"I'm not a pirate. At most, I'm a pirate hunter."
Kuina didn't react much. Ever since she set out to sea, she'd often run into people who saw a lone girl traveling and thought they could get away with doing something nasty.
They all got beaten, then dragged to the Marines so she could collect the bounties.
Over time, outsiders naturally started calling her a pirate hunter.
But Zoro was different. He was a pirate, plain and simple.
"Is that a problem?"
The moment Tashigi heard that, she drew her sword, Shigure, and leveled it at Zoro.
"I'm a Marine!!!"
"???"
Zoro's expression changed immediately. Things suddenly felt… troublesome.
But Tashigi didn't give him time to hesitate. She swung at him without warning.
"I won't allow a famed blade like Underworld Crow to remain in the hands of a villain like you!!!"
"My dream is to reclaim every named sword from the hands of evil men all across the world!!!"
…
"Young people really are full of energy," Ozz said with a helpless smile.
He and Mihawk watched as the young man and young woman, who had been getting along just a second ago, instantly started fighting.
Back when Ozz was a kid, did he ever have this kind of flirty bickering?
Not really.
The women he met were either conquered with money or conquered with force. Very few could stand as equals and become genuine friends.
Then he glanced at Mihawk.
Mihawk was staring intently at their exchanged sword techniques, like he was watching children roughhouse.
Hah.
This one didn't need explaining. Unless a woman was a master swordsman, in Hawk Eyes' world there were only two things: swordsmanship and red wine.
…
"Execution platform… execution platform…"
While the others were each caught up in their own trouble, the Straw Hat Pirates' captain, Luffy, wandered around Loguetown like a street drifter, searching everywhere for the platform.
He walked and walked, and somehow ended up at a bar.
"Old man, do you know how to get to where the Pirate King was executed?"
"The Pirate King, huh…"
The elderly bartender raised his head at Luffy's question, studying him.
"Are you a pirate?"
"Yeah."
The old man smiled.
"I've run this bar for decades. I used to be very familiar with the Pirate King, Roger."
Even now he could remember it clearly. Roger often came here to drink, and they talked about all kinds of things.
"Roger… that guy had a will like iron."
In a daze, he looked at Luffy sitting there grinning so casually, and for a split second he almost saw Roger's shadow.
It shocked him.
They talked for a long time, mostly stories about Roger.
In the end, the old man clinked cups with Luffy.
"To the eternal Pirate King."
"To the eternal Pirate King!!!"
Not long after, Luffy left to continue his search for the execution platform.
And soon after that, a tall figure stepped into the bar.
Hearing someone enter again, the old man calmly wiped a glass and glanced over.
Then he froze, all composure gone.
"Y-you are…"
"Well… I heard Captain Roger used to frequent a bar back in his hometown. This must be the place."
Two men walked in, and cold sweat instantly drenched the old man's back.
As Roger's old friend, and someone who'd lived long enough to see too much, how could he not recognize them?
"Black Spear… and Hawk Eyes?!"
"Why are you here?!"
He called out their names on the spot.
Ozz didn't seem surprised. He simply sat down at the counter.
"Nothing special. Just came to see Captain Roger's hometown."
The old man fell silent for a moment.
"Roger…"
"Yeah. As his finest crewmate, you really should come and see it."
Twenty-three years ago, he'd met the young Ozz once. He'd always had a favorable impression of the man who gave Roger his final dignity.
"When Roger was young, he came here all the time to drink. He told me about his dreams and his will. He was a man worth admiring…"
Faced with Ozz, someone who knew Roger better than anyone, the old man spoke far more than he had with Luffy. There was more understanding here, more shared context.
He remembered Roger's voice and the way he looked.
"Come to think of it, I kept up with the Roger Pirates back then. I really thought you'd inherit his will and become the Pirate King."
"You were the most famous, the biggest figure among his crew."
The old man chatted and laughed with Ozz.
He clearly wasn't like ordinary people. He actually had a fondness for pirates.
Mihawk simply drank in silence, listening to the two talk.
Then another figure entered the bar.
Ozz and Mihawk didn't react, but the old man turned sharply.
When he saw who it was, his face darkened. He clearly had no love for Marines.
"Marine, get out!!!"
Smoker acted like he couldn't hear. He walked straight to the counter and sat down not far from Ozz.
He stared at Ozz with a kind of grim resolve in his eyes.
"Ozz!! Why would a man like you come to a small place like East Blue?!"
Strictly speaking, as a Marine, he should have addressed him as Saint Ozz. Even if Ozz no longer cared about the World Government, even if their relationship was bad, even if Ozz was secretly messing around with Nika experiments.
On the surface, the Marines were supposed to show respect to a Celestial Dragon.
But Smoker was Smoker, a certified Marine troublemaker.
He'd known Ozz since he was young. He didn't carry that blind reverence other Marines had for Celestial Dragons.
To him, Ozz was closer to a pirate than anything else.
Ozz didn't care. He'd long since lost any attachment to "status." If anything, he found Smoker interesting.
The corner of his mouth lifted.
"If I said I came here to completely destroy this place, the town where Captain Roger departed… would you believe me?"
"Huh?!!!"
Smoker shot to his feet, cold sweat erupting all over him.
He was part of the younger generation. Back when Ozz ruled the seas, Smoker had still been just a boy.
He understood Ozz was terrifying, but he didn't fully grasp the man's style. Still, he'd heard enough rumors.
Power to destroy the world. One man wiping out half of Marine Headquarters.
If a monster like that went wild in Loguetown, then the people on this island would…
Tch.
Smoker's body dissolved into smoke. He gripped his Seastone weapon and moved to act.
But in the next instant,
A gorgeous cross-shaped black blade slid up to his throat.
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The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
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