Upon hearing the leader of the warship was a Marine Headquarters Captain, Tom immediately thought of a certain silver-haired smoke-wielding fellow.
Since the other party was from Marine Headquarters, and Tom was in a hurry to get to Alabasta, he didn't want to get entangled with them. Although he wanted to leave immediately, the people on this ship who hadn't jumped overboard to escape were already beaten down by him, unable to get up.
Tom truly couldn't manage to operate a sailing ship larger than the Going Merry by himself. Add to that the incoming warship continuously firing cannons at him... he was already stretched thin just blocking the incoming cannonballs, with no time to sail the ship away.
While using his fishing rod to knock down the incoming cannonballs one by one, Tom was very puzzled. Logically, those on the opposing warship should have realized he was the only one still moving on this ship. If those Marines were after the Baroque Works members, why weren't they pursuing the other fleeing ships, instead continuing to come here? It made no sense.
Could it be... the Marines' target isn't Baroque Works, but me?
Tom's thoughts raced. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Very quickly, the warship arrived alongside Tom's ship. The two large sailing vessels collided hard with a loud groaning crash, causing the ship to rock violently.
After steadying himself, Tom saw many Marines had already boarded from the warship, surrounding him.
When the woman with light pink long hair walked over, the surrounding Marines automatically made way for her.
With a Marine-issued coat draped over her shoulders and wearing a deep red women's tight-fitting suit and trousers, every step she took made a crisp tap-tap sound.
When she reached Tom, this woman, who exuded an unusual mature aura, pushed the sunglasses on her forehead up. She looked at Tom with her sharp eyes that held a hint of cold light, then very calmly lit a cigarette for herself.
Her gloved hands moved naturally and efficiently to light the cigarette, without a single unnecessary movement. Wisps of faint white smoke rose from the lit cigarette, making her delicate, pretty face look somewhat hazy. With the cigarette dangling from her sensual red lips, she suddenly spoke.
"Hina asks you... are you the 'Trick-Eye Hunter' with a thirty-million Berry bounty?"
"You... you actually have a thirty-million Berry bounty? So... these Marines are here for you?"
The Baroque Works Billion-Fold agent lying nearby, whom Tom had grabbed earlier for questioning, struggled to lift his head, looking at Tom with a face full of astonishment. At the same time, he was cursing internally: This guy who fell from the sky is a World Government target? And he brought the Marines here, dragging our whole ship down with him? What awful luck!
"Nope. You've got the wrong person."
Ignoring the half-dead Billion-Fold agent's words, Tom answered Hina without a second thought, very dishonestly. He was still thinking: I wonder if, in a fight, I'd beat her to death first, or she'd finish me off.
"Hina knows... you're just making pointless pretenses."
Hina took a light drag from her cigarette. "Hina's two new subordinates... have a very deep impression of you."
Two subordinates?
Just as Tom was wondering who the two subordinates the female Captain mentioned were, two guys wearing Marine caps walked out from the crowd.
"Beautiful Captain Hina! Whenever you need us, we will definitely appear by your side!"
"Yes! Beneath your peerless beauty, we are willing to be your humble servants!"
The two guys who stepped out from the crowd, in front of everyone, went down on one knee, both looking at Hina with admiration on their faces.
Did they catch Sanji's idiot disease?
Tom stared dumbfounded at the two unabashedly declaring their love for Hina in public, this thought popping into his head.
To be fair, Hina was indeed very good-looking. Tall and with a striking figure, as a Marine Headquarters Captain and an extremely capable commander who could calmly command eight warships in an encirclement operation, her abilities were quite renowned even within the elite-gathered Marine Headquarters. Compared to ordinary mature women, having dealt with vicious pirates for years, she exuded an additional air of authoritative coldness. She could be called a woman with unique charm.
But Tom was in no mood to care about how beautiful she was. He was feeling extremely anxious. Just as they were about to reach Alabasta, he ran into this trouble. It pissed him off to the extreme.
But anxious as he was, surrounded heavily by Marines, he couldn't escape immediately. He had no choice but to force himself to calm down and wait for an opportunity.
"Hina orders you... apprehend him!"
Hina, her gloved hand pointing at Tom, spoke to the two still kneeling on one knee.
"Good brother! For Captain Hina's sake!"
"No problem! Any order from Captain Hina, I will definitely obey!"
The two guys, who had just been attentively fawning over Hina, upon hearing her words, charged at Tom like starving tigers pouncing on prey.
"Remember me? Iron Fist Fullbody!"
"You haven't forgotten the events at Syrup Village, have you?"
The two attacking Tom were none other than Fullbody and Jango, whom Tom had encountered on the sea back in the East Blue.
"Aren't you the guy who almost wet his pants from fright when faced with me and Sanji? How did you end up here?"
Tom, clearly seeing who the two attackers were, was somewhat surprised. After saying this to Fullbody, he saw Jango, holding his bladed rings, had already attacked. Dodging, Tom asked the man with the heart-shaped glasses, "You're a pirate. How did you become a Marine, and this woman's subordinate?"
Fullbody was originally a Marine, so Tom wasn't too surprised he became Hina's subordinate. But Jango was different. He was, after all, the former vice-captain of the Black Cat Pirates. For him to go from pirate to Marine was truly strange.
Actually, back when Luffy and Tom defeated Kuro, the Black Cat Pirates had taken the severely injured Kuro and fled. Jango, who had been knocked unconscious in the small forest, was unfortunately forgotten.
Later, being pursued by the Marines, Jango, during his escape, disguised himself and participated in a dance competition held on the island of Dame Laplace, winning the championship. During this time, he met Fullbody, who shared his love for dance.
Later, Jango's pirate identity was exposed. He intended to escape amidst the chaos but ultimately went back to help his friend Fullbody, who was in danger, fight against the Tulip Pirates attacking Dame Laplace Island.
After repelling the Tulip Pirates, Fullbody, as a Marine, still chose to arrest Jango. However, after sending Jango to a military court and learning Jango was sentenced to hanging, Fullbody immediately led his men to storm the court. In the end, the dance performance born from their profound friendship moved the judges, leading them to overturn Jango's sentence.
But Fullbody was demoted as a result. During their farewell, Jango wanted to use hypnosis to make Fullbody forget their friendship. But just as he was about to hypnotize Fullbody, they both saw Hina and immediately fell in love at first sight. In the end, they both enlisted as Petty Officers in Hina's unit.
"You... your way of talking is still so infuriating!"
"My friend! Let's take him down!"
Fullbody and Jango launched a fierce assault at Tom.
When Fullbody's iron-clad right fist and Jango's bladed rings simultaneously attacked Tom's front, Tom without hesitation struck, instantly defeating these two guys from his past in the East Blue.
Yes, instant defeat. Both Fullbody and Jango were taken down with one hit each. Tom felt this fully expressed the frustrated feeling of meeting old 'enemies' far from home.
Seeing Fullbody and Jango sprawled on the deck, temporarily unable to get up, Hina took a deep drag from her cigarette. Walking towards Tom, she kicked aside Jango and Fullbody, who were blocking her path, simultaneously sighing. "Hina is... disappointed."
Clearly, Hina was not satisfied with Jango and Fullbody's performance. She held out a wanted poster towards Tom with one hand. "'Trick-Eye Hunter' of the Straw Hat Pirates. In the name of the World Government-affiliated Marine Headquarters, Hina..."
"The Marines coming to capture pirates... that's only natural."
Tom looked at Hina holding his wanted poster and said, word by word, "But what I don't understand is... in a world where pirates are as numerous as stars, why single me out?"
"Hina asks you... do you remember Marine Branch 16's Captain Nezumi?"
When Hina said this, she remembered the time she was ordered by Marine Headquarters to investigate the abnormal situation of Captain Nezumi in the East Blue. When she reached the East Blue and saw Nezumi...
The once-tyrannical Captain Nezumi of Marine Branch 16... when Hina saw him, he was no longer human at all. He was crawling on all fours on the ground like a beast, emaciated, skin and bones. His withered face, contorted with pain, looked like a sun-dried, ugly gourd. From his mouth came non-stop, hoarse, heart-wrenchingscreams.
Moreover, deep within Nezumi's pupils, it was as if a death-gray cross had been branded. The cross in his eyes seemed to contract and expand with every beat of his heart, repeating this cycle over and over, as if it would never stop.
Especially the profound fear and despairrevealed in Nezumi's eyes... it made one's heart palpitate with fear. It was the look of someone whose heart had completely died, who held no hope or yearning for the world anymore.
But even though Nezumi had become this neither human nor ghost, even though in just one month he had wasted away from over fifty kilograms to just over twenty... from a vitality perspective, he was correspondingly...
Hina remembered the doctor who accompanied her from Marine Headquarters to the East Blue. After examining Nezumi's condition, he told her an astonishing fact: Nezumi's body was very healthy, free of any disease, and his vitality was extremely vigorous. He could live another thirty or fifty years without any problem.
A person so thin he had almost no body fat left, his mental state perpetually inpanic and despair, living a life worse than pigs or dogs, wailing in agony non-stop every day, with almost no rest, even unable to drink a sip of water... yet the doctor said he was alive and well and would live a long life.
Such an absurd fact was hard for Hina to accept initially. She requested other doctors from Marine Headquarters, but the final diagnosis was no different from the first doctor's.
Hina remembered the words of the old doctor who finally diagnosed Nezumi: "In my lifetime... I've truly never seen someone like this. Do you see that large cross mark on his chest? It's like a mark of sin branded deep into his soul, stripping away his right to die, forcing him to live every day of his future life with the strongest vitality, living in fear and despair. This is a nightmare he cannot escape or resist, making him wander endlessly in the hell he himself created."
"Don't you think... this is like someone bearing heavy sinsuffering divine punishment?"
After saying this to Hina, the old doctor left.
"Hina understands... the meaning is... he was judged?"
Hina looked at the nearly body-covering death-gray cross mark that had suddenly appeared on Nezumi's emaciated chest. Even when Nezumi, in extreme agony and despair, self-harmed, tearing the flesh from his chest to shreds, this mark showed no damage. On his bloodied body, the conspicuous cross mark remained clearly visible, as if it had been deeply branded into his flesh and blood.
Left alone in the room, she looked at the death-gray cross marks in Nezumi's pupils and on his body, murmuring softly:
"This is the reason for the secret order from above... ordering Hina to capture that 'Trick-Eye Hunter'?"
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T/N :
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