Buzz!
A layer of pitch-black Armament Haki instantly flowed over Kuro's entire hand like water.
Smack!
A crisp impact rang out.
As Yasopp's pupils suddenly contracted, Kuro's Armament Haki-covered hand actually caught the rapidly spinning bullet in midair.
Thin wisps of smoke slowly drifted out through the gaps between his tightly clenched fingers.
"As a pirate, showing up uninvited and firing your gun whenever you please. You've crossed the line."
Kuro opened his hand and let the deformed bullet fall onto the stone pavement with a clang. His tone remained calm to an unsettling degree.
"Armament Haki? Catching a bullet barehanded?"
Yasopp saw that the angry shot he had fired had failed to kill this seemingly weak butler in front of him.
His expression grew serious, and the agitation in his heart instantly turned into caution.
He knew exactly how strong he was.
In front of those monsters standing at the top of the world, he might not count as much.
But in the East Blue, a sea regarded as a dumping ground, there absolutely should not be anyone who could catch a Haki-coated bullet from him barehanded and come away unharmed.
"Who exactly are you?", Yasopp tightened his grip on the gun.
"Me? Didn't I already tell you?", A graceful yet cruel curve appeared at the corner of Kuro's mouth, "My name is Kuro. Just an ordinary butler in this manor who helps solve problems for the family I serve."
The moment he finished speaking...
Whoosh!
Kuro's figure vanished from Yasopp's sight.
There wasn't even the slightest sound of air being cut.
Like a ghost, he had already appeared in front of Yasopp.
"So fast!"
Yasopp was startled. His instincts as a sniper made him react defensively.
BANG!
Facing Kuro's ruthless knee strike coated in Armament Haki, Yasopp snorted and suddenly lowered his body. His elbow, also wrapped in dense Armament Haki, smashed down, trying to block the attack head-on.
BOOM!
The two powerful streams of Armament Haki collided at the entrance of the manor.
A visible shockwave spread out like a gale.
Within moments, all the carefully trimmed shrubs and expensive flower beds within a dozen meters of them were flattened.
"Not bad! But save that excuse for someone else."
Using the recoil force, Yasopp widened the distance between them and steadied himself with several backflips.
He wiped away a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth. His gaze became as sharp as a hawk's.
"A guy who has this level of Armament Haki and speed. Your real identity definitely isn't simple. Are you a secret agent sent by the World Government to monitor the East Blue?"
Yasopp answered his own question before quickly rejecting the guess.
"No, that's not right. World Government agents are all emotionless hyenas. They only bite from the shadows. They'd never deliberately reveal their strength like you."
"Then... were you once a famous pirate? Or some hidden top-tier bounty hunter?"
The more Yasopp fought, the more excited he became. The battle-loving blood in his bones had been completely ignited.
He stopped relying solely on his firearm. With a shout, he swung the gunstock and attacked with both fists and legs as he fiercely tangled with Kuro.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of fists and feet colliding was like a rapid war drum.
After only a few exchanges, Yasopp had already gotten a sense of his opponent's capabilities.
This glasses guy was actually weaker than him in terms of raw strength.
If measured by the World Government's ranking system, Yasopp, as a core officer of the Red Hair Pirates, could conservatively be considered barely at the threshold of A-rank overall combat power.
As for this strangely fighting Kuro, he was at most around B-rank.
'Judging from this level of strength, this guy probably really isn't a World Government agent.'
'Because according to the intelligence Shanks has, any agent currently deployed in a sensitive area like the East Blue should not be as weak as this guy.'
"My identity is none of your business."
Like a cat, Kuro moved smoothly through Yasopp's storm of attacks, dodging with ease while occasionally launching strikes from extremely vicious angles.
"As for you, the uninvited guest."
While retreating, Kuro continued provoking him.
"You abandoned your wife and son years ago without even looking back. Now you've suddenly come running back like a mad dog. What are you trying to do? Did your conscience finally wake up? Are you back to collect a corpse?"
"You want to die!"
That vicious taunt landed directly on Yasopp's sore spot.
With a roar, his attacks became even more violent.
Kuro fought while retreating.
The area affected by their battle kept expanding. After tearing through half a street's worth of buildings, the two eventually fought their way into the dense forest behind the village.
This place was already far from the manor, but it was still within the range of Usopp's Observation Haki.
But in Yasopp's eyes, clouded by anger, his son, who had never gone to sea and had even willingly become a live-in son-in-law for commoners, was already a complete failure. There was no way he could possess a high-level power like Haki, much less observe a battle from this distance.
So he no longer had any reservations.
"Heh! Heh... We've been fighting for a while now. Those signature moves of yours have completely given you away."
After a fierce clash, Yasopp suddenly grinned, revealing a savage and confident smile.
"I know who you are now."
Before the words had fully left his mouth...
Bang!
Yasopp spotted a tiny opening when Kuro's previous force had just been spent and his next hadn't yet built up.
A powerful whip kick slammed directly into Kuro's chest.
With a muffled grunt, Kuro shot back like a cannonball, smashing through several thick trees.
Yet before Kuro could hit the ground, noving even faster than Kuro's flight speed, Yasopp appeared behind the spot where he was about to fall like a ghost.
Click!
The crisp sound of a gun being cocked rang out.
When Kuro slid down the tree trunk and landed on the ground in a somewhat disheveled state, the muzzle of Yasopp's cold firearm was already pressed firmly against the back of his head.
"Kuro of a Hundred Plans!"
Yasopp looked down at him, mockery hanging on the lips of a victor.
"Three years ago. The pirate who ruled the East Blue and had a twenty-million-berry bounty. Am I right?"
"The moment I saw that cat-like footwork of yours, it looked familiar. As expected of a man worth twenty million berries in this dump. You've really got some skill."
Yasopp sneered repeatedly.
Kuro's strength was indeed not bad. In the East Blue, he was definitely a ruler-level figure.
But unfortunately, he had met Yasopp, the world's greatest sniper. The gap was simply too large.
"Since you've recognized me, then kill me."
With the gun pressed to his head, Kuro did not beg for mercy. He merely snorted and raised both hands without hesitation in a textbook French surrender pose.
He didn't resist because he could clearly sense it.
At this moment, Yasopp had no real intention of killing him.
Not only that.
Even before stepping out to fight, Kuro had already known this clearly.
No matter how fierce today's battle became, he, Kuro, would absolutely not die here.
As for the obvious gap in strength between them, Kuro had never taken it seriously from the beginning, nor had he felt the slightest fear.
Ever since three years ago, after Usopp had beaten him half to death and forcibly broadened his horizons by showing him the terrifying foundations of the World Government, Kuro of a Hundred Plans had deeply understood one truth.
In this world, differences in personal strength no longer had any meaning.
No matter how powerful an individual was, before absolute authority and strategy, it was nothing more than laughable brute force.
Because no matter how strong you became, you could never surpass the World Government that controlled everything.
And as long as Yassop lacked the ability to overturn the World Government, then as one of its pieces, Kuro would never be in danger of losing his life.
After all, Usopp's Observation Haki had been watching this place the entire time.
Kuro might not be able to defeat Yasopp, but that certainly didn't mean Yasopp could kill him.
Besides, he had his own trump card as well.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Yasopp didn't pull the trigger. Instead, he threw back his head and laughed heartily.
He casually moved the gun away from Kuro's head and slung it back over his shoulder.
He even stretched out a hand and heavily patted Kuro's dust-covered shoulder.
"Interesting! Really interesting! Back when I was drinking with Beckman on the ship, I heard him mention you. He said there was a guy in the East Blue called 'Kuro of a Hundred Plans,' a fox who would do anything to achieve his goals and was full of tricks."
Yasopp said with a grin, "At the time, the Navy newspapers were making a big deal out of how you'd been executed. Our Red Hair Pirates laughed it off. We never believed an old fox like you would fall into the Navy's hands so easily. Looks like you pulled off a cicada shedding its shell after all."
"You're not going to kill me?"
Kuro adjusted his crooked gold-rimmed glasses and deliberately put on a wary, puzzled expression as he asked in a low voice.
But in reality, every move Yasopp made had already been anticipated and calculated by him.
Looking at how aggressively Yasopp had stormed over earlier, as if he wanted to devour someone, Kuro didn't need to think hard to know that this old man was extremely dissatisfied and humiliated by Kaya and Usopp's marriage.
And for a man whose pride had swollen beyond reason, who had been absent for years yet suddenly wanted to act like a father, upon learning about it, his first reaction would definitely be outrage. He would want to charge in, drag out that embarrassing son, and beat him without caring about anything else.
But after the intense battle just now, after venting a portion of his anger through physical conflict, Yasopp's heated rage would inevitably calm somewhat, and reason would regain control.
Once he gradually cooled down, a pirate like Yasopp, who considered himself intelligent, would no longer choose something as simple and crude as domestic violence.
Instead, he would likely make use of Kuro's identity as a former evil pirate and secretly engage in underhanded sabotage.
For example, breaking apart the couple that filled him with shame, or using some method to harm or pressure Usopp into giving up his current peaceful life.
No matter what happened, Kuro would continue playing along.
More clearly than anyone else, Kuro understood that everything happening now, including everything that would happen in the future, was nothing more than a farce put on for the amusement of the god high above the sky.
As a supporting character in this play, Kuro's role was simple.
Go with the flow and quietly push things along behind this foolish father, making the drama even more absurd and even more entertaining.
"Oh, come on, don't be so tense."
Yasopp grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.
He acted so familiar that it was as though the person who had been trying to cave in Kuro's skull moments ago wasn't him at all.
"We're all pirates here. Why make things difficult for someone in the same line of work? Why would I kill you?"
Yasopp paused and put away his smile.
His sharp eyes locked onto Kuro as a hint of probing entered his voice.
"That said, in exchange for not killing you, you need to answer one question honestly."
"You're a pirate with a twenty-million-berry bounty. Why lower yourself and come to a place like this to work as a butler for such an ordinary family?"
"As long as I answer honestly, you guarantee you won't kill me?"
Kuro pushed up his glasses and maintained his cautious appearance as he calmly negotiated.
"I guarantee it! I swear in the name of a free pirate of the seas!"
Without hesitation, Yasopp raised his gun and made a solemn oath.
He had never planned to kill Kuro, this rare chess piece.
In Yasopp's calculations, the scheming pirate Kuro before him was practically a perfect tool sent by heaven.
Using Kuro's hand to secretly destroy that useless son's marriage, shatter his ridiculous life as a live-in son-in-law, and force him to face reality again, this was thousands of times better than personally stepping forward to play the villain.
When that foolish son eventually found himself trapped in despair, abandoned by wife and child, crying in desperation, he, Yasopp, could descend like a hero from the fairy tails.
Appearing as a glorious and great father, he could deal with the evil butler Kuro and naturally rescue his son.
In doing so, he would restore his son's admiration and respect for him.
As for whether other people viewed Yasopp as a scumbag who abandoned his wife and child, Yasopp couldn't care less about such worldly opinions. As long as Usopp didn't think that way, it was enough.
He was destined to become a great hero whose name would be remembered across the seas.
And so he urgently needed a perfect supporting actor to help him perform this touching play of a hero saving his son.
After all, in every adventure story, the shining hero always appeared riding colorful clouds at the moment when the protagonist was most desperate and in the greatest danger.