One Piece: Invincible from the Start

A huge red cannonball shot toward Kuina.

At that moment, the world suddenly went still. Then an overwhelming psychic pressure swept across the entire Dreadnought Saber.

Krieg, who had been about to turn and flee, widened his eyes. His cannonball hung motionless behind Kuina instead of exploding as he had expected.

He himself was trapped by crushing pressure from every direction, unable to move.

He struggled frantically and even tried to beg for mercy, but it was no use. He could not open his mouth.

Ahua and the other two, who were fighting the pirates, suddenly froze.

Then they watched the pirates around them roll their eyes back and collapse, one after another.

The pressure vanished as quickly as it had come.

All three let out a breath and slumped to the deck.

They felt that if the psychic pressure had lasted a few seconds longer, they would have fallen too.

They had no idea what it was.

But they were certain it was another of Kuta's abilities.

They looked toward Kuta.

He was staring expressionlessly at Krieg. Behind Kuina, who stood before him, a red cannonball hung in midair.

There was no need to guess. That bastard Krieg had tried to ambush Kuina, and it had made Kuta angry.

So he had used this unbelievable ability to knock out every pirate aboard in an instant.

They could only offer Krieg a moment of silent mourning.

The man had been asking for death. Kuina was the one person Kuta would never let anyone hurt.

Kuta hung his wine gourd back at his waist and jumped down from the railing.

He walked up beside Kuina, raised his right hand, hooked his middle finger against his thumb, and lightly flicked the cannonball behind her.

Whoosh!

The cannonball shot into the distance at incredible speed.

Then it exploded over the sea with a bang, releasing a cloud of pink poisonous smoke.

"Can't let that thing explode here."

He did not care about the pirates, but he would not let it hurt Kuina or the others.

Kuina looked at Kuta, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

With Kuta there, she had no fear of sneak attacks.

Normally, she would certainly have dodged that cannonball. She had simply relaxed a little when she reached Kuta's side.

"Kuta, I'm fine."

She turned, took Kuta's hand, and looked toward Krieg.

Kuta turned to Kuina beside him, reached out to brush her nose with a finger, and said,

"You didn't even try to dodge. You trust me that much?"

"Of course.

I know you'd never let me get hurt, Kuta."

Kuina smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.

"Oh, right. What do you want to do with him?"

"Whatever you like!" Kuina shrugged indifferently.

"Hmm... All right. I wasn't planning to spare him anyway."

Kuta looked at Krieg and suddenly increased the pressure within his domain.

"Then die!"

Pinned in place, Krieg began to struggle even more violently. Far greater pressure bore down from every direction, squeezing him toward the center.

Blood poured from his mouth, eyes, and ears.

His bones creaked under the pressure.

After a while, he stopped moving.

All that remained was a huge ball of blood encased in a sphere of metal.

"If he liked his armor so much, it could be his coffin."

Bang!

With a thought, Kuta drove the blood-filled sphere down through the deck.

He had no intention of touching the disgusting thing.

It shot through the deck and the cabins, pierced the bottom of the ship, then vanished into the sea.

Kuta raised his head. A red glint flashed in his eyes as his Observation Haki swept across the entire Dreadnought Saber. Apart from his group, not a single pirate remained standing.

He could not help thinking that Conqueror's Haki truly lived up to its reputation as a flashy power and a way to clear out the small fry.

He had awakened it naturally when his mental power had broken through two years earlier.

It probably had something to do with his altered mind, though his confidence might also have played a part.

After all, there was probably no one in this world who could kill him.

Unless they possessed some miraculous power he knew nothing about.

"Hey, can you three still move?"

Kuta called to the three sitting amid the fallen pirates.

"Don't worry, I can take ten more!"

Ahua leaped to his feet and threw both hands up as he shouted.

"You? Who was it that nearly got slashed just now?"

A-Luo stood, dusted off his backside, and threw the taunt at Ahua.

"You little..."

Ahua really had almost been caught by a pirate's sneak attack. A-Luo had saved him from getting hurt.

Beside them, A-Tao gave them a helpless look, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.

The two had been fighting shoulder to shoulder moments ago, and now they were arguing again.

"All right, all right. Come on, let's see what we've won!"

With that, Kuta turned and headed for the captain's quarters on the second level of the cabins.

Creak!

The old wooden door swung open, revealing treasure scattered around the room and a mountain of Beli.

It was probably what the Krieg Pirates had plundered on this trip.

They clearly had not had time to sort through it. Some of the Beli still bore dark red stains of freshly dried blood.

Kuta swept a casual glance around the room. Finding nothing special, he immediately lost interest.

"Sort this out and bring it back."

He said this to Ahua and the others, then took Kuina's hand and returned to the Fake Merry.

The Sea's Cruelty

Kuta stared at the Dreadnought Saber blocking their path.

He drew his sword and slashed casually. A huge crescent of silver-gray energy tore through the Dreadnought Saber.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Dreadnought Saber split down the middle. Seawater surged through the breach into its cabins, and the giant ship slowly began to sink.

A wave rolled in, pushing the two halves of the Dreadnought Saber apart.

A passage opened ahead of the Fake Merry.

Kuta sheathed his sword and lay back in his deck chair. He picked up the juice from the small table beside him, swirled it gently, and took a sip.

Then he raised his right hand and called ahead, "All right, everyone, raise the sails! Let's go!"

Ahua and the other two, standing beneath the mast, sprang into action.

A-Luo climbed the mast and hauled the sail open. A strong wind filled it at once, and the Fake Merry accelerated through the gap between the two halves of the Dreadnought Saber.

Kuta glanced indifferently at the pirates aboard the broken ship and gave them no further thought.

If those pirates were lucky enough to wake up in time,

and lucky enough to survive on the open sea without a ship or food,

then they really were fate's favorites.

Not everyone was a protagonist like Luffy.

He was a Devil Fruit User, yet he had dared to put to sea hiding in a wine barrel—and had not died out there.

That was a protagonist's luck for you.

Aboard the Fake Merry.

On the forward deck, Kuta lay in a deck chair under a small blanket, reading the day's newspaper.

Apart from a few trivial stories, it was full of reports about pirate raids.

Ever since the Great Pirate Era began, there had been stories like these every day. He was tired of reading them.

More than ten years had passed since the Great Pirate Era began, yet more and more pirates had recently been setting out to sea.

They were probably the younger generation who had grown up hearing tales of the Pirate King.

They all dreamed of finding the One Piece. Did they really think they could?

In another two years, the protagonists of this world would set sail—and they were the ones the One Piece was waiting for.

As he flipped through the pages, he suddenly stopped. A headline leaped out at him: [Another Island Falls from the Sky, Mercilessly Destroying a Town.]

Below the headline were a report and a photograph.

The report read:

The night before last, an island had suddenly fallen from the sky and crashed onto Corgi Island, destroying the entire town.

People on nearby islands had felt a massive tremor.

Fortunately, it had not caused a tsunami.

Beneath the report was a photograph that took up half the page.

It showed an island shaped like a corgi, now covered in ruins. At its center, a slightly smaller island was embedded in the ground.

From the shattered buildings around it, Kuta could tell that a town had once stood there.

Now, most of that town lay buried deep beneath the smaller island.

"What rotten luck, getting buried by an island."

That was how unbelievable this world was. Anything could happen.

Kuta shook his head.