Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? The Hunting Competition

On the vast sea, the waters are calm.

A strangely shaped pirate ship is slowly drifting with the wind.

The skull on the pirate ship's flag is shaped like a strange scarecrow.

A man with long blond hair ate a fortune cookie and quietly watched the sea.

This person is tall and slender, with six distinctive vertical lines on his forehead, armor on his left arm, and a black cross tattooed on his Adam's apple. He wears black trousers with an open, ruffled white shirt, and his brows convey a sense of hesitation. (See picture)

He is Basil Hawkins, a newcomer who has already made a name for himself in North Blue.

In recent years, the East Blue has been in the spotlight.

However, in reality, the North Blue is also an extremely turbulent sea area.

New talents are constantly emerging.

"Captain, was Trafalgar Law really defeated by that woman?"

The henchmen looked at the regional newspaper in their hands and asked in surprise.

Hawkins put down the fortune cookie in his hand and took out a deck of Rota cards from his pocket.

After a moment, he murmured, "Someone's chance of survival is 1%..."

After he finished speaking, he raised his head and quietly looked into the distance.

"What?"

His subordinates, surprised and filled with a sense of shared fate, said, "Even the Heart Pirates have been wiped out. We're probably going to be the next ones wiped out, aren't we?"

"That woman named Caitlyn can't possibly be that strong, can she? I heard she just took advantage of Bepo's weakness for eating fish..."

"Who knows? Anyway, we haven't heard from the Heart Pirates for a long time; it's like they've vanished from the North Blue."

"..."

However, no matter how much his men argued, Hawkins remained focused on the distant sea with a furrowed brow.

Only he himself knew that when he said "someone has a 1% chance of survival," he wasn't referring to Trafalgar Law, but to himself, Hawkins.

Suddenly, a white sail slowly rose on the distant sea.

Hawkins' face showed a hint of helplessness and relief.

Is this Destiny...?

What was painted on the white sail was not a blue seagull, but a round cross flag.

This is the symbol of World Government.

Judicial ships on Enies Lobby are even rarer than naval vessels.

Those who haven't yet ventured into the Grand Line and are unfamiliar with the world might not immediately recognize the flags in Hawkins' pirate illustrations.

But Hawkins had already given the order for everyone to prepare for battle.

Meanwhile, on the Enies Lobby ship belonging to the Cipher Pol, a little girl with fiery red hair and cat ears was lying on a large deck chair in a children's swimsuit, drinking soda and making a phone call.

On the other end of the phone came Commander Spandam's neurotic voice.

Annie mumbled "uh-huh" to her idiotic boss, while simultaneously accepting the new drink handed to her by Miss Goldenweek's sidekick, making gurgling noises.

"Annie, are you even listening to me?!"

On the other end of the phone, Spandam roared angrily, "That guy Fullbody promised to transfer 50% of the shares of an important shop in Sabaody to me, so you'd better do a good job!"

"Since you value this operation so much, why not send Rob Lucci?"

Annie stretched out her little toes, letting Miss Goldenweek massage her legs.

"Lucci has an even more important mission to undertake..."

Spandam's words were tinged with barely suppressed excitement:

"Who would have thought that the Revolutionary Army's previous actions would actually provide new clues to something I've been searching for for years... That guy Carter Flam is still alive... Alright, alright, you'll get involved in the blueprints matter after you're done with things here. Now, hurry up and help me make some extra money!"

"Um... Spandam, I sincerely remind you that shares in physical retail stores will only depreciate in value."

"Hmph, what do you know, little girl? The Fullbody Family's clothing store is a prime location. Anyway, do a good job, and I won't treat you unfairly."

Dudu--

Spandam hung up the phone.

Annie sighed.

I rarely offer well-intentioned advice, so why doesn't anyone believe me...?

In the world of One Piece, water transport is ubiquitous.

Large, technologically advanced merchant groups face low travel costs, but solo individuals face extremely high travel costs.

This means that when the era of massive online shopping arrives, the impact of e-commerce on brick-and-mortar stores will be even more devastating.

"Golden Week holiday, I also want to be in a good mood today, so let me paint a cheerful orange!"

As she spoke, Annie rolled over, allowing the little Golden Week girl to draw on her back.

Basically, after Annie used her privileges to rescue this little girl from Impel Down, she treated her as her little follower and legal medicine.

Safe and with no side effects, just a little bit of paint can make people happy—it's so convenient!

But just then, a CP agent shouted, "Miss Annie, enemies have appeared ahead. It seems to be the Hawkins Pirates, who are quite well-known in the North Blue. Should we detour?"

"Bypass?"

Annie jumped up with great interest, putting on her cute red and white striped socks while hugging her Tibbers bear.

"Game time is over!"

Flame vs. Straw.

O is undoubtedly a natural counter.

Moreover, in order to maintain Enies Lobby's image as the strongest agent in a century, Annie must always keep up with Lucci's growth in strength.

Only in this way can she leverage her age advantage to gain greater influence.

However, Rob Lucci was also a growth stock with an extremely abnormal growth curve.

Two years after being defeated by Luffy in the original story, he not only learned Armament Haki and Observation Haki like King Luffy, but also rose to become the commander of CP.0 through sheer strength.

This shows that his title of "top agent" is well-deserved.

In this timeline, because he learned the Drunken Leopard Fist from the Short-Lived Ghost whiskey and online novels, his strength improved at a faster pace.

In order to Lucci's strength, Annie leveled up to level 10, one level higher than Caitlyn.

Level 11+ with standard equipment, roughly equivalent to the strength of the Supernovas gathered at Sabaody Archipelago in the original story.

The heroes of the North Blue have not yet ventured into the Grand Line for training, so their level is approximately equivalent to level 10.

Therefore, if Caitlyn's victory over the current Heart Pirates was largely due to the advantage of the Marines and Bepo's weakness of loving fish, then Annie's victory over Hawkins, given their similar levels and elemental advantages, is a natural outcome.

When Hawkins' last crew member fell, the last puppet doll on Hawkins' body also turned to ashes in the flames.

He was still calculating the tarot cards.

"I surrender!"

Hawkins looked at the cards in his hand and raised his hands.

"You're smart to know what's good for you!"

Annie blew out the fire in her hand and poked Hawkins, who was covered in cold sweat. "It's all flesh and blood... You dare call yourself a scarecrow? The scarecrows I know are a hundred times more durable than you!"

"Oh, no, you're not a scarecrow, you're a cat!"

"Ah?"

Hawkins was bound handcuffed and handcuffed with Seastone Handcuffs by CP agents.

Surrender can greatly increase one's chances of survival; this is the lesson Hawkins learned from the Tarot cards.

Just like in the original story, he surrendered to Kaido based on the revelation of divination.

However, Annie is not Kaido after all, and doesn't have that much of a sense of oppression.

So Hawkins didn't shoot immediately; he tried to put up a fight.

Hawkins never expected that he would be called a cat after surrendering.

Is this little girl mentally unstable?

However, Annie solemnly counted on her fingers. "As long as your teammates are alive, you won't suffer. You're definitely a kitten!"

Annie happily directed her men to hoist Hawkins onto the mast.

"What excellent prey!"

Annie looked at Hawkins, who had a perpetually grimace, with a satisfied expression. "It seems I won the hunting competition... Master will definitely praise me for being so capable..."

About two days later, a small town near the Sea Area 75 welcomed three groups of guests.

Fullbody arrived ahead of him in a small warship with about twenty of his trusted men, and booked a hotel.

Shortly after, a trusted aide rushed over, shouting, "Captain Fullbody, World Government and Root Division Navy ships have appeared on the dock!"

The World Government's ships are easy to understand; aside from tax collection, they rarely appear in the North Blue, making them very distinctive.

The Root Division Navy is Twitch's addition of a large carrot beneath the original naval symbol, a seagull with outstretched wings, to symbolize that only with a thick Root Division can the seagull soar through the sky.

This is also a very rare flag in the North Blue.

"Very good!"

Fullbody pushed aside his newly met female companion and abruptly stood up. "Come with me to the docks!"

Fullbody and his group arrived at the dock full of excitement, only to be immediately dumbfounded.

The dock was packed with people.

Local residents and local reporters who had come after hearing the news had already surrounded the dock.

Fullbody and his group could only squeeze through the crowd, and one of the onlookers pulled aside and asked, "What's going on? Haven't you seen naval warships before? Didn't another warship arrive this morning? You didn't give it such a warm welcome, so full of life and excitement!"

"Morning?"

The bystander recalled, "Were there any warships this morning? Captain Caitlyn's ship was docked here yesterday, and that ruthless Hyena Bellamy was on board..."

"And now?" Fullbody asked.

"That's even more impressive than Captain Caitlyn!"

The onlooker gave a thumbs up. He didn't recognize the judicial ship on Enies Lobby, nor did he know anything about any Cipher Pol, but he recognized the loudly proclaimed "Root":

"No wonder they're from the East Blue! One ship has Hawkins hanging from it, and another has Drake hanging from it. Lord Twitch from the East Blue China Sea has arrived! We in the North Blue finally have justice! I really hope Lord Twitch can transfer his troops to our North Blue!"

"I'm not talking to you anymore, everyone up ahead is writing lengthy petitions, I need to go sign some too!"

As he spoke, the middle-aged man, who was watching the show, shoved Fullbody aside and squeezed his way to the front.