"Roar! Roar!"
The Whitebeard Pirates roared excitedly, responding to their father, Whitebeard.
On the other side, Roger roared back defiantly, "Brothers, let those Whitebeard brats taste our might! Raise your swords and guns, and give them a good stabbing!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
This wasn't their first encounter. As two of the strongest pirate crews on the sea, the Whitebeard and Roger Pirates had clashed dozens of times over the years, knowing each other intimately, each battle filled with excitement and fervor.
Just as the Roger and Whitebeard Pirates were brimming with morale, ready for battle, a clear, loud shout suddenly rang out.
"Kill Rayleigh, capture Roger! Kill Rayleigh, capture Roger!"
A long-haired man, immaculately dressed, unlike the typical pirate, stood beside Roger.
He was lazily enjoying a drink from a flask. When he heard this sudden shout, so different from the other pirates, the liquor he was about to swallow sprayed out. Luckily, Roger dodged quickly; otherwise, he would have been drenched.
Both pirate crews, ready to engage, paused, startled by the shout. The Roger Pirates curiously looked towards the Moby Dick, while the Whitebeard Pirates wore wry smiles; they knew that voice all too well.
In Roger's gaze, a small figure stood on a crate on the Moby Dick's deck, wielding a sword longer than himself, waving the hilt as he shouted.
"Kill Rayleigh, capture Roger!"
Facing so many eyes, Akira Stone showed no fear. Instead, he glared, shouting at the Whitebeard Pirates, "What are you all gawking at?
Hurry up and attack! Kill Rayleigh first, then capture Roger! Rayleigh is the old man with the sword. Mangy Bird, as Pops's second-in-command, he's your opponent! Hurry up and kill him! Kill him!"
At Akira Stone's shout, Marco looked embarrassed. He knew Rayleigh and wanted to kill him, but he lacked the ability. Rayleigh was a renowned powerhouse of the New World. While Marco had shown promise, he was still far from Rayleigh's level.
How could he possibly defeat him?
Unlike Marco's embarrassment, Rayleigh looked utterly bewildered and innocent. Who had he offended? To be called out for a killing twice in a row, how much hate did someone have to have?
Roger, however, looked at Akira Stone on the crate with astonishment, curiously asking Whitebeard, "Whitebeard, is this kid a new recruit?"
Whitebeard laughed heartily, overjoyed. "This is my son, Edward Stone Akira, a man destined to shake the world! Guhahahaha!"
Roger carefully studied Akira Stone. To his surprise, Akira Stone showed no fear under his gaze, instead glaring back, displaying an unruly personality.
Roger sincerely praised, "Whitebeard, you've got yourself a good son. This kid is something."
While Roger and Whitebeard were talking, two apprentice crew members of the Roger Pirates huddled together on the Oro Jackson. One wore a straw hat, his red hair visible beneath, a muscular build, young but full of energy.
The other boy also wore a hat, but his most striking feature was his nose—a red nose like a clown, quite comical, and his expression was equally amusing.
The red-nosed boy glared at Akira Stone, saying to the straw hat boy, "Hey, Shanks, who's that brat? He's even more arrogant than us?"
These two boys were apprentice crew members of Roger's crew. The straw hat boy was the future Yonko, Red Hair Shanks; the red-nosed boy was the future supporting character, the great clown, Buggy.
Buggy and Shanks were still apprentice crew members of the Roger Pirates, teenagers with high aspirations.
Buggy, who liked to steal the spotlight, was naturally annoyed by Akira Stone's showboating.
Shanks, holding a cutlass, shouted, "Who cares? Our opponent is Whitebeard. We're going to take his head! Once we kill Whitebeard, we'll be famous throughout the sea!"
"Wahahaha…"
Buggy laughed heartily, slapping Shanks on the shoulder. "You're right, Shanks! Our opponent is Whitebeard. That kid is nothing! I can crush him with one hand!"
Shanks scoffed, "Buggy, you're just bragging. You can't even swim, and you're so full of hot air."
Shanks shouldn't have said that. Buggy immediately exploded, grabbing Shanks by the collar. "Shanks, you have the nerve to talk? Who… who made it so I can't go into the water?!"
"Who?" Shanks looked innocent, infuriating Buggy.
Akira Stone stood on a crate on the Moby Dick, watching the battle between the Whitebeard and Roger Pirates. The Whitebeard Pirates weren't yet the Yonko they would become, so their numbers were limited. Besides the future division commanders, there were only a few dozen pirates, including cooks, navigators, and others.
In their early days, the Whitebeard Pirates followed an elite approach, without formal division commanders. Marco and others were just ordinary crew members. The title of "commander" came later, after they became Yonko, when they had their own territories.
So, the pirates fighting the Roger Pirates numbered around thirty, and the Roger Pirates were similar, following an elite approach. They had only thirty or forty official members, with even fewer—about twenty—participating in the battle, fewer than the Whitebeard Pirates.
Though the Roger Pirates were outnumbered, their fighting strength was in no way inferior, perhaps even stronger.
Rayleigh alone held off three of the Whitebeard Pirates' commander-level fighters.
Akira Stone watched from the sidelines. He noticed that despite their loud boasts, the battle wasn't truly life-or-death, but more like a sparring match.
Akira Stone wasn't surprised. The Roger and Whitebeard Pirates weren't sworn enemies. Whitebeard and Roger could even sit down and drink together, considering themselves friends. Their crews naturally wouldn't fight to the death.
The fighting wasn't truly life-or-death, let alone for the others. Akira Stone realized that nobody was paying attention to him, so he watched the battle boredly.
However, he could only see the intensity of the fight; he couldn't understand much more, as he hadn't formally begun training yet and his perspective was limited.
Thinking nobody would notice him, Akira Stone wasn't vigilant.
He was watching the fight with interest when a warning flared in his mind.
Without hesitation, he rolled backward, nimbly tumbling off the crate.
Akira Stone had a secret. Whenever he faced danger, he had a premonition. He hadn't always had this; during a near-death experience while being chased in his past life, he suddenly awakened this ability.
Before, Akira Stone called it his sixth sense, but in the One Piece world, he realized it was probably the nascent form of Observation Haki. This was why he was so confident that he would eventually possess all three types of Haki.
He rolled off the crate just as a short sword embedded itself in the crate where he'd been standing.
His physique wasn't great, and the sword grazed him, cutting his hand.
"Who's there?"
Akira Stone's face darkened. Though not seriously injured, he was annoyed by the sneak attack. He quickly locked onto the target, two boys arguing not far away.
"Buggy, how could you sneak attack a child? That's despicable!"
"Damn it, Shanks, that brat was too arrogant!"
"How was he arrogant? You attacked first! You're wrong!"
"Damn it, Shanks, whose side are you on? Say another word, and I'll beat you up too!"
"With you, Buggy? Can you even beat me?"
"Damn it, do you think I'm afraid of you? Shanks, I was letting you win before. If you say another word, I won't hold back!"
…
Listening to the argument between the straw hat redhead and the red-nosed boy, Akira Stone understood two things: First, the red-nosed boy had attacked him; second, the straw hat redhead was the future Yonko, Red Hair Shanks, and the red-nosed boy was Buggy the Clown.
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