First Meeting with Vivi, MR. 9 is Stunned

Beside Twin Capes, on a small boat.

"MR. 9, if we keep watch here, will we really catch anything?"

Miss Wednesday, wearing her blue long hair in a ponytail, looked somewhat confused; she was, in fact, Princess Vivi, who had gone undercover in Baroque Works.

However, their goal at the moment was not hunting whales, but waylaying passing pirate ships.

"Be patient. With that bounty hunter Luo Wen around, pirates will definitely come."

MR. 9 was extremely confident.

Under Luo Wen's oppression, pirates throughout East Blue continued to flee, migrating toward the Grand Line.

Especially in the past two months, Luo Wen had fought all the way to Loguetown.

The pirates of East Blue collectively relocated to the Grand Line, so desperate were they to escape Luo Wen's clutches.

"Even if a large majority of those guys die at Reverse Mountain, the ones left over are still a massive fortune!"

MR. 9's eyes shone brightly as he thought of their harvests over the last two months.

Without Luo Wen, their branch at Whiskey Peak would still have had to rely on hunting just to make a living.

Ever since Luo Wen became famous, so many pirates had poured into the Grand Line.

By ambushing these pirates, their lives had improved by leaps and bounds.

"Look, isn't one coming right now, and a big fish at that!"

MR. 9 pointed at the Windrider, utterly delighted.

"That ship looks so fine. I'm afraid the people on it aren't anyone we can handle."

Princess Vivi was somewhat worried.

Compared to the pieces of junk they had dealt with before, this ship was far too superior.

Even within Baroque Works, such a vessel was a rare sight.

"What is there to be afraid of? They're just a bunch of trash pirates chased over by someone, how could they possibly be our opponents?"

MR. 9 was full of confidence.

Having dealt with so many pirates escaping from East Blue, he no longer took such fellows seriously.

In his eyes, the Windrider before him was simply a fat sheep.

"Rookies who have just entered the Grand Line are hardly suited to owning such a fine ship."

MR. 9 steered the small boat, closing in on the Windrider.

The first lesson he wanted to teach these rookies was to let them know the cruelty of the Grand Line.

Vivi, however, felt that things were not so simple.

The flag on that ship was not a skull, but a wide, massive sword.

She felt a faint sense of familiarity, as if she had seen it somewhere before.

"What are you standing there dazing for? Let's go up together!"

Already beginning to climb the Windrider, MR. 9 beckoned to Vivi.

Vivi had no choice but to push down the uneasy feeling in her heart and follow after him.

"Is this the Grand Line? People start robbing us the moment we arrive, how truly cruel!"

Looking at MR. 9 sprawled on the ground and Vivi trembling off to the side, Nami could not help but exclaim.

Clearly their voyage hadn't even officially begun, yet pirates were already lying in wait.

"Still, these two pirates are really stupid."

"Our first battle on the Grand Line is truly disappointing."

Tashigi wore a look of regret.

Such opponents were a complete letdown.

Hearing Tashigi's words, Luo Wen could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

Sure enough, sweet airheads turned pitch black on the inside.

"How could this happen, how could this happen..."

With a large bump on his head, MR. 9 stared with lifeless eyes; his whole being was broken.

The moment he boarded the Windrider, he had been knocked with a large bump by Tashigi's scabbard.

When he tried to get up and resist, he was batted down onto the deck by Luo Wen with a single sword stroke, unable even to stand.

MR. 9 had completely collapsed.

This was completely different from what he had imagined; since when were pirates this strong the moment they stepped into the Grand Line?

Shivering off to the side, Vivi quietly sized up Luo Wen, who held the giant sword.

So strong, so handsome!

No, no, it was that he looked so familiar!

"Y-You are the legendary Mr. Luo Wen!"

That face was an exact match for the one in the newspaper.

At that moment, sudden enlightenment struck her.

No wonder the giant sword on the flag was so familiar—that was clearly Luo Wen's weapon from the newspaper.

"What, it's him!?"

"We're done for, everything is over now!"

MR. 9, sprawled on the ground, fell into utter despair.

He had still been thinking of escaping, but now there was no hope left.

"I'm sorry, we were wrong, please spare us!"

Struggling to his feet, MR. 9 knelt before Luo Wen.

Vivi knelt as well, loudly begging Luo Wen for mercy.

Her few years of undercover experience had thickened her skin; stripped of a princess's pride, she knelt quite naturally.

"What should we do with them? Are we taking them to turn in for a bounty?"

Nami was eager to try.

Stupid though these two pirates were, if they could be exchanged for Beli, nothing could be cuter.

"Please, absolutely do not do that!"

MR. 9 and Vivi pressed their palms together, pleading with Nami.

If they were caught by the Marines, there was a high probability MR. 9 would spend the rest of his life in a prison cell and never see the sun again.

Vivi wouldn't go to prison, but her identity would definitely be exposed, and her plan to save Alabasta would go down the drain.

"I'm sorry, it was all our fault."

"Please, you morally upright, handsome guy and beautiful lady, let us go! We promise we will never do it again!"

Both of them had reasons they could not afford to be caught, and they wept bitter tears before the trio of Luo Wen.

"The Marines don't seem to have bounties for them."

Tashigi flipped through the bounty catalog, failing to find wanted posters for MR. 9 and Vivi.

"That's right, that's right, we're not worth anything, please let us go!"

MR. 9 and Vivi cast grateful glances at Tashigi, feeling she was like an angel.

"What is this, they're just small-timers who don't even have bounties."

"Since they're so useless, we might as well throw them into the sea and let them fend for themselves!"

Nami was deeply disappointed.

She had thought she could make a massive profit, yet not a single Beli could be squeezed out of them.

That being the case, they might as well be tossed overboard; they were pirates who had come to rob them anyway, hardly good people.

"Asshole, it's a waste for you to be so pretty, how can your heart be so vicious!"

MR. 9 and Vivi glared angrily at Nami.

How could such cold and ruthless words tumble out of this woman's thirty-eight-degree mouth?

If they were thrown into the sea, they lacked the ability to swim all the way back to Whiskey Peak, which meant certain death all the same.

"You're wrong, they're not ordinary."

"They're agents of Baroque Works, subordinates of Crocodile."

Luo Wen looked at the two kneeling figures and revealed their origins.

"One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Crocodile!?"

Nami and Tashigi were dumbstruck.

How could these two fellows be connected to such a major figure as a Seven Warlord?

This was truly tricky now; tied to a Seven Warlord, this matter was genuinely difficult to handle.

MR. 9 and Vivi both froze in place, shaken rigid by Luo Wen's words.

Vivi kept silent, a strong sense of curiosity toward Luo Wen welling up inside her.

She had only received that news recently herself—how on earth did Luo Wen from East Blue know it so clearly?

MR. 9 wanted to retort; he didn't know any Seven Warlord, nor did he want to use a Seven Warlord's name to get out of trouble.

No one dared falsely invoke the reputation of a Seven Warlord, as that would make their life worse than death.

"Do you have some kind of grudge against Crocodile?"

Vivi's eyes were filled with hope as she looked at Luo Wen.

She had already realized that the man before her might be her only hope for liberating Alabasta.

MR. 9 widened his eyes, completely bewildered.

Could it be that Crocodile really was his boss?

MR. 9 looked at Vivi, feeling that his partner was utterly unfamiliar.