Chapter 73: The Necessity of Keeping a Pet

The unique geographical environment of the Little Garden caused magnetic anomalies, requiring one year for the recording compass to fully charge with magnetism.

This is also one of the islands on the Grand Line where Seven has no recording compass.

If the nearby waters were as stable as the Four Seas, one could slowly search for the Little Garden, but the Grand Line’s climate is erratic, with frequent violent weather.

All of it increases the difficulty of the search.

Taking the helm, Seven activated his Observation Haki amplified by electromagnetic waves, like turning on a radar sensor to scan the surrounding seas.

Radar sensing, as the name suggests, uses electromagnetic waves to detect, locate, and identify targets—far exceeding the perception range of Observation Haki.

The maximum range is currently unknown.

The scanning process was boring; not long after, the weather changed violently again.

The wind roared like thunder, the rain fell like blades.

Churning waves clashed violently, and the Donghaidihuanghao was tossed violently by the waves.

At this moment, Seven’s longing for a professional helmsman—Blue Fatty Jinbe—became stronger than ever before.

He was not, after all, a professional helmsman.

Professional tasks must be entrusted to professionals.

On this journey to the New World’s Hive Island, Fish-Man Island is an unavoidable route; he would definitely go speak with Jinbe then, and if he could join the crew, all the better.

But currently, Fish-Man Island is under Whitebeard’s flag, and Jinbe reveres Fish-Man Tegge as his idol—so the difficulty of getting him aboard is obvious.

This has nothing to do with dreams; it’s because of the intense hostility between fish-men and humans, and the severe discrimination fish-men endure.

But these would not become obstacles for Seven.

Strictly speaking, he is no longer human.

Of course, he must first go to the Sabaody Archipelago to coat the Donghaidihuanghao before entering Fish-Man Island, located ten thousand meters beneath the sea.

Coating, a skill related to sailing, is one of the few that Seven, as a pirate, has not mastered.

He simply could not believe that merely coating a ship’s hull could allow it to dive ten thousand meters underwater—more powerful than a submarine—and it defied all physical logic.

How could one learn something they fundamentally disbelieved?

When Seven sensed through Observation Haki that an island lay far ahead, the torrential rain suddenly stopped.

Those who frequently sail the Grand Line know that when the unpredictable weather suddenly stabilizes, it is often a sign of approaching an island.

Seven immediately increased the current input, and the Donghaidihuanghao surged forward at five times its speed.

About ten minutes later, two enormous mysterious animal skulls appeared in his line of sight.

Little Garden

The body sizes of creatures in the pirate world—

From the elephant lord, whose back bears Zou Island, standing thirty-five thousand meters tall and twenty thousand meters long, to super-sized sea kings exceeding five thousand meters in length, down to the tiny human-sized inhabitants.

It has pushed species diversity to its extreme.

Even among humans alone, there coexist dwarfs under two meters and giants reaching eight point eight meters.

The tallest member of the Morning Star Pirates is the nearly seven-meter-tall Bear; next is Seven, whose Lunarian bloodline has pushed his height beyond 2.71 meters.

Then comes Tenghu at 2.7 meters.

Mihawk, trapped at 1.98 meters for two years.

Finally, Jin Ni, who shares Luffy’s height.

Finding a calm shore to anchor, Seven called all crew members ashore, treating it as their final group activity before bidding farewell to Robin.

The reason for coming to Little Garden was first for the former Giant Pirates captains, Green Demon Tongli and Red Demon Brogy.

These two giants, each possessing top-tier combat ability in Elbaf, have developed through nearly a century of battle an unmatched synergy, making their combined technique, Ba Guo, capable of strategic-level destruction.

Eighty years ago, their bounties exceeded one hundred million.

Twenty-two years later, their combined bounty reached 1.8 billion—solidly on the level of Emperor’s Subordinates.

Such formidable combat power—even if they cannot be invited aboard now—it’s still good to get familiar with them early, and who knows what the future holds?

Second, it was for the dinosaur pet.

Pets, like the lucky charm Ying Ying for Qiangzhe , are considered auspicious mascots in the pirate world—

Take a simple example.

The Straw Hat Pirates have the reindeer Chopper, the Red-Haired Pirates have the monkey Monta, the Blackbeard Pirates have the horse Zhuangzhuang, and even after becoming Emperors, they still thrive.

Meanwhile, all other Emperor-level pirate crews without pets—such as the Beasts Pirates, Big Mom Pirates, Whitebeard Pirates—have all been defeated without exception.

Whether the Cross Guild has a pet doesn’t matter; having Buggy is enough.

In short, all who have pets remain firmly among the Four Emperors; all without them have been eliminated.

Regardless of whether this theory is reasonable, Seven still chose to keep a pet as a lucky mascot.

As for what Devil Fruit to feed the dinosaur?

Vegapunk’s replicated Dragon-Dragon Fruit, based on the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Beast Type, Blue Dragon Form, would be perfect.

A pink dinosaur—very promising.

After securing Hive Island, when heading to Elbaf, he could conveniently stop by Egghead Island to retrieve the Dragon-Dragon Fruit and feed it to Morning Star Pirates’ little Kaido.

As they marched through the jungle, Seven had already named his future dinosaur pet.

The one who eats the Blue Dragon Form? Cute-Duo.

The one who eats the Dragon-Dragon Fruit? Duo-Kuai.

“Mihawk, keep an eye out for a T-Rex—pick a strong, interesting one.”

Mihawk nodded slightly, silently pondering whether he should also keep a pet. If Barzab Seven keeps a T-Rex, what should he keep?

Tiger? Lion? Baboon?

Tigers and lions are majestic, but baboons can wield weapons—if he trained a troop of baboon swordsmen, that might be quite impressive too.

A faint smile curled at Mihawk’s lips.

As the saying goes, those who associate with the virtuous become virtuous, those who associate with the wicked become wicked—this was exactly the case; after spending time with Seven, Mihawk had unconsciously grown more cunning.

Not only that, even the honest Tenghu sometimes joked with the crew.

The only ones untouched by Seven’s influence were Bear, who carried Jin Ni and Robin on his shoulders—Bear was simply too gentle.

Roar～

A long, coarse, primal roar of a prehistoric beast echoed from the jungle ahead; Seven’s eyes lit up with delight.

“Mihawk, Bear, I’ll go check it out first.”

With a crackling surge of electricity, Seven instantly arrived at the source of the sound—

There stood a giant over twenty meters tall, wearing a metal-faced helmet, with a long beard, wielding a massive longsword at his waist, a round shield in his left hand, and a Triceratops gripped in his right.

Sensing Seven’s arrival, the giant crouched down to examine the tiny figure before him.

“White-haired kid, got any alcohol?”

Tongli had stayed on the island for eighty years; food was plentiful, but good liquor was scarce, leaving him deeply melancholy.

He raised the Triceratops he held. “I’ll treat you to meat.”

Seven took a wine barrel from his system space—taller than himself—brewed during idle moments aboard ship.

“Last barrel. Drink it sparingly.”

Tongli snapped the Triceratops’s neck with a crunch, tossed it on the ground, and greedily seized the barrel, gulping it down in one long swallow.

“Excellent wine, friend. Got more?”

Seven spread his hands.

“I said it was the last barrel.”

“But if you’re willing to come with me, you’ll have endless supplies of this kind of fine wine…”