"Thirty-seven pirate crews? Not forty-three?"
Ash received a Den Den Mushi call from Pini while wandering around Soap Bubble Park. Earlier, he had just ended a conversation with Vice Admiral Tsuru, the Marine Chief of Staff, who had called to ask about the Dawn Ship's battle with the Red Hair Pirates.
After casually clipping Tsuru's private Den Den Mushi back onto his belt, Ash raised an eyebrow and spoke into the receiver.
"Is it supposed to be forty-three?"
Pini's tone immediately became more serious.
"Maybe that old man hid another six pirate crews somewhere nearby as backup. He could be planning to catch us off guard."
"Relax, we'll stay alert. Anyway, are you coming back or not? If not, I'm hanging up."
"Of course I'm coming. I still want to see Edward Newgate, the World's Strongest Man, with my own eyes. Why are you rushing me anyway? Did the fight already start?" Ash asked while waiting in line for ice cream.
"Not yet. I'm about to contact Sali and Wyper after this call."
Pini sounded slightly awkward.
"We didn't call them when we fought Red Hair, and Youki and I nearly drank ourselves to death during the week-long celebration afterward..."
"Alright, go notify them. I'll be there soon."
Ash chuckled before hanging up the Den Den Mushi.
By then, it was finally his turn at the front of the line.
Without hesitation, he tossed a thick stack of Berries onto the counter.
Then he turned toward the children standing behind him and grinned.
"Today's ice cream is on me! Every kid here gets free ice cream!"
"Ash is the best!"
The children immediately burst into cheers.
"Hahaha, obviously!"
Ash held three cones with different flavors in one hand while biting into a massive rainbow-colored cone with the other. After swallowing several mouthfuls in quick succession, he freed one hand and opened a space gate using Shusui.
"See you guys tomorrow!"
Even as he stepped through the gate, he still waved goodbye to the children.
"Bye-bye, Ash!"
After spending several months hanging around Soap Bubble Park and constantly buying snacks and drinks for the local kids, Ash had become extremely popular with them.
Moments later, multiple space gates opened one after another within the Dawn Ship's courtyard.
"Oh, you guys got here fast."
The moment Ash stepped through, he saw Sali and Wyper leading their groups out from two separate space gates nearby.
"Of course we came quickly. If we were late, we might miss Whitebeard completely," Sali replied while glaring at Youki, who sat lazily beside a stone table in the distance.
"Exactly. Youki and Pini have already lost all credibility with us," Dicken added mercilessly.
Wyper and the others simply laughed without adding anything.
"Hey, that's going too far. I personally came out here to welcome you people, and you're still mocking me to my face?" Youki complained.
"Credibility is something you ruined yourself," Sali snorted.
"You made it sound like everyone would get a chance to fight a Yonko, but before we even arrived, Red Hair was already gone."
"We're not allowed to complain after that?"
Youki covered his face helplessly.
"You're really never letting that go, huh? Fine. Pini already said Whitebeard will be left to me this time, so how about we let you go first instead?"
The moment he heard that, Sali burst into laughter.
"Now that's more like it!"
Youki muttered under his breath with a bitter expression.
"I knew this was your real goal..."
The group continued chatting while walking forward, quickly arriving at the massive dragon-headed gate of the Dawn Ship.
"Damn, that's a lot of ships."
Ash narrowed his eyes while scanning the horizon.
Although they said thirty-seven pirate crews had arrived, the actual number of ships far exceeded that.
There were one hundred and two pirate ships flying different flags across the sea.
The ocean looked completely packed.
Even without reaching a hundred thousand people, there were easily between thirty and fifty thousand pirates gathered there.
It made sense.
According to the original timeline, Whitebeard would eventually lead forty-three allied pirate crews and tens of thousands of pirates during the Summit War at Marineford.
At the moment, there were still a few years before that battle. Whitebeard likely had not recruited as many subordinate crews yet, which explained why there were only thirty-seven.
Still, in this era, pirates were everywhere.
With Whitebeard's influence, gathering tens of thousands of pirates was not difficult at all.
While Ash and the others observed Whitebeard's fleet surrounding the Dawn Ship, the other side naturally noticed them as well.
At the center of the massive formation floated the Moby Dick, the enormous whale-shaped flagship of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Holding his bisento in one hand, Whitebeard, Edward Newgate himself, slowly stepped onto the bow.
"That physique seriously doesn't look human," Sali muttered.
"He kind of reminds me of Gecko Moria," Youki said while scratching his chin.
"They're around the same height, but Moria looks like an overstuffed turkey. Whitebeard actually looks monstrous."
"This old man has way more presence than Kaido or Red Hair," Pini added.
"They're all old monsters, but Whitebeard feels completely different from Rayleigh or Scopper Gaban."
"He's still an active Yonko," Ash replied with a grin.
"How could retired veterans like Rayleigh and Gaban compare to him?"
Although everyone had already seen Whitebeard's bounty posters countless times, witnessing him in person still felt overwhelming.
Only Dicken stared at Whitebeard's crescent-shaped mustache with a strange expression.
"Is that mustache actually real? How is it standing like that?"
"Pfft!"
Ash immediately burst out laughing.
"I was thinking the exact same thing."
The two slapped hands while laughing.
Meanwhile, the commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates had already assembled behind Whitebeard atop the Moby Dick.
Standing closest to him were First Division Commander Marco the Phoenix, Third Division Commander Diamond Jozu, Fourth Division Commander Tsuki, and Fifth Division Commander Flower Sword Vista.
Behind them stood the remaining division commanders.
Blamenco, Rakuyo, Namur, Blenheim, Curiel, Kingdew, Haruta, Atmos, Speed Jiru, Fossa, and Izo.
All fifteen division commanders possessed bounties exceeding 300 million Berries.
The lineup looked intimidating, but aside from the strongest commanders near the front, the remaining members were not especially overwhelming.
Compared to the Beast Pirates' Tobiroppo or the Red Hair Pirates' elite officers, many of them fell short.
However, Marco, Jozu, and Vista were unquestionably monsters capable of rivaling the top commanders of any Yonko crew.
As for Fourth Division Commander Thatch, his exact strength remained unclear.
In the original timeline, he would eventually be killed by Blackbeard Teach before fully displaying his abilities.
Still, someone capable of holding the Fourth Division position above Vista could not possibly be weak.
At that thought, Ash glanced toward Tsuki among the commanders.
Then he grinned.
Perfect.
Tsuki could fight Thatch.
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