“Your experiences haven’t been easy either.”
“Compared to before, the seas are far more turbulent now. Still, those disgusting types are only a minority. They really think knowing a few secrets is enough to control others.”
“Looks like I can’t compare to you anymore. What should we do next?”
After sighing at the gap in strength, Avnisha put away his twin spears. The feeling was quite strange to him.
When they parted, he had only been a little kid. But upon meeting again, he had already grown into someone capable of standing on his own.
“Let’s clean this place up first. We can’t just let them rot here and pollute the air.”
A blazing fire burned everything here to ashes. Just as King and Avnisha were about to return to where the other Lunarians lived, a green vine suddenly extended from the side.
“Bulba Bulba Bulba~”
“Hm?”
Looking at the vine wrapped around his ankle, King felt puzzled. But when his gaze shifted to Bulbasaur, his expression turned strange, because on another vine, Bulbasaur was holding a peculiar-looking fruit.
“This is… a Devil Fruit?”
It looked like a starfruit, with dark green skin covered in distinct spiral patterns, and a ring of short antenna-like protrusions on top. With such a bizarre appearance, it could only be a Devil Fruit.
“Alber, don’t you think this fruit carries the ability of that hyena? That ability should be pretty decent, right?”
Some fruits show no obvious traits from their appearance, but others carry clear characteristics of their abilities, like the flame patterns of the Flame-Flame Fruit, or the leopard skin of the Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Leopard.
The battle had just ended, and Avnisha hadn’t forgotten what their enemy looked like. This fruit practically displayed its own traits, so even without the picture book, King and Avnisha could roughly determine that it was the Frankenstein Fruit.
“The ability is good, but isn’t this way too fast?”
After a Devil Fruit user dies, the fruit is reborn somewhere in the world. This isn’t a secret on the seas. But killing an enemy one moment and having the fruit grow right beside you the next was something even King had never encountered before.
The last time something this coincidental happened was when they had just set out to sea, and Queen kicked the pteranodon fruit out of a box in a fit of anger.
“Luck… no, it’s this world!”
“The power of the god has enveloped this world, preventing the Door-Door Fruit’s user from escaping, so the fruit was reborn here as well. Is that what you mean, Alber?”
Their speculation was correct. The Reverse World didn’t belong to the normal world to begin with, especially since Giratina had sealed off this space.
“Yeah. But my luck isn’t bad either. This world is so vast, yet one just happened to be reborn right near us, and it was even picked up by them.”
Pokémon weren’t any less intelligent than humans. Moreover, there was Queen in the Reverse World, constantly cultivating all sorts of strange plants.
Pokémon clearly understood what could and couldn’t be eaten. Bulbasaur, who had helped Queen grow artificial Devil Fruits, immediately recognized the unusualness of this fruit and knew what to do.
After putting the fruit away, King bent down and patted Bulbasaur on the head.
“If this fruit is here, the others should be around too, right? Let’s look for them. They might be nearby.”
Not just King and Avnisha, even Bulbasaur sprang into action. As for Giratina, after finishing matters here, it had already turned to expanding the Reverse World.
Although the Reverse World was its domain, such a minute change as the rebirth of a Devil Fruit didn’t catch its attention. Just like no one notices an extra speck of dust in their home, Giratina was no different.
While they began searching for the fruits, changes were also happening in the outside world.
For example, on Socializing Island, Dobon looked extremely excited; he rarely wore formal clothes and had even dressed himself up.
There were many others on the island in the same situation as him. For today’s matter, they had also paid quite a price.
First, let’s move the timeline back a bit. Within Wano Country, a new round of internal conflict had already broken out. To put it simply, these people were fighting for the right of priority mate selection.
“Boss Babanuki, are you really not going to stop them? Or join in yourself? If Dobon and Daifugo keep going like this, it’ll never end.”
“What’s the rush? It’ll be over soon. It’s rare to see them this desperate, why stop them? As for joining… I’m not interested in women.”
Babanuki yawned, then looked down at the battlefield below with some interest.
The number of Kuja members was limited, far fewer compared to the Beasts Pirates.
For the Kuja, men were a curious yet unfamiliar species. So during the first social gathering, not many wanted to participate. Most of those involved were members of the Kuja Pirates acting as pioneers for this event.
Considering the issue of pairing the number of participants, the Beasts Pirates adopted their usual rule: those who want to go must sign up first, and then have a fight to reduce the numbers.
“Daifugo, just give it up! You should wait for next time. Hand this chance over to me!”
Within the Sand Tomb, Dobon slowly revealed his head. By now, the once solid ground had completely turned into an ocean of yellow sand. For a Hippowdon, a sea of sand was the most comfortable homeland, but for Daifugo trapped within it, every step became nearly impossible.
Boom! Boom!
Two Mud Bombs shot out from Daifugo’s hands, but the rapidly spinning sand threw off his balance, and both attacks missed.
“You’re really going all out!”
“Do you know how rare this chance is for me?! I’m never giving up!”
Udon mine had four officers in total. Aside from the warden Babanuki, there were three Wardens Wardens: Daifugo, Holed’em, and Dobon—the latter having replaced Sasaki after his promotion and transfer.
Three of the four were required to remain stationed there at all times, and this social gathering had allocated two officer spots to them.
Holed’em, after finishing repairs at the venue, never returned and directly took one spot. After Babanuki voluntarily withdrew, the final slot became the prize contested between Dobon and Daifugo.
And the reason Dobon was fighting so desperately was simple—he was ugly.
The world always judged by appearances. In the eyes of ordinary women, Dobon’s attractiveness was practically zero, given his naturally hippo-like face. But from some inside information, Dobon found a glimmer of hope.
He had heard that Kuja women didn’t care about looks, but valued strength. Because in Kuja culture, strength equaled beauty.
Since it was their first social gathering and there was no comparison, the success rate would naturally be higher. That was why Dobon was putting in so much effort.
“Give it up! The more you struggle in my Sand Tomb, the deeper you sink. You can’t escape!”
“That’s not necessarily true.”
Seeing the sand had already reached his waist, a stream of water began to surge over Daifugo’s body. With the help of the water, he gradually showed signs of breaking free. He planned to use the move Liquidation to escape directly.
But Dobon didn’t give him the chance. Within the sand, Hippowdon’s normally heavy body became incredibly agile. Dobon had already leapt into the air ahead of him and launched a Body Slam downward.
Boom!
Daifugo’s Liquidation was interrupted midway, and he only managed to slash out two Razor Shells. Though they left two large wounds on Dobon, he was still pinned beneath him.
“Damn it… fine, you win this time. Hurry up and get lost and take a bath. Don’t you know you stink?!”
Daifugo impatiently admitted defeat. He could keep fighting, but there was really no point.
Just like that, Dobon successfully secured a spot in the first round of participation and arrived on the island with the others.
“Holed’em, where are they? Why haven’t I seen a single Kuja member?”
“What’s the rush? They’re the guests. Besides, it’s not time yet, you just came too early.”
Compared to Dobon’s seriousness, Holed’em seemed much more relaxed, casually roasting meat over the flames in his palm.
“I’m really not used to seeing you this serious. I’d suggest you loosen up a bit, or sooner or later something’s going to go wrong. By the way, why didn’t Lord Queen come? I can’t believe he’s not participating in something like this.”
At this point in time, Shayna was out with Arceus, King hadn’t shown himself in the Reverse World, Jack had left Onigashima shortly after the Divine Blessing Ritual ended, and Olga had also left with him.
It wouldn’t be good for the outer seas to have no senior officers around, but Queen hadn’t left. Logically, even if he didn’t participate, he should have at least come to oversee things.
“‘I’m so handsome and powerful that even gaining weight can’t hide my charm. If I went, there’d be nothing left for you guys.’ Lord Queen said that.”
Shrugging, Dobon repeated Queen’s exact words from earlier on Onigashima.
“…Yeah, that does sound like something Lord Queen would say. But let me ask you, what’s your standard for choosing a partner?”
“Well… alive, female, and at least somewhat pleasing to the eye.”
“…Your standards really aren’t high. But that might actually help you, otherwise, it wouldn’t be easy for you to compete.”
“What do you mean? Doesn’t Kuja recognize strength as beauty?”
Hearing Dobon’s words, Holed’em suddenly patted his shoulder. Dobon even saw a trace of pity in his eyes.
“Next time you hear rumors, make sure you hear the whole thing. They do value strength as beauty here, but not the way you think.”
Holed’em then explained the specifics. Simply put, if appearance accounted for five points in a normal society, here it only counted for two.
Strength could make up the difference, but the conversion rate wasn’t that high. Even though many Kuja had never seen men before, they still hoped their partners would have both strength and looks. If the gap was too big, they would still be rejected.
“Got it? And you’ve got plenty of competition too, like me.”
“Huh? You’re saying you’re definitely stronger than me?”
“My number’s smaller than yours. And take a look over there.”
“Who’s-Who?! Why is he here too?”
“Who knows. Anyway, you can’t beat him in either looks or strength. But by your standards, you might still have a chance… Alright, they’re here. You’d better get ready.”
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