Target

Even the marines stationed on the island came to the banquet.

They were marines, and they stood on opposite sides from Kuta's crew, but they did not dislike them. After what had happened, they had even come to respect Kuta and the others.

The banquet was full of laughter, though tinged with sadness. On that ancient island, it carried on from the last rays of sunset until the full moon hung high beneath a sky thick with stars.

During the banquet, Kuta learned how Saka had ended up in his current state. Saka also told him news of Zoro.

It turned out that ever since leaving Isshin Dojo, Saka had worked as a bounty hunter in East Blue.

Partly, he wanted to hone his swordsmanship. But he also needed money, of course, and wanted to uphold the justice he believed in.

Then, a few months ago, he met Zoro and teamed up with him to hunt pirates.

His peaceful life had changed completely.

Saka was not especially strong by East Blue standards, but with proper planning, he could usually take down pirates with bounties of a few million Beli.

Once Zoro joined him, though, they stopped aiming for pirates worth a few million. Their targets became every notorious pirate in East Blue.

Zoro had the strength to handle that. Saka struggled to keep up.

Then, on their way to ambush a pirate crew, they were ambushed by several other crews working together.

In that attack, Saka was badly wounded and fell into the sea.

Luck was on his side: a merchant convoy rescued him and took him to the Grand Line.

Perhaps fate was playing a joke on him. The convoy that rescued him was strong enough to defeat ordinary pirates, and its destination was Water 7. It encountered no