For a whole week, they had wiped out four of Krieg's Pirate crews' patrol fleets. The news sent Krieg into a fit of rage.
Krieg felt that his position as East Blue Overlord had been seriously challenged.
After losing fifteen ships and more than 1,500 men, the Krieg Pirates finally learned who their attackers were. The news soon made the headlines across the East Blue.
Krieg had been utterly humiliated!
It turned out the East Blue Overlord was nothing but a paper tiger, beaten to a pulp by a few people!
"Big Daddy Babaya, Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, Kuro of a Hundred Plans—you're all dead!"
Admiral Krieg roared as he stared at the newspaper. Why had a traitor from the Barto Family, a bounty hunter, and a pirate who had supposedly been dead for two years ended up together?!
"Gin! Pearl! Gather every last man and go wipe them out!"
Krieg's eyes were bloodshot as he roared at his two trusted subordinates. He had planned to take another year or so before making a push for the Grand Line, but now a few guys in the East Blue had destroyed nearly a third of his forces.
He swore he'd have his revenge!
The massive mobilization of the East Blue Overlord, the Krieg Pirates, alarmed plenty of other pirate crews. The weaker ones had already gone into hiding.
East Blue, Loguetown.
The Barto Family's leader, the man-eater Bartolomeo, read the newspaper. When he saw the news about Big Daddy Babaya, he immediately tore it to shreds, shouting that he was going to sea to hunt Babaya down.
But Granny Yubaba quickly put a stop to him, forbidding him from going after Babaya.
After all, if the Krieg Pirates could take Babaya down, Bartolomeo would be no match for them either.
But if Babaya destroyed the Krieg Pirates, Barto would only be throwing himself into danger. It was wiser to sit back and watch them fight.
Dezaya, meanwhile, stared at the news in the paper with a complicated look, her eyes filled with deep concern!
She ran back to where she was staying!
"Barto! Keep an eye on Dezaya. Don't let her go to sea to find Babaya!"
Granny Yubaba whacked Bartolomeo on the head, raising a huge bump, and spoke sternly.
"Got it, Granny!"
Bartolomeo stood before Granny Yubaba like a frightened kitten. Her cane really hurt!
Loguetown, Marine Branch.
A white-haired Marine with a cigar between his teeth glanced at the newspaper and looked surprised. Six against five thousand?
Were rookies these days really that strong?
Big Daddy Babaya, I'll remember your name. If you've got the guts, come back to Loguetown. I'll arrest you myself. How dare you mix with pirates?
Smoker immediately applied to Marine Headquarters to reinstate Kuro of a Hundred Plans' wanted poster. He also ordered a thorough investigation of Captain Morgan at Marine Branch 153, to set the record straight for the Marines.
As for the gangster Big Daddy Babaya and Pirate Hunter Zoro, he would have to keep an eye on them for now. But in Smoker's eyes, those two would end up with wanted posters sooner or later.
They were both far too ruthless. They had killed more than a thousand pirate underlings. With that kind of bloodlust, Smoker couldn't believe they were good people!
East Blue, Orange Town.
Seeing that a dangerous figure had emerged in the East Blue, Buggy the Clown couldn't help thinking about laying low for a while. His Buggy Pirates only had a little over a hundred men, after all, and he didn't dare provoke the vastly larger Krieg Pirates.
East Blue, Cocoyasi Village.
Arlong looked at the news with disdain. The East Blue Overlord, Krieg? In his eyes, they were nothing but a bunch of weaklings.
Even with fewer than a hundred men in the Arlong Pirates, he was confident they could take down the five-thousand-strong Krieg Pirates.
Fish-Men were ten times stronger than humans. Each could take on ten men, or even a hundred, and out on the sea, Fish-Men were the real protagonists.
If he hadn't worried that a war with the Krieg Pirates would cost some of his Fish-Men brothers their lives, why would he have let that weakling Krieg claim the title of East Blue Overlord through sheer numbers?
After all, he was the pirate with the highest bounty in the East Blue!
An orange-haired girl in the Arlong Pirates was also stunned by the news. How could six people beat five thousand?
But she had no time to worry about that. She still had to go out to sea and make money.
Then, though, a bold idea came to her.
The Krieg Pirates, the East Blue Overlord, were in disarray, sending people out everywhere to search for someone. Did that mean she'd have a better chance of stealing their treasure?
Maybe she could steal enough to buy back her village in one go!
Nami, her heart pounding at the thought, immediately began considering whether the plan could work.
On another pirate ship.
Jango and the Cat Brothers were trembling with fear, as if the Krieg Pirates could tear them apart at any moment.
But Daddy and Zoro carried on as usual, eating when it was time to eat and training when it was time to train. Kuro, meanwhile, frowned at the photograph of himself in the newspaper.
So they'd been exposed after all!
"Zoro! You're not ruthless enough. You let so many pirates escape!"
Kuro pushed up his glasses with his palm and spoke coldly, though he wasn't actually blaming him. He had already foreseen every possible outcome.
He just felt that if Zoro held on to too much kindness, he might get himself into trouble later.
But Daddy the Devil was different. In Daddy's eyes, Kuro saw nothing but pure indifference, as if the lives of those pirates were even more insignificant than insects.
He could tell that Daddy treated slaughtering pirates like a game.
Kuro could even sense, in some subtle way, that Daddy didn't belong in this world.
He seemed to look down on humanity from above, with arrogance and contempt—as if he were watching and toying with a nest of ants.
Kuro couldn't understand why Daddy had that look in his eyes with so little strength.
If he had the power of a Shichibukai or one of the Four Emperors, Kuro would have nothing to say. But it was far too soon for him to look at people that way.
Could this guy be a Celestial Dragon?
Kuro shook his head, dismissing the thought. It seemed to be a problem with Daddy himself.
Still, he rather admired Daddy's cold, ruthless nature. After all, feelings only got in the way of a person's judgment and speed when drawing a blade.
"They're too weak! They don't even make me want to cut them down!"
Zoro didn't want to admit that he was kind. He just couldn't be bothered to swing his sword at the weak. He wanted to cross blades with stronger opponents.
"Next, let's see what our limits are! Don't you dare collapse too soon!"
Daddy was still wolfing down meat. He yearned for the kind of monstrous physique that could fight for ten days and ten nights straight. Even if he couldn't reach that level, he'd aim for five days and five nights, then three days and three nights!
"Hmph! I can go ten days and ten nights without eating and still fight! I'm not so sure about Kuro and his walking-stick body!"
Zoro taunted Kuro. He was called a demonic swordsman because he could chase a pirate crew for days and nights without giving up. His stamina was terrifying.
In the original story, he was tied up for nine days without food or water, and left to bake under the blazing sun. Yet after Luffy freed him, he still had plenty of fight left in him.
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