The City of Spring was already close to Water 7.
Including the time spent plundering ships along the way, it took the War Pirates more than half a month to finally arrive at the City of Spring.
"It's a pirate ship!"
"There are so many pirate ships! They're not going to attack us, are they?"
"It doesn't look like it. Otherwise, they would've already launched an attack."
A ship slowly docked at the port.
The golden crossed-swords skull emblem on the ships and their flags was enough to identify them as pirate ships, even to people who had never heard of the War Pirates.
Although pirates frequently visited the City of Spring, the people at the port still couldn't help becoming nervous when faced with so many pirate ships arriving at once.
Some of the more timid people turned pale and hurried away, afraid that they might be caught up in whatever the pirates were planning.
Tap, tap, tap...
As the ships finished docking, the sound of dense footsteps rang out.
Aside from the personnel left behind to guard the ships, the members of the pirate crew immediately disembarked from every vessel and soon formed neat lines at the port.
Through the passageway deliberately left open in the middle, Kaito stepped down from the No. 1 Main Ship and walked to the front of the formation.
Behind him followed the male cadres, including Sandy, Mangu, and Lafayette.
"Little ones, our target is Happy Street! Let's go!"
Kaito turned around, looked at his crew, and waved his hand vigorously as he gave the order.
"Awwoo!! Happy Street!"
"Long live the captain!"
"Let's go!!!"
In an instant, the crew and cadres, including Sandy, roared excitedly like wolves and tigers.
The sheer volume of their voices seemed to reach the heavens, and the shockwave of their cries even caused many residents near the port to stumble and fall.
Taking the lead, Kaito quickly led the crew away from the port and toward Happy Street in the city.
"Miss Robin, what should we do? Are we just going to wait here for the captain and the others to come back?"
On the deck of the No. 1 Main Ship, Robin, Tashigi, Nami, Nojiko, and Karina—the beautiful women of the pirate crew—had gathered together.
Seeing the men of the Pirates heading into the city to have fun, Robin and the others were naturally quite unhappy.
The main reason was their captain, Kaito.
There were obviously so many beautiful women in the Pirates, yet their captain had actually gone outside to look for other women.
That naturally left them feeling rather displeased.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go shopping. I'll pay for everything!"
Robin waved her delicate hand, unwilling to show any weakness, and led the group of women toward the city's commercial district.
They were going to soothe their grievances through shopping.
"Hahaha! Drink!"
"Luo, why are you being so reserved? Come here and give me a hug!"
"Smoker, stop being so uptight. Since you've come out to have fun, just let yourself go!"
"Boss, another round of drinks!"
"Yeah!"
Happy Street in the City of Spring was even larger than the Happy Street on the original Pleasure Island.
Even with nearly ten thousand people pouring into the area at once, the place was not crowded.
There were more than enough establishments and women available to entertain the visitors.
In groups of two or three, the members of the War Pirates soon entered the various establishments together.
Mangu, Sandy, Luo, and Smoker, for example, gathered in one private room.
Lafayette, Zoro, and Bunier opened another.
Even Klocke Dahl, who normally maintained his arrogance, didn't hold back when it came to having fun. He gathered in the same private room with the familiar Bowness and Bentham.
As for the lower-ranking members of the crew, the beast-like bodies they had obtained through Kaito's Munch-Munch Fruit initially frightened the women of Happy Street.
However, under the temptation of money, the women quickly relaxed and entered the mood, enjoying themselves with the pirates.
As for Kaito himself...
Being familiar with the place, he directly ordered ten of the highest-ranking women after entering his private room.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, my lady. I found the other party's wanted poster for comparison. The man is indeed the 'Golden Swordsman,' Kaito, whose bounty is 500 million Berry."
Inside a luxurious room, Stussy, dressed in a pink dress and blue high heels, couldn't help falling into thought after hearing her subordinate's report.
As the Queen of the Pleasure District, Stussy was also secretly a member of CP0. Naturally, she occasionally came to inspect her properties.
That was precisely why Stussy had come to the City of Spring this time—to inspect the development of Happy Street here.
However, just as she had finished her inspection and was preparing to rest, one of her subordinates unexpectedly brought her some extremely valuable news.
Stussy was no stranger to Kaito.
Although he had only recently entered the Grand Line, many people already referred to him as a super rookie pirate, and Stussy had naturally heard the rumors surrounding him.
But that wasn't the most important part.
The key was that she knew some of Marine's recent actions were related to this man.
"By the way, my lady, aside from the Golden Swordsman, there are also many members of the War Pirates here. More importantly, a large number of them appear to be Zoan-type Devil Fruit users."
The subordinate reporting to Stussy noticed that his boss was deep in thought and quickly revealed another piece of information.
"What did you say? A large number of suspected Zoan users? Are there really that many Zoan Devil Fruit users among the War Pirates?"
Stussy looked at her subordinate in surprise.
As far as she knew, there were indeed many Devil Fruit users among the War Pirates.
However, she had never heard anything about them having a large number of Zoan users.
"The exact situation isn't clear to me, my lady. The main problem is that there are several thousand people following the Golden Swordsman. Most of them look like Zoan-type human-beasts. They possess various animal characteristics, and some even have characteristics resembling ancient species such as dinosaurs."
Before coming to report the news, Stussy's subordinate had obviously conducted some investigation, so he quickly explained what he had discovered.
His explanation only made Stussy even more surprised.
There was nothing particularly strange about a few Zoan Devil Fruit users.
But saying that there were thousands of them was simply inconceivable.
'Could they be members of the Mink Tribe?'
Stussy naturally thought of the race that resembled Zoan-type beast forms.
'But the Mink Tribe lives in the New World. Even if the Golden Swordsman really encountered them, there shouldn't be this many...'
Stussy naturally didn't believe that there could be thousands of Zoan Devil Fruit users among the War Pirates.
But the strange appearance of so many beast-like pirates made her unable to immediately dismiss the possibility.
Even if they were members of the Mink Tribe, recruiting thousands of them would still be completely abnormal.
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