The village's peace was torn apart in an instant.
The pirates roared with laughter as they kicked open wooden doors one after another. They plundered the villagers' meager possessions and wantonly burned the homes they had worked so hard to build.
Cries, screams, and the pirates' wild laughter mingled together. This peaceful little island became a hell on earth.
"All of you, stop! You scum!"
A cold, furious shout rang out. Saber in hand, Masha stood in the pirates' path like a streak of black lightning.
She was no longer the ordinary woman who worked the forge every day. Now, her gaze was sharp as a blade, and she radiated the hardened, bloody aura of a veteran of countless battles.
"Oh? A woman with the guts to fight back?" A pirate ringleader licked his blade. He approached with a lecherous look plastered across his face. "Not bad-looking, either. We'll take you back for the captain to..."
He never finished.
Silver light flashed. Blood sprayed, and the pirate ringleader's head flew into the air.
"So fast!"
The pirates had not even seen how Masha had struck.
"You trash think you're fit to judge my sword?" Masha flicked the blood from her blade's tip. Her icy gaze swept over every pirate present.
For a moment, no one dared step forward.
But that intimidation did not last long.
"As expected of the elite Marine who once chased us all over the world. Even retired, you're still just as frightening." A sinister voice came from behind the pirates.
The obese pirate captain, his face covered in savage-looking flesh, parted the crowd. He stepped out.
An enormous spiked club rested on his shoulder, and he was the one responsible for the figure of five million Beli on the wanted poster.
"Too bad you went down with my captain while covering your comrades' retreat back then, damaging your internal organs and leaving yourself with a chronic injury." He eyed Masha greedily. "How many swings do you have left in you now?"
Masha's face paled slightly. But her sword hand remained steady.
"Enough to kill every last one of you!"
Before her words had faded, she moved again.
She darted through the pirates like a phantom. Wherever her blade flashed, blood blossomed.
Within a dozen or so breaths, seven or eight pirates lay in pools of blood.
But just as the captain had said, her old injury was a nightmare she could not escape.
After one strenuous exertion, her chest tightened. Blood surged uncontrollably into her throat, and her movements faltered for an instant.
"Now!"
The pirate captain seized that fleeting opening. His massive body burst forward with speed that belied its size.
The spiked club in his hand howled through the air and slammed into Masha's back!
"Urgh!"
Masha flew like a kite with its string cut. Her saber slipped from her hand, and she crashed heavily to the ground, unable to rise again.
"Mom!"
A roar came from nearby.
Lorne's eyes were instantly consumed by blood-red color. Like an enraged lion cub, he charged over with every ounce of strength he had.
He landed in front of Masha with a crash, shielding her firmly behind him.
"Oh? Another brat coming to die?" The pirate captain curled his lip in disdain. "And a freak with animal ears, too! Hahaha!"
Several pirate lackeys closed in with vicious grins. They swung their long blades at Lorne. "Die, you little monster!"
Facing the descending blades, Lorne's expression was utterly cold.
He did not dodge.
[Decimating Smash]!
In that instant, his world seemed to enter bullet time.
Under the pirates' astonished gazes, his figure blurred into an afterimage. His fists struck an untold number of times within a single second.
Bang!
A bloody hole burst open in the lead pirate's chest. He lowered his head and stared in disbelief at his completely pierced chest, then slowly collapsed.
The others were sent flying backward by the terrifying force of the punches, blood spraying from their mouths.
Dead silence fell.
"Bastard!" The fat on the pirate captain's face twitched violently. He had never expected a half-grown child to possess such terrifying explosive strength.
"Get him! Use your guns! Fill him with holes!"
Dozens of pirates snapped to their senses. They drew the guns and long blades at their waists, aiming at the boy who shielded his adoptive mother behind him.
"Fire!"
Bang, bang, bang!
Clang, clang, clang!
The dense hail of bullets and sharp blades poured down on Lorne like a storm of steel.
Yet Lorne did not take a single step back.
He spread his arms, using his back, which was not particularly broad, to create an absolutely safe haven for the gravely injured Masha behind him.
Blood seeped from all over his body, staining his clothes red.
Blades struck his muscles with dull thuds. Yet they could only leave faint white marks before bouncing away.
The guns' lead bullets struck his body as though hitting tough cowhide. They deformed and fell away.
It hurt terribly.
But at the same time, an even more violent power was gathering wildly inside him.
In his mind, the "Grit" progress bar soared at an unprecedented rate under the onslaught of bullets and blades.
From gray to white, then to a dazzling, brilliant gold, it filled to the brim in an instant!
"Have you had enough?"
An icy voice rang out from the gunsmoke.
Lorne slowly raised his head. He was drenched in blood, yet a savage smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
A vast, almost tangible golden aura erupted from him, enveloping his entire body!
"Now... it's my turn!"
[Haymaker]!
He gathered all the damage he had endured and all the fury he had accumulated into his right fist. Then he drove it forward!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a pure-white shock wave of energy, as though it could cleanse all the world's sins, pierced forward without a sound.
The pirate captain was the first in its path, the terror on his face frozen forever.
The instant his obese body touched the white pillar of light, it was like snow beneath a blazing sun. He was silently and utterly vaporized, without even a wisp of bloody mist left behind.
The shock wave continued unabated. It pierced through the entire crowd of pirates, splitting the enormous pirate ship behind them, along with the azure sea beneath it, in two!
The enormous ship split down the middle. Seawater poured in, and it gave a pained groan as it slowly sank into that bottomless "scar in the sea."
At the very moment that earth-shattering punch was unleashed.
On the distant horizon, a Marine warship with an enormous dog head carved into its bow was heading toward the island.
Standing at the bow, the Marine hero Monkey D. Garp was leisurely stuffing rice crackers into his mouth.
The next second, he witnessed the white pillar of light pierce through the pirate ship, along with the boy standing on the shore, golden aura blazing all around him.
Crack.
Garp's mouth fell open involuntarily. The rice cracker in his hand dropped onto the deck and shattered.
"Pfft-!"
He spat out a mouthful of rice cracker crumbs. Stunned, he rubbed his eyes.
"Wh-when did the East Blue produce a monster brat like this?!"
Before you continue