Chapter 1: Young Tiger
Grand Line Calendar 1484, New World, Doldia Island.
A large pirate ship floated in the sky.
Roa, petite in stature with black hair and black eyes, stood on the railing that was somewhat too high for him, looking down at the island below with a mix of awe and wonder.
Doldia Island, an island packed with pirates, was undergoing a catastrophe.
Accompanied by thunderous roars, the entire island undulated like the sea in a storm, the ground rising high only to slam down fiercely like a tidal wave the next moment, layer upon layer of ground constantly piling up together.
Towns were buried in the blink of an eye, and the pirates, as powerless as ants, were crushed into mud before they could even let out a scream.
"Gahahahaha!"
The mastermind behind it all, a man with a head of brilliant gilded long hair, floated in the sky and laughed loudly.
He merely swung his right hand casually, making the island below dance along with it.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, magnificent! Uncle Shiki! That's it, crush them!"
Roa breathed in deeply, and invisible to ordinary people, rich black miasma rose from the island below, sucked into Roa's nasal cavity, causing him to show an extremely intoxicated expression. "So delicious!"
The man known as the Golden Lion, a top executive of the Rocks Pirates, Shiki turned his head. "Rocks didn't have you kid come over here for you to cheer me on!"
"Eh?"
Roa's cute smiling face revealed an awkward expression as he raised his hand to scratch the back of his head. "The opponent is a monster with a bounty of over eight hundred million after all, I'm no match for him."
"And--"
"Shiki!!"
Right at that moment, the ground shattered, and the flying dust instantly blasted open to form a channel. A furious man sprang into the air like a cannonball, charging straight at the man in the sky. "You guys go too far!!"
"Uncle Shiki,"
Roa watched the man who soared into the sky and said with a cheeky grin, "The enemy's target is you too."
"Hmph!"
The Golden Lion let out a cold snort, and while turning around, he casually drew the beloved sword at his waist. The sharp blade instantly turned pitch-black, and black-and-red lightning crackled and leaped.
"Lion's Threat: Imperial Earth Cut!"
The blade tore through the vast sky, instantly unleashing a massive golden slash a hundred meters long, making the sky itself seem dyed in gold.
"What?"
The face of the man who had shot into the sky changed drastically, and the next instant he was cleaved directly down by the slash, blood spilling across the sky.
The Golden Lion stood proudly in the high skies, slowly exhaling a ring of smoke. "If you've got this kind of level, why not commit suicide earlier instead of making me come over in person. It's you lot who went too far."
Roa clapped repeatedly. "A magnificent sword strike!"
A slash imbued with Conqueror's Haki, this was the posture the Golden Lion ought to have.
The lion in his prime raised his head and looked toward the other side of the island.
"Roa."
He raised his voice. "Some idiots are trying to run away, go take care of them."
As he spoke, he glared at Roa again. "Don't make me say it a second time."
"Yes, yes, yes, time for my entrance."
With Roa's deliberately drawn-out tone, as he took a step forward, black fur grew out across the surface of his body, and the next moment, he jumped down from the large ship suspended high in the sky.
On the other side of the island lay a small cove, and at that moment within the cove, a pirate ship was rapidly fleeing toward the open sea.
On board the ship, a group of pirates acting like stray dogs looked back in terror at the island behind them, which was being kneaded back and forth like dough by an invisible force.
"That monster Golden Lion actually came over in person!"
"It's all the captain's fault! Daring to provoke the Rocks Pirates!"
"It's too late to say anything now! The captain is done for, and the Golden Pirates are finished too! That lunatic Golden Lion is going to destroy the entire island!"
"Who's talking about a pirate ship now? Just run!!"
They had completely lacked the courage to clash with that lion, and all they could do now was run.
But right at that very moment.
In the sky, a patch of dark clouds descended.
"What?"
The pirate leading the escape, an executive of the Golden Pirates, Johnny the Heavy Axe, suddenly raised his head, his pupils constricting.
It was not a cloud.
That was a ferocious tiger!
A pitch-black fierce tiger over five meters in length, flapping a pair of broad, pitch-black wings as it slowly descended!
Aside from its color and wings, it also had a pair of sharp, massive horns on its head, just like the giant horns of a water buffalo!
Its build also appeared somewhat lean and slender, and even the head that should have had some roundness looked gaunt, but precisely because of this, the sharp teeth jutting out from its mouth looked all the more ferocious.
Roa landed steadily on top of the cabin and looked over Johnny the Heavy Axe and the others, then a slightly crisp and youthful voice rang out, "Sorry, everyone, this road is closed."
Johnny's eyes widened in disbelief, "A Mythical Zoan?"
This appearance was obviously a Zoan, but even ancient tigers didn't have wings and horns, did they?
That left only one possibility: this was a Mythical Zoan, even rarer than a Logia according to legend!
"Rocks said,"
Roa folded the wings behind his back, looking down at the pirates who had long since been scared out of their wits by Golden Lion, "Everyone has to die, and there's nothing I can do about it."
Johnny's pupils suddenly constricted.
Every single Mythical Zoan user was a monster!
But.
"Go to hell, you bastard!!"
Logia or Mythical Zoan, if you want my life, I'll take yours first!
Johnny the Heavy Axe truly wielded a heavy double-edged battleaxe, and he roared as he swung it, "Anyone who doesn't want to die, charge with me!"
"Take this guy down!!"
The pirates also knew that if they didn't take the opponent down, they would only be taken down by him; that being the case, what was there to be afraid of?
Thus, the pirates mustered their courage one after another, following behind Johnny as they charged toward the black tiger, for a moment looking somewhat menacing.
Facing the menacing pirates, Roa made no particular move; he merely blinked, but the very moment his eyelids closed and reopened, his distinctly black-and-white eyes reversed polarity, his pupils turning pale and the whites turning pitch-black.
He seemed to see something ordinary people could not, and smiled as he spoke, "False courage is useless against me."
"Waaaaah!"
The next instant, the terrified screams of the pirates echoed across the bay.
The pirates who had just mustered their courage now had their wits scared out of them one after another, swallowed entirely by an inexplicable terror.
Their bodies trembled so much that, let alone gripping their weapons, they couldn't even manage to stand straight; they wept and snot dripped as terror overtook them, kneeling on the ground while their weapons clattered to the earth.
The trousers of many pirates grew damp in that instant, and a few pirates even vomited bile from terror, quite literally being scared to death on the spot.
"What is going on... What... is going on here!"
Johnny the Heavy Axe retreated in terror step by step, the ferocious tiger before his eyes growing infinitely larger in his sight, resembling a shadow covering the world and leaving him utterly unable to muster any thought of resistance.
Yet he was still standing, after all.
"Oh?"
Roa looked at the only pirate still standing with considerable interest, "Impressive. A stray dog like you is actually able to resist my ability."
Johnny's breathing all but stopped.
Was it this guy's ability? Fear? He could make people fear him!
What a terrifying ability!
His body was shaking; let alone attacking, just standing took his every last ounce of effort.
He failed to notice that a pitch-black hue had stained his pupils, while the eyes of the other pirates on the ground were almost entirely filled with darkness by now.
"Looking at it this way, you still seem to have some value,"
Roa thought for a moment, a smile stretching across his already fierce face, "Then let the slaughter begin. The last person left alive can survive."
Can survive? As long as he killed the others, he could live?
Amidst the intense terror, another emotion began to sprout.
Johnny instinctively tightened his grip on the battleaxe in his hand.
The intent to kill in his heart grew wildly like spring grass.
Kill!
As long as he killed everyone, he could—
No!
Johnny's pupils shook violently.
It was this guy's ability again!
Not just fear, even the intent to kill could be fomented?
Swish!
Before Johnny could figure it out, the sound of wind breaking came from behind.
He instinctively sidestepped as a blade slashed down from right in front of him.
Behind him, the pirates were already hacking and slashing at one another.
The pirates had gone completely mad, terror and cowardice utterly swallowed by a pure, unadulterated intent to kill. Kill, kill, kill—fucking kill everyone!
Everyone seemed to have turned into maniacs, forgetting fear and ignoring pain; even if their windpipes were severed, they would desperately bite and tear at their opponents, and even if their hearts had been pierced, they would still return an equally fatal blow to the other!
"Are you kidding?"
Johnny the Heavy Axe roared, yet instinctively swung his heavy battleaxe, splitting the head of the pirate who had just attacked him with a single blow.
What the fighting pirates could not see, however, was that a trace of black substance was drifting up from their bodies.
Invisible to ordinary people, the black smoke headed toward Roa.
Roa slowly inhaled, and the black mist was drawn into his nasal cavity.
Roa wore a look of disgust. "Without reason, this is truly foul to eat."
At the same time, the battle had reached its climax.
After continuously hacking several comrades to death, Johnny finally could no longer suppress the surging murderous intent; his pupils gradually turned pitch-black, his reason vanishing in an instant, and his battleaxe flew as he instantly chopped off the heads of two pirates before him, roaring like a beast,
"Kill!"
Kill all these bastards!
He no longer cared about survival or revenge; now, there was only one thing in his heart: kill! Kill the fucking lot!
Soon, the slaughter reached its end.
It had to be said he was worthy of being an officer on the ship; Johnny ultimately became the final survivor. After successively lopping off the heads of sixteen companions, only he was left standing. His strength was indeed impressive, and after a chaotic melee, he bore basically no injuries on his body.
The crucial point, however, was that Johnny's eyes were wide open, his expression dull, and both his whites and pupils had turned completely pitch-black, looking like an abyss without a shred of light.
He staggered toward the direction where Roa was, his movements as stiff as a puppet.
Black Tiger nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad, not bad. Among all my spirit slaves, the quality is quite high."
As for the others.
Roa glanced over the pirates lying scattered about the ground horizontally and vertically.
So be it, consider it my good deed.
At that moment, bronze-colored patterns spread from the base of the sharp horns upon his head.
Whoosh!
Flames!
Flames of unknown origin suddenly surged from the deck, and then spread at an eerie speed, swallowing the entire ship just a few seconds later.
"Jiehahahaha! Roa! Well done!"
A loud laugh came from above, and Lion floated in the sky. "Johnny the Heavy Axe, although the weakest among the officers, this guy's bounty still exceeds one hundred million."
Grabbing the black-eyed Johnny, Roa flapped his wings and soared into the air, his voice full of smiles. "Because the wandering are frail."
"Jiehahahaha! Before your ability, indeed they are!"
Before you continue