Chapter 12: Chapter 11: Syrup Village
Hmm... looks like Usopp’s EXP event ends here.
But don’t be sad, Usopp!!
I’ll definitely make you strong!!
Strong Usopp! Great Usopp!!!
"You idiot! How am I supposed to know if you just say north without thinking?!"
You’re the idiot, Luffy.
"Oh, really? And who was it that ran off first?"
"I got flung out there by accident!"
Luffy was being Luffy.
While we were bickering among ourselves, Jango tried to put the whole group under hypnosis.
"Now, look at this ring. One, two, Jango—and you will become stronger.
Your wounds will heal, and you’ll become insanely strong!!"
Uh... that kind of sounds like something a pastor who used to come around would say....
Still, waiting for Jango’s hypnosis would be way too frustrating, so I used [Shave] and moved in front of him.
"Eek!!"
"Luffy’s way too vulnerable to hypnosis, so let’s not do that."
I snatched away the ring Jango used for hypnosis.
"Zoro!"
"What...."
"Time to earn your keep, right?"
"Heh. Right."
Zoro stepped forward with a grin.
"You all take a rest."
"You dare look down on us?"
"Cat Brothers, get down there!!"
Two guys came down from the pirate ship: one fat, the other a hunchback.
Then, against the hunchback who pretended to be weak and charged in awkwardly,
Zoro let his guard down and had two of his swords stolen.
‘Disappointed in you, Zoro....’
"That guy wasn’t weak!"
"Zoro’s swords...."
The Weakest Duo worked hard on their reaction shots.
"Uh... they’re gone!!"
Too late, Zoro....
The hunchback tossed Zoro’s swords down the slope.
"You should be more careful with other people’s belongings!!"
Only now getting serious, Zoro slashed at the hunchback’s stomach, but
the blade did not reach the belly hidden by his deformed body and only cut his clothes.
Zoro struggled against the two of them with just one sword.
"Zoro!! You should be able to handle this much even with one sword!! Are you going to run away if you don’t have all three?"
"Shut up!!!"
"[Lion Song]!"
Zoro took care of those two ugly pervert cats.
"Zoro, everything else is fine, but can’t you win without getting hurt?"
"Tch!"
"Ah... no, there was a reason for this....!"
Jango suddenly began making excuses with a frightened expression.
"It’s been quite a while since dawn, and I was wondering why the plan was running a little late...."
"What is the meaning of this?!"
"To think you were playing around with such milk-scented little brats.
The Black Cat Pirates have really fallen off, haven’t they, Jango?"
"Ugh~ That name sucks...."
"!!!!"
Luffy cut into Captain Kuro’s words.
"...."
"Uh... he’s pretending he didn’t hear that."
"Shishishit! His face turned red!"
"Jango.... I’ll give you five minutes. If you cannot clean this place up in five minutes, I’ll kill every last one of you!"
Once he finished speaking, Kuro put on gloves fitted with long blades from his bag.
"Ugh... ugly."
Kuro continued ignoring what Luffy and I said.
"Klahadore, stop!!"
"Kaya, how did you—?!"
"Isn’t that the woman from the mansion? She’s the final objective, right?"
Kaya appeared, panting for breath, while Usopp and Jango stared in shock.
"How surprising. How did you get here, Miss...?"
"Merry told me everything."
"That man was alive? I thought I had definitely killed him."
"I’m sorry, Usopp. I didn’t believe you...."
"That doesn’t matter! Why did you come here? I clearly told you to run away!"
"You’re fighting, Usopp, even though we didn’t believe you."
Hmm... wasn’t it natural not to believe him...? That was because Usopp....
"Klahadore, if it’s my wealth you want, I’ll give you all of it. So please leave this place!"
"No. I do desire your wealth, but I also desire peace."
"I want pirates to invade, leave me your inheritance after you die, and then live in this village with your wealth without appearing to be a pirate.
Everything I have done to accommodate you, everything I endured.... It was all for today, the day I kill you."
"You bastard!!"
Enraged by Kuro’s words, Usopp rushed forward.
"Usopp, come to think of it, you still owe me one...."
"You dare hit me?"
As Kuro dodged Usopp’s attack and moved to strike back—
"Gum-Gum Pistol!"
"Captain Kuro got sent flying!!"
"If you hate being hit that much... I’ll hit you about a hundred times."
"...."
Kuro lay spread-eagled on the ground, then rose very slowly.
"That surprised me a little.... So you’re a Devil Fruit user."
"Yeah. I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit. I’m a rubber man."
"Nami, what do you think of someone who gets beaten up like that and still tries to look cool?"
I said it loudly enough for Kuro to hear.
"...."
"He’s pretending not to hear it! He’s gritting his teeth and pretending not to hear it!!"
Usopp delivered the finishing blow.
"Grit... I’ll kill every last one of you...."
Kuro said it as he sank into a loose, drooping stance.
"No, that stance can’t be!!"
"It’s [Shakushi]!"
"He’s about to use [Shakushi]!"
"C-Captain, please at least spare our lives!!"
"[Shakushi]!"
Kuro’s attack began indiscriminately, unable to distinguish friend from foe.
"Captain Kuro, please stop!!"
"It’s no use! This is an indiscriminate attack caused by incredible acceleration!!
He moves so fast that even he doesn’t know what he’s cutting!!"
Thank you, Speedwagon!!
"Save us!!"
He can’t even tell friend from foe at that pathetic speed? What a scrub♡
"Luffy, want me to do it?"
"...What the hell do you think your crewmates are for?!"
Rather than answer me, Luffy stepped forward and knocked down Kuro, who had been moving at a fairly high speed.
But Kuro quickly got back up.
"You should have quietly accepted your shower of blades...."
"Look at those poor fools, left half-dead because of you."
"No, isn’t it the fault of the guys who can’t even dodge something that slow?"
"...."
"...."
"...."
"...."
Hmm... apparently not.
"Luffy, I’m hungry. Let’s finish this quickly. The kids need to go home too."
Feeling awkward, I spoke to Luffy.
Honestly, if I’d ended it in one hit, I wouldn’t have to deal with these looks!
If I did it, it’d be one hit!!
"Shishishit! Okay!"
Kuro dropped back into his loose stance to use [Shakushi] again, but
hungry Luffy gave him no chance.
"Gum-Gum Gatling!!!"
Kuro was beaten senseless by Luffy’s attack and collapsed.
"He beat him... Captain Kuro, who single-handedly wiped out an entire Marine ship...."
"Who the hell is that guy?!"
"Monkey D. Luffy!! I’m the man who’ll become the King of the Pirates!!"
"All right, now we clean up and take the treasure too, right?"
I absorbed the defeated Kuro, the Cat Brothers, and Jango, turning them into old men.
‘Guys at this level are still dangerous to the villagers.’
I absorbed three of them this time, but I didn’t feel that same energy as before.
Still, compared to the people I’d met so far, they had reasonably strong energy, so there was something satisfying about absorbing them.
I considered absorbing the remaining pirates too, but I was getting dangerously close to my daily absorption limit, so I decided not to.
Anyway, now that I had grown stronger, the stronger the person I absorbed, the stronger my Fruit ability became.
Things like my physical abilities and how much I could absorb at once.
They were still East Blue scrubs, so it didn’t feel like I was getting much stronger, but....
What I confirmed through this fight was that
Luffy was definitely stronger than at this point in the original story, and I should focus on power-leveling Zoro and Usopp.
Ah, it’s fun to power-level them while taking down bosses too.
"Nami, let’s go get the treasure!"
I made wings, lightly held Nami in my arms, and flew to the pirate ship.
Maybe she was excited at the thought of looting treasure, because Nami’s face turned a little red.
I should work hard to help her loot it all.
Kaya’s side decided to deal with the thoroughly weakened pirates and hand them over to the Marines.
And as Usopp wished, we decided to keep it a secret from the villagers.
I asked Nami whether we should keep the huge pirate ship,
and she called me an idiot.
She said a large ship needed too many people to operate.
Damn....
It looked too worn-out to find a buyer if we sold it, but
Kaya bought it from us instead.
Then, while we were eating at the restaurant—
"There you are."
"Oh! Miss."
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yes, I feel much better thanks to Usopp.... And now, I need to stand on my own feet."
"More importantly, you said you needed a ship, didn’t you?"
"Oh!! You’re going to give us one?"
At last, we met the Going Merry.
"A caravel!"
Nami was delighted.
Was this what it felt like to drive a BMW 3 Series after only riding around in a domestic compact car?
While Nami was listening to Kaya’s butler explain the ship,
"Aaaah, stop me!!"
Usopp came rolling down the slope with an absurdly huge bag.
"What’s with that guy making such a fuss?"
"Let’s stop him first. He’s about to crash head-on into the ship."
Zoro and Luffy each stuck out a foot and stopped Usopp.
"Th-Thank you."
‘Usopp is tougher than I thought! I can toss him around more than I thought.’
"So you really are going out to sea, Usopp...."
"Yeah. I’m leaving quickly before I change my mind. Don’t try to stop me."
"I won’t stop you. I knew you would. Still, it feels a little lonely."
"The next time I return to the village, I’ll tell you adventure stories even more unbelievable than my lies."
Usopp said it with a cool smile, despite being Usopp.
"Yeah. I’ll look forward to it."
Kaya smiled back at him.
"You guys stay healthy too. We’ll meet again somewhere, won’t we?"
"Why??"
Luffy answered Usopp’s words.
"What do you mean, why? Don’t you have any sentimentality....? We’re pirates together now, so someday we’ll meet on the sea...."
"Quit talking nonsense and get on already."
Zoro spoke to Usopp.
"We’re already a team."
"Wow, I guess we were the only ones who thought that. That’s kind of hurtful."
I followed up on Luffy’s words.
"...!!!! Of course I’ll be the captain!!"
"Don’t be ridiculous!! I’m the captain!"
"To our new ship and crewmate!!"
"Cheers!!"
Laugh while you can, Usopp.. ^^
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