Chapter 39: Title Unveiled
Next, Ian planned to leave Shells Town and head to Loguetown to claim his bounty.
When he heard that Ian was leaving, Koby felt reluctant and said to Ian, "Can't you stay a few more days?"
Seeing Ian shake his head, Koby gritted his teeth and suddenly spoke up, "Ian, big brother, why don't you take me with you! I'll become a bounty hunter with you!"
"No!" Ian said with a wry smile. "You're still too young. I don't want to take you along as a burden. Besides, didn't you want to become a Marine? What would it look like if you followed me?"
In the end, Ian didn't agree to let him come along.
Although Koby would indeed be a good companion if they set sail—the kid, aiming to become a Marine in the future, had already picked up quite a bit of navigational knowledge, making him a qualified navigator, and with him around, Ian's voyage would have some guarantee—as Ian said, Koby was too young and lacked any self-defense skills. Bringing him along would just be a hassle.
Koby had no choice but to give up and helped Ian prepare some supplies needed for the voyage in town.
It seemed that Morgan had already announced the capture of the Buggy Pirates. The residents of Shells Town gradually began to return, but most of the houses in town had been destroyed by the special Buggy Balls, so many were busy rebuilding their homes.
The people of this world seemed accustomed to such pirate attacks. The arrival of the Great Pirate Era sounded exciting, but in reality, it was the common folk at the bottom who suffered. Among the endless stream of pirates, there might indeed be many pursuing freedom, but more were simply after plunder. From this perspective, the existence of the Marines had its meaning.
With Koby leading the way, Ian found a restaurant with its building still intact. Using the remaining 20,000 Berries, he bought some food from the owner, along with rum and beer, and then a small amount of medicine. Soon, the 20,000 Berries were all spent.
According to Koby, drinking water on a ship usually couldn't be stored for long—maybe just a few days before it went bad—but alcohol was different; it could be preserved for a long time. It was a necessity for long voyages. Although for Ian, who was used to drinking strong liquor in his past life, the taste of this rum and beer was pretty awful, they were cheap and plentiful! Three thousand Berries could buy a whole barrel.
"Ian, big brother, this is my favorite fishing rod. I'm giving it to you now!" Finally, Koby handed a fishing rod to Ian and said, "At sea, a fishing rod can be really useful."
Ian didn't refuse and took the rod, putting it away. Then, he suddenly froze and slapped his forehead, saying, "Right! What about the Buggy Pirates' ship!?"
He had completely forgotten that when Buggy sent his men to get the money to ransom Cabaji, they went to the ship. That meant Buggy's money was probably all on his ship. Now that all the members of the Buggy Pirates who had come ashore were captured, had that ship gotten the news? If it was still there, then Buggy's money could become his!
So Ian hurriedly ran toward the dock, and Koby, not understanding why, followed him.
When they reached the shore, they found that the Big Top, the Buggy Pirates' main ship, was already gone. It was likely that the remaining pirates on board had heard the news and escaped with it. Ian stomped his foot in regret. "Damn! My money! Gone just like that!?"
He had already considered Buggy's treasure as his own...
"Forget it! I'm leaving. Let's see if I can catch up to that ship!" Ian consoled himself, jumped onto his small boat, tossed the purchased supplies inside, waved at Koby, and said, "Goodbye!"
With that, he rowed away from Shells Town. His style of leaving at a moment's notice was so carefree that Koby hadn't even snapped out of it before Ian had already rowed a good distance away...
………………………………
Ian left, unaware that the impact he had made in Shells Town had not yet faded.
The incident of the Buggy Pirates attacking Branch 153 was reported by Morgan and Captain Rod. While waiting for Vice Admiral Garp to arrive for the handover, the Marines could only lock up the Buggy Pirates in the base's prison.
However, unexpectedly, two days later, the Buggy Pirates escaped. Without Seastone handcuffs, ordinary ropes couldn't hold Buggy, a Devil Fruit user. His Bara Bara no Mi was perfect for escaping—he could casually split off a hand to untie his own ropes and silently steal the keys. With the help of the pirates who had slipped away earlier on the Big Top, Buggy escaped without much trouble.
When Ian handed Buggy over to Morgan, he had guessed that Buggy might escape, but he didn't expect it to happen so quickly.
Buggy was just worried that once Garp arrived, they wouldn't be able to get away...
This time, without Ian's help, no one in the entire Branch 153 base could stop Buggy and his crew. Captain Rod fainted again—the old man had high blood pressure and couldn't handle such repeated shocks. With too many wounded soldiers in the base and not enough hands to stop them, the Marine higher-ups didn't blame them when they learned the details later. Instead, they promoted the meritorious Morgan to Lieutenant Commander, skipping a rank. Morgan had gained from misfortune, an unexpected blessing.
At present, within Branch 153, apart from Captain Rod, he held the highest rank. Still, he felt a bit regretful. The Buggy Pirates had been captured by a bounty hunter, and he had only assisted. Morgan didn't dare lie about this and reported it truthfully. If he had made a deal with Ian back then to take sole credit for capturing the Buggy Pirates, he might have been promoted directly to Captain.
Now, he would need to spend a few more years building seniority before he could take over Captain Rod's position...
Given the attack on Shells Town and the prison break, Marine Headquarters raised the threat assessment of the Buggy Pirates and set a new bounty for Buggy at 15,000,000 Berries, making him one of the few pirates in the East Blue with a bounty over ten million.
Due to the poor support from Branch 16, their original Captain, who had been vacationing at the Baratie, was demoted and transferred, replaced by the former Lieutenant Commander, Mouse, who became the head of Branch 16.
At the same time, Marine Headquarters realized that having no strong fighter stationed in the East Blue's regular Marines was a problem. Although Garp was currently in the East Blue, he was a Vice Admiral from Headquarters and couldn't stay in a small place like the East Blue forever. So, Headquarters decided to transfer "White Hunter" Captain Smoker from a Headquarters-affiliated branch to permanently station at the Loguetown Marine Base, to deter pirates in the East Blue.
In this incident, Ian, the bounty hunter, also caught the Marines' attention. Since Morgan's report didn't include a photo of Ian, Headquarters didn't know what this bounty hunter looked like. They only heard that his fists burned with flames and so did the longsword in his hand. Thus, Ian the bounty hunter received an official name and code at Marine Headquarters.
Ian the Burning Blade!
The Marines supported bounty hunters, seeing them as a supplement to their righteous forces. Although people like "Akainu" Sakazuki, who believed in absolute justice, looked down on bounty hunters and wanted hunters alike as hyenas chasing bounties, this didn't affect the Marines' overall stance.
Of course, Ian was still beneath the notice of Marine Headquarters. They just filed a record for him in the intelligence department and then set it aside.
For the people of Shells Town, it was the same, but the version they heard was a bit different: With the help of a bounty hunter called "Ian the Burning Blade," Lieutenant Commander Morgan had captured the vicious Buggy Pirates. Although the pirates later escaped due to a shortage of Marine manpower, it didn't stop the people of Shells Town from admiring Morgan even more.
Unlike the report to his superiors, when telling the story to the residents of Shells Town, Morgan cleverly swapped the roles of himself and Ian, making himself the lead.
Only Koby, the boy who knew the truth, tried to argue for Ian, but his usual timid and cowardly image meant that few took his words seriously. Amid the waves of admiration, Morgan's prestige soared, and his power within the Marine base grew day by day...
But that's a story for later. Back at sea, Ian searched for the Buggy Pirates' main ship, the Big Top, in the nearby waters for a while before reluctantly confirming that the ship had truly escaped.
Having just missed Buggy's treasure, Ian grabbed his hair in regret. If he had thought to go earlier, he might have gotten his hands on it.
Regret was useless now. Ian drifted at sea, found the direction to Loguetown, let the wind fill his sail, and continued practicing his swordsmanship on the boat.
After finishing his routine training, Ian calmed down and began to think about a new training plan.
Now that he had an extra Shadow card and had seen the high speed boost it provided, Ian had some new ideas.
Could he combine Flash Slash with extreme-speed drawing to achieve a technique that delivered seven Flash Slashes in an instant?
Or, could he unleash the Evil King Flame Slayer Sword at the same time as a Flash Slash? That would greatly increase the destructive power, wouldn't it?
If he dared to think big, Ian felt it might even be possible to combine all three—delivering seven Evil King Flame Slayer Sword Flash Slashes in an instant!
If he could achieve that, Ian would truly become a swordsman worthy of being called a master.
The skills from the cards were given by the system, but what Ian wanted now was to turn these skills into his own. He didn't know yet if he could do it, but he had to try to find out, didn't he?