Those Who Came from the East Blue

"Scum!"

Commodore Brownie spat, looking down on the rabble with utter disdain.

He was even a little angry.

Angry that these scum dared to show him such disrespect and had the nerve to crawl out of their cages!

Still, perhaps that was for the best.

When Chief Magellan asked about it later, he'd have a good excuse.

In his heart, Brownie quietly raised his goal of killing half of them to two-thirds.

They were nothing but pirate trash. No one would appeal their deaths.

"Don't let a single one of them escape!"

He roared.

Well-trained Marines streamed into the passage behind Brownie, forming a line in front of the prisoners.

Black gun barrels pointed straight at Buggy and the others, sending a chill through them.

At least in the first half of the Grand Line, a firing line like this still held tremendous deterrent power. Even some of the prisoners began to waver.

The Marines blocked the passage to the upper deck, coldly cutting off the prisoners' last hope of survival.

With every step forward, they squeezed the little room the prisoners had struggled to gain.

Magellan could accept pirate prisoners being killed during a mutiny in transit, but he would never tolerate even one prisoner escaping.

But this was exactly what Buggy wanted.

Head bowed, he let the corners of his mouth curl slightly as he watched the pirates from the corner of his eye, each wearing a different expression...

Greedy, cruel, cunning... those were the most common words people used to describe pirates.

Put a nicer way, they were adventurous.

In short, they were beasts.

The beastly nature of pirates.

It was the beastly nature forged by facing a treacherous sea and a career in which death lurked at every turn.

And all Buggy had to do was draw that beastly nature out of the pack of wolves, step by step, until they had no choice but to fight for their lives!

Survival and hatred were the best catalysts.

"Fire!"

Brownie's expression was grim as he gave the order without hesitation.

He didn't care what the pirates thought.

Bang—

The thick smell of gunpowder instantly filled the hold, and blood sprayed from flesh.

A burly figure came charging out of the smoke, one rough, rocklike arm raised to the side.

"I'd rather die than go to that prison and become a slave to those scum!"

Habler's roar drowned out the gunfire as he charged fearlessly toward the Marine formation.

Habler and the others could guess, at least a little, how the pirate captains publicly sold on the Sabaody Archipelago had ended up there.

"Let's do this!"

"Rum's still waiting for me!"

"Kill those Marines!"

The pirate prisoners shouted as they raised the chains that had bound them and charged furiously at the Marine formation.

For a moment, they almost looked like valiant warriors.

If only they hadn't been so deliberate about leaving Buggy out of it.

The Marine firing line was aimed straight at Buggy, with nothing in the way.

"See?"

"You have to rely on yourself. You can't expect other people to suddenly grow a brain."

Buggy wasn't surprised. He patted the dazed Arne a few times.

If this were one of those novels where everyone got the wrong idea about the protagonist, these pirates would have already been won over by him, shouting that they'd pledge their lives to him, wouldn't they?

Even in Buggy's original life, he'd had a group of underlings who'd made their own wild assumptions about him.

If that were the case, Buggy would've been happy to follow through on the promises he'd made them. A pirate crew sailing around in a battleship would've been pretty interesting, wouldn't it?

His gaze swept over the ship.

Too bad. Every person he'd run into so far was more devious than the last.

Arne, who had seemed like a scheming pirate himself, almost came off as decent by comparison.

Guess he'd have to handle things on his own.

Buggy suddenly found himself missing the talented people of Gotham City, especially that adorable fellow who lived by a no-killing rule...

They were alike.

Equally twisted.

"Who's that?"

"Clown Buggy. Fifteen million Beli bounty. He came from the East Blue."

"Oh."

The Marines in front didn't say much. Those three words—"came from the East Blue"—said it all.

Without a word, they turned their guns toward the other pirates and opened fire.

The pirates who'd planned to sell out their captain first were baffled.

That weirdo was the source of all this chaos. Why weren't they going after him?!

But the Marines had no intention of arguing with the fugitives.

Their overwhelming firepower sent the prisoners scattering in every direction.

The East Blue's weakness was plain to see.

It was our duty to restore the East Blue's honor!

A certain hot-blooded young man suddenly popped into Buggy's mind...

Never mind. He'd leave that sort of thing to the kid with the plot armor.

But Buggy didn't panic. Calmly, he moved the cleaver tucked against his chest to his forehead and wedged it halfway into the spot between his eyebrows. Then he smeared on a little blood from some corpse or other.

With one hand, an eye, and an ear missing, he practically wore a sign that read: "Harmless, frail, and disabled!"

Then he squatted off to the side, eagerly watching his tool people fight the Marines.

Buggy might once have been used to scenes like this, but after his two sets of memories had merged, he found it all fascinating.

Especially that one from Arkham.

It would've been even better with a bag of sunflower seeds and a bottle of soda.

Buggy paid no mind to the fact that he was the one who'd started this whole mess.

The Marine commodore in the white coat was clearly a veteran who'd fought his way through countless bloody battles.

He stayed composed as several pirates surrounded him. First, he ordered the Marines to fire several volleys, breaking the pirates' momentum.

Only then did he raise his Moon Blade and appear before the Little Giant, Habler, in a flash.

The Little Giant was hard to miss as he moved.

Soru?

The name of the technique came to Buggy's mind naturally.

It was one of the Six Powers used by the Marines and the CP Organization, which had appeared in the Judicial Island arc of the original story.

Soru was the second most famous of them.

The first was Tekkai.

Brownie kept moving. He raised his blade over his head with both hands, then lightly stepped several times in midair as though walking on solid ground, using another of the Six Powers, Geppo, to push off the air.

Then he brought the blade down hard.

Blood burst from the Little Giant's chest like a fountain.

Wincing in pain, Habler could only stagger back a few steps. Fortunately, Brownie had more than just him to deal with.

A bearded pirate, stunned and clutching the corpse of his cellmate, charged the Marine formation. The Marines quickly cut him down, but the volleying formation faltered.

A glint flashed in Joseph's eyes. Seizing the opening, he charged straight for the passage.

The salty scent of freedom seemed to beckon him!

But in the next instant, his vision spun. For a moment, it felt as though he were floating in midair. He looked down and saw his neck, severed and empty.

He'd been beheaded.

Only then did he understand.

Brownie flicked his curved blade, and blood slid onto the floor. The thrill of killing stirred a shiver of pleasure in him.

Even the muscle-tearing pain from using Soru so often had become a kind of excitement.

That was the fate scum deserved!

He tightened his grip on the curved blade, his reddish eyes searching for his next opponent.

Then, in a flash—

His gaze met a pair of eyes full of teasing amusement...