Chapter 30: Peak Condition! Massacre on the Slope!
"What are you waiting for?! Kill them for me!!"
"Once they're dealt with, all this treasure will be yours!!"
Kuro's teeth-gritting voice rang out from the pirate ship behind them, sounding exceptionally piercing in the silent night.
The pirates, who had been frightened witless by the Great Fireball, finally snapped out of it. Looking at their Captain's murderous gaze from behind, fear triumphed over hesitation.
"Charge!!"
"Kill him!!"
"Ohhh! For the treasure!"
The pirates roared again, brandishing their weapons as they rushed toward the top of the slope.
This time, however, they had learned to be a bit smarter and no longer crowded in the middle like headless flies.
Instead, they spread out, hugging the rock walls on both sides of the slope, and slowed their pace, wary of the terrifying fire-breathing youth.
At this moment, Jango, standing below, swung the sharp ring in his hand to regain some face.
He shouted loudly at Nami above:
"In that case, let me deal with that woman first! Take this!"
Jango struck a strange pose, gently swaying the ring in his hand, and said to Nami:
"Next, after I say 'One, two, Jango,' you will immediately faint and fall asleep. Look at my ring..."
"One, two..."
Nami subconsciously looked at the ring.
However, standing beside Nami, Tatsuya's crimson eyes shifted slightly, his gaze coldly casting down toward Jango.
Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique.
"Jango..."
Thud!
A dull sound.
The one who fell wasn't Nami, but Jango himself, who was in the middle of performing the technique.
He looked as if he had been frightened by something terrifying, his eyes rolling back as he fell stiffly onto the beach, foaming at the mouth.
"Master Jango?!!"
The surrounding pirates were pale with shock.
"How did you hypnotize yourself?!"
"Quick, wake Master Jango up!!"
The Single Tomoe in Tatsuya's eye slowly rotated, and he calmly withdrew his gaze.
Against someone with such weak mental willpower, he didn't even need a proper genjutsu.
By now, the pirates in front were closing in.
Nami, seeing the pirates rushing up with ferocious expressions and aggressive momentum, instinctively shrank back.
She very naturally hid behind Tatsuya, grabbing his clothes and shouting:
"Go, Vice Captain!! Go get back my... no, go get back our treasure!!"
Tatsuya didn't respond to her nonsense.
Whoosh.
His figure vanished instantly from the spot.
Tatsuya didn't retreat just because he was outnumbered.
On the contrary, in those eyes that had turned from black to red, a surge of burning battle intent rose.
He also wanted to know just how far his full strength had reached after the system's enhancements and recent training.
These pirates before him were the perfect whetstones!
At the top of the slope.
"Hey! Why did you hit me just now!"
Usopp clutched the swelling bump on his head, looking aggressively at Nami. "It hurts! Are you some kind of she-devil?"
"Hah?"
Nami's eyebrows shot up, and she raised her staff again, making a move to strike him once more. "You got a problem?"
"N-no!"
Usopp hurriedly waved his hands and backed away in fear, a fawning smile plastered on his face.
"Ahaha, I was just joking with you. The atmosphere was just too tense... But speaking of which..."
As he spoke, he turned his head and looked down at Tatsuya, who was cutting through the pirates like a tiger among sheep, and couldn't help but swallow hard.
"...He really is amazing. Just like a demon..."
Hearing this, Nami immediately retracted her staff and raised her chin proudly, as if she were the one fighting.
"Hmph, of course. Now you know the strength of our pirate crew, right?"
"Then why aren't you joining the fight?"
Nami's face stiffened, but she then looked at him with a sense of righteous indignation:
"Hmm? As a man, don't you feel ashamed asking a delicate Navigator like me such a question?"
"Hah?! Delicate??"
Usopp's mouth twitched as he looked at the staff in Nami's hand.
But he took a deep breath, seemingly infected by the battle below.
"Fine! In that case, the great Captain Usopp will also join the battle! Leave the cover fire to me!"
Saying this, he walked to the edge of the cliff, pulled back his slingshot, and aimed at the pirates below.
"Take this!"
Sure Kill: Gunpowder Star!
Nami snorted and crossed her arms.
But as she looked at Tatsuya's back as he fought alone below, she pursed her lips slightly, an inexplicable emotion welling up in her heart.
"What's wrong with me... He's just a pirate... Treasure is the most important thing! Right!"
Meanwhile, on the slope battlefield below.
Tatsuya was in the middle of a fierce battle.
Clang!
He swung his sword to parry, sparks flying, then flicked his wrist, using the momentum to directly knock down a pirate in front of him.
Immediately after, the sound of wind came from the right.
As if he had eyes in every direction, Tatsuya instantly crouched down, narrowly dodging a scimitar swinging toward his crown.
In the next second, he performed a leg sweep, viciously kicking the attacker to the ground.
"Die!!"
Two more pirates jumped from below, hacking down at Tatsuya.
Tatsuya remained calm, raising his sword with one hand. With a clang, he steadily blocked both attacks.
Then, with his arm muscles tensing and a burst of Chakra, he forcefully pushed them away.
Taking advantage of the moment the two were off-balance and retreating.
"Die."
Tatsuya's wrist turned, his long sword tracing a cold arc of light, precisely slicing across their throats.
Blood sprayed.
"Ugh..."
The two fell, clutching their throats.
The pirates behind, seeing Tatsuya's brutality and fluid movements, all showed expressions of terror. Their hands holding their swords trembled, and they hesitated to step forward.
"How about it? Not attacking?"
Tatsuya felt instinctively that he had entered a wonderful state of total focus.
Everything around him became slow and clear in the eyes of his Sharingan.
Every enemy's breath, the twitching of their muscles, and the trajectory of their sword swings were all clearly visible.
Body Flicker Technique.
His figure flashed again.
Tatsuya took the initiative, directly piercing the heart of the nearest person with a single strike.
Then he kicked him away, the corpse flying like a cannonball and knocking down two pirates preparing to charge from behind.
The slope terrain here was narrow; although there were many pirates, only two or three could actually face Tatsuya at the same time.
With this terrain advantage combined with the Sharingan's dynamic vision, Tatsuya moved as if through an uninhabited area!
It was a one-sided, bloody massacre.
In just a few minutes, the slope was covered with wailing pirates.
By now, the remaining pirates were truly terrified.
They looked at the black-haired youth who, with a single sword, had kept numerous pirates from advancing even an inch, and they couldn't stop trembling.
The night sea breeze blew Tatsuya's messy black hair, revealing those eyes below that emitted an eerie red glow in the darkness.
"A... A demon!!"
Finally, a pirate couldn't take the terrifying pressure. His psychological defenses collapsed, and with a clatter, he dropped his weapon, knelt on the ground, and broke down crying.
"Too scary! There's no way to win!"
"That guy isn't human! He's a murderous devil!"
Just as the pirates' morale was about to completely shatter.
"What demon! Stop boosting the enemy's morale!"
"Watch us, the Nyaban Brothers, kill him!!"
The crowd behind parted, and two sharp, arrogant voices rang out.
Two pirates with strange appearances, wearing cat-claw gloves, jumped out.
These two were the Nyaban Brothers from the original story—Buchi and Sham.
Tatsuya stopped his movements and expressionlessly flicked the blood droplets off his sword, drawing a line of blood on the ground.
Then he slightly bent his knees, preparing to cut down these two noisy kittens with one strike.
"Hey, hey, my dear Vice Captain. At least leave some for me."
Just as the voice fell.
"Waaah!! Tatsuya! So cool! They're all defeated! Heeheeheehee!"
A burst of hearty laughter rang out from behind.
Luffy, holding his straw hat, and a displeased-looking Zoro finally ran out from the darkness and arrived at the battlefield.
Tatsuya turned around and looked at these two latecomers. A smile played on his lips, but he didn't hold back his criticism:
"You're too slow, you idiots."