Great Fireball Shows Its Might! Nami's Reverse Scale

Everyone left the villa and immediately sprang into action.

Nami stayed close behind Victor, muttering as she ran:

"Hey, Victor, you should've asked for more treasure while you had the chance! It was such a dangerous deal... Wait!"

Nami suddenly slammed to a stop, her face turning deathly pale as though she had remembered something terrifying.

"Treasure... My treasure!!"

The moment she realized it, Nami transformed into a screaming chicken and shouted at everyone:

"Isn't our ship parked on the North Coast?! Those pirates are there!!"

"Hurry and save my... No! Hurry and save our treasure!! That's tens of millions of Beli!!"

As she spoke, flames of money seemed to burn in Nami's eyes. Her legs turned into wheels of fire as she sprinted wildly in one direction.

"Hahaha! This is so interesting! Nami runs so fast!"

Holding down his Straw Hat, Luffy laughed loudly and chased after her.

"Hey, you're running too fast! Wait for me!" Zoro glanced in the direction Luffy had gone and immediately took off after him.

Victor alone strolled along at an unhurried pace behind them.

"Huff... Huff..."

At that moment, Usopp, who had been panting behind them, finally caught up and called out to Victor.

"Hey, your name's Victor, right?"

Usopp bent over with his hands braced on his knees and asked nervously.

Victor stopped, turned around, and looked at him expressionlessly before quietly saying:

"Yeah, I'm not. I'm Luffy, the man who's going to become King of the Pirates."

"..."

The air fell silent for a second.

"You bastard!! Do you think I'm deaf?!"

Usopp instantly flew into a rage and pointed at the Straw Hat-wearing figure ahead of them.

"That idiot wearing the Straw Hat is Luffy! I've been hearing it all night!"

After venting, Usopp took a deep breath and straightened up. Though his gaze still darted around somewhat, his tone was unusually firm.

"Anyway... Let me help you. I'm scared, but I... I want to protect this village too..."

Then, to conceal his fear, he proudly pointed his thumb at himself and struck that classic boastful pose:

"After all! I'm Captain Usopp, the great pirate who commands eighty million subordinates!"

Victor looked at the long-nosed man whose legs were still trembling slightly. He tilted his head in confusion, a faint curve appearing on his lips.

"No one said we disagreed. If you want to come, then come, pirate Usopp."

After saying that, Victor ignored him and immediately headed in the direction Luffy, Zoro, and Nami had gone.

He had only taken two steps.

"Hey!! That's the road leading to the village!!"

Usopp looked at Victor's back from behind and shouted anxiously.

"The North Coast is in the opposite direction! What is wrong with you people?!"

Victor paused.

He silently turned his head to look in the direction the three had disappeared in, then helplessly rubbed his forehead.

"Those idiotic directionless fools."

Meanwhile, on the North Coast.

The night was dark, and waves crashed against the reefs.

A pirate ship with an enormous cat head at its prow—the Bezan Black—had already docked at the shore.

"Charge!!"

"Kill them all!!"

A huge number of grinning pirates wielding scimitars and torches poured off the ship like a black tide and stepped onto the beach.

"Ooh! Avenge Captain Kuro!"

"Bloodbath this village!!"

Jango adjusted his heart-shaped sunglasses and jumped down from the ship with several trusted men.

At that moment, a sharp-eyed pirate pointed toward the shore in the distance and immediately reported:

"Lord Jango, there's a ship docked over there!"

Jango turned to look.

Though the night was deep, by the light of the torches, they could indeed see a medium-sized sailing ship flying a skull flag moored there.

"Ah, this must be the pirate ship of those people who wounded Captain Kuro."

A vicious glint flashed through Jango's eyes. He casually pointed. "Take a few men and burn it! Cut off their escape route!"

"Hehehe! Understood!"

"Yes! Burn it all!"

Several nearby pirates immediately grinned savagely and charged toward the Straw Hat with their torches raised.

Then Jango turned around to face the densely packed pirates on the beach and shouted:

"Oh! Men! Our Captain Kuro was ambushed and grievously wounded! This is a disgrace to the Black Cat Pirates! What should we do?!"

"Kill them!!"

"Burn this village!!"

The crowd was fired up, their cries of murder shaking the sky.

Jango nodded in satisfaction, just about to make another rousing speech.

At that moment, an extremely cold voice came from the pirate ship's deck. It was Kuro, forcing himself out of the cabin.

"Jango! Stop wasting time! Attack immediately! Kill them all!!"

Kuro clutched his severed arm, his face pale, but the hatred in his eyes sent chills down everyone's spines.

"Yes, Captain!" Jango shuddered and immediately waved his hand. "Kill them all!!"

"Ooh!!"

"Charge!!"

Dozens of pirates immediately brandished their swords, torches, and weapons as they howled and rushed up the only slope leading to the village.

The slope was narrow and steep, a natural chokepoint.

Just as the pirate at the very front stepped onto the middle of the slope and prepared to rush upward in one go.

A dark figure stood silently above.

Who was that?

Before the pirate could react.

That dark figure's hands became afterimages as they rapidly formed seals.

Snake—Ram—Monkey—Boar—Horse—Tiger.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.

A voice as calm as stagnant water rang through the night sky.

The next moment.

Victor's chest swelled high, and then he suddenly opened his mouth and exhaled.

"Fwoosh—!!!"

A blaze of incomparably scorching chakra fire burst forth, swelling violently in the wind and instantly transforming into a massive fireball several meters wide.

Carrying rolling heat and an aura of destruction, it mercilessly crushed down the narrow slope toward the pirates below!

At that moment, the fireball was like a sun rolling down from hell.

The pirate at the front immediately widened his eyes, his pupils filled with nothing but that ever-expanding crimson mass.

"W-What is that!!"

But he would never receive an answer.

Because...

BOOM!!!!

The enormous fireball instantly swallowed several pirates in the front ranks.

Its momentum did not lessen. In the narrow terrain of the slope, it was like a bowling ball, sending the crowded pirates behind them flying and forcing them back with tremendous impact.

Flames erupted, and heat swept outward.

Their wails were drowned out by the explosion before they could even escape their throats.

After all, this position was simply too perfect for a linear, large-scale ninjutsu like the Great Fireball.

Silence.

Deathly silence.

The battlefield that had been filled with cries of slaughter fell quiet in an instant.

Only the crackling of burning torches remained.

The pirates below climbed up from the ground in disarray. Looking at the lingering flames on the slope, they stared in horror at the black-haired youth standing at the top.

"W-Who is he..."

"Why can a human breathe fire..."

"Is he a monster?!"

Kuro stared fixedly upward from the ship. Beyond hatred, there was now an added measure of wariness in his cold gaze.

Looking at those red eyes gleaming in the firelight, he gritted his teeth.

"It's him!!"

At the top of the slope.

Usopp, who had arrived panting, swallowed hard at the sight and stared at Victor beside him in shock.

"S-So amazing..."

Was this what a real pirate was like?

Then his eyes shifted, and in order to hide his shock from earlier.

He immediately draped an arm proudly over Victor's shoulder and shouted down below with borrowed confidence:

"Hey! Pirates down there! Did you see that?! This is the territory of Captain Usopp, the great pirate!"

"If you don't want to die, get lost now! I have eighty million subordinates like him!!"

The pirates below looked uncertainly at one another before finally turning to Jango.

"Lord Jango, what do we do?"

Jango was aghast.

"Eighty million? That's terrifying." He believed it.

Everyone's faces darkened. "Lord Jango, that's obviously a boast."

"Eighty million people is way too ridiculous!"

"What? I've been fooled?"

His face darkening after realizing he had been fooled, Jango reached into his clothes and pulled out the sharp Hypnotic Ring.

"Don't let him scare you! He's just a Devil Fruit user! As long as we avoid that fireball..."

Just then.

The pirates Jango had sent to burn the ship came running back, shouting excitedly with heavy objects dragging from their hands.

"Captain Kuro! Lord Jango! We've struck it rich!!"

"There's a lot of treasure on that ship!!"

As they spoke, the pirates laboriously threw several bulging sacks onto the beach.

The mouths of the sacks fell open, and glittering gold and jewels under the torchlight dazzled everyone's eyes.

"Huh?"

The pirates below immediately stared fixedly at the treasure. The fear in their eyes instantly turned into intense greed, and their eyes lit up.

"Is that... tens of millions of Beli?!"

"We're rich!!"

At the top of the slope.

Watching this, Usopp's eyes turned as he suddenly came up with a "brilliant" idea.

He cleared his throat and shouted down below:

"Hey! Pirates down there! If you leave now, that treasure is yours!

"Consider it travel money bestowed upon you by this captain!"

Victor's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

"You bastard, are you actually planning to use our money to bribe the enemy?"

Victor rudely slapped Usopp's arm off his shoulder and was about to teach the long-nosed man a lesson.

However.

"Whoosh—"

A shrill sound of something cutting through the air suddenly rang out behind Victor.

Immediately afterward, a long wooden staff swept past Victor with Thundering Force and struck Usopp squarely on the back of the head.

THUD!!!

That dull impact sounded painful enough just to hear.

"Ah!!!"

Usopp let out a scream and was sent spinning away like a top before crashing heavily to the ground.

"Who... Who gave you permission to touch my treasure!!!"

A voice brimming with killing intent rang out.

Nami stood there like a demoness descending into the night, both hands gripping her staff tightly. A far more terrifying black aura than the Great Fireball itself radiated from her body.

She glared viciously at Usopp on the ground, then looked down at the pirates who had dared touch her treasure and gritted her teeth.

"That's my money!!! You bastards!! All of you can go die!!"