Arceus in One Piece - Chapter 23

“Lord Sacred Beast, Brother Kaido, the identity of that family member has been found, and it’s this year’s Supernova with a reward of 200 million beli, Death Drama-Priority.”

The easiest way to determine the identity of a pirate is to look up the Marines’ wanted posters. Warships usually have a booklet dedicated to wanted posters with information about the criminals who have been offered bounties in recent years.

This information was provided by Caddo, who needed to become more familiar with the Marines’s patrol ships when they boarded, and while Queen was still exploring the structure, Caddo had accurately described the location of every compartment on the ship.

He knew exactly where the holding cells, the ammunition stores, and especially the galley were.

As for the reason, he had been on this kind of ship several times and was already familiar with the structure. This kind of ship was Kaido’s favorite back in those days, with plenty of food, and the people were not too strong, pretending to be arrested and then leaving when they were full, with a good buffet restaurant.

He had stumbled across the brochure when he was arrested earlier, so he found it directly.

Prior’s ability is not simple and will be coarse and shallow dominance, but it seems to be good, so Asuka has been rummaging through the wanted posters to find the target.

At the moment, Queen was outside at the helm, Shaina was in the ship’s galley preparing food, and Ashes and Arceus were outside the holding cell, where the sound of the chain being tugged as Priority woke up and struggled reached their ears.

“The boy’s awake, and he should know a lot.”

Kaido kicked open the door to the holding cell as the setting sun at sea level sent the last rays of light into the cabin, reflecting on his face and revealing a bandaged visage.

Kaido didn’t hold back and then dragged him straight to the ship. Breaking his face was already the result of his tenacity.

“Tell me, where is John!”

Kaido’s wolfsbane hit the floor, directly smashing a deep pit. The splattered wood chips even hit Asuka’s face.

“Kaido, be careful not to damage the ship.”

“Don’t worry. We can get as many boats as we want, and we can just go grab a new one.”

Facing Caido’s pressing question, Priort did not answer but instead threatened Caido.

“Bastard, you bastards! I’m the newcomer that Captain John values! If you wait for Captain John to come here like this, you won’t be released! Kaido, I know you, you’re just a trainee! You can’t be Captain John’s opponent!”

“You don’t seem to know the situation very well.”

Looking at the still rampant Prior, who woke up, Kaido decided to let him recognize the situation first, and just as he was about to let him experience the touch of the Wolfsbane, Ashes stepped in to stop Kaido.

“Ashes, what are you doing?”

“Brother Kaido, leave him to me. I’ll find a way to make him talk.”

For some reason, Arceus saw something in Ashes’ eyes that didn’t seem quite right, and then, at his request, Kaido and Arceus left the holding cell first.

As the sun sank into the sea and its rays fell silent, Queen dropped the anchor and stopped the boat. The neighborhood was a reef area that was prone to damage at night, and as he left the wheelhouse to get something to eat, he noticed the screams coming from below decks.

He also saw Caddo with an amused look on his face.

“That’s that guy’s scream, isn’t it? What’s going on?”

“Ashes is torturing him.”

Kaido replied flatly. It didn’t seem like much to him, and some time passed as the voices inside went from violent to feeble and finally to disembodied, and the Ashes opened the door and stepped out.

“Lord Sacred Beast, he is willing to open his mouth. If you have any questions, you can ask them. I have to leave first.” Ashes wiped the blood from his hands, then left the cabin and walked towards the deck.

Before he left, however, he looked at Queen with a hint of ferocity in his gaze.

“Wow, is Ashes a pervert, Kaido? I think you need to watch your back from now on.” Queen poked his head in to take a look, and even he, who was used to all kinds of experiments, could only describe Prior as miserable.

A broken and deformed arm, a burnt face, a rock pierced through his shoulder blade, and blood all over the place described what had really happened earlier.

“But the boy did a really good job of avoiding the fatal areas, all of which were gruesome wounds that didn’t kill him.” Human body modification required familiarity with every part, so Queen saw at a glance exactly what Asuka had done.

“Queen, heal him, you and Caddo. Go ahead and ask questions. I’ll be back later to see if you missed anything.”

“What are you going to do? Lord Arceus?”

Queen, not being a Lunarian, found it odd that he was called Lord Beast. In fact, Arceus had told Asuka and Shaina that they could call him by his name, but they refused to do so. However, it was not Queen who wanted to be called Big Brother the way he was called Caddo.

But then both Shayna and Ashes would have looked at him dangerously, so he went by his first name and added the honorifics “Lord” or “Sir” or something like that.

“I’ll go check on Ashes, and something’s wrong with him.” Taking a statement was something anyone could do, and it would be easier to let Kaido ask. He knew more about John.

However, Ashes and Shaina were his closest subordinates, and he was more concerned about their condition. If it weren’t for their incomplete power and the exhaustion he had to consider, he could have given them better abilities, but that would have to be discussed at a later time.

Above deck, Ashe looked off into the distance with his hands on the side of the ship, wondering what he was thinking.

“Abel, you have something on your mind.”

“I am not, Lord Sacred Beast. You are worrying too much.”

“Your feelings are already written on your face. There are no outsiders here. There are some things that are not good to keep in your heart but to say them can be more painful. If you really do not want to say it, then forget it.”

“.” Ashes fell into silence, and after a long time, he still opened his mouth.

“Lord Sacred Beast, you know, I don’t know how to torture at all.”

“Then what did you just do?”

“I just repeated to him what those people at the Institute did to me.” Breaking bones to test the speed of recovery, emptying the blood to test the speed of blood regeneration, and injecting unknown drugs to test the effects and the body’s resistance to poison.

The degree of tolerance to cold, heat, lack of water, and other harsh environments are all things that Asuka had experienced in the institute at the beginning.

There were things that he had buried in his heart and thought about alone, but when the topic was brought up, he could not stop talking about it. For Ashes at that time, Arceus was not only a holy relic worshipped by the Lunaria tribe but also an elder to whom he could talk about what was on his mind.

It was like complaining, and he didn’t think it was appropriate to tell the beast such things, but he couldn’t find any other elders he knew on the sea.

Become a Patron to read chapters ahead of public release and support me 😉

30 chapters ahead are available on Patron!