"Who's there?"
This sudden attack not only left Crocus, who was floating on the sea, stunned, but also the pirates on the ship were bewildered.
But soon, the whistling long sword, which sliced through the air with a silvery light, interrupted their bewilderment. It stabbed into the faces and heads of the pirates one by one, bringing with it spurting blood and screams.
"Barrel Dance! Flash Stab!"
The tall figure who descended from the sky landed lightly in the middle of the pirates on the deck. He ignored the pirates who were roaring and charging at him. The rapier in his hand was like a storm, sweeping, thrusting, or slashing diagonally, flipping over every pirate who came at him.
The pirates screamed repeatedly, being forced to retreat and huddle together by the gusty attacks of the newcomer.
When they finally got a clear look at the enemy standing on the deck, every single one of them had an expression of unbelievable terror on their faces.
"A ghost... it's a ghost!"
Now, the enemy in front of them, who held a thin rapier in his hand, was a skeleton man in a tattered suit. There was no flesh or internal organs on his entire body, only a stark white skeleton.
The skeleton man stared with a pair of hollow and deep eye sockets, revealing his stark white teeth. His prominent cheekbones and jaw were all exposed to the air, looking just like the skull and crossbones they had tattooed on their sails.
What was perplexing was that although the skeleton had no flesh or blood on his body, he had thick hair on his head, topped with a fluffy afro.
However, this bizarre afro did not ruin the terrifying style of the skeleton man. Instead, it added a touch of eeriness, making the pirates on the ship directly wet themselves.
"Brook, don't mind these pirates. First, deal with the guys who are approaching your companion."
There was also a tall, blond man standing on the small boat.
"Okay! Mr. Hawkins, please help me stop those pirates. Please don't let them hurt Laboon. Boohoo... Laboon, I can't believe it has really been waiting for me here for nearly fifty years! If you hadn't told me, Mr. Hawkins, I wouldn't have believed it was true. And thank you so much for helping me get my shadow back."
Brook quickly jumped back from the pirate ship to the small boat and rushed toward the ship where Krieg and the others were.
"I already told you that I didn't get your shadow back. In fact, even I don't know who got our shadows back. The Thriller Bark of Gecko Moria is also nowhere to be found. Could it be that someone has defeated Gecko Moria?" Hawkins turned his head and glanced at the pirate ship they had left behind. He reached for the hilt of his sword at his waist, drew it out like lightning, and slashed toward the pirate ship.
"Iai! Shadow Flash!"
"Swish!"
A brilliant flash of light cut through the sea and sliced into the side of the ship, cutting the steel cannon barrels and the thick wooden ship in half.
Amidst the pirates' terrified screams, the entire ship cracked and broke into two halves, quickly sinking into the sea.
On the sea behind, Crocus stared blankly at the afro on Brook's head, mumbling absentmindedly, "That afro... it looks a little familiar."
In front, Krieg, who was holding the large spear, was already sneering. He used the tip of his spear to stab Laboon's body, climbing up its head along the numerous huge scars on its forehead.
Those ferocious and terrifying huge scars were formed by Laboon's constant ramming of Reverse Mountain over the years.
"Gin! We have enemies!" Iron Wall Barque, who was covered in iron shields, spoke up to warn him.
He had already seen the small boat rushing from behind and noticed that one of their ships had already been sunk by the enemy.
"Enemies? Hehehe, they're courting death by daring to oppose the invincible Governor Krieg!"
Gin took the two iron maces from his waist, walked to the side of the ship with a wicked smile, looked at the rapidly approaching small boat, and at the same time ordered the pirates on the ship to fire their cannons at it.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
A few black cannonballs cut across the sea, whistling toward the oncoming small boat.
Just as the cannonballs were about to hit, Hawkins once again drew his sword and slashed.
"Swish!"
A small, curved flash of light swept through the air, cutting the flying cannonballs in half, and they exploded with a bang.
Watching the slash fly from Hawkins's sword, Brook felt a little envious.
"Mr. Hawkins is truly amazing. He can even unleash such a powerful flying slash."
"You go stop that pirate who climbed onto the whale's body. Leave this place to me," Hawkins said calmly.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Brook raised his hand to adjust the hat on his head and chuckled strangely. He jumped directly from the small boat and landed on the sea.
He ran quickly, his movements as light as the wind, running so fast that he didn't sink into the sea, but instead ran on the surface of the water.
"Yohohohoho! Yohohohoho! Laboon! I'm back! I'm Brook! Do you still remember me?"
As he ran, hot tears gushed from his hollow eye sockets. He took off his old and tattered top hat, exposing his thick afro to the air.
His feet were as fast as the wind, and he rushed across the sea, quickly running in front of Laboon. He watched Krieg, who was frantically swinging his weapon on top of Laboon's head, with his eyes wide open.
"You scoundrel! Stop it right now!"
Brook jumped from the sea and quickly rushed along Laboon's body toward Krieg.
When Krieg saw a skeleton man with an afro rushing toward him, he didn't feel afraid. He just raised the heavy spear in his hand and brought it down with a powerful swing toward the charging Brook.
"Boom!"
The large spear, which had a strange circular shield-like device attached to the top of its tip, slammed into the air, immediately creating a muffled roar and a shockwave that blasted toward Brook.
"Revolutionary Dance! Heart Piercer!"
In the face of this huge impact, Brook did not dodge. His bony skeleton spun like a spiral, and he sprang up from the ground. Holding the rapier in his hand, he turned into a black phantom and pierced through the rolling shockwave.
"Pfft!"
Blood splattered. Krieg looked in disbelief at his chest, which had been pierced by the thin rapier. He then looked up at Brook blankly.
"You... you, how is this possible? I'm a great pirate with a bounty of 17,000,000 Berries. The great Governor Krieg, the man who will become the Pirate King. I haven't ruled... the world yet..."
Even the thick armor he was wearing couldn't defend against Brook's spinning thrust. Blood continuously overflowed from Krieg's mouth. The large spear he was holding fell to the ground powerlessly, and he fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
Brook looked at the dazed and hateful expression on Krieg's face, and a feeling of pity appeared in his hollow eye sockets.
"A bounty of 17,000,000 Berries? Yohohohoho, I forgot to tell you, I had a bounty of 33,000,000 Berries forty-seven years ago. You want to become the Pirate King with a 17,000,000 Berries bounty? You probably don't even know who Rocks is, do you? Do you know what the bounty of that rookie you call the Pirate King, a guy named Roger, was after that?"
Brook kicked Krieg off Laboon's back and, looking at Krieg's unwilling eyes, said mockingly, "I found out from Mr. Hawkins that his bounty was 5,564,800,000 Berries. That's 327 times yours."
"5... 5,500,000,000?" Krieg's eyes widened, and his lips trembled, as if he wanted to say something.
But in the end, his head tilted, his life essence dissipated, and he fell completely dead into the sea.
On the other side of the pirate ship, Hawkins's battle had also ended.
On the deck, countless pieces of straw emerged from the cracks and grew wildly, piercing into the pirates' bodies as they watched in terror.
In just a dozen seconds, the bodies of the ruler of the East Blue, Governor Krieg's subordinates, the most vicious ogre Gin, Iron Wall Barque, and others were filled with countless pieces of straw.
Pieces of straw emerged from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, turning them into scarecrows.
And Hawkins sat gracefully on the side of the ship, taking out a deck of tarot cards from his chest pocket and playing with them.
His expression was focused, not at all affected by the terrifying scarecrows around him. He slowly drew a card and flipped it over.
Looking at the pattern on the card, a hint of surprise appeared in Hawkins's eyes.
"Justice?"
A face involuntarily appeared in his mind.
"Will he come here? The world is changing so fast. After such a short time apart, he has already reached a height I cannot reach."
On top of Laboon's head, Brook was about to run down to greet his companion, who he had been separated from for forty-seven years, but an old but exceptionally deep roar suddenly rang out in his ears.
"Hey! You skeleton man, I don't care what kind of monster or Devil Fruit user you are. Get off that whale's back right now, or I'll cut you down!"
"What? More enemies?"
Brook was shocked. He quickly looked in the direction of the voice and saw on the sea in front of Laboon, a luxurious, golden two-masted sailing ship, which looked as if it had just come out of the currents of Reverse Mountain, rushing toward Laboon at an extreme speed.
That old and deep voice was coming from an old man on that golden ship.
The person was a good five to six hundred meters away from him, yet his voice was transmitted so clearly, which made Brook feel a little horrified.
"Oh no! That old man is definitely a terrifyingly strong person!"
On the golden ship, a green-haired man with three swords hanging from his waist looked up in shock at the gigantic whale as big as a mountain in front of him. "What a big whale."
Next to him, a short-haired woman dressed in a heavy metal style had her eyes fixed on his face, as if she were trying to see something special.
Selene had been watching for several days and still couldn't see what was so special about this man named Roronoa Zoro that Rorschach would speak so highly of him, and that her grandfather would travel all the way to the East Blue, spending several months just to find him.
"Isn't he just a guy with no sense of direction? What's so great about him! Can he really become the pillar of our Hunter's Guild?"
Selene was a little doubtful.
It was no wonder Selene was suspicious. The green-haired man in front of her was just average in strength.
Although he had a reputation as a pirate hunter in the East Blue, based on the bounties of the pirates he had captured, they were at most small fries worth a few million.
Other than his strange three-sword style, which was a bit surprising, Selene really couldn't find any other good qualities in him.
However, that was what Rorschach had said.
Selene believed that since it was that man who said it, then this green-haired man in front of her must have something unique about him.
Otherwise, how could he have caught his eye?
After all, that man had now become the third great admiral candidate at Marineford!
The man who killed the great pirate Shiki!
Selene took a photo that she had cut out from a newspaper from her chest pocket and looked at it with a dazed expression.
The withered old man Jonathan Barnett, who was standing in front of her, snorted coldly. He stomped his foot, quickly drew a long sword from Zoro's waist, and with a leap, he ran on air hundreds of meters into the sky, slashing down at the vigilant Brook on top of Laboon's head.
"Last time I went to the East Blue, I fought a group of pirates who were trying to capture Laboon. I didn't expect another group of clueless guys to show up now. If you're not going to get down, then just die, you skeleton!"
A huge flash of light erupted from Jonathan's long sword, obscuring Brook's vision.
Fear surged through Brook's heart like a tidal wave.
He wasn't afraid of dying. He was afraid of not being able to tell Laboon that he was back and make it feel at peace in his last moments.
The enemy in front of him was too powerful. The terrifying aura pressed down on him, making Brook unable to even move.
Even the Shichibukai, Gecko Moria, who had stolen his shadow, hadn't been able to give him this feeling of being unable to resist.
Just as the huge flash of light was about to completely engulf Brook, who was standing on top of Laboon's head, a gentle voice rang out above them.
"Hey, old man Joe, you're slashing the wrong person."
End of Chapter)
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