At the gates of the Marine Branch,
Kai finally released his right hand.
Thud!
A dull, heavy sound rang out.
The battered and bloodied Buggy collapsed onto the ground with a lifeless thump, raising a faint swirl of dust.
One glance was enough—
Buggy looked like a half-dead stray dog, sprawled on the ground and barely clinging to life.
Blood trickled from his wounds, soaking into the dirt beneath him.
His face was deathly pale, as if he could die at any moment.
"Wait here."
"If you want to run…"
"Go ahead and try."
Kai cast a deep, playful look at the near-dead Buggy.
Hearing this,
Buggy remained silent, not daring to make a sound.
He simply lay there limp, motionless.
Run?
The thought had already been strangled out of his heart.
Not to mention—
He was already gravely injured, with no strength left to even attempt an escape.
Even if he were still at his peak,
he wouldn't dare risk it.
All because…
Kai had carved a terrifying scar deep into his mind.
Buggy was afraid.
Turning his gaze,
Kai curiously studied the Marine Branch before him.
The building was brand-new, as if it had only just been constructed,
yet carried an air of classical dignity.
It looked immaculate—its outer bricks white as snow, towering high like a mountain.
At the very center, high above, a white flag bearing the seagull emblem fluttered proudly—
a clear mark that this was Marine territory.
The aura of authority here was palpable,
making one instinctively lower their voice.
The main gates were built of solid stone, thick and heavy.
In front of them,
two neatly-uniformed Marine soldiers stood guard, long rifles in hand, eyes sharp and scanning the surroundings.
This was the Marine Branch of Loguetown!
"Looks pretty legit…"
Kai chuckled lightly.
Then, without hesitation,
He stepped forward toward the gates.
The two guards blinked in surprise at the sight of the boy walking up,
but Kai ignored them completely and strode straight through the entrance.
The moment he entered,
the faint scent of ink and paper filled his senses.
Countless Marine clerks bustled about with paperwork,
the rustling of pages occasionally echoing through the hall.
The space was spotless, wide and orderly,
not a trace of filth anywhere.
Soon,
Kai spotted a pretty female Marine officer' stationed at a desk specifically handling pirate bounties.
"Little brother, what can I do for you?"
The officer smiled kindly at him, putting down her work.
"I've captured a pirate," Kai said bluntly.
"I came to deliver him to the branch for custody."
"Eh…?"
The officer gave him a strange look.
Still smiling, she said gently,
"Little one, if you just caught some thief in town, that's not my department."
"Go left at the front desk, they handle petty theft."
"My office deals exclusively with pirates."
Clearly,
she had dismissed Kai's words as a child's exaggeration—
mistaking the 'pirate' he mentioned for a common pickpocket.
After all,
Kai's tender age was simply too deceiving.
How could a child of three or four years old possibly catch a pirate, let alone a notorious one?
Kai sighed inwardly.
In this world…
it seemed telling the truth wasn't enough to be believed.
Exasperating.
Taking a breath, he explained patiently,
"You can send someone outside to bring him in. I already dragged him to the gate, I just didn't haul him inside."
"You really caught this thief?"
The officer gave him a strange look, then waved over a colleague.
"Go check the front gate. See if there's a thief lying there. If so, bring him in."
"Yes, ma'am."
Moments later,
the sailor returned—dragging none other than the bloody, mangled figure of Buggy the Clown.
His features were so covered in blood it was hard to make them out.
Thud!
The guard dropped him on the ground like a sack of garbage,
then shot Kai a bewildered glance.
A four-year-old had beaten a man to this state? Impossible to imagine.
"Little brother, beating a thief half to death isn't right."
"If he dies, you'll be in real trouble."
"Even if he is a criminal, justice should be left to the law."
"You can't just hand out private punishment."
The female officer frowned at Buggy's pitiful state, then warned earnestly:
"Don't ever do something like this again. It's dangerous, and if you kill someone by mistake, you'll be in huge trouble. Do you understand?"
Kai was speechless.
He had been saying it from the start—
This was a pirate.
A real pirate.
So why was she so stubborn, insisting on calling him a thief?
With a helpless sigh,
He said, "This is no thief. He's a pirate. A genuine pirate! A pirate with a bounty twelve million Berries!"
"If you don't believe me…"
"Check his bounty poster."
The air froze.
The officer's eyes flickered with doubt.
Could it really be…?
"Little one, you've got quite the imagination." She forced a smile.
"Do you even understand what a pirate worth over ten million is like?"
"They're monsters—vicious, powerful, with blood on their hands."
"Even Colonel Gerson, who commands Loguetown's branch, wouldn't easily take one down."
"And now you expect me to believe…"
"That you captured one?"
She chuckled, clearly not convinced.
After all—
even Colonel Gerson, the branch's strongest officer, had no certainty against such pirates.
How could a four-year-old possibly succeed?
Absolutely impossible!
But then,
Kai said nothing more.
Instead, he picked up a cloth and wiped the blood clean from Buggy's face.
The moment his features were revealed—
the female officer's pupils shrank sharply, her expression twisting in shock.
This face…
She recognized it!
It wasn't her imagination—
she had seen this man's face before.
"...The bounty posters!"
In a hurry,
she grabbed a stack of wanted posters from her desk, flipping through until—
there it was.
She placed the sheet beside Buggy's head.
The likeness was unmistakable.
The poster and the man's face were a perfect match—
a resemblance of ninety-nine percent, if not one hundred!
Her hands trembled as she read aloud:
"C-Clown… Buggy?!"
"Bounty… twelve million berries!"
Her face went pale, her delicate features frozen with disbelief.
This wasn't just some thief.
This was a notorious pirate!
The infamous scourge of the East Blue—
Buggy the Clown!
She knew the name all too well.
Colonel Gerson had led multiple attempts to capture this pirate,
yet failed every time.
That was how dangerous and slippery the Buggy was.
And now…
this same pirate, feared across the East Blue,
had been dragged into their branch by a four-year-old boy—
like a beaten stray dog.
Her entire worldview shattered on the spot.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 50 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/ZeusOp