Not long after Luffy left, Kaya arrived at the place where Luffy and Kuro had been fighting.
After learning the truth about Kuro from Merry, guilt immediately washed over her. She then came chasing after Kuro to stop him, intending to offer her fortune so he would stand down.
On her way chasing after Kuro, she heard in the distance the sound of trees falling. She immediately entered the forest, thinking Kuro was there.
As she walked through the forest, in the distance she saw the morning sunlight. It felt strange to her — sunlight shouldn't have been able to break through the dense tree canopy of this forest so easily.
How shocked she was when she arrived there. She saw a wrecked clearing, fallen trees, and several deep claw marks in the ground and on the rocks.
She covered her mouth with her hand in shock. "What?! What happened here?" Then her expression shifted to worry. She then heard sounds from the beach and hurried toward them.
At the north beach.
After being hypnotized by Jango, the pirates had become stronger and more ferocious than before. Their muscles swelled strangely beneath their skin, their eyes reddened, and every punch they threw left cracks in the ground where it landed. Zoro had already deflected and brought down most of them one by one — his sword strokes felling opponents before they could get close — but there were too many of them to hold back alone. Several managed to slip past his defensive line.
Usopp fired two iron pelet shots in succession, each landing squarely in the forehead of a pirate running toward him. Both stumbled but didn't go down. Usopp cursed under his breath, quickly raising his slingshot as a makeshift shield as a sword slashed downward — metal met wood, the vibration running all the way up to his shoulder, and he was knocked off his feet by a force that far exceeded any ordinary pirate.
Not far from him, Nami held off another pirate's attack with her wooden staff. But the enemy's hypnosis-enhanced strength was too heavy to hold for long. Her arms shook, her feet stepped back one pace, then another — until she was finally knocked off her feet, her staff slipping from her grip and rolling away in the sand.
The pirate bared a savage grin at the sight of prey now disarmed. He swung his sword downward.
At that exact moment, a fist shot from an unexpected direction and slammed squarely into the pirate's face, sending him flying several meters sideways.
Everyone froze for a moment. Nami used that chance — quickly grabbing her staff back and striking hard at the back of the head of the pirate who had been attacking Usopp.
That pirate crumpled beside Usopp, gasping for breath, his elbows and knees scraped raw, his clothes covered in dirt and dust. He still forced himself to stand, directing his slingshot toward the forest — as though the next threat would come from there.
Nami, also exhausted, readied herself gripping her staff tightly, staring hard at the forest.
A dark figure slowly walked out from it. A ray of morning sunlight lit up the figure.
Nami's tense face immediately changed. She called out happily. "Luffy!"
Luffy raised one hand and called back casually. "Yo!"
From both his hands blood was dripping, falling one drop at a time to the ground beneath his feet.
Usopp who had been tense immediately collapsed sitting on the ground, exhaling in relief. "So it was you! I thought that was that damn Kuro."
"Ah, as for Kuro, he's right here!" Luffy threw Kuro's body forward. The body hit the ground with a thud right in front of Usopp.
Usopp blinked, shouting in surprise. "Ehhhh?!"
Luffy walked closer. "Where's Zoro?"
Nami pointed downward. "He's down there!"
Jango, watching his crew fall one by one at the hands of these kids, had started to feel afraid — if they all failed to complete the task Captain Kuro had given them, it would be their own lives on the line.
In the midst of that desperation, he remembered his last card. He shouted. "Sham, Buchi, come out!"
Two figures leaped out from the ship. They both wore cat claw gloves fitted with sharp claws at the tip of every finger. The one with green hair was called Sham, wearing cat ear accessories, a black shirt with a bow tie, and shorts. The other, Buchi, wore cat accessories on his head, sharp cat claw gloves, was bare-chested, and wore long pants. Both turned toward Jango. "What is it, Captain?"
"You two go kill those kids over there!" Jango pointed toward the top of the hill.
"Wh-but Captain, we can't fight! Our job is only to guard the ship," Sham said with a trembling voice.
"That's right! That's right!" Buchi added.
"Just listen to my orders and attack those kids!" Jango snapped. "Hurry it up!"
"Alright, I'll do it," Sham said while crying.
Sham ran toward Zoro with slow steps, screaming in fear, tears streaming down his face. Zoro, seeing that, lowered his guard slightly. "Hey, stop! If you do this, you'll die!"
But Sham paid no attention, still running while screaming in fear. However, the moment he was close enough, his expression changed in an instant — sharp, flickering with cunning — and he lunged at Zoro whose guard had already dropped.
Zoro responded quickly, managing to deflect Sham's claw attack with his arm. But at that exact same moment, something subtler happened without him noticing: the two swords at his hip vanished from their scabbards, stolen by another hand that moved far more deftly than the claw slash he had just deflected.
Luffy who saw that glanced toward Nami in a teasing tone. "Looks like your stealing skills aren't as good as that person's, right Nami?"
A vein appeared on Nami's forehead, her eyes narrowing. Her face smiled but her eyes didn't. "What did you just say?"
"I said..."
But before Luffy could finish, Nami pulled his cheek hard. "Ow! Ow! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Nami snorted. Even though she wasn't satisfied, for now she would let it go.
Luffy rubbed his now-red cheek while complaining. "That hurt, Nami."
"Whose fault is that?" Nami replied, turning her face away.
"Hey, aren't you two worried about your friend?" Usopp looked at the two of them in confusion, then looked toward Zoro who was deflecting the combined attacks of Sham and Buchi using only one sword.
"Ah, he'll be fine," said Luffy casually.
Suddenly the sound of footsteps was heard from behind them. They turned — Kaya emerged from the forest. Seeing Usopp's scraped elbows and knees, her expression shifted to worry. "Usopp-san!"
"Kaya!" Usopp exclaimed in surprise.
Kaya ran toward Usopp but tripped. Before she could fall, Usopp quickly caught her. "Are you alright, Kaya?"
"Um, I'm alright." A slight flush appeared on Kaya's face. She looked over Usopp's body with a worried expression. "Usopp-san, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Usopp pointed at himself, saying proudly. "Don't you know who I am? I'm Captain Usopp! A wound like this will heal quickly."
Kaya who saw Usopp still acting like himself felt relieved, then giggled. Usopp smiled.
The sound of rustling came from the forest. From the bushes the three children leaped out, each carrying a shovel, a baseball bat, and a frying pan respectively. "The Usopp Pirates have arrived!"
They rushed over to Usopp.
"Captain!"
"Just as I thought, the Captain was fighting!"
"Why didn't Captain say anything, that's not fair!"
Luffy shifted his attention. The fight between Zoro and Buchi and Sham was intensifying — claw after claw came alternating from two different directions, forcing Zoro to keep moving, twisting his body, deflecting from ever-changing angles. Even holding only one sword, he was holding his own against their combined assault, occasionally countering with short slashes that made Sham and Buchi leap backward.
Looking toward the beach, Jango had begun spinning his disc on its rope, intending to throw it at Zoro from behind. Luffy raised his eyebrow slightly, then disappeared from where he was standing.
Whoosh.
Jango had only just pulled his arm back to throw when a figure was already standing right in front of him.
Boom!
Luffy's fist struck his stomach dead on, the force driving deep before Jango could react. His body lifted from the ground, hurled backward, slamming into the bow of the ship so hard a long crack spread through the wood. The disc fell clanging onto the sand, the rope tied to it still loosely wound around Jango's fingers, before he finally collapsed face-down on the ground and didn't move again.
Luffy picked up the swords Sham had dropped from Zoro and threw them. "Zoro! Catch!"
Zoro turned, caught the swords, and smiled. "Now I can fight for real."
"Don't get cocky, kid!"
"Adding more swords won't make you stronger!"
Sham and Buchi launched simultaneously from two sides, their claws raised high, intending to pin Zoro between two attacks that couldn't both be deflected with one hand.
Zoro bit the scabbard of one of his swords, holding it parallel to his mouth. Three blades synchronized in a single motion.
"Tora Gari!"
He swung all three of his swords downward at once in a single slash — fast, deep, and perfectly timed while Sham and Buchi were still in the air, not yet landed in position to pin him.
A fraction-of-a-second silence.
Sham and Buchi landed behind Zoro, their bodies stopping still for a moment as though time had frozen. Then blood burst from the long slashing wounds that opened across both their chests.
"Impossible..."
"We've been defeated..."
Both of them collapsed face-down almost simultaneously, blood flowing freely and staining the sand around them deep red.
Zoro threw all three of his swords into the air, then caught them back using the scabbards, sheathing them one by one at his hip.
Luffy clapped as though he had just witnessed something extraordinary.
Zoro released his bandana. "Oi, Luffy, what about Kuro?"
"I already took care of him," said Luffy casually.
Nami looked at the two of them who seemed so relaxed, as though what had happened today was nothing at all. A sudden thought occurred to her that they might be able to help her against Arlong. But after considering Arlong's strength — able to flip a house with ease and sink warships — she immediately dismissed the idea. That won't do, you can't involve other people in your business. Just a little more... 100 million Berry... Nami's thoughts were cut off by Luffy calling.
"Oi, Nami!"
"What?" Nami replied.
"Aren't you going to take the treasure from that ship?" Luffy pointed at Kuro's pirate ship.
Nami's eyes immediately turned into Berry signs. "Of course I am!" She immediately ran toward the ship. Moments later they walked out carrying all the treasure they could find from the ship.
Nami wiped the sweat from her forehead before letting out a long breath. Her gaze shifted to the pirate ship now run aground at the shore.
On the other side, Kaya walked up to them with a smile full of gratitude.
"Luffy-san... Zoro-san... Nami-san." She bowed politely. "Thank you for saving this village... and also for saving me."
Luffy scratched his cheek with a smile.
"Shishishi... we just happened to be passing through."
Kaya shook her head gently.
"Even so, I want to repay you."
She drew a brief breath before continuing.
"I want to give a ship to you."
Luffy's eyes immediately lit up.
"Really?!"
"Yes."
"That ship has never been used. I think there's no better owner than all of you."
Luffy clenched both fists with full enthusiasm.
"Yosh! We finally have a ship!"
Seeing Luffy's reaction, Kaya couldn't hold back her laughter.
"Also, all of you are wounded. Please come to my house. You can rest there until you've recovered."
"Then we won't hold back," Nami replied with a thin smile.
They were still talking for a moment when the sound of hurried footsteps came from the distance.
Before long, a man whose head resembled a sheep appeared along with several guards.
The moment he arrived at the beach, his steps stopped immediately.
His eyes went wide.
Klahadore — or more precisely, Captain Kuro — lay unconscious on the sand. Around him, dozens of the Black Cat Pirates also lay sprawled unable to move.
"...What..."
The man went quiet for several moments before quickly composing himself.
"Secure all the pirates!" he ordered the guards.
"Yes!"
The guards immediately moved to tie up the pirates who were still unconscious one by one.
Meanwhile, Merry swept his gaze across the entire beach, searching for the one figure he was most worried about.
Before long he spotted Kaya talking with Luffy and the others.
"Miss Kaya!"
Kaya turned.
"Oh, Merry!"
She smiled and waved.
"Your wounds haven't healed yet have they? Why did you come here?"
"I'm much better now." Merry let out a sigh of relief after confirming Kaya was safe. "I was worried about your safety, so I decided to follow."
Hearing that, Kaya smiled warmly.
"Then let me introduce them."
She turned to face Luffy, Zoro, and Nami.
"These three along with Usopp-san were the ones who stopped the pirate attack."
Merry immediately bowed respectfully.
"Thank you very much. I am truly indebted to all of you."
Luffy only waved his hand casually.
"Don't worry about it."
"Oh yes, Merry." Kaya smiled. "I've decided to give that ship to them."
Merry's expression immediately brightened.
"Is that so?"
He looked at Luffy and the others before smiling sincerely.
"Then I share in that happiness."
"I built that ship with all my heart, but it has never really been used."
"As its maker... I'm glad that ship will finally sail with the right people."
Luffy grinned wide.
"Then I'll take good care of it!"
Merry nodded with satisfaction.
"Thank you."
After talking a little longer, Merry said his farewells.
"I'll go to the Marine base to report this incident and request they come take the pirates."
"Please do," Kaya replied.
Merry then left with the guards, while Luffy and the others followed Kaya back to the mansion.
After the long battle of that day, they were finally able to rest and tend to their wounds.
End of Chapter 20