Van Auger stood alone in the middle of the road.
The small path was narrow and lined with mud on both sides.
Vivi and Mr.
9 had nowhere to avoid him, and the two sides immediately entered a standoff.
Vivi rested her right hand on the scabbard, lowering her center of gravity.
This was a swordsmanship skill she had picked up from a pirate from the West Blue.
The opponent had likely studied Iaijutsu for a few days, but their skill level was mediocre.
She adopted an attacking stance, her gaze fixed on Van Auger’s hand.
As soon as the opponent made a move, she would slash out with her blade!
She was quiet, and Van Auger was quiet, too.
Only Mr.
9, swinging the iron bat in his hand, was doing backflips and front flips in place, making “Hoo-hoo-ha-hey” sounds, which seemed discordant and created a noticeable tear in the atmosphere of the standoff.
“That’s really strange…” Van Auger said lazily.
Vivi maintained her ready-to-draw stance and casually asked, “What’s strange?”
“…I can’t say exactly.
My old partner doesn’t seem…
doesn’t seem very willing to kill you.”
Vivi said calmly, “The distance between us is too close.
You won’t have time to use your sniping ability before I can cut off your arm.
It’s warning you because it likes you.”
Van Auger scratched his head, realizing, “Oh?
Is that so?
This is fate, how interesting.”
He did not step onto the path to duel Daddy.
Instead, he calmly put away his long rifle, flicked his velvet cloak, turned, and walked away, moving further and further into the distance.
“Hey?
Weren’t you going to duel Daddy?” Vivi called out from afar.
“Hmph, I took a look from a distance just now.
That kind of guy has no fighting spirit at all.
He’s not even a gunman; he doesn’t deserve to use a gun.”
As Van Auger walked further away, Vivi secretly sighed in relief.
It was better not to fight if possible.
That feeling of dancing on the edge of life and death was truly unpleasant!
She hated snipers; they were far too dangerous for swordsmen!
“Hurry and chase him!
Once he creates distance, we’re finished!” Mr.
9 belatedly tried to pursue.
Vivi didn’t stop him, watching as Mr.
9 used his unique special skill, the Passionate Backflip, chasing quickly after Van Auger by performing continuous backflips, like a large monkey.
“It was definitely the right decision to put this guy in charge of the atmosphere team.
He’s such a clown…” Vivi put on the expression of a bystander, acting as if she didn’t know the person who just did eighty-plus backflips in a row.
Van Auger was tall with long legs.
Although he wasn’t intentionally running, being tall was an advantage.
In less than half a minute, he disappeared from Vivi’s sight, and Mr.
9 hurried after him.
Vivi waited for a few minutes.
Seeing that her partner had no intention of returning, she could only follow to help.
Although she felt that Van Auger had dispersed his Killing Intent at the last moment and his hostility had completely vanished, human nature was complex, and he might change his mind.
Mr.
9 was indeed a clown, but even so, he was still her partner, and she couldn’t let him be casually shot dead!
She quickly chased after them.
As she chased, she realized a serious and very important problem…
she seemed to be lost!
Vivi put her hands on her hips, looking at the three-story building on the left, then at the fountain and flowerbed on the right.
She vaguely felt she had been on this path before.
Loguetown was much bigger than her Whiskey Peak.
As the gateway from the East Blue to the Grand Line, it resembled a small city, truly bustling with constant streams of people.
Illegally constructed houses and shops were everywhere.
Unfortunately, the pedestrians’ attire and the architectural styles were all similar, with no road signs or landmarks.
Vivi had been running for half an hour and felt like she was just running in circles.
The guidance sounds she received through “Listening to All Things” were sometimes correct and sometimes wrong.
Sometimes the guidance was correct, but she thought the other party was mocking her,
deliberately running in the opposite direction.
Other times, the guidance was wrong, yet she believed the voice.
Eventually, she was completely bewildered.
Forget Mr.
9 and Van Auger; she couldn’t even find the Baroque Works’ base of operations in Loguetown anymore.
“Ahead…”
“Keep running…”
“Young Miss, you are so beautiful.”
“So hungry, truly so hungry…”
Various sounds poured into her mind.
She roughly identified that the phrase “keep running” was the most frequent, so this time, she didn’t “do the opposite.” She lowered her head and rushed down a winding path.
“Eh?” As she ran, the view suddenly opened up.
She finally burst out of the dilapidated, maze-like residential area.
Before her was a wide square, and right in the center of the square stood a wooden platform over ten meters high.
This place was too famous: the Execution Platform!
Twenty years ago, the Pirate King Gol D.
Roger died right here.
“Do you want my treasure?
If you want it, you can have it all!
Go search for it!
I left all the treasure in that place.”
“Do you want my treasure?
If you want it, you can have it all!
Go search for it!
I left all the treasure in that place.”
“Do you want my treasure?
If you want it, you can have it all!
Go search for it!
I left all the treasure in that place.”
The deep man’s voice echoed continuously in her mind, as if on a loop.
At first, Vivi wanted to make a few sarcastic remarks: King Roger, are your family members aware of how chuunibyou you are?
If you’re so chuunibyou, would Auntie Wang and King Kaido agree?
But as the deep man’s voice grew louder and louder, her teasing thoughts quickly vanished.
When the sound reached its peak, she was nearly unable to think, feeling as if a saw were brutally trying to cut open her skull.
“Stop!”
“Stop!”
“Holy crap!
I command you to stop!—”
Vivi instinctively covered her ears, but the sound kept drilling into her mind.
The wooden planks, iron nails, and screws on the Execution Platform, the stones and trees in the square—all these surrounding objects were continuously broadcasting Gol D.
Roger’s “famous quote.” The sound was loud, and each object was clearer than the last.
Vivi frowned deeply, gripping the hilt of her sword tightly with her left hand, trying to use the cold metallic sensation to regain some ability to think.
There weren’t many pedestrians in the square at the moment, but in a daze, she seemed to see many, many figures in the square.
Old people, children, men, women, loyal soldiers, kings who loved their people like their own children, ambitious adventurers, and schemers trying to turn the world upside down—Vivi felt that her perception ability had passively experienced a resonance with Loguetown twenty years ago through some special channel.
She “saw” what happened that day.
The Pirate King Gol D.
Roger, sitting on the Execution Platform, also “saw” her across the span of twenty years.
She knew she was an outsider and was not physically there, but the scene before her became increasingly clear, so vivid that it felt like she was truly present.