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Everyone has their vices.
Wine, women, gambling, wealth, power—we're all human, not saints.
This is especially true for pirates. In their pursuit of absolute freedom, they often indulge their every whim, inevitably picking up a few bad habits along the way.
Rayleigh was no exception.
He didn't overeat, he wasn't a womanizer, he didn't drink to excess, and he had no lust for power. But he did love to gamble.
When he first met Luffy and the others, he had lost so badly that he'd willingly sold himself to a human trafficking ring just to get by.
He was a man who would literally put a price on his own head.
Seeing Rayleigh's expectant look, Jin just shrugged.
"Unfortunately, I have no idea what the winning numbers are. Every draw is completely random."
"Is that so?" Rayleigh sighed, scratching his head.
Shakky could tell in an instant—the old fool had lost again. His question, of course, was just a subtle test.
With Rayleigh's Observation Haki, winning would be child's play. But he preferred to rely on luck. It stood to reason that he wouldn't want the winning lottery numbers ahead of time.
So, his question was twofold.
First, to see if the game was rigged.
Second, to judge Jin's character.
If Jin were the type to cheat at something like this, could he be trusted in their deal with the Kuja?
Jin had passed the test.
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"The Whitebeard Pirates are recruiting! Doctors and nurses to the front of the line!"
"The New World! We're heading for the New World and we need an elite crew! We set sail as soon as we hit one hundred! Get on board while you can!"
As they sailed along the mangrove roots, they passed a bustling harbor, the air filled with the chaotic shouts of recruitment. It felt like the staging area of an online game, everyone getting ready to raid a dungeon.
"After the first half of the Grand Line, most pirate crews are short on members," Rayleigh explained. "Some have even disbanded completely. Those who still dream of the New World will try to form new crews here. Others... they've seen too much. They lose their nerve and just stay here. You'll also see crews from the New World recruiting here. The Whitebeard Pirates are particularly active."
"They're always looking for good doctors."
"That makes sense," Jin said. "The Whitebeard Pirates have several large ships in their main fleet alone, with over a thousand crew members. And they have more than forty allied crews under their command. It's a massive organization, the size of a small town. They'd need a whole team of doctors, a proper medical system. A ship's doctor on a normal pirate crew doesn't need to be a specialist—stitch up a cut here, amputate a gangrenous limb there, quarantine anyone who catches a local disease. But on a fleet of that scale, a public health crisis would be catastrophic. In the confined space of a ship, disease can spread like wildfire. For Whitebeard, his medical team is his lifeline."
There was another reason, one Jin kept to himself. The Whitebeard crew's desperate search for doctors was almost certainly related to Whitebeard's own declining health.
The titans of the old era were getting old.
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"And what about you?" Rayleigh asked, his eyes glinting. "I hear you've been recruiting talent, expanding your territory. What's your motivation?"
He meant, of course, ambition.
As a master of all three forms of Haki, Rayleigh was incredibly sensitive to a person's aura. The young man before him was confident, composed, and brimming with a vibrant energy.
And considering his meteoric rise, the empire he had built in such a short time... he was no simple man.
"My motivation?" Jin smiled. "World peace. And a bed full of love."
Rayleigh's eyes crinkled into a smile. "The world, eh? That's quite a goal."
"Peace and love," Jin continued. "A new era, perhaps. One without oppression... and without pirates."
"No pirates? It seems you're not a fan of our kind."
"Should I be?" Jin countered. "Who in their right mind likes pirates? Yes, there are some who are just pure adventurers, drawn to the freedom of the sea. But we shouldn't romanticize the rest of them for it. They burn, they pillage, they murder. How many innocent lives have been shattered by this Great Pirate Era? How many families torn apart, left to scrape by, day to day?"
"Then why not join the Marines?" Rayleigh asked.
"The Marines?" Jin chuckled. "Their slogan of 'Justice' is a fine and noble thing. But the question is... whose justice?"
Rayleigh threw his head back and laughed. "Whose justice, indeed. You've got a fresh perspective, kid. But changing the world... that's not so simple."
"Is it difficult?" Jin's eyes lit up. "Then I'm even more interested. I love a good challenge."
Rayleigh smiled. He had seen countless rookies arrive at Sabaody, full of hope and dreams, ready to take on the New World.
Weren't they all like that when they were young?
He and Roger... they had been the same.
The tides of the era will wash away the old, but there will always be new challengers, ready to climb to the top.
The future was an exciting thing.
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When Jin and Rayleigh returned, Robin had already finished her shopping. Everything had gone smoothly.
As Rayleigh stepped onto the deck of the demonic carrier, he felt that same flicker of strangeness, but nothing more.
After its evolution and its fusion with the Clear-Clear Fruit, the carrier's ability to conceal its presence had been massively enhanced.
In the Calm Belt, there was no wind.
The sea and sky were perfectly still.
A terrifying, beautiful calm.
The demonic carrier cut through the blue canvas, leaving a white wake, like a brushstroke.
"A steamship?" Rayleigh, standing on the deck, finally realized that this was no ordinary vessel. It had sails, but it was moving on its own. And with such a small crew.
Jin wasn't worried about him spilling his secrets. "It's a ship that ate a Devil Fruit," he explained simply.
A Devil Fruit... ship?
Rayleigh was stunned. He had seen Devil Fruit weapons before, but a Devil Fruit ship...
That was a first.
Beneath the clear water, massive dark shapes drifted slowly by.
Super-large Sea Kings.
They watched from a distance, but they didn't dare to approach. There was something about the ship, an aura that filled them with a primal fear.
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Soon, the outline of an island appeared on the horizon. It was a lush, verdant place, covered in ancient trees and vines, with rolling hills and mountains.
In the center of the island was a massive stone statue: nine giant serpents, their mouths open, their fearsome fangs bared.
Below the statue, carved into the cliff face, were the characters for "Kuja."
They were identical to the characters from his homeland.
The demonic carrier stopped three nautical miles from the shore, no anchor needed. In the Calm Belt, there were no waves.
A black dot appeared in the distance, growing larger as it approached.
It was a large ship, pulled by two massive sea serpents.
The Perfume Yuda.
"It's been a long time, Rayleigh," a voice called out from the ship.
A group of women stood on the deck.
Their leader was a remarkably tall woman with long, green hair and a white cape. Her head was twice the size of her body. A black panther with cold, calculating eyes stood beside her.
"Sandersonia," Rayleigh smiled. "It's been a while."
Sandersonia flicked her snake-like tongue and looked at Jin. "So you are King Jin?"
She and Marigold had heard about Hancock's defeat after they had returned, and her eyes were filled with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
"I am," Jin nodded.
"Amazon Lily has a strict law forbidding men from setting foot on the island," Sandersonia said. "However, as you are also a king, our Empress has issued a special emergency decree. You and your ship may temporarily dock at the island's rocky bay. My sister is waiting for you there."
Rayleigh was a little surprised.
Hancock, making a special exception?
He glanced at Jin, a thoughtful look on his face.
No wonder Gloriosa had gone to the trouble of having him and Shakky test him.
So, something had happened between them...
The Empress of the Kuja was a hopeless romantic. If a man could resist her charms, he would win her heart.
Jin, it seemed, had succeeded.
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