Before the reputation of the Beasts Pirates was established, accumulating battle contributions was easy. But as the reputation of the Beasts Pirates grew, it became increasingly difficult to earn them.
With too many people and not enough contributions to go around, it’s impossible to know just how many people have set their sights on them.
We have now entered the era of the Four Emperors. Due to Shanks’ arrival, the conflicts in the New World have temporarily ceased. They’ve entered a brief period of balance, and before this equilibrium was broken, large-scale clashes were unlikely to occur.
Although the number of reckless newcomers entering the New World has been steadily increasing, the ranks of the Beasts Pirates were also constantly expanding. Those who have been stationed in the outer seas for many years were keeping a close eye on these people.
That’s why Who’s-Who decided to change his approach. Right now, he was observing the retired old pirates on Onigashima.
Having worked for CP9 for a long time, he’d seen plenty of pirates, but this was the first time he’d seen a pirate crew with a retirement system.
Not to mention pirates, even in Cipher Pol agencies, retiring was almost impossible. Agents knew too many secrets.
Either you kept climbing up the ranks to go from a front line agent to a boss sitting in an office, or you fought on the front lines until the day you died.
Active agents all underwent brainwashing by the World Government, so the concept of retirement didn’t exist for them. Rob Lucci was a prime example. Despite nearly being silenced by the World Government, he returned to them and became one of their most useful weapons.
At this moment, Who’s-Who was in Kuri, observing how some people lived, and had already gathered a lot of information.
“Hafat, 79 years old, an early member of the Beasts Pirates. Lost a leg in battle. Due to his average combat ability, he remained in Wano Country as purchasing station’s boss… This doesn’t look like a pirate crew at all.”
Seeing the old man sitting in a rocking chair basking in the sun with a Jumpluff floating above his head, Who’s-Who shook his head and quietly left. After a thorough investigation, he realized that the benefits here were indeed excellent.
At least those pirates who managed to retire successfully have somewhere to go. This is the kind of life Mandrell longs for. However, for ordinary pirates, even with seniority, retirement usually means taking on a minor position in Wano Country or working as a security guard on some other island.
That was far from the life Mandrell envisioned.
Then Who’s-Who headed to a church. During this time, he’d taken on a new role—he became the sports teacher, responsible for training the orphans there.
Finding a plate or a Poneglyph, or obtaining a rare Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit—these were significant achievements within the Beasts Pirates, but each of them was extremely difficult to accomplish. So for the moment, Who’s-Who focused on something he was more proficient in.
His background meant he knew things that most people didn’t, such as the training methods of Rokushiki.
Training Rokushiki demands high physical standards, and even the World Government uses special methods to boost nutrition. There were some small secrets hidden on that training island.
The Beasts Pirates, however, used ingredients produced by various Pokémon to solve this problem. Though doing so would make him an eye-sore in the eyes of the World Government, he had long been on their hit list, so he didn’t care anymore.
He didn’t bring this up before, mainly because the Rokushiki is somewhat redundant.
As a legacy skill of the World Government and the Marines, its practicality is unquestionable, but it’s not something you can learn just by wanting to. You have to start building a foundation from a young age to easily master it later.
Those with enough talent could skip this step, but then it wasn’t necessary for them. Take Jack, for example—if he wanted to learn, even without a foundation, his natural physique was enough to support the rigorous training.
However, with his powerful Armament Haki, Jack didn’t need techniques like Tekkai or Kami-e. As a tank, he didn’t require Soru’s mobility, nor did he find Shigan or Rankyaku useful as attack methods. As for Geppo, his natural jumping ability already allowed him to stay in the air briefly, making it somewhat useless for him.
At this point, they already have strong mastery over their bodies, making the derivative technique, Seimei Kikan, similarly useless.
Even without consciously learning it, they already have strong control over their bodies—this is true even for someone like Jack, who is a heavily specialized tank.
The higher-ranking officers needed it even less as many of them had developed their own styles that were similar to Rokushiki.
Those who could quickly learn Rokushiki didn’t need it to improve their combat strength, while those who relied on Rokushiki to boost their power couldn’t learn it quickly, which ultimately created this awkward situation.
It wasn’t until a new batch of orphans reached the right age that Misu suggested raising a group of warriors who could become divine guardians. This gave Who’s-Who an opportunity, and he became the martial arts instructor here.
After all, Rokushiki offers the most systematic training, and for these half-grown children, it was the perfect fit.
“Straighten your posture! Core strength is fundamental. If you can’t maintain this, how will you protect the glory of the Lord?”
The one giving the orders wasn’t Who’s-Who, but Misu. She rarely showed such a stern side, and even joined the children in training. Even though Who’s-Who had clearly told her that, given her age and physical condition, it would be difficult for her to see results, she refused to give up.
Thus, Who’s-Who settled into his behind-the-scenes role: observing the lives of pirates in Wano Country, training the children adopted by the church, and occasionally also training the children of Beasts Pirates members. Life remained relatively calm.
But soon, he discovered that an opportunity to prove himself had arrived.
After Yamato and her group returned from the engagement ceremony, they reported what had happened to Kaido. The fact that Charlotte Linlin had been humiliated made Kaido very happy. After that, Yamato raised a concern.
She believed there might be spies planted within the Beasts Pirates by their enemies. To prevent them from causing trouble at the wrong time, Yamato suggested they preemptively root them out.
This idea was enthusiastically supported by Queen, who, for the first time, found Yamato’s suggestion brilliant.
Kaido himself didn’t care much about such matters. Given Wano Country’s terrain and unique situation, the possibility of infiltrating it with spies is extremely low. As for other territories, he couldn’t be bothered with such trivial matters. However, since Yamato brought it up, he allowed her to pursue it freely.
After all, it wasn’t often that she came up with a valuable suggestion, so this was a time to show support.
Then came the problem: although Yamato had made the suggestion, she had no idea how to actually catch the spies.
So, when she called for volunteers for the investigation team, Who’s-Who stepped up.
Say what you will, but he was a former agent and one of the top agents of the World Government. When it came to counterintelligence, this was his expertise.
And if he was lucky, he might even run into some former colleagues, which would be an opportunity to earn some easy contributions. As of now, he is undoubtedly the Beasts Pirates’ resident expert in this area.
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