In the photograph, Bane was frozen mid-punch.
Behind him, Marines and pirates had been hurled into the air by the shockwave, bodies scattered across the background.
At the very edge of the picture, a small portion of a Marine coat bearing the word “Justice” could still be seen, though whoever had prepared the poster had clearly tried to crop it out.
Bane, who had been training nearby, bent down and picked up the wanted poster.
His expression immediately turned strange.
It was him.
And beneath his picture—
30,000,000 Berries.
Bane stared at the number for several seconds.
Thirty million?
Wasn’t that a little ridiculous?
What had he supposedly done?
Destroyed a Marine base?
Massacred an entire town?
Did one brief fight really justify a bounty this high?
Then Bane looked more carefully at the photograph.
His face gradually shifted into understanding.
“…Ah.”
He probably knew where the thirty million had come from.
Garp.
Anyone who had witnessed the battle would’ve seen Bane take a punch from Garp without suffering any obvious injury, land a counterattack, and then seemingly force the Marine Hero backward.
Without knowing how [Thorn Jade Hardening] actually worked, what conclusion were they supposed to draw from that?
And even if someone later asked Garp what really happened, would a man like him seriously bother explaining every detail?
Probably not.
Looking at it that way, thirty million Berries almost seemed conservative.
Bane had no other noteworthy record to support such a bounty.
The Marines had likely assigned the amount based almost entirely on eyewitness testimony and that one photograph.
Even so, giving an unknown sixteen-year-old pirate a thirty-million-Berry bounty on his first wanted poster was already extraordinary.
Bane couldn’t decide whether he should be nervous or excited.
Nearby, Curly finally found his voice.
“This is impossible!”
Thirty million Berries!
That was almost twice Admiral Krieg’s bounty.
Curly simply couldn’t accept it.
More importantly, it made no sense.
Why would a pirate worth thirty million Berries willingly hide aboard this ship and serve beneath someone like him?
Technically, Bane wasn’t even the vice captain anymore.
Curly had personally demoted him.
The more Curly thought about it, the worse his expression became.
There had to be another explanation.
Maybe Bane had deliberately infiltrated the Krieg Pirates.
Maybe he intended to assassinate Admiral Krieg and take control of the fleet himself.
Yes.
That had to be it.
Curly swallowed and began edging backward.
He needed to report this immediately.
Bane looked up.
“If I told you that isn’t me, would you believe it?”
“I believe you!”
Curly nodded so quickly his neck nearly blurred.
“I completely believe you!”
Bane sighed.
Then he tossed the wanted poster aside and drew the sword at his waist.
“Do I look stupid?”
Curly froze.
Bane pointed the blade toward him.
“So. How do you want to die?”
Thud!
Curly dropped to his knees.
“Don’t kill me! I can be useful! I can do plenty of things for you!”
“No need.”
Curly’s face twisted.
“Then die!”
While still kneeling, he abruptly lowered his head.
A concealed gun barrel slid out from the shield strapped to his back.
Bang!
The shot rang out.
But Bane had already moved.
Silent Step!
A heartbeat later, he reappeared behind Curly.
Slash!
Curly’s head separated from his shoulders.
It struck the deck with a dull thud.
Blood sprayed from the severed neck as the body collapsed.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
The entire crew stared in shock.
Bane slowly turned around.
“What did you just see?”
“N-Nothing!”
“We didn’t see anything!”
“Nothing at all!”
Heads shook frantically.
Nobody wanted to become the next corpse on the deck.
Bane nodded.
“Oh?”
He glanced toward Curly’s body.
“Then how did the captain die?”
Silence.
The pirates exchanged terrified looks.
One man suddenly blurted out, “He was killed by an enemy!”
The others immediately caught on.
“That’s right!”
“We all saw it!”
“The captain died fighting the enemy!”
Bane gave them an approving look.
“And where did this enemy go?”
The pirates hesitated.
“They…”
“They escaped!”
“Right! They ran away!”
Bane nodded thoughtfully.
“I see.”
Then his expression sharpened.
“What are you all standing around for, then? Go after them.”
The crew froze.
Bane pointed toward the sea.
“We need to find them before dark and avenge our captain.”
The pirates stared at him.
They could do that?
Apparently, yes.
A second later, everyone rushed into action.
The bald pirate Curly had personally promoted to vice captain looked particularly nervous.
He regretted that promotion more with every passing second.
Bane gestured toward the corpse.
“A few of you clean the deck. Put the body in a barrel for now. I’m tired of looking at it.”
“I’ll do it!”
The bald vice captain rushed forward so quickly he nearly tripped over himself.
Anything to prove his loyalty.
Anything to avoid being next.
Meanwhile, the thirty-million-Berry wanted poster still lay on the deck.
Every pirate who caught sight of it looked at Bane differently afterward.
Fear.
Shock.
Awe.
That was exactly what Bane wanted.
There was no realistic way to hide the bounty.
Wanted posters were public.
Before long, practically everyone in the East Blue would know his face.
Krieg’s people had probably already received copies as well.
Fortunately, nearly everyone who actually knew Bane was aboard this ship.
After what he’d just done to Curly—and with thirty million Berries printed beneath his face—Bane doubted anyone here would be eager to betray him.
Reporting him wouldn’t earn them much.
Getting caught doing it, however, could cost them their lives.
The choice wasn’t difficult.
There was still Tuck.
But Bane considered him smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
…
Thirty million Berries.
The news had spread through the Krieg Pirates almost immediately.
Pirates crowded together, speculating about this mysterious Disaster Bane.
What had he done?
How did an unknown rookie receive thirty million Berries on his very first wanted poster?
And why wasn’t there a single article explaining it?
That was the strangest part.
There was no accompanying report.
No battle summary.
No destroyed Marine base.
No famous pirate defeated.
Nothing.
He had simply appeared.
Of course, only a handful of people knew the truth.
A rookie pirate had apparently taken a punch from the legendary Marine Hero Garp, forced him backward, and then escaped.
That wasn’t exactly the kind of story the Marines would be eager to publish.
Especially when the photograph itself made the situation look even worse.
The original image had captured both Bane and Garp.
And Garp’s surprised expression had been clearly visible.
That version would never be allowed onto a public wanted poster.
So the image had been cropped.
Garp was mostly removed, leaving only the edge of his Justice coat behind.
The Marines clearly considered Bane dangerous enough to deserve thirty million Berries.
At the same time, they didn’t want the incident becoming a story that damaged Garp’s reputation or made a rookie pirate famous at the Marine Hero’s expense.
The result was almost absurd.
A huge bounty.
No explanation.
No newspaper coverage.
Just a mysterious sixteen-year-old pirate who seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
Tuck stared at Bane’s face on the poster.
Then he slowly touched his own cheek.
It almost seemed to ache again.
He remembered what had happened when he’d innocently asked Bane about his bounty.
He’d gotten beaten half to death.
If this wanted poster had come out just a few days earlier…
Maybe he could’ve avoided that beating.
Tuck’s expression became deeply bitter.
He wanted nothing more than to shout that the pirate everyone was talking about had been sailing on his ship this entire time.
But the memory of Bane’s foot connecting with his face quickly killed that impulse.
His previous attempts at flattering Bane hadn’t exactly ended well.
If he angered a pirate worth thirty million Berries now, even Admiral Krieg might not be enough to save him.
Tuck’s expression tightened.
He needed to find a way back to Bane’s ship.
…
Krieg was in an equally terrible mood.
He held the wanted poster in one hand, staring at the thirty-million figure with obvious irritation.
“A rookie I’ve never even heard of gets thirty million?”
He sneered.
“The Marines really are becoming more useless by the day.”
There was no hiding the jealousy in his voice.
Krieg commanded three thousand men.
He had built the largest pirate fleet in the East Blue.
And yet his bounty was only seventeen million Berries.
Now some unknown newcomer had suddenly appeared with almost twice that amount.
How was he supposed to accept that?
Standing nearby, “Demon Man” Gin looked toward him.
“Should we send someone after him?”
Krieg’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Forget it.”
Gin waited.
Krieg cleared his throat.
“My stomach’s been bothering me these past few days.”
A brief silence followed.
“So I’ll let him live for now.”
Krieg folded his arms and raised his chin.
“Once I’m feeling better, I’ll personally take our men and crush him.”
His voice rose with renewed arrogance.
“There can only be one ruler of the East Blue.”
“And that’s me—’Admiral’ Krieg!”