The Singing in the Black Mist

The area around North Blue Sea Area 75 is known as the forbidden sea.

To cover up their despicable acts 13 years ago, the World Government erased all records related to Flevance.

However, it has only been thirteen years since then, and it is not Void Century from seven hundred years ago. There are still some people who know some traces of it. However, those who fully understand the whole event are few and far between, due to the destruction of the country caused by Amber Lead disease.

Among the 19 branches, many had heard of Flevance, but only to the extent that "a terrible plague once broke out on that island, so the World Government sealed off that area of the sea."

The recent ghost stories near Flevance are causing even more anxiety.

If it's just Amber Lead disease, chemical protective suits are already prepared on board.

But if it's haunted...

Hazmat suits are probably useless...

"Captain Caitlyn, do you think it's really possible that a patient who died unjustly in the past has become a vengeful ghost?"

Caitlyn's adjutant was a muscular man who appeared to be very large.

However, it is clear that this man's courage is not proportional to his physique.

Caitlyn has applied to Ma Qiao to have Leona join the Navy and be transferred to her command.

After all, Leona is tanky, has strong offensive capabilities, and hard crowd control, making it easy for Caitlyn to place a double-target attack, allowing her to take advantage of her long reach.

However, this year's spring conscription has only just begun, and Caitlyn currently has to endure the help of this big, clumsy guy.

In fact, Ma Qiao has been having a lot of headaches lately.

Because the Big Bird Consortium has accumulated considerable wealth in the past year, Ma Qiao plans to upgrade his personal guards and key outpost heroes to level 12-13.

However, Twitch, Garen, Darius, Gangplank, and even Caitlyn and Thresh, all asked Ma Qiao for support.

It's one thing for Twitch and Caitlyn, as ADCs, to ask for support, but what do the other three top laners even need support for?!

Even more outrageous is Thresh!

Are you planning to build Infinity Edge Statikk Shiv?!

You still want someone to help you?

Darius, doesn't he have Sett by his side?

However, when confronted with Ma Qiao's questions, each of his Retainers complained.

Garen said he misses his sister very much;

Darius said that Sett always gets cheered by the crowd whenever he enters the arena, stealing his thunder;

Gangplank said that he had formed the 13th division of the Whitebeard Pirates, but apart from Gin was barely usable, he was really lacking in talent and was afraid that he would ruin his lord's important plans;

As for Thresh, he even stated that the workplace struggles in the Impel Down are too intense, and he would be too easily taken advantage of if he didn't have a deputy or allies.

In comparison, Annie, who found a young girl as her support, was probably the one who made things the easiest for Ma Qiao.

Of course, putting aside their absurd reasons, increasing the infiltration of the Navy, Impel Down, and the Four Emperors' crews is indeed necessary.

Therefore, Ma Qiao plans to recruit more heroes to join the Navy.

In addition to transferring Leona, the female manager of Sky Island, to North Blue to enlist in the army and try to join Caitlyn's command, the following personnel arrangements are also made.

Ghost Harbor Blood Shadow Pyke will travel to the New World to assist Gangplank.

Lux, the Lady of Lux, will travel to Mary Geoise to assist Garen.

Yuumi the Magical Cat will travel to the East Blue to assist Twitch.

Draven, the Glorious Executioner, travels to the Impel Down to assist Thresh.

Ma Qiao believes that Xiao Hai's spirit in heaven would be smiling in his grave if he knew that Draven could also support Thresh one day.

Darius, who is currently in Mary Geoise establishing Rapid Response Force, is in a more complicated situation.

Since Darius and Sett are both melee powerhouses, pairing them with a Braum or something similar wouldn't make much difference.

However, if you pair her with Sona or something, it would be troublesome if she caught the eye of Celestial Dragons from Mary Geoise.

Even a special creature like Yuumi might be forcibly taken if seen by those Celestial Dragons spend their days carrying caged birds.

So after much deliberation, Ma Qiao finally paired Darius with Heartseeker Varus.

Although Varus is not a support, as a ranged marksman, Varus's crowd control abilities are comparable to Ashe's and are among the best.

His pairing with Darius and Sett would be very effective.

In this way, the Trident will be a very reliable force in the rapid reaction force that is now under the cross-management of the World Government and the Marine Headquarters, which is currently attracting worldwide attention.

This also means that Ma Qiao will have complete control over the unit.

On the other hand, by sending the Heartseeker Varus over, Ma Qiao hoped to bridge the gap between Darius and Sett.

As for whether the Celestial Dragons have any special fetishes, Ma Qiao couldn't care less.

In short, there is currently a strong sense of competition among Maggio's retainers.

Nobody wants their team to be subordinate to someone else.

So when news broke that Caitlyn had hung Hyena Bellamy from the mast, a massive internal struggle ensued.

Two days later, when Annie's troops, carrying Hawkins, and Twitch's troops, carrying Drake, appeared before Caitlyn's troops, Caitlyn's face fell.

North Blue finally managed to find a few interesting prey, and these guys came and took them all...

Caitlyn currently just a captain in the North Blue, her rank is only equivalent to Tashigi's in the East Blue arc of the original work, so naturally she won't have any good ships.

Therefore, Twitch and Annie's warships easily forced Caitlyn's ship to stop.

Fullbody on the deck of the "Good Guy Twitch," emboldened by his status as a rat, he stood with his hands on his hips and laughed heartily.

"Hahaha, Miss Caitlyn, you're surrounded!"

I advise you not to put up a futile resistance!

"The man next to me is my childhood friend, the renowned Root of Justice of the East Blue!"

To be honest, as a childhood friend of the Nezumi, Fullbody originally had doubts about how much fighting power the Nezumi actually had.

He even secretly suspected that the kid Nezumi must have bribed the newspapers to praise him and had his uncle pull strings to get him promoted.

Regardless of whether the achievement was orchestrated or not, the Nezumi must have had a powerful confidant by his side.

Otherwise... Fullbody looked at X. Drake, who was hanging from the mast, with deep apprehension in his eyes.

X. Drake is currently the strongest pirate in the North Blue, known as the "Fallen Rear Admiral" and "Red Flag Drake".

The reason he's called the "fallen rear Rear Admiral" is because this guy really is a former rear Rear Admiral.

A 27-year-old rear Rear Admiral...

His promotion speed is even faster than Kizaru's; I really don't know why he would defect and become a pirate.

Drake is now covered in green slime, his body displaying an unnatural, eerie green color.

Twitch's max-level skill is Venom Cask.

The venom in the Venom Cask has been greatly enhanced, and Twitch can adjust the concentration and dosage of the venom to achieve different effects.

Overall, the Venom Cask is essentially a weaker version of the Poison Dragon.

Drake was officially subdued by Twitch, who stealthily flanked him and smashed the poison barrel.

Of course, Twitch knew Drake's true identity from Ma Qiao, so he didn't kill him, but only temporarily restricted his movements.

Drake is the captain of the Marine Headquarters's secret special forces unit "Sword".

Rumor has it that the "Sword" organization, or the organization of "swords," and the Cipher Pol, or the so-called "shield" of the Celestial Dragons, are naturally opposed to each other.

Ma Qiao simply listened to this without having any intention of cooperating.

After all, Ma Qiao didn't think an organization that would take in a deserter Koby had much of a future; it was safer for him to go solo.

Regardless, Drake was considered one of the most elite undercover agents in the One Piece world, second only to Kanjuro, and Ma Qiao didn't intend to make things difficult for him.

However, in Fullbody's eyes, his former buddy, with whom he used to hang out, had done something big.

A genuine Rear Admiral -level combatant, and he was taken out just like that!

Regardless of whether the Nezumi asked his uncle to do it, that kind of intimidation is frightening enough.

Fullbody pointed at Drake, who was tied to the mast, and shouted down at him:

"See that?! That's a terrifying pirate with a bounty of 172 million Beli! 172 million Beli, that's almost 200 million Beli! Even in the Grand Line, that would definitely qualify him as Supernovas!"

"And this agent with the cat mask, don't let her small stature fool you, she arrested Hawkins's worth 150 million Beli! He's also reached the standard of Supernovas in the Grand Line!"

"And you? Others may not know, but I know very well that Trafalgar Law didn't fight back at all. The only person you actually arrested was Hyena Bellamy, whose bounty was over twenty million!"

"The difference between you and those two is like heaven and earth... Ah! You!"

Bang!

A bullet pierced through Fullbody's right shoulder.

Caitlyn's beautiful eyes were frosty.

As the saying goes, "Don't hit someone in the face, and don't insult someone's weaknesses."

This idiot has to bring up the very thing he shouldn't have mentioned, bringing up Caitlyn's complete defeat in the hunting competition.

The thought of potentially losing face in front of her master made Caitlyn want to shoot him in the head.

However, at this moment, there were still many naval personnel from the 19th branch watching over their own ship.

Caitlyn's control over her subordinates was far less than Twitch's control over Root Organization.

It's safe to say that even if Twitch were to burn the World Government's flag here, no word of it would ever leak out.

Caitlyn couldn't do it, and neither could Fullbody.

But while Fullbody, that lawless bastard, might be capable of causing a boat accident that kills dozens, Caitlyn would never do such a thing.

As Ma Qiao's Retainers, the heroes could not violate Ma Qiao's moral bottom line.

Otherwise, those mad scientists from Zaun would have already started conducting inhumane human experiments.

Of course, Caitlyn herself was kind and law-abiding, and her own moral constraints allowed her to kill innocent people indiscriminately to silence witnesses.

Just a moment ago, Fullbody was rambling on and on, but now she clutched her shoulder, her eyes bloodshot. "You wretched woman! I wasn't going to push things too far because of your looks, but now..."

"Brother Nezumi, hurry and catch her for me! I know you like muscular, dark-skinned women. Caitlyn is mine, and I'll find you another black beauty you like later!"

"Heh ha ha!"

Twitch gave a cold laugh.

What do you take a lady for?!

At that moment, a Black Leg covered in Armament Haki flew out from behind Twitch.

Sanji, wearing a kappa mask, kicked Fullbody in the waist.

In the original Sanji could easily defeat Fullbody, let alone now that he has mastered the Six Powers and even has a basic grasp of Armament Haki Sanji.

This kick shattered the playboy's kidneys, sending him flying from Twitch's warship all the way to Annie's ship.

Although he was a rather unskilled naval lieutenant, Fullbody had still undergone the naval entrance exams and was physically stronger than the average person.

He forced himself to sit up, enduring the pain in his lower back. "Nezumi, what do you mean by this! Have your men gone mad?"

"Pah! The Nezumi is long dead, I am Twitch!"

Twitch spoke a simple and honest truth.

However, to everyone else, it was full of philosophical insights.

Sanji stepped forward, coldly staring at Fullbody: "You who attempted to harm a woman..."

Halfway through his sentence, for some reason, Sanji suddenly pictured Sett's despicable face in his mind.

This guy was the one who tattled on me countless times back in the Goa Kingdom, making me write countless self-criticisms.

Even because her bonus was deducted, she didn't have money to buy meat to make heartwarming bento boxes, and the Miss Meat-Meat complained that she had lost weight.

Taking a deep breath, Sanji replaced "lady" with "comrade-in-arms" and angrily denounced Fullbody's beastly behavior.

"She clearly assaulted me first! She hit me with the butt of a gun before, and now she's hitting me with bullets!"

Seeing that his former drinking buddies were no longer reliable, Fullbody quickly stepped forward to try and get on Annie's good side.

Due to the nature of her work, Annie also wears a mask.

It was just an adorable cat mask, which, combined with her cat ear hair clips, made her look especially cute.

However, the moment Fullbody's hands, known as "Iron Fists," touched Annie, a piercing burning sensation pierced his ten fingers.

"Don't touch me, or I'll bite you, little bear!"

Annie waved the teddy bear in her hand, looking like an innocent little girl.

Fullbody no longer dared to treat her like an ordinary little girl and quickly stepped aside. "Take me back to Spandam! I need to go to Enies Lobby! I need to sue this crazy woman, and that fake brother of mine, Nezumi!"

Annie toyed with the flame on her finger. "I heard from Commander Spandam that your family owns many shops on Sabaody Archipelago, right...? Although physical stores are destined to disappear, those shops still have other value... You know what I mean?"

As she spoke, Miss Goldenweek, Annie's sidekick, immediately pulled out a large stack of documents from her pocket and handed her a pen. "Sign them quickly!"

Fullbody glanced at the terms of the contract, his eyes widening. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! At most, 50% of the shares in one store—that was agreed upon beforehand... Wait, why isn't Spandine the second party?"

Annie sighed. This guy is actually quite thoughtful.

Annie flicked her finger, and a small flame landed on Fullbody's raised bottom, making him scream in pain.

"I'm going to call Spandam, or I won't sign!"

"Whatever."

Annie hugged her teddy bear and said nonchalantly.

Securing the property in the Sabaody Archipelago was merely an objective she wanted to exceed.

After all, the bounty for Hawkins, whom she captured, was slightly lower than that for Drake.

Although a year later, when the Supernovas gathered at Sabaody Archipelago, Hawkins' bounty was $249 million while Drake's was only $222 million, Drake was Rear Admiral who defected, and his initial bounty was $100 million, far more than Hawkins'.

·

In fact, both Annie and Twitch are employees of the system. Due to their positions, it's okay for them to teach Fullbody a lesson, but it's inconvenient for them to get rid of him.

But...

Just as Fullbody's henchmen were shouting and yelling as they climbed the ropes from the Twitch to Annie's side to faithfully protect their master, suddenly someone shouted out:

"Black fog! There's such thick black fog ahead!"

Immediately afterwards, everyone's attention was drawn to the sight that appeared on the sea ahead.

Yorick, the Shepherd of Souls, uses his E ability, [Mourning Mist], to spread across the sea, concealing the former Flevance, now the Shadow Isles.

"Has anyone heard singing? It sounds like someone is singing in the black fog?"

"Ah! Someone is really singing... Good heavens! Something is moving in the black fog!"

Whether it was the navy under Fullbody's command or the 19 branches under Caitlyn's command, they all remembered their original purpose for coming here:

"Ghosts... there really are ghosts!"

They screamed in terror.