One Piece: In Search of Freedom [Book 1]

CH 15: ONLY THE AGENTS REMAIN

Inherited will...

The tide of the times...

People's dreams...

These things cannot be stopped.

As long as people seek the answer of freedom, these things will never cease to be!

"Miss Monday was overpowered!"

"I-Impossible! This can't be true...!"

Mr. 8 gaped. These two little pirates from the East Blue were stronger than he imagined. He had prepared a little since he didn't want to fight against someone who had a bounty of 30,000,000 beri and go all out. Still, he didn't think the rest of the crew mattered much as they had no bounties and even if they had to fight the captain, they should have been able to take him down together.

But the reality was too far from what he imagined. The 100 people under him were all easily taken down by two single pirates with no bounty and even Miss Monday had been defeated. Meanwhile, the two pirates responsible were practically without a scratch and spotless, Zoro only having a small cut on his forehead that had already stopped bleeding despite receiving a direct strike from Miss Monday.

The more he thought about it, the more unbelievable Mr. 8 found it to be. "I-I got it! That wanted poster must be a mistake on the marine's part!"

Most pirate crews, or even marine teams, were that way. The captain would have some capabilities with there maybe being a second in command that was also pretty strong while the rest of the crew were just there for the numbers. Stronger crews had a couple of strong members at the top with the captain being much more powerful like in Baroque Works.

But for crews from the other four seas, other than the captain, there was rarely anyone else that was worth mentioning. So much so that the Navy would usually only issue bounties for pirate captains and not for the rest of the crew, making exceptions only for some troublesome members.

For a crew as small as Luffy's and with him no finding bounties for any of the others, Mr. 8 only thought the captain had some strength and was foolish enough, as it had become apparent, to survive in the Grand Line with just himself to rely on.

After seeing the strength of these two, the first thing Mr. 8 thought wasn't that maybe this small crew had managed to get this far because each of its members had their own skills, but that the captain wasn't Luffy.

These two who were proud, ruthless, and strong were more in line with Mr. 8's image of a pirate captain. As for letting a dummy like Luffy be mistaken for the captain, it was probably so that they could escape the pursuit of marines and use Luffy as a decoy if needed. A very clever trick, Mr. 8 thought.

As for their pirate flag having a straw hat like the one Luffy wore, it seemed like Mr. 8 and the others forgot.

Mr. 9 agreed with the other man as he thought about it, "Of course! I can certainly understand if one of these two was the one worth 30 million beri. One of them must be the real captain."

"Right. I thought it was strange that such a nambly-pambly guy was worth 30 million beri." followed Miss Wednesday. Luffy was the type of person who easily left an impression on people no matter which side, the silly, the reliable, or the angry, he showed them. Unfortunately for these guys, they only got to see one side of Luffy.

Having no idea how screwed they were yet, Mr. 8 clicked his tongue, "Tch. But even so, how disgraceful... If we lose against two single pirates, we'll be held responsible since the Boss put us in charge of this town."