Kuro the Hundred Plans Thought He Looked Cool, Only to Get His Face Stomped

"Tell the Marines... that the captain of the Black Cat Pirates, 'Kuro of a Hundred Plans,' is here!"

Lei En's arrogant words exploded beside Kuro's ears like thunder, even as he pretended to be unconscious.

He could no longer keep up the act!

Kuro sprang up from the ground. His once fairly handsome face was now filled with malice and resentment.

The gentle, refined persona he had maintained for three years had been utterly shattered by Lei En's unreasonable slap!

"Who... are you?!"

Kuro stared fixedly at Lei En, his voice hoarse like two pieces of sandpaper scraping together.

He had lurked in Syrup Village for a full three years, convinced that his plan was flawless.

He had been on the verge of obtaining Miss Kaya's enormous inheritance, then fleeing far away to live the peaceful life he had always dreamed of.

Yet this meddler had appeared out of nowhere and exposed all his disguises with a single sentence!

"Who I am isn't important."

With his hands in his pockets, Lei En stood there casually, looking at the enraged Kuro with the mocking amusement of someone watching a clown.

"What matters is that your good days are over."

Beside them, Usopp saw the icy killing intent radiating from Kuro and went weak in the knees, collapsing to the ground with a thud.

"B-Butler Klahadore... are you really a pirate?!"

Usopp's voice trembled. He simply could not believe that this usually refined and scholarly man was actually a notorious pirate with a bounty of sixteen million Beli!

"Hmph. Noisy long-nose."

Kuro cast Usopp a cold glance, his eyes overflowing with killing intent.

"I had intended to let you live a few more days, but since you and this brat have uncovered my secret..."

Kuro raised both hands and sharply flicked his wrists!

Swish! Swish!

Ten half-meter-long, razor-sharp narrow blades sprang from the fingertips of his gloves!

They were his weapons—the Ten-Bladed Cat Claws!

The blades reflected a chilling gleam beneath the sunlight, making Usopp's scalp tingle.

"Then the two of you can die here together today!"

Kuro looked mockingly at Lei En and pushed up the nonexistent glasses on his nose.

It was a habitual gesture he had developed during his three years undercover, as well as his signature pose before every fight—a pose he thought looked incredibly cool.

"Brat, you do have some skill if you managed to see through my identity."

Kuro lowered his body slightly and assumed an extremely strange attacking stance.

"But sharp eyes alone are useless. On the sea, speed is what matters most!"

Before his words had even faded!

Whoosh!

The bluestone slabs beneath Kuro's feet exploded!

His entire body transformed into a black afterimage too fast for the naked eye to catch, shooting silently toward Lei En's throat like a ghost!

There were no footsteps!

This was his proud ultimate technique—Silent Step!

With this move, he had silently harvested the lives of enemies in countless battles!

He could practically see Lei En's throat being sliced open by his sharp cat claws, blood spraying everywhere!

However.

Faced with this lightning-fast fatal ambush, one that ordinary people would have been unable to react to.

Lei En did not even raise an eyelid.

His hands remained in his pockets as he stood there lazily, as if he had not seen Kuro charging toward him at all.

That relaxed appearance made him seem as though he were taking a stroll through a park.

Just as Kuro's razor-sharp cat claws came within less than half an inch of Lei En's neck, at the critical moment when he could practically feel the hairs on Lei En's neck!

Lei En finally moved.

He did not draw his sword, nor did he use lightning.

He merely raised his right foot slowly and casually.

Bang—!!!

A terrifyingly muffled boom rang out, like a battering ram smashing into a city gate!

He moved later, yet struck first!

Kuro did not even see how Lei En had kicked.

He only felt as if his face had slammed into an iron wall flying at supersonic speed!

Excruciating pain and horrific force instantly spread through his entire body!

The face Kuro thought was so handsome was brutally deformed and twisted beneath Lei En's shoe!

His prized Silent Step became a complete joke before Lei En's unimaginably fast kick!

Boom!

Kuro's body was stomped straight down from the front by Lei En's kick!

The hard bluestone tiles shattered instantly like fragile crackers!

A clear shoeprint crater, half a meter deep, appeared before the villa's entrance.

And "Kuro of a Hundred Plans," the notorious pirate with a bounty of sixteen million Beli, was pinned in the pit by Lei En in an utterly humiliating and miserable face-braking position, his whole body buried in it!

Blood slowly seeped out along the edges of the shoeprint.

"Cough... pfft..."

Kuro opened his mouth and spat out blood mixed with broken teeth.

He felt as though the bridge of his nose, his cheekbones, his jaw... every bone in his face had been crushed beneath that kick!

His proud speed was utterly worthless before his opponent!

Usopp, still collapsed in the distance, stared at the brutal and shocking scene before him, his mind completely blank.

His mouth hung wide open, his jaw nearly dislocated.

T-That was a notorious pirate with a bounty of sixteen million Beli!

And he had just... been instantly defeated by getting his face stomped?!

Lei En slowly lifted his foot and looked down at Kuro, who was twitching all over like a dead dog in the pit. He curled his lip in disgust.

He turned toward the dumbfounded Usopp and grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

"Hey, long-nose."

Lei En nudged Kuro in the pit with the tip of his shoe as if kicking a piece of trash.

"See that now? That's what I meant by the consequences of showing off."