Pirates: Invincible from the Start

The last time he had seen news of Kuta, the Great Swordsman who had appeared out of nowhere had caught his interest. He had meant to seek Kuta out for a duel, but other matters had delayed him.

Now Kuta was in the news again, stronger than before.

He could no longer resist.

He tossed aside the newspaper and rose. At the coat rack, he draped a burgundy patterned cloak over his shoulders, then put on a black top hat trimmed with white fur.

He strapped a massive cross-shaped black blade to his back and strode out of the Castle.

The last person to make him this excited, this impatient, had been Red-Haired Shanks—before he lost his arm and became one of the Four Emperors.

Since then, he had never found another Swordmaster who thrilled him as an opponent.

Somewhere in the New World.

The Red Hair Pirates were holding a feast on an uninhabited island.

At the island's center, a one-armed middle-aged man sat on a broken tree.

He had red hair and three vertical scars over his left eye. From the look of them, someone had clawed him.

Short stubble lined his jaw. He wore a white shirt beneath a black cloak, with a rapier at his waist.

He was Shanks, captain of the Red Hair Pirates and one of the New World's Four Emperors, known across the world as Red-Hair.

He was also the youngest of the Four Emperors.

Though a pirate, Shanks had ties to the Five Elders, the World Government's highest leaders. Much about him remained a mystery.

Few pirates embodied freedom as completely as he did. If the Pirate King was "the freest person on the Sea," Shanks stood closer to that throne than anyone.

He was also the only one of the