They must have left someone in Wano Country to defend it—there's no need to even guess that—but this is the best opportunity.
It's extremely rare for almost all top-level forces to be mobilized, and even the Five Elders don't know when they'll get another chance like this.
Orders were being sent out from Mariejois to the outside world one after another, and Red Hair, who had been under suspicion by the Five Elders, also began moving not long ago.
Among pirates, Shanks was the one who least wanted to see a war like the Summit War, so when Ace set out, he tried to persuade Whitebeard to bring Ace back—but he failed.
Even after receiving news of the Summit War, he still wanted to contain the scale of the conflict, preventing too many forces from getting involved.
Among the many forces on the seas, the one most likely to interfere in this war was Kaido. That's why Red Hair hoped to persuade Kaido to stand down.
But right now, Kaido had more than enough high-ranking officers under him—enough for him to split his forces into three to carry out his plans. Even if Shanks wanted to block him, he couldn't.
There were too many possible routes from Wano Country to Marine Headquarters; Shanks simply couldn't keep track of Kaido. All he could do was try his luck at the border where Kaido's and Whitebeard's territories met.
If Kaido wanted to attack Whitebeard's territory, there was no way around that path.
Red Hair had tried to contact Kaido by Den Den Mushi, but Kaido hung up on him right after he said one sentence. Trying to persuade Kaido not to interfere in this war was pure wishful thinking.
While Shanks was making his arrangements, Olga and Jack had already successfully met up.
"Sister Olga, are you really going through with this?"
As long as someone was stronger than Jack, he'd follow their lead. Right now, if Olga charged head-on, she definitely wasn't a match for Jack. But if the two really fought, Jack probably wouldn't even be able to lay a finger on her.
Illusion-based abilities were very unfriendly to a melee tank like him. However, defeating Jack wasn't easy either—after all, his skin was too thick now.
"Yeah. You take some people and circle around from the side. I'll go ahead and scout the way. If someone really tries to stop us, I'll handle it."
Marines wouldn't interfere in something like this. The only ones capable of interfering with the Beasts Pirates' movements were Red Hair and Charlotte Linlin.
If it were Charlotte Linlin, they would definitely choose to temporarily team up and first divide Whitebeard's territory—so there was nothing to worry about in that case.
The only one who would truly try to stop them was Shanks. After all, only Red Hair himself knew what he was really thinking.
To avoid delaying the team's progress, Olga once again split up her forces.
"Red Hair is... a pirate on par with Boss Kaido. Sister Olga, are you sure you can handle this alone?"
"Relax, relax, it's just Red Hair. My record against him is 2:0, you know. Even when he brought his little buddies along, they weren't a match for me."
Among the senior officers of the Beasts Pirates, the most impressive record doesn't belong to Queen, who escaped from Akainu, nor King, who fought against Momousagi and others in battle—but rather Olga, the woman who once toyed with one of the Four Emperors, Shanks, not just once, but twice.
This wasn't a lie, but an objective fact. It's just that it happened a long time ago.
Still, no matter what, it was something worth boasting about.
To maintain that glorious record, she had never clashed with Red Hair again. As long as they didn't fight, she'd always be up 2:0.
"Besides, it's not like I plan to fight him. If he shows up here, that means he doesn't have time to stop Captain Kaido. At that point, it's fine to just tell him where Captain Kaido went—Captain Kaido wouldn't mind having one more person on the battlefield anyway.
All you need to do is hurry up and get around him."
Under Olga's command, the Shadow Fox Ship moved ahead first, while Jack followed behind for now, ready to decide based on the situation whether to engage directly or take a detour.
They had now reached the border of the sea area, but the Shadow Fox Ship had already come to a stop. The only thing moving forward now was the illusion.
...
"Boss! It's here—it's Kaido's Beasts Pirates flagship, and Kaido is on it too!"
Simple Observation Haki was useless against Olga's illusions these days. Only special types of Observation Haki, like Roger's or Otohime's, which could capture a target's inner voice, could detect anomalies in the illusion.
But predictive types wouldn't work. Olga's illusions were special—they had physical presence. Even if someone foresaw a few dozen minutes into the future, the illusions would still be there, hovering on the sea.
And even if Observation Haki had been trained to the level of foreseeing the future, it still couldn't foresee that far ahead. So trying to distinguish illusion from reality through prediction was unrealistic.
Either you had an ability that specifically countered hers, or you used overwhelming firepower for indiscriminate attacks to find Olga's main body—otherwise, breaking her illusions would be incredibly difficult.
Whether it was seen with the naked eye or sensed with Haki, what appeared before them was a perfectly real fleet personally led by Kaido.
...
"Kaido, go back. Joining this battle won't do you any good. Isn't your territory big enough already?"
Shanks' powerful voice reached Olga's ears, but she didn't respond—she simply manipulated Kaido's illusion to make a gesture.
If she responded, then she would have to apply her ability directly to Red Hair, in order to deceive his hearing.
The illusions she created couldn't be seen through by ordinary Observation Haki, but it was different when her ability had to act directly on someone else. If she did that, Red Hair would quickly notice something was off. So she said nothing, and simply continued stalling for time.
At first, Shanks didn't find it unusual. The illusionary Kaido's expression was vivid, and his drinking motions matched Red Hair's understanding of him.
But Kaido kept drinking without giving any response, and that made Shanks feel something was wrong. Based on Kaido's personality, he'd normally just attack with his kanabo right away.
"Boss, something's off..."
"It does seem off. Then let's try saying hello in a different way."
After sensing a hint of abnormality, he released a wave of Conqueror's Haki toward the illusion. Under the pressure of this force, Kaido's figure began to blur, and the Beasts Pirates' flagship transformed into a shabby old sailboat. The worn-out railings shattered directly under Shanks' Haki.
"Boss, it's fake!"
"She actually fooled all of us... So where's the real Kaido?"
"Cough cough! Hey, hey, you should be able to hear this, right? Just a friendly reminder—Captain Kaido should have already reached Marineford by now."
From the battered wooden boat, a phonograph that had been set up in advance played Olga's voice. She had never intended to show herself in front of Shanks—she was simply controlling her illusion from the maximum safe distance.
"And by the way, let me help jog your memory—you and Red Nose lost to me twice. But since you can hear this recording, it means you discovered the problem this time—so let's call it a draw~"
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