Red Hair Pirates

"Sadly, I still haven't learned it. I think if I fought Pops for another year or two, I should be able to learn Conqueror's Haki Infusion too!"

As she said this, Yamato patted her chest, looking brimming with confidence.

Yota believed Yamato's words completely. After all, in the original story, she had indeed learned Conqueror's Haki Infusion.

However, without her old man's club beating now, Yamato's learning speed would definitely slow down considerably. For these geniuses of the seas, experiencing something firsthand with their own bodies was the best way to learn certain skills.

Just like the advanced applications of Armament Haki Yamato had learned. Though they caught Ace off guard at first, after just a few battles, Ace had copied her and learned Armament Haki Flow, Emission, and Internal Destruction.

In this regard, Yota was the one falling behind. Although his physical aptitude, enhanced by the Munch-Munch Fruit, had already surpassed Yamato's and Ace's, he had been born in a ninja world and was cautious by nature. He could never compare to the two of them in terms of spirit, which also made his Armament Haki progress relatively slow. As for Conqueror's Haki, he had not even seen hide nor hair of it.

Still, he did not care much. No matter how he looked at it, Chakra was far stronger than Conqueror's Haki, right? Besides, in the One Piece World, carefree guys like them always seemed blessed by fate. They would not die from the reckless things they did, but Yota, as a transmigrator, did not have that kind of ability.

If he dared to imitate Luffy and Ace by sailing out to sea in a little boat without any preparation at all, becoming fish food on the ocean floor would probably be his most likely end.

So between Conqueror's Haki and his brain, Yota still chose his brain. Well, of course, there was also the fact that even if he threw his brain away, he would most likely still fail to learn Conqueror's Haki...

"I heard Red Hair Shanks is the most domineering man in the world. That should say plenty about his Haki. Since you two both know Armament Haki, you can ask him for guidance," Yota continued.

Ace looked somewhat hesitant. Because of his complicated feelings toward his father, he did not really want to seek instruction from any of his father's former crewmates.

Otherwise, when they had been at the Sabaody Archipelago, Yota had told him about Dark King Rayleigh. Yet Ace had still pretended to know nothing and had never even met Rayleigh.

But after several battles in the New World, although he had never seen a true Four Emperor make a move, he had clearly felt the pressure exerted by those four Sea Emperors. He was not afraid of death himself, but as the captain of a Pirate Crew, he had to consider his crew as well.

Seeing Ace's thoughtful expression, Deuce spoke up directly. "Whether we learn from him or not can wait. For now, we should find the Red Hair Pirates first."

Ace let out a long breath. "All right. We'll find the Red Hair Pirates first, and talk about everything else later."

On a deserted island.

"We found treasure, boss! We found treasure!"

A chubby man shouted loudly. Even as he shouted, the sunglasses-wearing man did not forget to take a bite out of the bone-in meat in his hand.

"HAHAHAHA! I told you this treasure map was real!" Shanks, with his red hair, ran over excitedly. "Where's the treasure? Where is it?"

Shanks's face was full of smiles, so he failed to notice the strange expression on his plump crewmate Lucky Roux's face. Lucky Roux pointed ahead. "It's over there. Yasopp is guarding it!"

"See? I was right this time, wasn't I, Beckman..." Shanks smugly patted his first mate on the shoulder. "I told you from the start that this treasure map definitely wasn't fake!"

Beckman wore a disgusted expression as he pushed Shanks's hand off his shoulder. "You've said the same thing seven times already. What were the results the first six times?"

"I just lacked experience before. This success proves I've accumulated extensive treasure-hunting experience... What the hell is this?"

Having arrived before the so-called treasure, Shanks saw Yasopp struggling to suppress a laugh as he pointed at it. Shanks turned to look at the excavated ground, and his face immediately darkened.

Several large chests sat in the dug-up pit. The opened chests were filled with stacks of paper notes, but the key issue was—those banknotes were not Beli at all!

Beckman crouched down and picked up one of the notes. "These should be currency from a major New World nation from long ago, the Klee Land Kingdom. But that kingdom was destroyed a hundred years ago, so these notes really are just waste paper now."

"W-What?! Damn it, what kind of pirate buries paper notes as treasure?! At the very least, they should have buried some gold or jewels!"

"No. Judging from the traces around us, this treasure has been excavated before. Someone probably came before us, took away all the valuable treasure, and left only these few chests of banknotes behind," Beckman explained after glancing at the excavation marks nearby.

"Damn it, if the treasure had already been dug up, why did they cover it back up? I got excited for nothing!"

"As for that..." Beckman adjusted his nonexistent glasses and deduced, "perhaps they wanted to play a prank on treasure hunters like you, Shanks?"

Crack! Shanks's entire body instantly turned gray.

"Boss, a ship is approaching. It looks like the recently famous Spade Pirates." Yasopp, whose eyesight was the sharpest, spotted the distant ship and spoke to his captain, who was lying on the beach.

"Leave me alone. I just want to be a salted fish right now," Shanks said weakly. "Let Beckman handle it. He's always more reliable than me, the captain, anyway."

"Huh! They fired at us! Boss, watch out!"

Shanks froze for a moment and opened his eyes. "Are there still pirates in the New World who don't recognize the Red Hair Pirates? What does firing cannons at us even mean?"

It was not that Shanks believed the Red Hair Pirates would never be challenged. Rather, pirates who entered the New World had at least some knowledge. They might not understand exactly how strong the Four Emperors were, but they knew full well that pirates on that level could not possibly be defeated by cannons.

If they really wanted to give the Red Hair Pirates a show of force, they should at least use something like a Flying Slash!

"No, that doesn't look like a cannonball." Watching the firelight draw closer and closer, Shanks muttered, "That looks like..."

"That's clearly a person!" Yasopp cried out. As the Red Hair Pirates' main sniper, his eyesight and long-range Observation Haki were even better than Red Hair Shanks's. As the distance closed, he finally saw the figure clearly.