Conflict

A sea breeze stirred, and colorful bubbles rose slowly in the sunlight, burst, then formed again nearby.

The sight of the Uchiha group strolling across the sea had already drawn plenty of eyes along the shore.

"Hey, look over there!"

"Are those people walking on the sea?"

"Are they Devil Fruit users?"

Near the docks of the 12th Mangrove Area, several sailors unloading cargo stopped and stared at the sea, dumbfounded.

They were dockworkers. They had seen plenty of arrogant pirates over the years.

But they had never seen an entrance quite this brazen.

"Clan head."

Uchiha Izumi spoke quietly. She was the only female ninja on this trip, and her Three-Tomoe Sharingan was already active as she surveyed their surroundings.

"Two people are watching us from behind the trees at three o'clock. Someone's watching us from a rooftop at nine. Armed men are gathering on the third ship to the left of the dock."

"Mm."

Yoru kept walking without looking back.

"Ignore them. As long as they don't provoke us, let them watch."

The words had barely left his mouth when a column of water exploded from the sea to their left!

A huge shape burst through the surface.

It was a monstrous fish over ten meters long, with a mouthful of sharp teeth and bloodred eyes fixed on the prey walking across the sea.

"A sea beast!"

Someone on the dock cried out.

Sea beasts occasionally appeared in these waters, attacking passing ships and even people who fell overboard.

The fish usually lurked around the docks. Today, it had spotted a group of meals walking right above its head.

The dim-witted creature didn't think twice. It opened its gaping jaws and lunged at a Uchiha clan member at the rear of the group!

The clan member didn't even look back.

He merely raised his right hand and pressed his index and middle fingers together.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique."

His voice was cold.

Then—

BOOM!!!

An enormous fireball over five meters across erupted from his mouth. Its blazing heat warped the air as it slammed head-on into the charging fish!

A shrill scream rang across the sea.

Flames swallowed the fish's upper body in an instant, and the stench of charred flesh spread with the steam.

Its massive body twitched a few times on the surface before slowly sinking, leaving only churning foam and floating blackened remains.

The entire dock fell silent.

Even the sound of bubbles popping could be heard.

Uchiha Tekka lowered his hand and continued forward calmly, as if he had merely brushed dust from his shoulder.

Vice Admiral Momonga stood on the deck of his warship, watching the whole thing through his binoculars.

His expression grew darker.

More flames from the mouth. More power like that.

Could every one of them be as strong as the brat who had defeated him?

How could that possibly be?!

"A... a Devil Fruit user?" a sailor on shore stammered.

"A Flame-Flame Fruit user?"

The sniper who had been watching the Uchiha Clan from a rooftop frowned.

"No. There's no way that was the Flame-Flame Fruit."

The sniper shook his head, dismissing the idea.

Because the real Flame-Flame Fruit user, Ace, was the captain of the Spade Pirates.

How could another Flame-Flame Fruit user suddenly appear?!

That's right. The man sitting on the rooftop

was Miharu, the sniper of the Spade Pirates.

The trouble was that the moment their captain, Ace, had set foot on the island, he had bolted like a horse off its reins and vanished.

This was Navy territory, and the Celestial Dragons were here too—people they absolutely could not afford to cross.

To keep their carefree captain from provoking someone he shouldn't,

the crew had scattered as soon as they landed, splitting up to search for Ace.

As the best-eyed sniper aboard, Miharu had climbed onto a rooftop to scan the nearby streets.

But he had barely reached the roof when he spotted a peculiar sight far out at sea.

A group of people in strange outfits were strolling across the sea as though they owned the place.

An entrance that unusual was bound to catch Miharu's attention.

Before long, the Uchiha group finally approached the shore.

At the front, Yoru leaped lightly from the sea onto the wooden dock.

His black boots landed on the planks with a soft tap.

The clan members behind him came ashore one after another, moving fluidly and landing without a sound.

The crowd gathered on the dock instinctively backed away, clearing a space.

Yoru brushed nonexistent dust from his clothes and looked up at the scene before him.

The enormous trunk of the Yarukiman Mangrove rose into the clouds, with all kinds of buildings built along it.

Bubble Cars glided along tracks in the air, carrying tourists between areas. Faint music drifted from afar, mingled with vendors' cries and an argument from somewhere he couldn't place.

The air carried the fresh scent of resin, the aroma of food, and the salty tang of the sea breeze.

"It really is... an interesting place." A smile appeared at the corner of Yoru's mouth.

The past few months on Kuja Island had been unbearably dull.

Now he finally felt as though he had left a deserted mountain and stepped into a bustling city.

"Hey, hey, hey. Where did you lot come from?"

Just as Uchiha Yoru and the others set foot on the island, a rough voice rang out, thick with malice.

The crowd parted on its own, and a burly man with three scars across his face stepped forward.

More than a dozen vicious-looking underlings followed him, swords at their waists and even a rocket launcher slung over one shoulder.

A glance at the direction they had come from confirmed it: these were the armed men Uchiha Izumi had said were gathering.

It seemed they had been waiting for the group all along.

The vicious-looking man walked up to Uchiha Yoru and looked down his nose at the Uchiha group.

His gaze lingered on Uchiha Izumi for a moment, a lecherous glint flashing in his eyes, before shifting to Yoru.

"Pretty cocky, aren't you, brat?"

The man grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Did you ask my permission to walk around Sabaody like that?"

The crowd on the dock began to retreat.

"It's 'Bone Crusher' Bard..." someone whispered.

"A pirate with a sixty-million-Belly bounty..."

"Those people are in trouble."

Bard clearly relished their fearful looks.

He patted the Bounty Order hanging from his belt.

"I'm the captain of the Bone Crusher Pirates."

Bard pointed a thumb at himself. "I run this dock. If you want to pass through, you pay."

He held out his rough hand. "One million Belly a head. There are more than a dozen of you... Let's round it up to twenty million Belly."

Uchiha Yoru looked at him in confusion, then said with a hint of uncertainty,

"Isn't this a bit of a cliché? I didn't hire this guy to set him up, so why's he handing me his face to slap?"

Oh, right.

After a moment's thought, realization dawned on Yoru's face.

This was the Pirate World, after all.

The Pirate World lacked all sorts of things.

But there was never a shortage of pirates with a death wish!