Her professional habits determine her way of doing things. She wouldn’t make a move until she had gained enough trust. Crocodile have been here for a long time, but no matter how long that was, it couldn’t compare to Alabasta’s royal family.
Her current plan was to find some clues from the royal family. Even if there was no progress, her role as a court tutor would still be of great help. Sometimes, joining an organization wasn’t about working well, but about preparing for the job-hopping.
Uncovering the inside information of Alabasta would take considerable time. No one knew just how much was hidden beneath the vast desert.
Meanwhile, in the New World, the various forces began paying attention to the Beasts Pirates again. The previously expanding Beasts Pirates had suddenly shifted to a defensive stance, even temporarily giving up some unstable territories and recalling their forces to their headquarters.
“Captain, does this mean… we won?”
Seeing the retreating pirate ships, the pirates who had originally occupied the island were overjoyed. Making the Beasts Pirates retreat was definitely something to brag about.
“Ma-Maybe? Let’s wait and see. If they’re really gone, we’ll throw a banquet to celebrate…”
“Fools! Do you think this is something to be happy about?!”
Before they could finish speaking, a member of another pirate crew nearby made them face reality.
He wasn’t much different from these pirates; they are all pirates who haven’t joined the Emperors of the Sea and band together for survival in the New World. However, he has lived in the New World for a longer time.
Being targeted by the Beasts Pirates was never a good thing. Unless under very special circumstances, they won’t take initiative to leave, but if they did take initiative to leave, it means the higher-ups of the Beasts Pirates are dissatisfied with that officer’s performance and plan to replace them.
But so far, the Beasts Pirates had been in an absolutely dominant position. Given the timing, it seemed like that event was happening again.
Every year, at specific times, the Beasts Pirates would reshuffle their internal officers. Once this reshuffle ended, they would likely face an even stronger officer.
For those who had survived long in the New World, this was no longer a secret, but the newly entered pirates didn’t understand what this truly meant.
Seeing that they were still not taking his warning seriously, the old pirate figured he should remind his captain—it was time to decide whether to surrender or flee.
But what he didn’t know was that this time, the Beasts Pirates were pulling back more extensively than ever before.
…
On the Pokémon ship, Yamato, who was running away to avoid Kaido, also received the new information.
“Huh? This year’s ranking battle isn’t being held on Onigashima?”. [TN: Changing position battle to ranking battle.]
“It seems like this one’s a big deal. Governor-General Kaido has summoned all the officers from every region, and it looks like this will be the largest ranking battle in history. It seems he wants to inspect the current strength of the crew.”
“What?! If father does this, what will happen to the guards in the other territories?”
As soon as the words fell, Speed momentarily lost her grip and dropped the Log Pose. Luckily, the Log Pose was quite durable and only the pointer for an insignificant side route broke.
Solitaire’s binoculars also slipped from her hand, and Mizerka almost spilled the dessert she had just brought over. They couldn’t believe what they had just heard. Their young miss was actually worrying about the other territories!
“Hey, hey, hey! What’s with those looks?”
Seeing the stunned expressions of the three, Yamato thought they were thinking something disrespectful.
“Ah… no. Madam Shayna, Sir King, Sir Zeraora, and Madam Olga have all been dispatched to temporarily guard the territories, along with the giant beasts created by Lord Arceus. Only regular officers are being gathered…”
Shayna and Zeraora weren’t participating in the ranking battle, and the same went for the calamity-level officers. So, Arceus assigned them to temporarily oversee the defense of the surrounding territories, while calling back those who needed to participate.
Although their numbers decreased, the overall quality improved significantly. As long as they didn’t wage external wars for the time being, defending their territories wouldn’t be a problem. This was also why the Beasts Pirates began pulling back from their territories. Once this event was over, they would strike back as usual.
This course of action wasn’t particularly logical, but Kaido wanted it this way, without considering anything else. That’s how this largest-ever ranking battle came to be.
But it’s obvious that Yamato wasn’t concerned with such matters.
“Oh, so you three are competing as well?”
“No, actually only Speed is participating. As for us… it’s still a bit too early.”
This ranking battle was mainly for Ability Users. Those without abilities generally chose to observe rather than waste their time competing.
“It’s all the same. You two will gain your abilities soon enough, so don’t worry. Let’s head back; Father should be back to normal by now.”
As Kaido’s daughter, Yamato had never missed any of these events. Even if she didn’t compete personally, she was always present. As the number of Beasts Pirates members and territories grew, opportunities to gather all the officers together became rarer and rarer.
This was one of those rare occasions where everyone would be present, and it was also a chance for Yamato to get acquainted with the Beasts Pirates’ core members.
As she matured, her status as the second-generation leader of the Beasts Pirates was already set in stone—this event was laying the groundwork for the future. Of course, the way the Beasts Pirates handled succession was far from gentle.
Given Kaido’s personality, the chances of him stepping down voluntarily were almost non-existent. And since Yamato wanted to shape the future of the Beasts Pirates according to her own will, force would be the only option.
Kaido, knowing Yamato’s thoughts, became even more excited. This was exactly the kind of daughter he wanted.
The Pokémon ship changed course, and similar scenes were unfolding in various other territories.
On Winter Island, Scotch handed over the island’s defense to Genesect Gt-4 and boarded a ship heading back to the main island.
On Skypiea, several officers sent to receive supplies also began their return journey early. One of them leapt off the clouds, bat wings spreading behind him before flying towards Onigashima.
Red Line, Ann was heading toward Onigashima as well, in her role as the host. According to the latest anonymous internal poll, Ann had surpassed Queen as the host audience were looking forward to the most. However, for the battles, the hosting duties still fell to Queen.
Among the calamity-level officers, only Queen always remains at the headquarters. On one hand, he could act as an opponent for those seeking to challenge the calamities; on the other, he simply didn’t want to go out on missions.
For his own safety, staying close to Kaido or Arceus seemed like the better option.
In the sky, on the sea, officers from all regions were returning to Onigashima in their own ways, which has also put the Marines on high alert. One Kaido is already troublesome enough, and now that the entire Beasts Pirates are gathering, who knows what trouble they might unleash next.
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