"Hey, Sengoku, is this really fine?"
Garp picked his nose while glancing at Rayleigh, whose head was covered in lumps, and asked Sengoku beside him.
"Hmph. I was already merciful enough not to arrest him on the spot! After all that long-winded nonsense, we still got nowhere in the end…"
Sengoku stormed out of the bar, slamming the door behind him.
His face was bruised and swollen, yet somehow, he still carried the dignity of a Fleet Admiral.
"Move! First, we'll go to the nearby Marine branch and contact Borsalino to convene an emergency remote Marine meeting. We need to settle those brats' bounties. And—don't forget to notify Morgans! Even if that bastard ran fast, the bounty posters still need to be released to the public!"
"Eh? What about Ace?" Garp asked.
"For the next few days, we'll keep an eye on their location. Sooner or later, they'll lead us where we need to go!" Sengoku answered without looking back.
"Then where are we sleeping tonight?"
Garp chased after him for a few steps and asked the most practical question.
"The same place as last night," Sengoku said curtly.
"Eh? But wasn't the owner already arrested?" Garp scratched his head, looking confused.
"This isn't the time to cling to stupid little details like that, you bastard! The room is still perfectly fine, isn't it? What does it matter where the owner is?"
Sengoku suddenly turned back and glared at him, frustration churning in his eyes.
"And most importantly, I've never slept on such a comfortable bed in my entire life, yet Rayleigh ruined the whole night yesterday!"
…
The next day arrived.
After an entire day of emergency meetings at Marine Headquarters, the final list of bounty posters that would shake the world was officially decided.
Morgans' News Coo swiftly spread them across the seas.
Monkey D. Luffy, bounty: 500 million Beli.
This rookie, who had not yet even entered the New World, had recklessly broken into Impel Down and released every prisoner held on the first and second levels.
He also possessed the incredibly rare Conqueror's Haki.
Amid the chaos of the Summit War, he even joined forces with others and directly defeated a heavily injured Marine Admiral.
For a pirate who had not yet officially stepped into the New World, such achievements were unprecedented.
The sharp increase in his bounty was enough to show just how seriously the Marines viewed him.
Title: Straw Hat
Crew: Straw Hat Pirates
…
Marshall D. Teach, bounty: 1.2 billion Beli.
Although this pirate had no particularly brilliant achievements to support him during the Summit War, his many actions had already enraged both the Marines and the World Government.
Not only did he carry the hidden identity of someone suspected to be a descendant of the Rocks Pirates, making him a priority target the World Government strongly demanded be suppressed, but he had also committed crimes far worse than Luffy's: he released the worst criminals permanently imprisoned on Impel Down's sixth level, allowing those vicious monsters to return to the sea and unleash untold bloodshed.
Such an act, one that threatened the world order itself, forced the Marines to raise his bounty to this level and mark him as a top-level potential threat that had to be eliminated as soon as possible.
Title: Blackbeard
Crew: Blackbeard Pirates
…
Portgas D. Ace, bounty: 1.3 billion Beli.
He had been the trigger for the Summit War.
The truth of him being Roger's son was publicly announced as a rumor with no basis in fact, but a small number of people within the Marine high command still knew his true identity as Roger's son.
Now that he had inherited Whitebeard's position, even if what remained under him were only remnants, they still represented a considerable force.
Title: Fire Fist
Crew: Whitebeard Pirates
…
Yamato, bounty: 1.2 billion Beli.
The 'son' of Kaido of the Beasts, possessing strength capable of contending with former Marine Admiral Zephyr, mastering all three forms of Haki, and wielding a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit.
Her future growth potential was immeasurable, and the Marines listed her as one of the "most dangerous new-generation combatants."
Title: Oni Princess
Crew: Beasts Pirates???
…
Charlotte Katakuri, bounty: 1.3 billion Beli.
Although his involvement in the Summit War had been limited, the mere fact that he was the second strongest fighter in Totto Land, combined with his indirect role in tying down large numbers of Marine forces during the war, was enough to grant him a slight increase from his original bounty.
Title: Sweet Commander
Crew: Big Mom Pirates
…
Sabo, bounty: 1 billion Beli.
As a core combatant of the Revolutionary Army and the user of the terrifying Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the Marines judged that he had the potential to someday stand on par with a Marine Admiral.
This bounty was both recognition of his current strength and an estimate of the threat he would become in the future.
Title: Thunder Emperor
Affiliation: Revolutionary Army
…
As for Buggy, the Marine high command had included him on the candidate list for the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
After secret contact, the other party had tacitly accepted this arrangement. Because of that, no bounty amount was marked for him on this poster list.
Fire Fist Ace still appeared on the bounty posters only because the Marines had not yet confirmed his attitude toward the Seven Warlords nomination, so they printed and announced his bounty amount at the same time.
…
And then came the most critical figure at the heart of the war.
Chad Cain, bounty: 2,336,530,000 Beli.
"Okay, why does my bounty have such a weird exact number?"
Cain held the freshly delivered newspaper, his brows twisting together, his face full of confusion.
The island where they had agreed to meet was not far from Marine Headquarters, so naturally, they were among the first group to receive the bounty posters.
At the moment, several of them were sitting beneath the shade of a tree, waiting for Sabo and Ace to arrive.
Luffy was marveling at his own 500 million bounty, holding the newspaper in both hands and flipping it back and forth while constantly muttering, "So cool, so cool."
Uta sat to the side, smiling as she watched them.
Only Cain was muttering to himself while staring at that number, which was precise all the way down to the ten-thousands.
The photo on the poster had also been updated.
It showed the instant Cain had pointed his staff straight at Whitebeard.
His expression was sharp and fierce, and admittedly, it did match such a high bounty.
But the more Cain looked at it, the stranger he felt.
"And this is way too ridiculous, isn't it? Grandpa and the others clearly kept warning me to keep a low profile and build up my strength step by step, so why did it jump this much all at once? Are they rushing me to take an Emperor's seat?"
What he did not know was that behind this bounty lay countless headache-filled moments for Sengoku and Garp.
The two of them had agonized over it for an entire night.
If they did not set Cain's bounty high enough, the strength he had displayed on the battlefield and the deterrent power he carried—something impossible to quantify—made them afraid to underestimate him.
But if they set it too high, a crew member having a bounty far above his captain's was something almost unheard of in the pirate world.
If word spread, the Marines would become a laughingstock.
In the end, with no other choice, the two had stared at piles of battle reports and threat assessment forms, then "boldly" calculated their way into this strange-looking bounty.
It seemed precise, but in truth, it was the result of compromise.
"I don't think that's the reason," Uta suddenly said.
She reached out, flipped over the bounty poster in Cain's hand, and pointed at the supplementary explanation below.
Cain leaned closer to look, and his head immediately began to ache.
Title: Pink Beast Cain
Crew: Straw Hat Pirates? … Big Mom Pirates?? Beasts Pirates???
"So in order to decide my bounty, you people just randomly labeled my affiliation and threw three question marks on there to get away with it?"
Cain held his forehead, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
"At least Yamato's situation can be blamed on unclear information. How did it turn into a three-way no-man's-land with me? Marine Headquarters is way too unreliable!"
Patiently, he continued flipping through the bounty poster and the newspaper article.
Only then did he finally understand what had happened.
The newspaper clearly stated that while he was officially affiliated with the Straw Hat Pirates, he had also been marked as "Big Mom's son" and "Kaido's son."
That whole mess had started from Sengoku's slip of the tongue on the battlefield.
Yet somehow, the mistake had spread through rumor after rumor until the entire world believed it, forcibly creating a misunderstanding on an absurd scale.
And the Big Mom Pirates had actually openly acknowledged that Cain was one of their people.
Making things even worse, Kaido, far away in Wano, had seen the dragon during the war.
Although he was somewhat displeased—after all, the world did not need two dragons—for the sake of his Beasts Pirates, he had still taken a hard stance and publicly declared that he intended to bring Cain under the Beasts Pirates' banner.
Now Cain's pirate affiliation had completely turned into a boiling pot of chaos.
But precisely because of this utterly chaotic belonging, the Marines dared to give him such a high bounty without hesitation.
After all, with the names of two major powers placed there, no matter which force set their sights on him, they would restrain one another.
This was exactly what Garp and Sengoku were happy to see.
That way, Cain alone could become a spy inside two Emperor crews.
As for Red-Hair, Garp had declared that in a few years, forget the whole pirate crew—even their pirate flag would have to become his footcloth.
Looking at the contents of the newspaper, Cain barely accepted it for the time being.
In any case, he had never really taken being a pirate seriously. Originally, he had only wanted to hang a name somewhere casually.
After all, the reason he had joined Luffy back then was merely to find Ace as quickly as possible.
Now that things had turned into this mess, exactly which pirate crew he belonged to no longer mattered. It was not as if he truly wanted to be a pirate, so there was no use overthinking it.
Besides, if he created a pirate crew himself, that would be way too troublesome.
Leaving aside the need to recruit a bunch of crewmates he did not even know, all the daily trivial matters would completely disrupt his rhythm.
That did not fit his desire for a peaceful life at all.
Still…
"But what the hell is 'Pink Beast Cain'? It's only a few words different from Kaido of the Beasts' title! Do I not already have enough similarities with Kaido? Careful, or he'll sue me for plagiarism!"