"Gum-Gum... Pendulum!!!"
East Blue, Syrup Village.
With a bloody Luffy delivering a headbutt, Kuro of a Hundred Plans, who had posed as the butler Klahadore in an attempt to seize Kaya's family fortune, was finally defeated for good.
Seeing their captain fall, the Black Cat Pirates' lackeys immediately scattered, fled back to their pirate ship, and vanished over the sea in a flash.
At the sight of this, Luffy, Zoro, and Nami, utterly exhausted from the battle, finally collapsed to the ground.
"Thank you so much!"
If Nami had merely harbored her own little agenda during the fight against the Buggy Pirates, intending to use Luffy and the others to eliminate pirates who were a threat to East Blue, and had therefore mostly stood by doing nothing—
Then in this battle, Nami had sincerely joined the fight and even suffered some injuries because of it.
And Usopp, the protagonist of this story who had exposed Kuro, not only successfully protected the girl he loved, Kaya, but also successfully joined the Straw Hat Pirates and became one of them.
At this point, the Straw Hat Pirates, which had originally consisted of Luffy alone, had finally expanded to three members.
Swordsman: Roronoa Zoro.
Sniper: Usopp.
No... that wasn't right. There was one more companion.
After resting for the night, the next morning, under Merry's guidance, the three Straw Hat Pirates arrived at the shore.
Before them stood a swift sailing ship, with a triangular sail on its aft mast, a centrally mounted rudder at the stern, and a sheep's head at the bow.
Usopp asked with a puzzled expression.
"Mr. Merry, what is this?"
Still wrapped in bandages, Merry looked gratefully at the three of them and said gently.
"This is the Going Merry, which I personally designed and built when I