People You Shouldn't Have Crossed

Close-quarters combat. A boarding battle.

When the Takaya Pirates were still over a hundred paces from the warship, Momonga, Kazan, and Ulysses leaped into the air and charged over, stepping on the air with Geppo.

Most pirate ships in the first half of the Grand Line were full of nobodies, unless they were instantly recognizable.

And this one was already battered to pieces by cannon fire, on the verge of sinking beneath the sea.

In the Pirate King setting, cannonballs could only make splashes.

Just how weak did a pirate crew have to be to get hit by cannonballs that only made splashes?

Momonga, Kazan, and Ulysses weren't being reckless. They simply didn't take the Takaya Pirates seriously.

"You're not going? If you wait much longer, they'll probably have captured all the pirates on that ship."

Only three people remained on deck. Roer was naturally asking Morito.

Morito hadn't been interested in a bunch of no-name pirates. Even if he wanted to rack up military merit, they wouldn't amount to much.

But the Roer brothers were looking at him expectantly.

"Want to go together?"

"Sure."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The three of them vanished from the deck. In the Training Camp, the Marine Six Styles were advanced martial arts, but in the Elite Class, they were only basic skills.

They stepped on the air with Geppo and jumped onto the pirate ship.

Morito saw that the battle was nearly over. More than twenty pirates had already been subdued, but he couldn't find Captain Gāogǔ, who had been standing at the bow earlier.

"The numbers don't add up."

His Byakugan vision spread out, covering a certain area beneath the surface as well.

Several figures were underwater, swimming swiftly toward the warship.

"Hm? Under the sea?"

Were they using a battered ship and a few dozen nobodies to distract them while the captain led a small group of elites in a sneak attack on the warship, hoping to steal it and escape?

Morito had noticed when he jumped onto the pirate ship that half its hull was submerged. It probably couldn't travel even a nautical mile.

Putting himself in their shoes, he would have made the same choice.

Steal the warship!

"Poor fools."

Now that he knew what the pirates were planning, Morito wasn't worried at all.

The warship they were aboard was a standard patrol ship. On the surface, Morito and the others were the only combatants, while everyone else seemed to be there just to make up the numbers.

In reality, the warship had a full complement of commissioned officers, warrant officers, petty officers, and ordinary Marines.

Those pirates were only rushing to their deaths by attacking the warship.

Roer and Luomen exchanged glances, thinking: The people Vice Admiral Tarantula arranged are way too weak. With skills like these, they're supposed to ambush Morito? They're practically here to get themselves killed.

"That was over too quickly. These guys really can't take a hit."

Kazan rubbed the back of his head with an almost sheepish look, as though he felt a little bad about hogging all the action.

Morito smiled unconcernedly. How much military merit could a bunch of no-name pirates be worth?

"Let's take them back first!"

"Sure."

Morito didn't care about the bit of military merit from capturing some pirate underlings, and the Roer brothers naturally had no objections. Besides, the pirates hadn't been their real target.

Momonga, Kazan, and Ulysses took the captured pirates back to the warship.

At that same moment, Captain Gāogǔ and his group of elite subordinates burst out of the sea and leaped straight onto the warship.

The warship had been ambushed. Kazan, Momonga, and the others joined the fight again.

This time, they were up against the core members of the Takaya Pirates. They couldn't match the Marines, but they weren't weak enough to be instantly wiped out, either.

The battle quickly reached its most intense, fever-pitch stage.

Everyone was fully focused on fighting their enemies.

The Roer brothers, who had been struggling to find an opening, immediately perked up at the sight!

Vice Admiral Tarantula's people really did have a brain. They'd created a chance for the brothers to be alone with Morito!

If they couldn't handle the rest now, that would be their own fault.

Roer stopped hesitating. A flash of ruthlessness crossed his eyes.

"Now!"

Hearing his younger brother shout, Luomen charged at Morito first, sword in hand.

His blade dipped low, dragging a streak of sparks across the deck.

"Don't blame us. Blame yourself for crossing someone you shouldn't have!"

"Break his arms and legs first!" Roer raised a flintlock and fired at Morito without hesitation.

"Don't worry, we won't kill you!"

Luomen kept attacking Morito's mental defenses with his words.

Anyone who was suddenly stabbed in the back by a companion would be badly wounded at the very least, if not killed.

They would surely be shocked, too—and the Roer brothers planned to strike in the instant Morito was caught off guard!

But reality seemed a little different from what they'd expected.

Morito's expression was calm. Not a trace of shock showed on his face!

"Looks like there's no need to doubt it."

Morito moved even faster. His hands shot out like lightning, two fingers gathering Chakra as he tapped each brother in the chest.

With a soft thud, it was as if something had been driven into their bodies.

The Roer brothers froze on the spot.

"Shanzhong Point!"

On the midline of the front of the body, between the two nipples.

One of the Thirty-Six Lethal Points.

Just a tiny amount of external force was enough to scatter the inner energy, make the heart race, and leave the mind in a daze.

The Roer brothers stared at him in terror, looking utterly disbelieving.

"What are you so surprised about?"

Morito grumbled, "Next time you want to ambush someone, could you try not to make your hostility so obvious?"

"Even a blind man could see it!"

"Forget it. You won't get a next time."

Morito's appearance was deceptive. In truth, he wasn't some kindhearted saint. He never showed his enemies mercy.

This wasn't his first time killing someone, either.

Garp had helped him get a taste for it nine years ago.

Hadn't the Roer brothers been waiting for a chance to be alone with him?

And hadn't Morito deliberately stayed behind for the same reason?

The moment Roer shouted "Now!", Morito had figured it out.

Those two had indeed been after him.

But today was the first time he'd met the Roer brothers. There was no way he'd done anything to make them hate him so much.

That left only one explanation.

It was because of Onigumo!

"I've already guessed the answer, but I still want to ask one last time."

"It's because of Onigumo, right?"

Morito looked at Roer.

Blood trickled from the corner of Roer's mouth, and his eyes were bloodshot.

The rush of blood had started to cloud his mind. "Don't get cocky. You won't be able to swagger for long after offending Vice Admiral Tarantula!"

"Is that so? Then go on ahead and wait for me."

Morito's eyes turned cold. A lethal surge of Chakra gathered at his fingertip and shot into Roer.

The Roer brothers rolled their eyes and toppled to the ground with a thud.

Morito thought of the middle-aged man he had glimpsed in passing on the back hill of the Naval Academy.

"Vice Admiral Tarantula."

After dealing with the Roer brothers, Morito didn't feel any more at ease.

The Roer brothers were just a pair of threes he'd been dealt.

The real trump card was still to come!

Before long, a pirate ship flying a bald-bird flag appeared on the horizon.