Pirates, when gathered in numbers, usually only had two things on their minds: drinking and fighting.
The base of Sora Tower was clearly no place for drinking.
The pirates hanging around the outer edge caught sight of Anus, Lilith, and Shiki approaching and stepped aside without being told, nudging their crewmates and jerking their heads toward the three of them.
"Move it! Out of the way, idiots! You blind? Look who it is!"
Heads turned. Then the color drained from their faces.
"Anus is back!"
Someone shouted it from the crowd. Even the pirates packed in near the tower — too deep to have noticed anything — scrambled to clear a path.
Anus walked through unhurried, the mob parting on both sides like a tide rolling out. With no one in the way, the view ahead opened up.
"Lord Anus. You're back."
The one greeting him was a massive, completely naked giant with a pair of wings folded at his back.
Muscle stacked on muscle, somewhere in his forties or fifties by the look of him, six meters of raw bulk without an ounce of fat on his body.
"Yale." Anus let out a slow breath. "How many times do I have to tell you — don't do this in public."
"Ah — sorry, I just got so caught up in the fight that I—"
He said the words, but he didn't reach for the pants lying on the ground. Instead he flexed, rolled his shoulders, and cycled through a series of bodybuilder poses like he was performing for a crowd.
"I stand by it," Yale announced with absolute conviction. "Clothing is a corruption of the pure body."
Anus put a hand over his face.
Yale, like Lilith, was a Birkan — one of the Sky Islanders who had left with Anus when he walked away from Skypiea. Before Anus had taken him on, the man had already been notorious up there as a deviant of the first order. Never wore a stitch of clothing. Hadn't changed.
"Uncle Yale!" Lilith pointed at him, voice sharp. "Have some shame! You dare show up in front of Lord Anus looking like that?!"
"Put your pants on. Now."
"Ki ha ha ha! Yale, you never change!" Shiki doubled over laughing. It took him a moment to collect himself.
The pirates around them did not laugh.
They had seen what this particular freak could do when he stripped down mid-fight. They knew exactly what kind of force lived in that body.
Under Lilith's glare, Yale finally, grudgingly, stepped into his pants and buckled his belt.
"Lilith mentioned someone tried to take you on just now?"
Anus's gaze had already drifted to the charred shape on the ground in front of the tower.
"That him?"
"Yes, my lord." Yale swung his long-handled war hammer up onto his shoulder, revealing the cracked stone beneath. "Kid picked a fight. Wasn't bad, actually — I got a little carried away."
Anus nodded. Getting that kind of acknowledgment out of Yale meant the poor fool had been above average, at least by Beehive Island standards.
But that confidence in his own strength had been what finished him. He'd died here without anyone even learning his name.
It wasn't a rare story.
The seas were full of pirates who came to Beehive drawn by the Rocks Pirates' infamy, but not everyone was cut out to join. To even be considered, you had to prove yourself — beat the pirates guarding the outer island, fight your way inside. Most never made it that far.
This one had probably figured that dropping Yale would make a statement. Get Rocks's attention in one shot.
Wrong target.
The people on this island who could actually put Yale down were few.
"I was hoping to catch some of the action — and I missed it!" Shiki shook his head, still grinning. "Ki ha ha, my luck really is terrible today."
"Nothing to see anyway. You can go now." Anus glanced at him. "I wasn't planning on entertaining you."
"Ruthless! What kind of host kicks out a guest like that?"
"The kind whose guest tried to drop a bomb on him."
"That — look, that was just a joke—"
"Sure it was."
Whether it was or wasn't didn't matter to Anus. He was keeping a tab either way.
"While I'm still in a decent mood," Anus said, his brow creasing slightly, "either get out of my sight or tell me you actually want to fight. Your call."
Shiki had been stuck to him like a burr all day.
"Not looking for a fight, no..." Shiki scratched the back of his head, then dropped his voice. "Actually — I've got a business proposition. Something I want to run by you."
Anus paused.
He glanced around. The crowd hadn't cleared out yet.
"Lilith. Handle it."
The tips of Lilith's ears went red the instant he said it — like she'd been handed something precious.
"Yes, my lord!"
"Come inside then, Shiki."
"Ki ha ha! I knew you'd bite!"
Anus and Shiki stepped into Sora Tower. Yale dragged the challenger's body away somewhere. That left Lilith and the crowd still milling around outside.
The moment Anus disappeared into the shadow of the tower, the flush in Lilith's ears faded fast.
By the time she turned to face the pirates, there was nothing left but cold contempt.
"How long are you all planning to stand in front of Lord Anus's door? Get out of here."
The words landed like a slap — but no one got angry. The pirates just grinned like idiots, like being yelled at by Lilith was some kind of prize.
"I'm so happy — she actually talked to me today!"
"Beautiful as ever. Even when she's furious."
"She's an absolute angel."
For most of the pirates on Beehive, Lilith had become the island's last treasure after Shiki vanished. If it weren't for the fact that crossing Anus was less "stupid" and more "suicidal" — as every veteran on the island well knew — there would have been blood spilled outside Sora Tower every single day over her.
But Lilith was Anus's. Everyone understood what that meant. When something has a zero percent chance of working out, only a fool keeps trying.
The ones who had made attempts in the past — the pirates still around remembered how badly that had ended.
Inside Sora Tower.
In a private room, Anus and Shiki sat across from each other at a gold table, the sofa between them draped in white sheepskin.
"Talk," Anus said. "What's this deal? If it doesn't interest me, I won't be letting you walk out of here easy."
"I wouldn't have come if I wasn't sure you'd want in."
Shiki leaned forward, completely certain of himself.
"You're not planning to spend the rest of your life in the Rocks Pirates, are you? That man's plan — it's barely moved since he first laid it out..."
It had been not long after Rocks seized Beehive that he'd put his ambitions in front of the officers.
King of the World.
The plan hinged on two things: obtaining a pair of legendary Devil Fruits, and tracking down the mythical Frozen Giant Legion.
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