Boy With a Scar

Chapter 24: The Stranger on the Dawn Island (Part II)

-around 2 years ago, the Dawn Island-

Like a silent bird of prey, Luffy perched on the branch high up in the tree and looked down at the two men traversing the forest. They were chatting and laughing about how this test was already in their pockets, how they were going to join the main crew, and also loudly wondering what kind of rewards they would get once they found the guy.

The teen's lips pulled back into a feral snarl, dark irises flashing with bloodlust.

Those people, those gods, loved their damn manhunting feasts. It was their favorite sport event, the most popular form of entertainment: hunting down helpless prey in the form of other humans. Sometimes shackled ones, sometimes almost starved to death, sometimes shot or slashed so that they would bleed and leave tracks for them to follow.

Occasionally, the same humans were used as hunting dogs instead of real hounds to pursue those who were prey in the macabre and cruel game. More exciting, they said, more thrilling.

The boy took a deep breath, calming himself, pushing the demons of the past back into the darkness from where they had slithered out. He had survived each and every of those hunts he had been forced into due to his Devil Fruit, his mystery power, pure luck, or sheer stubbornness; that was the most important thing.

This was not the time to lose his mind, and there was no need to confront all of these scums either. Luffy could feel all of them scattered around, and there were many. To fight all of them was not an option, especially when he could sense that at least two were so far above his level that he knew he had no chance of victory, and there were a bunch more who would pose a real threat.

The teen turned, intended to move towards the next group for observation. These men were moving away from the cave now and thus were of no interest to him.

"–not bad! That guy knew about the swords, I give him that."

Luffy paused, the words catching his attention. He looked at them again, frowning, then stretched his arm to grab the next tree and pulled himself into it, landing soundlessly on the branch right above two oblivious pirates.

"Hahahh-haha!" the blond one cackled crazily, looking at his blue-haired friend. "Where did you even get that?"

That apparently was a large sword, sheathed in a black scabbard decorated with white crosses and a small piece of red rope.

"Boss Diamante said that they didn't need it and that I can have it," the guy with a sword replied giddily, before he grinned and pulled out a white fur hat with a black dot pattern along the rim all around it. "Together with this!"

Luffy tilted his head to the side, thinking. Those dots reminded him of the ones on Law's jeans. Could it be his? He chuckled quietly, imagining his new friend with that hat. Yeah, it would actually suit him.

He observed his targets for a bit longer, feeling his anger rising when they both tried the hat, cackling mockingly like crazy.

These two were pissing him off. They needed to disappear.

Luffy jumped into another tree and then down, landing gracefully on the ground in a crouch at the moderate distance behind the pirates. He waited for the right moment, and, once the blond was facing forward, his arm suddenly shot towards the blue-haired man. Steely fingers wrapped around the latter's neck and yanked him back, eliciting a terrified scream.

"Sarkies!" the blond yelled out in surprise after his companion had been dragged into the bushes.

Luffy winded his other arm and smashed the struggling man into the dirt, unconsciously inserting much more strength into his punch than was required. Needless to say, the guy wouldn't be waking up anytime soon after that, if at all.