Capítulo 250: The Rise Of The Red Haired Pirates

[ Third Person POV ]

Paradise

A ship with a dragon's head on it slowly sailed past Water 7.

The Jolly Roger proudly displayed a skull with three claw marks on the right side of the skull, and the ship's crew had been enjoying their drinks while looking at the newspapers. A young man casually drinking away while laughing at the surprising news that got on the Newspapers.

"Ha! I can't believe they're still trying to fight with The Storm Dragon; he's pretty strong, ya know?" Shanks laughed before chugging some more liquor.

A young Lucky Roux laughed before tearing off a large piece of meat off a bone.

"Did you get to meet him before, Shanks?" Lucky Roux asked.

"Ah, when we fought with the Whitebeard Pirates during for the last time. I got to see him, but he wasn't fighting or anything," Shanks replied.

The Red-Haired Pirates had slowly been gaining infamy throughout the seas in recent months. Their strength being acknowledged by a majority of the pirating community. His bounty was constantly being increased every time he'd perform a new feat.

"You think we can take him?" Benn Beckman asked. He had a more youthful appearance before the plot had begun.

"We can try, I guess?" Yassop snickered before chugging down some more booze.

"We should probably meet up with him soon," Shanks proposed. He snickered before saying, "I bet he'll be surprised to see me all grown up!"

"Why don't we go right now? Isn't he in the New World?" Benn Beckman asked.

Shanks sat down and began to think about it for a bit. It wasn't too hard to find where Whitebeard was, but it'd be a problem If they approached them with negative intentions. Especially knowing that Whitebeard didn't take kindly to unannounced guests.

"Hmm...." Shanks looked at the headline for the World Economic News. They had been hinting that the World Government and the Marines were on the hunt for the Storm Dragon and the child that was with him. They didn't get into the specifics of what exactly the Storm Dragon had done, and they only addressed the child as a Demon that had been scheming against the World Government, claiming that the girl had already sunk seven Marine ships.

It wasn't too hard to deduce that Boris was currently in West Blue. It would have taken a few days to get to West Blue, and Boris would have probably already left West Blue.

"Let's hang around the New World for a bit before we meet up with them. We don't need to rush too much," Shanks remarked.

The rest of the crew promptly agreed with the instructions of their Chief commander and promptly began making preparations to fight off another pirate crew. Formidable pirates infested Paradise, and Shanks made it almost a habit to take down every one of them the more he kept sailing.

Marines weren't spared either; they would occasionally raid some Marine Bases for more supplies and booze. From an outside perspective, one would think that Shanks was performing normal pirating activities, but to Shanks, it was more about seeing the bigger picture.

Shanks had a goal in mind that required a lot of notoriety in order to accomplish it. Granted, the goal in question would take a long time to achieve, but to his point of view, he was looking at a much bigger picture.

In order to accomplish titanic feats in that world, one had to be a titanic figure. That was at least what Shanks had believed. The crew that followed him simply assumed that he wanted to become the Pirate King, just like his former captain had become.

As for what the World Government had thought about 'Red-Haired Shanks', they considered him an enigma.

The World Government had a habit of looking into the past to see where major pirates had emerged from. It was a record of sorts that gave the World Government a vague description of what possible motivations would have led them to piracy. It was also a small indication of what they were likely to do as a prominent pirate as well. Moreover, it gave them bits of leverage to create situations in which the Pirates were free to do whatever they wanted under their control.

There were clear open and shut cases like Big Mom and Kaidou, and then there were the less-than-obvious cases like Whitebeard, and then there were complete mysteries like Boris and, of course, Shanks.

For Boris, all that they properly knew was that the Rocks Pirates had landed on a stranded island one day and taken him under their tutelage, but he was already deemed to be a formidable foe at the time. Where he was born was a mystery; his motivation was rather ambiguous because of his unpredictable nature. The only thing that the World Government was certain of was that he was loyal to Whitebeard, and he normally didn't fight unless you started it.

There were rare cases where the Storm Dragon personally decided to act.

However, in the case of Shanks, they had a rather curious file on him. A long time ago, during the God Valley incident, a lot of treasure that the Celestial Dragons had brought to the island had been lost, but the most valuable treasures were made sure to be secured at all costs.

Most of these treasures had been accounted for, save for one small treasure box that had been reported to have something of extensive value. The family in question that had reported about this treasure were none other than the Figarland Family. However, they refused to disclose the contents of the treasure.

Instead, they insisted that the reports concerning those valuables be brought to them so they could scan through them to see an accurate description. Unfortunately, there were no reports that were similar in description.

Eventually, they dropped the search and concluded that the treasure had been possibly lost, but they couldn't help but wonder what treasure was so valuable that they demanded any reports concerning them.

The Five Elders even went as far as to send more spies to gather as much information as possible from the Family meetings. Unfortunately, the agents couldn't find anything worth reporting to them.

They simply discussed how horrible the event was and how much potential revenue they had lost in bets and slaves.

The Five Elders thought it was a bit of a stretch to assume the child was one of the treasures inside that box. Moreover, the similarities in appearance that Shanks had to the Figarland Family were too much to write off as a mere coincidence.

As a result, the Five Elders made it a habit to keep a close eye on the movements of the Red-Haired Pirates.

With all these factors put into consideration. It wasn't surprising to see Shank's meteoric rise to prominence; the only problem that impeded his path to becoming a world-shaking figure was the fact that he hadn't entered the New World with his crew yet.

However, he was heading to the New World anyway after gathering his ideal crew. Now, all the Five Elders could do was to wait and see what he would do as soon as they got to the New World.