Execution

Scrape—scrape—

A spine-chilling, heavy scraping sound echoed through the deathly silent streets of Golden Sands City in the dead of night.

Rain walked at the front, his black trench coat fluttering slightly in the night wind. His right hand casually dragged something behind him, as though he were leading an disobedient pet.

A heavy Granite base plowed a deep groove through the rough bluestone road, throwing sparks everywhere. Barman's luxurious sleeping robe had long since been ground to shreds. In despair, he clawed at the ground with both hands, his ten fingers bloody and mangled, yet he could do nothing to stop himself from being dragged bit by bit toward the central square of the outer city.

"Let me go... Please, let me go! I have money, lots of money! I'll give it all to you!"

Barman's pig-slaughtering wails rang through the night sky.

On both sides of the street, pairs of numb, sunken, terrified eyes slowly peeked out from the slum shacks whose doors and windows had been tightly shut.

When those civilians on the verge of dying from thirst saw, by the cold moonlight, the governor who had lorded over them and held their lives in his hands being dragged by a young man in black like a pitiful worm, every one of them was so shocked they forgot to breathe.

Golden Sands City's security forces arrived after receiving word, more than a hundred men in all. But when they raised their torches and flintlock rifles and saw Rain's utterly emotionless black eyes, along with Barman's bizarre half-petrified body, not a single one dared pull the trigger.

The unknown Devil Fruit power, coupled with the terrifying killing intent radiating almost tangibly from Rain, completely crushed what little fighting spirit those rank-and-file soldiers possessed. As Rain advanced step by step, the hundred-plus soldiers actually retreated in terror, their weapons clattering to the ground.

Rain paid no attention to those small fry. Dragging Barman behind him, he headed straight for the central square of Golden Sands City.

At the very center of the square stood a massive steel water tower. It stored eighty percent of Golden Sands City's groundwater, yet its valve was secured by more than a dozen heavy refined-steel locks.

Rain stopped and suddenly flicked his hand.

Bang!

Barman's petrified lower body, weighing several thousand pounds, slammed heavily onto the steps beneath the water tower, shattering a large stretch of stone slabs.

By then, the square was densely packed with awakened civilians. Their clothes were ragged, their lips Cracking Dryness, and their eyes were filled with nearly insane longing as they stared at the water tower. Yet they feared Rain's power and did not dare step forward.

Rain turned around and looked down at the civilians, who resembled walking corpses, before lowering his gaze to Barman, who was trembling beneath his feet.

"Open your dog eyes and look." Rain's voice was not loud, yet in the absolute silence, every person heard him clearly. "These people are citizens driven to the brink by your insatiable greed for wealth."

"I'm a noble! I'm a governor personally appointed by the king! You can't kill me! If you kill me, Alabasta's army won't let you get away with it!" Barman seemed to realize that begging was useless and could only bring out his final trump card.

"The king?" Rain sneered. "That weak piece of trash who only knows how to issue saintly decrees from his palace can't save you. As for the army... they don't even have the courage to look me in the eye."

Rain slowly raised his right hand.

Under the gaze of tens of thousands across the city, his right arm instantly expanded. His muscles, veins, and bones underwent a qualitative transformation. The grayish-white rock rapidly receded, replaced by pitch-black crystals that glimmered with deadly dark light and possessed a density comparable to Diamond.

Without any further words, Rain drove this fist, condensed with ultimate destructive power, fiercely into Barman's fat upper body.

Boom!

An earth-shattering blast erupted in the center of the square. The terrifying force of the punch even sent civilians within several dozen meters flying to the ground.

Before Obsidian's absolute hardness and terrifying momentum, Barman's flesh was more fragile than paper.

Splurt!

Under the crushing force of extreme violence, Barman's upper body, still made of flesh and blood, was completely blown apart by the horrific shockwave in an instant!

Blood, chunks of flesh, organs, bones... everything was utterly pulverized and atomized beneath that strike beyond all limits.

A dazzling, thick crimson mist, so foul it made one nauseous, violently exploded into the night wind. Like a sticky rain of red, it drifted down across the cold stone slabs of the square.

The governor who had been shouting arrogantly a second ago had now been completely erased from this world. Only half of a Granite base remained, standing alone where he had been.

Dead silence.

The entirety of Golden Sands City fell into absolute silence for half a minute. Everyone's minds had gone blank from the sheer bloodiness and violence of the scene.

Rain withdrew his fist. The black Obsidian Armor weathered away, restoring his arm to a slender, fair hand. Not a single drop of blood had stained his trench coat.

He turned to face the sealed water tower, transformed his right hand into a blade, and casually slashed through the air.

Clang—

More than a dozen refined-steel locks snapped apart in response. Rain kicked the water tower's heavy iron door flying.

Whoosh!

The long-accumulated clear groundwater surged out of the water tower and flowed down the steps into the dry channels of the square.

Hearing the sound of water, like heavenly music, the surrounding civilians finally snapped out of their shock.

"Water... It's water!"

"My God! It really is water!"

Watching the civilians madly rush toward the channels and gulp down the sweet groundwater without restraint, Rain spoke coldly:

"The governor is dead. The water in this tower, as well as the mountains of gold, silver, food, and meat piled up in the mansions of the inner city, all belong to you from this moment on. Go take them. Take as much as you can carry."

Those words were like a spark falling into a powder keg.

The civilians, who had been oppressed and thirsty for three full years, instantly had bloodshot eyes. Their desire to survive and greed for wealth completely overwhelmed their fear of the security forces. Like a burst dam, the crowd surged madly toward the luxurious inner-city mansion that had lost its owner.

A riot and carnival completely erupted in Golden Sands City's midnight.

Rain did not stay to admire the revelry. Stepping through the water on the ground, his cold gaze swept over the low-ranking officials and wealthy merchants in the crowd, dressed in fine clothes and shivering in the corners.

"What happened tonight is only the beginning."

Rain's voice was not loud, yet it carried an icy pressure that pierced straight into the soul.

"Spread my words. Tell every governor, gang, and corrupt official in Alabasta who profits from the nation's disaster: either spit out the water and food you swallowed and distribute them to the civilians, or tomorrow night, your internal organs will turn to stone, and you'll end up just like him."

"Remember my name. Bounty hunter, 'Grayrock' Rain."

The instant his words fell, Rain's body burst apart with a bang, transforming into a skyful of violent gray-black sand and gravel. Carried by the desert's cold wind, it shot into the sky and vanished into Golden Sands City's night.

All that remained was a city plunged into madness, along with a terrifying legend that would soon sweep across all of Alabasta.

Three days later. Alabasta, Dream City, Rainbase.

Deep underground in Rain Dinners, the city's largest pyramid-shaped casino, was an exceptionally luxurious and hidden boss's office.

A man with slicked-back hair and a long stitched scar running across his face sat cross-legged on a broad leather sofa. His left hand was fitted with an exceptionally sharp Pure Gold Poison Hook, while his right hand held a half-burned premium cigar.

One of the Shichibukai, the hidden boss of Baroque Works, Mr. 0—Crocodile.

"Boss, this intelligence just arrived from Golden Sands City."

Nico Robin, the cold and aloof vice president with short black hair, gently placed a Top Secret document on the desk before Crocodile.

"Golden Sands City's governor, Barman, was publicly executed in the city center. He died horribly, without even an intact corpse left behind. The city's entire wealth was looted by the civilians." Robin reported in her characteristically calm tone. "More troublesome still, Mr. 10 and Miss Tuesday, who were stationed there, were also instantly killed."

Crocodile exhaled a thick cloud of bluish smoke, his sinister gaze fixed on the copy of a wanted poster attached to the document.

It was Rain's red wanted poster, just issued by Alabasta.

"'Grayrock' Rain... a bounty hunter from the West Blue." Crocodile's voice sounded like two sheets of sandpaper grinding together. "Have you found out what his power is?"

"According to the survivors, he can turn his own body and nearby objects into hard rock at will. Marine Headquarters believes it to be the Logia Rock-Rock Fruit." Robin replied.

"A Logia... Heh. No wonder he dared run wild on my turf."

Crocodile sneered, a cruel killing intent flashing in his eyes. As the wielder of the Logia Sand-Sand Fruit, he knew better than anyone what a Logia meant in the first half of the Grand Line.

"Rock and sand were things of the same origin to begin with. Some brat who came out of nowhere thinks that just because he has grasped a little of a Logia's power, he can challenge me in the desert?"

Crocodile crushed his cigar into the ashtray and stood up. His golden poison hook gleamed with a dangerous cold light beneath the lamps.

"Notify Mr. 1, Daz Bones, and Miss Double Finger, Pola. Have them immediately put aside their arrangements against the King's Army and find that rat scurrying through the desert for me."