Welcome Town

The Grand Line's weather was like a deranged madman.

A few hours ago, Rain's sailboat had been battered by swirling snow and biting winds; now, fierce sunlight poured mercilessly over the sea, and the air carried a sweltering, intoxicating warmth.

Rain stood at the bow. On the horizon ahead, an island of an exceedingly strange shape gradually grew larger. It was formed by several enormous spherical peaks, their surfaces covered in dense spikes. From afar, they looked like gigantic cacti growing out of the sea.

This was Whiskey Peak, the famous landmark known as Welcome Town in the first half of the Grand Line.

According to the intelligence Rain had gathered in the West Blue and his memories from his previous life, this place appeared to be a hospitable brewing island that welcomed newcomers to the Grand Line with fine wine and music. In truth, it was a massive stronghold of the bounty hunter organization Baroque Works. They used nerve-numbing revelry to get newcomers drunk, then took the heads of wanted criminals.

"Even if we're traveling the same route, I have no interest in playing your little welcome game."

Rain controlled the [Rock Turbine] at the stern and slowly guided the sailboat into Whiskey Peak's concealed inland waterway. He had already prepared to start slaughtering the moment he landed, then seize supplies by force. After all, robbing robbers was the oldest and most effective way to stock up on the seas.

Yet when the sailboat docked at the dilapidated pier in the center of town, Rain frowned slightly.

It was too quiet.

There were no deafening cheers described in the intelligence, no overly enthusiastic townspeople, not even a trace of music.

Besides the rich scent of whiskey, the air was filled with the pungent stench of blood and gunpowder.

Rain leaped down from the deck, his black leather boots landing on the cracked bluestone street. He activated [Rock Vein Sense], and a flicker of astonishment crossed his eyes.

The entirety of Whiskey Peak looked as though it had just been ravaged by a natural disaster.

The buildings on both sides of the street had been brutally wrecked. Walls had collapsed, doors and windows were shattered, and more than a hundred "corpses" lay scattered across the ground. More precisely, they were Baroque Works agents who had lost the ability to fight and were howling in pain.

Some had their weapons cut apart, some bore sword wounds in their chests deep enough to expose bone, while others had been smashed into the walls by massive blunt weapons and lay unconscious.

"These are... sword wounds?"

Rain walked over to a broken stone pillar. The hard pillar, over a meter in diameter, had been smoothly cleaved in two. Its cut was mirror-smooth, without the slightest trace of hesitation.

Rain extended a finger covered in Rock Armor and gently brushed the cut, his expression turning grave.

As a Rock-Rock Fruit user, he knew better than anyone how much strength and how sharp a blade it took to cut through stone. This damage had definitely not been caused by a Devil Fruit ability. It was pure, honed-to-perfection swordsmanship!

"Someone got here before me and wiped out this bounty hunter nest?"

Rain stood up and dusted the stone powder from his hands. Since someone else had already dealt with the trouble, he was more than happy to take it easy.

He turned toward the huge supply warehouses at the end of the street, their doors wide open. They had once belonged to Baroque Works, and a cold smile curled across his lips.

"Better timing than being early. I'll gladly take these supplies."

Rain walked to the largest warehouse. It was packed with barrels of premium whiskey, huge slabs of cured sea beast meat, and crates of fresh fruit and drinking water.

For an ordinary pirate crew, moving supplies weighing several tons would require dozens of strong men working for half a day. For Rain, it was nothing more than stretching his fingers.

Rain pressed both hands against the warehouse floor. His Fruit ability activated, and the once-flat stone tiles instantly softened and bulged upward. Then, more than a dozen faceless rock puppets, two meters tall and made from high-density Granite, crawled out of the ground.

Like tireless mechanical loaders, they precisely lifted the heavy barrels and crates under Rain's mental control, forming neat lines as they continuously carried the goods toward the sailboat docked at the pier.

Rain did not even need to lift a hand. He merely stood nearby like a picky foreman, kicking aside inferior rum that was not good enough and choosing only the expensive supplies to load aboard.

In just half an hour, the hold of Rain's medium-sized sailboat was stuffed full with the finest provisions Whiskey Peak had accumulated over three years. With this meat and fresh water, he could drift at sea for months without needing to dock.

"H-Hey... cough... who are you...?"

Just as Rain was about to dismiss the rock puppets and set sail, a weak, terrified groan came from a pile of rubble nearby.

Rain turned around.

It was a woman in a nun's habit, exceptionally tall and powerfully built. One of her arms was bent at an unnatural angle, and she was covered in blood. Leaning against a half-broken brick wall, she stared in terror at Rain and the rock monsters hauling supplies.

A Baroque Works agent, codenamed Miss Monday.

Rain walked over and looked down at the woman, who was famed for her strength but was now too weak even to stand.

"I'm a passing purchaser." Rain casually took an apple from a nearby crate, wiped it on his clothes, and took a bite. His tone was calm. "Since you so generously 'sponsored' an entire shipload of supplies for me, answer one question, and I won't kill you."

"What happened here? Who did this?"

At the question, a deep terror beyond her control surfaced on Miss Monday's blood-covered face, fear that seemed to come from the depths of her soul. Her body began to tremble violently, as if she had recalled an incomparably horrifying nightmare.

"It was a monster... a monster with three swords..." Miss Monday said through chattering teeth. "That guy... he was clearly just a swordsman, but he took down over a hundred of us... like cutting vegetables..."

"Three swords?" Rain's chewing paused slightly, and a glimmer of realization flashed through his dark eyes.

"Y-Yes... and he had green hair, like some kind of moss-headed freak! And not just him... that captain in the Straw Hat was an unkillable monster too. They only just left... heading toward Little Garden..."

"Moss head. Three-Sword Style. A captain in a straw hat."

Rain accurately tossed the remaining half of his apple into a trash bin ten meters away, and the curve on his lips spread into a full smile.

The East Blue's most notorious rookie, Straw Hat Monkey D. Luffy, with a bounty of thirty million, the prophesied savior; and the swordsman whose name as the "Pirate Hunter" resounded across the Four Blues, Roronoa Zoro, the future world's greatest Great Swordsman.

"So it was them..." Rain murmured, unable to suppress the excitement rising in his heart.

He raised his head and looked toward the boundless, glittering sea beyond the harbor. In the original timeline, the Straw Hat Pirates leaving Whiskey Peak meant they had already become embroiled in Baroque Works' enormous conspiracy and had officially begun their journey to save the Kingdom of Alabasta.

And Rain happened to possess an Eternal Pose pointing toward Alabasta. If nothing unexpected happened, they could meet in Alabasta.

"What an interesting coincidence."

Rain ignored Miss Monday, who was slumped on the ground, and turned toward his sailboat.

He also knew that if he followed the pointer to Alabasta, he would inevitably cross paths with Sand Crocodile Crocodile, the Shichibukai who controlled all of Baroque Works and was also a Logia user.

"Sand Crocodile... I wonder which is stronger, sand or rock."

Rain stepped onto the deck. After carrying the final barrel of whiskey, the rock puppets turned into piles of inert grayish-white stones and scattered into a corner.

"Raise anchor!"

Inside the underwater cavity at the stern, the [Rock Turbine] once again let out a deep, violent roar. The meteorite statue at the bow mercilessly split apart the waves.

Loaded with most of Whiskey Peak's finest supplies, the sailboat became a sharp black shadow beneath the sunlight. Without a hint of reluctance, it sailed away from the cactus island filled with cries of agony and headed deeper into the Grand Line's ever more treacherous mysteries.