From the distance.
Dragon quietly observed the situation around Higuma, his face blank.
His senses were razor-sharp. Even from far away, he could hear every word both sides said.
"Looks like I wasted my time."
Dragon murmured to himself.
A man who couldn't even muster the courage to move against a few bandits—who simply surrendered on the spot—wasn't worth paying attention to.
He turned, about to leave.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump...
The step he'd just taken halted instantly. Frowning, he turned back in suspicion.
....
A heavy, powerful sound echoed through the forest.
In that instant, every bandit blocking the road went pale.
"He's going to make a move!"
Someone shouted.
At once, more than a dozen gleaming long blades and pitch-black gun barrels snapped up, aimed straight at the Higuma who was only a breath away.
Higuma was just one step from them.
All it would take was a slight thrust of a blade—or the tiniest squeeze of a trigger—and he'd spray blood across the ground.
And yet...
No one swung.
No one fired.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump...
The knife points trembled. The men with guns didn't dare pull the trigger.
At that moment, in their eyes, Higuma wasn't human anymore. He was some kind of monstrously dangerous beast. Even though he only walked forward—one slow step at a time—the sheer pressure rolling off him made it hard to breathe.
"N-No... I can't shoot... I'll definitely get killed..."
That thought flashed through everyone's mind at once. Beads of sweat the size of beans burst from their foreheads.
Higuma took one step forward, and they all took one step back.
The encirclement started to loosen, like a rock splitting a current. A narrow gap—barely enough for a single person—rapidly widened.
In the blink of an eye, the circle completely collapsed. Everyone retreated to either side of the road, as if welcoming Higuma as he walked through the middle.
Only the leader—the burly bandit Gilman—still stood in the center of the road.
"Higuma!" A roar exploded out.
The brawny brute, a full two-point-three meters tall, raised his long blade high and glared at Higuma.
"What did you do? Are you messing with me?"
Higuma slowed, fixing his gaze on Gilman with real focus.
"I'm not."
Higuma's voice rumbled low.
Then his open palm slowly clenched into a fist. In that moment, everyone's eyes locked onto his knuckles.
"He's really going to strike... We're dead!"
"Boss is finally making his move!"
Under the wildly different stares of the two groups, Higuma's clenched fist sank slightly—and then he made a simple cheering gesture.
"Do your best. I hope you become the King of Bandits in the East Blue soon."
"And don't forget to spread the word that I'm already your defeated underling."
Those low words—layered with the Emperor Engine's sound—burned themselves into their minds.
It was like he didn't even see Gilman as someone worth noticing.
"Y-You... are you looking down on me? You think even if I go around saying I beat you, nobody would ever believe it?"
"You're humiliating me!"
Gilman clenched his teeth. His face flushed red with fury—yet his hand was shaking uncontrollably.
Clang.
The long blade slipped from his grip and hit the ground.
He stared down at the fallen sword, then at his trembling hand. The light in his eyes vanished completely.
Faced with Higuma walking toward him barehanded, he couldn't summon even a shred of courage to swing.
The moment that truth took hold, his whole body went limp. His legs buckled, and he dropped onto the ground, looking dazed.
And he wasn't alone. The other bandits were the same—one after another, they slumped down as well.
A flicker of surprise passed through Higuma's eyes, but he quickly recovered, unhurriedly walking past them.
His men followed behind.
Higuma's bandits straightened their backs as they passed, eyes forward, lips curled with faint mockery.
....
That scene was also captured by Dragon's eyes in the distance.
"No mistake! That's the rare kingly potential—Haōshoku no Haki (Conqueror's Haki)!"
"He can't be an ordinary bandit. Higuma is hiding in this remote East Blue kingdom... What is he plotting?"
Dragon's expression gradually turned grim.
But there was still a question gnawing at him.
"His Haōshoku no Haki (Conqueror's Haki) feels... strange."
Dragon had seen more than one Haōshoku no Haki (Conqueror's Haki) user before. Yet among those powerful figures, Higuma felt uniquely unusual.
He recalled certain rumors from the sea.
When Haki is trained to an advanced level, it can manifest differently depending on a person's innate aptitude.
Masters who push Kenbunshoku no Haki (Observation Haki) to its heights are said to be able to glimpse the future—or read the hearts of others.
And when Haōshoku no Haki (Conqueror's Haki) reaches an even higher tier, its pressure can become tangible, enough to cause physical destruction.
Thinking of that strange Emperor Engine sound, Dragon found himself forming an even stranger guess.
"Could it be... that if Haōshoku no Haki (Conqueror's Haki) is trained to an extreme, it can even... come with its own sound effects?"
........
An hour later, Higuma and the others arrived at the bandits' hideout in the mountains.
Calling it a hideout was generous—it was really just a slightly larger wooden shack.
Higuma didn't particularly care about the bandits they'd run into earlier.
His own men, on the other hand, were practically vibrating with excitement.
"See that? That's the difference between a fake King of Bandits and the real thing!"
"A two-point-three-meter-tall beast of a man? In front of our boss, he's just a dummy who can't even hold onto his sword!"
"I thought we'd finally get to see boss make a move this time, but I was wrong. Maybe in the whole Goa Kingdom, there isn't anyone worth boss lifting a finger for..."
Higuma swept a glance over his hyped-up subordinates, speechless.
He was starting to understand how King must feel.
No matter what he did, people would assign bizarre meanings to his words and actions—whether it was his own men or his enemies.
Higuma shook his head, irritation rising, and spoke in a low voice.
"Quiet."
One word, and the bandits' chatter died instantly, the room snapping into silence.
But the very next moment, the bald bandit eagerly piled on.
"Yeah, everyone shut it! Boss is about to announce the next action plan!"
That single sentence lit the room on fire.
"Boss's plan? So we're hitting the kingdom capital after all, right?!"
"I heard pirates showed up near the bay—we've gotta let them know who the real boss is around here!"
"Hey, hey, your vision's way too small. Our boss is a man who's going to become the King of Bandits!"
"Boss! No matter what orders you give, we'll follow you for the rest of our lives!"
The bandits were already cracking their knuckles, ready to go wild.
Higuma fell silent for a moment before finally speaking.
"Then your next objective is... keep a close watch on Foosha Village, and on any Navy movement."
"Especially any news about Vice Admiral Garp. Everything else, do whatever you want."
After saying that, Higuma ignored their stunned faces and walked into the room on his own.
All he wanted was to stay quiet in the deep mountains like a shut-in—until Garp left.
Until then, the lower the profile, the better.
(End of Chapter)
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