One Piece: Invincible from the Start

"Who do you think you're dealing with?"

A pirate stepped forward and shouted at Kuta.

Anyone could tell Kuta had been mocking their captain.

"Hm?"

Kuta turned to stare at

the nameless pirate and fixed him with a glare.

"Get lost."

He had no interest in these nameless pirates.

With Conqueror's Haki behind it, his glare knocked the pirate unconscious.

Thud. The pirate suddenly collapsed.

The others behind him all drew a sharp breath.

"What was that?"

"He knocked someone out just by glaring at him."

"That's terrifying!"

They looked up at Kuta, shock filling their eyes.

Kubi Rudd glanced at the fallen pirate, disgust flashing in his eyes.

"Useless."

He had sensed a trace of pressure just now.

But he thought nothing of it. Kuta had only knocked out one of his men, not killed him.

He looked up at Kuta and shouted,

"Tell me your name, brat! The great Captain Mad Bull doesn't kill nobodies."

Of course, he was only joking.

When madness took him, he even killed his own men. He was a madman through and through.

"Me?"

"You can call me a Partner of Justice."

Kuta introduced himself with a straight face.

"Don't make me laugh! A pirate talking about justice?"

Kubi Rudd roared at Kuta, "A pirate is a pirate! If you want to do good, why don't you join the Marines?"

"Stop trying to fool me!"

He hated justice. He hated people who spoke of it.

Because he had never known justice himself.

Human traffickers had captured him when he was very young and sold him to a noble family.

Throughout his decades as a slave, he had never felt a shred of kindness from the world.

From childhood onward, he had either been abused or been waiting for the next beating.

Neither his masters nor anyone else in their town had ever treated him as a person.

So he hated the world.

He believed it all deserved to be destroyed.

After he accidentally ate the Yak-Yak Fruit, that belief only grew stronger.

The first thing he did with his new power was kill his master's entire family.

Then he slaughtered the town where he had lived.

The people he had once bowed and scraped before, the people he had looked up to, suddenly lay at his feet, begging him to spare them.

That sight drove him completely mad.

He became enthralled by the feeling of holding other people's lives in his hands.

He would use his power to rule the entire East Blue.

He would make everyone feel the pain he had known.

A Little Boring, Isn't It?

Kuta found Kubi Rudd's fierce reaction to "Partner of Justice" baffling.

With how much he hates the word justice, did the Marines hurt him or something?

Kuta rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, then called out to him.

"Hey!"

"Come on, make your move already! Stop dragging your feet and show me what you can do!"

The thick stench of blood coming off Kubi Rudd told Kuta that he had killed plenty of people.

No wonder the man had never appeared in the manga.

The Marines must have executed him long ago.

"If you're so eager to die, brat, I'll oblige."

With that, Kubi Rudd transformed into a bull-headed humanoid.

The pirates behind him took heart at the sight.

Their captain was a monster with the power of a Devil Fruit!

Seeing Kubi Rudd's new form, Kuta burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha!"

"Why don't you put an iron ring through your nose? Then you'd really look like the Bull Demon King."

"Hahahaha..."

"An iron ring?"

"The Bull Demon King?"

Kubi Rudd had no idea who the Bull Demon King was, but the mention of an iron ring still struck a nerve.

Kuta's undisguised laughter pushed him over the edge.

"Aaaagh!"

He threw back his head and roared, white steam billowing from his nostrils.

Seeing their captain's fury, the pirates behind him flushed with excitement and shouted,

"Get him, Captain!"

"Tear that arrogant brat apart!"

To them, an enraged Kubi Rudd was the World's Strongest. He had even slaughtered the Marines sent to capture them.

At his men's cheers, Kubi Rudd stopped roaring. He lowered his head and fixed his bloodshot eyes on Kuta, then drove his legs against the deck and shot forward like an arrow.

Ever since the brat had boarded the ship, he had barely looked at Kubi Rudd. His eyes held nothing but cold indifference and contempt, and he carried himself with an air of superiority.

Now he was laughing at him too.

He was asking for death.

Kubi Rudd could not remember the last time anyone had looked at him that way or laughed at him.

Since gaining his Devil Fruit power, everyone he met had feared him. Even the Marines were no exception.

What gave this brat the nerve to look at him like that, much less mock him?

The last time he had seen a look like that, he had still been a slave.

Afterward, not a single person in that town had been left alive.

He was certain this brat would be no different.

As the distance closed and Kuta came within reach, a bloodthirsty gleam filled Kubi Rudd's eyes. He roared,

"Look me in the eye, you little bastard!"

He clenched his huge right fist. Muscles bulged and veins stood out along his arm, swelling it

another size.

Then he drew his fist back and drove it straight at Kuta's head.

He stared at Kuta's head, imagining the blood that would spray when his fist struck.

Wild excitement spread across his face.

He loved the sight of splattering blood. It filled him with savage delight.

"Hm?"

Then a sudden bang shattered his fantasy.

It felt as though his fist had struck a steel plate instead of Kuta's head.

His focus snapped back to the present. A hand tiny beside his fist had stopped it dead, leaving him unable to push forward another inch.

"No way!"

"He caught the captain's full-power punch that easily?"

The grins froze on the faces of the pirates who had been cheering moments before.

They had seen someone withstand Kubi Rudd's full-power punch before. But hadn't that Marine officer coughed up blood afterward?

Kuta had stopped it as casually as if he were catching a falling leaf.

So casually, in fact, that he had not even stopped laughing.

"Is that all the strength you've got?"

Kuta stopped laughing and turned to Kubi Rudd with a mocking look. "That little bit of strength is enough to make you so full of yourself?"

"Don't get cocky, brat!"

Kubi Rudd glared at Kuta, his face darkening. He was no fool. He could feel the gap between them.

But he would not bow his head or admit defeat.

When he first set out to sea, he had sworn he would never bow to anyone again.

He pulled his fist back, retreated a few steps, and tore off his shirt, exposing the dense scars covering his body.

"Hm?"

Seeing those scars, Kuta understood why Kubi Rudd hated justice so much.

They had plainly accumulated over many years.

Judging by their shapes and sizes, they could not have come from battle.

That left only one explanation.

Kubi Rudd had once been a slave.

Only nobles would inflict so many wounds on one person while keeping him alive.

Kuta looked at Kubi Rudd. His smile faded, and he frowned slightly.

He no longer intended to waste time on him.

He had wanted to have some fun, but the sight of those scars changed his mind.

He could mock the man Kubi Rudd had become, but not what he had endured.

Kubi Rudd threw back his head and roared. Black fur surged across his body, and in the blink of an eye, he became an enormous Yak.