Page One was a decent guy.

Well, 'decent' was a stretch, seeing as he was raised by pirates to be a pirate and had done all sorts of things under the orders of Kaidou, but he was certainly a better person than most others in his situation. He trained hard and worked hard over the years to get where he was, having the need to do so, especially after his sister had stolen two ancient devil fruits from the treasury of the Beast Pirates and had the two eat them.

After that Jack almost killed them both, but Kaidou gave them a chance and decided that, if they had eaten top fruits, then they would become top fighters for the crew or die trying. So he trained, he trained hard every single day from that day on.

He had no talent for swordsmanship, he was only good for hand-to-hand combat and his armament Haki. Honestly, he knew he was far from the best he could have been, but his body was naturally tougher than others and his fruit just composed further on that. He blamed his body's toughness on his need to adapt to his sister's 'tender care'.

But he was still a strong fighter, which is why he was irritated at what was happening as he was being pushed back.

"Come on, is that all you got, lizard!" Oven, one of the oldest sons of Big Mom, said as the two kept trading blows.

Oven is an extremely large and muscular man, towering over most others and standing at the three meters tall mark. He has a very thick neck, and hair that is arranged into three curved sections as if they were flames, as well as a short, spiky beard. His hair color is a gradient that resembles something being baked, starting out blond and turning into a dark orange towards its tips. The man was also extremely muscular and had a very intimidating presence to him even as he did not wear a shirt and was only using gloves and pants.

Page One growled at the man in front of him, putting more force in his punches to try and smack that smirk out of Oven's face. The Beast Pirate knew he was physically stronger than Oven, but only when in his half-beast form and not by that much since Oven was one of the 'monsters' of Big Mom pirates. Not only that, the man was in his forties, the age where one was at their peak and had spent all his time in the waters of the New World, having a much larger experience than Page One as well as having a fruit that was quite troublesome for the Headliner to deal with.

The Netsu Netsu no Mi, it was an impressive fruit that allows one to control their body heat. With it, even touching him was hard as the hand would burn, and attacking him with a blade would likely also be useless as it might just melt if the sword isn't strong enough.

Being locked in this one-on-one fight against Oven in close quarters was just not something Page One was appreciating. He could feel his first burning and the air going into his lungs felt like it was trying to cook him from the inside out.

Seeing an opening, Oven proceeded to use a finger pistol at Page One, burning a hole through the young pirate's body.

"That is the end." Oven said confidently, sure he had won this, but his arm was grasped by Page one's scally hand.

"Not done yet, bitch." Page One said as he held onto Oven's arm to keep him in place and proceeded to launch several bone breaking punches at Oven's body.

Not to be outdone, Oven used an attack of his own as well.

"Heat Denasshi:" This was one of the killer moves from Oven. It consisted of him heating up his forearm before throwing a punch of tremendous power by using the heat as a propeller of sorts. The impact actually threw Page One back and made him cough some blood.

He would have gone again on the offensive, the sheer stamina and toughness of an Ancient Zoan being simply that absurd, but he was defeated as someone sneak attacked him from the back, or to be more precise-

"The fuck?" Page One said in shock as his body was flung out of the arena by chains.

Oven saw this and turned in the direction of who used the chains, seeing who it was made Oven's eyes widen ever so slightly.

"I did not expect someone like you would show up for an event like this, Treasure."

"Jararara. What can I say, that fruit may not be that interesting to me but it is still a treasure and I could use some more muscle in my crew." The man, Mad Treasure, said.

Treasure is a dark-skinned muscular man with very wild and spiky purple hair. He wears dark gray pants pulled up to the knee, a red belt, and gray boots with red lining. He also has two tattoos of gears with spirals inside them; one is on his left shoulder, and the other is on his right hip.

He was a wild card of sorts in the waters of New World recently, having come over rather recently and was seen as if one of the supernovas of this year. He is a greedy, thrill-seeking, and psychotically driven man who moves by his unrelenting dream of hunting for all the treasure in the world; whether through discovery or piracy matters little to him.

"Whatever, I just have to plummet you here and now." Oven said, not paying much attention to Treasure's words, instead jumping towards him to beat up the annoyance.

His fists, however, stopped just in time as his eyes widened in fright at what was in front of him. Namely, one of his sisters who has joined the competition.

Charlotte Custard, the 16th child of Big Mom and a pirate with a bounty of 180 million bellies. She was a very pretty woman with short purple hair, amethyst eyes a developed and athletic body, and a rather pretty face. She was three meters tall, but right now she seemed almost tiny as Mad Treasure held her by the neck using his steel chains and was used as a meat shield against Oven.

"Bastard." Oven said in fury, the temperature all around him rising as Treasure laughed and launched several chains in Oven's way. The big man used what Obvservation Haki he had to dodge, but he was nowhere as advanced in that form of Haki as his brother Katakuri so several chains hit him anyway, sending him back.

Treasure would have kept laughing, but Custard took advantage of that moment where Treasure was focused on Oven to use her sword and try and attack him, sending a flying slash at the man.

"Guh, bitch." Treasure said as his hastily used armor of steel chains was cut and a large cut appeared in his chest. Not hesitating the man used his chain to close in tighter and choke the woman.

"Get your hands away from my sister!" Oven yelled in furry as he moved to Treasure using Soru. It was a good thing that the 'secret' technique of the Hokushiki was nearly an open secret amongst the upper ranks of the Yonko crews, Oven having long since mastered them and was using them normally. The speed surprised Treasure who was hit by a strong punch, sending him flying back. Taking advantage of the man being pushed back, Oven used his heat to melt the chains that were choking his sister.

Seeing this, Treasure just launched the woman out of the ring before the chain was completely melted. He did not want to deal with that crazy bitch attacking him in revenge in this match, thank you very much.

"Ready for the beating?" Oven said while cracking his knuckles, ready to beat up this man.

Well, he would have done so if not for the chaos in the arena and a giant trying to 'sneak attack' him.

Thus the chaos in the arena continued going on in block D.


Page One, having been dropped on the water, started sinking. There were Fishman slaves to get the people who fell in the water, but many were dropping fast as Oven was releasing too much heat making many jump in the water to run away from him. Water was filling the future Tobiroppo's lungs due to the hole in his body and he could almost see his whole life flashing through his eyes.

'Is that it for my life? Well, shi- Fuck, is that sis?' Page One's eyes widened as he saw that Ulti had jumped into the water to save him.

The problem? She was a Devil Fruit user just as well and was sinking just as he was.

If not for Susanoo jumping in to rescue the two of them, they would have both drowned.

"Thanks, Susanoo." Page One said while coughing up water.

"Think nothing of it." Susanoo said as he patted him on the back.

This was the 'losers' section where everyone who was dropped in the water during the competition stayed before the matches were over. It was mostly a place for them to rest, heal with the help of the staff and, most importantly, somewhere where some of the fighters who were not paying attention and were injured were kidnapped to be turned into toys by Sugar's fruit.

Page One, after recovering a bit, looked to the side and saw his sister who was coughing up just as much water as he was.

"Why did you jump?" Page One asked.

"To save you, Pay-Pay." Ulti said and Page One face palmed at that.

"There are Fishman there to save us if we fall, you yourself were saved by them." Page One said.

Ulti froze at that before.

"Hehe, I forgot?" Ulti says.

Page One feels a vein nearly popping in his forehead at the stupidity of it. Honestly, he was in a rather bad mood since the loss against Oven, and a reminder of how dumb his sister could be was certainly not helping his mood any.

"... It is unfair." Page One said with clenched teeth. "If I could use the weapon bro gave me, I would have won against that overgrown heater."

Ulti patted him on the back to comfort him.

"It is the rules, and besides it is not like you are that good at using that weapon yet." Ulti said as she too had received one such weapon, but like her brother, she was not yet too used to it.

They both had received a pair of gloves as they were both hand-to-hand fighters, it was probably the most experimental weapon Marcus had developed matching his knowledge from Gero regarding energy manipulation and creation as well as his understanding of Teigus and the knowledge he had on how to integrate what is seemingly mystic with the scientific.

It was a very interesting project to the end, and it truly would have made a big difference in this fight as these gloves had extremely powerful offensive and defensive capabilities and would cover the weakness to long and mid-range for the siblings, giving them a great edge for the fight, but unfortunately, it was against the rules and Jack has said to not show those weapons for now anyway.

He may be a brute, but he wasn't an idiot and the Beast Pirate's borders were getting quite restless recently as the other Yonkos were suspicious over the greater movements inside the Beast Pirates lands and troops have started flocking to the borders.

A new war can happen at any time if things keep going like this, and if they could take out their weapons at a critical time they could show the power of the Beast Pirates way better.

"But seriously, it is ridiculous that we lost when we had those weapons." Page One complained, not paying any mind to who else might be listening in this conversation.

For instance, a certain Big Mom child who had been taken to the same section where the losers were maintained, and a fat ass with a black beard who had come in search of Susanoo to investigate.


"... Interesting." Teach muttered as he observed the Beast Pirates. Technology wasn't something he knew much about, but he knew that it was a form of power and that the Navy was advancing quickly thanks to it while the Whitebeard Pirates refused to even think of improving themselves in any such way.

On one side, Teach was glad that the Old Man refused to get that sort of thing since Teach did not want a stronger crew who could trouble him in the future. On the other hand, though, it frustrated him to no end to know that his crew refused to take the next logical step after becoming the strongest crew.

What family? Is that something to eat?

Fuck that, Blackbeard wanted to dominate the world, to stand at the top! Whitebeard could have done that at any moment if he so wanted, a monster that he is, but he instead chose to play house with trash like Squardo and other useless trash who would only slow him down.

In truth, Blackbeard felt he would likely be better off in the Beast Pirates, but he would only ever join the strongest so he was stuck with Whitebeard... for now.

Still...

"If this talk of weapons is true, then I better pay attention. This can help me when it is time to set out the new wave." Blackbeard said to himself.

As for Custard who was listening, she too thought about what sort of weapon was the beast pirates talking about, but as someone far less ambitious than Blackbeard her thoughts were far lesser in comparison. She only thought about warning others about this new development since her Mother was not liking the movements of the Beast Pirates and how some raiding parties were seen in islands far too close to Big Mom territory.


"This block was rather interesting." Marcus said as he observed the final winner of Block D.

In the end, even if Treasure was strong and fought valiantly, he was still defeated all the same by Oven, as to be expected.

Metal was a transmitter of heat after a certain temperature, as Treasure could produce chains from his body those chains were still connected to him. Considering that Oven's heat was more than enough to melt metal the chains were rather useless against him and only served to help cook the treasure hunter pirate.

Add that Oven had greater experience in combat and it resulted in Treasure just not being able to keep up.

But, that wasn't exactly what Marcus was paying more attention to.

"Joker." Marcus said, looking at his 'friend' on the side.

"Yes?"

"Would you be able to get some blood samples from Oven for me? I believe it may be helpful for me research." Marcus said with a glint in his eyes.

The Extremis Formula was a truly wondrous drug, but it could be improved several steps further. Looking at Oven, a 'heat person' with a naturally strong body, Marcus had an idea. In this world, he knew of three people whose powers were similar and whose bodies had the characteristic to generate heat.

Oven, the one who ate the Netsu Netsu no Mi. Accino, a bounty hunter who ate the Atsu Atsu no Mi. And finally Bill, the leader of the Silver Pirate Alliance and the person who ate the Gutsu Gutsu no Mi. If Marcus could obtain blood samples of all of them as well as perhaps blood samples of a few others who were born with unnaturally powerful bodies, for instance, the assassin Bobby Funk and the future Shishibukai Edward Newgate, Marcus should be able to improve in the Extremis Formula further several steps.

Doflamingo thought for a bit before nodding his head, something like that can be easily arranged.

"I will think of something, but I hope you can pay me for my troubles."

"Naturally. After you test the Extremis Formula, I will give you two more flasks. Just remember the care necessary for those who had it injected in them, they must release the excess heat they generate every so often otherwise they can most likely die from an explosion." Marcus said without hesitation.

Soon the current formula would be obsolete, but for Doflamingo it was still enough to excite him a bit.

"Well, a toast for future sucess." Doflamingo says, offering Marcus a glass for them to toss over their future success.

For Scarlet watching the proceedings, it looked like two evil beings toasting to human suffering, which was totally unfair. Marcus did not care about 'human suffering' or anything like that, he just wanted to see it.

See how far he could go, how much he could change, and see where it would all lead to.


In the outer region where the Big Mom and Beast Pirates territory meets, one of the Tobiroppo, Gregor the Cerberus, was sailing his ship.

Gregor was not a kind or good person, being renowned for his bad temper and being prone to causing trouble as well as killing anyone and anything in his path. He was only a Tobiroppo, or even allowed in the Beast Pirates, because he was someone with a rare Mythical Zoan, the Cerberus fruit, as well as being extremely strong.

But all his strength meant nothing now as his face showed his annoyance even as he kept looking at his Devil Radar, trying and failing to get any devil fruit signal for the last week in this sea region he was to scour. Not a single fruit despite him sailing up and down a large area, all while the other Tobiroppo all were talking of success after success of obtaining fruits.

"Captain Gregor, we are getting into the sea region of Big Mom." His navigator said and Gregor grumbled since he was ordered not to get in conflict with the Big Mom pirates.

He was about to tell his forces to turn back when it happened. The Dragon Radar detected something.

Excitement filled the man as getting a devil fruit meant that the others wouldn't mock him for his 'incompetence' or anything like that. Not carrying about Big Mom's forces, as this was still the periphery of her territory, the man said.

"We travel to North-Nothwest, we have found a target."

"But sir, traveling in that direction is straight to Whole Cake Island." One of his subordinates said and Gregor, not wanting to hear nonsense, did not hesitate as he swung his heavy greatsword, cutting his own men in half.

"Anyone else wants to say something?" Gregor growled and the ship was quiet as the sails were set and soon they were traveling in a straight line to their destination.


"We were quite lucky this time around." Tamago said while drinking some tea. Tamago was an officer amongst the Big Mom forces and a well-known pirate of New World.

"We sure were." Pekons, a lion mink said as he accepted the tea Tamago gave him.

"And to think we would find a devil fruit amongst the taxes from Grape Island." Tamago said with a chuckle. Between the two crewmates, a silvery white devil fruit that looked like a pear could be seen.

The two looked at the simple fruit between them until one of them spoke up.

"You think Mother would send someone to come help escort us?" Pekons asked.

"Why?" Tamago questioned, not understanding why she would do such a thing.

"I mean, this is the rare Mirror fruit that can be extremely useful for the crew." Pekons said. "With the Beast Pirates so active, would she trust us to bring the fruit by ourselves?" Pekons said.

He honestly did not see why such a thing would be necessary, but who knows? Big Mom was unpredictable and Perospero, who took care of the day-to-day work, was quite an insidious, but careful, person.

"We can always just ask." Tamago said easily, dialing Perospero directly.

There is no way he would interrupt Big Mom for such small matters, after all.

"Hello, perorin." Perospero said through the Dendenmushi, the snail having trouble trying to imitate the impossible long tongue of Perospero. "Did something happen?"

"No." Tamago said, explaining Pekons's thoughts.

The Big Mom eldest child listened attentively before he answered.

"We weren't going to send anyone, but since you mentioned it I can see who I can send. Where are you guys right now precisely." Perospero said while thinking about what to do.

"We are approaching Piepie Island in around an hour or so to resupply before continuing on." Tamago said and Perospero nodded.

"If it is there then it is simple. Brother Craker is nearby as he is returning from a similar quest to get our taxes for the tea party, I will just ask him to come to you guys so you can travel together."

Tamago nodded and after talking a bit more they turn off the phone, not yet knowing that the mad dog of the Beast Pirates was about to do something truly stupid in a few hours.