Baroque Works had fourteen Officer Agents in total.
None of them used their real names.
Instead, they operated entirely under codenames.
Beneath them were roughly 1,800 lower-ranking agents known as Millions.
Their main job was to hunt pirates entering the Grand Line and use the resulting bounties to fund the organization.
Whiskey Peak was one of Baroque Works’ major strongholds, with several hundred agents stationed there year-round.
Countless pirate crews had fallen into their trap.
Failures were rare.
But today, they had finally encountered someone they couldn’t handle.
Bane’s figure flickered through the crowd.
Every time he appeared, another bounty hunter collapsed into a pool of blood.
Fear quickly spread among the surviving agents.
At first, they had been confident.
Several hundred people against one young pirate?
The advantage seemed overwhelming.
Yet now, they couldn’t even follow Bane’s movements.
They barely caught glimpses of him before another one of their comrades fell.
Silent Step was devastating against opponents this much weaker than him.
And Bane was taking full advantage of it.
Mr.
9’s eyes had gone bloodshot after losing his partner.
Unfortunately, anger did nothing to help him track Bane.
He couldn’t even tell where Bane was moving, much less stop him.
Still, Mr.
9 had one card left to play.
He grabbed Krieg by the hair and dragged him into view.
“Stop!”
Mr.
9 raised his baseball bat.
“Take another step and I’ll kill him!”
Bane actually stopped.
Then his expression brightened.
“Really?”
He looked almost pleasantly surprised.
“Deal.”
Mr.
9 hesitated.
Something about that response felt wrong.
But he quickly recovered.
“If you don’t want him to die, drop your weapon and surrender!”
Bane stared at him strangely.
“Are you hard of hearing, or just stupid?”
He shook his head.
“Forget it.”
Shakushi!
Bane vanished again.
Almost immediately, more Baroque Works agents collapsed beneath his blade.
Mr.
9’s face twisted with rage.
“You bastard!”
He raised his bat and smashed it down onto Krieg’s head.
Crack!
Blood immediately ran down Krieg’s face.
“If you keep fighting, I’ll kill him!”
“Go ahead.”
Bane’s voice came from somewhere in the crowd.
He sounded completely unconcerned.
He had already been considering killing Krieg himself.
If Mr.
9 wanted to save him the trouble, Bane certainly wasn’t going to complain.
Besides, the System hadn’t issued any quest requiring Krieg’s survival.
Mr.
9 suddenly narrowed his eyes.
Then his expression changed.
“I understand.”
Bane paused for half a second.
Mr.
9 smirked.
“You’re pretending not to care.”
“You want me to lower my guard so you can suddenly rescue him.”
His confidence returned completely.
“Nice try. I’ve already figured you out.”
Bane nearly laughed.
“Sure.”
His voice carried from somewhere nearby.
“Whatever you say.”
Mr.
9 pointed his bat toward him.
“Stop pretending. If you really didn’t care about Krieg, you wouldn’t have tried to exchange hostages earlier.”
9’s mind, everything now made perfect sense.
He reached into his clothes, pulled out a small bottle of antidote, and forced the contents down Krieg’s throat.
The medicine acted quickly.
Krieg’s eyes slowly opened.
His expression was dazed.
His memories still seemed stuck at the moment before he lost consciousness.
Mr.
9 immediately raised his bat.
Crack!
He smashed Krieg’s right leg.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Krieg screamed.
His eyes snapped fully open.
Mr.
9 grinned down at him.
“Awake now?”
Krieg clutched his broken leg, his face twisting in agony.
Mr.
9 rested the bat against his shoulder.
“Order your subordinate to surrender.”
“Otherwise, I’ll break the rest of your limbs and leave you crawling for the rest of your life.”
Krieg’s body was still weak from the drugs.
Now, with his leg broken on top of that, he didn’t hesitate.
“My leg…!”
He gritted his teeth and shouted toward the battlefield.
“Bane! I order you to surrender immediately!”
Bane paused.
Then he shrugged.
“Sorry, Admiral.”
“I can’t do that.”
And he immediately resumed cutting down Baroque Works agents.
Mr.
9 glanced down at Krieg.
“Your subordinate doesn’t seem very obedient.”
His eyes shifted toward Krieg’s other leg.
Krieg went pale.
“Wait…”
Then realization finally struck him.
“Bane?!”
His expression twisted.
“Damn it! Are you trying to get me killed?!”
Bane’s voice drifted through the crowd.
“Mr. 9, right?”
His tone suddenly became threatening.
“If you lay another finger on my boss, I’ll wipe out everyone you care about.”
“I mean it.”
Mr.
9’s face darkened.
“So now you’re threatening me?”
Crack!
His bat slammed into Krieg again.
Blood filled Krieg’s mouth.
Several teeth flew out.
Bane shouted furiously from somewhere out of sight.
“Don’t hit my boss!”
“If you’ve got a problem, come after me!”
Mr.
9 looked around.
Bane was nowhere to be seen.
Crack!
Another blow landed.
“I hit him.”
Mr.
9 shouted.
“What are you going to do about it?!”
Bane’s voice answered immediately.
“Fine!”
“Every time you hit my boss, I’ll kill ten more of your people!”
“Keep going if you want!”
Mr.
9 sneered.
“You think I’m afraid of you?”
Somehow, he produced another baseball bat.
Now armed with one in each hand, Mr.
9 began beating Krieg relentlessly.
Crack!
Thud!
Bang!
Even the surrounding bounty hunters found them painful to hear.
Mr.
9 finally stopped long enough to shout toward Bane.
“I’m asking one last time!”
“Are you surrendering or not?!”
“Admiral!”
Bane’s voice came from somewhere among the fighting.
“Hang in there a little longer!”
“I’ll come save you once I finish dealing with these people!”
“Just try not to die before then!”
Both Krieg and Mr.
9’s expressions became equally ugly.
Mr.
9 lowered his voice.
“Fine.”
He looked down at Krieg.
“Let’s see how much more of this you can take.”
Krieg shuddered.
“Stop hitting me!”
Blood ran from his mouth as he desperately tried to explain.
“You’ve got it wrong! That bastard isn’t even really my subordinate!”
Mr.
9 sneered.
“Of course he isn’t.”
“I’m serious!”
Krieg struggled to speak clearly through his missing teeth.
“His full name is Disaster Bane!”
“He has a bounty of thirty million Berries!”
Mr.
9 froze.
Krieg continued desperately.
“Think about it!”
“Why would a pirate worth thirty million Berries willingly serve someone whose bounty is only sixteen million?!”
“He was hiding inside my crew! He fooled all of us!”
Krieg truly wasn’t stupid.
At first, he hadn’t connected the Bane aboard his ship to the Disaster Bane shown on the wanted poster.
But later, he had personally witnessed what Bane could do.
His speed.
His Haki.
His strength.
And most importantly, the fact that he had survived a serious slash from Hawkeye Mihawk.
By then, it had become obvious that Bane was anything but ordinary.
And once Bane’s disguise began falling apart, the remaining clues became even harder to ignore.
After putting everything together, Krieg had become certain.
The Bane who had joined his crew was the same Disaster Bane carrying a thirty-million-Berry bounty.
Krieg still had no idea why Bane had infiltrated his crew.
But at this point, that no longer mattered.
If he kept quiet, Mr.
9 was going to beat him to death.
Mr.
9 stared at Krieg.
“You’re still trying to trick me?”
He snorted.
“Your bounty isn’t sixteen million anymore.”
“It’s twenty-two million.”
Krieg blinked.
“What?”
His eyes widened.
“Twenty-two million?!”
For one brief moment, genuine delight replaced the pain on his face.
“My bounty went up by six million?!”
Then he spat blood onto the ground.
“That’s not important!”
He looked frantically at Mr.
9.
“If you have the latest East Blue wanted posters, then check them!”
“You can confirm everything I said yourself!”
Mr.
9 frowned.
That actually made sense.
He pulled out a stack of wanted posters and began searching through them.
One sheet after another passed through his hands.
Then he stopped.
Mr.
9 pulled one poster free.
He looked at the image.
Then at Krieg.
“Is this him?”