"Damn it, where did these brats come from! Kill them!" Igaram was no longer as composed as before; his face was contorted with rage.
bass!
Zoro, without anyone noticing, had already appeared behind Igaram, gripping his swords tightly against Igaram's ears and plunging them into his hair.
Zoro, leaning against Igaram, smiled from a direction the other couldn't see, "I have a question for you. Just adding one more tombstone is fine, right?"
"Damn it, he's there." Several other bounty hunters immediately stepped forward and surrounded Zoro and Igaram.
"Idiots, stop! Are you trying to kill me too?" Igaram saw the bounty hunters around him raising their guns, clearly intending to kill them both.
"Stop it, damn it!" Igaram saw that no one around him seemed to care, and he continued aiming his weapon. " Saxophone Shotgun!"
It turns out that the Zaku that Igaram always carried was actually a hidden weapon, which directly knocked down the bounty hunters who were trying to shoot him, and Zoro took advantage of the chaos to disappear.
"Damn it, where did they go?" Not only Zoro, but Sasuke and Hinata also used the Body Flicker Technique to disappear from everyone's sight. They did this intentionally to lure everyone away so that they wouldn't directly attack Luffy and the others.
"Is that a shotgun? I didn't expect him to carry such a dangerous thing around." Zoro raised an eyebrow, huddled in the corner.
"It seems that even we need to take them very seriously." Mr. 9, dressed as a prince and sporting a mustache trimmed into the shape of the Arabic numeral "9," looked solemn.
Even Igaram's hand, gripping the Zaku, trembled slightly. "Do they really think they can take on all of us here with just a few people? This doesn't seem like something someone who truly understands Baroque Works would say or do."
Inside the tavern, aside from Luffy was fast asleep from being too full, and Usopp and Sanji who were completely asleep, Nami also got up from the table and nodded to Sasuke and Hinata's Shadow Clone Technique: "This welcoming town— Whiskey Peak —is actually a bounty hunter's lair? Hehe, I thought of this possibility a long time ago."
Seeing Nami get up from the table, Naruto was lying on the ground, also sat up. Although he had eaten a lot of food, don't forget that he was training in a different kind of energy than chakra, and one source of this energy was his daily food intake. So even though he ate a lot, he actually digested it very quickly and converted it into his own power.
He lay down with Luffy earlier only to disguise himself. He even secretly signaled to Sasuke that he would stay behind to protect them. After all, although his ki was extremely powerful, he lacked the ability to unleash ninjutsu, at least he couldn't directly use the Shadow Clone Technique.
"Where are those guys? Hurry up and find them!" As expected, the group of bounty hunters had been led astray by Zoro and his companions, and were now gradually moving away from the tavern.
The three met at a corner, then separated again. Zoro told the two that he wanted to take this opportunity to test his skills and hoped that Sasuke and Hinata could protect their pirate ship, since they didn't want to find their ship destroyed when they were ready to set sail the next day.
Zoro leaned against the wall and slowly drew his sword. "The new swords I got in Loguetown, Yubashiri and Sandai Kitetsu, are a perfect opportunity to test them out. I'm not going to let that brat Sasuke. In that case, let me wreak havoc!"
"Found you!" A shout came from the roof of the house Zoro was leaning against, directly above him.
Thanks to the bounty hunter's shout, Zoro had more time to dodge. So, under the hunter's surprised gaze, Zoro leaped open the door and hid inside.
"Damn it!" The bounty hunter, completely unaware that Zoro had escaped because of him, was still there, raging incompetent fury.
However, Zoro, who had dodged the attack, did not relax. He sensed a sudden surge of danger around him, Zoro knew this was because the man's gunshot had drawn the attention of the other bounty hunters.
Zoro leaped into the room and immediately went behind a table, laying it down as a temporary cover to defend against any possible attacks.
Thump thump thump thump...
A series of gunshots echoed over the town. The bounty hunters present were extremely excited, each putting in their best effort to fire as much ammunition as possible.
After all, there aren't many pirates with bounties as high as Luffy's. Since this is the entrance to the New World, most of the pirates who come here come from the four seas and don't have such high bounties. You could say they might not see such a deal even once every few years.
Despite being shot at by these Pirate Hunter with their guns, and even with bullets occasionally piercing through the table and grazing Zoro's side, Zoro himself was not panicked; on the contrary, he was somewhat excited.
"First up, Yubashiri!" Zoro drew his sword, found a gap while everyone was reloading, cleaved the table he was using as cover in half, and ran out of the house.
"So light, what a fine sword." Zoro rushed out of the house, merely praising his sword before ignoring the bounty hunters who had been shooting at him from outside. They were unaware that they had been stabbed at some point, and even the bounty hunters themselves were unaware. It wasn't until they saw Zoro running away and tried to give chase that they realized they could no longer stand up.
Under the moonlight, the town was brightly lit despite it being night. The townspeople who had been in the distance earlier were now rushing towards the sound of gunfire, "Found them! They're over here! Stop right there!"
What they didn't know was that the dynamics between them had subtly shifted; they were no longer bounty hunters hunting Zoro, but rather Zoro using them as a test subject.
"He's there! He's climbed onto the roof!" the bounty hunter chasing after him shouted, pinning Zoro's location.
"Haha, welcome!" However, this town was, after all, home to bounty hunters, who had people hidden everywhere. Just as Zoro climbed onto the roof, he was bombarded by someone with a cannon. But Zoro noticed in time, let go of the ladder, and fell a long way down, just in time to avoid the attack.
"That was close." Even with Zoro's strong mental fortitude, he broke out in a cold sweat.
"That's enough, ah!!!" Miss Monday, her muscles bulging, raised a large wooden barrel filled with liquor and hurled it at an angle Zoro couldn't see.
However, Zoro seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Without turning around, he turned around and slashed, smashing the barrel to pieces with two quick strokes. The broken barrel became a means for Zoro to attack, sending several bounty hunters who approached him flying.
"What a waste of such a fine drink," Zoro muttered to Miss Monday, who had just thrown a barrel of liquor at him, after finally managing to stand on the rooftop.
While Zoro was confronting Miss Monday, several bounty hunters attacked from multiple angles, attempting to ambush Zoro, but Zoro killed them all with a single strike.
However, this smooth slash caught Zoro's attention. "What's going on? That feel just now... how sharp is that? Sandai Kitetsu! A famous Famous Sword should only reveal its sharpness when its master wants to cut, but this guy is really a problem child. Is this what a cursed sword is like?"
While Zoro was being chased and attacked by all the bounty hunters in town, Sasuke and Hinata were protecting the Going Merry, and Naruto was watching over everyone in the tavern, Nami, who had just gotten up, used her thieving skills to thoroughly search several of the bounty hunters' key locations.
"How come there's only this much treasure? What kind of bounty hunter's lair is this? What a disappointing town, Whiskey Peak." Nami was very disappointed as she looked at the jewels that barely filled a small box.
"There's no way to escape up there, hahahaha." A bounty hunter, while climbing the ladder, mocked Zoro for driving himself into a dead end in the lake. However, just as he was climbing, Zoro kicked the ladder over, causing the bounty hunters who were still trying to climb to fall to the ground below.
However, just when everyone thought Zoro would occupy that high point to set up a defense, Zoro unexpectedly jumped towards another tall building, intending to use his body to leap over a distance of more than ten meters.
The rooftop that Zoro was targeting wasn't empty; there were a dozen or so armed townspeople there. As Zoro leaped toward them, they all raised their guns and fired.
Zoro, who was flying through the air, showed no panic. With the movement of Zoro hands, " Two-Sword Style: Hawk Wave" not only deflected the bullets flying towards him, but also ensured that the swords in his hands were not damaged.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zoro suddenly caught sight of a few people. They seemed to have learned from the experience of those who came before them and remained silent, but unfortunately, Zoro still managed to spot them.
So Zoro drew a circle with his sword where the group had landed, saying, "Be careful, I cut you there." Then, without caring how badly they might fall, Zoro casually walked away.
Whoosh! Snap!
A wooden ladder made a loud whistling sound in the air, allowing Zoro to dodge the attack at the last second. The ladder that missed Zoro crashed into the wall and shattered into pieces.
"That was close, I just got grazed." Zoro, lying on the ground, completely disregarded his appearance and rolled to the side, getting away from the person who had attacked him.
Discarding the now-obstructive half of the wooden ladder, Miss Monday put on brass knuckles. "Don't get too cocky. There isn't a single man stronger than me!"
"You're about to be finished!" Miss Monday grabbed Zoro by the neck with her other hand, which wasn't wearing brass knuckles, and lifted him up from the spot.
"Super Strength - Strong Fist!" As Miss Monday slammed Zoro to the ground, she struck Zoro's face hard with her fist, which was adorned with brass knuckles, attempting to kill him with a single blow.
"What a waste of time, but it's finally over. The end. Now let's deal with those two guys causing trouble at the docks." Igaram and the other two employees working at Baroque watched Miss Monday's decisive blow and sighed.
"What... Miss Monday..." Just as the three of them were about to turn around and head to the dock, they caught a glimpse of something incredible out of the corner of their eyes.
On that high-rise building, Miss Monday and Zoro's positions were completely reversed. Zoro now had his left hand in his pocket, while his right hand grabbed Miss Monday's head, who was kneeling on the ground. "What's wrong, you think you're so strong? Didn't you want to test your strength against me?"
Zoro loosened his grip on her right hand, and Miss Monday, who had been struggling, stopped moving and fell straight to the ground.
Zoro raised his blood-stained face and addressed the group downstairs, saying, "Let's continue, everyone at Baroque Works. You're not just talking big."
Feeling the blood flowing down his forehead and down to his lips, Zoro gently licked it, savoring the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, which only fueled his excitement.
"Miss Monday's power actually lost to him." Several bounty hunters in the town had all witnessed Miss Monday's terrifying power, a power that could shatter rocks and split stones without a second thought, but they never expected that she would lose to an outsider today.
"I... I understand now. The Navy must have made a mistake with that bounty poster." Igaram still couldn't accept it.
The other two members of Baroque Works echoed, "I see, so that's how it is. If he's the pirate with the 30 million Beli bounty, then everything makes sense. This guy was the real captain hiding behind the scenes all along."
That's what I was wondering. Luffy is so weak, how could he be worth 30 million Beli? Turns out he's just a clown who's been manipulated all along.
Igaram was still unwilling to accept it. "Even if it's like this, what a disgrace it is to be defeated by a mere pirate swordsman! This is our responsibility as the boss to manage this town!"
"That's right, it's finally our turn. As you may know, the lower the code number of our Baroque Works members, the higher their level and destructive power. The three of us, Mr. 9, Mr. 8, and Miss Wednesday, are all employees with only one code number. In other words, we are far stronger than those guys you just took care of!"