"Bwahahahaha, I can't stop laughing~~"
In the waters near Cocoyasi Village, filthy laughter echoed through the cabin of a warship that represented "justice."
"One hundred and twenty million Beli. Being a thief is this profitable?"
The Marine branch captain named Rat stared at the small "mountain" of gold, silver, Beli, and pearls before him. The reflections in his yellowed pupils gleamed with greed.
"It's making me want to become a 'thief' too. Bwahahahaha~~"
"Hahahahaha~~"
"The captain is joking again..."
The other officers in the cabin laughed as well. The boss was laughing, so why wouldn't they? Did they dare not laugh?
"So what if that thief was good at stealing money? Didn't our 'just' Marines easily confiscate the stolen goods?"
"That's right, the captain really has connections. If there were a few more 'thieves' like this in the East Blue, we could get rich without even moving~~~"
"But, Captain..." One officer picked up a Beli note from the pile of treasure.
"Most of this money is covered in dirt and blood, and it's all tattered..."
"Bwahahaha, it's fine. Money is money."
"This is money that poor little girl spent eight years painstakingly, diligently saving, believing that freedom would come... like a fool. You can't turn your noses up at it!"
"Hahahahaha~~~"
"Hahahahaha~~"
"Ah—!"
?!
"What's going on outside?"
The noise from the Marines outside made Captain Rat, who had been basking in satisfaction, irritably twitch his whiskers.
"Those useless fools! I gave each of them one hundred thousand Beli. What else could they possibly be dissatisfied with?"
As he spoke, he tilted his head toward one of the officers.
"You. Go take a look."
The officer nodded and headed outside, but the moment he pulled open the cabin door—
"Hey, what are you standing there for?"
The officer who had opened the door stood motionless in the doorway, making Captain Rat even more annoyed. But no matter how annoyed he was, he could no longer punish the man, because—
Corpses did not respond to punishment.
Bang!
The officer who had opened the door fell stiffly backward. His wide eyes were full of disbelief, and a pure white throwing knife was embedded between his brows! With more than half the blade buried inside, there was no way he could survive.
"Who?!"
"What—"
"What's going on..."
"I heard you laughing very happily just now?"
With that calm voice, a handsome young man stepped over the officer's corpse and entered.
"I hope you can still laugh in a moment."
What...
"Outrageous!"
"We're Marines!"
"You want to make enemies of the entire Marine force—"
Pfft!
A flash of steel, and the officer who had just been shouting had his head sent flying into the air.
"What a coincidence. I'm a pirate."
Roman's cold gaze swept across them, making these bullies who feared the strong feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar!
"It's only natural for pirates to kill Marines."
Whoosh!
"Ah—"
"Spare—"
"No—"
Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!
Roman's figure swept rapidly through the cabin. Before the officers could even finish begging for mercy, their heads had already fallen one after another. Amid crisscrossing flashes of steel, they became a pile of meaningless chunks of flesh!
"D-Don't... don't kill me...!!"
"I'm a Marine captain... I..."
Captain Rat sat on the floor, trembling like a mouse that had encountered a cat. He kept backing away until he struck the cabin wall behind him! Facing Roman's icy eyes, he did not hesitate to—
Kneel and beg for mercy!
Bang, bang, bang!
Amid a string of kowtows, Captain Rat wept bitterly.
"Please spare me, sir!"
"As long as you spare me, I'll do anything you want."
"I can help you gather intelligence within the Marines, hide your tracks, point out the routes of merchant ships..."
A complete scumbag, a disgrace, garbage!
Walking past the small mountain of treasure in the center of the room, Roman casually picked up a gold coin.
"Fine. I can spare you."
??
"Wh... Thank you, thank you so much..."
Facing Captain Rat's expression of surviving disaster, Roman raised the gold coin in his hand.
"Don't rush. Let's play a game."
Although paper Beli was the universal currency of the world, kings in every country delighted in minting gold coins bearing their own portraits, so—
"This gold coin has a flower on one side and a portrait on the other."
"If it lands on the portrait, you live! If it lands on the flower, you die!"
Let fate decide whether he lived or died.
This...
A fifty-fifty chance?
But in this situation, Captain Rat had no room to bargain. He could only grit his teeth.
"Fine—"
Crack.
Yet Roman merely pinched the coin between his thumb and index finger, bending it in half until the two sides folded together!
Clink.
A gold coin that could only ever land on the "flower" side was tossed in front of Captain Rat, along with Roman's cold voice.
"Go on. Toss it."
But the fate of the weak had always been toyed with in the palms of the strong.
This!!!
"You... you're despicable..."
Captain Rat raised his trembling head. The face that had still held the relief of narrowly escaping death was now filled with despair in those yellow-brown pupils!
"Oh, wasn't this exactly what you just did to my navigator?"
Pfft!
A flash of steel, and the Marine captain named Rat became "two"—split perfectly down the middle. His final thought was:
...That thief's... companion...
"Hey, you outsiders, get out of the way!"
A group of villagers holding pitchforks, kitchen knives, and iron pots roared at Zoro and Usopp, who stood in the middle of the road.
"This is Cocoyasi Village's business. Outsiders..."
Whoosh!
A figure descended from the sky. Though he looked like nothing more than a handsome young man, the white wings on his back and the stench of blood surrounding him immediately left the fired-up villagers uncertain.
"People of Cocoyasi Village,"
Roman folded away his wings and looked at these people wielding tableware, cookware, and farm tools as weapons.
"If you rush into Arlong Park like this, you'll only be throwing your lives away."
"None of your business!!"
"Are we supposed to keep watching Nami fight for us out there?"
"We've been holding Nami back... today, we might as well..."
"Outsiders, you're Nami's... companions, right?"
A police officer covered in scars stepped forward.
"For Nami stealing from you, our entire village apologizes to you."
As he spoke, the officer lowered his head and bowed. The villagers behind him also bowed to Roman and the others one by one.
"Please... please take Nami away!"
"She's a kind girl. She did it all for our village..."
"So you planned to fight with these things?" Roman pointed at the small knives tied to wooden sticks in their hands, the iron pots altered into shields...
"With all due respect, you originally—"
"Were planning to go die, weren't you?"
"Please don't stop us—"
"No." Roman waved a hand, directly cutting off the other man's "plea."
"I won't stop you, but you need new weapons..."
"Brother Roman," Joseph and Johnny carried over several large wooden crates from nearby. These crates were cargo from Roman's merchant ship. Though the two of them were weak as could be, they at least had plenty of brute strength.
"Good." With a wave of Roman's hand, white paper flew over and rolled into the shape of "crowbars," prying open the wooden crates to reveal—
Brand-new long-barreled flintlock muskets lying quietly in straw, along with sharp swords coated in grease!
"Take these weapons."
Roman grinned, and his smile was soaked in bloodlust.
"Even if you're going to die, you should bite off a piece of the enemy first, shouldn't you?"
"Hey, Roman."
On the road from Cocoyasi Village to Arlong Park, Zoro spoke as if casually.
"Those villagers' strength is so low that, in my opinion, even with weapons, three... no, five of them couldn't deal with one ordinary fish-man."
"So why let them come just to add to the casualties—" Roman cut Zoro off. "That's what you wanted to say, right?"
"...Yes."
"You have a point, but, Zoro."
Roman glanced back at Cocoyasi Village, which was gradually receding behind them.
"This is a chaotic age. Being weak isn't frightening. What's frightening is not having the desire to grow stronger."
"We can help them wipe out the Arlong Pirates, but if some 'Cat Pirates' or 'Dog Pirates' come here in the future, are we supposed to return from the Grand Line to save them?"
"For people, relying on themselves is the right thing to do."
After delivering that lofty speech, Roman turned back and smiled faintly at Zoro and Usopp behind him.
"Even so, the gap in strength between those fish-men and the villagers really is too great. How about this—"
"Before the villagers arrive, let's compete to see who takes down more fish-men. What do you say?"
That was also why he had set off ahead of them.
"Interesting. I accept!"
Behind Roman and Zoro, who spoke and laughed amid overflowing killing intent, Usopp's legs shook as though he were fluffing cotton. Even so, he still tightly followed the footsteps of the two men ahead.
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