“This is unfair!”
Sammy finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.
He slapped the wanted posters against his palm and glared at the officers crowding around him.
“Why do all of you look so damn cool in your pictures, while I look like some kind of psychopath?!”
The officers froze for a moment before curiously leaning in and passing the posters around.
Isaac picked up his own wanted poster.
The photograph had caught him in the middle of battle, one enormous hand clamped over an enemy’s entire face as he nearly lifted the man off the ground.
His muscles bulged beneath his clothes, making the picture practically radiate raw strength.
IRON HELM — ISAAC
BOUNTY: 19,000,000 BERRIES
OFFICER OF THE JELLYFISH PIRATES
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS — DEAD OR ALIVE
Isaac tilted his head, apparently unable to understand why his captain was so upset.
“Isn’t this…normal?”
His deep voice rumbled from his chest.
“I was trying to crush his face until he passed out.”
Sammy stared at him.
“…Fine.
Yours makes sense.”
Then his eyes landed on another poster.
“But Marcus!”
Sammy’s voice rose several pitches from sheer frustration.
“What the hell were YOU doing?!
Since when do you have a habit of licking your blade?!”
CURVED BLADE — TERESA MARCUS
BOUNTY: 29,000,000 BERRIES
OFFICER OF THE JELLYFISH PIRATES
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS — DEAD OR ALIVE
Marcus narrowed his long eyes slightly.
“Captain, I was improvising.”
He gave an innocent shrug.
“After all, if the Marines are going to call me an extremely dangerous criminal, shouldn’t I at least look the part?”
Then, as if deliberately trying to irritate Sammy even more, Marcus slowly licked his lips.
Sammy pointed at him with a trembling finger.
“You improvised TOO DAMN HARD!
You look like you spent your whole life practicing how to be a dangerously handsome lunatic!”
Before Sammy could continue, Aldo snatched his own wanted poster from the pile.
The picture showed him with a massive spiked club resting over one shoulder while he stared directly at the camera and proudly raised his middle finger.
“Hahahaha!”
Aldo burst out laughing.
“Boss!
Look at mine!”
He proudly held the poster up.
“I spotted that Marine hiding near the docks when he took the picture!”
Aldo grinned from ear to ear.
“So?
How’s the pose?
Cool, right?
Pretty intimidating, huh?”
BONE CRUSHER — KATE ALDO
BOUNTY: 37,000,000 BERRIES
OFFICER OF THE JELLYFISH PIRATES
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS — DEAD OR ALIVE
“Cool?”
Sammy’s eyebrow twitched.
“I’LL SHOW YOU COOL!”
His leg shot out.
THUD!
Sammy’s boot slammed straight into Aldo’s backside, sending the officer stumbling several steps forward.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Sammy roared.
“You noticed someone taking pictures and DIDN’T TELL ME?!
Instead, you stood there posing by yourself?!”
He pointed furiously at Aldo.
“Do you have no loyalty at all?!”
“Boss!
I was wrong!”
Aldo hurriedly rubbed his backside.
“Next time…next time I’ll call you over first!”
Nearby, Fitch silently studied his own wanted poster.
Behind him in the photograph, flames and smoke from an explosion filled the background.
Half his face disappeared behind the thick smoke pouring from a cannon, leaving only one calm eye visible as he aimed.
“…The lighting’s a little dark.”
HEAVY CANNON — BLAZE FITCH
BOUNTY: 22,800,000 BERRIES
OFFICER OF THE JELLYFISH PIRATES
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS — DEAD OR ALIVE
Sammy looked at Fitch’s poster.
Then Isaac’s.
Then Marcus’s.
Then Aldo’s.
Every single one looked like the carefully designed character portrait of some terrifying pirate officer.
A nameless fury shot straight to his head.
His anguished roar echoed across almost the entire deck.
“THOSE BASTARDS IN THE MARINES DID THIS ON PURPOSE!”
Nearby sailors immediately turned to look.
“WHY?!
JUST BECAUSE I’M THE CAPTAIN, THEY HAVE TO GIVE ME SPECIAL TREATMENT AND PICK THE UGLIEST PICTURE POSSIBLE?!”
“Boss!”
Aldo, apparently having already forgotten about the kick, came wandering back with a huge grin.
“Our bounties went up again!
We should throw a feast!”
Sammy looked at him.
Aldo had been one of the first men to follow him.
After all these years, he had become one of Sammy’s most trusted right-hand men.
Looking at his old companion, Sammy temporarily pushed the uneasiness brought on by God Valley out of his mind.
He suddenly turned toward the crew.
“BOYS!”
The entire deck quieted.
“WE’RE GOING ASHORE FOR SUPPLIES!”
Sammy thrust one fist into the air.
“AND TONIGHT…”
His grin widened.
“WE FEAST!”
“YEAHHHHHH!”
That night, the sea breeze swept across a blazing bonfire, carrying sparks high into the darkness.
After six years at sea, Sammy had become a wholehearted lover of pirate feasts.
There was something irresistible about gathering around a fire with his companions, sharing food, drinking alcohol, laughing, singing, and forgetting about tomorrow.
Between the endless sailing and bloody battles, nights like these were when life felt most alive.
Sammy sat on a fallen tree trunk beside several of his officers.
He raised a bottle of rum and took two long gulps.
“Ahhh…”
He exhaled happily.
“This is the life.”
His gaze wandered across the celebration.
Pirates danced around the fire.
Others sang at the top of their lungs.
Some wrestled.
Some drank until they could barely stand.
The flickering flames illuminated laughing faces everywhere Sammy looked.
A smile rested on his own face.
But deep within his eyes, a trace of worry remained.
Fitch noticed it.
“Boss.”
Sammy glanced toward him.
“Something bothering you?”
Sammy fell silent.
For a moment, he simply looked at the people sitting around him.
These were companions who had survived life-and-death battles at his side.
Aldo, a reckless, impulsive, loud…and absolutely loyal.
Fitch, calm, dependable, and observant.
Then there were the newer officers who had distinguished themselves through battle after battle.
Firelight danced across their faces, leaving half of each expression in light and the other half in shadow.
Finally, Sammy spoke.
“If you add up the bounties of everyone in our crew…”
He slowly turned the bottle in his hands.
“…we’re already worth more than one hundred and sixty million Berries.”
The officers listened quietly.
“In the West Blue, there’s no question anymore.”
Sammy looked toward the fire.
“We’re one of the strongest pirate crews in this sea.”
He paused.
“So I’ve been thinking…”
His fingers tightened slightly around the bottle.
“Maybe it’s finally time.”
The others stared at him.
“Maybe we should head for the Grand Line.”
Five years.
Strictly speaking, this was already the sixth year since Sammy had inexplicably fallen into this world.
He had gone from a homeless young man curled up helplessly on a beach…
…to the captain of one of the most heavily wanted pirate crews in the entire West Blue.
Over the years, he had led his crew from one battle to another, tirelessly roaming the seas in the noble pursuit of punishing evil and promoting—
Gold.
Silver.
Jewels.
Treasure.
Well…
Mostly treasure.
Of the four original officers who had stood beside him five years ago, only Aldo was still here.
The other three young faces had long since disappeared beneath the cold sea.
Along with them were many other brothers who had once sat beside Sammy drinking, laughing, bragging, and talking about what they would do once they became rich.
Now, they existed only in memory.
After witnessing so much death and separation, Sammy had gradually become numb to it.
They were pirates.
Whether they were robbing criminal gangs or fleeing from the Marines, every day was lived with their heads practically hanging from their belts. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Today, you killed someone.
Tomorrow, someone might kill you.
That was life on the sea.
Their ships had grown larger over the years.
Stronger.
Heavier.
More heavily armed.
But one thing had never changed.
The name.
Swordfish.
And despite the Jellyfish Pirates’ ever-increasing bounties, something strange had happened to their reputation.
Among ordinary people in many parts of the West Blue, they weren’t feared nearly as much as most pirate crews.
Perhaps that was because this particular group of pirates behaved like a strangely well-disciplined gang of criminals.
They actually paid merchants with real money.
They might argue with a shopkeeper until both sides were red in the face over the price of a barrel of fresh water…
…but they never settled the argument by drawing swords.
Their favorite targets were always criminal gangs that bullied local communities or fellow pirates whose crimes were even worse than their own.
When they encountered small, weak vessels, they usually demanded nothing more than a toll.
Sometimes, if the ship happened to be traveling in the same direction, the Jellyfish Pirates would even escort it part of the way.
And they never deliberately attacked women or children in towns.
Traditional pirates would probably call such rules stupid.
Naive.
Even ridiculous.
Yet those same rules had produced an unexpected advantage.
The Jellyfish Pirates could peacefully resupply at most ports.
Sometimes, locals were even willing to share limited information with them.
Earlier that day, after landing on God Valley, Sammy had deliberately wandered through the island’s port town.
He still couldn’t be completely certain that this God Valley was the same God Valley from the story he remembered.
But that inexplicable sense of danger had refused to leave him.
It made his skin crawl.
He couldn’t keep gambling on the possibility that he was wrong.
“Head for the Grand Line?”
The officers froze.
Then, one after another, excitement spread across their faces.
Bottles were raised toward Sammy.
“Boss!
We’ve been waiting forever for you to say that!”
“Exactly!
We’ve been stuck in the West Blue long enough!”
One officer laughed.
“It’s time we went somewhere bigger!”
“Do we even need to discuss it?”
Another raised his bottle.
“Wherever the captain decides to go, that’s where we go!”
“Follow the captain to the Grand Line!”
“Let’s make the whole damn sea remember our name!”
Something hot surged through Sammy’s chest.
Fear still lingered somewhere inside him.
So did uncertainty.
But as he looked at the men around him, those feelings were drowned beneath something stronger.
Ambition.
Excitement.
And the thrill of finally moving forward.
“All right!”
Sammy raised his bottle.
“THEN IT’S DECIDED!”
The pirates around him began cheering.
Sammy tilted his head back and drained every last drop of rum.
“Once we finish resting and resupplying…”
He hurled the empty bottle into the bonfire.
WHOOSH!
The flames surged upward.
“…THE ENTIRE CREW SETS SAIL!”
Sammy threw his arms wide and laughed.
“GRAND LINE!”
His voice thundered through the night.
“WE’RE COMING!”
“YEAHHHHHH!”
The roar that followed was even louder than before.
Laughing, Sammy rose with his officers and strode straight into the celebrating crowd.
The bonfire burned fiercely beneath the night sky.
Flames leaped upward as though trying to devour the darkness itself, illuminating face after face filled with ambition, excitement, and dreams of the unknown.
It was almost as if the fire intended to burn the passion and promises of that night directly into the stars…
…and into the endless sea waiting beyond them.
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