After the Roger Pirates finally escaped safely, the skies cleared, the rain stopped, and even old Mr. Sun seemed to think he was back in business, coming out to show off a little.
"This was seriously way too dangerous." Buggy lay sprawled across the deck in utter exhaustion. Even though he had not fought directly, he was mentally drained.
There were quite a few others just like him. The entire deck was covered with people lying around in heaps. Baichuan also let out a sigh of relief. It seemed this part of the story had not changed because of his arrival.
If he had gone up against Golden Lion now, he would not even have been able to run. Sure, he could fly, but Golden Lion could fly too.
Roger suddenly burst into loud laughter, and as he laughed, the rest of the crew were infected by it and started laughing along with him.
It could be said that this escape had depended entirely on luck. If their luck had been a little worse, they never would have run into such a massive tsunami. And if their luck had been even worse, they might have all been wiped out in that very tsunami.
At this moment, the Roger Pirates had lost their usual liveliness. Everyone was either sitting or lying around, slowly recovering their strength.
Day turned to night, and night turned to day. After a full day had passed, the Roger Pirates had more or less returned to normal, as if yesterday's events had never happened at all.
They were already close to the sea region leading to Fish-Man Island, and the weather had become much less violent. It could even be said that yesterday's tsunami had saved them quite a bit of travel time and distance.
More and more seabirds began appearing in the sky, and there were all sorts of them. Whenever the weather was especially clear, these seabirds would circle above pirate ships and occasionally stop on deck to rest.
At that moment, a News Coo landed on their ship. Baichuan casually took out some money and handed it over, then picked up a newspaper and started reading. After all this time learning, he had more or less come to understand seven or eight tenths of the written language in the world of One Piece.
The newspaper was a thick stack, all of it recording major events that had happened recently. Among them was the duel between Roger and Whitebeard on some island in the New World two months ago, as well as Roger's battle with Golden Lion yesterday in the waters of Edd War.
"This newspaper is way too behind the times. An event from two months ago is only getting reported today."
The account of Whitebeard and Roger's battle was not very detailed, because not many people knew much about it. It had only gotten a few rough lines because both of them were overlords of the sea.
The report said the two had fought for three days and three nights on an island somewhere in the New World, with no clear victor. The Marines had dispatched Sengoku the Buddha, Hero Garp, several elite vice admirals from headquarters, and over a dozen elite rear admirals to capture them, but the attempt had ended in failure.
As for yesterday's battle with Golden Lion, that one had been recorded in much greater detail. The newspaper had even printed a photo of Golden Lion with a ship's rudder stuck in his head, looking just like an enraged iron rooster.
The moment he saw the picture, even Baichuan, who already had some impression of it, could not help laughing again.
"What is it?" Rayleigh asked when he noticed Baichuan smiling.
"Our battle with Golden Lion yesterday is already in the paper. Take a look at what Golden Lion looked like after we left."
Baichuan handed the newspaper to Rayleigh.
The first thing Rayleigh saw was Shiki's furious, rooster-like face.
"Hahaha, serves him right!"
Unlike Baichuan's more restrained smile, Rayleigh's laughter was bold and uninhibited. He laughed so loudly that everyone around him heard and immediately started asking what had happened.
"So that battle is called the Battle of Edd War? The name does fit the location pretty well."
The newspaper was passed around among the Roger Pirates. Every single person who saw Shiki's appearance burst into delighted laughter, all feeling thoroughly satisfied.
"He's still not dead even after that? That bastard's life is way too tough," one pirate said with obvious regret. If Golden Lion had died there, then there would no longer be any pirate left capable of threatening the Roger Pirates.
At the very least, Whitebeard would never pull something that despicable.
"That rudder in Shiki's head is probably going to stay with him for life. If it gets removed, it could put his life in danger at any moment."
At that point, the ship's doctor, Crocus, gave a professional conclusion.
"That works too. Maybe from now on, Golden Lion will end up with the nickname Big Rooster."
After the newspaper was taken away, there was still another stack of papers left in Baichuan's hands. If he was not mistaken, these should be wanted posters.
The moment he opened them, Baichuan froze.
The very first person was far too familiar.
Was that not him?
Baichuan looked down. The photo on the wanted poster had probably been taken in that exact moment two months ago when he stood watching the Marines retreat. To be fair, it looked pretty good. At the very least, it had captured his bearing perfectly.
"Great Sword, Adolf K. Baichuan. Bounty: 50,000,000 Berries. Dead or alive."
That was the rough meaning of the wanted poster.
"Only 50 million Berries? Not bad, actually."
Baichuan seemed fairly satisfied. At least Luffy's first bounty had only been 30 million Berries. Still, he could not help feeling that his own bounty was a little low.
Was an opponent who could stand on equal footing with a Marine Headquarters rear admiral really only worth 50 million? Maybe the Marines just did not want to set someone's first bounty too high.
He figured that as long as he caused even one more incident in the future, his bounty might very well double.
Besides, Baichuan's strength was changing almost by the day. The current him was already nothing like the him from two months ago. At the very least, his swordsmanship had improved greatly, and he had also mastered Armament Haki.
Now that Baichuan had grasped all three types of Haki, a 50 million Berry bounty really did seem a little low.
"But what the hell is this Great Sword title?"
Baichuan frowned. Was it because of the Sword of Damocles that appeared above his head when he fought? But this title sounded way too awful. Or was it just because he was not used to hearing it yet? Compared to future epithets like Red Hair or Hundred Beasts, his sounded much worse.
"What did you find this time? Why does your expression look so bad, and why are you staring that hard?"
Rayleigh leaned over too, sticking his head in to look at the wanted poster in Baichuan's hands.
"Oh? Isn't that you? Impressive. You actually made it onto a government wanted poster." Rayleigh sounded a little surprised.
"What? Let me see!"
Shanks and Buggy immediately crowded over, each trying to be the first to look at the poster in Baichuan's hand.
"It really is! And it's 50 million Berries!"
Buggy's distinctive shrill voice rang out at once.
"What? He got 50 million?"
Some of the other crew members were shocked as well. Although there were extremely high bounties on their ship, those belonged only to certain individuals. Most of the ordinary pirates on board did not have bounties at all.
"Damn it, this is so unfair! Why does Baichuan get a bounty when I don't?" Buggy was burning with jealousy. Having a bounty was also a kind of proof of strength.
Shanks was envious too. They were both apprentice pirates, so how had the gap between them gotten this huge?
At that moment, Baichuan had practically become a thorn in the eyes of the ordinary crew members. Envy, jealousy, and resentment filled the ship.
/-\
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