Volume5 : The Devil Unmasked
The mansion was a tomb of polished wood and suffocating silence. Klahadore adjusted his glasses, the specially crafted frames that kept his posture perfectly straight without effort. Across from him, a servant prattled on about the next day's menu.
"—and Miss Kaya requested a lighter broth for lunch, sir, given her delicate—"
"The moon," Klahadore interrupted, his voice a low, unfamiliar rasp.
The servant blinked. "Sir?"
Klahadore turned from the window, his eyes fixed on the sliver of crescent moon hanging like a claw-mark in the night sky. "It makes me wild."
A chill, sharp and sudden, slithered down the servant's spine. "M-Master Klahadore?"
"All these years," Klahadore whispered, a smile twisting his lips—a cruel, alien expression on his usually placid face. "The bowing. The 'yes, miss Kaya.' The endless, *endless* politeness." He removed his glasses, holding them up to the moonlight. "Do you know what these are? A cage. A leash."
He closed his fist. The lenses shattered with a sickening crunch, glass dust sprinkling the Persian rug.
The servant stumbled back. "You've cut yourself!"
Klahadore opened his hand, letting the mangled frames fall. Not a single drop of blood marred his skin. "A small price. For freedom." His gaze lifted, and the servant saw it—the devil lurking behind the butler's eyes. "My present to myself arrives with the dawn. This mansion. This fortune. This *island*."
"You're… you're not well, sir. Let me fetch the doctor—"
"The doctor is part of the package," Klahadore chuckled, the sound dry as dead leaves. He reached into the leather bag at his feet. "Why pretend any longer? The charade ends in a few hours."
His hand emerged. Not with a handkerchief or ledger, but with three cruel, curved blades that gleamed wickedly in the low light. Cat claws. He slid them onto his fingers with a practiced, terrifying grace.
"My employer prefers the name 'Kuro of a Hundred Plans'," he said, flexing his newly-armed hand. The blades whispered through the air. "But you… you can just call me your death."
The servant's scream died in his throat as Kuro moved—a blur of black and silver.
---
**Aboard the *Lady of Peril*, Black Cat Pirate Ship**
A boot connected with Jango's bunk.
"Up, hypno-trash! The Captain's timeline's moved. We go in three hours."
Jango groaned, the remnants of a dream about dancing meatballs dissolving. He rolled out, his trademark reverse-shuffle already in motion as he walked backwards out of his quarters. The ship hummed with grim purpose—the whetstone scrape of cutlasses, the click of flintlocks being loaded.
"Three hours," Jango muttered to himself, his hypnotic pendulum already swinging from his fingers in a nervous rhythm. "The boss gets impatient under the crescent moon."
---
**On the Wrong Cliff**
Usopp wiped sweat from his brow, admiring the long, slick slope of oil they'd poured leading down to the village. "Perfect! They'll slide right into our trap!"
Nami eyed the greasy path with distaste. "This had better work. My boat is parked at the cove. If a single pirate scratches the paint…"
"Relax!" Usopp puffed his chest out. "With Captain Usopp's brilliant strategy and my eight thousand loyal men—"
"You have three children," Zoro deadpanned, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed.
"—we will be victorious! Now we wait for the dawn and the Black Cat Pirates!"
Dawn broke, painting the sky in hues of blood and gold.
At the mansion, Kuro, now clad in dark, fitted clothing, slipped silent as a shadow into Kaya's bedchamber, his clawed hand hovering over the sleeping girl's throat.
At the coastline, Jango and a horde of snarling pirates rowed ashore, their eyes fixed on the unsuspecting village.
At the cliffside trap, Usopp's triumphant grin faded.
The sea below was empty.
No ships. No pirates. Just lapping, innocent waves.
A cold, dawning horror gripped Usopp's heart. "The… the map," he stammered, fumbling with a crumpled parchment. "The coastline… there's *two* ports."
Nami snatched it from him. Her face paled. "You idiot! We're at the *north* cove! The pirates are landing at the *south* cove! That's where all the boats are! That's where my treasure is!"
Panic, sharp and electric, shattered their preparations.
"The layout's the same!" Usopp cried, a desperate hope in his voice. "The south cove is only three minutes that way! We can reset the trap!"
"Three minutes is all they need to start looting!" Nami shrieked. "My gold!"
Luffy, who had been stretching lazily, snapped to attention. "Pirates are at the other place?" He took off like a cannonball—in the exact opposite direction, toward the village.
"Luffy, wrong way!" Usopp yelled, but the rubberman was already a speck in the distance.
"Useless!" Nami hissed, sprinting for the correct path. In her blind fury, her foot hit the oil-slicked slope.
"Wha—AAH!"
She slid, arms pinwheeling. With a thief's instinct, she grabbed the nearest anchor—Zoro's arm.
"Hey—!"
Using him as leverage, she launched herself off the oil and onto solid ground, sprinting away without a backward glance. Zoro, now standing directly on the greased path, felt his boots lose all purchase.
He slid down several feet, arms crossed, his expression one of profound, simmering rage.
"I," he vowed, his voice low and deadly as he struggled for balance on the slippery incline, "am going to kill that woman."
Usopp and the kids looked at their trapped swordsman, then at the direction of the real battle.
"Go!" Zoro growled. "I'll catch up!"
They ran, hearts pounding, toward the sound of distant chaos.
---
**South Cove**
Usopp arrived first, lungs burning. The scene was a nightmare brought to life. Pirates swarmed the beach, already hauling crates from the village stores. Nami's beautiful boat, the *Merry*, was surrounded.
Without thinking, Usopp raised his slingshot. *Ping! Thwack!*
A pirate clutching a jewelry box dropped like a stone, a hard seed embedded in his forehead.
"Stop!" Usopp yelled, voice trembling but loud. "You're under attack by Captain Usopp and his… his mighty army!"
The pirates turned. A sea of cruel, grinning faces.
Jango stepped forward, his pendulum swinging. "An army? I see one long-nosed liar." He smirked. "Put him down, boys. The Captain wants the village quiet."
Usopp backed up, loading another pellet. He was outnumbered fifty to one. Zoro was stuck on a greasy hill. Luffy was lost. Nami was gods-know-where, probably saving her own skin.
He was alone.
---
**The Mansion**
In Kaya's sun-drenched room, a beam of light fell across her face. She stirred, blinking sleepily.
And saw a figure standing over her.
Not Klahadore. A stranger with sharp, predatory eyes and metal claws that glinted at his fingertips.
"Good morning, Miss Kaya," Kuro said, his voice silk over steel. "Time to sign over your fortune. And your life."
He raised his clawed hand.
---
**The Greasy Slope**
Zoro had managed to sit down, slowly inching his way off the oil like a grumpy, landlocked crab. The sounds of battle from the south cove were getting louder.
---
**The Village Outskirts**
Luffy skidded to a halt, looking at the perfectly peaceful, pirate-free streets. "Huh? Usopp said there'd be a fight here."
---
**The South Cove**
A pirate lunged at Usopp. He dodged, the cutlass whistling past his ear. He fired his slingshot point-blank. The pirate yowled.
But two more grabbed him from behind, wrenching his arms back. The slingshot fell into the sand.
Jango loomed before him, pendulum swinging. "Look into the spiral, little liar. When you wake up, you'll be our willing slave."
The spiral turned. Hypnotic. Inescapable.
Usopp fought to look away, but his eyes were locked. His muscles went slack. The world began to fade into a swirling, obedient gray.
*This is it*, he thought, despair flooding him. *I've failed. Kaya. The village. My own lies… they finally caught up with me.*
Through his fading vision, he saw a new figure arrive at the top of the coastal path. Nami. She took in the scene—Usopp captured, pirates everywhere, her boat being ransacked.
Their eyes met.
For a heartbeat, Usopp saw the calculation flash across her face—the thief's cold math of risk versus reward. Save the long-nosed boy, or save the treasure?
Nami's gaze flicked to the *Merry*, overrun with pirates. Then back to him.
She turned away.
And vanished into the tree line, heading straight for her gold.
The last of Usopp's hope extinguished. The spiral claimed him, and his world went dark.
Jango smiled. "One down." He looked toward the village, where smoke was beginning to rise. "Now, for the rest."
The cliffhanger hung in the salty air, thick with betrayal and defeat: Usopp was a prisoner of his own mind, Zoro was immobilized, Luffy was lost, Nami had chosen treasure over a friend, and Kuro's claws were poised over Kaya's throat.
The Black Cat Pirates had already won.