Rumble—!!
A massive ship tore through the thick sea fog and rammed violently into Baratie’s dock. The Don Krieg Pirates’ flagship, the Dreadnaught Saber. A colossal three-deck warship more than three or four times the size of the Baratie—but it was in a truly miserable state. Its sails had been shredded to tatters, leaving only bare frames, while deep gashes scarred the hull as though some enormous blade had carved it apart.
"Eek?! A-a skull flag!"
"It’s the Krieg Pirates! Why is the ruler of East Blue in such a state?!"
As the customers turned pale and screamed, a huge man staggered into the restaurant, bracing himself against the broken railing.
Shining golden armor covered his entire body.
Yet through the gaps in that armor, blood dripped from a giant starving on the verge of collapse. It was Don Krieg, admiral of East Blue’s fifty-ship fleet.
Thud—!!
The moment Krieg entered the restaurant and the cooks aimed their knives and guns at him, he dropped to both knees as though it were a lie.
Then he slammed his forehead against the cold wooden floor and began begging in abject humiliation.
"Please...! Give me something to eat...! I’ll pay any amount of money...!"
"...Admiral?!"
Gin, who had entered behind him, cried out in shock, but Krieg did not even raise his head as he scraped at the floor.
"I am a customer! Give me food, and I’ll leave quietly...! I swear I won’t do anything... Please...!"
As the notorious plunderer once called the worst villain in East Blue crawled across the floor shedding tears, even the cooks wavered. Patty pointed his gun and shouted that it was a trick, but Sanji was already stepping out of the kitchen carrying a huge silver tray piled with food.
"Eat."
Sanji set the food down right in front of Krieg’s nose.
Krieg howled like a beast and crammed the food into his mouth. The sight of him swallowing greedily without even chewing was utterly vile.
And the very instant he licked up even the last scraps—
Bam—!!
"Ghk?!"
Krieg’s heavy steel fist lashed across Sanji’s face like lightning.
Sanji, who had been standing there off guard, was launched into the air before crashing into the restaurant wall.
"Sanji—!!"
"You bastard! You repay kindness with betrayal?!"
Amid the cooks’ furious cries, Krieg rose from the floor, rolled his shoulders with a series of cracks, and burst into mad laughter.
"Kuhahahaha! The strength is flowing back! I’m alive!!"
There was no trace left of the pitiful coward who had crawled across the floor in tears only moments ago. Krieg roughly wiped the blood from his mouth and swept his murderous gaze through the restaurant.
"Food, water... This is an excellent ship. My own vessel is wrecked beyond use, so I’ll be taking this ship as my new flagship! And prepare one hundred servings of food at once for my hundred men starving outside!"
"Admiral! That is not what you said! You promised you would never do anything...!"
Gin cried out, his face drained of all color, but Krieg merely gave a cruel snort.
What a thick-skinned bastard.
I sat slouched at a table by the window, sipping rum and clicking my tongue. Seeing him throw away every shred of conscience and flip his tune according to the situation was not especially pleasant, but neither was there any reason for me to get involved in someone else’s fight and spill blood.
But then—
Thump.
With the heavy sound of a wooden peg leg, a huge shadow fell over my table. When I looked up, Red Leg Zeff, wearing an enormous chef’s hat, stood over me while toying with his braided beard.
"Hey, drunkard."
Zeff spoke in a low voice.
"When you struck that Marine officer earlier, your fingertips... And that blade at your waist. That power which blackened them... Haki, wasn’t it?"
"Haki?"
With an unlit cigar in my mouth, I tilted my head.
Haki? What was the old man talking about?
It was merely a strange black aura that had appeared when I poured my stubborn will and concentration into the tip of my sword, yet this old man was calling it some grand martial art. Still, what did it matter what old sailors called it? So long as it cut well.
"Sorry, old man, but I don’t know any fancy name for it. I’m just a sailor who learned a little swordplay to survive."
As I idly swirled my glass of rum, Zeff let out a hollow chuckle and jerked his chin toward Krieg, who was still making a scene.
"Let’s make a deal."
"A deal?"
"Get that golden-armored piece of trash barking over there—and his ship—out of my restaurant."
"Ha! Why should I get involved in someone else’s business dispute? Especially when there’s nothing in it for me."
Just as I was about to refuse with a snort, Zeff slammed his heavy palm down onto my table.
"Until the day you die at sea."
"...What?"
"I’ll provide you with all the food and rum you want from Baratie, free of charge, for the rest of your life."
Thump.
My mind lit up.
For life?
Everything I wanted, entirely free?
The right to gorge myself anytime on the finest dishes and strong rum at the best restaurant on the sea, without ever worrying about starving to death. For a pirate destined to roam these rough waters, where in the world could there be a safer investment than that?
"Old man."
I set down my rum glass with a tap and tipped up the brim of my tricorn.
"A promise between men is not something one tosses into the sea."
"Hmph. I don’t take back words once I’ve spoken them."
"Then we have a deal."
I rose from my seat, loosely freeing the cutlass at my waist. With my distinctive loose-limbed swagger, I strode toward the center of the restaurant. Sanji was getting up while wiping away blood, and Luffy was just about to charge at Krieg with his fist clenched tight.
"Step aside for a moment, spirited young gentlemen."
When I slipped between them, Sanji snapped at me viciously.
"Who the hell are you?! It’s dangerous here, so get back—!"
"He’s the one in danger, blond fellow."
I puffed on my cigar and crooked a finger at Krieg, who was glaring at me as though I were an insect.
"Oi, golden pig. Eating without paying and causing trouble in another man’s restaurant goes against pirate virtue. Besides, I have just acquired a lifetime VIP dining pass at this establishment. If you wreck this ship, won’t you be cutting off my food supply?"
"...Who the hell is this vagrant?!"
Krieg’s face twisted hideously.
"You dare spout nonsense at me, the ruler of East Blue! You must be desperate to die!!"
At the very moment Krieg tried to raise the heavy weapon mounted on his shoulder, I did not even look at his face.
My gaze was already fixed beyond the restaurant’s outdoor dock, on the enormous three-deck flagship, the Dreadnaught Saber, looming menacingly as if it could swallow Baratie whole.
For the price of free food... I ought to make the demonstration convincing.
Fwoooo...
I drew up a firm concentration from deep within my chest.
Heavy power flowed down my wrist and swallowed the entire blade of my battered old cutlass in an inky blackness. An aura like a solid, tough mass of pitch-black steel.
At the chilling aura rising from the blade, Zoro’s eyes widened where he stood beside me.
"Th-that sword...?"
I lowered my stance and slashed upward at an angle toward the massive ship filling the dock.
Whoooosh—!!
There was not even a roar.
A black trail of sword energy burst from the tip of my blade, cutting through the wind as it spread toward the massive ship dozens of meters away.
Then, one second later—
Craaack... Booooom—!!!!
A thunderous rupture erupted, as though the entire sea had split apart. The colossal warship, dozens of meters tall, was cleanly severed diagonally in two as if by an unseen giant blade, and the halves slid apart.
Rumble—!!
Hundreds of tons of seawater surged high into the sky, while the two halves of the massive vessel sank to either side of the sea, creating a giant whirlpool.
"..."
Every sound in the restaurant vanished at once.
"Huh...?"
Luffy’s jaw dropped to the floor.
"Whaaaaaaaaaat—?!!!!!!"
The cigarette hanging from Sanji’s lips fell away, while the cooks and customers collectively rolled their eyes white and screamed. Zoro stood frozen, gripping his sword hilts with both hands as his entire body trembled.
"He... cut a ship... with a single sword...?"
Krieg, who had been raging so arrogantly moments ago, crumpled onto his shaking knees, his face white as paper as he watched his flagship split apart and sink. In the middle of that chaos, I gave my old cutlass a light shake and slid it back into its sheath. Behind me, Zeff stood with his jaw hanging open, then cleared his throat and asked,
"...You destroyed the ship, but what do you intend to do with that golden-armored fellow sitting over there?"
I chewed my cigar between my teeth and looked down mockingly at Krieg, stiff as a board on the floor.
That tin-can armor of his was no more formidable than a tuna can lid before my blade. He was such a small fry that a single forehead flick would kill him with a concussion.
But staining my blade by personally dealing with a fellow like that was far less important than the meat and rum on the counter getting cold. Besides, wasn’t the straw-hatted brat beside me already hopping about with shining eyes?
I shrugged and waved a finger toward Zeff.
"Old man, think carefully about our agreement. I drove that ugly warship straight to the bottom of the sea, so the main delivery is complete. Crushing that terrified tin-can cockroach who’s pissing himself over there doesn’t suit my dignity. I cannot be bothered getting grease on my blade, and more importantly, my meat is getting cold."
Then, with a grin, I jerked my chin at Luffy, whose fist was clenched tight.
"Besides, isn’t there a brat over there with fire in his eyes because he doesn’t want to wash dishes unpaid for a year? His fist should be more than enough to crumple that little can. Give him the leftover trash as the condition for clearing his debt."
Luffy’s eyes lit up. His gaze instantly swung from me to Krieg.
"Really, old man?! If I send that gold guy flying, I don’t have to wash dishes anymore?!"
Zeff looked between Luffy and me as though we were absurd, then burst into hearty laughter.
"Fine! If you drive that bastard out for good, I’ll call it even for the roof!!"
"All right—!! Gum-Gum—!!"
Delighted, Luffy stretched his arm far behind him and charged fiercely toward Krieg. Having perfectly dumped the small-fry cleanup onto someone else, I turned toward the counter with a satisfied smile.
"Now then, I shall go enjoy my premium rum and prime steak, as per our contract..."
Scrrrape.
What brushed past my ear was—
Not an explosion or a roar, but an eerily quiet sound of friction.
"...Huh?"
Thump—!!
A vicious chill raced from the crown of my head to my toes, as though lightning had shot through my spine. It was a palpable pressure, as if a razor-sharp blade had already plunged into the nape of my neck—something beyond comparison to the presence of any wild beast.
Craaack... Booooom—!!!!
Another earth-shaking rupture burst from the direction of the sea. Krieg’s massive vessel, the Dreadnaught Saber, which I had cut diagonally in half and which had been slowly sinking beneath the water—
Those two enormous sections of hull—
As though caught within an invisible giant chessboard, were precisely dismantled in midair into dozens, then hundreds of cube-shaped pieces of wood, scattering in every direction.
Shraaaak—!!
A transcendent cut, without an error of even an inch—
Close to the handiwork of a god.
The hundreds of tons of shipwreckage rained down over the sea like firewood.
"E-eek...?"
"The ship... the ship is being chopped into pieces—!!"
The restaurant was engulfed by a primal terror utterly unlike before. Even Luffy stopped dead in his tracks, while Zoro stared at the sea with bloodshot eyes, unable even to breathe.
Dense sea fog blanketed the water.
Parting that thick fog with a soft glide—
A small sailboat appeared, slipping forward as silently as a ghost.
A bizarre one-man boat shaped like a coffin.
Flickering blue ghost flames burned on either side of its bow,
And at its center sat a man with his legs crossed, a massive cross-shaped black sword strapped across his back.
Beneath the broad brim of his black hat—
Golden hawk eyes coldly pierced through the fog toward Baratie.
The world’s strongest swordsman.
One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Dracule Mihawk.
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