Kuroba stood beside the ship’s railing, looking down at the chubby boy who had been beaten until his face was swollen and bruised.
A thought quietly formed in his mind.
“I need to cultivate people of my own aboard the Great Shark too. This little fatty might actually be useful.”
The corner of Kuroba’s mouth lifted into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
He descended from the raised structure of the ship and crossed the broad deck toward the pirates who were still berating the newcomers.
“That’s enough. Stop beating him for now.”
His voice was low and calm.
“Take the rest of the newcomers below deck and get them settled. Leave this chubby kid here.”
The pirates who had been preparing to continue the beating immediately changed their attitudes.
Their vicious expressions vanished, replaced by respectful obedience.
“Yes, Lord Kuroba!”
They called over several ordinary sailors and quickly escorted the rest of the newcomers into the cabins.
The chubby boy, still groaning on the deck, noticed the sudden change in atmosphere.
He painfully pushed himself upright with both hands.
His round stomach wobbled comically with the effort.
When he looked at Kuroba, uncertainty and fear flashed through his eyes.
“Um…”
He hesitated.
“Are you the boss of this ship?”
Whatever arrogance he had possessed before the beating was nowhere to be seen.
Now his voice carried an unmistakably ingratiating tone.
What the boy didn’t know was that although Kuroba was only sixteen, he had already survived multiple brushes with death.
There was a sharpness to him that couldn’t be faked.
That alone was more than enough to intimidate a pampered young master who had never truly experienced danger before.
“What’s your name?” Kuroba asked.
The boy lifted his head and forced a flattering smile onto his chubby face.
“Hoshino Yumi.”
…
Three days passed.
The newest batch of recruits had already begun working.
Because the Great Shark was still badly understaffed, every newcomer was assigned a messy assortment of exhausting duties.
They suffered terribly.
But whenever they remembered the recruit who had been thrown directly into the sea to feed the fish for slacking off, they couldn’t help shuddering.
So they gritted their teeth and kept working.
After all, none of them wanted to become the next person thrown overboard.
Inside the dining hall, Kuroba stared at Hoshino Yumi as the boy devoured plate after plate of food.
“Are you absolutely sure this kid is only twelve?”
Kuroba looked toward the pirate responsible for keeping track of the new recruits.
The pirate looked ready to cry as he stared at the mountain of empty plates.
Kuroba glanced at the grease around Yumi’s mouth.
Another entire plate of fried noodles disappeared into the boy’s stomach.
“This guy eats as much as seven or eight grown men by himself.”
Yumi completely ignored their strange looks.
He raised his hand again.
“Chef! Another plate of pasta!”
Kuroba’s eye twitched.
“All right. From now on, follow me and handle errands. As long as you’re working for me, no one aboard this ship will bully you.”
Yumi rubbed his round belly, smiling contentedly.
Behind that satisfied expression, however, his mind was racing.
“If I don’t know what’s good for me, they’ll probably send me straight back to hard labor.”
He remembered how utterly wrecked his body had felt during his first few days aboard the ship.
He had absolutely no desire to experience that again.
Just as Kuroba was about to leave the dining hall, Yumi finally spoke.
“Boss, I’m from the Hoshino family. My family is one of the investors behind the Battle Frontier.”
Kuroba kept walking as though the information meant nothing.
“The Battle Frontier? You mean the one that’s become popular across several regions recently?”
His expression didn’t change, but inwardly he was surprised.
He had already guessed that Yumi came from a powerful family.
He hadn’t expected the background to be this significant.
“Then how did you end up being sold all the way out here?”
Kuroba stopped and looked back with genuine curiosity.
“There was a factional struggle inside the Battle Frontier.”
Yumi lowered his voice mysteriously, although a trace of loneliness appeared in his eyes.
“Our branch of the family was abandoned as a sacrifice. You could basically say we were exiled.”
Kuroba was speechless.
“Wherever there are people, there are factions. And wherever there are factions, there’s fighting.”
He looked at the boy with a trace of pity, but patiently allowed him to continue.
“Boss!”
Yumi suddenly straightened.
“I’ll recognize you as my boss! Just give me food and a place on this ship. I’ll follow your orders from now on!”
Kuroba paused.
He turned and looked at the miserable-looking chubby boy.
“I suppose taking him in wouldn’t hurt.”
Yumi could serve as Kuroba’s representative among the ordinary pirates.
And the boy’s connection to the Hoshino family…
That could become a casually planted chess piece.
Perhaps one day, it would prove useful.
From that day onward, the pirates aboard the Great Shark frequently saw a chubby boy following Kuroba around.
Whether it involved dealing with people, running errands, or selling Kuroba’s Pokéblocks, Hoshino Yumi gradually became the person who handled matters on Kuroba’s behalf.
And Yumi, once nothing more than a bullied newcomer, suddenly became someone aboard the Great Shark whom ordinary pirates could no longer casually offend.
…
“Cor! Cor!”
Corphish excitedly waved its sharp pincers.
Its eyes remained intensely focused.
One bubble after another drifted through the air.
Snap!
Snap!
Snap!
Every time Corphish swung its pincers, it caught one of the floating bubbles with remarkable precision and crushed it before it could touch the ground.
For Corphish, the exercise was both a game and part of its daily training.
As a Corphish, its pincers were naturally its proudest weapons.
Kuroba understood that well.
That was precisely why he had designed this exercise—to help Corphish gain finer control over its pincers while improving its reactions and accuracy.
Repeated practice had already produced obvious results.
“Excellent, Corphish! More than twenty bubbles, and you popped every single one before any of them hit the deck!”
Kuroba couldn’t help praising it.
He casually tossed over a stamina-restoring Pokéblock as a reward.
Corphish’s eyes immediately locked onto it.
Its pincer snapped out.
Caught.
Without the slightest hesitation, Corphish tossed the Pokéblock into its mouth and chewed happily.
Kuroba burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! When it comes to catching food, you really never miss.”
Corphish looked utterly satisfied with itself.
Kuroba was equally pleased with its progress.
These days, he had handed nearly all the tedious errands that required running around the ship to Hoshino Yumi.
That freed up a considerable amount of his own time.
Kuroba spent those extra hours studying the books and manuals he had accumulated, deepening his knowledge as a Pokémon Breeder, and improving his proficiency at producing Pokéblocks.
Day after day, his knowledge, skills, influence, and Pokémon were all advancing at remarkable speed.
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