Loa wasn't the only one stirring up trouble at sea. The New World looked peaceful on the surface. With the Yonko holding sway, no one could cause much of a disturbance. But what if the one making trouble was another Yonko?
Shanks had received reports of Kaido's movements two months earlier. At the time, he hadn't thought much of them. He'd assumed Kaido had finally recovered from his injuries and come back out.
Then, half a month ago, Mihawk contacted him.
Edward Weevil, the Shichibukai who called himself "Whitebeard II" and had been killed by Loa on Whole Cake Island, had been stripped of his title. Enel had likewise been removed by the World Government after seizing Gran Tesoro, the "Golden City."
With two Shichibukai gone in succession, the World Government had to consider replacements. The notice Mihawk received came from the World Government itself: it had already chosen a new Shichibukai, but hadn't made the news public!
That made no sense at all!
The Shichibukai existed to use their fearsome reputations at sea to keep the Great Pirate Era in check. Every appointment and removal therefore had to be announced in the World Government's name. If no one knew someone was a Shichibukai, what good was the title?
And yet that was exactly what had happened!
A new Shichibukai had been chosen, but no announcement had gone out!
The Shichibukai were pirates themselves. Surely none of them had enough influence to make the World Government keep such news secret. The secrecy had to serve some other purpose of the government's.
As for notifying the other Shichibukai privately, that had been the new appointee's own request.
"'Blackbeard,' Marshall D. Teach!"
A member of the D. clan!
Like Loa, "Red-Hair" Shanks had linked the two events, no matter how much they