This Bite Cost a Billion! Shanks Freaked Out: Spit It Out!

Ace's goal had always been clear.

He wanted to make a name for himself. He wanted to prove he was stronger than that bastard father of his.

And a Marine Admiral was the perfect stepping stone.

Benn Beckman glanced at Ace.

The kid carried a heavy air of hostility.

Like a lone wolf ready to bite at any moment.

"Kid, a Marine Admiral isn't someone you can just pick a fight with."

"On the sea, strength matters, not a tough mouth."

Benn Beckman's tone was calm, but it carried the air of an elder lecturing a child.

Ace shot him a fierce glare.

"Mind your own business, smoking uncle."

Sabo hurriedly pulled Ace back, afraid he would start a fight with pirates right there in the tavern.

Sabo, however, was quite interested in Shanks's stories.

He had grown up behind the high walls of the Goa Kingdom.

He had only seen scattered fragments of legends about the sea in the nobles' libraries.

"Have you been to the Grand Line?"

"Is the sky there really upside down?"

Sabo voiced his questions.

Shanks looked at the boy wearing a top hat.

These three little brats were each more interesting than the last.

"Of course we have."

"The sky isn't upside down, but seawater can flow upward."

"There's a mountain called Reverse Mountain."

"The seawater climbs up the mountain itself. See that once, and you'll never forget it for the rest of your life."

Shanks began enthusiastically recounting what they had seen in the New World.

He spoke of the strange races they had encountered.

He spoke of islands that could fly.

He spoke of violent seas crackling with lightning.

The atmosphere in the tavern became incredibly lively.

The pirates drank as they chimed in with their captain's words.

Luffy was completely captivated.

Grand, magnificent scenes had already appeared in his mind.

Compared to catching bugs on Mount Colubo every day, the sea was simply far more interesting.

"I want to go too!"

Luffy suddenly stood up and shouted from atop the bar counter.

"I want to become a pirate!"

"I want to go to that Reverse Mountain or whatever!"

Luffy stood on the bar counter, shouting that he wanted to go to Reverse Mountain.

Ace mercilessly poured cold water over him from the side.

"A crybaby who only knows how to run with a snotty nose wants to become a pirate?"

Ace's eyes were filled with disdain.

"You can't even beat the wild boars around the edge of Mount Colubo."

"If you really went out to sea, you'd probably piss your pants the moment you ran into a storm."

Those words struck a nerve with Luffy.

He hated it most when people called him weak.

Luffy clenched his tiny fists and loudly retorted to Ace.

"I'm not afraid of wild boars!"

"My fists are as powerful as Pistol!"

Ace sneered.

He stepped forward and gave Luffy a merciless smack on the head.

"Quit bragging."

"Who was it that got chased all over the mountain by hornets yesterday?"

Luffy covered the lump rising on his head, and his eyes immediately reddened.

But he bit his lip hard, refusing to let the tears fall.

Sabo quickly pulled Ace aside.

"All right, Ace. He's only five."

"When you were five, didn't Kahn beat you every day until you bawled your eyes out?"

Sabo's attempt to calm things down directly exposed Ace's embarrassing past.

Ace's face flushed bright red.

"Shut up, Sabo! That monster Kahn was just unreasonable!"

Kahn sat on a barstool, leisurely stuffing his eleventh plate of roasted meat into his mouth.

He did not even raise his eyelids.

He had long grown tired of watching these two brats squabble.

The Red-Haired Pirates found the kids' argument utterly hilarious.

Shanks laughed so hard he slapped his thigh.

"Hahahaha!"

"You little guys are really full of energy."

Shanks picked up a wooden cup from the bar and filled it to the brim with milk.

He pushed the cup toward Luffy.

"Here, future great pirate. Have some juice and cool off."

Still furious, Luffy saw something to drink and immediately picked it up, gulping it down.

After finishing it, he smacked his lips.

"That was good."

Shanks immediately pointed at Luffy and doubled over with laughter.

"Hahahaha!"

"You're really just a little brat!"

"Real pirates drink strong liquor!"

Yasopp and Lucky Roux joined in the teasing.

"That's right, that's right. A kid who drinks milk should obediently stay in the village."

Only then did Luffy realize he had been tricked.

His face turned red with anger.

"Shanks, you big liar!"

"I'm not a little brat!"

Luffy felt deeply humiliated.

Not only would these pirates not take him to sea, they were treating him like a monkey for their amusement.

Ace laughed louder than anyone else.

"Serves you right."

"You can't even tell good words from bad ones."

The fire in Luffy's belly churned wildly.

He urgently needed something to vent his frustration on.

Or something tasty to mend his wounded heart.

His gaze swept across the bar counter.

Very quickly, it locked onto an exquisite wooden box beside Shanks.

The lid of the wooden box was not fastened tightly, leaving a narrow gap.

A strange purple color showed through the gap.

Without a second thought, Luffy dragged the box over.

At that moment, Shanks had turned to discuss the supply list with Benn Beckman and had not noticed Luffy's movements at all.

Luffy opened the wooden box.

Inside lay a purple fruit.

Its peel was covered in bizarre swirling patterns.

It did not look like any normal fruit.

But Luffy was a simple-minded creature.

In his eyes, anything kept in a box had to be a premium dessert.

He grabbed the purple fruit, opened his mouth, and took a huge bite.

Without chewing, he swallowed it skin and flesh alike.

An indescribably disgusting flavor exploded in his mouth.

It tasted a hundred times worse than rotten fish left on Mount Colubo for three days.

Luffy's face twisted like a bitter melon.

"It tastes awful!"

"What kind of garbage fruit is this?!"

Luffy loudly protested and casually tossed the remaining half of the fruit onto the bar.

The commotion finally caught Shanks's attention.

Shanks turned around.

His eyes first landed on the empty wooden box.

Then they moved to the half-eaten, patterned remains of the fruit on the bar.

Finally, they fixed on Luffy's mouth, which was still chewing.

The easygoing expression on Shanks's face froze.

The great pirate with a bounty of 1.4 billion Beli nearly had his eyes pop out of their sockets.

The cigar in Benn Beckman's mouth fell onto his pants, burning a hole through them, but he did not even notice.

The cup in Yasopp's hand slipped free and shattered on the floor.

Lucky Roux even forgot to gnaw on the meat and bone in his hands as his fat body abruptly shot to its feet.

The entire tavern was so quiet that Makino's breathing could be heard.

"Y-you-you..."

Shanks pointed at Luffy, his finger trembling.

"You ate this?"

Luffy innocently let out a burp.

"Yeah."

"It tasted awful. Shanks, you're really stingy."

"You hid something so disgusting in a box like it was treasure."

Shanks felt like his blood pressure was about to explode.

He lunged forward in a single stride.

He grabbed Luffy by the ankle and lifted his entire body upside down.

"Spit it out!"

"Spit it out right now!"

Sweating profusely, Shanks desperately shook Luffy up and down.

He had weathered countless storms and dangers at sea, but he had never been this panicked.

Luffy was shaken so hard that his head spun.

"Shanks, what are you doing?!"

"I already swallowed it! I can't spit it out!"

Just as Shanks shook him violently.

Something bizarre happened.

Luffy's neck did not snap from the pulling.

Instead, like a stretched piece of taffy, it grew longer and longer.

His head dropped straight to the floor and even bounced twice.

His neck had stretched a full two meters.

It completely defied human anatomy.

Ace's eyes widened, and his jaw nearly hit the floor.

"H-his... his neck got longer!"

Sabo rubbed his eyes, feeling as though he was dreaming.

Makino covered her mouth in fright, nearly crying out.

Kahn remained seated on the barstool.

He lifted his glass and took a slow sip.

The real show had finally begun.

This was the Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan: Nika Form.

For now, it was still disguised as the Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit.