Somewhere in the New World.
The weather was perfect today, and the Oro Jackson drifted calmly across the sea.
The door to the giant egg-shaped cabin was suddenly pushed open. Roger walked out, holding a jug of sake, and said:
"Still haven't run into a News Coo? It's already been three days. Did that bastard Shiki get beaten to death by Newgate or not? Does anyone know what happened on Linderland Island after we left?"
As soon as he said that, Roger noticed the strange behavior of Valthior and Doringo and asked in surprise:
"What are you two doing? An execution? Did Valthior commit some kind of serious crime?"
On the deck, Valthior sat beneath the mast with a serious expression. About ten meters in front of him, Doringo held Shanks in one arm and a short-barreled pistol in the other, the muzzle aimed directly at Valthior's head.
The moment Roger finished speaking, Doringo pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Black smoke puffed from the pistol as the bullet shot straight toward Valthior's forehead.
At that very moment, Valthior's Mangekyō ability activated instantly. The tomoe in his left eye rotated, and the bullet that should have struck his head vanished midway, leaving behind only a faint ripple in space.
"How fascinating!" Rayleigh said from the side, clearly impressed.
It's worth mentioning that Rayleigh was also holding a small kid in his arms—a boy with a bright red clown nose. His face still carried lingering fear, and traces of terror flickered in his eyes from time to time.
Three days ago, after the Roger Pirates withdrew from Linderland Island, they hadn't gone far before realizing that Sunbell hadn't boarded the ship.
The main reason was that Sunbell had only recently joined the crew, so everyone subconsciously forgot about him. By the time Roger gave the order to turn back and pick him up, the guy had already emerged from the sea on his own.
Not only that, he had been carrying an unconscious kid in his hand—the very same one now in Rayleigh's arms.
Valthior recognized him at a glance back then.
That iconic red nose—who else could it be but Buggy?
"Doesn't your life cry out!?"
Compared to the brat Shanks, Valthior genuinely liked Buggy more.
Sunbell explained that he had found Buggy in the water while chasing after the Oro Jackson. The kid had been on the verge of drowning. No one knew when he had fallen into the sea—probably a survivor from Linderland Island.
Kind-hearted as he was, Sunbell couldn't just leave him to die and brought the kid aboard.
At first, Roger and the others didn't know what to do with Buggy. In the end, Valthior was the first to speak up—saying that since they were already raising one kid, raising two wouldn't make much difference. Shanks needed a companion anyway, so they might as well keep him on the ship.
After some discussion, everyone felt it made sense. It wasn't a big deal anyway. If they could pick him up from the sea, and he had survived a place like Linderland Island, maybe it was fate.
In the end, Roger made the call as captain and decided to keep Buggy on board.
...
After erasing the bullet with his Shiji no Mikoto, Valthior immediately raised a hand.
"Stop, stop, stop. I've already reached my limit. This eye can only store four attacks at most."
As he spoke, he turned his left eye toward Roger and grinned.
"Spring..."
Before he could finish, a bullet suddenly appeared out of nowhere between Valthior and Roger, shooting straight toward Roger!
Roger was startled, but his instincts as a top-tier fighter kicked in instantly. With a slight shift of his footing, the bullet flew past him and plunged into the sea behind.
"Hey, bastard! Are you trying to assassinate your captain!?" Roger shouted angrily.
But his response was met with Valthior's remaining three calls—
"Summer. Autumn. Winter."
Three more bullets appeared and fired in succession. Roger dodged them smoothly while cursing:
"Didn't you say overusing that eye would mess up your vision? What are you doing messing around with it now? Trying to go blind!?"
"Hahaha, don't worry! I only absorbed bullets—it's not like they're anything dangerous. For my left eye, this barely puts any strain on it!" Valthior laughed and explained.
His left Mangekyō ability was called Shiji no Mikoto, a space-time type power.
On the surface, it looked somewhat similar to Kamui, but in reality, it was different.
Within his eye existed four suspended space-time slots—Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
Each could absorb one attack and store it, allowing Valthior to release them instantly whenever he wished.
Just now, he had absorbed four of Doringo's bullets and fired them back at Roger.
There was no denying the strength of this ability. In an intense battle, he could absorb an enemy's attacks outright—catching them off guard—and even counterattack with those same attacks.
However, it wasn't without limitations.
The stronger the attack, the greater the burden on Valthior when storing it within Shiji no Mikoto.
He had tested Rayleigh's slashes yesterday. He could absorb them too—but at most two. Any more than that, and the strain became overwhelming. He could feel his ocular power draining rapidly, forcing him to release the stored attacks as soon as possible.
Most likely, this limitation would increase as his own strength improved.
Gaban stepped forward at this moment, staring curiously at Valthior's Mangekyō Sharingan.
"The world really is strange… Are you even human? Those eyes of yours feel even more bizarre than Devil Fruit powers…"
There were indeed many special races in the world, like the Lunarians. As for unusual eyes, the only one Gaban could think of was the Three-Eye Tribe.
"Talent is something you can't envy. Just like the Neptune family can awaken the power of Poseidon—me, as a noble Celestial Dragon, awakening some incredible ability isn't that strange, right?" Valthior said smugly.
"The Mangekyō Sharingan really is incredible. But compared to that, I think your Conqueror's Haki is even more ridiculous," Rayleigh remarked from the side, still holding Buggy.
As soon as he said that, the others all nodded in agreement.
Conqueror's Haki wasn't rare on the Roger Pirates.
With just over twenty crew members, they already had three users—Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban.
Now, with Valthior, that made four.
Veteran crew members like Nozdon, Ganryu, and Spencer had all personally witnessed the awakenings of Roger and the others.
Roger's Conqueror's Haki was the strongest among them—but even when he first awakened it, it hadn't been as outrageous as Valthior's, who could directly clash with top-tier fighters right from the start.
So even for the Roger Pirates, who were long accustomed to Conqueror's Haki, Valthior's version still felt unbelievable.
"You guys are just one-in-a-million conquerors, but I'm more like one-in-a-hundred-million—" Valthior was just about to brag—
When Roger suddenly looked toward the distant sky and shouted:
"Stop your boasting, Lord Valthior . It's here, it's here! Quick, get the Berries ready. The News Coo is coming. Call it over! I want to see how those two bastards, Shiki and Newgate, settled things!"
Seeing everyone's attention instantly shift, Valthior twitched his lips slightly. Then he looked toward the News Coo flying in the distance—
Shiji no Mikoto, activate!
In the next instant, the satchel hanging from the News Coo's neck—along with the newspapers inside—vanished completely.
Roger froze for a moment. When he turned back—
Valthior was already sitting under the mast, pretending to read the newspaper in his hands.
"Isn't mugging a News Coo just another form of being a pirate?" Valthior smacked his lips, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
"Damn it, that ability of yours is way too convenient!" Roger slapped his thigh, clearly envious.
"Just don't actually go blind using it…" Gaban muttered from the side, equally jealous.
...
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