Author's Note:
This one's another interlude-type chapter, but... it might have turned into more of an exposition dump than I intended.
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"...We've really become quite the big household, huh."
"Nay, I believe the crew was already quite a sizable affair to begin with, was it not?"
In response to my muttering, one of my daughters sitting next to me and munching away on snacks... Suzu offered that reply.
Ah, well, she had a point. The Golden Lion Pirates had always been maintained at a pretty massive scale by Papa, especially when you counted all the subordinate crews.
Granted, it wasn't at its peak anymore, but even twenty years later, the big name of the "Golden Lion" still drew people in. That never ceased to impress me.
So even back then, the crew was already at a level where you could safely say it ranked near the top across the entire Grand Line in terms of size.
But lately, on top of that, my existence as the "Pirate Literary Master" had been added to the equation, and the fact that the Golden Lion, who'd been in hiding for so long, turned out to still be active, as expected, well, that made numbers swell even further. Applications to join the Golden Lion Pirates directly, and pirate crews wanting to come under our umbrella, both kept pouring in.
In both Paradise and the New World. So there was no small number of quality individuals with bounties in the tens of millions, even hundreds of millions.
Comparing things mainly before and after the Summit War... yeah, we'd grown. Word on the street was that in terms of scale alone, people were calling us "Semi-Four Emperors Class," and honestly, that was accurate. Our forces had already easily surpassed the ten-thousand mark.
And on top of that, thanks to my immunity from arrest as a Shichibukai, the whole operation was strutting across the seas with impunity. The Marines couldn't crack down on us.
As long as we didn't commit any lawless acts that violated the Shichibukai agreement, of course.
The fact that all of this was being managed competently and without a hitch really drove home that the title of Pirate Fleet Admiral was no joke.
Papa truly was first-rate as a villain.
...Quite unlike a certain sham Admiral who only inherited the name. Well, I suppose comparing myself to him in the first place doesn't even make sense. As I just said, the whole premise was that I inherited "the name only."
...I've gone off track.
Anyway, the Golden Lion Pirates had been growing rapidly in scale lately. Both quantitatively and qualitatively.
And what's more.
Among the new faces who'd recently joined were people that I, or my daughters, had recruited or introduced, leading to their enlistment.
And among those were even characters who appeared in the Original Work of One Piece.
Like Bonney and her Crew from the other day, the Enel faction that Papa scouted, and Wapol, whom one of our subordinate pirates picked up.
For example, the other day Alice came back having subjugated a remarkably large pirate crew of considerable scale, bringing them under our umbrella entirely... I was genuinely shocked at the time.
And I recognized them from the Original Work.
There was a fox-shaped figurehead on the bow, and they were flying a pirate flag that showed, shall we say, a certain lack of artistic sensibility...
When I checked, it turned out to be the Foxy Pirates.
The sizable pirate crew led by Foxy the Silver Fox, who'd been an enemy of Luffy and the others in the Original Work too. They'd fought after the Sky Island Arc, if I recall?
And the thing about them was a bit unusual compared to other pirate crews. Rather than engaging in typical turf wars, they'd expanded their numbers by challenging other pirate crews to something called the "Davy Back Fight," a game where you wager crewmates, and winning continuously.
The crew they happened to challenge turned out to be one of ours.
Specifically, Gasparde's Pirate Crew.
And to make their luck even worse... Alice happened to be visiting that fleet on some business at the time, so she joined in because it "looked fun."
The result: the Foxy Pirates, total defeat.
Total defeat, and utter humiliation.
Apparently they challenged them to five rounds trying to win it back.
That game has three matches per round, so they played a total of fifteen matches and lost every single one.
...Trying to win back your losses and only losing more. The quintessential pattern of sinking into a gambling swamp. The one thing you should never do.
And in the final match, in what could only be described as a moment of complete madness, they invoked something called the "Hellish 500-Person Wager Rule." Meaning, instead of the standard one crewmate per match, you wager five hundred.
And they still lost.
As a result, since they ended up claiming the entire pirate crew starting with the "Boss" himself, Foxy the Silver Fox, rather than absorbing them into our crew, they decided to keep the Foxy Pirates intact as a unit and add them as a subordinate crew. Apparently this was perfectly fine under the rules.
The Foxy Pirates had supposedly been nearly undefeated in DBF matches against anyone other than Luffy's crew, but you really shouldn't expect to beat New World-class pirates.
Foxy's bounty was only a little over twenty million, if I recall. Gasparde had over 90 million even before his bounty was rescinded and before he learned Haki... They had some nerve picking that fight. Then again, Foxy did pick a fight with Luffy when he was worth 100 million, so maybe he thought he had a chance in a competition format.
But not only Alice, Gasparde and several of his subordinates had learned to use Haki by now, so the signature Noroma Beam didn't work on them.
Actually, Alice had apparently been reflecting the beam with her powers the whole time. ...The worst possible compatibility in every conceivable way.
The thing Foxy had believed was invincible against anything except a mirror, his one known counter, was casually swatted away by hand with a little flick. Alice reminisced about it later and told me his face at that moment was something you absolutely had to see.
So, having come under our umbrella, the Foxy Pirates are basically continuing to operate as the "Foxy Pirates" same as before.
They were given some rules to follow: don't cause trouble for the Golden Lion Pirates, no plundering civilians since they're now under a Shichibukai's umbrella, and a few other things. As long as they followed those, they were free to do as they pleased.
Then Alice picked out a few members from among them... mainly several beauties who caught her fancy, and brought them back to Merveille to keep at her side.
Who was it again... uh, the Executive Class member Porche, and the "sexy shipwright"... Gina, was it? Plus several others. Faithful to her desires as always.
Incidentally, and perhaps surprisingly, the Foxy Pirates members were properly compliant about it all, accepting it because "we lost the match," and apparently no complaints were raised. Just like in the Original Work, they seemed to have a kind of sportsmanship about them, accepting defeat gracefully.
...Though they absolutely did resort to interference attacks and behind-the-scenes schemes during the actual games.
Next up, another group Alice picked up. That youngest daughter of mine might be trying a little too hard.
Well, this time she apparently found them by chance and picked them up.
And as it happened, though I'm not sure "as it happened" is the right way to put it, the pirate crew they'd belonged to had been wiped out, and she picked up the remnants. That was the situation.
And the name of that pirate crew was, of all things, the Bellamy Pirates. These were the guys who'd tangled with Luffy and the others before the Sky Island Arc.
The Captain, Bellamy the Hyena, had reappeared in Dressrosa during the "two years later" timeline, if I recall.
I vaguely remembered that he'd ended up in a state suggesting a lot had happened: "went to a Sky Island," "brought back a Golden Pillar," "lost his crewmates." I also remembered he was devoted to Doflamingo and seemed to be working hard to join his Family.
And, as I just mentioned, in the course of heading to the Sky Island, he'd "lost crewmates" along the way, and those "lost" crewmates were the ones Alice had picked up this time.
Not all of them, apparently. Just a small fraction, in fact.
Starting with a girl named Myuure who served as their Ship's Doctor, they looked vaguely familiar... but I honestly couldn't remember them. Not surprising, really.
They were apparently shocked about the destruction of the Bellamy Pirates, but with nowhere else to go, they all joined us as they were.
So far, no particular problems, and they seem to be gradually settling in... I think.
As for Bellamy himself, he wasn't among those Alice picked up, so... I suppose he'll show up around the Dressrosa Arc, as in the Original Work?
Of course, it wasn't just Alice bringing people in.
Suzu here recently brought in two Giant subordinates, of all things.
A pair who operate as a duo, named Bobby and Pogo.
Oddly enough, these two were properly wanted as pirates, but they themselves had no intention of being pirates and insisted they were "fishermen."
However, when their catches overlapped with others and territorial disputes turned into fights, and this happened repeatedly, they ended up on wanted posters. Bit hot-blooded, as you'd expect from the Giant Race.
I'd assumed it was the Government's usual false charges or fabrication, but it was actually pretty self-inflicted.
So Suzu happened to meet these two and, as fellow primary industry workers (questionable categorization?), they hit it off.
She tried inviting them on a long shot, and they accepted, agreeing to come under our umbrella.
Being Giants and pirates on top of that, stopping by or staying in ordinary towns was difficult, and finding a base had always been a constant headache for them.
Well... ordinary towns don't exactly have facilities to accommodate Giants. They might even get feared and attacked just for approaching.
Given that we held Territory over a wide area and would accept people like them, they decided to join up.
In fact, being under a Shichibukai's umbrella meant the Marines wouldn't chase them anymore, so they were grateful if anything.
When asked if they were okay with fully becoming pirates, they said it was a bit late to worry about that now.
Also, beyond just pirates, there were cases where we'd befriended people and made them allies, or claimed areas as Territory.
Since becoming a Shichibukai, I could openly go on "research trips" to all sorts of places, so I'd been visiting locations I couldn't get to during my tour of the Four Seas whenever I found the time.
As part of that, I went to East Blue recently, and at a certain island I stopped at, Leona made friends with someone.
A girl named Apis. She was an Ability User who'd eaten the Whisper-Whisper Fruit, a Devil Fruit that let her understand what animals were saying.
They'd met at a place called Warship Island when we went there in connection with gathering Dragon Bone, and since they both loved animals, they'd hit it off immediately.
Leona had been trying to recruit her, saying an Ability User who could talk to animals was not only rare but would definitely have a blast if she came to the Merveille Animal Kingdom. But Apis didn't want to leave Warship Island, her homeland.
Since forcing her wasn't an option, Leona reluctantly backed down.
As a precaution, we made Warship Island our Territory so no shady pirates would bother them.
That should ensure a degree of safety, and Leona could visit anytime she wanted.
Another thing that surprised me was someone Papa scouted recently. I genuinely didn't expect him to recruit a former Government operative, so that caught me off guard.
And it was an Original Work character, too. I barely remembered him.
The name: Nero the Sea Weasel.
If I recall correctly, the CP9 newcomer who appeared during the Water Seven arc.
The man who lost to Franky in a fight on the Sea Train, was then abandoned by Lucci as "useless," and was purged.
Apparently he survived, but couldn't return to the Government and had been wandering around as an outlaw... more like a common thug, really.
Somehow Papa sniffed him out and picked him up.
Now, alongside continuing to hone his own abilities, he was apparently thriving as an instructor, teaching hand-to-hand combat techniques to the more promising members among our subordinate crews.
Pirates learning Rokushiki... and being taught by a member who was supposed to have been discarded, no less. There's a certain irony in that, maybe?
He himself was channeling the frustration of being cast aside as motivation, training hard with the determination to prove wrong Lucci and the others who'd written him off. Depending on how that goes, he might achieve considerable growth. Honestly someone I was looking forward to seeing develop.
He understood the theory and had the instructional know-how, but he'd only mastered Four Styles so far, if I recall.
So, as you can see, all sorts of talent had been gathering.
The Golden Lion Pirates' fighting strength was steadily becoming more robust. Not just in terms of numbers, but if we took the time going forward to properly train and develop these people, then by the "two years later" when the world starts moving in terms of the Original Work, they'd be an even greater force.
Still, it wasn't nearly enough... or rather, I shouldn't allow myself to be satisfied. That thought crossed my mind simultaneously.
Because there was a chance, just maybe, that we'd end up fighting the Big Mom Pirates down the line. And on top of that, Papa had various plans of his own.
You can never have too much fighting power. If anything, I needed to be more greedy, to keep pushing for more.
Talent recruitment would continue going forward.
...If possible, it wasn't just about individuals with high combat power, though that was great too. What I really wanted were people who could contribute to strengthening the crew as a whole.
Like Nero, someone with the knowledge and skills to train and develop others.
Well... I knew full well that kind of talent didn't just fall into your lap...
"On another matter, Mother, what time is our departure tomorrow?"
"Hm? Oh... we'll eat breakfast and relax a bit first, so around 10 o'clock. Uh... Suzu, Leona, and Alice are all coming along too, right?"
"Aye. I wish to pay my respects properly. To Mother's... adoptive father and mother."
"There's no grave or anything, though. ...It's been a while for me too, going there. I need to properly report, or rather confess, that I became a pirate. And report that I have daughters now, too."
"Are we an afterthought? Well, no matter... where is this place, exactly?"
"Um, it's at the edge of the Ruruka Islands... it's not an island with any particular landmark or anything famous, so. Nothing like that nearby either. We'll have to make sure we don't get lost. ...Maybe it would be a good idea to record the magnetic signature and make an Eternal Pose when we go there tomorrow."
"Why not claim that island as Territory while we are at it?"
"Hmm... but I think nobody lives on that island anymore, so there's not much benefit to making it Territory. Then again, if we just think of it as a vacation spot or something, maybe it could work? I'll think about it."
To be continued...