Benn Beckman lit a cigarette, letting thin smoke curl upward.
"Well, it's a good thing we didn't run into Kaido himself. If we're going to face him, we'll need to be fully prepared."
"Yahahaha! No worries at all!" Shanks laughed carefreely.
Beckman held his cigarette between two fingers and turned his head away.
Being the right‑hand man to a captain like this is exhausting work, he thought.
On the other side, Lucky Roux bit into a large slice of ham and glanced sideways at Shanks.
"Are you really planning to visit every single Emperor one by one?"
"Of course," Shanks replied as if it were only natural.
Since entering the New World, Shanks had sailed all the way, defeating countless pirates and Marines along the way, but he had never intended to start a full‑scale war against any of the Four Emperors. Instead, he had decided to pay each of them a visit.
His stop at Big Mom's territory had gone just as reports claimed — no open conflict, at least nothing large‑scale, though there had been a few amusing incidents.
Then, upon entering Kaido's lands, he had clashed directly with two of the Emperor's top commanders and driven them back.
Though victorious, it was no cause for celebration — he had firmly earned Kaido's enmity.
"So, according to our plan, the next Emperor is…" the sniper Yasopp said, his gaze shifting thoughtfully.
Beckman exhaled a cloud of smoke. "'The Overlord' — Grimm, is it?"
"The most dangerous, yet also the safest of them all?"
"I hear you and our captain were already acquainted back when he sailed on Roger's ship?"
The crew began to discuss their next destination.
"Ah, yes. Back then, he was still known as 'The Immortal Angel' — what memories, those were good days!"
Shanks raised his tankard and took a long drink. "The last time we met was up in the Holy Land itself."
Beckman spread out a detailed map marking the extent of Grimm's territories.
"Even so, since we are dealing with someone who is far from ordinary, we must plan carefully — even if he and the captain go way back."
"Oho, looks like our first mate is about to show what he's made of!" Yasopp teased.
So far, whenever they faced powerful foes, Beckman's contribution had been no less important than Shanks' own.
"Precautions are necessary," Beckman replied, glancing sharply at him.
---
"Lord Grimm, we have a problem — we failed to secure the Gold‑Gold Fruit!"
Inside the church overlooking the west‑coast harbor of the Kingdom of Artemis, Matthew and his men stood before Grimm's throne.
"An insider betrayed the Donquixote family, and a group of raiders seized the fruit during the confusion," another officer added.
"Who has the nerve to do something like that?" Grimm asked, resting his cheek in one hand.
"Well…"
Matthew and the others hesitated, then admitted with visible shame, "We've investigated thoroughly and checked every bounty poster we can find, but we still haven't identified them. They included at least one Devil Fruit user among their ranks."
"And Doflamingo has vowed to get it back at all costs — he's lost a great deal of face over this," Matthew said, clenching his fist.
At that moment, hurried footsteps echoed through the hall. Ul'dah rushed up to Matthew and reported, "Lord Grimm — the Red‑Hair Pirates have arrived!"
The atmosphere instantly turned tense.
"Shanks the Red‑Hair?"
"The man who defeated Jack and King?"
"Are they attacking?"
Caught off guard by the barrage of questions, Ul'dah broke into a cold sweat and stammered, "N‑no, they haven't launched an assault yet, but…"
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, an invisible wave of pressure swept across the entire harbor.
In an instant, half the dockworkers and half of Grimm's men went stiff‑eyed, feeling their minds grow foggy and their breath cut short, before collapsing into unconsciousness.
Matthew's eyes narrowed sharply behind his iron mask. "Conqueror's Haki…"
"Shanks, that bastard!"
A sharp glint appeared in Grimm's eyes. Down below, Ul'dah protested loudly, "Captain! That red‑haired fool is recklessly unleashing his power! We should give him a taste of what we're capable of!"
Now that Grimm stood among the Four Emperors, the pride of his followers had risen accordingly — they would not tolerate such disrespect.
"Then I'll go too," Matthew said, drawing his long sword. "I want to see for myself just how strong the man who beat the two Disasters really is."
Pfft… pfft… pfft…
At that moment, a sound like a series of loud farts echoed across the hall, instantly shattering the heavy, deadly atmosphere.
Ul'dah and Matthew spun around and roared, "Indigo! If you don't stop that infernal noise, I'll wipe you off the map!"
The carefully built sense of tension was completely ruined.
Indigo ignored their anger, striding forward in an exaggerated, waddling gait.
When he reached them, he looked up at Grimm on the dais and reported, "The experiments on the Blood Plague are progressing quite well. Would you like to see what we've created?"
Since joining Grimm's crew, Indigo had never taken part in a battle.
Instead, he had devoted himself entirely to his research, gradually producing monsters far more powerful and dangerous than those used by Shiki during the attack on Marineford years before.
"Hmm. Shame we can't control them," Grimm said, sounding unimpressed.
In the end, very few people could actually withstand the Blood Plague without either flying into a permanent frenzy or dropping dead instantly.
"Order everyone to pull back and observe from a safe distance," Grimm decided. He saw no reason to treat Shanks with any special courtesy.
At the same time, a conversation from long ago came back to him — one he had shared with Roger, shortly after the Pirate King had reached the end of his journey.
"You're disbanding your crew? Roger, won't you choose someone to succeed you? Shanks is the one you favored, isn't he?" Grimm had asked over the Den Den Mushi.
"At first I thought so too," Roger had replied, "but now I feel there's something off about that boy. Foolish of me to give him my straw hat."
"Oh?" Grimm had asked, curious.
"One day, Buggy complained that Shanks had woken him up in the middle of the night for a phone call. When asked who it was, Shanks claimed he was calling home. But there were too many holes in that story. To this day, I still don't know who he was really speaking to."
Roger had continued, "I suspect… well, never mind. That's why I believe someone carrying the Will of D is the only one who can truly carry on my legacy. The World Government is destined to fall. As for Shanks — Rayleigh will keep an eye on him. And my straw hat? It won't stay in his hands forever."
At the time, Grimm had been completely baffled. What on earth is going on here? he had wondered.
But now, looking back, it all made sense. No wonder Shanks' ship had sailed freely through the Gates of Justice during the Summit War.
No wonder his "Fruit of Influence" seemed to hold such overwhelming power — forcing even admirals to hesitate and the Fleet Admiral himself to compromise.
So that's the truth behind it all.
And now? Grimm had no intention of giving Shanks a warm welcome. That boy is far more cunning than he lets on. Time to teach him a little lesson first.
---
"Shanks, I told you — stop releasing your Haki without warning! Do you want to repeat Roger's mistakes?"
Back on the shores of Artemis, Beckman shook his head in exasperation.
"Ahahaha! But I've got you here to keep me in check, don't I?"
Beckman sighed helplessly. As they marched deeper into the island, his expression grew increasingly serious.
"Look around — such a large harbor, and not a single soul left standing. And those workers who just collapsed have already been carried away so quickly? The cargo is still fresh, everything is in order… yet the silence feels unnatural, almost wrong."
__________________
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