On a deserted island.
Zoro, Kuro, and El Drago were dueling to determine their places on the ship. They would settle it through combat, because only strength gave you the right to speak.
Neither Zoro nor Kuro refused El Drago's challenge. Both were confident in their own abilities.
"Ha ha! I won't go easy on you. Don't you dare die to my Sonic Cannon!"
Before the fight, El Drago had been brimming with confidence and arrogance. He believed that aside from Daddy, no one could withstand his laser sound waves.
But the result left even the swordsman Gollas stunned!
El Drago ended up covered in wounds and lost every single match!
His Sonic Cannon had fearsome attack power and could destroy an opponent in a single hit, but his agility and firing speed were simply terrible!
Against the speed-focused Kuro and the genius swordsman Roronoa Zoro, El Drago managed to fire his Sonic Cannon only once. Since it missed, the fight was already over.
Covered in wounds, El Drago sat leaning against a tree, his face pale. He stared blankly at Zoro and Kuro's lightning-fast duel. Their afterimages showed him what real speed in a fight looked like.
He'd grown used to the pirate fighting style of blasting ships as soon as they came into view, and for a while, he'd thought his Sonic Cannon was invincible.
He'd never expected to lose three times in one day!
He found the truth hard to accept!
"You're too slow! Can't you shorten the time it takes to charge? Maybe the energy wave doesn't need to be so thick. Would making it smaller let it move faster and pierce better?"
Daddy rarely offered advice, but he didn't want his new crewmate to lose heart on his very first day.
"I've never tried. I just wanted to make it as big as possible," El Drago said, bewildered. When he'd blasted other people's ships, bigger had always been better, and the distance between the ships gave him plenty of time to charge.
"Train hard from now on, and develop Sonic Cannons in different sizes and speeds. And your speed is bad enough, but why is your defense so weak too? You're huge and burly, yet you went down after only a few hits!"
Daddy looked at El Drago, who was built like a beast, and wondered how Zoro and Kuro had taken him down so quickly.
The worst part was that they didn't have a ship's doctor yet. All they could do was bandage him up and leave the rest to his natural healing!
"I'll get stronger!" El Drago gritted out. Just yesterday, he'd been a pirate captain. Now he was only fourth in command. He was having a hard time accepting it.
"Then do your best! You can challenge me every month, and I'll check your strength whenever I want. Don't you dare stand still, or I won't go easy on you!"
Daddy spoke calmly to El Drago, while Zoro and Kuro's duel was finally nearing its end.
In the end, Pirate Hunter Zoro, with his monstrous stamina, defeated the speed-focused Kuro of a Hundred Plans and secured his place as the ship's second-in-command.
Kuro looked displeased, while Zoro wore a victorious smile.
Just as he'd thought, apart from Daddy and his impenetrable defense, he was the strongest!
"All right! Let's have a party!"
At Daddy's command, Jango, Gollas, and the Cat Brothers immediately got busy. As pirates with even a little bounty on their heads, their only place aboard this ship was as lackeys.
Daddy pulled out the sea chart to check their location.
The waters around Koto Island, near the 153rd Marine Branch in Shells Town...
"There's a trash pirate crew prowling nearby. The useless colonel at the 153rd Marine Branch was already defeated by me. There's nothing exciting in these waters. When are we going after the Krieg Pirates?"
Kuro had accepted his defeat to Zoro. Seeing Daddy checking the map, he started playing his part. He might not be able to beat Zoro, but he was the brains of the ship.
"Those really aren't much of an opponent. I'll go see if I can find some game."
Daddy put away the sea chart. The Cat Brothers were grilling fish again. What kind of nonsense was that? Kuro loved fish too. They really were a bunch of kittens from the Black Cat Pirates.
He headed into the forest to see what he could hunt and add to the feast. Zoro didn't care much about what he ate, as long as he got something in his stomach!
When they saw their captain going hunting, they wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labor too.
"What's that pirate crew nearby called? How much is their bounty?"
Zoro leisurely bit into a grilled fish and held a bottle of booze. As the ship's second-in-command, he had first dibs on the first fish to finish cooking whenever Daddy was away.
"I think they're called the Alvida Pirates. Their captain's a fat woman with a bounty of only five million. Even the Cat Brothers are worth more!"
Kuro looked down on the trash crew so much that he didn't even feel like fighting them. He figured that once they took down the Krieg Pirates, they could head for the Grand Line!
"Five million is pretty low. But back when I was broke and hungry, I'd have cut them down for the cash!"
Zoro sighed. Because he was hopelessly directionless, he often lost track of the bounty targets he was chasing. So he'd go all out to pursue every pirate crew he came across, never letting a single opportunity slip by. Otherwise, he'd end up going hungry for days.
It was that relentless drive that had gradually made a name for him.
He used to think wandering alone was the carefree life. He hadn't realized that joining a crew was what made life worth living.
"I know, Mosshead the lost."
Kuro crooked his mouth into a disdainful, smug grin. Being hopelessly lost at sea really was a laughing matter.
"Bastard! Number Three, what right do you have to laugh at Number Two?"
Zoro caught the mockery in Kuro's grin and immediately snapped at him. He might be directionless, but he wasn't stupid. He could tell at a glance that Kuro was looking down on him.
"..."
Kuro's expression changed. To hell with being Number Three! Winning a one-on-one fight didn't mean you were truly strong. He had plenty of other ways to kill an enemy!
Meanwhile, Daddy was wandering around the deserted island in search of game when he seemed to spot something incredible!
"A pink, butt-shaped fruit? The Sube Sube no Mi?"
Daddy rushed over and picked up a smooth, shiny pink fruit. It even looked a little like a pig's brain.
"Can't believe I got lucky! I'm wandering around a deserted island and stumble across a Devil Fruit?"
Daddy turned the Devil Fruit over in his hands, feeling a flicker of excitement. Was his luck finally changing?
He recalled what Kuro had said about the trash pirate crew prowling nearby. Could it be that fat woman Alvida?
Straw Hat Luffy had punched the fat woman flying. Could she have landed on this island?
Daddy no longer felt like searching for anything to add to the feast. He'd found a Devil Fruit worth over a hundred million for free—his luck was off the charts!
This Paramecia, the Sube Sube no Mi, would probably fetch over a billion Beli at a major auction, thanks to its outrageous beautifying effects.
If an ugly female Celestial Dragon found out about it, it might even go for two billion!
But if a man ate it, could he become unbelievably beautiful too—several times more beautiful than the pirate prince Cavendish of the Beautiful Pirates?
Before you continue