An Unnamed Island

The pirate ship tossed about on the open sea in the raging wind...

After who knew how long, the rain finally stopped and the sky cleared. A shaft of sunlight pierced the thick clouds, and the sea glittered as waves washed ashore. When the tide receded, it left lively saltwater fish flopping on the beach.

The Big Top drifted with the waves to the shore of an island. Huge cracks ran through its main mast, and the deck was in complete disarray.

The damage wasn't limited to the outside of the ship. The table and chairs in the main cabin were strewn about, the liquor in the storeroom had been tossed everywhere, and the food had been soaked by seawater and gone moldy, making it unfit to eat.

Buggy recounted his crew in the cabin. Many of his pirates had died in the disaster, leaving him with only around twenty men. The unbelievable part was that the Square-Faced Navigator had somehow survived.

That bastard... Before the Cumulonimbus Tornado formed, he'd told the helmsmen and sailors to keep going, then sworn to Buggy that nothing would go wrong. If Buggy hadn't experienced something like this before and remembered it clearly, the Big Top would probably have been torn apart in the eye of the storm, and everyone aboard would have perished at sea.

Even so, the ship had lost nearly half its crew!

Buggy held back his anger and didn't confront the culprit just yet. After all, he was the only navigator on board, and for the time being, they couldn't do without the bastard. But now Buggy understood more clearly than ever how important a good navigator was out at sea, and he secretly made up his mind.

It took a long time for Buggy to calm down. He sent his men to repair what needed fixing and clean up what needed cleaning. He didn't slack off either, pitching in and leading the work himself. Seeing this, Mohji and Cabaji obediently got to work helping repair the ship's interior.

The pirates were in low spirits, but seeing Buggy and his two officers working helped put them somewhat at ease, and their efficiency improved considerably.

Once they'd more or less taken care of the mess inside, the cabin door opened, and Buggy stepped out onto the deck. Looking at the damaged mast, he couldn't help sighing. The disaster had completely derailed his plans: the mast was broken, the food had gone moldy, and the liquor had spilled everywhere. Worst of all, he had no idea which island they'd drifted to, and there was no way to follow their original route. Finding their intended destination would take much longer now.

He turned his gaze from the mast and looked back at the island. An endless expanse of primeval forest stretched before him, and three towering peaks rose at the island's far end.

Suddenly, rustling sounds came from the jungle. Then a boy wearing animal skins, strange markings painted around his eyes, came bounding out.

Dragging the carcass of a wild boar with one hand, he stared at the pirate ship in amazement and shouted, "Unfamiliar sea-beast ingredients!" Then he pointed at Buggy aboard the ship. "And parasitic ingredients on the sea beast's body—what a haul, what a haul!"

Was this kid some kind of idiot wild man? And who was he calling an ingredient...? Buggy stared at the boy, his face dark with exasperation.

Most of the mess inside the cabin had been cleaned up. The two officers came out onto the deck, wiped the foul sweat from their faces, and were just about to enjoy the sea breeze when they sensed something was wrong. They both ducked at the same time, and an especially cool breeze brushed past their cheeks.

With no sense of urgency, Mohji straightened up. "Cabaji, you can thank me for this. We came out just in time to catch such a refreshing sea breeze... Hmm... Half-Face, what's wrong?"

As Cabaji bent down, the sword wound Zoro had inflicted on his chest suddenly split open. Blood gushed out, and he convulsed before collapsing onto the deck.

Mohji's eyes widened. He crouched down and shook Cabaji over and over, anxiously saying, "Hey, hey, hey! You're not going to get blown to death by the wind, are you?!"

Cabaji gritted his teeth weakly. "You white-haired bastard, stop shaking me! Keep it up and I really will die!"

Meanwhile, a sharp cut split Buggy's body in two. His upper half floated in the air, arms crossed over his chest, as he sized up the boy. His weapon was rather interesting.

The fur-clad boy spread his right hand and caught the strange boomerang as it came whizzing back through the air. He stared at Buggy, whose body had split in two, and fell silent for a moment before suddenly realizing, "I get it! Upright sashimi!"

"What the hell are you talking about, you idiot..." A vein bulged on Buggy's forehead.

The boy rubbed his chin and pointed at Buggy's red nose. "Could it be cherry upright sashimi?"

Buggy's hands lit up with daggers. "I'll send you straight to the afterlife!"

"Wait, Captain Buggy..." Mohji stepped in front of Buggy with righteous determination. He fixed a solemn gaze on the boy. "Cabaji may be despicable and utterly underhanded, but he's also an opponent I respect. This kid killed Cabaji, so today I'll avenge my opponent... and partner!"

With that, Mohji leaped off the deck and glanced back. It seemed he'd stepped on something, but he paid it no mind. He focused on the boy before him as waves rolled and crashed behind him, as if answering the manly, tragic friendship between them.

The deep footprints Mohji had left when he stepped down hard were now stamped across Cabaji's arm. Blood spilled from Cabaji's mouth as he wheezed, "You white-haired bastard! Once I've recovered, I'll kill you..."

Buggy didn't stop Mohji. If he had to personally deal with some local native, then he'd be a pretty undignified captain.

"Richie!" Mohji pointed ahead. A lion immediately sprang out behind him, baring its enormous jaws and glaring at the fur-clad boy with a look that would make ordinary people burst into tears.

The fur-clad boy didn't look frightened. Instead, he rubbed a finger beneath his nose and excitedly shouted, "Lion ingredients living on a sea beast!"

"Richie, tear him apart!"

At Mohji's command, Richie scraped its claws against the ground and snorted two streams of white vapor through its nostrils. It leaped forward in an instant, closing the distance between them with incredible speed.

The fur-clad boy's lips curled into a smile. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes, at odds with his youthful features, and he flung the strange boomerang with a whoosh toward Richie.

One end of the boomerang was blunt, while the other was a sharp blade. Spinning through the air, it formed a terrifying disc and flew straight toward Richie's head.

Richie immediately sensed the strange weapon's danger and skidded to a stop. Its massive body rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the boomerang.

But the boomerang spun around once and swiftly returned to the boy's hand. The next instant, he threw it again, leaving the afterimage of a spinning disc in the air.

Richie was crouched on the ground and hadn't had time to react or dodge. The boomerang had already reached its eyes, its blade flashing with a cold gleam. The situation had become perilous in an instant.