With the information they had—and knowing the skeleton was somewhere in this sea—they began searching for him.
As they did, birds suddenly flew overhead, dropping bounty posters onto the deck.
Nami was the first to catch one.
"I didn't think the news made its way to the Florian Triangle?" she said, genuinely confused.
She had just finished taking a shower. Apparently, when Kairo said no showers, he hadn't meant forever—just for a while.
And damn, that shower had been worth it.
A whole month without bathing, rewarded with a long, hot shower. She loved every second of it.
Her gaze returned to the bounty poster in her hands.
"These aren't the news..."
As those words left her lips, realization hit.
"AHHH!"
"Nami-swan, is everything alright?!" Sanji was already there the moment she screamed.
Zoro, who had been asleep, cracked one eye open.
"Bounties." Why would she be that scared of bounty posters? They were pirates—they got those all the time.
Sanji's eyes landed on the poster lying on the floor.
His pupils widened.
That was a billion.
Luffy, hearing the word bounty, leapt over and grabbed one. He wanted to see his own.
His smile vanished.
"Only 150 million? My bounty didn't increase at all," he complained.
Robin, standing nearby, spoke up.
"Let me see."
Luffy handed her the poster.
Robin counted the zeros, then chuckled softly.
"You missed a zero."
"Really?!"
Robin read it aloud.
"Monkey D. Luffy—1.5 billion Berries."
Luffy's eyes turned into stars.
That was a lot of money.
"1.5 BILLION?!" x2 Usopp and Chopper yelled, both shocked—and a little scared.
Didn't that mean much stronger people would start hunting them now?
As the bounty posters scattered across the deck, the Straw Hat bounties read as follows:
🧢 MONKEY D. LUFFY
Bounty:
1,500,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
🗡️ RORONOA ZORO
Bounty:
350,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
🔥 SANJI
Bounty:
250,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — ALIVE
📚 NICO ROBIN
Bounty:
100,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
🛠️ FRANKY
Bounty:
90,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
🎯 USOPP
Bounty:
120,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
🧭 NAMI
Bounty:
100,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
🦌 TONY TONY CHOPPER
Bounty:
50 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE
Everyone had a massive bounty...
Then there was the last one.
{Soryu D. Kairo}
Bounty:
4,000,000,000 Berries
Status:
WANTED — DEAD
Altogether, the crew was worth 6,510,000,050 Berries.
And Kairo made up the overwhelming majority of it.
From the looks of it, the World Government didn't just want him captured.
They wanted him dead.
After all, he represented a risk they had no interest in testing.
With a bounty like that, he was being treated the same way the Yonko were.
He wasn't sure how he felt about that.
"Four billion..." Usopp whispered, shaken.
Sanji lit a cigarette.
"I killed a Holy Knight and mailed his head to the leader of the World Government," Kairo said calmly. "Seems they didn't like the gift."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" x2 Usopp and Nami yelled.
"You're the one who makes all those complicated plans just to avoid trouble—and you sent that to Navy HQ?! Are you trying to get caught?!" Nami snapped.
"Because I hate them," Kairo replied flatly. "That's it. From the deepest pit of my soul, I hate them."
Nami froze.
The air felt colder.
Then she remembered.
Oh yeah.
The World Government had genocided his entire island.
"Still... you could've waited longer, or at least—" she started.
"It's fine," Luffy cut in.
"But he—"
"He made his choice. If it makes him happy, then it's good." Luffy grinned brightly, complete trust written all over his face.
He'd sleep with his back turned to the guy with the most underhanded fighting style on the crew.
Kairo hadn't even started coating his weapons with poison yet—purely because he'd been busy.
If he had the time, he absolutely would.
Nami sighed. Arguing with Luffy was pointless.
Still... their bounties were inflated as hell.
So Zoro got roughly canon Luffy's bounty, Kairo mused.
With the pills giving roughly a tenfold boost, Kaku's strength would've been close to canon Lucci. And since Kaku had taken stronger pills, the boost was probably even higher.
The same applied to the rest of the Straw Hats who fought CP9.
Luffy's real bounty should've been around 500 million.
The only reason it hit 1.5 billion was because he was the captain.
The World Government still didn't know he was Joy Boy.
Kairo had made sure of that.
The way he addressed Imu made it seem like he was simply using Luffy to track down the real Nika fruit.
For now, Luffy was safe.
Still—his strength didn't match his bounty.
Gear Fourth Luffy right now was roughly equal to base Fish-Man Island Luffy, maybe Gear Second at best.
He needed more training.
Usopp killing two CP0 agents justified his jump.
Nami had a cloud Devil Fruit and was their navigator—fair enough.
The rest were self-explanatory.
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
"Those are some pretty big bounties," a muscular man with oddly skinny legs said.
"Hey, Captain—want to go after them?"
He looked toward his captain.
Blackbeard studied Luffy's bounty.
"Zehahahaha... those bounties are way too high for rookies. If I turn him in to the Marines..." He began calculating how that could earn him a Warlord title.
Easy kill.
"Set sail. They should be close."
"I wouldn't recommend it," a man nearby said.
Blackbeard turned toward his sniper, questioning.
The man pointed at another poster.
{Soryu D. Kairo}
{4,000,000,000 Berries}
{WANTED — DEAD}
The image wasn't a photo.
It was a drawing.
A dark-skinned boy with sharp features, white hair, and flames rising from his back.
They didn't have a real picture—only descriptions.
Between Kuzan's report and the absolute bullshit Kairo had pulled, this fake appearance was the result.
The kind of thing you could pull off with Henge.
Blackbeard's expression went cold.
Sweat trickled down his back as he swallowed.
Yeah... not worth it.
He didn't know Kairo personally, but his mother had warned him about Lunarians.
In detail.
He'd learned a thing or two from them.
And he knew—if he tried, his ass would get slimed.
So he backed off.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Wano...
A certain flying bird stared at the wanted posters.
A/N could Blackbeard actually win this