"Hunted prey?"
The Billion-Berry Agent lit up with joy. Spreading his arms wide, he laughed heartily at his subordinates:
"Boys! Put on a good show for our two honored guests! Let those stinking sea rats see what a professional port welcoming ceremony looks like!"
"OOOOOOOOOHHH!!!"
With a thunderous cheer, the bounty hunters scattered like receding tides.
Some slipped into civilian disguises and positioned themselves to "welcome" the ship at the dock, while others lined both sides of the harbor in hidden ambush.
This was their signature tactic. Their usual routine was to act like this town warmly welcomed pirates.
The rookies who sailed in from the Four Blues, thinking they had found safe harbor, would relax and dock their ship with laughter and cheer.
And then—boom!—they'd strike. Ambush from both sides, cannons blazing, catching the pirates completely off guard.
Due to the extreme lack of communication between the Grand Line and the Four Blues, this trick almost never failed. It worked every time.
"Tsk tsk tsk, looks like we really arrived just in time to witness a good show," said Mr. 5 lazily. "Since we're here anyway, Valentine's, shall we find a good spot, grab a coffee, and enjoy the performance?"
"Coffee? Yuck, that stuff's so bitter!" Miss Valentine scoffed. "I want lemon soda—no lemon, no soda!"
"Of course, of course, right this way."
The Billion-Berry Agent quickly led the two of them to the second-floor balcony of a nearby restaurant, a perfect spot to watch the entire harbor unfold before them.
Then he turned and shouted to the lookout positioned up high:
"Hey! The prey should be in the harbor perimeter by now, right? Can you make out the flag?"
"I can, but…"
The lookout's voice carried a strange note of unease.
"The flag's a bit weird—it's white, and the symbol kinda looks like the Marines' emblem… Wait a second—I remember now!"
His eyes bulged as he screamed:
"It's the Dusk Pirates! It's them! The ones who caused the massive bloodbath in Loguetown—the Dusk Pirates!!!"
The entire harbor went dead silent.
The bounty hunters who had their flintlocks ready froze in place.
Some of the more experienced ones, midway through loading cannonballs, fumbled and dropped their ammo into the sea with a splash.
The Dusk Pirates…?
Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine exchanged confused glances. Neither recognized the name.
They had been busy finalizing their entry into Baroque Works lately and hadn't paid much attention to the news…
Could this crew really be that famous?
"P-Plan change! Sir High-Ranking Agent!"
The Billion-Berry Agent was practically in tears, drenched in cold sweat.
"These monsters… we can't mess with them! We have to retreat—right now—"
Smack!
Before he could finish, Mr. 5 expressionlessly grabbed him by the hair, lifting him up like trash.
"Hey, dumbass."
He leaned in close to the man's fear-contorted face, voice ice-cold behind his shades.
"A pirate crew that's just entered the Grand Line… and you're scared stiff already? Did you forget what it means to be a High-Ranking Agent?"
"Of course I didn't!!!"
The agent screamed, frantically:
"But do you even know what kind of people the Dusk Pirates are?!"
"Their captain is that madman who dared to attack a Marine HQ warship head-on! The one with an 180 million bounty—'Bladesman Shano'!!!"
"And that's not all!"
"His officers are all monsters too—most of them with bounties in the seventy or eighty million range!"
"Their total combined bounty is over 500 million!!!"
"With monsters like that, even if we threw everyone we had at them, we'd still get wiped out! There's no way—absolutely no way—we can win!!!"
He screamed, voice cracking from desperation.
The bounty hunters, still frozen like statues, seemed to snap out of it at those words. The whole harbor erupted into chaos as they broke into a panicked stampede.
Some scrambled into the wine cellars of the taverns. Others screamed while grabbing their rifles and sprinted toward the giant cactus mountains behind town.
Even the Billion-Berry Agent, still dangling in Mr. 5's grip, started flailing wildly, trying to escape.
"You're all a bunch of cowards!"
Mr. 5 gave him a vicious kick, sending him sprawling across the floor. Twin streams of black smoke puffed from his nostrils as he cracked his neck.
"No matter what, they're just rookie pirates who just set foot into the Grand Line! If you can't help, then get lost!"
"Oi, Valentine—today, let's give 'em a show. Let's show these weaklings the true power of Devil Fruit users!"
"Uhh…"
Miss Valentine dabbed at the sweat on her forehead and gave an awkward smile:
"Actually, you know, 180 million bounty? Kinda does sound like we should maybe steer clear, yeah? I mean, even that Warlord Crocodile who's been tearing it up nearby, his bounty's only 81 million, right?"
"Pfft, what do you know?"
Mr. 5 snorted, arms behind his back.
"That Crocodile guy—he'd only been famous for a little while when he got invited to join the Shichibukai. That's why his bounty hasn't gone up since!"
"'Bladesman Shano' or whatever—don't tell me you actually think a newbie can compare to a hardened veteran like him?!"
"…Ohhh~ I see~"
Miss Valentine's eyes lit up in realization. Seeing her partner's confident face, her fighting spirit surged.
"Yahaha~ Well, since you put it that way, I'm in! You're right—this is the perfect chance to prove ourselves now that we've joined the organization!"
—
Aboard the Dusk.
As the cheering crowds on the docks waved and beckoned, Nami gave a surprised "Wah!" and spun around, calling excitedly:
"Bro! Look! So many people are welcoming us over there!"
"Looks like the truth about what happened at Loguetown has made it here too!" she beamed. "Everyone knows we're not bad pirates now!"
"Idiot, Nami."
The voice came from above—Guina was seated at the open-air dojo on the deck, eyes closed in deep focus, radiating an air of swordmaster serenity. She gently shook her head.
"Didn't you listen to anything the captain said this morning? Whiskey Peak is a nest of pirate hunters. Their specialty is trickery—lulling you into a false sense of safety before they strike."
"Ehhhh???"
Nami's face fell. "That's so mean…"
"In any case, stay alert," Guina said calmly. "We came here to let the Log Pose record the island's magnetic field. But if they really try to treat us like prey, we're more than free to fight back."
As if they came just to record the Log Pose?
Shano slowly rose from his deck chair, eyes narrowing at the rapidly approaching Whiskey Peak.
There was a lot more than magnetic fields to gain from this place.
If memory served—
Baroque Works' so-called "Utopia Plan" hadn't even officially begun yet. The Alabasta Kingdom was still far from descending into civil war.
As for Vivi and the Royal Guard Captain Igaram? They wouldn't learn of Baroque Works' existence until two years later, when the chaos started brewing. That's when Vivi infiltrated the organization under disguise.
So—
There was no chance of seeing Vivi here. She was still enjoying her life as a princess in Alabasta's capital.
But the other named agents—some of them should be around. The only question was which ones...
Hmm?
Shano frowned slightly.
Why were the people who'd been so eager to wave and welcome them…
…suddenly scattering like roaches who'd seen a ghost, the moment they got a clear look at the ship?