The fact that Tom suffered a beating from Nami did not affect Luffy and the others' desire to continue watching the transvestite man's performance.
Originally, after being punched by Nami, the transvestite man, with a bump on his head, didn't want to perform anymore. But Luffy and the others whistled and enthusiastically urged him to perform again.
"Really, there's no helping it. Let this humble one show you one more time."
Unable to refuse their enthusiasm, the transvestite man agreed. Standing on one foot in his ballet shoes, spinning like a ballerina, he said to Luffy and the others, who were clapping and cheering for him, "This humble one also has a memory function~."
As the transvestite man spoke, he touched his face with his right hand. Then his physique and appearance began to change continuously: a chubby, round-faced man, a short, fat man with a mustache, a tall, thin man with a rectangular face... one after another, he changed over a dozen different people, eliciting cheers from Luffy and the others.
Finally, after watching the transvestite's face-changing performance, Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp got so excited they actually hugged the transvestite man and started singing happily together.
For a moment, the ship was very lively.
"How boring!"
Zoro, leaning against the ship's railing, watched Luffy and the others playing with the transvestite man and said this.
"Actually, the performance was quite interesting."
Tom had just said this when Nami beside him gently elbowed him in the face. "Don't say any more."
"Really something, that they can play so enthusiastically."
Nami couldn't understand why Luffy and the others could play so happily with the transvestite man. She helplessly turned around. "Play by yourselves. I'm not dealing with you."
Just as Luffy and the others wanted the transvestite man to perform one more time, a ship with a swan-shaped prow sailed toward the Going Merry. The transvestite man, seeing this ship, leaped onto the railing and said to Luffy and the others very sadly, "It's time to say goodbye. What a pity."
Luffy and the others, who had gotten along very well with the transvestite man, hearing he was leaving, seemed touched by the thick sadness of parting. They actually shed tears, one after another saying to him, "Don't go!"
Tom noticed the eye-catching words "Okama" written on the cape on the transvestite man's back as he stood on the railing facing away from them. He was wondering what these two characters meant when he heard the transvestite man say, "Don't be so sad. All good things must come to an end."
Saying this, he turned and pointed at Tom. "Young man, were you satisfied with this humble one's performance?"
"Stop giving me those disgusting winks, or I'm afraid I won't be able to stop myself from hitting you."
Tom, having received two flirtatious winks from the transvestite man in a row, felt his hair stand on end, chilled from head to toe.
"You are truly heartless to this humble one."
After saying this to Tom, the transvestite man turned to Luffy and the others, who were already in tears. "No matter what, this humble one will never forget the friendship between us. Even a brief gathering can be profound."
Glistening tears fell from the transvestite man's eyes, dissipating in the wind. He gave Luffy and the others a thumbs-up, tears in his eyes, grinning. "Because things like friendship have nothing to do with how long you've been together!"
After saying this, the transvestite man, with light dance steps, leaped onto the ship that had come to pick him up, not forgetting to say to Luffy and the others, "Don't you cry now~"
As the transvestite man was about to leave on his ship, the still-tearful Luffy and the others ran to the ship's side and shouted to him, "We must meet again! See you later!"
At the same time, Tom, watching the departing transvestite man, said, "Who has any friendship with you? Stop making up relationships."
"Weren't you guys beaten up together earlier?"
Zoro said to Tom beside him.
"Let's go!"
After returning to his ship, the transvestite man ordered his subordinates. His subordinates responded loudly, "Yes, Mr. 2 Bon Clay-sama!"
"Mr. 2?!"
By the time Luffy and the others on the ship reacted, the transvestite man's ship was already far away.
Only then did Luffy and the others realize that the transvestite man was actually Baroque Works' high-ranking officer, Mr. 2.
Luffy asked Vivi why Mr. 2 didn't recognize her.
According to Vivi, when she was undercover in Baroque Works before, she hadn't met Mr. 1, Mr. 2, or their partners, nor did she know their Devil Fruit abilities. So, although she and Mr. 2 had run into each other, neither recognized the other's identity.
However, Vivi had heard rumors about Mr. 2 before: that he was a tall ballerina, liked wearing a swan-feather coat with the words "Okama" written on the back, and spoke with a humble tone.
"Then why didn't you realize he was Mr. 2? That's too careless!"
Luffy and the others, learning that Vivi already knew Mr. 2's characteristics but hadn't recognized him earlier, couldn't help but say to her in unison.
But Vivi, half-kneeling weakly on the deck, now had a very ugly expression. Upon asking, it turned out she wasn't regretting failing to recognize Mr. 2 in time, but because among the appearances Mr. 2 transformed into before performing for Luffy and the others, one was her father—the king of Alabasta, Nefertari Cobra.
If Mr. 2 could really transform into the face of Alabasta's king, he could certainly take the opportunity to do many bad things. But such a troublesome enemy had actually slipped away right before their eyes, which was indeed problematic.
Moreover, once Mr. 2 knew Luffy and the others were enemies, if he used his Clone-Clone Fruit's memory ability to transform into anyone on the ship, it could even cause rifts in the crew's relationships, giving the enemy an opportunity.
But Luffy wasn't too concerned about this. Although he had no basis, Zoro agreed with his view. "I think he's right. We don't need to fear that guy who can imitate others. We should be glad we met him just now, because now we can consider countermeasures."
"Indeed, although it's a pity we didn't capture Mr. 2 earlier, his ability is exposed now, so his threat is limited."
Tom also felt there was no need to worry too much about Mr. 2. After all, the unknown is the most frightening.
Unfortunately, Miss Goldenweek had been sprayed with tea by Tom earlier. By the time she changed her clothes and came out, Mr. 2 had already left.
Very quickly, Luffy and the others thought of a way to deal with Mr. 2: draw a non-fading X-shaped mark on their left hands, then wrap it with bandages to conceal the mark.
This was a relatively cautious approach, as there were still several Baroque Works high-ranking officers whose abilities were unclear.
Plus, knowing Baroque Works had people with special abilities like Mr. 2, everyone felt it was best not to act alone.
Sanji had gone to look for usable ingredients in the ship's storeroom earlier and hadn't seen Mr. 2. He was still curious if Mr. 2 could really imitate others so well.
Usopp told Sanji that Mr. 2's imitation ability wasn't a matter of being "similar"—it was identical to the real person. He also said they had danced with Mr. 2 and that Sanji really missed out by not seeing him.
"I have no interest in transvestites who can do ballet."
Sanji, hearing Usopp's words, stated very bluntly.
"Did you finish drawing it? You seem unhappy?"
Tom, seeing Miss Goldenweek looking somewhat downcast while bandaging her left hand, asked.
"Mhm, I've finished bandaging it."
Miss Goldenweek raised her cute little face, waved her bandaged left hand at Tom, and said with a worried expression, "Mr. 2 must have been going to Little Garden to eliminate Mr. 3 for failing his mission, which is why he ran into us."
Clearly, Miss Goldenweek was worried about Mr. 3.
After Baroque Works high-ranking officers fail a mission, a stronger officer indeed goes to eliminate the one who failed. If Mr. 2 failed his mission, then Mr. 1 would go after him.
"Wasn't that candle guy sent flying by Luffy in the end? If he's still not dead after that, then he's incredibly lucky. Don't worry about him."
Tom patted Miss Goldenweek's little head and helped her put her red hat back on.
"What should I do then?"
After finishing the mark on his hand, Chopper asked Luffy and the others.
"Do what you can. Don't push yourself too hard. If you meet an enemy you can't beat, run away."
Usopp said very seriously to Chopper, though his words seemed more directed at himself.
"Things I can do..."
Chopper, hearing Usopp's words, lowered his head to think, then said, "I understand."
"Nami, we're almost at Alabasta, right?"
Luffy pressed down on his straw hat and asked Nami.
"Indeed, we are very close to our destination now."
Nami looked at the Log Pose in her hand and nodded.
"We can go to the city called Nanohana first and hide the ship there."
Vivi was very familiar with Alabasta and naturally knew the best place to dock a pirate ship.
"Alright. In short, from now on, no matter what happens, this mark on the left hand is the sign of comradeship."
After finishing their discussions, Luffy raised his left hand and said to the others on the ship.
The ten different hands circled together and soon came together.
"Then let's go eat first, then head to Alabasta."
Seeing the crew's high morale, Captain Luffy made his final concluding remarks.
"You've got the order completely wrong!"
The other crew members said to Luffy in unison.
Just as Luffy was about to say something else, a large wave rose from the sea, rocking the ship violently. Then, behind their ship, a huge sea creature that looked very much like a "Maneki-neko" (lucky cat) appeared. However, this creature's chest was covered in scales, and it made "meow meow meow" sounds.
"That's a Sea Cat!"
Vivi recognized the huge sea creature behind the ship at a glance.
Usopp and Chopper, seeing the Sea Cat that suddenly emerged from the sea—larger than the Going Merry—were so shocked their eyes nearly popped out. They screamed, "A sea monster!"
"Almost four days without good food!"
"Food!"
"Don't let it escape! We must catch it!"
Zoro, Luffy, and Sanji, upon seeing the giant Sea Cat, all revealed jackal-like expressions, ferocious beyond belief. The Sea Cat, which had just surfaced, was so scared it broke out in a cold sweat, let out a weak meow, and began to retreat.
Seeing the Sea Cat trying to escape, Luffy urgently shouted, "Reverse the ship quickly!"
"N-n-n-n-not possible!"
Usopp, collapsed on the deck, responded to Luffy, so scared he stuttered.
"Don't run, food!"
"I'll cut you up right now!"
"Let me cook you, you stupid cat!"
Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji stood at the stern, all rolling up their sleeves, ready to attack the giant Sea Cat when Tom rushed over from behind. "If you act rashly, you'll only scare it away! All of you, move aside! I'll deal with this fat cat!"
Saying this, Tom, holding a long whip, stepped onto the ship's railing, pushed off hard, and leaped in front of the Sea Cat, which was trying to dive underwater to escape. He threw the dozens-of-meters-long whip forward, looping it around the Sea Cat's lower jaw, and forcibly pulled it out of the sea.
"Well done, Tom! Grab it!"
"I already want to eat it with some sake!"
"Stinky fisherman! Bring it onto the ship!"
Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, seeing Tom had successfully stopped the fleeing Sea Cat, became even more excited, their eyes even turning a bit red.
"You can't!"
Vivi, seeing the Sea Cat in danger, hurriedly grabbed a nearby mop and knocked down Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro, who were ferociously confronting the Sea Cat in front of her.
"Vivi! What are you doing?!"
"Why, Vivi?"
Luffy and Sanji, lying on the deck, asked Vivi in confusion. Even Zoro, lying nearby, wore an unhappy expression, clearly dissatisfied with Vivi preventing them from catching food.
"People in Alabasta consider Sea Cats sacred creatures! So you can't eat it!"
Vivi hurriedly explained to Luffy and the others. Then she saw Tom, standing on the Sea Cat's head, had already used his whip to loop around the Sea Cat's neck and had viciously punched it. The Sea Cat was hit until it was teary-eyed, letting out plaintive meows, looking utterly pitiful. She urgently shouted to Tom, who was about to attack again, "Please stop! Don't hurt it anymore!"
"What?"
Tom hadn't heard Vivi's earlier explanation to Luffy and the others. Just as he was about to deliver a fatal blow to the Sea Cat and paused his attack, the already enraged Sea Cat seized the chance to go berserk. It forcefully broke free from his restraint, violently threw its head upward, sending Tom flying high into the air. "WAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"
As the Sea Cat, with a big bump on its head, dove into the sea, Tom's voice still echoed over the sea surface. But he had already flown far away, turning into tiny points of light in the sky, vanishing from everyone's sight.
"Look, he flew away."
"Yeah, flew really far."
"Do you think he can fly back?"
"He probably can."
Zoro and Sanji watched Tom turn into dazzling starlight in the sky, still calmly chatting.
Since they had already witnessed Tom could indeed fly in the sky using tools before, these guys could still act as if nothing happened and chat idly.
But after waiting a while, there was no sign of Tom. Luffy and the others looked up at the empty blue sky—truly clear and cloudless—not even a bird in sight. They were so shocked their jaws nearly hit the deck.
"What do we do?! Tom's gone!"
"Moss-head! It's all your fault for talking nonsense to me earlier! That's why Tom ended up like this!"
"Get your facts straight before you speak, you curly-brow!"
"He might already be in a different world, flown up to heaven!"
"Is that true?! What can we do to save him?!"
Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Usopp, and Chopper, seeing Tom had really flown who-knows-where, began to panic somewhat.
"I'm sorry... If I hadn't stopped him then, he wouldn't have gotten into this..."
Vivi truly hadn't expected something like this to happen just as they were about to land in Alabasta.
"That's right! It's all your fault, Vivi!"
Luffy bit the ship's railing, crying his eyes out. "Tom's gone... and the food is gone too... my fooooood!"
"We're almost at Alabasta! What are you all arguing about?!"
Nami had been at the bow confirming the ship's course, so she didn't know what had happened to make Luffy and the others so noisy.
"Y-you... you said Tom... f-flew away...?"
Nami quickly learned the whole story from Vivi. Initially in a very pleasant mood, hearing this news suddenly was like being struck by lightning. She couldn't even speak smoothly. Then she grabbed Vivi by the collar and shook her for all she was worth. "Why did you stop him from dealing with that Sea Cat?! If you hadn't suddenly called out to him, he would have already dealt with it! This wouldn't have happened!"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry..."
Vivi was shaken until her head spun, her eyes spinning in circles, guiltily apologizing non-stop.
"Nami, calm down. He won't have an accident."
Luffy patted himself and stood up. "We've gotten stronger along the way. He's not someone who dies easily."
Seeing Luffy speak with such certainty, Nami finally felt somewhat reassured.
"He's right. I wonder if he might be on one of those ships in the distance."
Zoro pointed to one side. On the distant, vast and boundless sea surface, they could vaguely see ten or twenty ships sailing in their direction, like a fleet, looking quite imposing.
"Those are also proof that we're nearing Alabasta."
Sanji saw that the sails of the dozen or so ships sailing toward them all bore the Baroque Works emblem. Clearly, they were Baroque Works members hurrying to gather in Alabasta. He continued, "The direction the stinky fisherman flew was indeed toward them. So he must still be alive."
"Looking at those people on the ships, they should be Billion-Fold agents. Subordinates of the high-ranking officers. About two hundred enemies. They're different from the bounty hunters at Whisky Peak; they're Baroque Works' elite forces."
Vivi looked at the majestic fleet sailing toward them. If Tom really was over there, saying she wasn't worried would be a lie.
"In that case, let's hurry and save him! Should we start shelling the enemy now?"
Usopp, upon hearing Vivi's words, hurriedly set up the cannon, ready to fire.
"Idiot, never mind. Those are just small fry."
Zoro spoke up to stop Usopp, who wanted to bombard the enemy fleet.
"Right. Although Vivi says they're Baroque Works' elite, small fry are small fry. With the stinky fisherman's skills, staying alive and unharmed among them is absolutely no problem. So we must not mistake our real target, or we're finished."
Sanji took the cigarette from his mouth and looked in another direction. "Take a good look. Besides us and Baroque Works... even the Marines have come."
"Marines?"
Luffy looked in the direction Sanji pointed and saw a Marine warship indeed approaching from the right distance. He concentrated and looked for a while, then said to Usopp, "Usopp, come take a look. Who's that on the warship?"
Usopp observed the warship through his sniper scope for a good while, then broke out in a cold sweat, exclaiming in shock, "On that warship... it's Smoker, the one we met at Loguetown!"
"So it really is that Smoke-man?"
Luffy had felt the person on the warship looked familiar earlier. After Usopp mentioned it, he immediately remembered. "Did he chase us all the way from Loguetown here?"
"What should we do?"
Sanji also knew how troublesome Smoker was and asked Luffy.
"If that Smoke-man catches up to us, we'll be in big trouble."
Luffy said very seriously to everyone on the ship. "We'll use the fastest speed to land in Alabasta! Tom already knows what we need to do, so he'll definitely find a way to meet up with us in Alabasta!"
"Then it's decided."
"That's indeed the most correct choice at this stage."
As Zoro and Sanji said this, they were already following Nami's orders to steer the ship.
There was no choice. If they went to look for Tom now, they would inevitably clash with the Baroque Works fleet. If, while busy dealing with Baroque Works, Smoker also approached with his warship, they would be caught between two enemies.
Moreover, when Luffy made his decision just now, his stomach was still growling incessantly from hunger. Engaging the enemy in that state would be no different from seeking death.
Meanwhile, Tom had landed on a ship. But the moment he descended from the sky, he was surrounded by a group of ferocious-looking burly men.
"Who's this guy? He actually fell from the sky."
"Who cares who he is? We're about to reach Alabasta. This is a great chance to make a big contribution. Can't afford any mishaps here. Finish him off quickly!"
The Baroque Works Billion-Fold agents were initially very surprised to see Tom fall from the sky. But upon seeing Tom was alone, their ferocious faces immediately showed.
"I'm full of pent-up anger, and you come looking for a beating?!"
Tom glanced at the Baroque Works emblem on the ship's sail. As he said this, he used Soru. Very quickly, on this large ship, piercing screams and cries of agony rang out.
Sometime later, Tom, having put away his fishing rod, looked at the Baroque Works members lying haphazardly on the deck and said while picking his nose, "People from three ships came... and this is all the skill you've got? And you still have the face to call yourselves Baroque Works' elite forces?"
Earlier, when Tom fought the enemies on this ship, he attracted the attention of two nearby ships. In the end, the people from all three ships combined were knocked down by him.
But what puzzled Tom a bit was that the number of Baroque Works ships in the area had been decreasing. After two ships came as reinforcements, no one else came to this ship looking for a beating. He thought for a moment but didn't dwell on it, feeling he should fill his stomach first.
"Being alone like this... really feels strange."
Tom sat on a deck chair on the ship, eating comfortably, when he suddenly remembered a fact and was so shocked his jaw nearly hit the deck. "Wait a minute... Now that I'm all alone... doesn't that mean I've gotten separated from the crew?!"
Just then, a cannon shot suddenly rang out from the left side of the ship, followed closely by a cannonball landing just a few meters from the ship.
Tom, seeing the food he hadn't finished eating thrown onto the deck due to the ship's rocking, his face darkened. He was about to see which bastard had fired at him when he heard one of the Baroque Works Billion-Fold agents, whom he had knocked down and who had with great difficulty gotten up, looking terrified at the slowly approaching warship. "Why are the Marines here?!"
"Marines?"
Tom was also somewhat surprised the Marines had come here. He walked over to the unsteady Billion-Fold agent. "Seems you Baroque Works guys really are unlucky. Even the Marines are giving you trouble."
"Everyone, get up! Let's run!"
The Billion-Fold agent didn't even have the courage to retort. He hurriedly pulled up a few people around him and tried to jump into the sea to escape.
"What's the rush to run?"
Tom grabbed one person who hadn't yet managed to jump overboard. Seeing another cannonball flying over, he quickly took out his fishing rod and with one swing knocked the cannonball into the sea.
"Can't you see who's leading on that warship?!"
The Billion-Fold agent, desperate to escape and grabbed by Tom, so anxious his face turned green, like he was constipated.
"I see her. Just a woman, right? Is she formidable? Is she the one who scared away your nearby members?"
Tom glanced at the approaching warship. He could vaguely see a woman with light pink long hair standing at the bow, wearing a pair of sunglasses. At first glance, she looked pretty cool.
"You actually don't know who she is?!"
The Billion-Fold agent, grabbed by Tom, looked at him in astonishment. "Even though you're strong... you're no match for her!"
Saying this, the agent revealed a fearful expression looking at the woman on the warship and said to Tom, "If you want to die, don't drag me down! She's Marine Headquarters Captain... Black Cage Hina!!"
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T/N :
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