Gojo stepped back into the restaurant. The captain of the Devil Ox Pirates was still there, a knot of fear tightening in his stomach, yet simultaneously consumed by a blinding rage. Gojo had taken down every one of his men, and he'd done it in a blink. The captain's fury eclipsed his terror.
"You bastard!" he roared, his voice thick with hate. "How dare you lay hands on my crew!"
With a savage cry, he unsheathed a broad, heavy sword from his waist. The steel glinted in the dim light. He charged at Gojo, shouting the name of his technique: "Charging Ox Sword Style!" He moved with the brute force of a bull, low to the ground, his body a weapon designed to ram and crush. The broad sword was poised, aimed for a devastating, proper strike. Gojo, his eyes still covered by the black cloth, stood motionless. A simple brute force attack, he thought, almost bored. With his Observation Haki, however, he could clearly map the entire trajectory of the Devil Ox captain's movement, charting the exact path of the charging man and the heavy sword he swung.
Just at the very last moment—when the heavy sword was about to connect—Gojo effortlessly side-stepped. His own hand moved like a blur, drawing and sheathing his weapon in a single, impossible instant. The captain of the Devil Ox Pirates, unable to slow his momentum, blew past the spot Gojo had just occupied.
He stumbled to a stop a few feet away, a moment of confused stillness washing over him. Then, a large, diagonal slash appeared across his chest, perfectly bisecting his leather armour and skin. Blood spurted immediately from the wound, a bright arterial spray against the dim restaurant backdrop. The captain collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath, the pain radiating through his body. He was still conscious; he hadn't fainted, and he wasn't dead, but his charge had been completely neutralized.
"H-how..." he muttered, struggling for air. "How could you be so fast? How were you able to dodge my fastest rampaging attack?" he demanded, his eyes fixed on the figure still wearing the black blindfold.
Gojo turned his head slightly toward the fallen man. His voice was utterly calm, devoid of any discernible emotion—neither anger, nor triumph, nor malice. It was the sound of a simple, matter-of-fact observation. "You are just like a rampaging bull who has seen a red cloth," he stated simply. "And what happens then? You saw it yourself, didn't you? At the last moment, the bull makes the red cloth its target, and the person holding it simply steps aside. The charging path of a bull is always a straight line; it cannot maneuver its direction midway. It's simple science."
He looked down at the defeated man. "So, that was to be expected. Your sword style is exactly like that. You charged at me like a bull, I dodged at the correct moment, and delivered a blow, defeating you."
After saying that, Gojo stepped closer, standing directly in front of the kneeling captain. He reached up and slowly removed his blindfold, revealing his stunning sky-blue eyes. They were so brilliant they seemed to glow in the softly-lit confines of the restaurant.
Gojo looked down at the defeated man. The captain flinched under the intensity of his gaze. "Remember this," Gojo said, his voice dropping to a serious, low tone. "If I see you or any of your crew again in this town, or if anything—anything at all—happens to Martha's restaurant, I promise you I will hunt you down to the ends of this earth. You will have no place left to live."
The captain of the Devil Ox Pirates stared up at those beautiful, crystalline eyes, which contained a terrifying, chilling coldness. He could see plainly that this young man in front of him did not care much for life or death. For Gojo, the taking of a life was clearly a normal, insignificant event. He knew with absolute certainty that Gojo could kill him right now and would not feel an ounce of regret afterward. That realization, more than the wound on his chest, truly frightened the captain.
Having delivered his final, absolute warning, Gojo covered his eyes again with the black blindfold. "Now," he commanded, his face once again impassive. "Take your men and get out of here."
The captain of the Devil Ox Pirates nodded frantically, scrambling to his feet despite the massive, painful gash across his chest. A few other pirate members who were only lightly injured by Gojo's initial blows struggled up as well. They immediately started helping those with more serious wounds, dragging them up and offering support. Slowly, the defeated crew shuffled out through the restaurant's front gate, soon disappearing from everyone's sight down the street.
Gojo, having finished his business, turned and calmly walked back to the bar counter, settling back onto the stool.
Martha watched him, a slow smile spreading across her face. "At first," she said, leaning across the bar, "I thought you weren't going to get involved in this mess. But then you did. May I ask you why?"
Gojo returned her smile, a casual, easy expression behind the black cloth covering his eyes. "There isn't any big reason in the whole world," he replied, his tone light. "For now, the people who I can call my friends are very few, and I can say that you are my friend. So, at the very least, I should take care of your restaurant."
He tilted his head slightly. "If they had destroyed even a single chair here without paying the price, then wouldn't my years of training for strength be totally worthless? I might as well start farming then."
Hearing such an outlandish reason delivered with absolute sincerity, Martha chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand.
…
All of this violent scene was witnessed by the Spade Pirates, who had been sitting at their tables, quietly eating. They were the original targets—the ones challenged by the Devil Ox captain—but the captain's foolhardy decision to insult Gojo first had forced him to take action. They had just seen Gojo suppress the entire Devil Ox pirate group as if they were nothing more than bothersome insects.
Every sitting crew member of the Spade Pirates—except for their captain, Ace—knew that defeating the Devil Ox captain and his crew would have been a significant challenge for them, a definite struggle. But Gojo had handled the captain of a pirate group like he was merely some weak, common thug. This display of overwhelming power utterly shocked the Spade Pirates' crew.
At the same time, they all felt an immense wave of relief and gratitude for their captain's earlier decision. They recalled Ace's deduction: that Gojo was someone whose strength was at the very least, his equal. Because of that warning, none of them had said anything out of line, no casual comments or insults about Gojo that might have earned his attention.
(They knew they had dodged a cannonball.)
Facing someone as powerful and casually terrifying as Gojo was a fate they absolutely did not want to share with the defeated crew lying outside.
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