Five Hundred Soldiers

"Change course. We're going to the Kingdom of Belo."

The adjutant quickly spread out a nautical chart.

"Major, it'll take four hours even at the warship's top speed."

"Proceed as usual."

Ron fastened Zhenyuan to his back and turned toward the other side of the deck.

The adjutant hurried after him.

"You're going on ahead?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know that CP Agent?"

"I've never met him."

Ron paused.

"But I've heard his name."

Click.

A door opened in the air.

The adjutant had seen what Ron could do before.

A journey that took others most of a day by sea would take him only minutes.

Ron stepped through and vanished from the deck.

Half an hour earlier.

The Kingdom of Belo, one of the World Government Member States.

"The people from the World Government still aren't here?!"

The king slammed his palm on the table.

"The three-day deadline is almost up! Five hundred soldiers are still in the pirates' hands, and you expect me to just sit here and wait?"

Three days earlier, the Kingdom Army had set out to wipe out the invading pirates, only to fall into an ambush. All five hundred of its elite soldiers had been captured.

The pirates had seized the opportunity to occupy an old fortress outside the capital and issued a public ultimatum: the king had three days to abdicate and surrender the throne, or not one of the five hundred captives would be left alive.

"Your Majesty, a frontal assault is out of the question."

The commander of the Kingdom Army gritted his teeth. "The hostages are all being held in a warehouse. The moment we attack, they'll slaughter them."

"They're here, Your Majesty, outside the palace gates—"

The king rushed out before the guard could finish, then stopped in his tracks.

Rob Lucci (age 13)

A boy stood before the palace gates.

He was only thirteen, but his build was much sturdier than that of others his age. He had neat black hair and no expression on his face.

Two masked government personnel stood behind him. Apart from them, there wasn't even a decent-sized force, much less a warship.

"...This is it?"

The king turned back, his voice changing pitch. "Five hundred captives, over a thousand pirates, and they sent a child?!"

"Your Majesty, this is a Cipher Pol assessment mission—"

"An assessment? My kingdom is on the brink of ruin, and you're using it to test a child?!"

Lucci ignored the king.

"Where are the pirates?"

The king was about to say something else.

Lucci asked again.

"The location."

The commander of the Kingdom Army gritted his teeth and handed him a map.

Lucci gave it a quick look, then turned and left.

The king grew anxious. "You're going alone?!"

"That's enough."

"Arrogant!"

The commander had barely shouted the word when a masked agent stopped him.

"Don't worry. Lucci has carried out more dangerous missions than this."

"But he's only thirteen!"

"Age doesn't determine strength."

The agent turned toward the fortress.

"Let's wait for news."

The old fortress outside the capital.

Two kingdom scouts lay on a distant rise, watching the fortress.

"Did that kid really go up there?"

"He did! He didn't even bring a weapon!"

The next second.

Boom!

At the fortress entrance, more than a dozen pirates raised their guns at once. "Stop! Who goes there?!"

Lucci tapped his foot lightly against the ground.

"Soru."

His figure vanished in an instant.

By the time the pirates reacted, the boy was already standing among them.

"Shigan."

Pfft!

Blood sprayed from a pirate's chest as he fell backward.

Then came the second, and the third... Gunfire erupted all around him, but the bullets couldn't even graze his clothes.

"Fire the cannons! Blow him to hell!"

The cannon had barely swung around when Lucci swept his leg sideways.

"Rankyaku!"

A sharp blade of air swept out, slicing through the gun carriage and the wooden wall behind it alike!

A burly man swung an iron hammer down hard from behind.

"Tekkai."

Clang!

The hammer recoiled, splitting the skin between the burly man's thumb and forefinger. Lucci didn't even sway. He struck back with a Shigan, ending the fight.

On the rise, the scouts stared with their mouths hanging open.

"Is he... really thirteen?!"

"Don't just stand there! Report this!"

In less than ten minutes, the fortress was in chaos.

Lucci had smashed through several outer defensive lines in succession, leaving the pirates with heavy casualties.

The survivors fled in all directions. None dared step forward to stop him.

But Lucci had no intention of chasing them. He had found the warehouse where the hostages were being held.

Inside the warehouse, a damp, musty odor mixed with the stench of blood hit him.

Five hundred kingdom soldiers were bound together, every one of them wounded.

Someone quietly comforted a companion. "Hang on. The king won't abandon us."

Suddenly.

Creak—

The warehouse's side door opened.

A black-haired boy walked in, and the World Government emblem on his chest made the soldiers' eyes light up at once.

"Reinforcements?!"

"We're saved! We're saved!"

An officer struggled to his feet. "Are you here to rescue us? How many reinforcements are outside?"

Lucci looked over the weary faces.

"Five hundred of you were captured by a bunch of pirates?"

The officer gritted his teeth. "We were ambushed! They also threatened us with the nearby villagers—"

"For a few hundred villagers, five hundred soldiers laid down their weapons?"

The officer said angrily, "Those were hundreds of lives!"

Lucci looked at him.

"You're soldiers."

"Protecting the kingdom is your duty."

"But you gave your weapons to the pirates."

The officer gritted his teeth. "If we hadn't laid down our weapons, they would have killed all those villagers!"

Lucci didn't argue further.

"The mission failed."

He raised a finger.

"Failures have no value in continuing to live."

Bang!

He kicked the warehouse's side door shut.

Immediately afterward, the first scream came from inside.

Outside the warehouse, a masked agent heard the scream and turned to his companion.

"Aren't we going to stop him?"

"This is his assessment. The mission requires him to handle the crisis independently. We can't make his decisions for him."

"But there are five hundred captives in there."

"That's a judgment he has to face too."

The masked agent said nothing more.

The screams from the warehouse continued.

Meanwhile.

On a rise east of the kingdom, an Air Door flew open.

Ron stepped out. The royal capital was now clearly visible in the distance.

The Den Den Mushi at his waist suddenly rang.

"Major! Word just came from the kingdom. The government agent has already entered the pirates' stronghold!"

"How long ago?"

"Ten minutes!"

Ron's expression shifted slightly.

"Damn it, am I still a step too late?"

He put away the Den Den Mushi, fixed his gaze on the old fortress in the distance, and raised his hand to pull open another Air Door.

The sound of gunfire and cannon fire outside gradually died away.

Only then did the pirates still guarding the inner courtyard hear the screams coming from the warehouse.

"Captain! Something's happened in the warehouse!"

A group of pirates burst through the warehouse doors.

When they saw what was inside, everyone froze.

Corpses covered the floor.

The black-haired boy who had just fought his way into the fortress stood in a pool of blood.

"Bastard! I hadn't even used them to force the king to abdicate yet!"

The pirate leader looked at the corpses covering the floor and burst into furious curses.

"You killed all five hundred of them! What am I supposed to use as a bargaining chip now?!"

Lucci ignored him and walked straight toward the door.

The pirate leader backed away several steps.

"Fire the cannons! Blow him to hell!"

In the courtyard, the five cannons that had been stationed along the defensive line all swung around.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Cannon fire engulfed him in an instant, and the pirates erupted in excited cheers.

But the next second.

A figure emerged from the smoke.

The clothes on Lucci's back were in tatters, and several wounds had appeared on his body.

He brushed the dust off his shoulder and kept walking.

"M-monster!"

The pirate leader finally panicked.

While the smoke had yet to clear, he turned and fled toward the warehouse's side door.

But the moment he rushed inside, his vision blurred.

Lucci was already blocking his path, lifting him by the throat with his left hand and raising his right index finger.

"Shigan."

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—

A dozen or so strikes landed in rapid succession, blood spraying from the pirate leader's chest. Even his screams became intermittent.

"W-World Government..."

He grinned with his bloodstained mouth and actually laughed. "You've raised yourself a good dog..."

Lucci remained expressionless and raised his finger again.

Just then.

Click.

In the middle of the warehouse, the air suddenly split open.

A door appeared out of thin air.

Ron stepped out.

A heavy smell of blood hit him in the face.

He stopped in his tracks, looking at the corpses sprawled across the warehouse.

Five hundred soldiers.

All dead.