"Awesome!!"
Instantly, the entire clearing erupted in wild cheers.
Originally, they had planned to track Luffy and the others down privately later for a few drinks. After all, it had been years, and since Luffy was fully grown now, treating him to a proper round was only right.
Now, however, the mayor had officially declared a village-wide banquet!
Wouldn't that mean they could all celebrate together in grand fashion?
"We'll go get things ready right now!" In the blink of an eye, the crowd gathered in the clearing dispersed in all directions, vanishing into the village.
Such terrifying efficiency... Tsk, tsk, tsk...
The mayor's lips twitched as he watched them go. These slackers who usually dragged their feet at every task had suddenly transformed into pillars of boundless energy.
"Luffy! And Ace, Sabo, Drake! Just you wait—tonight, we're going to make sure all four of you are stuffed to bursting!" A voice echoed from the direction where the villagers had disappeared.
The voices overlapped, clearly not belonging to a single individual, but shouted by a collective mob.
Ace and the brothers exchanged fond smiles. This warm, familiar feeling brought an intense wave of nostalgia.
With the crowd gone, only the four brothers, the old mayor, and Dadan's bandit family remained in the clearing.
"By the way, who are they?" The mayor suddenly turned his attention toward Luffy and the group, pointing behind them.
Following the mayor's line of sight, Luffy and his brothers finally noticed the Alvida Pirates lingering in the background.
"Huh! Why haven't you guys left yet?" Luffy asked, looking mildly perplexed.
His tone clearly carried a hint of dismissal, practically urging them to clear out.
For the members of the Alvida Pirates, this sounded like an absolute decree of amnesty, instantly easing the heavy terror gripping their chests.
They had feared the legendary four brothers intended to settle accounts with them before leaving.
Now, it seemed these bigwigs didn't even consider them worth the effort of a glance, letting them slip right out of their minds.
Still, that was for the best.
"Captain! Let's get out of here!" Several pirates hissed under their breath when they saw their captain standing motionless as a statue.
Yet Alvida offered no response.
Her gaze remained locked onto Luffy with rapt adoration, her eyes shining so intensely it seemed as though she wanted to swallow him whole.
Make no mistake—her expression was precisely that burning.
At that moment, they noticed Alvida muttering something under her breath. A curious pirate leaned in closer to eavesdrop, only to catch a single whispered phrase:
"As expected of the man I set my eyes on!"
The members of the Alvida Pirates: "..."
"Oi, Captain, we really need to move," a skinny, emaciated pirate muttered, mustering every ounce of courage to step up to Alvida.
The response he received, however, was a glare sharp enough to flay flesh: "Huh?!"
"Move?! Out of the question!"
"Agh!" The poor pirate collapsed backward in sheer terror. He had never seen his captain flash such a terrifying expression of absolute fury.
Even so... she was still breathtakingly beautiful, even when enraged...
Without realizing it, the man slumped against the dirt and began silly-grinning to himself.
A flash of cold disdain crossed Alvida's eyes before her gaze snapped back to Luffy, burning hotter than before.
My instincts were right on the money. Not only is this man terrifyingly powerful, but he's completely immune to feminine charms.
Even though I've transformed into this intoxicating, nation-toppling beauty, that man didn't even bat an eye. This is the exact kind of man I've been searching for!
It's been so long. When I chose to give up and drifted back to the East Blue, meeting him again under circumstances like this—
Isn't this pure, unadulterated destiny?!
It has to be destiny bringing us back together. This time, I am never letting go.
This is the prime opportunity to make my move!
"Hey! Monkey D. Luffy!" Alvida suddenly called out, raising her voice.
As she spoke, she lightly swept a strand of hair back from her brow, flashing an effortless, devastating smile as she batted her eyelashes and winked at him. "Long time no see..."
Everyone present froze in utter disbelief.
Luffy shuddered violently, an enormous question mark materializing across his features.
"Who are you?"
"What did you say?!" Alvida's eyes dilated in shock. "Y-You... you actually forgot about me..."
With a soft thud, she dramatically collapsed onto the flagstones, putting on an aggrieved, delicate pout that, combined with her striking appearance, would melt the heart of any mortal man.
Seeing their captain's theatrical performance, the members of the Alvida Pirates finally realized she was attempting a seduction stratagem.
Using the captain's overwhelming beauty for such a tactic meant that even if their target was one of the legendary four brothers, surely...
"Eh! Completely useless!"
Raising their heads, they noticed that Luffy was standing right over there, casually digging for gold in his nose. With a practiced flick of his finger, a freshly harvested booger went airborne—and sailed straight into the open mouth of the skinny pirate who had spoken moments earlier.
Because the fellow had been staring open-mouthed at his captain's delicate, damsel-like act, his jaw had remained hanging wide open.
And Luffy's projectile had "conveniently" landed right down his hatch.
A masterclass in sheer coincidence!
"Ugh..." Startled by the flying foreign object, the pirate swallowed hard on instinct.
A loud gulp echoed through the silence...
"Holy crap! Ava just swallowed a booger!"
"Gross! Get away from him, quick!"
"Aww, hell no! Don't you dare throw up in my direction, get the hell away from me!"
In the next instant, a retching, full-bellied heave rang out as an odor sharp enough to churn stomach acid flooded the clearing.
"Quick! Someone jam his mouth shut!"
Jam his mouth shut?
Though confused, the nearest pirate saw Ava stumbling toward him with a heaving stomach and threw his hands forward, clamping them over Ava's face with all his might!
"Mmmph!!"
Having barely expelled a fraction of the foul cargo, the remainder was violently forced back down his throat.
The man named Ava rolled his bloodshot eyes back into his skull, wearing an expression far more agonizing than death itself.
"What the hell are you doing?! I meant catch it—use something to catch it so the stench doesn't leak out! If you press down like that, Ava's gonna—" The pirate who had shouted earlier cut himself off mid-sentence and bolted in the opposite direction.
"Blech... blech... ugh..."
Fighting back furiously, Ava broke his grip, and the poor pirate blocking him was a fraction of a second too slow.
The resulting torrent was far worse than before. Keeping that filth pent up in his esophagus for so long meant that once the floodgates opened, the eruption was truly unstoppable and enduring.
Ava collapsed flat onto the dirt, vomiting wildly without end.
The surrounding crowd gave them a wide, respectful berth.
Even Luffy himself hadn't anticipated that a single, innocent booger of his would trigger a disaster of epic proportions.
Suddenly, a violent spatial distortion rippled through the air, and a familiar squad of figures materialized directly before Drake and the others.
"Kenshin! You guys are here!" Drake's eyes lit up. He had assumed Kenshin and the crew would take a while longer to catch up to this sector.
He hadn't expected them to arrive so swiftly.
"Huh? This doesn't match what they were saying. Judging by the looks of it, Drake and the others must have already wrapped things up."
"Well, obviously. With all four of them on the field, letting a crisis spiral out of hand was never an option."
"Alright, let's head down... Ugh... what on earth is that atrocious stench?!"
Kenshin and his companions touched down on the ground, immediately clamping their hands tightly over their noses and mouths.
This smell... was simply too vile...
What on earth had happened here? Had someone recognized Drake's identity and literally pissed themselves in sheer terror?
Kenshin muttered dark suspicions to himself.