Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? This Is All to Protect the Justice in My Heart!
The sea breeze blew gently.
The waves sounded as they always had.
With a barely visible flash of light, Ma Qiao teleported back aboard the Good Guy Twitch.
He was dressed as before, in a bucket hat, shirt, shorts, and red scarf, holding a fishing rod and carrying a bucket.
A closer look, however, would reveal that several buttons had fallen off his shirt. Like Smoker's jacket, it hung wide open, exposing his chest.
Several scratches, as if left by a kitten, marked Ma Qiao's muscular chest.
"She's supposed to be a princess of some great kingdom, but she sure doesn't hold back when she scratches people!"
Ma Qiao pursed his lips, found his usual fishing spot, and began the day's fishing trip.
The Good Guy Twitch had now abandoned its original course for the 16th Branch's base and turned toward Loguetown.
Because the ship had entered the East Blue from the Calm Belt, Loguetown, which was close to Reverse Mountain, was not on the way.
The Good Guy Twitch was making the long detour to collect the temporary supplies transferred by Vice Admiral Momonga and request a little support along the way.
The Marine scum at the 16th Branch were easy enough to handle, but the pirates in league with them posed a considerable threat.
Arlong and his Fish-Man Pirates were difficult enough to deal with, and there were surely other assorted small-fry pirate crews paying tribute to the 16th Branch as well.
They might form some sort of pirate alliance when the time came, which would be troublesome.
Ma Qiao did indeed intend to deceive his superiors and conceal the truth from his subordinates at the 16th Branch while eating and drinking his fill, but he disdained to keep those pirates around.
Burning, killing, and plundering were the lowest forms of making money, and he, Ma Qiao, disdained to do such things.
In short, wiping out the deeply entrenched local forces in one stroke would be rather difficult with only the hundred delinquent Marines aboard the Good Guy Twitch.
Even monkeys knew to call for help. It would be a waste not to use reinforcements from Loguetown.
Besides, there was another little matter he could settle on the trip to Loguetown.
Now that Kuro of a Hundred Plans' bounty had reached 32 million Beli, his subordinates' bounties had risen as well.
There was someone aboard the Good Guy Twitch who could be exchanged for a bounty.
A pirate-looking fellow had been tied up and hung from the rat's head at the bow.
He struggled and shouted, "I'm Kuro of a Hundred Plans! Come on and kill me! Kill me! Why won't you do it? Damn it!"
This raving fellow was naturally the unlucky man Kuro had picked from the Black Cat Pirates to impersonate him.
He was Hairless Cat Sphinx, formerly a core member of the Black Cat Pirates' combat crew.
Twitch had personally torn off his wig long ago, revealing his distinctive bald head. He looked nothing like Kuro.
But under Jango's hypnosis, he firmly believed he was Kuro of a Hundred Plans.
He flew into a rage at anyone who said he wasn't Kuro.
The Loguetown Marine Branch naturally had ways to verify Sphinx's true identity and wouldn't be easily fooled by him.
Pirate Hunters could exchange captured pirates for bounties in Loguetown.
Although capturing pirates was part of a Marine's job, Ma Qiao was not an officially enlisted Marine.
According to Twitch's battle report, this Hairless Cat had been captured by the good citizen Mr. Ma Qiao, so he could of course claim the bounty.
It was ten million Beli, after all!
However small a mosquito was, it was still meat!
The Good Guy Twitch hadn't actually suffered serious damage, and its speed hadn't been affected at all.
The soldiers were busy repairing the fire-damaged storeroom and clearing away the charred wreckage.
In the original story, the fake Kuro had been "captured" and executed by a minor officer named Morgan.
Morgan had consequently been promoted to colonel.
However, because he had been hypnotized, Morgan's personality had changed drastically. He had run amok in Shells Town, the site of the 153rd Branch base, and ultimately became a beginner's experience pack for King Luffy.
It was worth mentioning that the Good Guy Twitch really had encountered a ship from the East Blue's 153rd Branch in these waters.
Morgan, still a captain at the time, had ordered his men to bring their ship alongside and asked whether they needed help.
Having neither suffered the tragedy of his shipmates being slaughtered nor been hypnotized by Jango, Morgan was still an enthusiastic, cheerful, upright, and courageous junior Marine officer.
By Ma Qiao's standards of good and evil, there actually weren't that many "bad guys" among the Marines—probably about the same proportion as "good guys" among pirates.
So, watching Morgan and his men enthusiastically board the ship to help repair the storeroom, Ma Qiao really did feel a tiny bit ashamed.
He had started the fire.
He had sold off the supplies.
And he was the one who had pocketed all the benefits from the imperial army!
But there was no helping it.
This was all to protect Konoha—no, to protect the justice in his heart!
Although the Marines protected many people with their justice, that same justice also protected the world's greatest cancer.
The Marines at the top, even the independent-minded Iron Fist Garp, had long since lost the courage to raise a fist against Mary Geoise.
"So what I'm embezzling isn't Marine funding, but the Celestial Dragons' Heavenly Tribute. I'm undermining the Celestial Dragons and fleecing Mary Geoise!"
Ma Qiao sighed and strengthened his resolve to keep protecting the justice in his heart!
In fact, this batch of supplies had never reached the East Blue.
They had long since been turned into Q Coins and were now at Ma Qiao's side.
And those Q Coins went even faster than they had come.
Raising a level-one hero to level two cost three million Beli.
Raising a level-two hero to level three cost five million Beli.
Raising a level-three hero to level four cost eight million Beli.
After that, level five cost thirteen million, level six twenty-one million, level seven thirty-four million, level eight fifty-five million...
At first glance, there seemed to be no pattern, but after studying the numbers, Ma Qiao discovered that they strictly followed the Fibonacci sequence.
That is, f[n] = f[n-1] + f[n-2].
Don't ask why Ma Qiao knew about Fibonacci. If you had to ask, it was because the A-share market had no mother!
In short, Ma Qiao had used the funds he had embezzled—scratch that, obtained through operations—to raise his retainers' levels and buy himself a little equipment.
The current status of Ma Qiao's entire crew was:
[Plague Rat Twitch] Identity: Colonel of the East Blue Marine 16th Branch Level: 3 Skills: qwe Equipment: Doran's Blade · [Terror of the Seas Gangplank] Identity: Apprentice combatant of the Don Krieg Pirates Level: 3 Skills: wqw Equipment: Doran's Ring, Sapphire Crystal · [Might of Demacia Garen] Identity: Petty officer of the East Blue Marine 16th Branch Level: 6 Skills: qwwewr Equipment: Long Sword, Ruby Crystal, Doran's Shield · [Frost Archer Ashe] Identity: Server at the Big Bird Spin-Spin Tavern Level: 4 Skills: qwew Equipment: Recurve Bow · [Rune Mage Ryze] Identity: Deliveryman for Big Bird Logistics Level: 4 Skills: weqq Equipment: Sapphire Crystal · [Swift Scout Teemo] Identity: Chief engineer of Big Bird Communications Technology Level: 1 Skills: q Equipment: Pacifier · [South Blue's Destruction Dragon Ma Qiao] Identity: Senior agent of Baroque Works, special consultant to the Marine G-2 Branch, reigning retired emperor of the East Blue Marine 16th Branch, junior preceptor to the crown prince of Alabasta, people's entrepreneur, inventor, educator, thinker, veteran artist of both moral and artistic excellence Level: ??? Skills: [Courage level 3], [Decisive Strike level 1], [Ambush level 1], [Demacian Justice level 1] Equipment: Rejuvenation Bead x6, Stopwatch x1, Brawler's Gloves x1, Ruby Crystal x2 ·
P.S. The skills above do not include summoner skills, passive skills, the ultimate technique of the penguin style, and so on.
The Big Bird Spin-Spin Group reserves the right of final interpretation.