Held Back a Big One

"Why are you contacting me all of a sudden?"

"Akuldona."

Louis landed on a branch of a large tree with the Den Den Mushi in his hands, slowly folding the wings on his back.

He faced the brightly lit courtyard in the distance, his expression full of confusion and disbelief.

A familiar voice sounded, answering his unspoken question.

"After leaving the members of our tribe at Bar with that muscular old geezer, I came to Seikai too..."

"You were right. Bar—and even the Calm Belt—were too peaceful. The beasts in the Calm Belt could no longer make us stronger."

"What are you planning to do?" Louis asked softly.

"I'm going to find a way to join the Marines. One day, I'll pull off something huge right under their noses!" The voice on the other end of the Den Den Mushi brimmed with confidence.

"???"

Louis's expression turned spectacularly grim. He felt awful, and his voice rose several notches. "Do you think the World Government and the Marines are blind?"

Akuldona answered with complete confidence. "I've already thought of a solution!"

"Let's hear it!" Louis narrowed his eyes. He wanted to know what kind of brilliant idea this guy—whose abilities were a complete disaster aside from his physical strength and swordsmanship—could possibly have come up with.

"It's simple. I'll just disguise myself as an ordinary person!"

"And how exactly are you going to manage that?"

Louis was highly skeptical. How could a black-skinned birdman over five meters tall possibly pass as an ordinary person?

At the top of a redwood on Sabaody Archipelago, on the other side of the world, stood a tall man with black wings, dark skin, short white hair, and two strange long swords at his waist. He explained in a relaxed tone:

"I'm planning to cut off my wings and throw them away, dye my hair, and then stop lighting the fire on my back, like you did."

"Then I'll just be an ordinary man with darker skin and a slightly larger build. I can use my Logia ability to join the Marines."

"With my Devil Fruit ability and swordsmanship, I'm sure I can work my way up to the Marine high command in no time!"

"Then, working with you and the muscular old geezer, I'll put on a good show for the Marines and the World Government!"

A confident smile spread across Akuldona's face, as if he could already see himself rising through the ranks and betraying the Marines and the World Government.

But Louis, far away in the East Sea, immediately doused his enthusiasm.

"Forget it!"

"You're not getting in!"

Louis looked thoroughly miserable. He'd thought Akuldona might have come up with something huge to do to the World Government. Instead, the man had come up with a huge load of crap for himself.

"Why do you say that?"

Akuldona's smile faded, his face filled with confusion. No matter how he thought it over, he couldn't spot any holes in his plan.

Louis ruthlessly drove the point home.

"Have you thought about how you'll get past the physical examination during basic training?"

"The World Government can determine someone's race through their Lineage Factor!"

"If you dare join up, the World Government will be delighted to get a brand-new test subject!"

This wasn't an exaggeration. A case like this had happened decades ago.

Bartholomew Kuma.

He and his father had been discovered by a hospital to have Buccaneer Tribe blood. The World Government found their identities through their medical records, and they ended up as slaves to the Celestial Dragons.

"The Marines make you take a physical?"

"How come I've never heard of that?"

"And what's a Lineage Factor?"

Akuldona looked utterly confused. He'd thought that during his time in Seikai, he'd already figured out how to join the Marines.

"If they don't examine you, how will the Marines know whether you're sick? And if you get injured, how will they give you a blood transfusion?" Louis scoffed. He found Akuldona's stupidity almost adorable.

Forget the Lineage Factor. The guy hadn't even figured out that there was a physical examination, yet he still dared suggest infiltrating the Marines. Did he think they were as easy to fool as most pirates?

For a race the World Government had marked as special, even going to a hospital was risky. If he dared join the Marines, he wouldn't even know what killed him!

Up in the canopy on Sabaody Archipelago, Akuldona gazed toward the Marine base in the distance and fell into deep thought.

After a long while, he scratched his head and muttered in frustration, "Well, that makes things difficult!"

"Don't bother. Infiltrating the Marines won't work," Louis continued to persuade him through the Den Den Mushi.

"Fine..." Akuldona sighed. "In that case, I'll keep lying in wait here and take out a few Celestial Dragons..."

Since Louis said he couldn't infiltrate the Marines, he could only return to the idea of hunting Celestial Dragons.

On the other end, Louis breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Akuldona give up on that ridiculous plan.

He'd already abandoned a swordsman's pride and convictions for the sake of his people. If he gave up his wings too, that would be too much.

Let him hunt Celestial Dragons!

That was a hundred times better than infiltrating the Marines.

He only had to kill a Celestial Dragon and escape before a Navy Admiral arrived. At Akuldona's speed, he could strike and run; even Kizaru wouldn't be able to catch up. But infiltrating the Marines was a whole different matter.

That would be like a sheep walking into a den of wolves.

"Good. Then keep lying in wait for Celestial Dragons like a sensible person. Once you've got one in your sights, kill them from a distance by some other means. Even going to the New World with your Lunarian features would be better than thinking about joining the Marines!"

Honestly, if Akuldona had started by saying he wanted to lie in wait and take out a few Celestial Dragons, Louis wouldn't have gotten so worked up.

How many drinks had the guy had to get this drunk?

Meanwhile, the white-haired man atop the redwood looked awkward. He felt embarrassed for reasons he couldn't quite explain.

"Got it."

"I'll be careful with the Celestial Dragons too. I'll try to follow them out to waters far from Marine Headquarters before making my move, so they won't have time to react."

"If there's no opportunity, I'll give up and leave."

Hearing that, Louis's expression softened.

Though the other man was a disaster in many ways, if he gave his word, he'd do his best to follow through.

Then Akuldona asked, "Where are you now? Have you found Mr. Momora?"

"I'm still in the East Sea. Before everything begins, I plan to leave my mark on the world."

"As for Mr. Momora, it seems that man changed his name. He's active in the world under a different identity now."

Akuldona was taken aback. Instead of immediately asking about Mr. Momora, he grinned and said, "Leaving your mark on the world, huh? That's pretty romantic!"

"Take your time. We've still got plenty of it. Without you, we might have waited another century or two and never returned to the sea."

"Compared to a century or two, the time you need is nothing."

Then, as if remembering something, Akuldona complained to Louis in a slightly troubled tone. "Louis, I saw a guy in the newspapers and on a wanted poster who might be one of our people!"

"After keeping watch over Sabaody Archipelago for a while, I'm planning to head deep into the New World and look for him."

"You mean King the Conflagration of the Beasts Pirates?" Louis asked thoughtfully.

"!!"

"That's right. You saw his wanted poster too, and thought he looked like one of our people?"

"He is one of our people."

"..."

"Really...?" Akuldona's hand trembled as he held the Den Den Mushi, and his voice was no longer calm.

"Really. You can go to Grove 13 and find a woman named Shakky. Ask her to use her Underworld connections to find King's contact information, then try talking to him."

"The Rayleigh you know is at Shakky's place too!"