"The Seven Warlords invitation has been rejected again."
As Fleet Admiral, Sengoku pressed his brow with his fingers in distress. Over the years, the Seven Warlords' positions had been swinging between full and vacant. Every so often, someone would defeat a Warlord.
The Warlord who fell this time was actually a newcomer with potential, but he didn't know his place. New pirates were like this—after sailing smoothly through the first half, they thought they were invincible, and this one actually dared challenge Inazuma.
Partly because he was stubborn, and partly because Yamato and the others were new and not yet famous, when they clashed, this new Warlord was immediately defeated.
Over the years, the Marines had discovered a major problem with recruiting Seven Warlords.
Those with strength and ambition usually wouldn't want to be the Marines' dogs. Those without strength but with ambition, the Marines didn't want.
In the end, only four evergreen Warlords remained—Hawk-Eyes, Doflamingo, Crocodile, Katakuri…
Looking back, all four had participated in the war that ended Big Mom Pirates, but had been defeated in the battle to become a Four Emperor.
Though Doflamingo hadn't challenged a Four Emperor since, he had lost to Buggy and Red-Hair in the struggle for territory. His fighting strength had declined, but among the remaining Warlords, he was still upper-middle tier, arguably second only to Hawk-Eyes.
"That female pirate from Kuja Island is strong, but our Marine warships can now navigate the Calm Belt freely. Isn't she afraid we'll attack Amazon Lily directly?" Vice Admiral Tsuru asked.
The suggestion to invite Hancock had been hers. Unlike ordinary pirate crews, the Kuja Pirates were actually the pirate crew of the nation of Amazon Lily. No matter how strong the Empress was, she couldn't abandon her country.
Unlike other pirates who could flee when facing the Marines.
With this leverage, the other party shouldn't have refused the Seven Warlords proposal.
"Those troublesome people are already Inazuma's subordinates. That Empress calculated that we wouldn't attack Inazuma's territory without being fully prepared for all-out war against Inazuma," Sengoku said distressingly.
War against Inazuma?
How was that possible? Inazuma's weapons alone were enough to give the Marines and World Government a headache, and with the Raiden Shogun himself, Inazuma had long become the World Government's gravest threat.
They wanted to eliminate it but didn't dare act rashly. If they had known, they should have struck when Inazuma first emerged. But back then, Inazuma showed no signs of danger, plus the Rocks Pirates remnants were causing chaos on the high seas, drawing attention.
By the time they realized, Inazuma had already become such a colossus.
The current World Government was waiting—for Inazuma to become vulnerable, for the Raiden Shogun to grow old. Then Inazuma would naturally lose its leader.
Historically, great pirate crews had met the same end. Even the Rocks Pirates had dissipated after Rocks' death.
But they didn't know that Inazuma, with its Vampire-Vampire Fruit and Time-Time Fruit abilities, had already become an eternal kingdom. Im might have lived for eight hundred years, but Ren would live even longer!
"What about Fish-Man Island then?" Vice Admiral Tsuru asked again.
Fish-Man Island's situation was similar to Amazon Lily's, but more complicated.
The conflict between fish-men and humans ran deep. Long ago, humans hadn't even considered them "human," but "fish." Plus, Fisher Tiger's incident had further intensified tensions between the two races.
Moreover, Fish-Man Island now seemed to be Whitebeard's territory…
What a hassle.
Viridi secretly cursed. Many of these troubles stemmed from the Celestial Dragons, and as Marines, they could only endure in silence.
"For now, they've refused. The fish-men have strong opinions about us," Sengoku said. "If not for the previous incident, success would have been likely."
Fish-Man Island's situation was more serious than Amazon Lily's. As the necessary route for pirates heading to the New World, the nation faced greater dangers. Being able to curry favor with both pirates and Marines would be very helpful.
"Jinbe's strength is excellent, and his personality differs from most nasty pirates. If he could join the Seven Warlords, it would be good for us," Tsuru said, naturally without racial prejudice. "He cares about his crewmates. What if we use the captured fish-men as bargaining chips?"
"That would increase the success rate considerably. But we'd need to negotiate with Impel Down to release them," Sengoku said. "Even so, the number of qualified candidates is small. The World Government wants to plant someone. Bounty of 296 million. A guy called the Tyrant Kuma."
"Another pirate rookie? But why is he connected to the World Government?"
"Who knows."
"In any case, that makes six. Those who don't qualify can be removed," Sengoku decided.
The following year, Jinbe the Knight of the Sea became a Seven Warlord. In exchange, the previously captured Arlong was released from Impel Down.
After leaving prison, Arlong had complicated feelings toward Jinbe, but out of anger over Jinbe helping humans, he took a group of dissatisfied fish-men and left the Sun Pirates.
At the end of the same year, a man named Gild Tesoro became the new Warlord after the Tyrant Kuma.
This guy had barely survived in the arena as a slave, and last year, he had stolen a Devil Fruit from Doflamingo's auction house. Now he had brazenly become a Warlord, standing on the same stage as Doflamingo.
The Devil Fruit he had eaten wasn't actually a powerful one—it was a failed attempt at creating an artificial Mythical Zoan Fruit from the Enkanomiya.
—Deep Sea Dragon Lizard Fruit, Original Model.
Though called a failure, it wasn't entirely so. Except for lacking the special Thunder-Swallowing ability, it was no different from ordinary Zoan Fruits.
In this regard, it was even stronger than Ancient Zone Fruits!
One could say the Deep Sea Dragon Lizard Fruit, Original Model, was like the cultivated original Deep Sea Dragon Lizard creature—a blank-slate Mythical Zoan Fruit.
[
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