Bullet opened the bag. Inside was a sword.
Not an ordinary steel blade, but a finely crafted long sword, its scabbard inlaid with simple gemstones. The hilt was wrapped in leather, fitting smoothly and comfortably into the hand.
"Captain Roger gave me this as my first sword."
Shanks said,
"It is not a named blade, but it handles really well.
Now that I have a new one, I am giving this to you, Mr. Bullet."
Bullet drew the sword.
The blade gleamed coldly in the morning light, clearly maintained with great care.
He gave it a few experimental swings. The weight was just right, the balance perfect.
"Thank you."
He said.
Shanks nodded, fell silent for a while, then suddenly spoke.
"Buggy cried last night."
Bullet's movements paused.
"That guy is cowardly and greedy, but he actually cares a lot about people."
Shanks laughed softly, his eyes turning a little red.
"Old John too, he got drunk and kept mumbling your name.
The chef said that from now on there will be no one who can eat that much of his cooking."
He took a deep breath and looked straight at Bullet.
"So... you have to live.
No matter what you run into, you have to stay alive.
We still have to meet again in the future."
Bullet slid the sword back into its scabbard and nodded solemnly.
"I promise."
The two of them stood there for a while longer, neither speaking.
The harbor was slowly waking up.
From the distance came the shouts of vendors opening their stalls and the calls of fishing crews as their boats put out to sea.
In the end, Shanks slapped Bullet hard on the shoulder.
"Go on, then!"
He turned and ran toward the Oro Jackson without looking back.
Bullet watched him leave, then stepped onto the speedboat.
He untied the mooring ropes and raised the sail.
The morning wind was just right, filling the gray canvas and pushing the boat forward.
The speedboat eased away from the pier and glided toward the open sea.
By the time the ship passed out of the harbor, the sun was just rising over the horizon.
Golden light pierced the morning mist, illuminating all of Jaya and the small vessel moving farther and farther out to sea.
Standing at the bow, Bullet turned back one last time.
The Oro Jackson was clearly visible under the sunlight.
The deck was crowded with people, every crew member already up, gathered along the rail and waving toward him.
He saw Roger, standing at the highest point, laughing loudly as he raised his cup of wine.
He saw Rayleigh, standing quietly side by side, nodding at him.
He saw Shanks, the red-haired boy swinging his arms with all his strength.
He saw Buggy, the red nose waving one hand while wiping away his tears with the other.
He saw Old John, the chef, and every familiar face he had come to know.
Bullet lifted his hand and gave them a final wave.
Then he turned away.
He faced the vast, boundless sea.
The speedboat rode the wind and waves, heading into the unknown.
Behind him, the Oro Jackson grew smaller and smaller, until it finally shrank to a tiny black dot on the horizon, then vanished completely.
Lonely?
A little.
But more than that... was freedom.
From this moment on, he was no longer anyone's crewman, no longer anyone's student, no longer anyone's comrade.
He was Douglas Bullet.
The black dragon that devours all.
The great pirate with a bounty of five hundred million.
The legend that was about to resound throughout the New World.
Bullet took out the Eternal Pose from inside his clothes.
The pointer began to glow, and a first point of light appeared on its surface, marking his current location.
He unfolded the sea chart Roger had given him under the morning sun.
On the parchment, special markings were scattered like stars across the map.
He quickly located the island closest to Jaya.
Good.
That would be his first destination.
Bullet adjusted his course, and the speedboat carved a white wake across the surface of the sea.
The wind grew stronger, the boat grew faster, and he felt as if he were flying.
Inside his body, the black core throbbed steadily, sending refined energy surging through his limbs.
Dragon scales seemed to heat faintly beneath his skin, and dark golden patterns flickered in and out of sight under the sunlight.
He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath of the sea breeze.
Salty, fishy, yet filled with the taste of freedom.
When he opened his eyes again, the scarlet slit pupils were burning with a fire unlike anything before.
It was not rage, not madness, but the purest hunger for strength and for truth.
He would devour every strong foe in the New World.
He would uncover the secret of the Void Century.
He would stand at the very summit of this world.
And then,
he would devour this world.
The speedboat raced across the sea, its bow slicing the waves and spraying white foam into the air.
The sunlight grew fiercer, and the surface of the ocean reflected a golden brilliance, like a road paved with pure gold stretching endlessly ahead.
Bullet stood at the bow, his hair whipping wildly in the wind.
Behind him, his reflection on the water shifted faintly.
It was no longer a simple human silhouette, but the fleeting phantom of a vast black dragon spreading its wings, appearing for a heartbeat before fading, as if his soul and that dragon had completely merged into one.
He clenched his fist, feeling the surging power roaring inside him.
Feeling the faint warmth of the silver coin against his chest.
Feeling the endless possibilities that lay before him.
Then, toward the boundless sea, toward the coming new era, toward the path he had chosen for himself, he made a quiet declaration.
"My era..."
The words were not loud, yet they cut through the wind as if they were meant for the entire ocean to hear.
Chapter 61: Silence Before the Blood Hook
By the time Jaya Island had shrunk to a faint gray line on the horizon, Bullet finally let go of the helm.
With the wind at its back, the single-masted speedboat sailed on its own, the bow slicing through the calm surface of the sea and leaving behind a slowly fading white wake.
All around, there was nothing but the sound of waves and the whisper of the wind.
No Roger's booming laughter.
No Rayleigh's steady guidance.
No Shanks picking fights.
No rowdy voices of crewmates filling the deck.
Absolute silence.
Bullet leaned against the rail and took the silver coin out from inside his clothes.
It was a coin that carried history.
Now, it belonged to him.
He slipped the coin back over his neck, wearing it close to his chest.
The cool metal pressed against his skin with a clear, distinct sensation, like a silent anchor that reminded him where he came from and where he was headed.
He stepped into the cabin and began taking stock of everything he had for this solo voyage.
First, supplies.
The food the chef had packed for him was enough to last a month. The freshwater tank was full. Spare canvas and ropes were stacked neatly in one corner.
The treasure he had taken as his share from Carl's hoard was divided into three waterproof pouches, each hidden in a different secret compartment in the cabin.
Next was equipment.
The sword Shanks had given him hung on the cabin wall, with the steel blade he had bought for himself mounted beside it.
Two sets of training clothes and one set of casual clothes were folded and stored away.
Then came the key items.
He opened the iron box and took out the rubbing.
The leather-like sheet looked even older in the dim light of the cabin.
Those mysterious characters seemed to come alive, faintly shifting and flowing across the surface of the paper.
Bullet tried infusing Observation Haki into it, wanting to sense more information.
This time, the rubbing reacted in a way he had not expected.
Hum...
A faint golden halo spread across the surface of the sheet.
The characters that had been still moments before began to rearrange themselves, forming a hazy pattern.
It looked like a map, marked with several strange symbols.
One of those symbols, Bullet had seen a similar mark on Roger's sea chart.
"South Blue... Crescent Bay?"
The image lasted for only three seconds before it faded, and the rubbing returned to its original appearance.
But Bullet had already memorized that location.
He quickly unfolded the sea chart Roger had given him and carefully searched through the South Blue.
There it was.
Crescent Bay, located slightly west of central South Blue, a natural harbor shaped like a curved moon.
Roger's note beside it was brief.
"A natural harbor, but there are undercurrents beneath the surface, enter with caution."
Yet the reaction from the rubbing proved that the place was far from being just another ordinary port.
Bullet put the rubbing away.
To reach South Blue, he would first have to cross the Paradise half of the Grand Line, then either pass through the canal beneath the Red Line or find some other route.
This would not be an easy journey, especially for someone sailing alone.
However, Bullet was in no hurry.
He had time, and he had patience.
Before heading to South Blue, he needed to gather more strength on the Grand Line and devour more "prey."
The speedboat kept moving forward.
Around midday, the first other ship appeared on the sea.
It was a two-masted pirate ship, flying a flag marked with a blood-dripping iron hook.
The same crew as the three pirates he had met in the junk district of Jaya.
The hull bore obvious marks of repair, proof it had recently gone through a battle.
They spotted Bullet's speedboat as well and immediately changed course to approach.
Bullet stood at the bow, calmly watching their ship draw nearer.
Within the radius of his Observation Haki, he sensed around forty people on board, three of them with relatively stronger auras.
The rest were just ordinary pirates.
"Hey! Small boat!"
A hoarse voice blared out through a speaking trumpet.
"Stop right there!"
Bullet did not answer, and he did not slow down.
The speedboat continued on at its original pace.
The pirate ship was clearly provoked. It sped up, then swung around to block his path about thirty meters ahead.
The deck was packed with pirates brandishing weapons.
At the front stood a one-eyed brute with two curved blades hanging from his waist.
"Kid, you deaf?"
The one-eyed man grinned viciously.
"I am the first mate of the Blood Hook Pirates.
If you know what is good for you, hand over everything valuable, and I might leave you a whole corpse."
Bullet finally lifted his head and looked at him.
In his scarlet slit pupils there was no trace of emotion, only a cold, measuring gaze.
He was calculating.
This ship, these forty men, how much "food" could they provide?
The conclusion was: very little.
Devouring ordinary pirates yielded almost no energy, and it would contaminate the purity of his own.
"Move."
Bullet spoke at last.
His voice was not loud, but it carried clearly across the water to the other ship.
The one-eyed brute froze, then flew into a rage.
"You are asking for it!"
He slashed his hand down.
"Fire!"
Flames burst from the side cannons, and three cannonballs shrieked through the air toward the speedboat.
Bullet did not even bother to transform into his dragon form.
Chapter 62: Blood Hook Falls
He simply raised his right hand. Armament Haki wrapped around it, then he swung forward.
Three jet black blades of compressed air shot from his fingertips, meeting the cannonballs with perfect precision.
The air blades sliced cleanly through the shells, scattering the gunpowder inside. The cannonballs turned into duds and splashed uselessly into the sea.
The one-eyed brute's pupils shrank.
Before he could even react, Bullet was already moving.
He leaped from the speedboat, crossing the thirty meters of sea in a single bound, landing lightly on the enemy deck as if he weighed nothing at all.
"A m... monster..."
Some pirate muttered under his breath.
Bullet swept his gaze across the deck and locked onto the three strongest presences:
the one-eyed brute, a lanky gunner, and a burly man hefting a massive battle-axe.
"Come together."
He said,
"It will save time."
The three exchanged a glance, then attacked simultaneously.
The one-eyed brute crossed his twin blades in a vicious slash, the edges faintly coated in Armament Haki.
The lanky gunner fired from the side, his bullets also wrapped in Haki.
The axe wielder brought his giant weapon down from the front, the strongest in raw power, but clearly the slowest.
A textbook pincer attack.
To Bullet, it was far too slow.
Within the analytical field of his Observation Haki, their movements were broken down into countless frozen frames.
The order of muscle contraction, the paths along which Haki flowed, the minute deviations in their angles of attack...
All of it was calculated in an instant.
He turned his body slightly, letting the twin blades pass by.
He lifted his hand and caught the incoming bullet between two fingers.
Armament Haki on his fingers met the Armament Haki on the bullet, producing a soft metallic chime.
Then he stepped forward.
Bullet's shoulder slammed into the chest of the axe wielder.
Crack.
The sound of ribs breaking.
The big man spat blood and was sent flying, smashing through the railing and plunging into the sea.
The one-eyed brute's face drained of color. He tried to change his stance.
But Bullet's left hand was already pressing down on the back of his blade.
Devour activated.
Not to devour life force this time, but the weapon itself.
The steel of the curved sword began to "rust" at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Within two seconds, the blade had turned into a handful of iron dust that slipped from the one-eyed brute's hand and scattered to the deck.
[Devour: Refined steel × 1.2 kg]
[Conversion: Basic material energy × 3 units]
[Efficiency extremely low, halting process]
As expected, ordinary metal was not worth devouring.
The one-eyed brute stared dumbly at his empty hands.
The lanky gunner was still firing in panic, but Bullet batted each bullet aside with casual swipes.
The fight ended in under five seconds.
When Bullet turned his gaze on the remaining pirates, their will to fight had already collapsed.
They looked at the corpses of their first mate, their gunner, and the fallen axe wielder.
"Run... run for it!"
Someone screamed, and the pirates scattered in terror, some even jumping straight into the sea.
Bullet did not chase.
He walked up to a burly man who had fallen on his backside and could not even stand.
"I ask, you answer."
He said,
"Answer well, you live.
Answer poorly, you die."
The man bobbed his head frantically.
"The Blood Hook Pirates," Bullet asked, "which seas do you mainly operate in?"
"T... the border between South Blue and Paradise..." the man stammered,
"Sometimes we come into the first half of the Grand Line too..."
"Have you heard of the Oliventa family?"
The man froze, a flicker of fear flashing through his eyes.
"I... I have... a family of scholars in South Blue. Three years ago they were... they were 'cleaned up'."
"'Cleaned up'?"
Bullet narrowed his eyes.
"By who?"
"I... I do not know..." The man's voice trembled. "All I heard was that in a single night, the whole family was gone.
Some people said they saw men in white suits..."
The World Government's CP agents.
Bullet confirmed it in his mind.
"Any news of survivors from the Oliventa family?"
"N... none... who would dare go asking about something like that..."
The man swallowed hard.
"But... I did hear that there have been strange things happening in South Blue lately."
"What kind of strange?"
"On some islands... people are just disappearing."
"Not killed, not captured, just... gone."
"No traces left behind at all, like they never existed."
"Some people say... it is the work of the 'Ghost Shadow'."
Ghost Shadow...
Bullet filed away the name.
He stood up, ready to leave.
The man let out a shaky sigh of relief, but Bullet added one more line.
"This ship is mine now."
"W... what?"
Bullet said,
"I do not like repeating myself."
The man did not dare argue. He hurriedly shouted at the remaining crew to lower the lifeboats.
Two minutes later, the survivors of the Blood Hook Pirates were paddling away in small boats, fleeing into the distance, while the two-masted ship became Bullet's spoils.
He inspected the vessel.
It was a bit old, but far larger than his speedboat, and not slow at all.
More importantly, it had enough space to store ample supplies... and to one day house a future crew.