Several hundred deaths on his head.
More than a hundred royals from an entire kingdom killed.
A Celestial Dragon dead too.
And the culprit behind all of that was… a rabbit?
Do I look that easy to fool?
No, that had to be it.
He was starving so badly he was hallucinating.
Thinking that, Zoro stopped looking at Droopy and Da Hong altogether and rubbed his eyes hard.
"You're not hallucinating, kid."
As if he could read Zoro's thoughts, Droopy spoke up at once, his tone as unhurried as ever.
"Come on. Work with us. We'll both make a fortune."
"You're insane!"
Hearing Droopy speak again, Zoro's eyes flew wide open. He pointed at Da Hong, who was still leaning under the tree polishing his canvas sneaker, and roared, "You're telling me that rabbit has hundreds of deaths on his hands? What kind of joke is that? And you expect me to believe he wiped out over a hundred members of a royal family too? Do you take me for an idiot?"
Droopy nodded thoughtfully.
"You do look a little foolish. That's exactly why I picked you." He paused, then added with complete seriousness, "And yes, he also killed a Celestial Dragon."
"..."
Zoro took a deep breath, barely restraining the urge to beat Droopy on the spot.
Then he turned and left without another word.
"Kid, think about it!"
The instant Zoro turned around, Droopy flashed forward and appeared right in front of him, expression earnest.
"If that doesn't work, we can split it fifty-fifty. Five hundred million, you know~"
"I'm leaving."
Zoro could not be bothered arguing anymore. The moment he threw out those two words, he burst into motion, sprinting away like a gust of wind. In the blink of an eye, he was already over a hundred meters away.
Even Droopy could not help giving him an approving nod.
"A rabbit with a five-hundred-million-beli bounty?"
After escaping the forest at full speed, Zoro glanced at the town ahead, faintly visible in the distance, then looked back toward the woods where Droopy and Da Hong remained.
He could not help muttering, "Do I really look that stupid?"
"Kid…"
Droopy's voice drifted out of the forest at exactly the wrong moment.
"..."
The sound of that calm, maddening voice sent a chill down Zoro's spine.
Without hesitating, he exploded forward again, charging toward the town ahead as fast as he could.
It did not take long for him to reach the streets.
People passed by in a steady stream. Shops and restaurants lined the roads. The moment Zoro saw them, his stomach growled violently.
He was just about to find a noodle shop or anything that sold food when a very familiar voice floated over from across the street.
"Kid, have you thought it over?"
Zoro froze.
He looked up.
There was Droopy.
At some point, the dog had somehow appeared beside the entrance of a noodle shop across from him, holding a newspaper in both paws and tilting his head toward him.
Zoro's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.
"You—how are you even faster than me?!"
Before the words had fully left his mouth, that same eerie dread swallowed him again.
In the very next second, he turned and bolted down another street.
This time, he ran even faster than before. In barely the span of a blink, he was gone from that road entirely and had reappeared at the entrance of another street at least a kilometer away.
"What the hell is wrong with that dog?!"
After sprinting all the way there in one breath, Zoro looked back shakily. When he saw that Droopy had not followed, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Then he turned back—
"!!!"
Zoro jumped as if struck by lightning, staring in disbelief at the figure in front of him.
Droopy had somehow made things even worse.
Not only was he already there, reading the newspaper as calmly as before, he had even found a little stool and was seated on it with perfect elegance.
Before Zoro could recover, Droopy lifted his gaze and repeated, "Kid, have you thought it over?"
"Thought over my foot!"
Zoro glared at him furiously.
"Who the hell are you? Why do you keep showing up in front of me every single time?!"
"That's because—"
The instant Droopy began to answer, Zoro spun around and took off again, this time running at twice his previous speed toward yet another street.
"Damn it! Did I run into some kind of ghost dog?!"
"But why is he sticking to me?!"
As he ran, Zoro's thoughts raced just as fast.
He rapidly sorted through everything that had happened since leaving Shimotsuki Village.
From the moment he departed until he drifted into the waters near Shells Town, he had not encountered a single pirate ship.
Not one.
He had not even seen a merchant vessel.
Getting through two full days at sea without running into pirates was one thing.
But not seeing a single merchant ship either?
That was much harder to explain.
Just then, two young men stepped out of a noodle shop up ahead.
"That red rabbit still hasn't been caught yet!"
"Hah! That means we still have a chance! A five-hundred-million-beli bounty! We just have to find that rabbit before the Marines do!"
"Oh, come on. The Marines sent an admiral, several Headquarters vice admirals, and every branch in East Blue, and even they still haven't found it. What are two bounty hunters like us supposed to do?"
"That's not the point! The criminal's a rabbit, right? And where do rabbits like to go? Forests, fields, places like that. Come on, let's start searching around Shells Town today. Maybe that five hundred million will drop straight into our laps!"
"You know what? That actually makes sense. Let's go!"
The moment Zoro heard their conversation, he abruptly stopped.
Then every hair on his body stood on end.
Partly because of what the two bounty hunters had just said—
and partly because that damned dog had appeared in front of him again.
"Y-You…"
Seeing Droopy standing there yet again, Zoro felt his whole mind go numb. He stammered and shouted, "Don't come any closer!"
Then he turned and ran again without even thinking.
And so it went, over and over.
Every time Zoro fled to a new place, Droopy would already be there waiting for him, as though he could predict exactly where Zoro intended to go next.
The truly maddening part was that Zoro's legs were on the verge of breaking. He was so exhausted he could barely even shout anymore.
Yet Droopy looked perfectly fine.
No heavy breathing. No fatigue. No frustration.
He just kept appearing gracefully at every place Zoro arrived, calm and elegant every single time.
At last, after running until his sense of direction was completely gone, Zoro staggered into a narrow alley.
The way ahead was a dead end.
There was no sign of Droopy behind him either.
Zoro finally let out a breath of relief and slid down against the wall, collapsing into a seated position.
And the moment he sat down, a devilish voice drifted from directly above him.
"Droopy awaits the bounty hunter chosen by fate!"
"Pfft—"
Hearing that voice from overhead, Zoro almost coughed up blood on the spot.
His face went blank with despair.
"I'm done. Just destroy everything already. Hurry up."
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