Sleepy Valley Town-
As the Red Hair Pirates approached the port, they caused a stir, but no widespread panic.
Besides the Red Hair Pirates' relatively good reputation, there was another reason: the flag of Titans already flew here.
With the unanimous consent of its residents, all of Sleepy Valley Town had come under Titans' authority.
In January of that year, Sephiroth had visited disguised as an ordinary Titans Investigator named Ross.
His main objective had, of course, been the Vampire Fruit, but he had kept up the whole act. Later, he had still sent Titans over to build an outpost.
What he hadn't expected was for the entire town to join them outright, turning it into a Titans exclave.
Sleepy Valley Town had quite an interesting geographical location.
First, the nearby ocean currents could wash shipwrecks over from quite far away, giving the local salvage industry a considerable boost.
Second, it was fairly close to the Calm Belt at the edge of the New World. Cross the nearest stretch of the Calm Belt, and Impel Down wasn't far away.
After all, the Marines could sail straight through the Calm Belt. Their warships frequently appeared in these waters, so few pirates dared cause any serious trouble nearby.
That was why Shanks hadn't really wanted to come here.
He wasn't afraid of the Marines, true, but being tailed by a bunch of Marine patrol ships was like hearing a mosquito after turning off the lights to sleep...
If he actually fought them, he also had to worry about provoking an overreaction from the Marines.
It was just annoying.
But Sleepy Valley Town was Titans' deepest outpost in the New World.
The other three were in Wano Country, Totto Land, and Dressrosa, which was relatively close to the entrance to the New World.