East Blue, Somewhere at Sea, Aboard the Straw Hat Pirates' Ship.
"Yeehaw!"
Early in the morning, taking advantage of the free time and good weather, Tom was fishing from the ship. His method, however, was quite unusual.
Using the line launcher on his left wrist, Tom shot a line that stuck to the ship's railing, allowing him to swing around the vessel. The launcher on his right wrist fired out a large fishing net. As he swung rapidly outside the ship, he used the net in his right hand to catch fish.
Over ten days had passed in the blink of an eye since they left Cocoyashi Village. Everything had been calm and uneventful. Tom's line launcher had also successfully undergone Usopp's final modifications the previous night. It could now smoothly launch and then retrieve the fishing net back into the launcher.
Usopp had simply added a small mechanism to the launcher's muzzle that could open and close tightly. When retrieving the large net, opening this mechanism would cinch the net outside the muzzle shut, maximally isolating it from the air. This caused the net, made of Transform metal, to rapidly shrink and be drawn back into the launcher.
While Tom was fishing, Nami was buying a newspaper from a News Coo. She complained to the newspaper-selling bird quite unhappily, saying she wouldn't buy it next time if the price went up again.
"What's there to complain about with a newspaper price hike?"
Usopp, sitting on the deck with his back to Nami, was intently experimenting with a new type of ammunition.
"If you have to buy a newspaper to read every day, that's a significant expense," Nami said.
Her words puzzled Usopp. "Don't you already not have to save money for your village anymore? Why are you still being so stingy?"
"What stupid talk. It's because that's over that I need to earn money for myself even more," Nami retorted to Usopp. Standing by the ship's side, she turned around, spread her arms to embrace the sea breeze, closed her eyes contentedly, and said with a smile, "I refuse to be some poor pirate who doesn't even have money to dress up nicely."
But just as Nami finished speaking, Tom, fishing outside the ship, happened to swing past her on his line. He casually tossed his freshly caught fish onto the deck.
Thus, Nami, who had just been fantasizing about her future wealth, was sprayed with seawater and pelted with stinky fish.
This fully enlightened her to the gap between idealism and reality while also making her face darken. "TOMMMMMMMMM!" she roared.
Usopp was startled by Nami's ear-splitting roar, nearly causing his experiment to fail. "Quiet! I'm developing a new special attack, the Mexico Chili Star!" he hurriedly shouted to stop her. "When this hits an enemy's eyes, it'll be unbearably spicy…"
Usopp was concentrating intently on adjusting the Mexico Chili Star in his hand when Luffy suddenly crashed into him. The impact sent the chili flying from Usopp's hand right into his own eyes.
Usopp's eyes then shot out flames (figuratively), and he ran around the deck screaming.
Running and running, Usopp stepped on the fish Tom had earlier thrown on the deck. His feet slipped, and his body uncontrollably slammed into the railing.
Splash!
Usopp, having hit the railing, tragically fell into the sea.
Luffy, who had been kicked flying toward Usopp by Sanji for trying to steal Nami's oranges, didn't pay much mind. Seeing so many fish flopping around on the deck, his attention immediately shifted to how to eat them. He didn't even notice what had happened to Usopp behind him.
"This is Nami-san's orange grove. I won't let anyone touch it," Sanji declared loyally, guarding the orange tree, his eyes turning into hearts. "Nami-san, my protective love is flawless."
Currently focused solely on following Nami's orders, Sanji had eyes only for Nami and no one else. Consequently, he didn't see Usopp fall into the sea either.
Nami, holding a newspaper in one hand and clenching her other fist, was solely focused on giving Tom a good thrashing. She didn't clearly hear what Sanji was saying. Because she was facing the sea, she also didn't realize Usopp had fallen overboard, mistaking the splash for the sound of Tom fishing.
Zoro, resting on the other side, couldn't see the bow's situation due to the obstructed view. He could only see Sanji standing above. He remarked that Sanji was very obedient to Nami, his tone somewhat scornful of Sanji's actions, completely unaware of Usopp's predicament.
As for Tom, he had already swung to the other side of the ship on his line to fish and was even less likely to know what had happened to Usopp.
It was pitiful that such a large, living person could disappear from the ship without a single soul noticing. It must be said, sailing is a very dangerous business.
By the time everyone on board realized Usopp was missing, he had nearly been eaten by a large shark.
When Usopp was being rescued, Tom also unfortunately fell into the sea.
Just as Tom tried to reel in his net to return to the ship, the launcher on his left wrist didn't shoot out a line, but a small, budding flower. He was dumbfounded on the spot. Three times in a row, the launcher shot out little flowers.
The little flower drifted in the wind as Tom's body plummeted. He frantically tried the launcher on his right wrist, only to nearly turn to stone from shock. What it shot out was confetti.
Looking at the confetti filling the air, Tom had the illusion of being at some grand banquet or celebration. Then he plunged headfirst into the sea.
After Zoro hauled Tom back onto the ship, he dumped him next to Usopp in front of their quarters.
"Weren't you fishing? How do you still fall in the sea? So lame," Tom said.
"You're really an idiot, falling into the sea just by being on the ship," Usopp said.
Both soaking wet, they lay side by side, speaking to each other simultaneously.
"You bastard, still don't recognize your mistake?!" Tom and Usopp yelled, grabbing each other's necks and starting to argue.
"If you hadn't casually thrown fish on the deck, I wouldn't have fallen in! I wouldn't have had such a miserable morning!"
"If you hadn't put all that random junk in my launcher, how could I have ended up in such a state?!"
Arguing and arguing, Tom and Usopp began to brawl. This actually prevented Nami, who had originally wanted to give Tom a good beating, from getting a chance to intervene.
According to Usopp, adding the flowers and confetti to Tom's launcher was done with good intentions—to help liven up the atmosphere at future parties.
This made Tom feel incredibly exasperated. His launcher wasn't meant for such nonsense tinkering. Thankfully, this malfunction didn't happen during a fight, or Usopp would have gotten him killed for sure.
After beating each other black and blue, Tom and Usopp finally stopped. Seeing Tom's miserable state, Nami lost the desire to settle accounts with him. She sat leisurely in a deck chair and began reading the newspaper.
While helping Sanji gather the fish on deck, Luffy yelled for Sanji to hurry up and make food because he was hungry.
Sanji, meanwhile, was thinking about what delicious dishes he could make for Nami with these fresh fish. Having Tom responsible for fishing meant they could eat fresh fish daily. Tom's good haul this morning was quite satisfying to Sanji—at least their main meals for the day were secured.
Zoro approached Tom, intending to invite him for special training.
Just then, as Nami flipped through the newspaper in her deck chair, two sheets of paper slipped from between the pages and drifted down in front of Tom and the others.
"What's this?" asked Luffy, sitting on the ship's railing after gathering the fish, looking at the two papers on the deck.
After a moment of silence, everyone on the ship let out a scream. "WAAAAAAAAAH!"
Meanwhile, in a conference room at Marine Headquarters, a meeting was being held, attended by numerous Marine elites.
In the spacious conference room, no fewer than ten mid-to-low-level Marine leaders sat in rows on both sides, their faces serious as they listened intently to the person chairing the meeting.
"...They are no longer opponents that branch offices can handle. Before formally organizing as a pirate crew, starting from their defeat of Marine Branch Captain 'Axe-Hand' Morgan, their momentum has been skyrocketing ever since."
Marine Headquarters Commodore Brannew stood in the middle of the conference room, holding several bounty posters. He placed them one by one on the case board in the room. "'Clown' Buggy, bounty 15,000,000 Berries. 'Pirate Fleet Admiral' Don Krieg, bounty 17,000,000 Berries. 'Saw-Tooth' Arlong of the Fish-Man Pirates, bounty 20,000,000 Berries."
"In the East Blue, where the average bounty is 3,000,000, these are all great pirates exceeding 10,000,000. And they were defeated, every last one of them!"
Commodore Brannew slammed the bounty poster of a broadly, sunnily grinning Luffy onto the case board, covering Arlong's poster. "Although his first bounty is as high as 30,000,000 Berries—a special case worldwide—we believe this is entirely justified. In fact, I consider this amount not excessive!"
At this point, Brannew took out another bounty poster and slapped it onto the board. "This individual is a crew member of the Straw Hat Pirates. According to intelligence, he single-handedly wiped out Branch 16. Although the branch's senior officer survived, highly unusual circumstances were reported. Headquarters has currently decided to send someone to investigate."
"For pirates to actively attack Marines and completely destroy a branch office... even if it was a branch in the East Blue, known as the weakest sea, the East Blue is also a symbol of peace. Now that such evil individuals have appeared, they must be eradicated as soon as possible!"
Brannew pressed a hand on Tom's bounty poster. "He is not the captain. However, after deliberation, we unanimously concluded it is entirely necessary to set the bounty for this individual, who dared to provoke the Marines, at the same level as his captain."
"For a first bounty to match the captain's is, on a global scale, a special case among special cases."
Pointing at the posters of Luffy and Tom, Brannew said with a grave face, "Now, two pirates with 30,000,000 Berry bounties have appeared in the East Blue: Captain 'Straw Hat' Luffy, and one of his crew members, the fisherman. We are calling him 'Deadeye' Thomas Sin."
"A pirate crew with a total bounty of 60,000,000 Berries cannot be apprehended by the forces of a branch office. The power of Headquarters must be mobilized!"
"Weeds of evil like these should be strangled in the cradle, lest their power grow in the future!"
Commodore Brannew adjusted his black sunglasses, his expression solemn. "The above concludes the content of this meeting."
After the meeting, a very tall man adorned with numerous military medals walked to a railing. High up in the building, he looked down at the large plaza below, where Marines stood in neat, orderly rows. He addressed them with great authority.
"Any who wish to flee, leave immediately!"
"This place permits not a shred of weakness! It is the fortress of peace in this Age of Pirates!"
"The weakness of the citizens is no sin! Justice exists right here!"
"As long as evil forces exist on the seas, we Marines must exert our full power to eradicate it!"
"We will expel evil in the name of Absolute Justice!"
After the speech, the Marines in the plaza shouted in unison with great force, "SIR!!"
The cloaks on their backs, emblazoned with the large characters for "JUSTICE," fluttered in the wind.
While the atmosphere at Marine Headquarters was grave, the scene on the Straw Hats' ship was quite different.
"Look, we're wanted criminals! With a 30,000,000 Berry bounty!" Luffy said, holding his own bounty poster, scratching his head and laughing happily.
The other wanted man, Tom, was kneeling on the deck in utter despair, a gloomy aura spreading around him.
"What are you doing? Aren't you wanted now?" Zoro said to Tom, who was kneeling on the deck with his hands on the floor. "Your first bounty is the same as the captain's. I've never heard of anyone having the same bounty as their captain from the start. Just what did you do to get the Marines' attention so quickly?"
The day Tom went to the Marine branch to get Nami's money back, Zoro and the others had guessed some of it, but they hadn't imagined that Tom had ended up turning the entire Marine Branch 16 into ruins.
"I'm wanted?" Tom grabbed the nearby bounty poster, thrust it in front of Zoro, and kept poking at it with his finger, wailing, "Look closely! Does this look anything like my bounty poster?!"
Zoro glanced at the poster in Tom's hand. The first thing he saw wasn't Tom standing at the bow with his crimson pupils, but a very cute, close-up shot of a sheep's head, which took up at least fifty percent of the poster's image.
That's right. This sheep's head was the Going Merry's figurehead.
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T/N :
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