"Rum and meat…?"
Buggy’s face twisted grotesquely as he stared at the hand I had pointed toward the captain’s cabin.
His eyes, as he rolled about on the deck with his wrists bound in rope, became bloodshot.
"Cut the crap—!! Burning my sacred ship and humiliating me by calling me Red Nose wasn’t enough, and now you’re after my meat too?! Kill him!!"
Buggy’s shrill scream was the signal.
Raaah—!!
"How dare you insult Captain Buggy—!!" "We’ll tear you to pieces!"
From within the smoke, beast tamer Mohji atop Richie the lion and the acrobat Cabaji on his unicycle charged me from both sides at once.
That was not all.
Whoooosh—!
A heavy burst of air split the space above my head.
With a dazzling white smile, Alvida was mercilessly bringing her enormous iron club down upon the crown of my head.
Meanwhile, Buggy’s two floating feet came flying at my ankles, their blades extended.
A simultaneous ambush from every direction—above, below, left, and right.
But to my eyes, this noisy coordinated attack looked no more threatening than a clumsy school recital.
Compared to the sensation of deflecting Mihawk’s black blade at point-blank range, they might as well have been openly clearing a path for me to dodge.
What a nuisance…
I dropped the cigar I had been chewing onto the deck,
then twisted my upper body at an odd angle with my characteristic loose-limbed footwork.
Slip.
Alvida’s iron club grazed the collar of my coat by a single millimeter before smashing into the deck.
At the instant splinters flew from the shattered oak floorboards, I lightly stepped on the club’s handle with my toe and sprang upward.
The moment my body rose into the air, I savagely struck the side of Cabaji’s head with the grip of the empty pistol at my waist.
Thwack!
"Gaaah?!"
Cabaji tumbled along with his unicycle and crashed straight into the face of the charging Richie.
Taking advantage of the moment when beast and tamer became tangled together and rolled across the deck,
I flipped through the air and descended.
Black Haki, lightly gathered at my fingertips.
Crunch!
I seized Buggy’s two sharply flying ankles and hurled them directly at the back of Alvida’s head, as she missed with her club and lost her balance.
"Uh… uh?!" "Eek?!"
The soles of Buggy’s shoes collided head-on with Alvida’s forehead with a tremendous boom.
The two became tangled like bowling pins and slammed into the deck railing.
Three seconds, at most.
I had not even properly drawn my sword. I had merely staggered a few steps and woven their attack trajectories together however I pleased.
Every one of the Big Top’s grunts dropped their iron pipes and swords, freezing pale-faced in place.
"A-a monster…!" "He wiped out all the officers without even lifting a hand…!!"
Rustle.
I gave my disheveled tricorne a light tap
and strode over to the heads of Buggy’s crew, sprawled on the deck groaning.
Then I rolled over a nearby barrel of rum with my foot, plopped down on it, and sat.
I pulled a fresh cigar from my coat, put it between my lips, lit it, and exhaled a long cloud of thick smoke.
Beyond that smoke, my eyes rested coolly upon them as I propped up my chin, carrying an icy chill.
"…Ghk, who… who the hell are you…?!"
Buggy, flailing with a lump swelling from his forehead, asked as though coughing up blood.
Alvida, too, brushed back her tangled hair and stared at me with a shivering gaze.
I blew a ring of cigar smoke into the air and shamelessly adapted a very familiar line.
"My pirate crew isn’t very large just yet, you see. But… its potential is truly limitless."
"…W-what?"
"As of today, the Big Top, every person aboard this ship, its equipment, and its provisions are all being incorporated as assets of my pirate crew."
I lightly tapped the deck with the tip of my cutlass.
"The crew’s name is… the Dead Man Pirates. And its captain is I, Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Don’t make me laugh—!!"
Buggy sprang up despite being tied down, frothing at the mouth.
"Do you have any idea who I am, daring to say you’ll absorb me?! I have to go to Loguetown to get revenge on that bastard Luffy! You think I’d ever serve under the likes of you?!"
"Who said I was going to interfere with your revenge, Red Nose?"
"I said I’m not Red Nose—!!"
"Once we reach Loguetown, whether you wring that Straw Hat brat’s neck or put on a clown circus, I will not interfere by a single millimeter. I shall cheer on your grand revenge drama most enthusiastically."
At my glib response, Buggy blinked.
"…Huh? Really?"
"Of course. I give you my word on a gentleman’s honor. In exchange, until we reach Loguetown… you will handle every menial task aboard this ship: raising the anchor, trimming the sails, and filling my glass of rum. Should you refuse…"
Fwoooosh.
The black Haki rising from my fingertips stained the blade of my old cutlass with a cold sheen.
A heavy killing intent pressed down upon the entire ship.
"Then we’ll finalize this acquisition by turning you into fish food at the bottom of the sea. The choice is yours."
"W-we will serve you as our captain—!!"
Buggy and his grunts all threw themselves down at once, smashing their foreheads against the deck.
Alvida, too, propped up her chin with a strange smile and readily nodded.
It was a wise response from people who had clearly recognized the difference in power.
Besides, if events followed the original story, these idiots were destined to put on a show about catching Luffy at the Loguetown execution platform, get struck by lightning out of a clear sky, and wind up pursued by the Marines.
While they gathered attention in grand fashion, I only needed to use them as a shield and calmly carry out my own plan.
A perfect win-win strategy.
For me alone.
Two days later, aboard the Big Top.
Sway, sway.
Beneath the shade of the mainmast, in the middle of the deck where a pleasant sea breeze blew, I lay stretched out in a comfortable hammock.
In one hand was a glass of premium rum chilled with ice.
In the other was a thick-cut smoked sausage.
"Oi, Red Nose! The rope on the third mast looks a little loose. Are you trying to disturb your captain’s nap?"
"I said I’m not Red Nose—!! You’re really acting like the captain now…!!"
Buggy, who had been mopping the deck, shouted with bloodshot eyes.
But when I slightly raised an eyebrow over my rum glass, he hurriedly gritted his teeth and ran toward the rope.
"Damn it… Just you wait… Once we reach Loguetown…!"
Richie had become a fanning slave, gently stirring the air around my hammock, while Cabaji sweated buckets at the helm.
Paradise.
The hellish four days I had spent alone, struggling to haul anchor lines, felt as though they had been washed away like a lie.
This was what being a captain was supposed to feel like.
Flap, flap.
Breaking the peaceful stillness, a harsh flutter of wings sounded overhead.
A seagull wearing a blue cap.
News Coo, the messenger that delivered news from across the seas, landed on the railing right beside my hammock.
"Ah, Mr. Newspaper Deliveryman."
I flicked a small silver coin from my pocket into his bag.
The seagull expertly pulled out a newspaper and dropped it onto my stomach before taking flight once more.
The instant I unfolded the rustling paper,
a stiff, coarse sheet slipped from between its pages and landed on my chest.
"…Huh?"
A wanted poster, its ink not yet dry, bearing the clear seal of Marine Headquarters of the World Government.
My face was plastered across the center of the paper in enormous print.
Apparently they had caught me drinking rum on Baratie’s railing.
It was a spectacularly bizarre photograph: one eye half-lidded, my tricorne tilted crookedly, and that distinctive roguish smirk on my face.
And beneath the picture, bold black lettering.
DEAD OR ALIVE
CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW
฿ 10,000,000 -
MARINE
"…Ten million Berries?"
It appeared that the Marine captain I had robbed at Baratie had submitted a report to Headquarters with his teeth thoroughly clenched.
For a newcomer in East Blue, it was a fairly weighty and frightening sum.
"W-what?! A wanted poster?!"
Buggy and Alvida abandoned the mop and approached, then stared at the wanted poster on my chest in utter shock.
"T-ten million Berries—?! Some unheard-of rookie got ten million for his first bounty?!"
"That’s quite extraordinary for a first bounty."
Buggy’s eyes bulged as though they might pop out, while Alvida licked her lips with interest.
But I, the actual subject of the wanted poster,
only frowned and scrutinized every corner of the photograph before clicking my tongue in deep dissatisfaction.
"Those idiot Marines…"
I flicked the wanted poster with a finger and sighed.
"The lighting is terrible, and the angle simply will not do. Where did they sell off my elegant, intelligent jawline and why have they photographed me like a drunkard? I’m a captain, for heaven’s sake. I ought to sue them for violating my portrait rights."
"Is that really the problem right now—?!!"
Buggy’s furious shriek tore through the air,
but I merely smirked, folded the wanted poster, and tucked it deep inside my coat.
Then, swaying in my hammock, I gazed at the huge lighthouse and the silhouette of the city rising faintly beyond the horizon.
Loguetown, the Town of the Beginning and the End.
The stakes of this game were growing more pleasantly substantial by the moment.
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