As the all-rounded development department of the Hundred Beasts Fruit, music unexpectedly became their greatest weakness. With the addition of Cindry, she took the lead in the dance segment.
In terms of film and television, they had Tesoro and Stella, and An was incredibly capable in hosting and post-production, but they had no standout singers.
It's not that they couldn't sing, but compared to their other areas of expertise, music was their weak spot. Now, Tesoro planned to take them all to advance their skills.
This included himself, too. His childhood dream of standing on a grand stage had been realized, but he also wished to sing more beautiful melodies.
"Get ready to set out. Oh right, Tanaka, bring along the new recruit from the security department; he seems to have some skills."
Besides the people personally recruited by Tesoro, the Hundred Beasts Fruit also had its own headhunting company, searching for suitable talents within its business scope. This security department was set up after he obtained the Gol-Gol Fruit.
Safety issues used to be handled by the Hundred Beasts Pirates, but after Doflamingo recognized his identity last time, he realized he needed to bring more special talents when going out.
Those he took out naturally passed assessments. They were no longer regular employees. This time, the recruit he brought along was named Dice, a burly man with a golden beard, who was quite proficient in Armament training.
But that wasn't the reason he was selected. Baccarat's Luck-Luck Fruit and Tanaka's Pierce-Pierce Fruit were recruited due to their uniqueness. Even though Armament isn't all that common, finding someone skilled in it in the New World wasn't particularly difficult.
Dice was chosen because his body was quite peculiar. Simply put, he was a heavy masochist. His sensation of pain was different from ordinary people. He didn't understand what pain was. On the contrary, the more painful the damage from attacks, the more excited and even euphoric he became.
Pain is the body's crisis warning. Not feeling pain means he can show combat abilities different from ordinary people in many situations, and so he was included in the special training list.
Nowadays, as Arceus's power continues to restore, the reward mechanism has become more systematic. Based on achievements and individual differences, the reward pool is somewhat planned under the premise of drawing lots.
Some special people were given the most suitable skills by Arceus. Baccarat and Metronome is a perfect example. Every year, those with special talents are compiled into a list and sent to Ghost Island.
If suitable, Dice is the perfect match for "Counter".
Due to the large commercial network, people from the Hundred Beasts Fruit don't even need to specially arrange travel. Once everything was packed up, Tesoro led them onto a merchant ship passing by Ellegia.
Meanwhile, in the East Sea, Goa Kingdom, at Windmill Village, boys and girls were conducting their own competitions.
The boy, seven years old this year, was Monkey D. Luffy.
The girl had half red, half white hair. Her name was Uta, Red Hair Shanks's adopted daughter.
After snatching the Rubber-Rubber Fruit from Who's-Who, Shanks's pirate crew made Windmill Village their base, temporarily settling there. Even when they set sail, they never crossed the Red Earth Continent, only operating in the East Sea, South Sea, and the First Half of the Grand Line.
Unlike the still unknown Buggy, Shanks had already gained quite a reputation.
Uta was his adopted daughter. Seven years ago, after a battle with other pirates, Shanks found Uta who had survived inside their box. Seeing her childhood self in the young girl, Shanks adopted her.
Children still need a peer to play with. After arriving at Windmill Village, Uta quickly became friends with a boy of similar age, and various competition methods emerged between them.
Who rows faster, who eats fried chicken faster. Within less than a year, they claimed they had competed 182 times each, and both insisted they had won 182 times.
Today, they decided on a new competition method: catching stag beetles to see whose catch was bigger.
"Alright, here. You catch over there, I'll catch here. We'll meet back here in two hours."
Drawing a line on the ground, Luffy pointed at the woods on both sides to determine their catching range.
"This time, don't be a sore loser. I'm definitely going to catch the biggest stag beetle."
"I'm not a sore loser. I've clearly won already!" Luffy retorted to Uta, but as he spoke, Uta had already dashed into the woods.
"Darn it, fell for it again!"
Realizing too late, he also turned and ran into his own hunting ground, starting their 183rd match.
...
"Hmph, Luffy that idiot. How could he catch any stag beetles with such a commotion."
Even though they split up, Uta could sense what Luffy was doing; due to his recklessness, the birds in the woods were startled and flew away, and the beetles were probably scared off long ago.
"Phew, it should be around here. Where does this breeze come from~"
A gentle melody lightly sang from her lips. Her aim was to become the Songstress of the Red Hair Pirates. Because of Uta's presence, Luffy believed that a musician was an important profession on pirate ships.
Unlike the chaos on Luffy's side, under Uta's song, the surrounding small animals weren't fleeing. Instead, they were drawn to her, with even butterflies landing on her fingertips.
"Stag beetles, stag beetles, where are you? Come out..."
Continuing to sing her tune, Uta searched for stag beetles. However, she seemed to have forgotten that besides small animals, there were also ferocious beasts in these woods. A wild boar soon appeared before her.
Wild boars are incredibly dangerous beasts in the forest, unlike domestic pigs. Seeing the sudden appearance of a wild boar, Uta stopped her humming unconsciously, and her body froze in place.
But the wild boar didn't think much. Seeing the "bipedal creature" invading its territory, it felt threatened and rushed towards her.
"Ah!!"
Screaming didn't do much, but it's one of those reactions left over when humans face crises. Yet, nothing happened next. When Uta opened her eyes again, she saw a stag beetle about her height blocking the wild boar in front of her.
"Herac!"
The giant horn blocked the wild boar's charge. As its body exerted force, the boar was directly sent flying by it.
This stag beetle form was naturally Heracross. It stood up because it was attracted by Uta's song and decided to protect her.