After seeing off the visitors in the prison, Babanuki returned to his resting place, though he felt that the prison had become rather noisy lately.
Aside from the original inmates, the newly arrived Law and Luffy were still manageable.
Take Law, for example. He could not really be considered a prisoner, only someone under house arrest. A fully developed religion could wield tremendous influence, let alone an orthodox religion that actually had a true god.
Since Law had been personally brought in by Lami, there was naturally no way he would be made to suffer like the other prisoners. His entire cell block looked completely out of place in Udon.
Luffy’s cell block, on the other hand, was no different from the others, but what Babanuki was more worried about were Luffy’s companions.
If someone said Luffy did not work, that would obviously be nonsense. For some reason, Luffy and Kid were currently even competing with each other for the position of the hardest-working inmate in the prison.
If all of Luffy’s companions could eat as much as Luffy did, Babanuki feared he really would have to request additional food supplies.
“Yo, you guys came to see me too?”
“…”
The effects of Queen’s Medusa drug had already worn off. Aside from Sanji, who still had not awakened due to excessive blood loss, everyone else saw Luffy right on schedule as he “got off work.”
“This is a prison! What are you even thinking?!”
“If you hadn’t gotten caught, would we have tried coming over here?! And why is your food different from ours?!”
Luffy’s warm and friendly greeting was met with reciprocation from his companions. If it weren’t for the prison bars still between them, they probably would have beaten Luffy up first.
At the same time, Hercules walked over, carrying those pickaxes behind him. The pickaxes that had accompanied them for so long on their journey had finally completed their long-sealed mission and found their respective owners.
If seeing Luffy treating prison life like a regular job was already difficult for them to accept, then seeing Hercules wearing a prison guard’s insignia was enough to completely shatter them.
Their captain was unreliable, and their strategist had “switched sides.” No matter who came, there was no way they could win like this.
“Hercules? You’ve already betrayed us?!”
Relatively speaking, Nami had suffered the lightest injuries. It was not because Queen had gone easy on her because she was a woman, but because knocking her unconscious was simply too easy. Queen had even needed to be careful not to accidentally crush her to death.
Nami subconsciously swung the pickaxe a few times and found, to her surprise, that it fit her hand extremely well. Not only was the size just right, even the handle had been polished so carefully that it would not chafe her palms.
Back then, Hercules had specifically adjusted the dimensions of each pickaxe according to every individual’s physique—a true model of “painstaking care.”
“Heraaacross~ [Don’t put it like that. It’s hard to define this sort of thing. I was born here in the first place. If you came here to cause trouble, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I already tried very hard to stop you from coming here.]”
“Heraaacross Heraaacross [You should try persuading Luffy instead. Joining another pirate crew doesn’t mean you have to take down your own flag. With my lord here, the Beasts Pirates can never lose.]”
The others were still scolding Luffy, even dragging him against the bars from the other side of the cage, while Hercules turned and left after explaining the important matters here.
There were limits to favors, and an insect’s influence was no exception. It had already been difficult enough to secure somewhat special meals for Luffy. As for the other Straw Hats, all Hercules could guarantee was that they would not go hungry.
It was merely a Heracross that had been roaming outside, not handpicked royalty like Nereus. As just one among countless Heracross, being able to arrange even this much already counted as preferential treatment.
“I didn’t want this either! It’s all because Kin’emon and Kanjuro tricked me!”
Unable to fight back, Luffy began shifting the blame, insisting that everything was caused by Kanjuro and the others. He then recounted what they had done with wildly exaggerated embellishments, indirectly diverting some of the anger away from himself.
“Enough, Straw Hat-ya. No matter what started all this, it doesn’t change the fact that your entire crew has ended up in prison.”
“That’s true, but shouldn’t you say ‘we’? You’re in here too, after all.”
Not far away, Law was speaking to them from across the distance. He had managed to negotiate a certain degree of freedom of movement, but Lami refused to let the guards release him. The final result was that Law had acquired a mobile cage, allowing him to act as a “tourist” inside Udon.
The moment he saw the situation with Luffy and Hercules, he had known that sooner or later the entire crew would be sent in here. But the instant he opened his mouth, Luffy’s reply left him speechless with anger.
“I’m different from you guys…”
“Fine, if you say you’re different, then you’re different.”
Even though Luffy had clearly gone along with Law’s claim, Law still felt inexplicably stifled. He simply used a long pole to push against the ground, propelling his mobile cage away from the area.
“Nami, don’t look so worried Look on the bright side, Hercules at least gave us tools”
Nami stared at the departing Hercules and Law, sinking into a kind of despair. But at that moment, a strange voice came from behind her. At first, Nami thought it was Bon Kurei, but after freezing for a moment, she realized it was Franky’s voice.
“Franky? Why are you clowning around at a time like this?!”
“I don’t wanna either, but Hercules replaced my cola with a cherry milkshake, and I can’t control myself…”
As a cyborg, Franky’s personality was affected by his energy source. With cola, he was a pe*vert; with strong tea, he became slow and laid-back. As for this cherry milkshake… it seemed to have turned him into one of Bon Kurei’s kind.
“Hahaha, you people really are interesting. But here’s some advice, surrendering early won’t do you any harm.”
A pirate walked over carrying a sheet of white paper and a pen, eventually stopping beside Brook.
“Sorry to trouble you, but Soul King, could you give me an autograph? My son’s a fan of yours.”
“Oh, no problem. Just a moment.”
Brook expertly signed his artistic autograph and even drew a smiling skull beside it. As a superstar singer who had once taken the world by storm, Brook had fans even in Udon.
Taking advantage of his position, the pirate successfully obtained Brook’s autograph and began another round of trying to persuade them to surrender.
Not far away, however, the scene was completely different.
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