"Are you guys done too?"
Zoro's voice came from behind.
Luffy and Nami turned around at the same time. Zoro walked toward them with relaxed steps. His swords were still in his hands. He swung one of them once toward the ground, leaving a thin line of blood on the surface of the street, then calmly sheathed the sword.
"Yeah, I'm done too. What about you?" Luffy turned and asked in return.
"Yeah, me too."
Zoro pointed behind him with his thumb. There, Cabaji was lying flat on his back on the ground, a long slash wound gaping across his chest, blood flowing out and soaking into the ground, turning it a deep red.
Zoro shifted his gaze toward Nami. "Nami, where have you been? I just saw you again."
"I went to find where the treasure and Grand Line map were being kept." Nami emerged from between the ruins of the buildings, dragging two large sacks filled with treasure, then dropped them onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Zoro and Luffy approached and looked at the contents of the sacks.
"That's quite a lot," Zoro said with a small whistle.
"Yeah, I already counted it. There's roughly five million Berries in each sack."
Meanwhile, several of Buggy's men who had been conscious the entire time could only continue lying on the ground and pretending to be dead. After seeing their captain and Cabaji defeated, they had absolutely no courage to move.
All they could do was watch as the treasure they had collected all this time was simply taken away.
When the three of them were about to leave the town while carrying the sacks of treasure and the Grand Line map, a barking sound came from the distance.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
The three of them turned around at the same time. A white dog came running toward them and stopped right in front of them, breathing heavily.
Luffy looked surprised and happy at the same time. He crouched down and gently rubbed the dog's head with a wide smile.
"Oh, you came too."
"Woof."
"Oh, I see."
Luffy suddenly remembered something. He took out the sack of dog food that had been taken from Richie earlier and handed it to Chouchou.
"Here you go. Sorry, this is the only thing I could save, but I got revenge for what they did. Shishi."
Chouchou fell silent for a moment, staring at the sack of food before looking at Luffy. He then walked away carrying the small gift in his mouth. In the middle of the road, he stopped and barked once toward Luffy as a sign of thanks before continuing on his way.
Zoro watched all of this with a faint smile, his arms crossed over his chest. Nami looked at Luffy with a warm gaze, realizing something that was becoming increasingly clear in her mind. This person was truly different from most of the pirates she had known.
Luffy stood up and turned around. "Alright, let's go."
He picked up the sacks of treasure and took a few steps forward. After only two steps, he suddenly stopped. Nami noticed and turned around as well.
"What's wrong, Luffy?"
Luffy stood still in the middle of Orange Town's street, one hand holding a sack of treasure while the other rested against his chin as he thought hard.
"Seems like we forgot something."
Nami's expression immediately changed as she remembered something. "That's true... The mayor..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of hurried footsteps approached from the distance.
"Hey, you guys! You're from somewhere else, aren't you?"
A group of townspeople carrying farming tools and wooden sticks came running toward them, panting heavily as they stared at the three of them with suspicion and panic.
"What about you guys?" Luffy asked, tilting his head.
"We're the original residents of this town. Do you know what happened here? If you do, please tell us!"
Right at that moment, one of the residents with sharp eyes noticed something in the distance and shouted in fear.
"Hey, over there! Isn't that the mayor?! How did he end up like this?!"
Everyone followed his gaze and found Mayor Boodle still lying unconscious on the ground, with a large bump on his head.
"The mayor!"
The crowd immediately surrounded him in a panic.
"It must have been pirates!"
"This is too much! They beat up the mayor like this!"
"Unforgivable..."
Anger quickly spread throughout the crowd. Their eyes filled with hostility as they stared suspiciously at Luffy and the others.
Nami and Zoro turned their faces away, secretly feeling guilty. Meanwhile, Luffy acted as though there was nothing wrong at all and honestly pointed toward Boodle's body.
"Ah, I did that."
Silence suddenly descended over the area.
The next second, all the townspeople raised their respective weapons, their anger surging.
"So you guys are the ones who beat up our mayor!"
"You're pirates, aren't you? You must be Buggy's men!"
"That's not it! There's a reason!" Nami hurriedly waved her hands, trying to explain. "Everyone, listen to me first. Actually..."
But Luffy did not give Nami a chance to finish explaining.
He pulled his straw hat down over his eyes, gave them his signature smile, then nodded firmly.
"Yeah, we're pirates. And I'm Luffy, the man who's going to become the Pirate King!"
Pfft-
Hearing that, Nami, who had been about to clear up the misunderstanding, suddenly felt her vision spin. She could not believe what Luffy had just said without the slightest hesitation.
Meanwhile, Zoro could not hold back his laughter and burst out loudly. "Hahaha! That's so you, Luffy!"
"So you really are pirates!"
"And you're still trying to make excuses!"
"Drive them out of here!"
The enraged townspeople shouted in unison, raising their makeshift weapons and preparing to attack.
Nami's legs felt weak, partly from fear and partly from disbelief as she looked at the crowd surrounding them from every direction. She turned toward Luffy in panic.
"Luffy, what are we going to do now?!"
"Hehehe."
Luffy, standing calmly in the middle of the furious crowd, did not look worried at all. Instead, he lowered his hat slightly and laughed freely.
"Time to run!"