"You two! What do you think you're doing?!"
The voice came from a young man strutting toward them, wearing:
garish yellow mushroom-cut hair,
a chin shaped like a butt,
a purple flashy suit,
gold necklaces and rings…
A walking advertisement for brainless rich brat.
No—more like a cheap, gaudy wannabe tyrant.
Behind him followed two Marines acting like his personal bodyguards.
Helmeppo.
The reason Zoro was tied here in the first place.
"You two! Are you trying to release this criminal?!" Helmeppo shouted. "Do you have a problem with my decision?!"
He had already planned to secretly execute Zoro after humiliating him for a while.
After all, his father—Captain Morgan—ran Marine Branch 153. Helmeppo had inherited nothing but arrogance and stupidity.
But to Adrian?
This clown wasn't worth a glance.
"Grimmjow," Adrian said casually, "they're an eyesore."
Just one line.
Grimmjow instantly understood.
"You dared to annoy the Boss? You're all guilty of death."
His eyes turned icy.
Helmeppo froze—
not at the killing intent, but at something else.
"You… you… what's that hole in your stomach?!"
He stared directly at Grimmjow's hollow hole, stunned into idiocy.
Even Zoro glanced over, now truly noticing Grimmjow's unnatural appearance.
But before bewilderment could turn into words—
Grimmjow vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared beside Helmeppo and the two Marines.
And their heads fell cleanly from their necks.
Blood sprayed violently—
yet not a drop touched Grimmjow.
Because the instant he struck,
he returned to Adrian's side.
As if he had never moved at all.
"Well done," Adrian praised.
Grimmjow's lips curled upward uncontrollably—
happier from a single compliment than an AK magazine could suppress.
Zoro, however, was stunned.
"What… what did he do…?!"
His mind couldn't comprehend the speed.
He hadn't even seen the attack.
Only the result:
Decapitation in a single heartbeat.
Grimmjow's power was overwhelming.
Beyond anything Zoro could resist in his current state.
"You two should leave," Zoro rasped.
"That mushroom-head's father is the captain here. He won't let this go. You killed him—he'll come for you."
"That would be ideal," Adrian replied cheerfully.
Another bandit operation delivered to his doorstep.
"Grimmjow, take him."
"With pleasure."
Grimmjow slashed cleanly through the bottom half of the execution rack and lifted the entire structure—with Zoro still bound tightly to it.
Why waste time tying him up again?
Bound to the rack and carried like luggage, Zoro had no chance to escape.
Even if he wanted to run—
Against Grimmjow?
He'd be dead before he took three steps.
Zoro understood that.
He didn't struggle.
He surrendered quietly.
Because resisting would only get him killed.
And so—
Roronoa Zoro, the Pirate Hunter, was successfully kidnapped.
…
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