The newspaper headline was simple:
[The Straw Hat Crew defeated Clown Buggy in Orange Town. The reign of the East Blue's overlord has ended. It is suspected that the entire crew worked together to defeat Buggy, whose current whereabouts remain unknown.]
To Jango, it didn't matter if they'd ganged up on him or not.
Three years ago, the entire Black Cat Pirates had challenged Buggy, and Buggy had wiped the floor with all of them, by himself.
Captain Kuro was nearly killed.
So, even if the Straw Hats had teamed up to beat Buggy, it still meant they were on a completely different level.
And if one of them had beaten Buggy one-on-one? Jango couldn't even bring himself to imagine it.
Either way, the Black Cat Pirates were finished.
~
Meanwhile, Captain Kuro was getting desperate.
Chouchou was completely countering his speed, and he couldn't land a single hit.
He was sent flying by another swipe of the dog's massive paw, landing right next to Jango.
"Captain Kuro, you have to see this!" Jango said, holding out the newspaper.
"The Straw Hat Crew, they—"
"SHUT UP!" Kuro snarled, his eyes wild with fury.
"That damn mutt… I'm going to chop it to pieces!"
He closed his eyes, and his body began to sway as if he were drunk.
"Shakushi!"
In an instant, Captain Kuro vanished.
Jango's face went pale, and he immediately started sprinting in the opposite direction.
He knew that once Kuro used that technique, he attacked everything that moved—friend or foe.
"Tch, even with Shakushi, there's no way he can win," Jango muttered to himself as he ran.
"Whatever. If he won't listen, that's his problem. I'm getting out of here."
~
"Shakushi" was Kuro's signature killing technique.
He moved so fast that even he couldn't keep track of where he was going, blindly slashing at anything and everything around him.
It was why his own crew was still terrified of him.
Right now, everyone on the beach was in his kill zone.
Ray, watching from the slope, finally looked a little interested.
Well, at least this might give Chouchou some trouble.
~
On another part of the battlefield, Zoro had already won.
The two cat brothers were on the ground, panting and covered in wounds
Just as Zoro was about to deliver the final blow, they suddenly dropped to their knees and started bowing.
"Zoro-sama, we were wrong! Please, spare us!"
Zoro just sighed.
"Tch." He sheathed his sword and walked away.
I'll let Luffy deal with them later.
The moment his back was turned, the cat brothers shared a sinister grin.
They lunged, their clawed gauntlets aimed right for Zoro's back.
"Dammit!" Zoro's hair stood on end.
He turn around, drawing his swords to meet the attack head-on, even if it meant getting hit.
But then, something strange happened.
Two invisible slashes cut through the air, piercing the chests of the cat brothers.
They coughed up blood and collapsed, dead on the spot.
"Who's there?" Zoro yelled, his swords at the ready as he scanned his surroundings.
~
The attack, of course, had come from Captain Kuro's "Shakushi."
Not only had he killed his own men, but he was also slashing up the other pirates Ray had knocked down the slope earlier.
Chouchou, thanks to his massive size, had taken a few shallow cuts as well.
The giant dog's nostrils flared.
His eyes darted around, tracking the invisible movements.
Suddenly, he let out a thunderous roar in the direction of a large boulder where Jango was hiding.
"ROAR!"
A terrifying soundwave, infused with demonic energy, shot out from his mouth.
It slammed into the rampaging Captain Kuro, sending him flying.
The blast was so powerful it carved a three-meter-wide, thirty-meter-long trench in the beach, stopping just short of the boulder Jango was hiding behind.
Ray smiled faintly.
"Not bad."
Usopp, Nami, and Kaya, however, were frozen in shock.
"A single roar changed the shape of the island…" Usopp muttered, a cold sweat dripping down his forehead.
Then, a spark of inspiration hit him.
He turned to the dazed Kaya.
"See, Kaya? That dog just like the giant lion I fought when I was ten! Only that one was even scarier!"
Hearing his ridiculous lie, Kaya actually burst out laughing, and some of the tension left her shoulders.
As she relaxed, her eyes drifted back to Ray, who was still smiling faintly.
Her head instantly started to spin.
With the last of her strength, she grabbed Usopp's arm.
"I feel dizzy… can you take me somewhere to rest?"
Usopp, thrilled to be holding her arm, immediately picked her up and carried her behind the large rock.
Nami watched them go, then suddenly leaned forward dramatically.
"Oh my, Ray, that was so scary!" she exclaimed. "Quick, catch me!"
Ray shuddered at her flirty tone and simply sidestepped. Nami face-planted right into the dirt.
~
Down below, Captain Kuro had crashed into the boulder, a broken mess.
Blood gushed from his mouth, and he was completely incapacitated.
Jango, who had been hiding behind that same boulder, slowly walked over to his fallen captain.
Then, right in front of Kuro's eyes, he unfolded the wanted posters.
"White-Haired Swordsman" Ray: 30,000,000 Berries."Straw Hat" Luffy: 20,000,000 Berries."Pirate Hunter" Zoro: 15,000,000 Berries.
The terrifying numbers made Kuro break out in a cold sweat.
Even Zoro, the one with the lowest bounty, was in the same league as him.
And the white-haired man was worth 30 million.
"Impossible… 30 million is Buggy's bounty. No one in the East Blue should be worth that much."
Jango just let out a bitter chuckle and unfolded the rest of the newspaper.
With his one good hand, Kuro adjusted his glasses and focused on the headline.
When he finally read the words, his jaw dropped, but no sound came out.
A single phrase echoed in his mind:
"I completely misjudged them."
Then, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he lost consciousness.