One Piece: Invincible from the Start

As for Ahua and the other two, they were either in the kitchen or lying on deck, talking nonsense out of boredom.

The sea was just that dull. Only the islands scattered across it, each full of unknowns, could bring them back to life.

Just then, A-Luo called down from the lookout, binoculars in hand.

"Ship! Pirate ship dead ahead at twelve o'clock!"

At A-Luo's shout, everyone aboard perked up.

There was one other kind of fun to be had on this mind-numbingly dull sea.

Running into another pirate crew, of course!

Both ships were small, fast sailboats, so it wasn't long before they met at sea.

Ahua studied the pirate flag on the other ship.

He flipped through a stack of wanted posters until he stopped at one that didn't stand out much.

He looked up at the flag again, pushed up his glasses, and said calmly,

"The Crazy Bull Pirates!"

"Captain: Kubi Rad."

"Bounty: 15 million Beli."

Then he pulled out a stack of newspapers from behind him, selected one, and said,

"According to a report from a few months ago, Kubi Rudd was a rookie pirate who had only recently set sail."

"A rookie pirate?"

Kuta rubbed his chin and said thoughtfully, "Then if his first bounty was fifteen million Beli, he's either strong or exceptionally cruel."

A cold glint flashed through his eyes as he spoke.

Clearly, he thought the latter was more likely.

In the East Blue, where bounties averaged less than ten million Beli, there were only those two reasons for a first bounty to be so high.

Even Krieg's bounty was only seventeen million Beli.

Who knew what horrors this man had committed to earn a bounty like that?

Kuta looked at Ahua, signaling him to continue.

Ahua glanced at the newspaper and went on.

"He's only been at sea for a few months,

but he's already plundered six towns."

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Ahua's eyes lit up, and he spoke more quickly.

"After plundering each town, he transforms into a huge, shaggy bull-headed monster and rampages through the place."

"That's why the Marines dubbed him 'Crazy Bull.'"

"A bull-headed monster?"

"Could he be one of those Devil Fruit Users Kuta told us about?"

A-Luo and A-Tao hadn't been interested in the captain of the Crazy Bull Pirates at first.

They weren't the ones who would have to deal with him, after all.

But after hearing Ahua's explanation, excitement appeared on both their faces.

A Devil Fruit User!

This would be their first time seeing one!

What they didn't know was that they had already met Devil Fruit Users.

One was the Okama King, Emporio Ivankov.

Ivankov was a miracle worker who had eaten the Hormone-Hormone Fruit.

His power let him control body temperature, pigmentation, growth, and emotions. He could alter people from within, even changing their sex and turning them into a new kind of human: an okama.

If Ivankov had used his Devil Fruit powers against Kuta back then, Kuta probably would have lost even faster!

The other was Inazuma, who was always at Ivankov's side and could appear as either a man or a woman.

Ivankov had used his powers to transform Inazuma.

Inazuma had eaten the Scissors-Scissors Fruit and become a scissors human.

He could turn any part of his body into scissors capable of cutting through anything.

For a while afterward, he could handle anything he cut as though it were cloth.

It was still unclear whether he could cut living creatures the way he cut the ground.

If he could, his power would be nearly unbeatable.

But things cut by his power weren't like things cut by the Op-Op Fruit.

The Op-Op Fruit could put things back together after cutting them.

And a person cut by it could go on as though nothing had happened.

The Scissors-Scissors Fruit was different.

It could only destroy. If it worked on people, Inazuma could kill anyone with ease.

Surely a power that broken couldn't work on living creatures!

The Madman Beneath the Hierarchy

The Crazy Bull Pirates.

Their deck was strewn with sleeping pirates.

They were the companions Kubi Rudd had picked up over the past few months, though really, they were just thugs from the towns he had plundered.

They had stayed up too late the night before and were still fast asleep.

Only the few pirates in the lookout and at the helm were faithfully doing their jobs.

They would have liked to sleep like the others, but it was their turn on duty.

No one on their ship had a permanent post. They took shifts.

Just then, the pirate in the lookout spotted the Freedom.

"Pirate ship dead ahead!"

Through his binoculars, he saw a pirate flag he didn't recognize flying from the approaching ship. He called down lazily and thought nothing more of it.

Then he remembered how bloodthirsty and cruel their captain was toward other ships and their crews. Even as one of his own men, he couldn't help shivering.

He watched the Freedom approach and silently mourned the people aboard.

"Poor bastards. Of all the ships to meet on this endless sea, they had to run into ours."

A bloodthirsty gleam entered his eyes at the thought.

What kind of decent person would Kubi Rudd have accepted aboard?

They were all lawless scoundrels who would commit any evil.

The captain's cabin.

Snores rolled out of it like thunder before a downpour.

A middle-aged man lay asleep on the sofa.

He looked about thirty-five and otherwise unremarkable.

The only things that stood out were his bulging muscles and the countless scars, large and small, across his bare body.

This had to be Kubi Rudd, captain of the Crazy Bull Pirates.

Even in his sleep, he gave off the vicious air of a great beast.

Outside the captain's cabin.

A pirate hesitated over whether to wake their captain.

There wasn't a soul in the Crazy Bull Pirates who didn't fear Kubi Rudd.

Creak!

After only a moment's hesitation, he pushed open the cabin's battered wooden door.

Compared with failing to report a pirate ship, waking Kubi Rudd was nothing.

Kubi Rudd wanted fame. He wanted to surpass Arlong and Krieg and become the strongest pirate in the East Blue.

That was why he kept attacking towns, other pirate crews, and merchant ships.

As a member of the Crazy Bull Pirates, the man knew all that perfectly well.

He entered and approached Kubi Rudd with care, calling to him softly a few times.

There was no waking him that way.

With no other choice, he shouted, "Captain! Captain..." "Hmm?"

The snoring stopped abruptly.

Kubi Rudd opened his bloodshot eyes and fixed the pirate with a vicious glare.

He said nothing. He just stared.

If the man had nothing worth hearing, there was no reason to keep him aboard.

Sweat poured from the pirate under Kubi Rudd's blood-red gaze.

He lowered his head, afraid to meet his captain's eyes, and spoke as fast as he could.

"Captain, there's a pirate ship dead ahead."

"A pirate ship?"

The viciousness left Kubi Rudd's face. He sat up at an unhurried pace.

He took out a cigar, lit it, and drew deeply on it.

Then he stood, picked up the brown coat beside him, and draped it over his shoulders.

"Let's go see who they are."

He headed out, excitement written all over his face.

He hoped they would give him a good time.

As the ships met, both crews lowered their sails, bringing the vessels to a halt on the water.

Ahua and the other two stared at the tall man on the other ship's bow, their eyes full of curiosity.

"So that's a Devil Fruit User? He doesn't look any different."

Kuta leaped straight onto the other ship and landed on the railing at its bow.

His main reason for coming was to let Ahua and the others see what a Devil Fruit power looked like.

It would give them something to consider if they became Devil Fruit Users themselves one day.

He hadn't come to fight a pirate crew that, in his eyes, amounted to nothing.

He grinned at Kubi Rudd and said with exaggerated admiration,

"Well, well! Crazy Bull Kubi Rudd, with a bounty of fifteen million Beli."

"How terrifying!"