Chapter 21
The Going Merry cruised along at a perfect pace, sails full, sea calm, crew… not so much.
The News Coo landed on deck with that smug look only seagulls with job security could pull off—like it knew it was the only source of information for miles.
Nami strode over, ready to buy the morning paper. But when the bird held up its little sign showing the price, her face went from polite to volcanic in two seconds flat.
"WHAT?! 150 berries?! Yesterday it was 100!" she shouted, waving her arms.
"You can't just raise prices overnight!"
The News Coo shrugged—actually shrugged—and tapped the sign again like she couldn't read.
"Don't you dare give me attitude, you oversized pigeon! This is highway robbery!"
---
Meanwhile, Luffy had spotted Sanji's lunch prep and decided to "test" it. His rubber arm stretched toward a perfectly arranged plate of sandwiches.
"Just one little taste—"
"GET AWAY FROM MY COOKING!" Sanji's leg whipped out, sending Luffy flying like a rubber cannonball across the deck.
"GYAAAAH!"
He crashed into Usopp, who was cross-legged, mixing something in a bowl with intense concentration.
"My Tabasco Star experiment!" Usopp yelped as Luffy's impact sent him tumbling. The spoon flew—flicking super-concentrated hot sauce straight into his own eyes.
"GYAAAAAAHHHHH! MY EYES! MY BEAUTIFUL EYES!" Usopp rolled across the deck, tears streaming.
"I CAN'T SEE! I'M BLIND! THIS IS HOW I DIE!"
---
Then came the real chaos.
Luffy's crash knocked over the News Coo, sending bounty posters flying like confetti in a hurricane.
"MY NEWSPAPERS!" Nami shrieked, diving after the scattered papers.
"GRAB THEM!" Sanji yelled, abandoning his cooking.
"Why are there so many papers?!" Zoro grumbled, grabbing flyers anyway.
Silas just watched, amused—until one poster landed at his feet. He picked it up. Eyebrows shot up.
"Well, I'll be damned."
The bounty poster had his face. But the name underneath made him pause.
DAYTIME SILAS – 35,000,000 BERRIES
---
"Hey guys!" Luffy called, holding up his own poster with a grin.
"Look! I got a bounty! 45 million berries! Isn't that awesome?!"
"FORTY-FIVE MILLION?!" Usopp stopped rolling, eyes red and watery.
"That's more than some veteran pirates get!"
"Not bad for a rubber idiot," Zoro said, checking his own.
"Thirty million. Could be worse."
"Same here," Sanji added, lighting a fresh cigarette.
"Though obviously my picture is much more handsome than moss-head's."
"What did you say, dart-brow?!"
"You heard me."
---
"Guys, look!" Nami held up two more posters, eyes gleaming.
"Usopp got ten million! And I got five!"
"I'M FAMOUS!" Usopp jumped up, temporarily forgetting his burning eyes.
"The great Captain Usopp, terror of the seas! Ten million berries! Wait till I tell the people back home!"
"But wait," Nami said, scanning the deck.
"What about Red Head?"
Everyone turned to Silas, who was still staring at his poster with an unreadable expression.
"Huh," he said finally, then broke into a cocky grin.
"They actually changed it. Guess 'Red Silas' is dead and gone."
He held up the poster.
"Don't care if those old fools know who I am now."
"Cool! Daytime Silas sounds way cooler!!" Luffy shouted, bouncing around.
"And thirty-five million! You're the second highest on the crew!"
Zoro shrugged.
"Name's a name. The bounty's what counts."
But Nami studied Silas's face.
"You don't care? Most pirates would be worried about having their real identity exposed."
Silas spun the poster around his finger like his gun.
"Why should I care? Let them come. Makes things more interesting."
"INTERESTING?!" Usopp wailed, still stumbling.
"They're gonna send the entire Navy after us! We're doomed! DOOMED!"
"Relax, long-nose," Silas chuckled.
"If they wanted us dead, they'd have sent someone already. This is just them trying to scare us."
"Well it's working!" Usopp cried.
---
Sanji took a long drag, scanning the posters spread across the deck.
"You know what this means, right? We're not just some random crew anymore. We're legitimate threats."
"Legitimate threats who still need to get to Loguetown," Nami added, ever the navigator.
"These bounties are gonna make things a lot more complicated."
"Good!" Luffy declared, cramming the rest of his sandwich into his mouth.
"Complicated means more adventures!"
Zoro examined his poster.
"At least they got my good side."
"You don't have a good side," Sanji muttered.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"You heard me, moss-for-brains!"
---
As the crew descended into their usual chaos, Silas looked out at the ocean. Thirty-five million berries. Second highest bounty. And they'd used his real name—the name his family had carried for generations.
So the World Government knows exactly who I am now, he thought.
Good. I'm tired of hiding.
His hand moved to his flintlock, checking it out of habit. Let them send their Marines, bounty hunters, CP agents. The Red Fang might be dead.
But Daytime Silas was just getting started.
---
"Hey Silas!" Luffy called, still grinning.
"You worried about having such a big bounty?"
Silas looked at his captain—this rubber boy who'd dragged him back to dreams he thought he'd buried—and felt that familiar spark of defiance.
"Worried? Nah." He tucked the poster into his shirt pocket, right over his heart.
"Just means we're on the right track."
"But seriously, if I have thirty-five million berries, that makes me the second strongest, right?!"
"STOP ACTING SO COCKY!" Zoro and Sanji shouted together.
Nami's voice cut through like a whip.
"IF YOU GUYS EVEN THINK ABOUT FIGHTING, I SWEAR—DON'T YOU DARE!"
---
The Going Merry sailed on toward Loguetown, carrying six newly minted criminals toward whatever destiny waited for them. Behind them, the News Coo squawked angrily about its scattered newspapers, but no one was listening.
They had bigger things to worry about now.
Like the fact that the entire world was about to know their names.
And somehow, that felt exactly right.