Enemy Shadows, an Attack from Beneath the Sea! (Two-in-One)
Tsugikuni Yoriichi and the others had set their sights on Gecko Moria a month ago.
While resting at a Marine Branch, Yoriichi and the others had happened to overhear a passing merchant talking about something he had encountered at sea.
One day, while sailing, the merchant had run into a heavy fog. Within that dense mist, they had come across an "island." Thinking they could replenish their supplies there, they landed to investigate, only to run into quite a few zombies on that "island."
The horrifying sight had immediately sent the merchants scrambling back to their ship, and they had hurriedly fled.
Once the fog dispersed, the people aboard the merchant ship could no longer find the island they had landed on in the mist.
As the merchants recounted the experience, they spoke with animated expressions, treating it as some supernatural incident at sea. Having escaped by luck, they were grateful that they had managed to get away from that bizarre place.
The experience had also become a topic of conversation whenever the merchants drank.
Tsugikuni Yoriichi and the others had only happened to hear about the merchant's experience, but Yoriichi had immediately taken it to heart.
It could not be helped. The construction of the Marine Branch required enormous daily expenditures on materials and labor. Now that the project was nearing completion, Yoriichi still had a funding shortfall of roughly one billion Beli to make up. The money they currently had could only support them for another half month.
Originally, Tsugikuni Yoriichi had thought that pirates swarmed the New World. As long as he reached an understanding with King Riku, the capabilities of their branch would allow them to capture more wanted criminals and easily plug the funding hole for