On the ruined streets of Orange Town, Mayor Boodle's aged, despairing account had just ended.
While Tabito was privately weighing how much "soul sustenance" this "Buggy Pirates" could provide—and whether there was a suitable vessel to house Mad Treasure's vicious soul—his far-beyond-normal spiritual sense suddenly stirred.
A sharp tearing sound of something cutting through the air rushed closer from afar, ripping apart the town's oppressive silence.
He looked up and saw an abnormally huge, bizarre projectile—nearly twice the size of an ordinary cannonball—dragging a faint trail of smoke as it arced downward, smashing straight toward the area where they stood! That exaggerated size clearly wasn't a standard weapon.
"A c-cannonball! It's huge!" Carina followed Tabito's gaze and went deathly pale, screaming.
Nami's whole body stiffened too, her sea-green pupils contracting. If a cannonball that big exploded, the blast would probably cover half the street. They'd have nowhere to run, and the only ending would be—black-and-blue here, in pieces there, scattered east and west!
Even the seasoned Mayor Boodle was so shocked he couldn't speak, despairingly closing his eyes.
At that critical instant, Tabito's gaze turned faintly cold. He made no big movement—only used a thought to connect with the Human Emperor Banner deep within his sea of consciousness.
The next moment, the space beside them distorted slightly. A tall figure wrapped in thick, heavy chains—with ashen skin and blood-red eyes—appeared out of thin air like a ghost!
It was the Chain-Chain Fruit corpse puppet refined from Treasure Hunter Treasure's body, infused with his vicious soul—Treasure's corpse puppet!
The corpse puppet manifested with zero delay. It stiffly raised both arms, and the chains coiling around it shot out as if alive, rapidly weaving and spiraling in midair. In an instant, a layered, airtight black chain net formed above everyone's heads!
BOOOOM—!!!
A massive Buggy Ball slammed into the chain net, erupting into a deafening roar! Blazing firelight and thick smoke ballooned outward as a violent shockwave blasted in all directions!
The chain net shuddered violently, but it still held fast, isolating most of the explosion's power overhead. Only a bit of scorching air and dust seeped through the gaps, catching the unprepared Nami, Carina, and Mayor Boodle and knocking them stumbling backward—until they fell flat on their butts on the ground, coughing nonstop, faces full of lingering terror.
When the dust finally thinned, they looked up at Treasure's corpse puppet—silently standing, slowly retracting its chains, completely unscathed. Then they looked at its horrifying face: ashen, yet still clearly recognizable as Treasure's features. Nami and Carina's faces went sheet-white in an instant.
"T-Treasure?!" Carina's voice trembled. She'd seen Treasure get pierced through and pinned dead by a spear with her own eyes.
Nami jerked her head toward Tabito, her eyes full of fear and disbelief.
Tabito ignored their reactions as though it were nothing more than a trivial act. He lifted his gaze toward the direction the cannonball had come from—the town's central plaza.
"You wait here," he said flatly, with no emotion. "I'm going to settle a private matter."
"M-My lord, what are you going to do?" Carina forced down her fear and asked, stammering.
Tabito had already turned around, and Treasure's corpse puppet followed in silence. Without looking back, he let only cold words drift on the wind:
"If someone's tossing cannonballs over my head, and I don't 'return the favor,' how am I supposed to make a living on this sea afterward?"
His figure quickly vanished around the corner of the shattered streets. Only the heavy scrape of chains on the ground, and the corpse puppet's weighty footsteps, faded into the distance.
Nami helped the legs-gone-weak Mayor Boodle up. Looking toward the direction Tabito disappeared, she said with lingering dread to the mayor, "O-old sir, don't worry. With… with that my lord here, Orange Town should be taken back soon." Even as she said it, she had no confidence—she didn't know what Orange Town would become after that "my lord" with such eerie methods took it back.
Mayor Boodle looked in the direction Tabito had gone, then at the street corner where that terrifying corpse puppet had disappeared. There was no joy on his aged face—only deeper worry. He murmured, "That red-nosed Buggy… I've heard he's got the nickname 'undying'… Can that young man really handle him? He's so young…"
...
Orange Town's central plaza—once a place for residents to gather and hold festivals—had now become Buggy Pirates' carnival camp.
A huge bonfire burned at the center. The aroma of roasted meat mixed with the stink of cheap booze, filling the air. Dozens of drunken Pirates in bizarre outfits shouted, played finger-guessing games, and danced, turning the scene into a filthy mess.
In the seat of honor beside the bonfire, a man wearing a captain's hat, clown makeup, and a striking red nose—Buggy—sat smugly on a luxurious chair they'd stolen, basking in his subordinates' flattery. At his side stood his key officers: the animal tamer Mohji, stroking the mane of his lion named Richie; and the chief of staff Cabaji, balancing one foot on his unicycle while wiping down the sword in his hand.
"Hehahahaha! You lot, drink up! Everything in this town is Buggy-sama's now!" Buggy raised his cup and howled with laughter.
"Long live Captain Buggy!" the Pirates roared back.
To liven things up, a few Pirates were operating a wildly exaggerated cannon with an enormous muzzle, loading it with special "Buggy Balls."
"Captain! Fire another celebratory salute!" one lackey shouted obsequiously.
"Good! Fire it for me!" Buggy waved grandly. "Let those idiots hiding out there hear it!"
The lackeys sneered as they adjusted the cannon, aiming it toward the town's southern side where it looked deserted (roughly the direction Tabito and the others had been), and lit the fuse.
Right then—
"Chi!"
A tightly condensed, lightning-fast gray-black spear aura tore through the air without warning, slicing precisely across the cannon's body—and the lackeys loading it beside it!
BOOOOM!!!
The Buggy Ball that hadn't even been fired detonated. A far more violent explosion erupted! That special cannon—and three or four Pirate lackeys beside it—were swallowed by firelight instantly, not even getting a scream out before they were blasted into a skyful of flying gore and twisted metal wreckage!
The revelry's noise stopped dead.
Every Pirate there, including Buggy, Mohji, and Cabaji, stared like ducks with their throats pinched, dumbstruck at the smoke that still hadn't dispersed—and at the figure slowly walking out from the plaza's shadowed edge.
Tabito stepped into the plaza, holding the black iron great spear (the Human Emperor Banner), expression indifferent. Treasure's corpse puppet followed half a step behind him like the most loyal guard. Its crimson eyes swept the crowd as icy deathly aura spread outward.
"Just now," Tabito said, not loudly, yet clearly overpowering the crackle of flames as it reached every Pirate's ears, carrying a chilling coldness, "was it you who were throwing trash (cannonballs) into the town?"
(End of Chapter)
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