When Gern seemed genuinely ready to leave without making another move, the Straw Hat Pirates finally relaxed their tightly wound nerves a little.
But that brief relief was immediately replaced by concern for their crewmate.
"You bastard Moss Head! You'd better not die on us!!"
Sanji practically roared the words, then stopped caring about anything else.
He raced toward the stretch of sea where Zoro had been sent flying.
"Wait for me, Sanji!" Chopper cried through his tears. "I'm a doctor!" He immediately shifted into his reindeer form and galloped after Sanji.
Just then, Brook, who had been silently searching his memory, seemed to have a bolt of lightning strike its deepest recesses.
His hollow eye sockets (though he had no eyes) suddenly "looked" toward Gern's retreating back, and he spoke in his echoing voice.
"Yohohoho... I remember now!
I remember! This young man seems to be..."
Brook's words drew the attention of everyone who remained.
"From much earlier... from the West Blue... the Pirate Hunter!"
"Pirate Hunter?" Usopp blinked and reflexively repeated the words, confusion crossing his face. "You mean a pirate hunter like Zoro?"
"No, Mr. Usopp." Brook shook his head, his bones clicking softly. His tone suddenly took on the distant quality of someone recalling the past as he said slowly,
"He wasn't an ordinary hunter.
He was the first man on the seas... to be given the title [Pirate Hunter]!
Or rather, that title, which struck terror into pirates' hearts and was later used by others,
was born in the West Blue because of him, before resounding throughout the Grand Line!
Back then, even my captain didn't want to encounter him. He actually said, [Good thing we set sail early. Otherwise, with that man around, we'd never have made it out of the West Blue and