At the same time.
Inside a weapons shop.
"Hey, Zoro, are you sure about this sword?!"
Usopp stared at the blade Zoro had picked up, feeling an inexplicable chill.
"It's a fine sword!"
A bespectacled girl named Tashigi nearby introduced it excitedly. "The Sandai Kitetsu! Its predecessor, the Nidai Kitetsu, is a Great Grade Sword, and the original, the Shodai Kitetsu, is a Supreme Grade Sword! This is a rare, excellent blade!"
"Didn't you hear the shop owner, woman? He said it's a cursed sword!"
Usopp had heard the owner explain that many great swordsmen who wielded such cursed blades had met untimely ends.
"O-oh, I'm sorry, I got too excited..."
"No, I like it. This is the one."
"Don't be ridiculous! I won't sell it!"
The owner was an honest man, never expecting Zoro to dig the Kitetsu out from a pile of scrap. "If you die because of it, it'll be like I killed you!"
"Then let's do this. Let's test my luck against its curse, see which is stronger."
Zoro grinned, then tossed the Sandai Kitetsu into the air above his head and stretched out his arm.
If the blade simply fell, it would surely cut his arm clean off!
The owner was horrified. "Are you insane?!"
Usopp couldn't even shout fast enough. "Don't be reckless, Zoro! We have money!"
The Sandai Kitetsu, spinning from top to bottom, perfectly avoided Zoro's arm and stabbed firmly into the floorboards.
For a moment, everyone in the weapons shop went weak in the knees.
"This is it. Usopp, you said we have money, right? I want to buy another one."
Seeing this, the owner hurriedly called out, then rushed to pull out another blade. "The sword 'Yubashiri'! I'll give you this one along with the Sandai Kitetsu."
"I can't afford it if it's too expensive."
"Both are free! It's been a long time since I've seen a swordsman's eyes like yours. They say a sword chooses its master. I think Yubashiri has chosen you."
The owner gave a wide grin.
A man entrusting his dream to another man—that was the romance of these seas.
"What's going on outside? Sounds lively." After receiving the two swords, Zoro looked outside.
After a pause, Usopp and Zoro exchanged a glance, the same thought flashing through their minds.
"It's not... Luffy, is it?"
...
The sky gradually grew overcast.
At the place where the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, had once been executed, a group had gathered.
"So this is it?"
Luffy's heart also beat faster.
This was where the Pirate King died.
This was where it all began!
The sultry wind seemed to have stilled.
Luffy could almost feel the sweat clinging to his skin freeze in place.
The next second, several pirates charged from the side.
Familiar faces. For those who disturbed him, Luffy grabbed a face and slammed it into the ground.
These low-level pirates posed no sense of threat.
After all, they were just East Blue pirates. A few used swords. Luffy found that after his swordsmanship training with Zoro, he could predict what these so-called swordsmen would do next.
The gap compared to Zoro was just too big.
"Gomu Gomu no... Jet Gatling!"
"Ah!"
Instantly, the pirates standing before Luffy were pummeled like dough, their feet leaving the ground as they were sent flying.
"Straw Hat brat!"
By the time Buggy arrived, his world had already crumbled.
After being scattered by Luffy last time, the Buggy Pirates had finally managed to recruit new members. Were they about to be scattered again?!
Buggy glared furiously at Luffy. "Do you have any idea what I've been through?! I've crawled back from hell! This place will be your grave today!"
"Oh, it's you, Red-Nose." Luffy pressed down on his straw hat. "I'm not really interested in you guys. We're heading to the Grand Line."
Buggy grew furious again, still seething over Luffy's constant chatter about becoming the so-called Pirate King.
In his heart, there was only one sun!
The Pirate King would always be his captain, Captain Roger!
The townspeople, hearing the names "Buggy the Clown" and "Straw Hat Luffy," fled in terror. In the East Blue, pirates with bounties over ten million were rare, let alone the latter, Straw Hat Luffy, whose bounty exceeded fifty million!
During his time adrift, Buggy had nearly turned into a castaway on a deserted island. Fortunately, his subordinates hadn't abandoned him!
He also hadn't expected the Straw Hat crew to cause such a stir.
Fish-Man Arlong and "Commander" Krieg were both famous, powerful pirates in the East Blue.
But pirates lived for revenge!
So, he and Alvida had formed a "Revenge Alliance"—two Devil Fruit users determined to make Straw Hat pay.
Lost in thought for a moment, Buggy looked up again, and his jaw dropped. Where did all his subordinates go?
Looking around, he realised they'd all been knocked into the air.
Oh, right, where's my ally?
Alvida, seeing the situation turn sour, had long since fled.
"Hey, Buggy. Let's do it again. Where do you want to go this time?"
Luffy, who had somehow appeared right in front of Buggy, grabbed his head and grinned.
"Consider it payment for your lackey bringing me here."
Buggy was so frightened that his body instantly split apart. But his head was clamped in place as if by iron tongs, impossible to break free.
Th-this power is... Haki?!
In an instant, Buggy felt his scalp tingle. As a long-time apprentice on the Pirate King's ship, he knew Haki all too well. But why would a pirate who knew Haki be in a backwater like the East Blue?!
Weren't those kinds of guys all in the Grand Line?
If it weren't for lacking Haki, Buggy wouldn't have been driven back from the Grand Line to lord it over the East Blue.
"Misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding!"
"Straw Hat, let's talk this out! We're practically friends by now!" Buggy instantly changed his tune, pleading for sympathy. "You want to be the Pirate King, right? I was on the Pirate King's—"
Halfway through his sentence, hearing Buggy claim to be the Pirate King, Luffy sent him flying with a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka.
If you want to be the Pirate King, you're a rival. Knocking a rival away is perfectly reasonable, right?
Buggy: "..."
Could you let a man finish his sentence?!
"Luffy, let's get out of here! The Marines in town will have noticed us!" Nami ran over urgently. She had just learned from the townspeople that a powerful Marine was stationed here.
Like Luffy, he was a Devil Fruit user.
And he was a Marine Headquarters Captain!
She heard that many pirates setting off for the Grand Line from here had been thrown in prison by him.
That guy's name was...
"Hey. You're Monkey D. Luffy, right? Let's see if you're worthy of causing trouble in my town."
A man smoking a cigar walked out from the crowd.
The surrounding townspeople cheered. "Captain Smoker!"
***
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