The Pirate Who Saw Proficiency Became a Legend

Hody Jones had just picked up the Den Den Mushi when Vander Decken's voice came through.

"Hello, Hody Jones, captain of the New Fish-Man Pirates! I'm Vander Decken!"

"I hear you have something to tell me. It had better be worth the few minutes you're wasting, or I won't let you off!"

Hody Jones's voice was ice-cold.

He had already embarrassed himself in front of his underlings, and he was still seething. Now that Vander Decken had called, he made a convenient target for his anger.

Decken's face darkened. As it happened, he was in a foul mood too. Kraken had dragged him on a wild escape earlier, and he had nearly died. He was a Devil Fruit User; without his ship down here, only one outcome awaited him: GAME OVER.

But to achieve his goal, Vander Decken forced himself to swallow his anger.

"Come now, Boss Hody. If my news weren't important, would you have picked up the phone yourself?"

Vander Decken spoke as though they were old friends. On Fish-Man Island, the two had heard of each other even from the bottom rungs of society.

Hody Jones had defected from Ryugu Palace's guard, stirred up trouble in Fish-Man District, and founded the New Fish-Man Pirates. He had also secretly imprisoned pirates hoping to pass through Fish-Man Island on their way to the New World.

His forces numbered twenty or thirty thousand now, not yet the hundred thousand they would reach by the time the Straw Hat Pirates arrived. With Whitebeard keeping them in check, both Hody's gang and the other pirates had shown restraint.

Never mind Hody Jones's later talk about humans being trash. If Whitebeard stood before him, he would not even dare raise his head. Whitebeard could kill him—or flatten all of Fish-Man Island—with just a