The future wings of the Straw Hat Pirates...
A solid foundation in swordsmanship, but lacking true tempering in life-and-death battles.
Exceptional talent for kicks, but no path of his own yet.
Ye Chuan's [Observation Haki] easily discerned the strength of the two men.
"They're still too green. With their current strength, they'd be worth around ten million Beli at most on these seas."
"Rescuing their captain in time from enemies who outnumber them several times over will probably be... very difficult."
Sure enough, just as Ye Chuan had expected, although Zoro and Sanji fought with tremendous valor, there were simply too many members of the Buggy Pirates.
Though they kept knocking enemies down, they were still a considerable distance from the execution platform. They were running out of time!
On the execution platform, the blade in Buggy's hand was already plunging toward Luffy's neck, gleaming with the chill of death!
Yet faced with certain death, Luffy showed no fear at all. Instead, an utterly radiant smile spread across his face.
"Nami, Usopp, Zoro, Sanji..."
"Sorry, I'm going to die."
Watching Luffy's signature smile, Ye Chuan couldn't help feeling slightly moved.
That smile... did have something of Roger's bearing back then.
Rumble-!!!!!!
An immensely thick bolt of lightning fell from the sky without warning. Like a spear of divine punishment, it struck the towering execution platform with perfect accuracy!
"Aaaaaaah-!!!"
Before Captain Buggy could even finish screaming, the violent lightning scorched him black. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out on the spot!
Then the raging power of the lightning poured unimpeded into the execution platform's wooden structure!
The execution platform that had borne witness to the Pirate King's final moments shattered and collapsed piece by piece amid a deafening explosion!
Amid the clouds of dust and flames, a figure