Watching Yamato leave, Queen once again felt an ominous premonition rise in his heart. He had the feeling that something strange had set its sights on him yet again.
He still had not figured out the meaning behind Hawkins’s inexplicable words last time, and had remained terrified of the misfortune that might appear but had yet to arrive.
Now, before the original problem had even been resolved, Yamato had added a new one. That was certainly not good news for Queen.
“Damn it, I already avoided the most dangerous front lines. So what the hell is this feeling?”
Queen, sitting at the dining table, began to rack his brain, but still couldn’t come up with an answer. He also didn’t know why Yamato’s straightforward mind could sometimes work so fast in rare cases.
Moreover, her unique, unconventional ideas always led her down paths Queen could never anticipate, making them virtually impossible to guard against.
While Queen was still standing there agonizing over the matter, Yamato had already found Robin and begun discussing, or rather, unilaterally asking about certain policies.
“My opinion? I have no objections. The gap in strength is simply too great. Although most of our combat forces have already gone out to fight, there are still far too many people on the island capable of dealing with them.
They are weak, and we know exactly where they are. No matter how you want to handle them, I have several backup plans ready.”
Strength and strategy were not inherently contradictory, but when the disparity between the two sides became too great, the success rate of any scheme would plummet.
For the weaker side, strategy was a life-or-death means of securing victory. Success meant victory, while failure meant death. To engage in a contest of wits with the opponent, one first had to at least stand on an equal level.
For the strong, strategy was merely one path among many.
“So which group do you want to deal with first? The Marines or the pirates?”
Strictly speaking, there were only two unstable elements within Onigashima: the Straw Hats and Drake, people whose every move remained under Kaido’s control.
“Let’s deal with the pirates first. That b*stard father of mine seems to have some strange ideas about Red Flag. It’s like he thinks the guy might switch sides.”
Because of his love of war, Kaido also possessed a peculiar obsession with military strength. Now, due to Arceus’s influence, he had merely added another layer of “political screening.”
Judging by the course of events in the original timeline, regardless of species or personality, anyone who managed to pique his interest became a target for recruitment.
Powerful fighters were naturally valuable, but ordinary combatants were also an indispensable part of warfare.
Not only that, Kaido possessed an absurd degree of tolerance. The intelligence Drake had managed to send out had only been transmitted because Kaido wanted him to pass it along. Some of it even contained false information.
Even though Kaido knew Drake was a spy, he still showed him a certain degree of tolerance before Drake openly betrayed them.
Recalling him to Onigashima was merely a precaution. After all, if such an unstable combatant remained mixed in with the front-line forces, he might have a considerable impact on them.
“Young Miss, there is no need for you to concern yourself with Red Flag. I will handle his issue properly. To this day, not a single person who has received Lord Sacred Beast’s divine blessing has ever turned traitor.
This is his opportunity. If he insists on continuing down that path, he will pay the price for it.”
Yamato habitually complained about Kaido. To her, everything Kaido did was strange. Even when he appeared to be treating her well, there had to be some hidden scheme behind it.
Kaido had not betrayed Yamato’s trust in that regard, because that truly was how he behaved.
That was how the trust between father and daughter had gradually been worn away. By now, it had become an ingrained belief. Whenever Queen suffered misfortune, he could only complain about his bad luck, because he could not afford to provoke the people who brought that “misfortune” upon him.
Yamato, on the other hand, would openly criticize Kaido to his face. It was at that moment that Shayna walked in and bluntly stated that she would handle Drake’s problem.
Had Drake not possessed an ability granted through divine blessing, none of this would have mattered. However, due to extremely special circumstances, Drake did possess divine blessing, so the matter naturally became Shayna’s responsibility.
“In that case, I… understand. But Sister Shayna, is that a new Pokémon behind you? Why do I feel like it’s looking at me strangely?”
“Is it? I don’t think so. Before departing, Lord Sacred Beast specifically arranged for it to help with some information compilation tasks. It’s normal that you haven’t seen it over the past few days, Young Miss.”
Floating behind Shayna was a Pokémon composed of metal, with a large number of documents containing intelligence hovering around its body.
Four thick limbs extended from its blue-green body, while a huge metallic X was embedded across the front of its face. Its red eyes appeared extremely cold, yet were also filled with intelligence.
The Iron Leg Pokémon, Metagross, is a Steel/Psychic Powerhouse Pokémon.
Through the immense psychic power granted by its Psychic type, Metagross can fly freely. In addition to this tremendous psychic power, Metagross itself also possesses fantastic strength and terrifying biting force.
Like many Steel-type Pokémon, its biting force can effortlessly crush steel, making it formidable in both ranged and close-quarters combat.
However, even more outstanding than its strength is its intelligence.
Pokémon evolve in all sorts of strange ways. Besides conventional evolution, fusion-based evolution also exists, as demonstrated by the Metagross family.
The evolution of Metagross is closely connected to magnetic fields. Besides conventional evolution, a Metagross can also evolve through two Metang fusing under the influence of a strong magnetic field, while a Metang can likewise evolve through the fusion of two Beldum.
Once this family reaches its final evolutionary form, Metagross possesses four brains. Unlike Pokémon such as Dugtrio, whose heads think independently, Metagross’s four brains are linked together.
Through a complex neural network, Metagross’s brain functions as a biological supercomputer. Its memory, computational ability, and processing power are all more terrifying than those of a supercomputer.
A decision it makes in an instant may already have undergone hundreds or thousands of calculations and simulations within its mind. It was the battlefield analyst Arceus created before departing.
No one in the Beasts Pirates had ever fought a war on this scale. Even though Kaido was obsessed with warfare every day, the most he had ever participated in was a war between nations. Everything else had simply involved charging in headfirst.
Even now, aside from some temporary troop redeployments made after intelligence had been confirmed, the Beasts Pirates’ tactics still consisted of charging in headfirst. At most, they merely found different ways to do so.
Kaido’s logic was simple: as long as everyone defeated their respective opponents, then no matter what strategy the enemy used, it would be broken outright.
When it came to finding vanguard troops, the Beasts Pirates could assemble an entire vanguard battalion. But when it comes to intelligence analysis—something like the Marines’ staff department—they find that a bit difficult.
That was the reason Metagross had been created. Through its absurd computational power, it could broadly analyze the state of the battlefield and assess how different engagements would affect one another.
As Shayna took out more documents, the number of files flying around Metagross continued to increase. Metagross rapidly memorized the contents of the documents while simultaneously diverting part of its attention to deal with Yamato’s prodding finger.
The willfulness of Psychic-types was displayed with perfect clarity at this moment.
“Strange. Why do I feel like you’re discriminating against me? There’s something off about the way you’re looking at me, and I feel like I’ve seen that look somewhere before.”
The Power of Viridian naturally carried an aura of affinity, so Pokémon meeting Yamato for the first time could usually become familiar with her very quickly. Metagross had not developed any negative emotions toward her either.
“Let me think… Right, I’ve seen it from Blissey! Dad probably looked at me that way before too. Forget it, it’s nothing important. Remember to live well, okay?”
Treating it as something unimportant, Yamato quickly moved past the matter. Even after Metagross and Shayna left, she did not bring it up again.
Metagross and Shayna’s destination was Hakumai, for one simple reason: it was colder there.
Metagross itself had certain requirements regarding magnetic fields, and magnetic fields grew stronger in low-temperature environments. Metagross were generally more energetic in colder surroundings.
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