In the waters near Syrup Village—
Tina stared at the members of the Black Cat Pirates locked inside her Iron Cage and, for a moment, honestly did not know whether she should feel pleased or annoyed.
There was one thing she was absolutely sure of.
Both she and Vice Admiral Gion had been fooled by that so-called traveler, Kairo.
After wiping out the Black Cat Pirates in one sweep, she had interrogated Captain Kuro at once.
What she had not expected was that the moment the crew heard she had come here to capture the red rabbit, every last one of them lost control of their emotions and started cursing with even more passion than the Marines.
"Captain Tina, we really have nothing to do with that damned red rabbit!"
The instant Tina ended her Den Den Mushi call, one of the tightly bound pirates immediately began pleading, "To be honest, compared to you, we hate that red rabbit even more! If not for it, we never would've been caught by you in the first place!"
"Captain, give us a chance?" Sham, one of the Black Cat Pirates' combatants, raised his green-haired head and spoke with complete seriousness. "If you let us go, we're willing to make up for our crimes by helping you hunt down that damned red rabbit!"
Looking at this bunch of pirates, all of them even more worked up than she was, Tina almost wanted to laugh.
Of course, laughing was out of the question.
She was the cold, untouchable beauty of Marine Headquarters. How could she possibly lose her composure because of a gang of lawless pirates grieving over their own bad luck?
Just then, a warship entered the waters.
It was moving fast. In no time at all, the two ships were less than a few hundred meters apart.
On the deck of the approaching warship stood a fierce-looking middle-aged man with two cigars in his mouth. If not for the Marine coat draped over his shoulders, anyone seeing him would have mistaken him for some wandering sea thug.
The man with the two cigars was none other than Smoker, the newly appointed Marine captain in charge of Loguetown this year—the former Headquarters troublemaker who would go on to become East Blue's nightmare for pirates.
Quietly standing beside him was a tall young woman with glasses and a nearly perfect figure.
A long sword hung at her waist, and her expression carried that same faintly absent-minded softness as always.
Tashigi—Smoker's adjutant, a young swordswoman who looked gentle and harmless, yet had an almost obsessive love for collecting famous blades.
Behind the two of them, dozens of pirates were tied up and sprawled across the deck.
At the front of the group was none other than Alvida, captain of the Alvida Pirates.
Soon, the two warships pulled alongside each other.
"Tina, what is this…"
The moment he came over, Smoker spotted the pirates tied up on Tina's ship as well. Seeing that her haul was no smaller than his own, he simply leapt over and landed in front of her. Keeping both cigars in his mouth, he mumbled, "Looks like you did pretty well yourself."
Tina said nothing at first. Her eyes stayed fixed on the pirates aboard Smoker's warship, and her expression gradually turned strange.
"Smoker," she said at last, "don't tell me you were also tricked by some traveler into catching pirates."
"A traveler?" Smoker blinked, confused. "What traveler?"
Noticing from his reaction that he clearly had no idea who Kairo was, Tina dropped the subject for the moment and asked instead, "So none of the other warships have found any trace of the red rabbit either?"
Before Smoker could answer, one of the Black Cat Pirates suddenly raised his voice, his emotions spiraling out of control.
"Captain Tina, explain yourself! What do you mean, tricked by some traveler?!"
The moment those words came out, even the ever-calm Kuro twisted his head with difficulty to look at Tina.
Up until now, he had assumed Tina had appeared near Syrup Village because she was pursuing the red rabbit that had killed a Celestial Dragon, and had only stumbled across the Black Cat Pirates by accident.
But now, it was obvious that wasn't the case at all.
A traveler had lured her here.
For one brief moment, Kuro felt like his entire mind had split open on the spot.
He was Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates. Bounty: sixteen million beli. Known across the seas as "One Hundred Plans" Kuro.
And he had actually fallen because of some random traveler?
What drove him craziest of all was that he still didn't know who that traveler was, or even what he looked like.
Smoker, however, paid no attention to the Black Cat Pirates' reaction.
He walked over, sat down across from Tina in an easy, careless manner, and said irritably, "Don't even mention it. Ever since entering East Blue, we still haven't found the red rabbit. But we've caught plenty of pirates."
"I just spoke with Vice Admiral Momonga. His situation's the same as ours. Vice Admiral Onigumo too. I heard they've caught so many pirates they can barely hold them all. In the end, they had no choice but to temporarily stop searching for the red rabbit and send the prisoners to the nearest branch bases first."
Hearing that, Tina pressed a hand to her forehead and muttered to herself, "So where exactly did they run off to? Tina is very curious."
"I don't think we'll be finding them anytime soon," Smoker said, exhaling a cloud of smoke as his expression turned serious. "According to Vice Admiral Garp, the red rabbit has a dog at its side with teleportation-like abilities. If they deliberately hide and refuse to show themselves, then finding them will be like searching for a needle in the sea."
After a slight pause, Smoker suddenly changed the subject.
"By the way… that traveler you mentioned. What's that about?"
Tina did not hide anything. She simply gave him a brief account of how she had met Kairo.
Before Smoker could even process what he had heard, the Black Cat Pirates exploded first.
"So it was that damned traveler after all!"
"How could he bear to deceive such a beautiful Marine captain?!"
"Hey, that's not the main issue here!"
"That bastard traveler—if I ever meet him, I'll chop him into pieces and toss him into the sea for the fish!"
…
"Ah-choo!"
At the same time—
A certain traveler, by pure accident, had just entered the waters near Shimotsuki Village when he suddenly sneezed again.
"What the hell?"
Kairo stepped out from the cabin onto the deck, looked around, and muttered in confusion, "Why do I keep sneezing today? Don't tell me Da Hong and Droopy pulled something ridiculous again."
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