Who Do You Think I Am? Bring the Ship Alongside!

The azure sea glittered beneath the sunlight.

The black, cola-bottle-shaped warship sailed against the wind.

The Marines of the Detention Unit were laughing and eating, clearly in excellent spirits.

The mission had gone smoothly.

The criminal they had been tasked with detaining was already in the ship's prison, and the pirate had even cooperated by voluntarily revealing the location of his hidden treasure.

That meant another contribution of merit.

Anyone would have been in a good mood after such a smooth first mission following their vacation.

But at that moment...

"Hey, Sergeant Fal. Tell Sergeant Hans—what do you think the boss is thinking about?"

At one corner of the deck, Hans and Fal huddled together and whispered.

"...Can you stop bringing up that sergeant rank of yours all the time? Are you looking for a fight again?"

Fal glared at him, then lowered his voice. "As for what the boss is thinking, how would I know?"

He muttered as he spoke, but he had to admit Hans had a point.

Because at that moment, while the Marines were celebrating the successful completion of their mission...

Luo Yi was lying on a deck chair, sunbathing at the "cola bottle cap" position at the front of the deck.

An iced bottle of cola and a glass sat beside him, making him look exceptionally comfortable.

But Fal and Hans knew that wasn't the case, because they had noticed that Luo Yi hadn't picked up the cola glass for a full twenty minutes.

For Luo Yi, who always declared that "there can't be the slightest negligence when it comes to chilling cola," this basically meant that he was definitely thinking about something—and was probably in a bad mood.

"What the heck? He's thinking about something but won't say anything. Trying to act mysterious?"

Hans was as tactless as ever.

"...You know, the boss really might be a master now. He's Admiral Zephyr's disciple, after all."

Fal was too lazy to bother with Hans.

And their guess was indeed correct.

"What should I do?"

At that moment, Luo Yi was truly thinking things over.

He was thinking about going to Water 7.

After finally leaving Marine Headquarters, he naturally planned to use this opportunity to visit Water 7.

He had even thought of an excuse. Water 7 was the most famous island in the entire Grand Line when it came to shipbuilding and ship repairs, earning it the reputation of "the Island of Shipwrights."

Quite a few officers within the Marines even cooperated with the shipyards in Water 7, sending their warships there for repairs.

So Luo Yi only needed to use repairing the warship as an excuse to head to Water 7 naturally.

But he hadn't expected this.

"That idiot Hans actually performed a full maintenance check while modifying the warship. Why did he have to be so conscientious?"

That was what gave Luo Yi a headache.

Although he could still forcefully order them to head to Water 7, doing so would be far too obvious.

As a cautious man, he couldn't accept even the slightest risk of exposing himself.

"In that case, I might as well just slice it up..."

Just as Luo Yi was muttering inwardly...

"Boss! Boss!"

The voice from above his head interrupted his thoughts.

"There's a ship to the northeast!"

A Marine stationed at the top of the mast, responsible for lookout and reconnaissance, reported the news.

But only a moment later, Luo Yi heard his voice clearly grow tense.

"It—it's a pirate ship!"

As soon as those words came out, the Marines on the deck instantly grew alert.

They each picked up their weapons and swiftly moved to their assigned positions.

Hans and Fal immediately raised their binoculars to look. Their expressions changed drastically, and they hurried to Luo Yi's side.

"Boss... This looks a little troublesome."

"Troublesome?"

Luo Yi took the binoculars and glanced through them. He then saw the pirate ship.

It was a common three-masted sailing ship. Its bow resembled a horse's head engulfed in flames, while the word "SPADE" was written across its mainsail.

The ship's pirate flag was a skull wearing a hat, with flames burning atop its head and a spade pattern on it.

The entire pirate ship was already battered and broken, as if it had only recently been through a fierce battle.

"That ship..."

Luo Yi's tone was odd.

The pirate flag looked vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

Fortunately, Hans and Fal gave him the answer. "Boss, that ship seems to be the Spadille. It's the ship of the Spade Pirates."

"The Spade Pirates!?"

Hearing that name made Luo Yi feel even more familiar with them.

"That's right—the pirate crew of the Supernova who only rose to fame this year, 'Fire Fist' Ace!"

Fal's expression was solemn.

Hans had clearly heard of them as well. "I've heard that the captain of this pirate crew, Portgas D. Ace, is a Logia Ability User, and he's as strong as a monster."

"Not long ago, he even destroyed one of Shichibukai 'King of Lizards' Hanafuda's fleets, provoking that Shichibukai to personally hunt him down. His bounty consequently surpassed one hundred million!"

At that point, Luo Yi no longer found them unfamiliar.

So it was the pirate crew Ace had established before joining the Whitebeard Pirates. No wonder it had seemed familiar, yet he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

"Boss, let's not get involved with them. Let's withdraw first and report this to the nearest Marine Branch."

Fal and Hans clearly didn't want any trouble.

Normally, pirates with bounties exceeding one hundred million required a Marine officer to capture them.

But then...

"Withdraw?"

At that moment, Luo Yi smiled.

He looked at the pirate ship in the distance, a plan already forming in his mind.

"You've got to be kidding. Who do you think I am?"

He slowly rose to his feet and stretched his body.

"Bring the ship alongside!"

"That's right. Although it looks a little unusual, it really is a Marine warship."

At the same time, aboard the Spadille...

A tall man wearing a mask over his eyes lowered his binoculars.

He was the ship's doctor of the "Spade Pirates," Deuce.

At that moment, his expression was dark and worried as he looked toward the deck before him.

The entire ship was covered in signs of damage, and a circle of people lay sprawled across the deck.

Every one of them was wrapped in bandages, clearly suffering serious injuries.

"Of all times, it had to happen now."

Deuce muttered under his breath, feeling a headache coming on.

Ever since they had taken out one of Hanafuda's fleets more than a month ago, they had been constantly running into danger.

Especially after they had dealt with another one of his pursuing ships not long ago, that Shichibukai had actually come after them personally.

After fighting all the way here, the only people aboard who had suffered relatively light injuries were the ship's doctor, Deuce, and the captain, Ace.

They had finally managed to shake off their pursuers for a while today, yet they had run into the Marines again.

If a battle broke out now, their situation would be rather bad.

"Captain, I'll have to trouble you again."

Thus, Deuce turned his gaze toward another person standing on the deck.

He was a young man wearing an orange cowboy hat, bare-chested, with a few freckles on his face.

His own name was tattooed on his arm: ACE.

Hearing his companion's words, Ace shook his head.

"No need to apologize, Deuce."

He reached up and pressed down on his orange hat, then looked at the approaching warship and grinned.

He had suffered some injuries as well, but they were clearly not too serious—at least, they didn't affect his ability to fight.

Besides...

"It's only a warship. I can take care of it with one strike."

As he spoke, scorching flames began to burn across his body.

Then...

"Whoosh!"

He suddenly kicked off from the deck and leaped into the air.

Flames curled around his right hand!

"Fire Fist!"

I suddenly realized that I wrote something incorrectly in the previous chapter. The new-book ranking votes will be next Monday—cough, cough. Readers, please wait until next Monday to vote (if you're willing to), and please keep reading!