【April 8, Year 1503, Raining
Vacation has been over for over a while now, and there are many new children on Onigashima. Everyone seems to get along quite happily.】
Setsuna glanced at Perona, who was lying by the window, watching the rain, and continued to write.
【Perona seems to really like rainy days. It’s the first time I’ve seen her enjoy the outside so much. She even named her teddy bear Kumashi. She seems to love this toy. I wonder if I should ask Lord Arceus to transform that teddy bear.】
Arceus now held an almost omnipotent presence within the Beasts Pirates, bestowing abilities, controlling the weather. For most ordinary people, it was akin to the power of a god. Especially for the people of the Arceus Cult. Over time, a group of fanatics has emerged.
When it came to fighting, they would look to Kaido, but for tasks that seemed impossible for humans, they believed only Arceus could accomplish them.
Such as granting life to inanimate objects.
Although Arceus didn’t always appear in public, in their eyes, this is reasonable. If the god were to constantly appear before humans, resolving all issues like a machine, they would find it unsettling.
Instead, maintaining a veil of mystery allows people more room for imagination.
The raindrops trickled down from the eaves, and outside, farmers in raincoats continued their work. This was the basic life of farmers. Such weather didn’t mean rest; instead, it provided an opportunity to do things that couldn’t be done on sunny days.
【Raising children seems like a good idea.】
After writing that down, Setsuna stopped and put away the diary for the time being because it seemed that Perona was itching to go out and play in the rain.
While Setsuna was looking after the children, Olga on Onigashima was in a bit of a dilemma. It wasn’t something she or her old man had caused, but Elizabeth was pregnant.
After returning from their previous trip, Elizabeth’s belly had mysteriously swelled. This troubled Olga, as there was no veterinarian in the Beasts Pirates Pokémon Center, and they couldn’t figure out what was going on.
However, with the help of special instruments, they determined that there was something inside Elizabeth’s belly.
At first, Olga thought Elizabeth might be ill. But she remembered Ohara’s scholars on Sky Island. If she recalled correctly, they had paleontologists there.
While paleontologists weren’t veterinarians, they could still be brought in to help in this situation.
No matter what, Ohara’s scholars were well-informed. After comparing their findings with documentary records, they reached a conclusion: Elizabeth wasn’t sick; she was pregnant.
“You’re pregnant?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Aren’t you a male?”
“No, I’ve always been female.”
“Then why don’t you correct people when they call you “he”?” [The word used for ‘he’ here can also be used for either sex when the sex is unknown.]
“It’s all the same to me, I don’t care.”
Elizabeth’s response left Olga speechless, but she soon realized a more crucial issue.
“No! How can she be pregnant? There’s simply no second basilisk lizard in existence!”
She’s certain that Elizabeth hasn’t mated with any other lizard throughout the more than a hundred years they’ve been together, and even accounting for delayed pregnancy; it wasn’t possible.
“Well, Miss Olga, basilisk lizards are an ancient species. According to some documented records and research, basilisk lizards, for the continuation of their species, have a certain probability of giving birth to offspring by themselves even if they don’t have a mate after reaching adulthood. They are a very unique kind of creature.”
Upon hearing this explanation, Olga suddenly understood some things. Not only she, but Elizabeth had also been affected by the Pure Gold. In other words, at that time, Elizabeth was still an underage lizard.
She had only recently reached maturity and then this happened.
“How many more times will this happen?”
“We don’t know. If we go by the records, it should only happen once. But you can observe her behavior for more details. Besides, technically, she’s oviparous. Can we get a chance to observe some newly born basilisk lizards? This opportunity is too rare.”
“Let’s talk about it later.”
Lately, she has been getting too many shocks. Elizabeth seemed not to have cared about her gender, hermaphroditic reptiles were not rare, but individual pregnancy…she felt her knowledge was somewhat lacking.
On the other side, at Paradise Farm, after stopping Perona’s antics, Setsuna continued writing her unfinished diary.
【It seems that taking care of a child is not as much fun as I thought. I finally understand how my parents felt when I left Zou Island.
Speaking of which, there were actually some mountain bandits who appeared a few days ago.
Zeraora originally wanted to deal with them directly, but it seems that there is a better arrangement from above.】
This time, she finally finished writing her diary. She put the diary back in the drawer, took out an umbrella, and prepared to take Perona to the Onigashima’s dining hall for dinner.
Compared to cooking herself, going to Onigashima was the simplest way.
While she was thinking about what to eat that evening, in the Flower Capital, the expressions of some people turned rather gloomy.
“What is it? This is your mission. The three of you didn’t think that the mascots didn’t have to do anything, did you?”
In front of Denjiro and the others, King coldly handed them a mission order. The specific content was to lead the Shinsengumi to eliminate the group of bandits at Mt. Atama.
Zeraora could easily wipe out the people at Mt. Atama, but those people had been left there for a reason, to allow the recruited samurai of Wano to test themselves in battle.
However, the task of leading them will be handed over to the three retainers of the former Kozuki family, and there was nothing wrong with it. As the shogun’s retainers, they had a duty to lead the samurai in eliminating the rebellious bandits.
After Kozuki Oden and Ashura Doji’s deaths, the mountain bandits of Mt. Atama had lost their leader. They had been kept there all this time to train their troops.
However, they had been relatively well-behaved during this time, so they had been forgotten until now.
Now that their food was running out, and the unmanaged mountain bandits weren’t good at farming, they had resorted to raiding villages again, and this matter had been put back on the agenda.
Eliminating the bandits alone was not a big deal, but King specifically requested that Denjiro and the others lead the mission. He was well aware of their relationship with Ashura Doji, and that was precisely why they were chosen to lead the mission.
“You shouldn’t be short on manpower, right?”
“What? As Shogun’s retainers, are you in any way connected to these mountain bandits? If that’s the case, it seems the Shogun’s position could be in danger too. Exterminate and apprehend. This is your mission, a mission that must be completed. This is an order from the Shogun-sama.”
“Yes.”
Seeing the order with the Shogun’s seal in front of them, they finally left for Mt. Atama with Shinsengumi in the pouring rain. It was overseen by the new Oniwabanshu led by Greninja.
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