"The Ksitigarbha King: Shaka's Legendary Bounty"

-----

-----

"Huh? That old man is really that strong?" Luffy blinked in surprise.

He stared at the wanted poster in his hands. The imposing figure on it had long golden hair and carried a naginata, exuding an awe-inspiring presence.

He remembered Ace mentioning this Whitebeard guy back in Alabasta, but he hadn't expected his bounty to be this outrageous.

Tilting his head in confusion, he asked, "But what exactly is a Yonko?"

"It means a pirate emperor who rules over a specific region of the sea like a king," Robin explained to the Straw Hats. "There are four such great pirates in the New World, which is why they are collectively called the 'Four Emperors' or 'Yonko.'"

She continued, "The Three Great Powers of the Grand Line are the Marine Headquarters, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the Yonko. These forces maintain a delicate balance. If any one of them collapses, the sea will plunge into chaos, leading to unpredictable consequences."

"Oh, so that's how it works..." Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and the others nodded in realization.

"Huh? 'BIG MOM' Charlotte Linlin?" Usopp continued flipping through the posters. "Whoa, this is insane! Her bounty is 868 million Berries!"

"Ehh!?" Chopper gasped in astonishment.

"Wait, there's such a powerful female pirate?" Nami was in disbelief.

A female pirate with such a staggering bounty was almost unheard of.

Zoro rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "A woman with a bounty this high? That's pretty rare."

"She actually looks quite beautiful…" Sanji, ever the ladies' man, couldn't help but drool over the image of a young and attractive Charlotte Linlin.

Robin chuckled knowingly. "That photo is from fifty years ago. Right now, BIG MOM is also one of the Four Emperors, and if I remember correctly, her bounty is around 4.388 billion Berries."

She recalled the terrifyingly massive, ruthless face of the current BIG MOM from her bounty poster and smirked. "I'm sure, Mr. Cook, you wouldn't want to see what she looks like now."

Sanji, who had just snatched the poster to admire Linlin's "curves," instantly imagined a nightmarish image. He shuddered violently and shoved the wanted poster back into Usopp's hands. "Never mind, I'm good..."

"WHAA—?!"

At that moment, Usopp, who was still flipping through the bounty posters, suddenly froze, his eyes widening in shock. "Wait, wait… Is this for real?!"

The others turned to him with puzzled expressions as he spread a poster out before them.

It depicted a young and strikingly handsome man wielding a Buddhist staff.

The Straw Hats stared, their mouths falling open in disbelief.

Especially Robin, who gasped, "This is... Shaka?!"

Indeed, it was a wanted poster from fifty years ago, and the face on it belonged to none other than Shaka.

'Ksitigarbha King' Shaka – Bounty: 2 Billion Berries, Dead or Alive!

"WHAT!?"

"It's really him!"

"Shaka-san was a pirate?!"

"Wow, 'Ksitigarbha King'? Look at all those zeroes..."

"Let me count... 200 million Berries?"

"Idiot, you missed a zero—it's 2 BILLION!"

"NANI?! 2 billion… Are you kidding me?!"

"Gulp… It really says 2 billion Berries!"

A stunned silence filled the room.

The Straw Hat crew was completely floored. They all gawked at the bounty poster, their jaws practically hitting the ground.

Recalling their encounter with Shaka in the Rainbow Mist, they found it almost impossible to believe that someone who looked so young had once carried such an astronomical bounty.

"His bounty was even higher than Whitebeard's and BIG MOM's back then?!" Robin murmured in shock.

She had originally been intrigued by the old newspapers, hoping to dig up some useful historical information. But Luffy's random collection of ancient wanted posters had instead unearthed something even more incredible—a poster of Shaka himself, alongside bounties for Whitebeard and BIG MOM.

Not only that, but he bore the title "Ksitigarbha King," and his bounty had been greater than Whitebeard's at the time—by a significant margin.

"Unbelievable…" Nami whispered. "What on earth did that guy do to get a bounty this high?!"

"Maybe there are news articles about it in these newspapers!" Robin was eager to find more clues.

She gazed at the wanted poster, admiring Shaka's confident stance as he sat astride a massive panda named Bai Long. Now she understood why he had been so self-assured when he said he would protect her.

"Wait a second…" Usopp muttered as he flipped to another page, suddenly freezing in place.

"What's wrong, Usopp?"

"Did you find another big name?"

"Hurry up and show us!" Luffy, Chopper, and Zoro urged him excitedly.

Usopp snapped out of his daze and flipped the poster around. "You guys will NEVER guess who this is!"

"GASP—!"

"Bai Long?!"

"KUNG FU PANDA?!"

'Kung Fu Panda' Bai Long – Bounty: 100 Million Berries, Dead or Alive.

"What the hell?! Even the panda had a bounty that high?!"

"And this was fifty years ago?! That's crazy!"

The Straw Hats collectively sucked in a breath.

Shaka wasn't the only outrageous one—his pet panda was just as absurd!

Robin was in disbelief. She had seen Bai Long up close; he was an incredibly docile creature.

True, she knew he had the powers of the Paramecia-type Copy-Copy Fruit and was quite formidable. But seeing the sheer size of his bounty left her speechless.

"This is nuts! That panda's bounty is higher than all of ours combined!" Nami gasped.

Sanji nodded. "That panda is no joke. Honestly, even if we all fought together, we might not be able to take him down."

He recalled his battle in LuLuja Island against the pirates there. Even the grandson of the town mayor had given him trouble with his electric suit.

Yet Bai Long had completely wiped out those same pirates in less than thirty seconds.

"That's why we need to get stronger!" Zoro's eyes burned with determination. "Shaka wasn't much older than us when he earned that bounty!"

"Hehehe, one day we'll surpass all these legendary pirates!" Luffy grinned, his fists clenched with excitement.

After all, he was going to be the Pirate King. There was no way he could let himself fall behind.

"Yeah! I need to train harder too!" Chopper, inspired, puffed up his chest.

Right now, he didn't even have a bounty. But one day, he'd earn one and shock Doctorine! He chuckled to himself—who said reindeers couldn't be just as strong as pandas?

"Wait… isn't this Shaka again?!"

Nami's sharp eyes caught something in an old newspaper.

The black-and-white photo showed Shaka holding his Buddhist staff, exuding an overwhelming aura. Beside him stood Bai Long, but this time, the panda wasn't its usual goofy self—it crackled with electricity, poised in a fierce combat stance.

Around them lay ruins and fallen Marines, while in front of Shaka, a burly, blood-soaked man with a Mohawk knelt, exhausted and defeated.

From the angle of the photo, it almost looked like Shaka had his staff pointed directly at the man's head, as if ready to deliver the final blow.

The image was nothing short of legendary.

"....."