A Bunch of Paupers

Junkyard Island.

Between hill after hill piled from discarded ship parts, a blue-haired boy wearing a floral shirt on his upper body and nothing but blue briefs below was fiddling with an oddly shaped long-barreled cannon.

"Franky Cannon, fire!"

After the blue-haired boy let out a yell, he immediately pulled the fuse in his hand.

Propelled by gunpowder, the cannonball shot from the barrel in an instant and flew into the distance...

Just then, a fast sailboat, driven by the wind, rushed out from the coast of Water 7.

The cannonball struck the sailboat's main mast directly, smashing it in half. The broken mast slowly toppled downward.

Sandersonia, who had been sitting atop the mast, was suddenly caught up in the accident and cried out in alarm:

"This... hey, hey, hey!"

Seeing this, Sephiroth hurried toward the green-haired girl, intending to catch her with both hands.

However...

In his eyes, the shapely rear beneath the girl's short green skirt, clad in green panties, grew larger and larger as it descended toward his face.

By then, it was already too late for Sephiroth to dodge...

Bang!

Sandersonia landed directly on Sephiroth's face, sitting on it in a duck-sitting posture.

He had no time to care about how suggestive the position was. Under the impact of this seventy-plus-pound weight, his neck even let out a crack! of breaking bone, causing him to briefly lose consciousness.

However, thanks to the Vampire Fruit's powerful regenerative ability, Sephiroth's broken cervical vertebrae were perfectly healed in just a few seconds.

Marigold hurriedly let go of the helm and ran to the ship's railing. Looking down, she asked with concern:

"Sandersonia, are you okay?"

Hearing this, the green-haired girl scratched her head with a grin.

"Ah! I'm fine. I wasn't hurt."

Pinned beneath the girl, Sephiroth raised a hand and patted her buttock. His voice muffled, he said helplessly:

"Mmph! It's good that you're okay, but... can you stand up first... I'm about to suffocate..."

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!"

Only then did Sandersonia realize what was happening. She stood up awkwardly and took two steps back.

"Sephiroth, are you okay?"

The silver-haired boy stood up from the deck and twisted his neck, producing a series of crack! crack! sounds.

Meanwhile, on Junkyard Island.

Iceburg, with purple hair and dressed in a brown T-shirt and white jeans, grabbed the blue-haired boy by the collar.

Pointing at the sailboat on the sea with its mast blown apart, he roared:

"You bastard, Franky!

"You made another one of these dangerous things!

"Happy now?

"You finally got yourself into trouble!"

"It wasn't on purpose! Who told that ship to suddenly come out like that?!"

Franky knew he had caused trouble and felt somewhat flustered, but when facing his senior apprentice brother Iceburg, he still instinctively talked back.

"Ha ha ha! Franky, taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions is what makes a true man!"

The one speaking was a fat horned mermaid over three meters tall.

At that moment, he was carrying a steam locomotive engine on one shoulder as though it weighed nothing.

His name was Tom, and he was Franky and Iceburg's master.

At the same time, he was the shipwright who had built the Oro Jackson for Pirate King Roger.

"I understand, Mr. Tom."

Franky agreed with an impatient look on his face.

He had been abandoned by his parents at the age of ten, and it was the shipwright Tom who had taken him in. Thus, this horned mermaid was both teacher and father to him.

Normally, as long as Tom gave the word, Franky would do as he was told.

A short while later, pushed along by the current, the fast sailboat slowly docked at Junkyard Island.

"Hey! Which one of you did something so dangerous?"

Sephiroth jumped down from the deck and landed on the ground. With an annoyed expression, he swept his gaze over the three people standing on shore one by one.

In the end, his eyes settled on the blue-haired boy.

Franky was straightforward about it. He immediately bent deeply at the waist and bowed to Sephiroth.

"I'm sorry. I fired the cannonball. Hit me or punish me however you want. I'll repair your ship too!"

"Oh? You said it!"

Sephiroth bared his teeth in a fierce grin and clenched his right fist until it cracked.

If he had not eaten the Vampire Fruit and gained such astonishing recovery abilities, that hit from Sandersonia would probably have left him bedridden for a long time.

Although he was not petty, he was hardly generous and forgiving either.

Therefore, he planned to teach Franky a lesson.

Seeing Sephiroth's actions, Franky gritted his teeth but did not back down. He still shouted loudly:

"That's right, come at me!"

"Good. You've got guts. I like that!"

The instant Sephiroth's voice fell, he swung his fist and smashed it hard into Franky's face. Franky's nose began to gush blood as he was knocked into the air and sent flying backward more than a meter.

"Now we're even!"

After saying that, Sephiroth shook his slightly aching right hand and muttered inwardly, Damn! Franky's face is really hard. He probably hasn't modified his body yet, has he?

Seeing that the conflict between both sides had finally passed, the shipwright Tom burst out laughing.

"Ha ha ha...! Young man, don't worry! We'll definitely help you repair your ship as soon as possible."

"This ship... I'd like to trouble you to dismantle it for me."

Before Tom could speak, Franky, who had gotten up while covering his bleeding, broken nose, became somewhat displeased. He widened his eyes and asked in a muffled voice:

"Huh!? Then didn't I take that punch for nothing?"

Looking at the wolf-headed figurehead, Mr. Tom scratched his head in confusion.

"This ship looks very familiar!"

"The captain of this ship seems to be someone named Peter, right? They came here to have their ship repaired some time ago." Iceburg offered a reminder.

"Oh! Right, those guys..."

"You know those people?"

Sephiroth took half a step back, a wary expression appearing on his face.

When the three girls who had just disembarked heard that, they instinctively placed their hands on the long swords hanging at their waists, ready to draw them at any moment.

"Ha ha ha...! So you have a grudge against those people?

"Don't worry! I may have repaired their ship, but I'm not one of them."

"Those people wanted to capture us and sell us as slaves," Sephiroth said coldly.

Hearing that, Mr. Tom's laughter abruptly stopped. His tone gradually turned serious, even carrying a trace of disgust.

"Slaves? That really is unforgivable!"

In the world of Pirate King, the races that hated the slave trade most were undoubtedly the Fish-Man Race and the Merfolk Race.

Since most fish-men and mermaids lived on Fish-Man Island, ten thousand meters beneath the sea, they rarely appeared on land.

Thus, with rarity making them valuable, mermaids and fish-men were highly sought-after in the slave trade, with demand far exceeding supply.

Sephiroth carefully examined Mr. Tom. He felt that the other party was not lying, and besides...

Based on his analysis of the original plot of Pirate King, Tom was not someone particularly skilled at hiding his emotions.

But...

Sephiroth still cautiously tested him, saying:

"Yeah! Those people were truly unforgivable, so I threw them all into the sea to feed the fish."

Hearing that, Mr. Tom immediately threw his head back and laughed.

"Ha ha ha! Little brother, well done!"

In the end, after some discussion, both sides reached an agreement.

Tom's Workers would dismantle the fast sailboat. The salvaged parts, along with the two animals aboard, would serve as payment for the three men's labor.

As for the valuable belongings aboard...

The four of them turned the entire fast sailboat upside down, yet they only barely found 463,800 Belly!

Nine people only had 460,000 Belly. Split evenly, that came to just over 50,000 Belly per person, barely enough for an ordinary person's normal monthly expenses...

What a bunch of paupers!

The four divided the money, each receiving a little over 110,000 Belly as compensation from the slave traders...