There was nothing special about the rest of the newspaper, and it held no interest for Kazu at all.
If he remembered correctly, Boa Hancock had only become the empress of Amazon Lily last year. He had not expected her to make a name for herself so soon.
Kazu was still thinking about Hancock's beautiful figure when Behrens's voice came from behind him.
"Captain Kazu, is it really good for you to lie around every day? Why not train with Carlmand and me?"
Behrens had just finished breakfast and had planned to begin today's intensified training.
But when he saw Kazu sticking to his unshakable routine of sunbathing whenever the weather was clear, he could not help inviting him along.
Kazu waved a hand and said, "It's fine. This is my unique training method. I can steadily grow stronger just by basking in the sun."
Kazu was not exactly lying. He collected his idle rewards every day, and sunbathing was a way to pass the time, so it counted as growing stronger too.
At first, he had even trained for half the day, thinking that training while collecting idle rewards would surely let him improve faster.
The results were less than satisfactory, however. There was a limit to how much his body could improve. Collecting his daily idle rewards and then training desperately for a day did not amount to two days' worth of improvement.
His half-day of training yielded next to nothing, and he also planned to save up his rewards rather than collect them, then claim several days' worth at once to exploit a loophole.
Kazu tried it once, only for the rewards to reset automatically the next day, shattering his dream completely.
Since that was the case, he might as well collect his idle rewards reliably and enjoy life.
This system really had a knack for things. It was lazy as hell itself, and it even had to drag Kazu down the same rabbit hole.
Over time, Kazu also came to enjoy this feeling of relaxing while steadily improving his strength.
Of course, there was one exception: fighting powerful opponents.
His previous two clashes with Red-Hair and Aokiji had also improved his strength considerably.
They had made his techniques more proficient, sent his combat experience soaring, and even seemed to have increased his strength a little.
Behrens did not quite understand, but he said nothing more.
It was just that, after encountering a Marine Admiral last time, the urgency in his heart would not let him stop.
Besides, the Marines had more than one Admiral, as well as other powerful fighters. What worried him was facing an attack from several powerful opponents at once.
Even though Captain Kazu was strong enough to stand against a Marine Admiral, he did not want to remain a burden forever.
If Captain Kazu was tied down, would they not become targets to be picked off one by one?
If Captain Kazu was injured while supporting them and lost because of it, then he would truly be a failure as a crewmate.
Forget it. I should get back to training. There's no comparing myself to a monster like Captain Kazu.
Kazu and the others sailed until noon, when a warship suddenly appeared ahead.
The Marines aboard stood at the bow, waving continuously. Clearly, they had no intention of fighting.
Kazu called out all the other crewmates, and they waited for the Marine warship to approach.
He wanted to see what the Marines were up to, negotiating with pirates instead of fighting them.
As the two ships drew alongside each other, a man in a Rear Admiral's uniform came over from the Marine ship, slowly approaching with a document and a Den Den Mushi in his hands.
"Her Kazi, captain of the Blond Hair Pirates. I am Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral Petrov."
"We have not come here to fight, but to discuss a matter with you in good faith."
Petrov looked somewhat nervous too. After all, the man before him was a great pirate who had fought Admiral Aokiji to a draw. If he suddenly attacked, Petrov had no confidence he could withstand it.
But to carry out Headquarters' orders, he had to withstand the pressure and come here on this mission. It was his duty as a serviceman.
"Oh?"
"Now that's a rare sight. The Marines have run into pirates and switched from force to diplomacy."
"Go on, then. What did Marine Headquarters send you to say?"
Kazu found this rather interesting. Something like this did not happen often, and he had never expected to encounter it himself.
Hearing that Kazu was willing to hear them out put Petrov a little more at ease.
At least the other party was willing to negotiate. His greatest fear had been that Kazu was the sort of brute who attacked without a word.
"Her Kazi, in view of your formidable strength and your record of never harming civilians, the World Government and Marine Headquarters would like to invite you to become one of the Shichibukai."
"Do you accept?"
Petrov was nervous as hell. This was no pleasant assignment.
People who wanted to become Shichibukai would approach the Marines themselves, and the Marines would set requirements for them to fulfill. Only after passing the test would they become Shichibukai.
But this time, in trying to recruit Kazu, the Marines had no requirements at all. They only hoped this powerful monster would accept the title of Shichibukai and thus exercise a little restraint.
The Marines were under tremendous pressure now. Since the Great Pirate Era began, pirates had grown increasingly rampant, and more and more people were taking to the sea.
On top of that, the World Government had been deliberately restricting Marine funding, leaving them without the Beli to expand their strength even if they wanted to.
One Admiral could not deal with the Blond Hair Pirates, but surely they could not send two?
Even if they deployed two Admirals, according to the report Aokiji had made upon returning to Headquarters, their opponent possessed the Space-Space Fruit, giving him maximum mobility. Whether they could even corner him remained a huge question mark.
Since he was so difficult to deal with, they would simply stop trying and send him an invitation to join the Shichibukai to put his mind at ease.
"Hahahaha!"
Kazu had not expected them to have come to recruit him into the Shichibukai.
He had only just cut off an arm belonging to Smoker, the captain of the Marine Branch in Loguetown, and fought Aokiji.
Barely any time had passed, yet the Marines had already chosen a conciliatory policy. This also exposed the serious shortage of strength within the Marines.
They simply could not send too many top-tier fighters to keep pursuing Kazu. They had to maintain stability across the entire sea and could not stake everything on him alone.
If they were targeting only a single pirate crew, the Marines were an immense behemoth.
But they could not abandon the stability of the entire sea to gamble everything on one attempt.
Never mind that Fleet Admiral Sengoku would not do such a thing-even the World Government would not agree to it.
In the eyes of the Five Elders, maintaining the stable rule of the Celestial Dragons mattered more than anything else.
Kazu regarded the Marine Rear Admiral before him with interest and said in a clear voice, "Go back. I refuse to join the Shichibukai."
"Take a message back to Sengoku and the World Government. What I love is sailing freely across the sea. Tell the Marines and the World Government to stop provoking me, and I won't bother looking for trouble with you either."
"Otherwise, prepare yourselves to face the wrath of Her Kazi."
With that, before the Marines could speak, Kazu waved his hand and activated the power of the Space-Space Fruit, instantly teleporting the entire warship to another stretch of sea.
"Woo-hoo! Captain Kazu, you're so cool!"
Behrens was still every bit the little fanboy. Seeing Captain Kazu decisively reject the Marines' sincere offer, he could only think that his captain was unbelievably cool.
"Hmph, you're already thirty percent as good as me."
Carlmand leaned against the railing with his arms crossed over his chest, the corners of his mouth raised.
Clearly, he very much approved of Captain Kazu's decision too.
Makino simply watched Kazu with a smile. She did not really understand the matter of joining the Shichibukai. Right now, all she wanted was to stay by Kazu's side and travel the seas together.