"Territory?" Luffy questioned, his face scrunching up in confusion. "I don't have any territory."
"Is Wano under your protection?" Whitebeard asked in turn.
"Of course!" Luffy nodded seriously.
"Then you have territory," Whitebeard concluded. "You may not choose to rule over it, like Kaido did, but if you would come to its defense and no one else disputes you, then it is as good as yours. At least, in the view of pirates; the World Government does not officially recognize pirates' claims on any island or country, even those of their own Shichibukai."
"Not that they recognize the Shichibukai themselves any longer," Marco commented from another table.
"Mmmm, alright?" Luffy scratched his head. He didn't really get it, but Whitebeard isn't the same as Big Mom or Kaido, so he could trust that the old man wouldn't act like a tyrant in the off chance he won the Davy Back fight.
Whitebeard motioned with a hand and what looked to be a large ledger was brought out and placed in front of them. "This contains information on every land under my protection. You can peruse and see if there's anything you like… if you manage to win at all. Gurarara!"
At this point, Luffy was barely even listening. The allure of the many foods available had stolen his attention.
Cherry took the chance to snatch up the book and poke her nose into it. "Oooh, Fishman Island! You sure you want to give that one up, Newgate?"
"Bah, it was practically thrust upon me. I don't think they would complain if you took over," Whitebeard took up his enormous cup and emptied a regular sized bottle into it. "I hear that you've got the princess doing martial arts now."
"Mm, I should go check out her progress sometime," Cherry confirmed. "Maybe when I go tell them they're under new management?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Whitebeard smirked. "More likely not."
"We'll see about that!" Luffy said, though it was hard to understand his words through all the food stuffed into his mouth.
"Well, there's no point wasting time. We can party after, if you're all still in the mood to party, that is, gurarara," Whitebeard pulled himself up from his seat, stretching his back with a series of pops that may or may not be healthy.
…
"Welcome, one and all, to the grandest event of the New Age!" Itomimizu declared. "It is my honor to serve as announcer and commentator for the most monumental Davy Back Fight in decades! I know you folks at home are chomping at the bit to find out the contenders, so let me introduce them to you now!"
"Garp, what the fuck is this?" Aokiji glared at the den den mushi, which started to sweat but boldly pressed onwards with its broadcast.
"Bwahaha! Who knows?" Garp barked out a laugh, dumping the last crackers from the box into his mouth then checking something on the den den mushi's back. "Looks like it's getting sent out all over the globe."
"Where the hell is it coming from?" Aokiji demanded.
"Don't know, can't tell," Garp shrugged. "The signal is being masked somehow."
Aokiji knew that that couldn't mean anything good. At least it couldn't be too bad, since he was pretty sure that the announcer guy was with the Foxy pirates. He was almost certainly overblowing the whole thing, especially with how long this dramatic pause was lasting. At worst, a Davy Back Fight between two of the worst generation.
"The Whitebeard Pirates VS the Straw Hat Pirates!" Itomimizu finally shouted into his mic, turning aside to show the actual Whitebeard and Straw Hat Luffy striking dramatic poses as they squared off against each other.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!!!" Garp damn near fell out of his chair, he was laughing so hard.
"Shut the hell up, Garp! This is a disaster!" Aokiji threw his stapler at the Hero of the Marines, but it just bounced off of his chest ineffectually.
"I have to concur with Kuzan, Garp," Sengoku walked in. "This is bound to be a public relations nightmare. I can already feel our recruitment numbers plummeting."
Garp actually managed to stop laughing for a second when he heard that. "Oh… that isn't good."
"No, it ain't," Aokiji sighed and plopped down into his big, comfy fleet admiral seat. "When the world sees what they're capable of, our prospective marines are going to get scared off."
"Eh," Garp returned to a somewhat flippant attitude. "I've seen one of the Davy Back Fights before. There's just as much of a chance they'll make fools of themselves playing children's games as actually show off their strength. We'll just have to wait and see."
"We won't be 'waiting and seeing' if I have anything to say about it, and I do," Aokiji hardened his resolve. He didn't hate the Straw Hats at all, but he really could have them acting out so publicly. The marines were hard pressed enough after Whitebeard got away with attacking Marineford.
"Present the coins!" Itomimizu exclaimed, and Luffy revealed three coins between his splayed fingers. The coins were subsequently chucked into the water nearby; a symbolic offering to Davy Jones himself, asking the ancient pirate to oversee the games in spirit.
"That's three games, folks! Our very own Captain Foxy always insisted that three coin games are the superior form of Davy Back Fights! Not too long, nor too short! It seems that Whitebeard and Straw Hat have similar thinking!" Itomimizu shamelessly promoted his captain, grasping for secondhand infamy. "Naturally, it'd be no fun at all to choose what games to play, so… Bring out the wheel of games!"
There was an unnecessary degree of showmanship involved in the revealing of a massive spinning wheel, every light and camera angle meant to make the wheel's spinner look cool… and utterly fell flat because the guy at the wheel was Foxy, the lamest pirate captain in the whole world.
"Hello, my adoring fans from every sea~!" Foxy blew a kiss to the camera. If one listened closely, you could hear the den den mushi gag.
Not just that, either. Aokiji faintly felt a vast surge of hostile haki suddenly directed the idiot's way. It came not from a single powerful warrior, though, but rather the collective hatred from millions, tens of millions even.
"Bwaha! Looks like he forgot that he tried to kidnap Uta!" Garp cackled, suddenly eating popcorn from who knew where.
Ah, yes, that explained it. It was actually really impressive that Foxy could focus the unconscious and untrained haki of so many people across the world to such a degree.
Foxy himself, seemed oblivious to the sudden influx of killing intent trying to bludgeon him to death, though, so he carried on like nothing was wrong.
"Let's see what we have, then shall we?" Foxy gave the wheel a good, hard spin.
Aokiji, Garp, and Sengoku waited with bated breath to see just how the damage to their operations would be.
And they waited a little longer.
Then a little longer still.
"Damn, just how well did they grease that thing?" Garp commented.
Foxy grew embarrassed himself, so after a full minute of the wheel spinning with no end in sight, he directly stopped the wheel with his hand. "Oops!"
The camera zoomed in and revealed what the first game would be.