Chapter Eighty-Four: I’m Sorry!!!
The slaughter was over.
Mord was gone too.
So there was no reason for Lafitte to remain at the scene.
Under the wary gazes of the many pirates, Lafitte strolled away at an unhurried pace.
After he had gone, one pirate said in a low voice, “Did you notice? Every crew member from the Abel Pirates died with their throats cut by Lafitte’s sword, yet there isn’t a speck of blood on Lafitte himself.”
“...”
“...”
Silence fell around them.
“I kept hearing people say that Flower Sword Abel’s thrusts were terrifying, that she could pierce a person with dozens of bleeding holes in a single second. But Usopp took her down with just three strikes...”
“Abel’s bounty was thirty-eight million, right?”
“Yes.”
“Three strikes...?”
“...”
“...”
Silence fell again.
After a moment, someone murmured, “Monsters. They’re both monsters.”
In the distance, atop a rooftop, Wolf Rat silently watched the corpse-strewn main street, now like a field of slaughter.
A leading gang of the underworld and the Abel Pirates, with a bounty exceeding fifty million, had actually been wiped out together.
The night wind was cool, coming from behind him and blowing toward the main street.
Yet even though the wind was moving forward, Wolf Rat seemed to catch the thick reek of blood drifting over from there.
A moment later, he laughed.
“Good. Truly good...”
“...”
Tatamu said nothing.
Wolf Rat laughed for quite a while before gradually settling down, then turned his head to look at Tatamu’s profile.
After some hesitation, he suddenly said, “Tatamu, leave Mad Hatter Town.”
“Why?”
Tatamu looked at him in confusion.
After a long silence, Wolf Rat said calmly, “Don’t ask why. Just listen to me. I won’t steer you wrong. Do you think I’d harm you?”
“Why?”
Tatamu insisted.
“I really...”
Wolf Rat slapped his forehead and sighed. “Stop asking. I’m not going to tell you anyway.”
“Fine.” Tatamu nodded. “I won’t ask.”
“Then are you leaving or not?”
“No.”
“...”
Wolf Rat’s eyelids twitched a few times.
“Tatamu, just this once, all right? Can you do what I say? As long as you don’t stay here, I don’t care where you go.”
“Wolf Rat.”
Tatamu looked at him and said earnestly, “I’m not leaving.”
Hearing the resolve in Tatamu’s tone, Wolf Rat could not help frowning.
“You’ll die, Tatamu.”
“Then...”
Tatamu’s gaze sharpened. “What about Usopp? Will he die too?”
Wolf Rat stared at him in surprise, and then his brow furrowed even more deeply.
Seeing his reaction, Tatamu no longer remained silent.
“Wolf Rat, I know you’re a Navy man.”
“...”
“The woman from that night was Navy too.”
“...”
“What are you plotting?”
“...”
“What exactly is Usopp’s background?”
“...”
Wolf Rat’s lips moved. After a long while, he said in silence, “He isn’t called Usopp.”
Tatamu was instantly stunned.
A certain alley five hundred yards from Wine Street.
Mord, covered in blood, walked into the alley.
From the shadows ahead, Sunny stepped out, fully armed.
Tonight, she had also been one of the support personnel.
However, with Sol there, she had no need to act.
So she had simply stayed here, watching Mord fight alone through a baptism of blood, not only destroying the gang and exacting revenge, but in the end also killing the rather famous Abel.
Sunny examined the wounds on Mord’s body closely, and after her gaze wandered for a moment, it finally came to rest on the crude lipstick mark on his face.
“Pervert.”
“???”
Mord, who had just entered the alley, looked utterly baffled.
“Pervert?”
“Mm. Pervert.”
“You’re calling me a pervert?”
“Mm. Pervert.”
“How am I a pervert?”
“Pervert.”
“...”
Mord was speechless.
Then at last he noticed where Sunny had been looking: the lipstick mark Abel had left behind.
“You mean this?”
Mord pressed a finger against the mark.
“Pervert.”
Sunny drooped her eyelids.
“All right, all right, I’m scared of you.”
Mord’s mouth twitched, and he wiped the mark away with his finger.
Come to think of it, why hadn’t he wiped it off right away back then?
Now that he thought about it, perhaps it had been because he had sensed some strange feeling in Abel’s final laugh?
Mord shook his head slightly.
The woman was already dead. Why think so much about it?
Seeing him erase the mark, Sunny shifted her attention to the wounds on his body.
“I brought medicine. Do you want me to treat you now, or should we wait until we get back to the shop?”
“No rush. First come with me somewhere.”
“Where?”
“The docks.”
Mord smiled faintly.
Ten minutes later, Mord and Sunny were racing toward the docks.
When they arrived, several deafening gunshots rang out from where the Abel Pirates’ ship was moored.
Farther away, from another location, came a dense volley of gunfire and the faint sound of fighting.
That direction was where the gang’s ships were docked.
Compared with the Abel Pirates’ vessel, the gang’s ship was obviously more valuable, but naturally many people would be fighting over it.
So Mord preferred to strip the Abel Pirates of their wealth instead.
Listening to the battle sounds drifting from nearby, Mord could not help but remark, “Once these bastards catch the scent of meat, they really do run faster than anyone.”
“Move it.”
Sunny urged him briskly, clearly anxious that all the spoils might be snatched away, and dashed ahead first.
Seeing that Sunny was even more eager than he was, Mord could only feel exasperated.
Soon the two of them reached the berth where the Abel Pirates’ ship was anchored, and fierce sounds of combat were coming from the deck.
“Sunny, maybe you should stay below?”
“Don’t underestimate me.”
“Fine. Then be careful.”
Mord nodded and, pushing off the ground, leapt straight onto the ship.
Sunny followed in the same way and landed on deck right behind him.
The two arrived one after the other.
By then, the battle on deck was nearly over.
The Abel Pirates’ members left behind to guard the ship simply could not withstand several packs of wolves converging as one.
Their annihilation was only a matter of time.
Mord and Sunny’s arrival immediately drew the attention of nearly a hundred people present.
They had assumed two more clever competitors had come to join the fray, but they never expected...
“It’s U-Usopp...!”
Seeing who had arrived, the pirates were dumbfounded.
It felt as though they had been caught in the act of stealing, only for the owner to suddenly appear.
And that owner was a man strong enough to slap them dead with ease.
“Why is he here...”
Every pirate on deck stared at Mord in terror.
Meeting the fearful gazes gathered upon him, Mord smiled and said, “Don’t mind me. Go on with your business.”
As he spoke, he pointed toward the remaining few members of the Abel Pirates.
“Aren’t there still a few left to deal with?”
“...”
The pirates gave awkward laughs at that and did not dare reply.
The atmosphere in the ship fell quiet for a moment.
“I’m sorry!!!”
Suddenly, one pirate shouted, then charged toward the edge of the deck like a sprinter out of the blocks.
In the next instant he became a high jumper, vaulting over the rail and landing on the dock before running off without looking back.
“I’m sorry!!!”
Once someone led the way, a chain reaction followed. One after another they apologized, then fled the ship like madmen.
Before long, only a few injured members of the Abel Pirates remained on deck.
Sunny first glanced at the pirates who had vanished in the blink of an eye, then looked at Mord’s profile.
“You were right. They really do run faster than anyone.”
“Heh.”
With a faint chuckle, Mord disposed of the remaining Abel Pirates members.
After that, he and Sunny began looting.
Elsewhere, at the berths where the gang’s ships were moored:
The deck and the dock alike were covered in corpses.
“How can there be nothing? Why is there nothing?!”
The victors who had fought their way through in blood looked into the hold, only to find not even a single stack of currency there, and their faces were full of disbelief.