The sling came off on the tenth day.
Light stood on the deck under a sky that was raining boiling water on the port side and dropping soft, violet snow on the starboard. He rotated his shoulder. The bone had knit perfectly, accelerated by his Level 2 Life Return. He drew his saber, testing the weight in his right hand, slicing through a falling drop of boiling water before it hit the deck. Perfect.
The Grand Line, he had quickly learned, was not just an ocean. It was a filter.
Over the next three weeks, they followed the Log Pose through Paradise. Light didn't wait for pirates to attack them; he hunted. The Marine ship became a ghost on the magnetic currents, running down every black flag they spotted.
"Captain 'Iron-Mace' Doran," T-Bone read from his blood-spattered notebook, standing amidst the wreckage of a mid-sized galleon. "Thirty-two million berries. Paramecia-type, the Bira Bira no Mi. He could turn his body into paper."
Light flicked the blood off his saber. "Paper cuts easily."
The fight had lasted less than thirty seconds. Doran had thought he was invincible, turning his a few of his body parts into thousands of razor-sharp sheets of paper to swarm Light. He hadn't accounted for Force Authority. Light had simply repelled the air outward in a shockwave, scattering the paper man over the ocean, and then used Soru to close the distance the moment Doran reformed, driving a Haki-coated Shigan straight through the man's heart.
[ Doran — Pirate Captain ] [ Green: 400 / Red: 42,000 ]
[ Target Eliminated. 4,200 KP Acquired. ]
It's almost too easy, Light thought, keeping his expression entirely neutral as he watched the pirate captain's eyes roll back. In my old world, I had to hide in my room. I had to orchestrate heart attacks in the shadows while playing the perfect student. But here? They fly flags announcing their crimes. They wear their sins hovering right above their heads in bright red numbers. I can butcher them in broad daylight, and the World Government pays me for it. I am the law.
"Tarro," Light said smoothly, turning away from the corpse with a pleasant smile. "Secure the surviving prisoners. You know the drill."
"Yes, Major!" Tarro saluted, his posture stiff.
Light walked past the line of trembling pirates. He didn't say a word, just glanced at the numbers floating above their heads. He pointed at three men who registered under five thousand. "These three. Holding cells." He turned his back. "The rest resisted."
Tarro swallowed hard, but nodded. The Marines on the deck gripped their rifles.
None of them understood the criteria. The general consensus among the crew—whispered in the mess hall late at night—was that Major Yagami's Observation Haki was a terrifying, mutated thing. They thought he could literally "see" a man's soul. They didn't know about numbers or thresholds. To them, the Major just looked at a line of men, his pleasant smile never wavering, and his Haki judged them. If he walked past you, you were dead. It was an absolute, divine judgment that terrified the Marines almost as much as the pirates.
"Is there any food left on this stupid ship?" Bonney kicked a splintered mast, pouting. She had already raided the pirate's galley while the executions were happening behind her.
"Always thinking with your stomach, Bonney," Light chuckled warmly, patting her on the head.
Filth, Light thought, listening to the screams of the pirates being gunned down behind him. I will scrub this ocean clean until nothing is left but the people who deserve to live in my new world.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
Later that evening, Light stood over the navigation table in his quarters. T-Bone was charting their course, using a complex array of Log Poses and sea charts.
"The magnetic currents in this phase of the first half are highly volatile, Major," T-Bone explained, tracing a skeletal finger along a series of converging lines. "We are currently patrolling the standard routes. However, pirate activity tends to scatter when a highly active Marine vessel is in the sector. Word of your... efficiency... is spreading."
"They're running," Light mused. "Where do they run to?"
T-Bone sighed, a sound that rattled in his chest. He pointed to an island sitting at the intersection of several erratic currents.
"Jaya," T-Bone said, his tone dropping with distaste. "Specifically, a settlement on the western coast called Mock Town. It is a recognized lawless zone. The World Government officially ignores it. It's a hornet's nest, sir. Any pirate who survives the initial shock of the Grand Line eventually drifts there to resupply, recruit, and hide from Marine patrols. There are thousands of them."
Light stared at the dot on the map.
Thousands.
His heart gave a sudden, violent thud against his ribs. Thousands of them. An entire island populated exclusively by the dregs of society. A concentrated sinkhole of Bad Karma, conveniently gathered in one place, completely unprotected by the law.
Behind his calm, dark eyes, Light's mind spiraled into a manic, calculating frenzy.
If each one averages even a fraction of what I've seen... that's millions of KP. Millions. Enough to max out my physical arts. Enough to push my Haki to heights these Admiral lapdogs could only dream of. I don't have to hunt them one by one. I just have to close the door.
"A hornet's nest," Light repeated, a very slow, very warm smile spreading across his face.
T-Bone shifted uncomfortably. He had come to recognize that specific smile. "Sir. Protocol dictates we bypass it. A single ship cannot besiege Mock Town. It would be suicide."
"You're right, T-Bone. We aren't going to Mock Town. Not yet."
Light tapped the map, drawing an invisible circle around the sea routes leading away from Jaya.
"We change our patrol routes. We don't chase them randomly anymore. We sweep the outer perimeters. We burn their outposts. We sink every ship trying to navigate the surrounding islands." Light looked up, his voice the picture of Marine dedication. "If we press them hard enough on the outer routes, they'll retreat to the only place they feel safe."
I'll terrorize them, Light thought, his internal voice practically trembling with excitement. I'll become the monster in the dark. I will make the Grand Line so suffocatingly dangerous that they will flock to Mock Town like sheep to a pen. Let them gather. Let them drink and laugh and think they've escaped the reaper.
He looked back at the map, his smile perfectly serene.
"We'll spend the next few months securing the surrounding sectors," Light said cheerfully. "Let's get to work."
T-Bone saluted, unaware he was looking at a man who had already mentally condemned an entire island to death. "Understood, Major."