-----
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BOOM!!!
Another cloud of dust exploded into the air.
"Damn it, Bai Ye!"
Zoro stood up, rubbing his head. "Are you getting back at me for drinking too much of your booze?!"
Bai Ye looked completely innocent.
"What are you talking about, Zoro? You and I are half-brothers, man! We're family. Our bond runs in the blood!"
Hearing that, a huge sweatdrop popped on Zoro's forehead.
This idiot—has Luffy rubbed off on him or something? Why's he acting so ridiculous now?
...Yeah, screw it. Let's just blame Luffy!
But—
"Can you maybe put me down now?"
Still in Bai Ye's arms, Nami had gone from panicked to calm. She was resting against his chest, her cheeks a bit red at first, but then—
Hold on a sec...
Was this guy just messing with me?
Nope, this isn't okay. Gonna have to charge extra for this.
"Aiya, I couldn't help myself, couldn't help it."
Bai Ye said with a cheeky smile as he finally let go of Nami.
He had only grabbed her out of a righteous reflex—as a proper Taoist would. Absolutely no other reason.
Yep. Definitely nothing else.
"Sugoi! Zoro, did you guys just fly in from the sky? That had to be Bai Ye's doing, right?"
Luffy's eyes lit up like stars. He immediately dashed over to Bai Ye, bouncing up and down excitedly.
"Hey, Bai Ye! Let me try that too, just once! I wanna fly through the sky too!"
[Golden Light Charm — Forced Calm Punch!]
With a massive bump on his head, Luffy sat on the ground with a pitiful expression, sincerely apologizing: "Gomenasai~"
"Man, I swear I'm usually a peaceful guy…"
Bai Ye looked down at Luffy, shook his head, and sighed. Lately, he'd been getting more and more trigger-happy.
Was it possible his training had gone a little off the rails?
No way. Totally impossible.
Yep. Gotta be Luffy's fault. 100%.
"Alright, you two, knock it off. Let's figure out what's going on here first."
"I think that guy passed out."
Nami finally couldn't take their clowning around anymore. She cut in, pointing straight at Usopp.
Damn… he'd actually gotten lodged into the ground?!
"Huh? Long-nose guy fell asleep again? That's not good, he might get sick,"
Luffy said seriously from the side.
"I told you already—WHO'S SLEEPING?!"
The three little kids nearby all jumped up with angry fangs showing, yelling in unison.
Ten minutes later, on the pirate ship docked at the island's shore…
The four members of the Straw Hat crew, plus the four from Usopp's pirate gang, were having a friendly little chat.
The two sides…
…had a productive discussion about the earlier "misunderstanding," and quickly came to a mutual agreement.
Then they moved on to the next topic:
"What?! You beat the Buggy Pirates?!"
Usopp looked completely stunned. "That's a crew with a 15 million bounty! And you guys managed to take them down—just the few of you…?"
Mid-sentence, Usopp suddenly froze.
Thinking back to those epic flying moves from earlier… he kinda started to believe it.
"To be precise, it was the three of us."
Bai Ye chimed in, pointing at himself, Luffy, and Zoro, then gestured to Nami as he added:
"Nami hasn't officially joined our crew yet. For now, she's just working with us as a hired navigator."
Nami: …what the heck was that supposed to mean?
For some reason, hearing Bai Ye explain her role so seriously gave her a strange pang of disappointment.
"Doesn't matter if it's three or four of you, that's still super impressive,"
Usopp nodded, then couldn't resist falling back into his old habits:
"But honestly, the Buggy Pirates were never that big of a deal anyway. I mean, I've got 8,000 followers under my command, y'know! Hahaha!"
"Yeah, sure you do."
Zoro mumbled quietly from the side.
"NANI?!"
Usopp instantly went full porcupine, springing out of his seat and staring at Zoro in shock:
"You saw through that so fast?!"
Seeing this, Nami couldn't hold back anymore and blurted out:
"Come on, anyone could tell you were making that up. Who the heck would believe something that ridiculous?"
Clearly unimpressed by a guy who couldn't even lie convincingly, Nami threw some major shade.
"NANI?!"
"Another dramatic exclamation rang out. Luffy stared at Usopp in complete shock, his eyes wide with disbelief."
"You mean long-nose guy was LYING?!"
Luffy stared at Usopp in complete shock, his eyes wide with disbelief.
He hadn't noticed anything at all!
"Luffy~"
Bai Ye reached out and pressed down on Luffy's head, gritting his teeth as he said:
"Can you please stop showing off your so-called intelligence?"
"Bai Ye gritted his teeth, a flush of embarrassment rising. It was one thing to see Luffy's naiveté from afar, but experiencing it firsthand with his own captain was another matter entirely."
Maybe it was time to give this guy a crash course in "How Not to Get Scammed 101."
But then again…
Bai Ye glanced at Luffy's dumb, innocent face.
Would this guy even understand a word of it?
Pushing that thought aside for now, Bai Ye turned to Usopp and said,
"Usopp, we know who you are. And we also know about Kaya."
That hit Usopp hard.
He was so stunned he couldn't even speak. At this point, he had no idea what these people were up to. If he could, he'd bolt back to the village right now.
"No need to panic."
Bai Ye waved his hand, trying to calm Usopp down—who looked like he was just about ready to sprint away.
"We're not here to cause trouble. We just came looking for a ship that can carry us to the Grand Line."
"According to the info I've got, there's a butler at Kaya's place named Merry. He might have exactly the kind of ship we need."
"So I was hoping you could introduce us. Shouldn't be too hard for you, right?"
"As for what you get out of it…"
Bai Ye paused for a second, then smiled and said,
"How about this—we help Kaya get healthy again. Sound like a fair deal?"
Usopp let out a huge sigh of relief when he realized Bai Ye was just asking for an introduction and only wanted a ship.
But when he heard they could actually heal Kaya, he couldn't help but yell:
"Are you serious?!"
People in the world of One Piece are kind of weird like that—they'll believe just about anything, even if you don't have a shred of proof.
Still, that made things easier for Bai Ye.
"Of course I'm serious. It's a little tricky, but I can even give you a small demo right now."
With a flick of his wrist, a pill suddenly appeared in Bai Ye's hand.
Yep, he'd already come up with a solution for Kaya's condition.
Taking down Captain Kuro was one thing—but that alone wouldn't change much from the original story.
If he wanted to really fix things, he had to solve the root problem—Kaya's health.
Let's be honest, the way she was in the original, it was a miracle she lasted long enough for Usopp to even come back.
And the fix? Super simple.
There's nothing a "Revival Pill" can't handle.
And if one's not enough? Just pop another.
"Demo? What kind of demo?"
Nami leaned in curiously.
"This pill I've got—doesn't matter how weak or sick someone is. The second they take it, they'll be full of energy like nothing ever happened."
Bai Ye explained casually, then turned to look at Luffy.
"And the demo's real simple: I just beat Luffy half to death, then give him the pill."
"Hehehe~"
All of a sudden, Bai Ye gave a sly, evil grin and walked toward Luffy.
[Golden Light Spell!!!]
As Luffy got beaten to a pulp, yelling and screaming, Nami, Zoro, and Usopp all had the same thought at the same time:
Never piss off Bai Ye!
"....."