The Dragon in Shallows Is Still a Dragon

The sky over Marineford was a brilliant, piercing blue, with wispy white clouds drifting like a flock of sheep across the wilderness, stretching all the way to the horizon.

Conrad suddenly gazed up at the blue sky and remarked, "What a beautiful day, ruined by the barking of dogs."

Onigumo, a man of immense presence, paused the rhythm of his lip-curling, ghost-mouthed smoking. His indifferent eyes suddenly focused, radiating a vicious, baleful aura.

The subordinates guarding him were filled with shock and terror, their faces nearly contorted; to defy Onigumo, even at Marine Headquarters, was a suicidal act of madness.

Seeing Onigumo remain silent for a long moment, the atmosphere freezing over, Very Good immediately stepped forward to reprimand, "You brat! How dare you insult the Vice Admiral! Kneel and apologize to him this instant!"

But before the words had even left his mouth, he was hoisted into the air by his head, his burly frame dangling before Onigumo like a helpless infant.

"He said barking, and you say I'm being insulted?" Onigumo exhaled a massive cloud of smoke, blowing it directly onto the top of Very Good's head.

He had seen arrogant brats before, but never one so brazen in public. Did this kid have some kind of backing? Was he just the naive offspring of some noble family suffering from a delusion of grandeur?

Very Good trembled incessantly, "No, no, no! It was me, it was me!"

"It was you," Conrad nodded.

Seeing the man bow his head, Onigumo's ghastly mouth began to curl upward, but before he could even smile, he saw an index finger pointing straight at his nose.

"And it was him, too," Conrad smiled, looking at them as if they were mere dregs. "They're both dogs, so what is there to argue about?"

In this life, he firmly believed one must walk the righteous path; to wallow in the mire of depravity and fight for status was to speak the language of maggots!

But the common man did not understand, thinking him wrong instead. How could he possibly be wrong? Little did they know, a dragon in the shallows remains a dragon! A shrimp or a worm entering the sea is nothing more than bait.

Swish.

A sword light slid from its scabbard.

Onigumo's guard-sword was coiled and lifted by his coarse, black hair, moving like the leg of a spider.

This was the very origin of his name; he could wield eight swords simultaneously.

Throughout the process of drawing and raising his blade, he kept his eyes fixed on Conrad's expression, but the boy remained entirely calm.

It was as if his status as a Vice Admiral and his mastery of Life Return sword techniques were of no consequence to him at all.

Swish!

The sword thrust out, the spider-leg blade grazing past Conrad's left ear.

With a horizontal sweep, it severed the heads of the pirates behind him, along with a dozen wooden target posts.

A massive spray of blood erupted, flowing into serpentine, chaotic streams.

Throughout the entire process, Conrad stood atop the Allosaurus, as steady as a mountain.

Because he had ten parts confidence that the blade was not aimed at him; he had felt no killing intent locked onto his person.

Even as a baby, he possessed a sensitivity beyond that of mortals; even in the deepest sleep, he would wake instantly if someone nearby whispered his name.

Onigumo retracted his sword. His strike had been neither fast nor slow, and while it had clearly been aimed at a person initially, Conrad had neither feared nor dodged.

This was not the place to start a major conflict, and his status was not so low that he would lose his temper with a child.

"These were pirates from non-affiliated nations, outside the jurisdiction of the World Government laws." He spat out his cigarette butt, crushed it with his leather shoe, and turned toward the gate of the training grounds.

Bling Bling, his legs shaking, covered his mouth and whispered a reminder to Conrad, "He... he was right."

The Navy was an organization under the World Government, and the World Government was composed of affiliated nations.

The pirates were already dead; there was no way to verify whether they had come from an affiliated nation or not.

Conrad stood atop the head of the Allosaurus like a victor; even the ferocious Vice Admiral Onigumo had failed to intimidate him.

"Kwa!" Drake, only just realizing what had happened, clutched his head with his short claws and roared as he ran around in circles, "That scared me to death!"

Kujaku stopped slowly and looked up, her face, already flushed with a faint rosy hue, deepening in color; she had been so worried she had actually run over.

"Give Baby-5 back! I want to go home."

Conrad gripped his bow, jumped down from the Allosaurus, and stopped reflecting on Onigumo's sword strike.

He hadn't blocked it, nor could he have, so he sighed, shook his head, and laughed, "I should start my training."

Conrad walked over to the broken target posts, retrieved the ribbon, and watched as the longbow rotated like liquid, transforming back into Baby-5. He clipped the hair accessory onto the girl, took her hand, and led her to Kujaku.

Kujaku glared at him and said sternly, "If you do this again, I won't bring her to see you! I'm responsible if something goes wrong, and my grandmother will scold me!"

Conrad acted as if he hadn't heard her, muttering to himself, "Buy Baby-5 more good food, let her drink more milk; she's at the age where she's still growing."

"Buy food, buy drinks... are you going to pay for it!" Kujaku gritted her teeth in anger; this guy didn't care about her words at all.

Conrad pulled the only two ten-thousand Beli notes he had from his pocket and handed them to Kujaku.

Kujaku tilted her head and squinted, "This little bit won't buy anything!"

Conrad ruffled Baby-5's hair, "I'll give you more when I earn it. If it's not enough, please cover the difference for me; consider it a loan, just keep a tab."

Kujaku was speechless. She had money; what she wanted to see was a look of defeat on Conrad's face, but not only was he not discouraged, looking at the two of them actually made her chest ache a little.

She snatched Baby-5's wrist and turned to leave.

"Thank you!" Conrad waved goodbye.

Baby-5 looked back from time to time; she had been abandoned for being poor in the past, but this time, despite being just as poor, she was being cherished. She buried her head, a sweet, curved smile forming beneath her flushed, delicate face.

"Kujaku, I am so happy." Tears dampened her eyelashes and slipped out from the corners of her eyes.

Kujaku did not understand, but seeing Baby-5's expression, she froze for several seconds. She blinked, trying to ponder something, but she had already walked out of the training grounds gate before she could think of anything.

As the afternoon passed, the sky took on a lazy hue, and in such a natural atmosphere, people easily fell into the melancholy of the setting sun.

Conrad turned back, fished out the remaining four thousand, patted the Allosaurus that was still rooted to the spot, slung an arm around Bling Bling's shoulder, and laughed heartily: "Dinner time! Let's go! My treat for a big feast!"

Drake transformed back into his human form, bracing his stiff legs; he had almost thought he was going to be hacked to death, and just before dying, he muttered, "I want to eat chicken rice."

"Haha, anything works for me." Bling Bling hunched his back and said, "Are we drinking? I'll go buy some!"

"No drinking." Drake shook his head; he hated drunks.

"I'll drink milk!" Conrad remembered very clearly that the milk in this world was extraordinary; drinking it could even make knocked-out teeth grow back perfectly.

A week passed at a leisurely pace. Inside Dorm 108, Conrad unwrapped his bandages.

The boy in the mirror looked spirited and heroic, his injuries completely swept away.

Over this past week, he had carefully sorted things out.

The time he was in was eleven years before the start of the original story, when Luffy set sail. There were many places he could visit, and many things still had room to be saved.

A hero of his generation should naturally roam the world, view the scenery of the five lakes and four seas, and forge a resounding reputation.

But before that, he needed a body developed and trained to its prime, and he needed to secure some startup capital.

After all, other parts of the ocean were not as safe as Marine Headquarters; most were like Minion Island, prone to sudden disasters and ravaged by pirates.

Ninety-nine percent of pirates were not like the ones Luffy encountered—free and happy—or perhaps Luffy simply had the strength and background, so his enemies were forced to be "happy" with him.

Conrad's current physical fitness was far inferior to Luffy's. The only thing he could utilize was Haki, but limited by the extent of his physical training, his reserves were also limited.

What he had primarily cultivated in the past were the Heart-Freezing Art from Wind and Cloud and the Imperial Classic of World Governance from Sea Tiger, which emphasized the balance of stillness and motion, though he had also dabbled in the strengths of a hundred other schools.