“Hercules, you don’t think I can do it either?”
“Heraaacross! [The situation is different! Haven’t you realized the gap in strength yet? He was just drunk and playing with you. You couldn’t even withstand an ordinary attack from him, and you couldn’t even break through his defense. How are you supposed to go any further?!
Even if you could defeat him by some method, you still wouldn’t be a match for my lord. My lord’s power is something you simply can’t imagine!]”
Hercules knew Luffy was stubborn, and it knew Luffy was hard to change, but it still wanted to do everything it could to try and avoid some meaningless things.
From the look of things, Kaido was clearly interested in Luffy, and that made this an excellent opportunity.
“Heraaa…cross. [I know you want to become the Pirate King, but we can wait. Laugh Tale is right there. The island isn’t going to run away. You can go there later.]”
“That does sound right. I’ve been captured anyway, so I guess I should talk about that after I escape. Hercules, you should know where the key is, right? These chains are really weird. I clearly still have strength, but I can’t use my abilities.”
Luffy tugged at the chains on his hands and discovered the special nature of Wano Country’s prison.
This was precisely the unique craftsmanship of Wano Country. By adjusting the ratio of Seastone components, they could restrict a Devil Fruit user’s powers while allowing them to retain their physical strength.
“Heraaacross! [What are you thinking?! That won’t do you any good at all. You should still think about what I said. I haven’t hurt you once in all these years, have I?]”
“That’s true, but…”
“Heraaacross. [Forget it. Think it over carefully. There’s still plenty of time. Oh, right, you still have to work like those prisoners. I don’t get any special treatment here. At most, I can let you fill your stomach first.]”
If Luffy could be persuaded with just a few words, then he would not be Luffy. Hercules felt there was still plenty of time. Otherwise, there would not be so many prisoners here. Among them were also a few people Kaido was interested in.
Although Hercules felt that it did not have any privileges, that was only what it thought. In Udon’s high-pressure environment, having food to eat right after waking up was already an indescribable privilege.
It was just that, for the time being, no one made any protests or anything of the sort. The rules here were built purely on the foundation of force. If they dared to cause trouble, the prison guards here really would take action.
Of course, not everyone would do that. The reason they kept quiet was because they had seen the consequences. Some newcomers did not know the price, such as Kin’emon and Kanjuro.
At least Luffy still had someone looking after him. After those two were knocked unconscious, they were simply thrown straight into a cell. Since Kanjuro’s stamina had been drained dry by Queen, he still had not woken up. Only Kin’emon sat up groggily.
Perhaps because he had been beaten until he was somewhat delirious, he still had the guts to talk big to the prison guards patrolling nearby. This also caught Hercules’s attention.
“Heraaacross. [Those are the two who pretended to be you and caused quite a commotion outside. That’s why you were discovered.]”
At the very least, it had to clearly point out some of the culprits to Luffy and let him understand who had secretly harmed him behind his back.
“So it was them?! I knew it! How could my perfect disguise have been discovered… Wait! I remember I came here to find traces of Grandpa. If this place is a prison, then…”
Hercules knew very well that Luffy’s train of thought jumped around wildly, so it was not strange that he would remember something he had completely forgotten at a time like this.
Hercules reached its hand through the gap in the cell, then grabbed Luffy’s head and helped rotate it, letting him see where Garp was frozen in ice.
“Heraaacross. [Even your grandpa has been captured. You can’t beat your grandpa, so you should understand reality now, right?]”
Besides Garp, Koby and the others were also imprisoned nearby. But with so many faces appearing at once, Luffy’s brain had temporarily reached its limit.
Just as Luffy’s limited processor had yet to finish processing the situation here, another Heracross appeared in his field of vision.
It was ten times the size of Hercules, with two blade scars at the corners of its eyes, and even the shell on its body bore some scars. From the moment it appeared here, its goal was exceptionally clear. It walked straight toward Hercules.
“Hera~.”
If Hercules was playing the good cop, then this Heracross was playing the bad cop. The first thing it did after arriving here was fire a Focus Blast in Kin’emon’s direction.
This was both something Hercules had asked it to do earlier, and no one else stopped it either. After all, Kin’emon and Kanjuro’s actions had indirectly caused the result of the bet to change, and some of the officers were very unhappy about that.
“Heraaacross. [I made you a prison guard, not this brat’s babysitter. Don’t forget your identity, and don’t make things difficult for Lord.]”
This Heracross was not the leader of the group. It was merely a friend Hercules had made before leaving Onigashima. To be precise, they had already been friends back when they had not yet become Pokémon, but were just a group of ordinary beetles.
During the time Luffy was unconscious, Hercules had already activated all of its connections, including asking an old friend to come teach Kin’emon a lesson and, along the way, reprimand itself so Luffy would understand the seriousness of the situation.
The paths they had chosen back then had been different, and the Heracross had each developed in different directions. Because of two bites of food, Hercules had walked down a path of no return and had no choice but to specialize in intelligence.
Kabu followed Uta around performing everywhere, so its flight and speed had been trained. As for this Heracross that had remained on Onigashima, it had walked the path of a warrior, and the scars on its body were proof.
Following what Hercules had asked of it earlier, it drove Hercules away from here and signaled for Luffy to go work immediately.
“Don’t be so mean to Hercules! Aren’t you the same species?”
“Hera~ [The one making things hard for it is you. If not for you, it would have it much easier than it does now.]”
Pokémon languages all had some variants to some extent, and this dialect of Heracross language happened to be the only foreign language Luffy was proficient in. This also allowed Hercules to smoothly carry out its plan.
After that, Hercules never showed itself again.
However, Hercules was not just watching from some corner. Hercules still activated its backup plan.
Finding Udon’s public telephone booth, Hercules took out the number it had gotten from Uta’s Kabu the last time they met. Phones inhabited by Rotom were still standard equipment for officers or special talents. Ordinary pirates did not each have an internal commercial-use version.
When necessary, these public phones were also a decent choice.
“Heraaacross? [This number… this armband… why are you back on Onigashima?]”
“Heraaacross. [It’s a long story. Where’s Uta? You’d better tell her to get ready to come fish someone out. I’ve got a rather bad feeling.]”
Hercules, who was utterly fraught with worry, had now activated every insect connection it had, striving to ensure that things would not develop in an irreversible direction.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Wano Country, the news of a new day also began to spread across the country with the newsboys’ bicycles.
In the Flower Capital, the Sirfetch’d were lined up in a neat formation. Overall, they looked like one large arrow. Only after returning to Hyogoro’s dojo did the leading Sirfetch’d let out a breath of relief.
“Sir~fetch’d!”
With a wave of its hand, the surrounding Sirfetch’d dispersed on their own. Only Zoro was still left where he was. On the way back here, Zoro’s sense of direction had caused the Sirfetch’d quite a bit of trouble.
This sparring partner was extremely useful. To prevent the sparring partner from somehow getting lost, they simply surrounded Zoro in the middle. Although they did not survive as a team like Falinks, they were still Pokémon with relatively strong discipline.
But even though they were packed together as tightly as a knightly formation, Zoro was still somehow able to walk out through the gaps. Left with no other choice, they had to escort him like a prisoner before they successfully brought him back.
“Zoro-kun? Why are you back so early? Was yesterday’s holiday enjoyable?”
“Ah… it was all right.”
Faced with Hyogoro’s wife’s friendly question, Zoro could only casually brush it off. Yesterday, he had successfully walked out of this street, but still had not walked out of the Flower Capital. He intended to bury that matter completely in his stomach.
However, at that moment, Zoro caught sight of the newspaper that had just been delivered at the door. He seemed to see an extremely familiar face.
“Um… can I take a look at the newspaper?”
“Of course. Speaking of which, every time newcomers enter Wano Country, some little accident happens. This time there was actually an arsonist. How dangerous.”
Casually complaining about these bizarre incidents, Hyogoro’s wife also walked back into the house. Only Zoro remained, rubbing his head.
[The main culprit in the arson case has been arrested and brought to justice. It was an act of drunken misconduct.]
Beside the brief text was a photo of Luffy. Although this whole affair had been caused by Kin’emon and Kanjuro, what the witnesses had seen was Luffy. Rather than racking their brains trying to explain exactly what had happened, it was better to simply reassure them this way.
Almost at the same time, inside the weapons factory in Ringo, Nami and Franky had already seen the exact same news.
“No way. Wasn’t Hercules with Luffy? How could it let Luffy set a fire?”
Franky took off his goggles and looked at the information in the newspaper in disbelief.
“This isn’t something Luffy would do. He was probably used by someone again… Was it Kanjuro and the others? I remember that on Whole Cake Island, Kanjuro used his ability to do something like this.”
They still had confidence in Luffy. Although their captain was impulsive, acted without thinking, and often made a mess of things, he was not someone who would casually set fires. At the very least, given Wano Country’s current situation, they could not figure out why Luffy would do something like this.
“Their abilities could indeed pull it off, but why would they do that? Would it benefit them somehow?”
“Maybe they wanted to use Luffy to draw attention? That idiot must have been fooled by someone again. But they seem to have failed. The newspaper only mentions Luffy.”
Nami flipped through the newspaper several more times in succession, but she could not find any other news. A bad feeling had already risen in Nami’s heart.
Inside the kitchen on Onigashima, Sanji, who was simmering soup, also had his attention drawn by the discussion of the cooks nearby. Because he had been too focused, he almost ruined the pot of soup.
In Kibi’s theater troupe, even Usopp and Bon Kurei wore highly abstract theatrical expressions on their faces. Even Law’s hand trembled slightly—he had still encountered the very situation he least wanted to see.
As for the Beasts Pirates’ side, Poker, who had already gone out to sea, also received an internal fax.
“So the brat who ambushed me was actually O-Tsuru’s ex-husband???”
“You wouldn’t be wrong to put it that way, but his news wasn’t published in the paper. The higher-ups don’t seem to intend to mention him. I’d guess he’ll end up inexplicably evaporating in the end.
“You know it too. The Kozuki family’s affairs are far more complicated than they look.”
The people on the ship were telling Poker to take it easy, and Poker himself wasn’t bothered by it either. Since Onigashima had sent him a message, it couldn’t have been just to deliberately unsettle him; there must have been some special arrangement already in place.
In fact, it was more or less as Poker had guessed. Although the news had not circulated domestically or abroad, it appeared before Kozuki Hiyori right on schedule.
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