“Strange… Why aren’t the Marines firing?”
Bane stared at the approaching warship, increasingly puzzled as the distance between the two vessels rapidly closed.
They were almost close enough for a boarding battle.
Normally, when Marines encountered pirates at sea, their first move was obvious: bombard them from a distance.
A Marine warship possessed firepower that an ordinary pirate ship simply couldn’t match.
Plenty of pirate crews were blown apart before they ever had the chance to fight back.
The Black Cat Pirates had experienced it themselves during previous Marine pursuits.
Cannonballs had filled the sky whenever a warship caught sight of them.
Whether those cannons actually hit anything was another matter.
But not firing at all?
Something about that felt wrong.
Even the Bezan Black’s helmsman had been nervously swallowing, ready to make emergency evasive maneuvers the moment the first cannonball came flying.
Yet the Marine ship drew closer and closer without firing a single shot.
Some pirates breathed a sigh of relief.
Others assumed the Marines were simply arrogant.
Bane found it suspicious, but didn’t dwell on it.
The quality of Marine forces in the East Blue varied wildly.
Seeing them make a bizarre decision wasn’t exactly impossible.
“Lads!”
Kuro raised his Cat Claws.
“Follow me and slaughter those Marines!”
“YEAH!”
This time, Kuro personally led the charge.
The moment the ships came together, he crossed onto the Marine warship and disappeared from sight.
Silent Step!
Several Marines suddenly froze.
Thin cuts appeared across their throats.
Blood sprayed.
One after another, they collapsed onto the deck, clutching their necks in horror.
The sight sent the Black Cat Pirates into a frenzy.
“Kill them!”
“Follow Captain Kuro!”
The pirates surged onto the warship, howling as they rushed the Marines.
Their reckless charge at least succeeded in drawing some attention away from Kuro.
Bane followed them aboard.
Since this was apparently going to be his Big Brother’s final battle before leaving piracy behind, he saw no reason to hold back.
He might as well get some real combat experience out of it.
With LV3 Armament Haki and LV2 Observation Haki, Bane moved through the fighting with ease.
A Marine swung at him.
Bane saw it coming and stepped aside.
His blade answered immediately.
Slash!
Another Marine fell.
Then another.
Within moments, several Marines were down, while Bane himself had barely even dirtied his clothes.
None of the Marines around him seemed capable of using Haki.
Compared to the advantage Bane possessed, their strength was painfully ordinary.
The longer the fight continued, the more confident he became.
This was almost too easy.
Then his blade stopped.
Bane blinked.
Someone had caught it.
With two fingers.
“Kid.”
A rough voice sounded beside him.
“Where’d you learn Haki?”
Bane slowly turned his head.
His heart nearly stopped.
The man standing there wore a dog-shaped cap and a Marine coat with the word “Justice” emblazoned across the back.
A scar ran over his left eye.
One hand held Bane’s blade between two fingers.
The other held a donut.
The Marine took an enormous bite, chewing as though the battle raging around them had nothing to do with him.
He didn’t seem concerned about the pirates at all.
To him, dealing with everyone aboard this ship appeared no more difficult than finishing the donut in his hand.
Bane’s eyes widened.
“Garp?!”
The man’s eyebrows rose.
“Hm?”
Now it was his turn to look surprised.
“You know me?”
Bane had only been suspicious at first.
The overwhelming pressure coming from the man had already made his instincts scream at him.
But that question erased the last bit of doubt.
There was no mistake.
Monkey D.
Garp.
“Sorry for bothering you!”
Bane immediately released his weapon.
Then he turned and ran.
“Damn it! Why is Garp here?!”
His mind was screaming.
“What happened to Morgan?!”
He had expected Morgan.
Instead, he’d somehow run straight into Garp.
Those were not remotely comparable problems.
If Bane had known who was aboard this warship, he never would have been showing off his Haki so openly.
It was obvious that his use of Haki had attracted Garp’s attention.
Unfortunately, realizing that now was completely useless.
“Kid!”
Garp’s voice came from behind him.
“You’d better stay put!”
Bane’s Observation Haki screamed.
In the next instant, Garp appeared in front of him.
Bane’s pupils contracted.
He hadn’t even seen him move.
Garp blocked his escape route and pulled back his right arm.
His muscles tightened.
Then he punched.
Garp was curious about the young pirate, so he deliberately held back much of his strength.
That didn’t make Bane feel any better.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
Danger!
He wanted to dodge. Get faster updates on g.com.
His body couldn’t.
The difference between them was simply too enormous.
There was no opening.
No escape route.
Nothing.
Against someone like Garp, Bane’s speed might as well have been nonexistent.
He had only one option left.
[Thorn Jade Hardening activated.]
Pale purplish-red jade armor spread across Bane’s entire body.
And perhaps because terror had destroyed whatever common sense he had left, Bane didn’t simply defend himself.
He threw a punch of his own.
Taking a beating without fighting back had never suited him.
BOOM!
Garp’s fist landed squarely against Bane.
At almost the same instant, Bane’s fist struck Garp in the face.
His punch accomplished absolutely nothing.
Garp didn’t even budge.
But surprise flashed through the Vice Admiral’s eyes.
The kid had taken his punch.
And remained unharmed.
Worse—or perhaps more interesting—he had actually tried to hit back.
Then the jade armor shattered.
CRACK!
A powerful shockwave erupted outward.
[Thorn Jade Hardening: Countershock activated.]
The force amounted to only thirty percent of the strength behind Garp’s punch.
Thirty percent of Garp’s punch, however, was still terrifying.
Caught off guard, Garp was forced backward.
The shockwave blasted outward across the deck.
Nearby Marines and pirates were hurled off their feet.
For anyone watching from a distance, the scene looked absurd.
Bane had punched Garp…
and then somehow blasted both Garp and everyone around them away.
Click.
A Marine hiding near the edge of the fighting instinctively raised the camera in his hands and pressed the shutter.
Bane didn’t notice.
Nor would he have cared.
This was his chance.
[Stealth activated.]
His presence immediately dropped.
The sound of his footsteps vanished.
Bane sprinted for the edge of the warship, threw himself over the railing, and plunged into the sea.
Splash!
He immediately dove beneath the surface.
He didn’t dare raise his head.
“Hm?”
Garp looked toward the water.
“Where’d that kid go?”
He searched the surface but found no trace of Bane.
His eyebrows furrowed.
What had that been?
Advanced Armament Haki?
No.
Thinking about it more carefully, it didn’t feel quite the same.
Still, when had such a promising youngster appeared in the East Blue?
The kid had taken one of his punches without suffering any visible injury and then escaped right in front of him using some strange technique.
More importantly, he was young.
Definitely under twenty.
Sixteen or seventeen, perhaps.
Someone that age already possessing Haki to this degree was rare.
Very rare.
Garp clicked his tongue.
“What a waste.”
With talent like that, the kid could have become an excellent Marine.
Why did talented youngsters keep wanting to become pirates?
What was so great about piracy anyway?
The thought immediately reminded Garp of his grandson and adopted grandson, both of whom kept talking about going to sea and becoming pirates.
His irritation rose another level.
Then he looked around.
The local Marines were actually being pushed back by the Black Cat Pirates.
Garp’s face darkened.
“These East Blue Marines really are hopeless.”
He had deliberately ordered them not to open fire earlier because he wanted to see how capable they were in direct combat.
Now he had his answer.
Not very.
Garp sighed.
Apparently, he would have to clean up the mess himself.
“Die!”
A flash of steel swept toward his neck.
Kuro’s Cat Claws.
Garp hadn’t gone looking for Kuro.
Kuro, however, had chosen Garp.
He had no idea who the old Marine was.
And he certainly had no reason to expect a Marine Vice Admiral of Garp’s caliber to suddenly appear in the East Blue.
All Kuro knew was that this man was interfering with his plan to disappear from the pirate world.
Therefore, he had to die.
Bang!
A moment later, Kuro was launched backward.
His body smashed into the deck hard enough to splinter the wood.
Garp glanced at the broken pieces of Cat Claw in his hand before tossing them aside.
“Not bad speed.”
He looked toward Kuro.
“Almost comparable to Soru.”
Garp scratched his cheek.
“Did you come up with that movement technique yourself, or did someone teach you?”
Kuro staggered back to his feet.
One arm hung uselessly at his side.
Blood streamed down from his head, staining his face and making his expression even more vicious.
“I’ll cut you to pieces!”
Kuro vanished.
The attack began.
His body blurred unpredictably through the battlefield, Cat Claws slashing at anything that entered his path.
Friend.
Enemy.
It made no difference.
But Kuro had no idea what kind of opponent he had just challenged.
The technique he was so proud of meant almost nothing before Garp.
…
By the time Kuro had fully occupied Garp’s attention, Bane finally dared to surface some distance away.
He sucked in a deep breath.
“Haa!”
Then he quickly looked back toward the warship.
No one seemed to be paying attention to him.
“Good. Nobody noticed.”
Time to leave.
Immediately.
Bane began swimming as hard as he could in the direction from which the Marine warship had originally come.
Returning to the Bezan Black was no longer an option.
The Black Cat Pirates were finished.
Completely finished.
Bane glanced back once.
Farewell, Big Brother.
He wiped at the corner of his eye despite there being absolutely no tear there, then started swimming even faster.
As for the quest?
Forget the quest.
Surviving Garp without getting thrown into a Marine prison was already more than enough.
Then—
[Big Brother Kuro has died.]
[Trust Value cleared to 0.]
Bane’s swimming didn’t slow.
He wasn’t surprised.
Kuro had picked a fight with Garp.
There weren’t many ways that could possibly end.
Still…
His Big Brother was gone.
Before Bane could even process that fact, another notification appeared.
[Quest: A Clean Break — Completed]
[Reward: 5 Attribute Points]
[Reward: Assassination Technique — Silent Step]
Bane stopped swimming for a moment.
“Huh?”
He floated there, staring blankly at the notification.
Completed?
The moment he saw Garp, Bane had completely abandoned any thought of finishing the quest.
His only objective had been escape.
Yet somehow…
The System considered the mission finished.
Bane reopened the quest description.
[Objective: Help Kuro leave his pirate life behind.]
Bane stared at it.
Then his expression slowly changed.
Well…
Kuro was definitely no longer a pirate.
Technically, death was about as permanent a retirement as anyone could get.
Bane almost felt moved.
Big Brother Kuro had somehow managed to help him earn the reward even after dying.
What dedication.
He would remember him fondly.
“System, assign the points!”
All five Attribute Points went straight into Physique.
[Physique +5]
[Current Physique: 18]
The familiar warmth flooded through Bane’s body.
His muscles strengthened.
His stamina surged.
Even his swimming immediately became easier.
Bane kicked through the water faster than before.
Several minutes later, another series of notifications appeared.
[Captain of the Black Cat Pirates has died.]
[Remaining recognized members: Host only.]
[Faction: Black Cat Pirates has officially disbanded.]
[Compensation Reward: Grade C Inheritance Chest ×1]
Bane nearly swallowed seawater.
There was an inheritance reward too?
His opinion of the System improved dramatically.
He immediately dove beneath the surface again and waited.
All he could do now was hope the Marines left quickly.
Apparently, luck was finally on his side.
After wiping out the Black Cat Pirates, the Marine warship eventually sailed away without conducting any extensive search of the surrounding sea.
When Bane thought about it, that made sense.
He didn’t even have a bounty.
There was little reason to waste manpower searching an entire stretch of ocean for one unknown pirate.
Besides, Garp probably had more important things to do than hunt down some teenager who’d jumped overboard.
Once the warship had disappeared into the distance, Bane surfaced again.
He took several breaths and looked toward the horizon.
If Kuro hadn’t deliberately charged at that warship, Garp probably wouldn’t have paid the Black Cat Pirates much attention at all.
Instead, Kuro had chosen the worst possible opponent.
Bane shook his head.
“Open the chest.”
[Grade C Inheritance Chest opened.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained Silent Step Skill EXP Orb (Large).]
[Silent Step Skill EXP Orb (Large)]
[Effect: Grants a large amount of practical knowledge and experience related to Silent Step.]
Bane’s eyes lit up.
Excellent.
His newly acquired [Silent Step] was only at the beginner level.
This EXP Orb would save him an enormous amount of training time.
Still, now wasn’t the right moment to use it.
First, he needed to reach safety.
Bane stored the reward, chose a direction, and began swimming.
For the moment, his next objective was simple.
Find someone—or something—before he ended up stranded in the middle of the East Blue.