the bait.
Page One believed his fishing skills were excellent. If he failed to catch fish, it was just due to occasional bad luck. He knew roughly how often he should be getting bites.
But ever since the Divine Blessing Ritual ended, he had cast his line six times in a row without a single miss. That was already abnormal.
“This time, it can’t be…”
With a hint of self-doubt, Page One skillfully lifted the rod. With a splash of water, a Magikarp was hooked onto his line.
“Again?!”
Looking at the six Magikarp in the temporary pool he had dug beside him, then at the seventh one on his rod, Page One was completely dumbfounded.
If he remembered correctly, he had once prayed for something like this. Now it seemed that wish had come true, just in an absurdly exaggerated way.
There were plenty of other fish in the inland sea of Wano Country, and many different kinds at that. He could even see their silhouettes, but for some reason, none of them would take the bait.
“What kind of nonsense is this… am I supposed to summon a monkey or something?”
Seeing that he had already gathered seven of them, almost enough to meet the summoning condition of the Seven Monkey Balls, Page One decisively released them back into the sea one by one.
The Monkey Balls was also a well-known comic strip across the seas. Although it didn’t rank as high as the World Government-promoted “Sora, Warrior of the Sea,” it was still quite famous.
As a new-generation member raised within the Beasts Pirates, Page One understood their rules better than those who joined midway. While Magikarp were absurdly numerous and catching a few wasn’t an issue, doing anything else with them would be inappropriate.
However, after releasing the Magikarp back into the sea, before Page One could even cast his line again, he had already triggered the mysterious “summoning condition.” Nereus’ figure had appeared in the seawater.
“Stop fishing. No matter how hard you try, you’ll only catch Magikarp during this period.”
“Why is that?”
“The power of my lord. The energy my lord released this time far exceeds the usual. Even if you didn’t notice it, it has already affected many things. This is something only Pokémon can perceive.
You were also present at the venue earlier, your body and your fishing rod have been tainted by that aura. Ordinary Magikarp cannot resist this kind of attraction, so no matter how you fish, no other fish will take the bait.
The moment your hook enters the water, schools of Magikarp will push all other fish away.”
“How long will this last?”
If every cast guaranteed a catch, but 100% of them were Magikarp, he didn’t even know how to describe such a situation.
Magikarp were now distributed on an outrageous scale. Across the Four Seas, the Grand Line, even in the Sky Islands where they had been blasted up by Knock Up Streams. Finding a body of water without Magikarp was extremely difficult.
“Not long. It should be over by tomorrow.”
“That’s good…”
Catching Magikarp only meant releasing them afterward. If the fish he caught couldn’t be shown off as trophies, then his life as an angler would lose all meaning.
At this time, Ulti had also finished her battle. The moment it ended, she left Onigashima and found Page One, bringing his fishing time to a complete halt.
Ulti’s match was also the final battle of this ranking battle, but the crowd did not disperse immediately.
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