One of the customs of the Beasts Pirates: a certain someone who lived paycheck to paycheck with a flair for borrowing money. She keeps a mysterious little notebook where she records her current creditors and future creditors, cycling through them endlessly according to a set pattern.
At the beginning of every month, Delia can be seen all over Onigashima paying back debts. Correspondingly, by mid-month, she's always seen borrowing money everywhere. If she doesn't appear, she must be out on a mission.
In a sense, Delia's behavior indirectly promotes camaraderie among the crew's officers. Sometimes, when she strikes it rich on a mission and delays her usual borrowing schedule, others actually find it strange.
When a class has two people with the same name, everyone tends to give one of them an extra nickname, something to distinguish them by size, height, or build.
But Babanuki found a simpler way: he just gave up calling the other person by that name altogether.
After Babanuki's straightforward method of distinction, Apoo and Drake ended up thrown into the same prison cell. While the place had been cleared out recently, only a rare few were privileged enough to get their own cell. These two hadn't earned that right.
In fact, Babanuki had intentionally locked them up together. As the warden of the Beasts Pirates, Babanuki lived a fairly dull life. H wasn't like Magellan, who had to spend loads of time in the toilet every day.
Aside from standard forms of entertainment, watching prisoners fight was one of his personal favorites.
"Well, if it isn't Drake. You got tossed in here too, huh?"
Inside the cell, Apoo sneered at Drake, who had just been thrown in. Though now a prisoner himself, it didn't stop these Super Rookies from clashing. Back on the Sabaody Archipelago, they'd already exchanged harsh words.
"Heh, aren't you a prisoner too? What's there to brag about?"
Holding his stomach, Drake felt something was off. By all logic, his physique should be stronger than Apoo's, yet Apoo looked completely fine.
The issue must lie in the force used. For some reason, Babanuki seemed to have punched him with much greater strength.
It wasn't that Babanuki was venting a grudge. Delia might be addicted to borrowing money, but she always repaid it, and her personality was surprisingly well-received among pirates. Babanuki just found having two people with the same-sounding name too annoying.
And with the recent manpower shortage and rising pressure, he'd punched just a little harder in bad mood.
Although it seemed petty, for a pirate, it wasn't exactly a flaw.
"Don't get so worked up. We're cellmates now, after all. So, what got you thrown in?"
Apoo suddenly realized that trading insults with Drake was pointless. It might be better to stay on his good side for now and find a way to use him.
"Didn't you start it? That Hawkins has already joined the Beasts Pirates. I became careless for a moment and got screwed by his ability."
"Hawkins, huh? Not surprising. That guy's abilities are weird as hell, and his bounty is just a notch below that b*stard Kid."
While Luffy and his crew had suffered huge bounty cuts, Hawkins had remained near the top due to his ability. In the first half of the Grand Line, his "death substitute" ability was practically unstoppable, causing many to meet their downfall at his hands.
"What about you?"
"Me? I ran into Kaido. After an epic battle, I lost and ended up getting dragged here."
"...?"
Drake didn't believe a word of it. If people like Apoo could just casually pick a fight with a monster like Kaido, the Marines would've pacified the seas long ago.
"Ahem, don't mind the details. The fight really was pretty epic though."
Apoo would never admit that the so-called "epic battle" was so insignificant that Kaido didn't even look at him, and by the end, didn't even know his name.
The prison cell fell into an awkward silence. After a while, seeing that no guards were paying attention to them, Apoo finally whispered his thoughts.
"Say, how about we team up? If we work together, we might be able to escape from here."
"You have a plan?"
"Not yet, but we can figure one out slowly."
A smile crept onto Apoo's face. As long as Drake agreed, he could backstab him during the escape attempt and then act as a witness to expose him, giving himself a reason to join the crew.
He had originally planned to find someone powerful to rely on and then make other moves. Given the current circumstances, things weren't all that bad.
Coincidentally, Drake was thinking the same thing.
Even though he hadn't joined the Beasts Pirates, getting captured had allowed him to reach his objective through a different path.
Moreover, Apoo had just tried to surrender on his own initiative and failed to gain permission, which made Drake suspect that the Beasts Pirates didn't like spineless cowards. So…
He decided to act unyielding for now and wait until he was under enough pressure before pretending to surrender.
In theory, it wasn't uncommon for pirates to recruit new members from among prisoners of war, so there was still a chance. As long as he reported Apoo's escape attempt, he could seize the opportunity.
With completely different motives, the two of them still made the same decision. Each harboring malicious intentions, they formed an agreement to break out of the prison.
But in the days that followed, the Beasts Pirates didn't recruit them, instead, they were relentlessly forced to mine.
Babanuki had misunderstood Kaido's orders. He thought Kaido meant to have him torture the two of them while waiting for further instructions.
But Kaido had actually meant for Babanuki to use his own judgment and notify him when the time was right. Kaido, who was busy seeking his own fun, had completely forgotten about the two of them. Unless something unexpected happened, their mining days would be quite long.
Drake silently continued to work. As an undercover agent with a mission, he would remain absolutely loyal until ordered to switch sides. In fact, they were often worried more than regular subordinates about any issues appearing in the force where they were undercover.
But Apoo was a different story. The intense labor was getting to him, and Drake showed no enthusiasm at all for breaking out of prison, he always pushed the planning onto Apoo.
Just when Apoo was racking his brain, trying to figure out what to do next, his chance arrived.
Kaido hadn't remembered them at all. He had already left Onigashima and begun another round of personal training. But Queen had arrived at the Udon Quarry.
"Who is the person standing before you?!"
"It's almighty Lord Queen! The handsome QUEEN!"
"Very good. Be grateful for my mercy that you trash get to witness my dancing live!"
Queen wasn't here to stroll around. He had come to host his own concert.
Unlike people like Uta who performed on the main stage, Queen was a wanted man, a comedian, and one of Onigashima's senior officers with the most polarized reputation. He didn't have the authority to throw banquet freely on Onigashima. Only Arceus and Kaido could give that order.
In the entire Wano Country, only the Udon Quarry allowed him to mess around however he liked.
The prisoners welcomed his arrival too; at least while Queen danced, they didn't have to work.
As the music started, Queen launched into his familiar otaku-style dance. And in that moment, Apoo's eyes lit up, he knew his chance had come.
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