“I want to play too.” Lucian’s eyes shone as he watched Luffy laughing with pure delight on the giant bird’s back, and he found himself itching to give it a try.
“Haha, come on up!” Luffy, still perched atop the bird, caught Lucian’s words with a twitch of his ear.
He flashed a wide grin, stretched out his arm, and coiled it around Lucian’s waist.
With a single tug, he hauled him right up onto the bird’s back.
Lucian, caught completely off guard, swayed wildly left and right and nearly slid straight off.
Fortunately, he reacted fast, steadied himself, and clung tightly to the bird’s smooth feathers.
“This is fun!” The wind blew gently past them, and his usually hollow eyes stretched wide, gleaming with startling brightness.
He gazed down at the sea below, his breathing lighter than ever.
“Honestly—only those two would goof off like this,” Nami muttered under her breath from the stern.
Then, as a thought struck her, her eyes swept toward the corner of the boat—where Lucian had earlier set down his treasure bundle.
Her eyes darted shiftily, and she had just begun to edge toward it when, with a heavy thud, Zoro plopped himself down right beside the treasure.
He glanced up at the giant bird wheeling in the sky.
“Yeah, I didn’t think both of them would go up there.
Didn’t expect that giant bird to be so tame.”
Nami’s footsteps halted, and she sullenly sat back down at the bow, lifting her head to watch the silhouettes above.
She then turned to direct Zoro.
“Hurry up and row—head that way.” The two picked up the oars and rowed steadily toward Orange Town.
“We’ll follow too!” Luffy shouted, patting the giant bird on the head.
The bird seemed to understand, beating its wings and gliding steadily above the little boat.
By dusk, the boat had finally reached Orange Town.
The giant bird, still carrying Luffy and Lucian, soared over the town and slowly descended to land on the edge of a rooftop.
The two leaped down.
The moment his feet touched the ground, Lucian pulled out a piece of jerky from his pocket—he had secretly saved it at lunch as a snack—and held it out to the bird’s beak.
The giant bird took the jerky, let out a clear, ringing cry toward the two of them, then spread its wings wide and soared into the sky, disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye.
“Haha, see ya!” Luffy waved with a laugh.
“Zoro and the others should be here soon.
Let’s go check the harbor,” Luffy said, shading his eyes with his hand and peering toward the port.
“Someone’s coming,” Lucian said quietly.
Out of the corner of his eye, he had already caught sight of several pirates charging toward them at full speed.
“Nani?” Luffy steadied his straw hat and looked in the direction Lucian indicated.
“They’re bad guys,” Lucian murmured, his seemingly hollow eyes silently locked onto the rushing pirates.
Sure enough, within moments, five vicious-looking pirates came storming over in a fierce rush.
“That giant bird landed right here—right over there!” the lead pirate, wearing a bandana, shouted, raising his hand.
“Who the hell are you?!” One of the pirates, his hair in a small braid, raised his blade and barked at the rooftop.
“This turf belongs to the Buggy Pirates!” the bandana-wearing pirate echoed, his face twisted with menace.
“Me?
I’m Luffy—the man who’s gonna be King of the Pirates!” Luffy pointed at himself and answered without a trace of hesitation.
“You bastard!
I asked what you’re doing here!” The pigtailed pirate, infuriated by Luffy’s completely irrelevant answer, roared in anger.
“Oh?
You’re pirates too?” Another pirate, bald and with his arms folded across his chest, looked them up and down and suddenly nodded as though everything made sense.
“Don’t tell me—you’re here to join up under Captain Buggy?”
“Like hell we are!” Luffy planted his hands on his hips and yelled down at them indignantly.
“We’re here to get the Grand Line nautical chart from this Captain Buggy!”
“Yeah.
Hand over the chart,” Lucian added, standing beside Luffy.
“Damn it!
So you’re here to cause trouble!” The five pirates finally caught on.
They raised their blades in a frenzy, howling, “Get down here!
We’re dragging you to Captain Buggy!”
“Heave-ho!” At this, Luffy vaulted straight off the rooftop.
Seeing this, Lucian leaped down right after him.
“They actually came down?” The bandana-wearing pirate, who had been gripping his blade and ready to climb onto the roof, froze in disbelief.
“Looks like we’ve got two idiots on our hands,” the pigtailed pirate scoffed, his tone dripping with contempt.
“Get them!
Seize them!” The bald pirate was the first to swing his blade and charge at Luffy and Lucian.
But in the very next second—bang!
Bang-bang-bang!
A rapid series of heavy thuds rang out in succession.
In the mere span of a breath, all five pirates had been sent flying, crashing hard through the wall behind them, collapsing in a motionless heap.
It turned out Luffy and Lucian had each taken one side and dealt with them in an instant.
Lucian glanced at the two pirates he had knocked flying, then at the three on Luffy’s side.
His brow furrowed slightly with dissatisfaction.
He’d taken down one fewer than Luffy.
His gaze swept the empty street around them, but he found not a single pirate left in sight.
With a faint note of disappointment, he lowered his eyes.
“Alright, let’s go find Zoro and the others!” Luffy dusted off his hands and called out to Lucian, who was still quietly brooding over that one-pirate deficit.
They had barely gotten close when Nami’s furious roar reached their ears.
“You idiot!
Not that direction—over there!” This was followed by a resounding thud, which was presumably her fist meeting Zoro’s head yet again.
“That hurt…” Zoro clutched his head and answered in a muffled grumble, not daring to say another word as he silently changed direction.
“Nami!
Zoro!” Luffy waved and greeted them from a long way off.
Bang!
The response he got was a merciless punch from Nami, sending him flat onto his back.
“You two!
You flew off on that giant bird so fast—Zoro and I rowed until our hands turned red!”
Nami fumed, arms crossed, before whirling around to glare at Zoro, who was hauling a huge bundle on his back.
“And this guy!
He got to the harbor ages ago, but insisted on wandering around in circles.
Take your eyes off him for one second and he ends up going the wrong way!”
“Treasure!” Lucian’s gaze fell on the bundle on Zoro’s back.
His hollow eyes suddenly flickered with a spark of light as he suddenly remembered that his own treasure was still on the boat.
He walked over quickly and took the bundle Zoro handed him, murmuring softly, “Thank you.” With that, he secured the bundle tightly onto his own back.
“Don’t mention it,” Zoro replied offhandedly, brushing the dust from his shoulders.
“Let’s move, let’s move—we’re going to find Buggy the Clown and steal that nautical chart back,” Nami urged, already stepping forward to take the lead.
“Why do we have to steal it?
Can’t we just go ask this Buggy for it directly?” Luffy rubbed his still-aching head and looked at Nami in genuine confusion.
Bang!
Another solid blow landed on his head, and a fresh lump immediately swelled up.
“Do you really think Buggy the Clown is the type to just talk things out nicely?!” Nami planted her hands on her hips and roared at Luffy.
Zoro and Lucian exchanged a glance and silently backed two steps away, standing off to the side.
Seeing the newest lump swelling atop Luffy’s head, Nami’s anger finally subsided a little.
She waved a hand.
“Let’s go,” she said, already pressing forward.
The group made their way along the town’s main road.
Luffy glanced around in all directions and scratched his head.
“Weird.
How come there’s not a single person in this town?”
“What’s so weird about that?” Nami glanced at the tightly shut doors lining both sides of the street and said offhandedly, “The Buggy Pirates have taken over this place.
You think any townspeople would dare stick around here?”
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