"Kid, you just threw a fishing spear at me."
Vergo swung Rosinante around like a giant windmill. Once Conrad came within range, he hurled him savagely. "I'll throw one back!"
Rosinante came spinning down at tremendous speed, a disk more than four meters across. BAM! He crashed into Conrad's back.
Fortunately, Conrad kept his footing and didn't go down. He skidded like a skier, carving two trenches in the snow as the wet soles of his shoes wore right through.
Rosinante's legs wobbled as he staggered to his feet. Bruised and battered, he said, "Looks like we're not getting past this one. I'm sorry I brought you here..."
"Hard times come one after another, but I'll get through them! I can still talk! My eyes are still open! Yaaah!"
Conrad let out another long roar, broken by a string of bloody coughs. But the wind and snow were so loud and fierce that there was no way his voice could reach the patrol ship anchored eight or nine hundred meters away.
But someone heard him.
The man was hiding behind a tree, its branches hissing in the wind. Cradling two barrels of liquor, he'd been sneaking peeks at how things unfolded.
When Vergo chased Conrad farther and farther away, leaving the direct route down the mountain open, he sneered and asked, "Still resisting?"
The man dropped the barrels. His whole body transformed in an instant. His head swelled, bursting through his hood, and his thigh bones thickened as claws sprouted. He became a fearsome Allosaurus!
"Drake! What are you doing? The captain's waiting for us to deliver the liquor!" a pirate scolded, panting as he ran over.
But Drake didn't look back. He'd used up all his courage, and now he charged downhill on his dinosaur legs, as if racing toward the last glimmer of freedom in his life.
He ignored the ladder the Marines had set up to climb the cliff. Before anyone could react, he leaped into the air, arcing down toward the patrol ship on the sea.
"Help me! I'm a kid who was kidnapped by pirates!"
Drake had heard Conrad shout that the Marines had surrounded the island. He'd heard the threat to surrender at once.
Overcome with emotion, he rushed forward with tears streaming down his face. A second after crashing through the deck, surrounded by the panicked Marines' guns, he reverted to a battered, pitiful-looking boy.
In truth, he was already nineteen. His overwhelming fear of his father, Barrels, made him seem much younger.
His father had once been a Marine officer. Drake had idolized him and dreamed of becoming a Marine, fighting shoulder to shoulder with him.
But for some reason, his father had abandoned his honorable place in the Navy, formed a pirate crew with his men, and started beating Drake every day.
Maybe it was because Drake had accidentally eaten the Devil Fruit his father brought home that day, mistaking it for an ordinary fruit—the one he'd planned to sell for a life of wealth and luxury: the Zoan Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Allosaurus.
"The Donquixote Family is coming ashore! They're going to make a deal with the pirates! Request backup!"
Drake stretched his neck and shouted. Then he thought of Conrad's dark eyes—the boy he'd met only twice. "Save them! They're going to be beaten to death by a spy!"
The patrol ship's gorilla-faced, fat lieutenant colonel had already hurriedly picked up the Den Den Mushi receiver when he saw the Allosaurus crash down. He called Vice Admiral Tsuru's warship.
"Hello?" came the deep voice of an elder.
"Reporting, Vice Admiral Tsuru! We've received word that the Donquixote Family is about to land on Minion Island!"
"All forces, prepare to weigh anchor!"
The call ended. The Marines put Seastone Handcuffs on Drake to suppress his abilities and locked him in the brig below deck.
Before leaving the deck, he glanced back at the snow-covered woods on the island's cliffs. It was as if he could see Conrad's black hair whipping wildly in the wind, and the furious face beneath Vergo's sunglasses.
At that very moment, Vergo was indeed furious.
By the time he noticed Drake, it was too late. He turned back with Geppo, but the Allosaurus had run too fast. Without looking back even once, it had leaped off the cliff right before his eyes.
His life as an undercover Marine was probably over. The Navy's reinforcements would arrive soon, too.
Yet Conrad's gaze remained fixed straight ahead, without a trace of discouragement. Vergo's fists clenched with a crack, his anger rising higher.
"It's all your fault. I really want to... kill you!"
Vergo unleashed his presence. No longer worrying about being discovered, he abandoned his covert role as a Marine and became a brutal pirate.
His nickname was "Demon Bamboo." He specialized in coating bamboo sticks with Armament Haki, then blowing them up by inflating them with his breath.
Now he drew the flintlock from his back and snapped off its barrel, coating it in Armament Haki. Holding it before his mouth like a bamboo flute, he aimed at Conrad, ready to blow.
"Move again and you die!"
Conrad felt death—felt it with perfect clarity. He'd thought people would hesitate and panic when they were about to die, but he didn't. It was like before he'd ridden a roller coaster as a child: he'd expected to scream and freak out, but instead he'd simply watched, taking in the wind and the view.
"What's the reason I can't win?" he murmured.
But Rosinante sighed. "You're still too young. If only you had a few more years..."
"I don't have enough Haki! Haki comes from a dominant will! My will isn't dominant enough!" Conrad answered his own question, his voice ringing with determination.
Just then, a large figure flew across the snowy sky. It wasn't a bird, but a member of the Donquixote Family dressed in a thick yellow padded coat, his arms spread wide: Buffalo, the Spin-Spin Fruit user.
His hair spun rapidly around his neck like a propeller, carrying him through the air.
Unlike Rosinante, whose face fell, or Vergo, who calmly waited for news, Conrad's eyes lit up.
His gaze wasn't on the hulking Buffalo. It was fixed entirely on the girl riding on Buffalo's back. She wore a dark red padded coat and a bow on her head.
A small Den Den Mushi was strapped to the girl's wrist. She leaned over and called down, "We questioned the pirates. The Op-Op Fruit has already been stolen. Doffy wants you to capture Mr. Corazon and Luo and find out where the fruit is."
Her mouth turned down, her eyes full of sympathy. Their target was once her family and companion.
Vergo had expected this. "Tell me. Where's the Op-Op Fruit?"
Rosinante pressed his lips tightly together. Naturally, he wouldn't reveal Luo's location.
Then a cheerful call rang out, completely at odds with the tense situation.
"Baby-5!" Conrad waved up at the sky.
The girl looked puzzled. She didn't know him. "How do you know my name?"
"I need you!" Conrad shouted with all the strength in his chest.
"What are you saying?!" Baby-5's face instantly turned red. Her cheeks had already been flushed from the cold, but now the color visibly deepened until it matched her coat.
But Conrad's gaze was so sincere, his voice so fervent, and everything about him so genuine. Besides, she was a girl who couldn't say no to anyone.
"Baby-5! Don't listen to him!" Buffalo turned his head to warn her, baffled.
"I'm the person who needs you most!" The urgent hope in Conrad's eyes was unmistakable, even without words. It was like a broken life finding its other half, or a swordsman discovering the perfect blade. "No one in this world needs you more than I do!"
THUMP!!!
Baby-5's heart pounded so hard she nearly fainted. As a child, she'd been abandoned by her mother for being a waste of food. Ever since, she'd longed to be needed and found it impossible to refuse people's requests.
But even after the Donquixote Family took her in and trained her, she'd never felt such a passionate, overwhelming emotion.
Baby-5 stood up in the snowy wind, high in the air. "Buffalo! I'm going down!"
"Impossible. I'm not letting you go!" Buffalo grumbled in frustration. "You idiot. You're acting up at the worst possible time."
"I... How am I supposed to get down?" Baby-5 stared at the dozens of meters between her and the ground and burst into tears in a panic.
"Jump! I'll catch you! I promise!" Conrad declared, his voice resolute as he looked up at her.
Baby-5 jumped without hesitation, without a second thought. By the time she came to her senses, she was already falling. She couldn't even remember how she'd moved her legs or how hard she'd pushed off. She only wanted to throw herself into that boy's arms.
Before you continue