Meanwhile, on Onigashima, Queen stared thoughtfully at the screen before him.
“Sir Queen, the targets’ identities have been confirmed. They are Straw Hat Luffy and his companions, the Surgeon of Death Trafalgar Law, as well as Kin’emon and Kanjuro. They are currently moving toward Kuri.”
They hadn’t appeared in a populated district but rather in a wooded area. However, there happened to be a surveillance camera installed there by Queen.
Normally, these devices remained dormant. But if an unidentified object suddenly appeared nearby, the equipment would activate, record footage, and transmit it back to Onigashima.
The setup was intended to guard against both intruders and Kaido.
The reason for the former was obvious. As for the latter, Queen simply didn’t want to be scared half to death by Kaido suddenly returning without warning.
Rotom had already verified their identities from its database and delivered the information to Queen.
“If I’m not mistaken, those guys escaped to find reinforcements, right? And this is the kind of trash they came back with? Why do they think people whose bounties aren’t even a fraction of mine can accomplish anything?”
“Brother Queen, isn’t this perfectly normal? Anyone with a bit of common sense wouldn’t come challenge us voluntarily. Only hotheaded idiots would be fooled into coming here. Want me to go capture them?”
Mandrell, standing nearby, didn’t find the situation strange at all. He had returned for vacation. Earlier, for safety reasons, he had already sent his wife and daughter back to Onigashima, so naturally he had returned here as well during his leave.
His former territory had now been taken over by Olga, who had returned from her travels, so there were no security concerns.
“No, wait a bit. I’ll report this to Boss Kaido first. If something gets damaged, I don’t want to be the one taking responsibility.”
Queen rejected Mandrell’s suggestion and instead contacted Kaido through Rotom. At the moment, Kaido had not yet begun another round of father-daughter activities with Yamato, so he responded quickly.
“Straw Hat Luffy? He’s one of those rookies from the Worst Generation, isn’t he? That whole bunch has quite a lot of nerve…”
“Boss Kaido, how do you think we should handle them? Send them straight to Udon?”
“Udon? No. I’ve been bored lately. I remember Bat-Man submitted intelligence on that group. The evaluation said they were potential recruits, right?”
“Uh… Boss Kaido, give me a second.”
Queen opened the database and carefully searched through it before confirming Kaido’s statement.
“That’s right. He did report that before. Oh, and that Rumble Ball was invented by their ship’s doctor…”
“Worororo! Interesting rookies like this don’t come around very often. It’d be a waste to just kill them.”
Kaido took out his own Rotom, thought for a moment, then opened the senior officers’ group chat and tagged everyone currently on Onigashima.
Governor-General: Guys, I’ve decided to play a game. A group of outsiders has entered Wano Country, and they’ve even disguised themselves. Let’s place bets on which one of them gets exposed first!
“Boss Kaido, isn’t that kind of meaningless? The moment they reach a populated area, their suspicious behavior will be reported immediately. This betting game probably won’t even last until noon tomorrow. Sounds pretty boring.”
Queen voiced his objections. If he’d known Kaido wanted to play things this way, he might as well have let Mandrell capture the group immediately. If they actually damaged something, it would be impossible to tell who should take the blame.
“And if they break anything, Lord Arceus won’t be happy either.”
“You don’t need to remind me of that. I remember a batch of new talent was brought in here two days ago, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Make them some fake IDs, then assign people to keep an eye on them. As long as they don’t break our rules, don’t capture them yet. That’ll make things more interesting.
Let’s see which one of those brats is the first to break the rules.”
Governor-General: As for the wager, the winner can ask me for one favor. Betting closes at dawn. Make your choices!
Kaido had already made up his mind, leaving Queen with no room to argue. Instead, he now had to spend the night arranging fake identities for them.
“Forget it, don’t bother arranging anyone to handle the tracking. I’ll assign someone specifically for it.
Maybe we can even set up a live broadcast or something. The war’s coming soon anyway, it’ll help everyone relax a bit.”
Looking at the responses in the group chat, Kaido smiled with satisfaction and immediately left to make arrangements for the surveillance.
Onigashima became busy because of Kaido’s sudden whim.
Meanwhile, the Straw Hats encountered a rather unusual problem.
They got lost.
“Aren’t you two locals? How are you getting lost?”
Law was in a terrible mood. He hadn’t expected Kin’emon and Kanjuro to lead them around the mountains in circles while completely failing to find their destination.
“That’s strange. It should be around here. I remember there being a cave somewhere in these mountains. It would’ve been perfect for resting.”
“Tra-guy! There seems to be a huge house up ahead!”
While Law was still questioning the two of them, Luffy made a new discovery. A rather luxurious villa stood among the forested hills.
The building was completely dark, however, with no lights visible inside, making it seem abandoned.
“What should we do? Want to rest there for the time being?”
The group cautiously observed the house from the mountainside.
Only after repeatedly confirming that nobody appeared to be inside did they carefully sneak in, without even having to deal with a locked door.
In the dim darkness, none of them noticed the unusual nameplate hanging outside:
【Kai’s Dog House】
This wasn’t a house for people at all. It was a vacation villa that Kojiro had prepared for Growlithe. The season wasn’t suitable for vacations at the moment, so no staff had been left behind.
Moreover, this wasn’t Kuri. It was Kibi.
Neither Kin’emon nor Kanjuro had ever carefully observed what Wano Country looked like twenty years in the future. When they first arrived through time travel, they hadn’t had the opportunity. Their most urgent task back then had been escaping.
They knew nothing about how the whole country had changed. Their impression of Kibi was still that of a barren wasteland, while the lush, green scenery before them was something they associated only with Kuri.
As a result, Kin’emon and Kanjuro had been following what they thought was the route through Kuri while actually wandering through Kibi. The fact that they couldn’t find what they were looking for was completely normal.
“Hercules, come over here and dry yourself off. Your wings are soaked. Why are you still carrying those pickaxes? Are they that important to you?”
Luffy wrung the rainwater from his clothes before turning around and helping dry Hercules. Meanwhile, Sanji and Law examined the interior of the building, finding it increasingly strange.
“Didn’t you say the people of Wano were being oppressed and living miserable lives?”
“That’s right. Back then, Kurozumi Orochi and Kaido—”
“Are you sure an oppressed person could afford to build a doghouse this big?”
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