Too Weak

"Pity the bounty was only sixty million. It would've been better if it were higher."

Uchiha Yoru shook his head regretfully. He had wanted to test the strength of an ordinary Uchiha elite.

But a sixty-million-berry bounty seemed a little lacking.

Forget it, it would do for now!

"Inabi, you test this guy's strength."

Yoru turned around and called out to the crowd behind him.

"Yes, Clan Head!"

A man with short black hair and a black dot on his forehead spoke from within the crowd.

He then stepped past everyone and stopped three meters away from the Bone Crusher Pirates.

He stared coldly at the man who had spoken.

Bard felt uncomfortable under his gaze, but his embarrassment quickly turned to anger. "What are you looking at? Can't you understand human speech? Hand over the money, or else—"

His words came to an abrupt stop.

Inabi clearly had no patience for nonsense and slowly raised his right hand.

He formed the Tiger hand seal.

His movements were slow, slow enough for Bard to see every detail clearly.

Inabi raised his right hand before his chest, pressing his index and middle fingers together while curling the other three fingers.

Then he raised his left hand as well, forming a strange gesture before his chest.

"What kind of gesture is that..." Miharu frowned from the rooftop, watching closely through his sniper scope.

It was not the usual movement of a Devil Fruit user activating his power.

It looked more like some kind of... ritual?

Bard's pirate subordinates burst into laughter.

"Boss, what's he gesturing at you for?"

"Don't tell me he wants to kill you with his eyes?"

Bard laughed too, about to mock him.

"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique."

Inabi's voice was calm, as calm as if he were reciting a dish's name.

Then the world turned red.

Rumble—!!!

It was not a fireball.

It was a dragon.

A massive dragon made entirely of flames roared out from Yoru's mouth!

Its body was a full ten meters long, its scales distinct, its claws sharp, and even its whiskers fluttered amid the flames!

Scorching heat swept across the entire dock in an instant!

The smile on Bard's face froze.

Before he could make any response, the flaming dragon had already slammed into him.

"Aaaahhh—!!!"

A shriek so miserable it barely sounded human.

The flames swallowed Bard and the three pirates standing directly behind him.

The giant dragon did not lose momentum. It continued charging forward, smashing through a pile of wooden crates by the dock, gouging a charred trench through the stone ground, and finally crashing into the sea, blasting up a towering column of water!

Steam filled the air, along with a pungent burnt stench.

The flames faded.

Bard was still standing!!!

No, his charred body was merely still holding its standing posture.

The skin over his entire body had carbonized and smoked faintly. Only his eyes still retained the terror he had felt before death.

The three subordinates behind him had vanished, leaving behind only three piles of human-shaped ash.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Only the sea slapped against the dock, accompanied by the distant pop of bursting bubbles.

Inabi lowered his hand and lightly dusted off the corner of his clothes.

"Too much talk," he said.

Then he took a step forward and walked past Bard's blackened corpse.

Without a word, he returned to the main group behind Uchiha Yoru, as if he were merely an inconspicuous lackey.

Months of grueling Haki training had continuously boosted Inabi's physical energy, which had unexpectedly fed back into his Chakra cultivation.

The Great Dragon Fire Technique, which he could once only barely use.

Now, he could activate it with only the Tiger hand seal.

It was simply unbelievable!

The charred corpse swayed before finally falling to the ground with a thud, breaking into several pieces.

"Did they really think Fire Style couldn't burn people to death?"

Yoru shook his head. Just as he had said, a sixty-million-berry bounty was too low. It could not test Inabi's current strength at all.

A Supernova would probably be more suitable!

Unfortunately, this was not yet the era when Supernovas began appearing in large numbers.

Forget it. He would head onto the island and see what formidable experts were hiding there.

Yoru glanced at the surrounding spectators. There was nothing worth his attention, so he walked toward the center of the island without looking back.

The Uchiha clansmen followed expressionlessly, passing by the corpses and ashes without even giving them a second glance.

"B-Boss..." A surviving pirate sat collapsed on the ground, his pants soaked through.

The rocket launcher in another pirate's hands clattered to the ground.

Everyone on the dock.

Sailors, merchants, travelers, and even the Bounty Hunters hidden in the shadows all stood frozen in place, forgetting even to breathe.

On the rooftop, Miharu's hand trembled.

Through his sniper scope, he had seen everything with perfect clarity.

That was not the Flame-Flame Fruit.

Ace's ability allowed him to create and control flames, but that just now...

That man had spewed flames from his mouth. His body had not turned into fire.

Yet the attack seemed no weaker than Ace's.

At the very least, he had never seen Ace defeat a great pirate with a sixty-million-berry bounty in a single strike.

More importantly, the one who had attacked seemed to be just an ordinary follower in the group?

Miharu swallowed with difficulty.

Judging from the position of the man who had attacked, he did not look like the first or second most important person in the group at all.

He quickly glanced at Yoru, Shisui, and Itachi, who stood at the very front.

Could these three absurdly young-looking people be even stronger than that man just now?

What kind of group was this?!!

By then, Uchiha Yoru had reached the entrance to the street.

Without looking back, he led his clansmen into the shadows cast by the Red Trees.

Only a full minute after they had left did sound return to the dock.

"J-Just now..."

"Bard... Bard with the sixty-million bounty..."

"One strike..."

The crowd erupted.

Several bolder people approached Bard's corpse. Looking at the charcoal-like remains, their faces turned pale.

"A Logia? A Paramecia?"

"Could he be that Supernova, Fire Fist Ace?"

"But that was a Fire Dragon, not a fire fist!"

"Idiot, why would a strong person be limited by techniques? Hurry and tell the boss that Fire Fist Ace has come ashore!"

In the distance, the captain of a merchant ship lowered his telescope and quietly said to his subordinates:

"Report to Lord Doflamingo immediately. A group of extraordinary people has arrived at Sabaody."

In another patch of shadow, a masked CP Agent quietly retreated.

Miharu, meanwhile, quickly slid down from the rooftop and took out a Den Den Mushi.

"Hello? Deuce? I found someone even more troublesome than Ace..."

The peace of the already restless Sabaody Archipelago became even more clamorous today.

Uchiha Yoru strolled through the streets of the archipelago, surrounded by dazzling bubbles and bustling shops.

Passersby instinctively made way for him.

News from the dock had spread faster than expected.

"All right, everyone, disperse. Go take a look around the island and see the sights."

Seeing how the people around them continued pointing and whispering at their group.

Yoru thought for a moment, then ordered the clansmen behind him to disperse.

He himself had nowhere in particular he wanted to go, and wandering around with so many people did not seem quite right.

He could not deny his clansmen even the freedom to move about on their own.

He was not a dictator.