"This could get a little troublesome," Shirakawa muttered, rubbing the back of his head with a pained expression as he watched the group draw their weapons. If they trashed the place, Shirakawa was definitely going to get an earful from Shakky again.
"Forget it—better to end this quickly."
Shirakawa murmured under his breath, and then a cold smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. In the next instant, an overwhelming wave of Conqueror's Haki—like that of a wrathful asura—engulfed the entire bar.
Everyone caught in that pressure felt a bone-deep chill—and then, all at once, they crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
"Well, that makes things a whole lot easier." Shirakawa chuckled softly, then turned his gaze toward the pirate captain, who had remained seated the entire time. Sweat was already beading on the man's forehead.
What had he just felt? It was as if he had glimpsed the very aura of hell itself.
"That kid..." Even Shakky, sensing the burst of Conqueror's Haki, was taken aback.
"Just what kind of person is he? The intensity of his Haki is already on par with Rayleigh's."
Shakky found herself newly intrigued by Shirakawa. This time, it wasn't his identity that piqued her curiosity—it was the man himself.
Shirakawa's eyes locked onto the pirate captain across from him. He caught the flicker in the man's gaze—the unmistakable look of someone calculating an escape.
"Thinking of running? Sorry, but that's not happening." Shirakawa vanished and reappeared directly in front of his target in a single flash step. The stunned look on the captain's face told him everything—the man couldn't even track his movements.
Shirakawa drove a fist straight into the captain's chest. To his surprise, the man took no damage at all—Shirakawa's punch passed straight through his torso.
In that split second of distraction, the captain's body dissolved into a black mud-like current, slipping past Shirakawa's feet and surging straight for the door.
"A Logia-type Devil Fruit user, huh?"
Seeing the ability in action reminded Shirakawa of the Swamp-Swamp Fruit—another Logia—that would surface two years later during the Summit War.
But this one probably wasn't the Swamp-Swamp Fruit. Shirakawa hadn't sensed any swamp-like properties from him. It seemed closer to ordinary mud.
"No wonder he was so cocky. Turns out it's thanks to a Logia-type Devil Fruit."
Still, the captain was cautious enough. The moment he grasped Shirakawa's strength, he didn't waste a single word—he just tried to bolt. But did he really think Shirakawa would let him have his way?
If Shirakawa let someone slip through his fingers like that, he'd feel like his one-billion-berry bounty was an absolute joke.
"Logia fruits are nice and all, but running away like that doesn't exactly bring out the best in it."
In another flash, Shirakawa was right beside him. His hand, coated in Armament Haki, seized the part of the captain's body that hadn't fully transformed into its elemental state.
In an instant, every liquefied portion snapped back into solid flesh.
"So this... is Haki?" the captain gasped, eyes wide with disbelief. It was dawning on him that the man in front of him could actually use it.
"You know your stuff. Yeah—this is Haki."
Shirakawa was mildly impressed. In the first half of the Grand Line, very few people even knew Haki existed.
"What would it take for you to let me go?"
The man was pleading now. He was genuinely terrified. Shirakawa wasn't an opponent he had any hope of facing.
Even though he possessed a Logia-type ability, he felt like his life could be snuffed out in this man's hands at any moment.
"You want to live?"
"I do." Shirakawa could see it, clear as day, burning in the man's eyes—a desperate will to survive.
"Simple. Pay for your meal, cover the damages for everything you wrecked, and while you're at it, fix the wall."
"No problem, no problem!"
The captain nodded frantically. Shirakawa's demands weren't unreasonable—they were well within what he could manage.
"Good. Start by settling the bill for the food and the damages."
"How much?"
"Let me tally it up for you. Meal costs, plus the tables and chairs, floor damage, wall damage... I'll cut you a deal. One hundred million berries."
"ONE HUNDRED MILLION BERRIES?!" The figure made the captain's voice crack.
He glanced around. The tables and chairs... hadn't they been untouched? The floor—wasn't that wrecked by the bar's owner? And the wall—hadn't the guy in the mask kicked that in?
Now that he thought about it, his crew hadn't actually destroyed anything. Was his memory playing tricks on him?
"Do you have a problem with that?"
Seeing the man hesitate, Shirakawa pressed him.
"No, no—no problem at all! One hundred million berries is fine."
The captain agreed so readily that Shirakawa briefly wondered if he should have asked for more.
"Alright then. Pay up."
Shirakawa grabbed him by the collar and held out his hand.
"Er... but I don't have that kind of cash on me right now."
The pirate captain put on a helpless expression. He'd never imagined his luck could be this rotten—stepping out for a meal only to run into someone this monstrous, leaving his entire crew wiped out.
At that moment, Shirakawa reached into the man's jacket and pulled out his pistol.
"Wha—what are you doing?! I already agreed to pay—why are you still going to shoot?!"
Seeing the gun in Shirakawa's hand, the captain looked ready to cry.
"Relax. You're not the target."
With that, Shirakawa aimed the pistol at the nearest unconscious pirate and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The gunshot jolted the man upright, his face drained of all color.
Shirakawa had already noticed the crewman was awake. Decent willpower, he had to admit—the guy had come to surprisingly fast.
"You heard every word we just said, didn't you?" Shirakawa asked him.
"No, no, no!" The man shook his head and waved his hands in frantic denial.
"Oh?"
"I heard it—I heard everything!"
"Then what are you waiting for?! Go get my treasure—now!" The restrained captain snarled, his face twisting into something savage.
"Y-yes, sir!" It was clear the crewman was deeply terrified of his captain. Just hearing the man's voice made him stammer.
He scrambled to his feet and bolted for the door.
"Hold it." Shirakawa's voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Y-yes? Is there... something else?" The man had witnessed Shirakawa's strength firsthand. In his mind, Shirakawa had taken on the image of a demon. The fox mask on his face felt completely mismatched now—it should have been the face of a fiend.
"Throw those ones into the sea. Let the fish have them."
Shirakawa pointed at the few men he had personally singled out—the ones who had harassed Shakky earlier. The others he could let live. But those few? Absolutely not.
"Y-yes! Right away!" Without knowing where he found the strength, the crewman somehow hoisted all of the hefty men onto his shoulders by himself.
"Wake up the rest of your crewmates and get to work on the wall and floor. And don't even think about running—you know what'll happen if you try."
"I know! I know!"
The man answered in a desperate rush.
/-\
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