The Beneficiary

"That sounded like bad news," Swain said.

Flower Sword was somewhat moved by this, but when he saw Swain's expressionless face, he realized the other man was negotiating terms.

Negotiations between the Four Emperors aside, interests alone were already difficult enough to reconcile.

What did Swain want?

Money, weapons, or people?

He did not know!

Because Swain did not need any of those things. The Whitebeard Pirates, frankly speaking, had no money to speak of, and their weapons were barely enough for their own crew.

Meanwhile, Swain's Wano Country specialized in weapon production. The vast amounts of Jin from Gran Tesoro, along with the enormous Heavenly Tribute he had obtained from Tesoro, meant he had more money than he could ever spend.

"What do you want?" Flower Sword asked quietly.

Swain avoided the question and instead asked, "How serious are Whitebeard's injuries?"

"Pops is only suffering from a flare-up of old internal injuries. He's been recovering well these past few days."

Swain gestured for Flower Sword to be quiet. He walked over to Jozu and had Red Earl untie him.

"Hah? You sure you want to let him go? This kid's stubborn as hell," Red Earl said.

"It doesn't matter. I'm here."

The moment Jozu was freed, his body transformed into solid diamond.

"You know that if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't need to go through all this trouble."

"Fine. I've been honest enough with you."

When Swain saw Jozu exchange a glance with Flower Sword, he slowly said, "If you want to save Whitebeard, then Old Man Vegapunk is your only hope. I'm only willing to help because I had some dealings with Pops in the past."

Swain shrugged indifferently. He was bluffing Jozu, hoping to learn the extent of Whitebeard's injuries so he could negotiate an