West Blue – Reverse Mountain's entrance, Laskarp Town
"It's starting. The captain of the Bede Pirates—worth a 14 million Beli bounty—is about to be publicly executed."
"What's the big deal? This happens every month."
"Yeah, but this guy's bounty is 14 million Beli!"
The tavern buzzed with noisy conversation. Before long, many patrons paid their tabs and rushed toward the execution platform.
As the gateway from the West Blue to the Grand Line, Laskarp Town's execution platform stood as a deterrent against pirates across the region.
Unless you were a Devil Fruit user or a pirate of interest to the World Government, capture meant a one-way ticket to public execution here.
Executions occurred monthly, with varying numbers of condemned. Almost every time, some pirate crew tried to launch a rescue—only to fall into ambushes, getting captured themselves.
At this moment, on the execution platform, the Marine Branch 80's Colonel Lomy had just finished reading out the crimes of the Bede Pirates. Under their captain's hand, hundreds had died.
Pillaging was a pirate's bread and butter. In this era, not every pirate was a Roger—who refused to harm civilians or loot indiscriminately. (As Oden recalled in canon.)
Ninety-nine percent of pirates didn't sail for dreams—they sailed for wealth.
"Execute him!"
With Colonel Lomy's order, Kevin—standing behind Bede—raised his spear.
At that moment, a commotion erupted around the square.
"Kill them all! Save the captain—for the treasure!"
"Slaughter the Marines!"
"Now's our chance!"
"Boss Soph! We're here!"
Just as the chaos began, they were met with a hail of pre-planned gunfire.
Bang bang bang...
Amid the gunfire, Bede—the first to be condemned—let out a furious roar before the spear pierced his heart.
Execution by impalement.
Without pause, Colonel Lomy began reading the crimes of the second man—another Black Hand family member.
Kevin glanced down from the execution stage, spear still in hand.
Amid the gunfire, someone actually managed to charge in—guarding his vitals with a longsword, though already bleeding from three bullet wounds.
His eyes locked onto Kevin, filled with fear.
The next instant, the intruder slashed upward—sending a flying blade arc toward the platform.
Bang!
Kevin swung his spear one-handed—shattering the flying slash in midair.
Whoosh!
A blur of motion—the spear shot forward, impaling the attacker's stomach and driving him deep into the stone plaza.
Boom!
The ground shook with impact. All the pirates watching froze in disbelief.
How... is this possible?
Lord Ardin, who could launch flying slashes, was just killed like that?!
That spear—no one could even see it move!
"Colonel Lomy, can you speed it up a bit?" Kevin grumbled.
He turned to the kneeling Black Hand mobster in front of him—his knees shattered.
"You're oddly calm…"
Wearing a prison uniform, Soph bowed his head.
"Not all lives are equal. I gave them what they wanted. Kevin, if you let me go, I can give you what you want too."
He lifted his gaze.
"Money. Women. In the West Blue, there's nothing the Five Black Hand Families can't do. No one here can stop you—not even that Marine colonel who was nothing but a nobody two years ago."
Colonel Lomy nearly choked on the insult, glaring daggers at Soph before returning to the next reading.
When he finished, Kevin thrust a new spear through Soph's chest.
"You can't give me what I want."
Later – Marine Branch Barracks
Kevin lay on his bed, sinking his consciousness into the prison within him—his golden finger in this One Piece world.
A prison for souls.
Every soul of those he executed was drawn here.
At its center stood a high platform, surrounded by eight passageways. Along each passage were rows of soul cells.
Bede, who had just been impaled, now sat terrified inside Cell #6.
Kevin stared at him from outside.
"Tsk tsk... over a thousand Sin Points. That's enough for a Bronze Chest."
"You killed me—why am I still here?! Kevin?!"
"Death isn't the end for people like you. You've left too many corpses behind."
Kevin tapped his temple.
"Think it over. The prison should've explained the rules to you already."
"Since your soul's quality is the best among this batch… you'll get the first taste of pain."
Black flames erupted in the cell—instantly engulfing Bede's soul.
"Aaaahhh!!!"
"You… bastard!"
"Just kill me already!"
"It hurts... it hurts!"
Kevin dug a finger in his ear.
"That scream… classic. Let's begin."
One by one, all the souls of the executed began to wail in agony.
No fainting. No unconsciousness.
The black flames slowly burned their Sin Points—one per minute—until everything was consumed, and the souls finally disappeared.
And these consumed sins… were exactly what Kevin needed.
A hundred Sin Points earned a wooden chest.
A thousand, a bronze chest.
Ten thousand, a silver one... and so on.
The chests could contain many things—some from this world, others from beyond. The most basic items were attribute cards.
Two years ago, Uncle Kuma dropped him here. Using the execution platform of Branch 80 in West Blue, Kevin had opened quite a few chests since then.
Wooden chests gave him Naruto-world kunai and shuriken, or flintlock pistols from One Piece itself.
Bronze chests had Shadow Clone Skill Cards from Naruto, or a modern handgun from Jackie Chan Adventures.
As for silver...
A year ago, he'd developed a bad habit—constantly burning his Sin Points on bronze chests. Couldn't resist.
Still, the stat cards improved his physical strength and reaction time significantly.
Being able to casually shatter a flying slash on the execution stage, or bury a spear halfway into the stone plaza—that was proof enough.
Also… Naruto's Shadow Clone Technique didn't use chakra here—it consumed stamina, just like a Devil Fruit power.
"Four new souls today. One was a bonus kill—only worth 300 Sin Points. Together they net me 3,200. Add that to what I had saved—36,000."
Kevin did a quick mental calculation, looking down at his hand.
"Three silver chests? Or hold out for a gold?"
He'd never opened a silver chest before.
His heart ached. His hand itched.
"Screw it. Just one. I'll save the rest."
At that moment, the counter atop the Sin Altar in the prison dropped from 32,000 to 22,000.
A silver chest appeared.
Kevin rubbed his hands, stepped forward, and opened it.
Inside, the spinning images began to slow.
And stopped.
A... yellow cloud?