"Roman~~"
"Let me out already!"
Faced with Luffy's excited cries for help from inside the iron cage, Roman could not be bothered to respond. Instead, he looked to the side first.
Short orange hair, a perfect figure, and a three-section staff in her hand. That was right: Nami, a genius-level navigator. ...Good. He could finally break free from that boring daily routine.
So scary!
Yet under Roman's appraising gaze, Nami only felt a chill run through her body, as if a blade were sliding across her skin! It felt as though she might be separated from her head the next second...
"Roman!"
"She's Nami, our navigator."
As Luffy spoke, Roman extended a hand toward the girl, who had been frightened into sitting on the ground.
"Nami..."
"Hello, I'm Roman."
"My idiot captain has caused you trouble. Please bear with him in the future as well."
"Ah, ah, ah? O-Okay..."
Nami, whom Roman had pulled to her feet, blinked. The young man before her was clearly handsome, sunny, and polite. Why had she found him so terrifying just now...?
"Roman?"
"Captain, that guy couldn't be..."
On the other side, the Buggy Pirates watched Roman act as if no one else were around and hesitantly asked their captain.
"Could he be that Silver Light..."
"You're Roman the Counterattacker, combat captain of the Silver Light Pirates?"
Clown Buggy sat grandly upon his throne, propping his face up with one hand as he put on an unfathomable expression.
"Could this woman be one of your Silver Light Pirates too? Did you send her here as a spy...?"
What—
Nami, who had just stood up, was startled and nearly fell back down!
The Silver Light Pirates were a pirate crew that had come to the East Blue from the North Blue. In barely half a year, they had become famous throughout the East Blue! Their captain carried a bounty of thirty million, while two of his combat captains had bounties in the tens of millions. Even their ordinary pirates were hardened veterans of countless battles.
Their ship, the Wave Rider, was incredibly fast! They had once clashed with Krieg, the East Blue's overlord known as the "Admiral." Relying on their fast ship and powerful crew, they easily destroyed three of his warships before sailing away.
—They were absolutely the kind of ruthless figures who could stop children from crying at night!
"Sorry, you've got the wrong person."
Roman denied it without hesitation, making Nami beside him breathe a sigh of relief. So they just had the same name...
"The Silver Light Pirates, ship and crew alike, have already been sunk to the bottom of the sea by me."
?
"Now, I'm Roman, a member of the Straw Hat Pirates." Roman turned to face the densely packed pirates and answered calmly, "That's all."
??
Wow, that was even more terrifying, wasn't it?!
Poor Nami felt like she was about to collapse again. Her legs had gone limp like noodles, and she kept sliding downward...
Smack.
"Are you alright?"
Faced with Roman's concerned question, Nami, whom he supported... no, lifted up with one hand, forced out a smile uglier than crying.
"I... I'm fine..."
"Oh? So the Silver Light Pirates no longer exist?"
Clown Buggy sneered and pointed at Luffy in the iron cage.
"But your judgment isn't very good. You actually chose to follow an idiot like that."
Then he pointed around at the densely packed pirates surrounding them.
"And even worse, you actually tried to fight against so many of us in the Buggy Pirates!"
Clang!
Click.
Rattle—
Sailor's Knives, flintlock guns, iron chains... all kinds of weapons appeared in the hands of the Buggy Pirates. Upon hearing that Roman was the only one left from the Silver Light Pirates, their courage immediately swelled again!
"How about this?"
Sitting in the seat of honor and looking at the three people trapped in his "encirclement," Clown Buggy rubbed his bright red nose.
"Roman, I'll give you a chance."
"You'll fire the cannonball and use that Straw Hat idiot's head to swear loyalty to me!"
"If you do that, you and Nami can both become our 'companions.'" Clown Buggy raised his chin with a sinister grin. "I can even make you one of my combat captains."
"Well? Power..."
"I refuse."
Roman cut him off before he could finish. Facing the pirates closing in from every direction, he strode forward with both hands empty!
"You want me to swear loyalty to you?"
"Sorry, but clearly, you're not qualified."
"H-Hey, Luffy..."
Nami retreated to the side of the iron cage, watching Roman face them alone. She looked anxiously at Luffy inside.
"He'll die! There are so many of them..."
"He won't."
Luffy smiled confidently from inside the cage.
"Roman is strong."
"So this is all the Buggy Pirates are capable of?"
In just a few minutes, pirates with bruised and swollen faces were sprawled all over the rooftop. Roman, still empty-handed, shook his head.
"I think you should honestly just join a circus."
"At least then you wouldn't have to worry about getting chopped to death someday."
To be fair, although every member of the Buggy Pirates dressed rather... bizarrely, they could not be called similar to circus performers. They were exactly the same! But—
Their agile movements and vicious fighting skills were real. Forget ordinary people; they were at least experts who had surpassed the average pirate standard. Yet—
In front of Roman, they did not even have the ability to leave a single scratch on him, much less fight him.
One punch for each of them, one kick for a crowd.
He completely dominated them from start to finish!
"Captain, there's something off about this kid."
Kabaji, the Buggy Pirates Chief of Staff, rode a unicycle with a Sailor's Knife at his waist, hair covering his left eye, a scarf around his neck, and a cape on his back. He tilted his head slightly and spoke quietly to his boss.
"I saw our brothers' weapons land on him several times, but they didn't do anything at all."
"Could he be wearing some kind of defensive armor under his clothes?" Clown Buggy rubbed his chin, then snapped his fingers.
"Mohji, put on a beast show for everyone!"
"At once, Captain."
A man wearing a cloth doll head and fur of the same color across his chest answered the order. As he stood up, he immediately cast a huge shadow!
Do not misunderstand. He was not some hulking brute. Rather, beneath him was—
A gigantic lion!
It was called a lion, but with that size... calling it an elephant would not be an exaggeration.
And for animals, massive size represented massive strength.
"Oohhh, the First Mate is here~~"
"Get him, First Mate Mohji!"
"Take him down, Richie—"
The giant lion was named Richie, and the man sitting atop it was Mohji, the First Mate of the Buggy Pirates. Man and beast slowly approached Roman, their house-sized body casting a vast shadow over him.
"Well, I should have given you a chance to surrender."
Mohji sneered from atop the lion's back. "But I don't want another annoying guy besides Kabaji competing with me for power, so—"
ROAR!!!
A Lion's Roar, close enough to be felt, carried a foul gust of wind toward Roman! Even Nami, who had retreated to the rear, instinctively covered her ears.
"Richie, tear him apart!"
Following the sudden Lion's Roar came two lion claws as large as millstones, descending toward Roman's head with a shriek through the air! Eight dagger-like claws shot out, ready to rip open his belly on the spot.
Clang!!
Yet with a crisp impact, the giant lion's claws suddenly stopped! They had been forcibly held back by two palms. Though Roman was not exactly thin, beside this elephant-sized lion, he looked as ridiculous as a child wrestling a giant!
"What—"
Yet what was even more ridiculous was this: the enormous lion was actually being forced backward by Roman, inch by inch.
"Richie, bite him!"
At his trainer's next command, the giant lion suddenly lowered its head and used its third weapon: its fangs! It bit viciously at Roman, as though it would separate his head from his body the next second.
Hmph.
Roman fell backward, his back landing silently on the ground! His legs curled up, compressing his entire body into a tight ball. Then, facing the enormous maw descending upon him, he suddenly stretched out!
Inch by inch, as Roman unfolded his body, the joints of his spine shifted and pushed in tandem. With every inch his vertebrae moved, his body straightened little by little along with his spine.
At the same time, the movement of his spine drove the motion of every bone and the contraction and extension of his muscles. Like a lever, power traveled bit by bit from the ground, his arms, and his back to his chest, then surged upward through his waist and abdomen before finally reaching his legs.
The strength of his entire body gathered in one place!
That force erupted, fierce and powerful, like a powder keg suddenly ignited. In that instant, Roman was like a master archer—his spine a bow, his feet arrows—as all the strength in his body burst forth through that kick.
Boom!!
With a tremendous crash, the gigantic lion flew high into the air! Amid everyone's stunned gazes, it traced an arc backward before crashing heavily onto the rooftop! The massive impact made the overloaded roof collapse with a deafening roar, leaving behind only a huge hole and—
Smack.
Roman sprang to his feet with a kip-up, still empty-handed, and patted his pants.
"You didn't think..."
He swept his gaze over the Buggy Pirates, who stood frozen in shock.
"That the strength of someone with a mere ten-million bounty was worthy of being a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, did you?"
Before you continue