Next Bonus, 100!!
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BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Marines opened fire.
Hearing Ron's cry, Usopp knew he was in trouble. He fired two shots without aiming, grabbed a rope, and swung down, dodging the first volley of bullets.
"Stop, you little brat!"
"DIE!"
The two Marines who had planted the evidence rushed him. Usopp used his rifle to block a sword strike, but the man's strength was far greater than he had anticipated. He was pushed back against the ship's rail. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another blade coming at him.
He dodged, scrambling away, but more Marines were blocking his path.
He was trapped.
Usopp grit his teeth and vaulted over the rail, into the sea.
SPLASH!
"He's in the water! Shoot! Don't let him get away!"
The Marines opened fire on the water.
Usopp had grown up by the sea, and, inspired by his father, he had always dreamed of becoming a pirate. He was a strong swimmer. He held his breath and swam for the spot he had picked out before he jumped. A bullet grazed him, and a cloud of blood blossomed in the water.
Vergo walked to the rail and saw the blood. "Go find him," he said, his voice flat. "I want him back, dead or alive."
He didn't think a mere boy could cause any real trouble, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Sir Vergo," Captain Lambert said, clutching his wounded shoulder, "what about the rest of the crew?"
"Those who testify against Ron can live. The rest... die."
Vergo's words were laced with ice.
Jin had, for all intents and purposes, declared war on the Donquixote family. They couldn't just let it slide. They had held back before, wary of Jin's strength. But now, with the promise from the Five Elders and the backing of the God's Knights, they could finally make their move.
What Law had done to them... they would do to him.
An eye for an eye.
The tables had turned.
———————————
Usopp, clutching his wounded side, swam as far as he could before finally surfacing behind a reef. He looked back.
The merchant ship was on fire, thick black smoke billowing into the sky. One by one, the bodies of his crewmates were being thrown into the sea.
He recognized some of them.
He was stunned.
After being saved by Uta, and with the help of Kaya's parents, his mother's condition had improved. He was eternally grateful. Two years ago, to prepare for his own journey to sea, and as a way to repay their kindness, he had joined the trading company. Kaya's father had assigned him to Captain Ron's crew.
It had been almost two years.
The memories flooded back, and tears streamed down his face.
For the first time, he was experiencing the true cruelty of the sea.
He clamped a hand over his mouth, stifling a sob.
"Hey! Search the area! We have to find him! He's wounded! He can't have gotten far!"
The shouts snapped him back to reality.
He clutched the rifle his father had left him, the names of their family still carved into the stock, and slipped back beneath the waves.
———————————
Vergo contacted Doflamingo and reported the situation.
"Fuffuffuffuffu... Excellent," Doflamingo chuckled. "Remember, you must make that Ron man drag the entire East Blue Trading Company down with him. I will have my pound of flesh from Jin."
He hung up and looked at the man sitting across from him. "I can cooperate. I can be your pawn."
"The Five Elders and my father will propose to the Lord that you become one of us," Shamrock said, his tone light, dismissive. He didn't even look at Doflamingo. He clearly had no desire to work with him.
But Jin and the Winter Blossom Kingdom were growing too quickly. It had made the World Government nervous.
The Revolutionary Army's headquarters had been destroyed, but they were still active. And then there was this business with the Poneglyphs. The Marines and the CIU were stretched thin.
And so, Doflamingo, who already had a grudge against Jin, had become the Five Elders' chosen instrument to keep him in check.
Of course, Doflamingo alone wouldn't be enough. Shamrock would be helping from the shadows.
But they couldn't just attack Jin directly. He was, after all, the king of a member nation. He had the same protections as Doflamingo, and then some.
This was just a changing of the guard, a shifting of alliances.
That was how it was between nations. Today's allies were tomorrow's enemies, and the day after, they were drinking together again.
The Five Elders and the World Government didn't necessarily want to make an enemy of Jin. They just wanted to... balance the scales.
Once the "balance" they desired was restored, it would all be over.
"Ron... smashed his head against a wall and killed himself while you weren't looking?"
Vergo had just hung up when he received the bad news.
"Useless," he muttered. Ron was the key to taking down the trading company. If he had turned on them, the CIU could have used "colluding with revolutionaries" as a pretext to destroy the company and cut off Jin's influence.
"Sir... what do we do now?" Captain Lambert asked nervously.
"What's done is done," Vergo said, already formulating a new plan. "We say Ron was a revolutionary. The crew resisted arrest, and they were all killed in the firefight. Contact the other trading companies. Have them file complaints against the East Blue Trading Company."
"Yes, sir!" Lambert scurried away.
'In this world, power is everything,' Vergo thought, recalling the period of obscurity he had endured after being removed from his post at G-5. And now...
He craved that power.
———————————
The news of the incident quickly reached the East Blue Trading Company's headquarters in Cocoyasi Village.
"General Manager, I swear on my life, Captain Ron would never do something like that! He was an honest, upstanding man! It was a frame-up!"
The company's executives were in an uproar.
Kaya's father's eyes were red. He had lost a dear friend. But...
"It doesn't matter what I believe," he said, his voice tight. "I will have this matter thoroughly investigated."
"But, sir, we need to report this to the higher-ups! This was clearly an attack on us! Ron's death is just the beginning!"
"He's right! The rumors are already spreading! The merchants we had deals with are either jacking up their prices or refusing our cargo! We're taking huge losses!"
"I know," Kaya's father said. "I will report it immediately. And I promise you all, Ron and his crew will not have died in vain. I will get justice for them. But in times of crisis, we must remain united. We cannot fall apart."
"Right. Together, we'll get through this."
———————————
The two-day upgrade was complete.
Jin opened his eyes.
In an instant, everything around him flooded into his mind, forming a "clear" picture.
His Observation Haki was stronger, incredibly sharp, its range vaster, the details it picked up more intricate.
He could "see" a fighting fish in the sea of clouds, blowing a bubble that lifted a leaf that had fallen into the white sea.
He could "see," a hundred kilometers away, Gan Fall's mount, Pierre, chasing a large bird.
He could "hear" a strange ticking from the moon, like a clock, or the turning of mechanical gears.
It was a difficult sensation to describe. He was reminded of a state of being a Zen master from the Flower Capital had once spoken of.
"The world is in my eye, and all things are in my heart. When the heart is still, all things are still. When the heart moves, all things move."
When Jin's heart was still, all the noise, all the images, disappeared. When his heart moved, he could see the entire world.
"Hm?"
Jin's focus shifted to Nami in Cocoyasi Village. He could actually hear her conversation with Kaya's father. And in an instant, from her memories, he understood everything.
Through Nami, his Observation Haki extended, and he could see all of Cocoyasi Village, down to the expression on every person's face.
This...
Jin was stunned.
The connection he had with the emblem bearers had become incredibly clear.
Through each emblem, he could know what every crew member was doing, thinking, seeing...
It was like the perspective of a god, and they were his disciples, walking the earth.
It was a complete hack.
"Your Majesty! You're awake!"
The moment Jin's "gaze" had fallen on her, Nami had sensed it, as if his presence were enveloping her.
Even Kaya's father had felt it, as if a pair of eyes, like a god's, were looking down on them.
His will had descended upon this place.
"Your Majesty?" Kaya's father said, his face lighting up with joy as he looked around. "Are you here?"
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