Predestination

Precious Beast Island, a station.

"Hahahahaha! That guy, was he this prideful?" Shanks laughed drunkenly.

Yasopp, who had just returned from a life-and-death crisis, looked at the scene before him where the cups and plates were in a mess after the banquet and covered his head, saying, "Didn't we just lose the battle? Why is there a party?"

"Haha ~ hiccup!" Shanks grabbed Yasopp by the shoulders and sprayed all the alcohol in his face as soon as he opened his mouth, "If you win, you have to throw a party, and if you lose, you have to throw a party even more!"

"It's only right to forget all the ... worries! Come on, have a drink."

"Worry?" Yasopp's mind was speechless as he thought, "Do you even know what it means to be worried?"

Yasopp shook his head and asked Beckman, who was watching the show from the sidelines, "Beckman, is that Marine really trustworthy?"

"Didn't you just make contact with him? What kind of a man is he, in your opinion?" Beckman asked rhetorically.

"It's hard to say, but of the new guys I've met, he's the only one who gives me almost as much pressure as Shanks, but in terms of personality, he's almost at the opposite end of the spectrum from Shanks."

Yasopp said after taking a look at Shanks, who was still partying. "One is loose and free and uninhibited, the other is stern and self-disciplined and upright, so it's no wonder Shanks keeps treating him like an arch enemy."

"Didn't you just tell us that the Marine, who also has us in mind," Beckman said, biting into his cigarette, "So, his line was also telling us to never think of him as an ally, and that he would never pass up the chance to put us in jail if he had the chance."

"Haha." Yasopp laughed, "Is he reminding us that when we take care of World, don't forget to take him out with us?"

Beckman gave him a faint look, "Don't underestimate the man, I have a feeling his entanglement with Shanks won't end too soon."

"Like Garp and Roger, one of them has inherited the will of the Pirate King and the other the name of the marine hero. The fateful duel is carried over into the new era."

"Roger and Garp? What an interesting statement!"

...

Two days later.

A large compound on Precious Beast Island was swarming with people, jammed by mountains and seas, with pirate flags everywhere.

There was no sign of those ferocious beasts moving around, partly because the vicinity had been cleansed by the World Pirates, partly because of the kingly scent hidden in the giant cage.

"Is that the creature of legend, the griffin?"

"It's a miracle that such creatures actually exist!"

"Still, World-sama is amazing, even catching such magical creatures."

"I heard that World-sama fed the griffin devil fruit in order to prevent it from committing suicide."

"Tsk tsk, a devil fruit worth hundreds of millions of berries fed to a beast like this, World-sama is so generous!"

As with the four bands of pirates that followed Whitebeard, World's banner also has a significant number of New World pirates and the direct World Pirates.

Only, these pirates were gathered by World in just two years, and most of them were excellent and crooked, not even comparable to those elite pirate groups under Whitebeard's banner.

This time, being summoned by World was only to help him gain momentum. After all, with tens of thousands of troops, it looked like quite a bluff.

The main character who was mentioned continuously by these pirates was locked inside a giant cage. From time to time, he stared out at the outside world with sharp and fierce eyes.

These are fantasy creatures that should only exist in legends, with the body and paws of a lion and an eagle's head and wings.

Its claws could easily grip rocks, its pointed beak could easily poke through iron plates, and despite its young age, its wings were still spread over ten meters, and it could even easily set off a violent storm with its wings if it wasn't chained to a Kairoseki chain.

Even when it was chained by Kairoseki chains and left to its own devices, it still did not show any weakness in its eyes.

"Haha! This guy was just glaring at me, and by the look in his eyes, he's just dying to swallow me whole."

"Hey! That is, it's trapped now, otherwise most of us would just be no match for it."

"Griffins, indeed, are considered a blessed species, even if they are not adults, with strength and speed that exceeds most."

"No matter how powerful they are, they're just pets for us to play with."

At this moment, in the middle of the party, World said, slightly unhappily, "Did Charlotte send just a few of you and she didn't come herself?"

He was a contemporary contender with Roger and Whitebeard, ten years older than BIG MOM in terms of generation. He wouldn't have ended up in a situation where he was wooing BIG MOM if he hadn't been captured and put into Impel Down to freeze for ten years.

"It's enough with us," Katakuri said coldly.

He was equally unhappy with World's attitude, and pirates, never a profession to talk about, was the strongest to hold the power of speech.

Smoothie and the others, who were following behind Katakuri, also scowled in their hearts, "Two days ago, if we hadn't arrived in time, you World would have been killed by that newcomer Akagami, and now you're acting like a big-tailed wolf with us?"

World grunted and didn't attack. His only desire now was to gather strength and take revenge on the World Government and Marine Headquarters; everything else he could endure for the time being.

"Since you guys think you can make decisions, I'm going to set the stage straight." World said in a deep voice, "I want you BIG MOM Pirates to make a public statement in support of my actions to make me the fourth ruler and get the pirates in the New World who remain on the sidelines to join me."

"You want all of them?" Katakuri's brow furrowed. He had previously found it odd that World was a little too rusty for his good.

The majority of those pirates underhand were goods that were too obtrusive to be cannon fodder, and now it was even more exaggerated to try to upset the balance of the new world, "What do you want?"

"I want revenge!" World's eyes burned with fire, "I will make the world feel pain!"

"Are you crazy?" Katakuri had gotten a general idea of what World was planning, "You should know no better how many of those pirates under your command are following you because of profit."

"Against an enemy that can't be defeated, they're not going to follow you to your death."

"I know, but so what?" Waldo shouted in a maniacal whisper, "Did you really think it would be that easy to go down after boarding my ship? The World Government will never tolerate anyone provoking its authority, and as soon as they start, they're on the World Government's must-kill list."

"And then they'll have to follow me one way or the other into the dark."