This Man Was a Madman

The pirates locked up in Impel Down all had bounties on their heads.

As for the small-time lackeys without bounties, they were simply killed on the spot.

Yet this strange man, their leader, watched calmly as his own men were slaughtered.

No, he wasn't watching. More precisely, he was savoring it.

Every bloodshot vein in his eyes betrayed his excitement.

A silent, quiet madness.

For a moment, a chill ran through Tyr, and his hair stood on end.

It was the instinctive fear humans felt when confronted with something they couldn't understand.

"You're their captain, aren't you? You're just going to watch?"

Beneath the strange man's calm lurked a tremor of excitement. "Doesn't matter. They're just lackeys!"

Then he licked his lips again and suddenly smiled, exposing his scarlet gums.

"You're the reason I held back from killing every last one of them!"

Tyr's brow furrowed further. That eerie feeling made him even more reluctant to act rashly.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

But the strange man merely smiled.

For some reason, an image suddenly surfaced in Tyr's mind.

A ferocious beast, pinning its prey beneath its claws.

The beast was in no hurry to devour its prey. To wring more pleasure from it, it merely lowered its head and sniffed its scent.

Just then, his adjutant approached Tyr and said with a grim expression:

"Sir, we found the abducted girls in the cabin.

"They...

"I think death would be a release and salvation for them."

He recalled the scene he'd witnessed earlier, and his face grew even paler.

Even with his strong resolve, he'd vomited violently just moments ago.

Listening to his adjutant's vague account, Tyr took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, they had begun to burn.

He looked at the strange man and said:

"You are unforgivable!"

The strange man chuckled and said:

"I didn't do all of it. After they were done being used, I just added a few artistic finishing touches."

Those utterly inhuman words made Tyr lose all reason.

He stopped thinking, let out a roar, and launched himself at the strange man like a cannonball.

He had to tear this bastard's mouth apart!

But the strike he'd thought was guaranteed to land missed.

At the last possible moment, the strange man vanished from his sight.

With a crack, Tyr smashed a hole through the ship's railing before finally stopping himself, then used Geppo to return to the deck.

He stared gravely at the strange man, who had somehow moved to a different spot.

This was bad!

"Heh, you know what? I've gotten bored of killing those numb villagers.

"I took their daughters and their women right in front of them.

"All they did was tremble, cower, and cry!

"I had my men work a little art on their loved ones right before their eyes. Haha, that did get a few of them fired up.

"But only a few. It wasn't nearly enough!

"Now look at you! Marines like you, with all that anger! So full of life!

"Now that's what it means to be alive!

"That's what makes me want to kill!"

Now that he was openly displaying his excitement, the strange man looked even more like a deranged freak.

His words bored into Tyr's ears like a demonic chant.

"You piece of human garbage!"

The strange man wasn't offended. He suddenly calmed down, surveyed the deck, and said:

"Whatever! But it looks like my little darlings are about to be wiped out. We can't have that!"

Alarm bells rang in Tyr's mind.

But he was too late.

The instant the strange man finished speaking, he vanished.

Tyr suddenly heard a piercing noise.

Then blood and minced flesh flew everywhere.

Tyr's pupils contracted sharply.

"STOOOOOP!"

Bang—

Bzzzz—

The world spun around him, and Tyr scrambled up from the ground.

He saw the strange man standing before his adjutant.

One of the man's hands had already plunged into the adjutant's abdomen.

Muffled sounds of cutting and churning came from within, accompanied by sprays of blood and flesh.

The strange man studied the adjutant's expression with keen interest.

Veins bulged on the adjutant's forehead from the pain, only to quickly subside as he lost too much blood.

He stiffly turned his head to look at Tyr.

Coughing up blood, he said:

"Go... get out of here!"

The blood garbled his words, but Tyr no longer had the presence of mind to notice.

His pupils quivered wildly, and his whole body began to shake.

By then, the strange man had savored enough.

He pulled his hand out. On that blood-soaked hand, where his fingers should have been, there were five small chainsaws, spinning with an ear-piercing buzz.

Those things had been inside the adjutant's belly the whole time.

With nothing holding him up, the adjutant crumpled limply to the deck, and blood quickly pooled beneath him.

The strange man glanced at Tyr, lifted his foot, and kicked the adjutant over to him.

The sound of the body hitting the deck snapped Tyr out of his stupor.

The powerful rear admiral could barely walk steadily now.

He stumbled over to his adjutant, frantically pressing his hands over the wound and praying for a miracle.

Sadly, no miracle came for the adjutant.

His eyes were already losing focus.

"...This is a soldier's fate!"

At that moment, Tyr suddenly grew calm.

He stood up, fixed his reddened eyes on the strange man, and murmured to himself:

"It's my fate, too!

"Wasn't that already decided the moment I became a Marine?"

"Tch! How boring!

"Where's your anger?

"Killing you like this wouldn't be any different from killing those villagers!"

The strange man raised his right hand and licked the blood off it.

The sharp saw teeth cut his tongue, but he seemed not to feel it.

"Or should I kill a few more of your men?"

The strange man looked toward the soldiers on the warship's deck.

Tyr took a deep breath, then instantly appeared in front of the warship.

Clang—

Bzzzz—

Tyr's blackened arms braced against a chainsaw that spun and cut furiously.

Then, without looking back, he shouted:

"Follow my orders! Head back! Take the intelligence with you!"

"But..."

"Forget about me! Follow your orders!"

"...Yes, sir!"

"Oh? You want them to live?

"Then once I kill them, you ought to become even more full of life!"

The strange man smiled, revealing stark white teeth and bright red gums.

A black coating suddenly crept over his chainsaw.

The Armament Haki on Tyr's arms immediately struggled to withstand it.

His expression changed, and he lashed out with a fierce kick.

The strange man rode the force away, then charged toward the departing warship.

But Tyr blocked his path once again.

Staring straight into those chilling eyes, he enunciated every word:

"Until I'm dead, you're not leaving this ship!"

At those words, the strange man smiled and said:

"Interesting. Very interesting.

"Now I'm starting to think killing you as you are would be pretty interesting, too!"

Tyr said calmly:

"We'll see who kills whom!"