Wolf Claw

"Brother, which ship are you with? Maybe we've even worked together," the bearded man hurriedly called to Sig.

He didn't recognize the Freedom Pirates' tattoo, but he could tell it was a Jolly Roger. There was no doubt the man before him was a pirate.

So even if they weren't on the same side, at least their interests didn't conflict—unless... the other man belonged to one of those pirate crews that meddled in everyone else's business!

"That guy's a Marine. How about we leave her to you, brother?" a bald man with a missing tooth said obsequiously to Sig, apparently thinking the young man had taken a fancy to her.

Wolf Tail's face had turned ashen...

Sig's Telepathist observation was fixed entirely on her expression. If she showed even the slightest sign of resistance, he'd attack at once.

And from Wolf Tail's perspective, the young man before her was using the rudiments of Observation Haki to keep her firmly locked in his sights!

Sig smiled faintly and raised the muzzle of his gun.

Seeing him point it skyward, the Two-Headed Wolf pirates breathed a sigh of relief. They thought he'd decided not to make an enemy of them. At the same time, they watched him closely, deciding whether to honor their promise or kill the kid!

But the next moment, Sig fired directly. A bang rang out as a streak of flame shot into the sky, then burst into fireworks.

A signal gun?

"Bastard! Are you a Marine too?" the pack snarled, aiming their guns and drawing their blades at Sig.

"No, I hate the Marines too. But... if I had to rank them, they'd probably be fifth or sixth on my list." As Sig spoke, he raised his stance for Fish-Man Karate and continued, "Slave traders, though? They're probably second!"

"Damn you... die!"

More than a dozen guns aimed at Sig at once. Yet amid the volley, his hands blurred as he swung them again and again.

At the same time, Wolf Tail rolled away from him, quickly reloaded, then settled into a crouch and fired.

But Sig raised his right palm to his right side. Wolf Tail's bullet was already pinched between his fingers. His other hand, which had been clenched in a fist, opened, and several lead bullets fell to the ground.

Wolf Tail had the rudiments of Observation Haki, but for Sig, her bullet was actually the easiest to detect...

That was because the rudiments of Sig's Observation Haki let him read people's emotions. A gunman who knew Observation Haki coated their bullets with Haki, and since Observation Haki was "the union of will and spirit," those bullets could stir ripples in Sig's perception.

By comparison, the direction the others' bullets came from was random, and directly sensing them was Sig's weak point!

Seeing their guns were useless, a hulking man two and a half meters tall charged at him, swinging a sledgehammer.

But Sig once again assumed a proper stance and thrust out a steady, level punch. "Fish-Man Karate: Thousand Tiles Punch!"

Duang—

Fist and hammer collided. A faint shockwave rippled out as the hammer's handle bent, and it flew from the big man's grasp. The force of Sig's blow cracked both his arms, and he stumbled backward before falling to the ground.

And when the big man's body hit the ground, the people behind him saw...

A fish-man, his height swollen to around two meters and twenty centimeters...

Though Sig had only trained in the basics and hadn't learned any techniques, standardizing his force had clearly made him feel much more at ease in battle.

Only two or three people there could pose a threat to Sig. The best the others had managed was when the missing-tooth man nearly succeeded in cutting him from behind. Now he'd only managed to slash Sig's clothes.

But he hadn't paid for them anyway, so rounding things off, they weren't damaged.

All in all, Sig quickly dealt with the rest of them. At the end, he grabbed Wolf Tail by the head and lifted her up...

But then he noticed the fearful looks in the children's eyes and realized such a bloody scene wasn't suitable for them—especially when the person involved was the "nun" they saw every day...

So he suppressed the urge to punch her in the face and simply tossed her aside, smashing through a courtyard wall.

"Who... are you?" Bellemere asked, clutching her wound and looking at Sig's back.

Sig turned his head slightly and pointed his thumb down at the partly exposed tattoo on his back. "Sig. Siegfried. Second Helmsman of the Sun Pirates."

Well, he'd appointed himself Second Helmsman.

When Bellemere realized Sig was a fish-man, her heart sank.

"Normally, if I came across a Marine alone, I'd cripple them even if I didn't kill them... But Fisher Tiger said saving people matters more than revenge. Since someone here needs you, go!" Sig urged her.

With that, Sig kept facing the woods to the east and didn't turn around to look at Bellemere.

Clap, clap, clap—

A round of applause rang out. A lean, nearly fish-man Sig's height, emerged from the shadows of the trees, wearing a wolf-pelt cloak.

"Impressive, impressive. A bunch of slaves banding together just to survive, and you're still thinking about other would-be slaves?"

Once he stepped out, the moonlight fell across his face. Three marks resembling claw scratches were tattooed on his right cheek, and the metal claws on his raised right hand gleamed coldly...

Now they could see flames leaping from the orphanage, too. Those men had clearly set it on fire earlier!

After abandoning Machu Picchu Island, they'd planned to squeeze in one last round of plunder.

As the Right Claw of the Fierce Wolf, an officer in the well-known slave-trading crew called the Two-Headed Wolf, he naturally hadn't come with only a few grunts. And that was without counting the main force currently pillaging the town. Sig had noticed someone watching from the shadows earlier, which was why he'd kept facing this way.

After hearing Sig introduce himself, Bellemere's expression grew even more complicated. She hesitated, then said, "He's an officer of the Two-Headed Wolf crew, Leicht Kalle, the Right Claw of the Fierce Wolf. His bounty's twelve million... Be careful!"

Looking at Sig facing off against Kalle, Bellemere gritted her teeth and called to the children, "Come on, follow me!"

"B-Bellemere! Nami's still inside!" the blue-haired little girl cried at once.

She'd just been about to run back, not to hide, but to look for Nami, who had a fever and hadn't come out.

Bellemere froze at the words. Hearing the name, Sig also lost focus for a moment...

"Sure you want to get distracted now?" Kalle taunted cruelly.

In that instant, Kalle moved. In a blur, he appeared right in front of Sig and swung his claws down at his head!