"Hurry, young man! It'll be over once Monka arrives!"
"That guy isn't human at all!"
After the Marines retreated, the surrounding residents finally dared to approach, anxiously trying to persuade the two outsiders.
Zoro, however, paid them no mind, his gaze fixed on Helmeppo, who lay in a pool of blood.
The wound across his chest was shocking, but a faint rise and fall proved he was still alive.
"Consider yourself lucky."
He hadn't held back, but the majority of the power from that earlier 'Oni Giri' attack had been concentrated on the Marine's gun, with only the remainder striking Helmeppo.
Helmeppo's survival was indeed luck; the wound looked terrifying, but it hadn't hit any vital points.
But even if he had miraculously survived, Zoro had no intention of finishing him off; such a minor character wasn't worth a second strike.
He was more concerned about the abnormality of the person behind him; this woman seemed to be... having an episode.
"It's over, everything's messed up, the world line has been altered..."
Silas's pretty face was filled with confusion, her pink and purple eyes unfocused, her lips muttering words Zoro couldn't understand at all.
Even though he couldn't understand, Zoro could still feel her inner panic.
He found it quite interesting; this was the first time he had felt such genuine emotion from this woman.
"You're panicking like this just from cutting a Marine's son? How are you going to be a pirate in the future?"
A smirk appeared on Zoro's lips as he teased her.
"That's not the problem. If you cut him down, then you won't be able to meet... Sigh." Silas didn't know how to explain the original plot to him, hesitating and looking dejected.
It was strange; in the original story, Zoro wasn't this brutal. He had barely said two sentences before cutting Helmeppo down with a single strike.
Although he wasn't dead yet, given Monka's personality, upon learning his son had been cut half to death, it would certainly become a fight to the death.
Regardless of how the situation developed next, Zoro would no longer tie himself up with ropes and wait for Luffy's arrival as he did in the original story.
What was worse was... Zoro nonchalantly sheathed his sword and sat down grandly on a chair brought by the residents.
These residents seemed to treat him as a hero, which showed how terrible Monka's and Helmeppo's reputations were.
They also brought a chair for Silas, but the worried Silas politely declined. Zoro looked at her and couldn't help but frown, saying:
"I completely don't understand what you're worried about. It's just some Marines. Once I cut down that guy named Monka, can't we just run away?"
"What, young man, are you really going to deal with Monka?"
"He's the highest-ranking officer of this Marine base. If you can cut him down... that would truly be... wonderful!"
The residents seemed to have suffered under Monka for a long time, and upon hearing Zoro wanted to fight Monka, they all became excited.
"That's exactly what I'm worried about!"
Silas suddenly felt a headache. If you cut someone down and run away, who will Luffy and Koby find as a crewmate when they land on the island nine days later? And what will happen if the Straw Hat Pirates' first mate is gone?
And from the looks of it, he even wanted to take her with him when he ran away.
What was all this? She had originally hoped to meet Luffy by following Zoro and naturally join the nascent Straw Hat Pirates.
But now, what should she do if the pirate crew's first mate was going to run away with her?
"How about helping the Marines capture him?"
This was the only solution Silas could think of in a short time. Monka couldn't possibly be Zoro's opponent. In the original story, Zoro, who had been starved for nine days, couldn't be defeated by him, let alone Zoro in his prime after just eating.
Only she, the one who caused the butterfly effect, could push the original plotline back on track.
A flurry of dense footsteps suddenly sounded, and a massive figure appeared in everyone's sight.
"It's... Monka!"
The residents' expressions changed at the sound, and they retreated like a tide.
Amidst heavy footsteps, a two-meter-tall burly man walked, dragging a giant axe, its blade sparking against the stone pavement.
Behind him, the snowy white Marine uniforms filled the entire street like a wave.
"It was you two who touched my useless son?"
Monka's bell-like eyes scanned the crowd, finally locking onto the two people at the street corner: a green-haired man and a blue-haired woman.
They didn't look like ordinary people.
But this was his territory, Monka's territory, and anyone who dared to offend him, no matter where they came from, would die!
The culprit was found, so his son's body... "Hmm?" His eyes narrowed, and he suddenly reached out, grabbing a Marine by the collar beside him and lifting him up, "Isn't he still alive? You bastards dared to deceive me?"
The Marine was terrified, stammering, "Captain, I... we were too rushed at the time... we didn't see clearly if the young master was dead or not..."
"Bastard!" Monka roared in anger upon hearing this, his hand gripping the collar suddenly exerted force, throwing the Marine forward.
Zoro's eyes turned cold as he watched the Marine flying towards him. He reached out and caught him steadily.
Just as he was about to put the Marine down, the outline of a giant axe suddenly appeared in Zoro's vision. The axe blade fell from the sky, seemingly intending to cleave both him and the Marine in half.
It turned out that Monka had seized the opportunity while Zoro was catching the Marine, leaping up with his axe to attack!
"You really are quite shameless!"
At this, Zoro was truly enraged. This Navy Captain's son acted wantonly in the streets, and he himself was even worse, not even caring about the lives of his comrades.
These points almost stepped on Zoro's landmines.
"Three Swords..."
In a flash of lightning, Zoro pushed away the Marine he had saved, then drew the swords from his waist, instantly adopting the Three-Sword Style stance.
He was confident that even if it was a passive counterattack, he could still strike Monka with his sword first.
However, someone was even faster than him.
An ice crystal arrow streaked across the sky, its tail emitting glints of cold light under the sunlight.
Clang!
There was a crisp crashing sound, and then something unbelievable happened.
Monka, who had launched a seemingly powerful attack, was utterly defenseless against that single arrow. With just one collision, his axe shattered with a boom.
"Na... ni?"
Monka looked bewildered, seeing that after the arrow pierced through his iron axe, its speed didn't diminish at all, and it shot straight into his chest.
Hm? Why doesn't it hurt?
His body felt no obvious pain, as if it hadn't been pierced like the iron axe, but what followed was a bone-chilling cold that made his flesh lose all sensation.
Frozen... my body... Monka's pupils widened in shock, watching his body, starting from the chest where he was struck, being covered in ice at a visible speed.
A few seconds later, when he fell from the air, covered in frost, he had already turned into an ice sculpture.
Under the sunlight, the ice sculpture refracted a rainbow of colors, reflecting the horrified and bewildered expressions of everyone present.