“Boss Kaido, science is a rigorous matter! Please think carefully—are you really not just saying this on purpose because you want to fight?”
Hearing Kaido’s words, Queen’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. His reverse-engineered Rumble Ball had failed. He wasn’t too upset, though—after all, this was just the first finished product, and there was still a lot to explore. Failure wasn’t a big deal.
But if failure ended up acting as a stimulant and Kaido ate it, then this was no laughing matter.
Given Kaido’s personality, it was entirely possible he would play around with something like this.
“No, I really do have some anger bubbling up inside me right now.”
“Heh heh, Boss Kaido, you’ve exposed yourself! If you were truly angry, there’s no way you’d be able to hold back right now!”
Queen seemed to see through everything and didn’t believe Kaido’s words at all.
“If you were really enraged due to an external factor, you’d have already started fighting—”
“BOOM!”
“Gulp…”
Swallowing hard, Queen looked at the kanabo that had just smashed down next to his feet. He suddenly remembered something—whether Kaido was genuinely angry or just pretending, it seemed like there was no escaping this…
“You’re using your smarts in the wrong way, Queen. If I really wanted to beat you up, would I even need an excuse?”
“……”
With that one sentence, Kaido shut down all arguments. He was right—being someone who believed strength was everything, Kaido didn’t need a reason to do something. If he wanted to do something, he simply did it. That was the essence of his actions.
“But this thing of yours really doesn’t cause any physical transformations. Instead, it just makes people angrier. Looks like your research was a failure.”
“In that case, I’ll just go back and continue my research. It shouldn’t be too difficult…”
The effect had shifted from affecting the body to affecting the mind—he must have made a mistake somewhere. As long as he reorganized his experiments, he could fix it.
Besides, he really didn’t want to be beaten up by Kaido. But just as he was about to leave, Hassaikai had already blocked his way.
“After all this, you think you can just walk away? Thunder Bagua!”
“But Boss Kaido, you were the one who insisted on trying it!”
This was exactly why Queen didn’t want Kaido to test it in the first place. He wasn’t afraid of poisoning Kaido—Kaido’s body was far too resilient for that—but he was afraid of Kaido going berserk. Yet some things were simply unavoidable.
In the end, Kaido even ended up developing a new technique because of it. In a way, Queen had made a major contribution.
……
On the beach of Hakumai, the aftermath of Onigashima had left Wano Country’s inland seas no longer calm. The surging waves forced the few remaining fishermen back to shore.
“Wise King has started again, huh.”
“Well, it is Wise King, after all. It’s thanks to his power that we have the life we do now.”
These people were relatively young. On the night of Wano Country’s coup, most of them had been too young to understand anything. Growing up in this environment, they held no resentment toward the Beasts Pirates. Instead, they believed that everything they had now was due to the Beasts Pirates, and that their rule over this land was only natural.
Following the inland river, the banks were lined with ordinary residents. Occasionally, a few Pokémon could be seen accompanying them. There were also some unlucky souls who had gotten injured and were being taken to the Pokémon Center for treatment.
Now there’s even a specialized Mareep Electric Burns Department. Some people just refused to believe the warnings and ended up electrocuted after touching a Mareep with their bare hands. Some older folks even team up to prank newcomers, tricking them into grabbing Mareep’s wool with their bare hands.
These days, if you hadn’t been shocked by a Mareep at least once, you’d be embarrassed to say you worked there.
Continuing along the inland river led to the Flower Capital. Inside the palace, Delia was reading the freshly delivered newspaper.
“Wow, Boss really went and did something incredible this time.”
【King the Conflagration—Kaido’s Right-Hand Man】
【Vice Admiral Strawberry Killed in Action, Marines Mourn His Loss】
【Marines Humiliated By King—A More Dangerous Era Is Here】
“Morgans sure has guts, writing stuff like this.”
Grabbing a bottle of rum, Delia downed it in one go. Even she had to admit Morgans had some nerve. The man truly had no fear of being a clickbait king, daring to write absolutely anything for headlines.
Though King had not yet returned, news of the battle had already reached Wano Country. However, there was little information about Blackbeard and Ace—the World Government was still preparing something regarding the matter and had not made any immediate announcements.
Looking at the newspaper filled with one major event after another, Delia couldn’t help but be a little surprised. A lot had happened on the seas while she had been away.
Just then, a knock came at the door, and Kikunojo walked in, with a Comfey floating above his head.
“Miss Delia, I’ve told you to cut back on the drinking. The doctor said that Comfey’s petal water can help with healing wounds. Your eye is still… still…”
Kikunojo trailed off, suddenly noticing something odd about Delia.
“Miss Delia, if I remember correctly, your injured eye was the right one, wasn’t it? So could you please explain why your eyepatch is covering your left eye?”
Ever since returning to Wano Country, Delia had been using her injury as an excuse to occupy a great deal of Kikunojo’s time.
Kikunojo himself believed that Delia’s eye injury was entirely his fault, so he had been going along with all of her requests without question. But now, he realized he might have misunderstood something.
Her right eye looked perfectly fine.
“Huh?”
Touching her eyepatch, Delia realized the issue.
Her eye had actually healed not long after returning to Wano Country. Aside from a few days of pain, there were no lasting effects. But that didn’t stop her from using the injury as an excuse to scheme for her own agenda.
For instance, she had been wearing an eyepatch to pretend that her eye was still in bad shape. But earlier, when she was reading the newspaper, Kikunojo hadn’t been around. Since the eyepatch was uncomfortable and in the way, she had taken it off.
Then, the shocking news had completely absorbed her attention. So when Kikunojo entered, she had absentmindedly grabbed the eyepatch and put it on the wrong eye.
“Uh… actually, this eye is just a prosthetic. Boss Queen specially made it for me. And my eyes have X-ray vision, so wearing an eyepatch doesn’t affect my sight at all.”
“Oh, is that so? Do I look like an idiot to you? What kind of prosthetic eye could move that quickly?”
“Well, you know how advanced our technology is… Okay, fine, I was actually fully healed a few days ago. My eye is completely back to normal.”
“That’s great!”
“Huh?”
“As long as your eye is fine, that’s all that matters.”
Kikunojo didn’t care about Delia faking her injury. Compared to that, the fact that she was genuinely healthy was what truly made him happy.
“You’re really unexpectedly innocent, huh… But whatever, I’ve been holding back for days. I’m throwing a banquet—want to come?”
“Miss Delia, can’t you save money for once?”
“Nope. You never know when you’ll die at sea. Rather than saving money, I’d rather live it up while I can.”
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