Chapter 330: Turned Into a Spirit
To be honest, Ian sometimes found it quite annoying. In this desert country, if you didn’t wear a turban or wrap yourself up tightly, you’d easily get sunburned. But wearing a turban made him look no different from the ordinary people of this country, so there were always clueless guys picking a fight with him. The members of the merchant convoy attacked by desert bandits earlier were like that, and now this Mr. 5 he’d run into was the same.
Ian, after all, was someone who had come back from the New World, so his standards were naturally high. A guy like Mr. 5 might have some strength here in Alabasta, but in Ian’s eyes, he was no different from those desert bandits.
But this disgusting guy just had to come barging in anyway…
When Ian tried to shoo him away, Mr. 5 got angry too. This bastard actually picked a booger from his nose and, right in front of Ian, flicked it into Ian’s coffee cup!
Then… damn it, Ian exploded!
“If you don’t court death, you won’t die”—that was exactly the kind of person Mr. 5 was. The moment he finished his stupid stunt, Ian suddenly stood up, grabbed the guy by his afro, and slammed his head hard onto the bar counter!
Boom! Mr. 5 couldn’t react in time, and his entire face made intimate contact with the counter. The wooden bar, hit by Ian slamming Mr. 5’s head into it, shattered on the spot!
Ian had struck out of sheer fury, not bothering to control his strength at all. Not only did he smash the bar, but he also drove Mr. 5’s whole body straight into the floor!
This sudden turn of events stunned Miss Valentine, who was standing nearby holding her parasol. Bola, meanwhile, was startled by the shattered bar and quickly stepped back.
After pressing Mr. 5 into the floor, Ian still wasn’t satisfied. He couldn’t help stomping on the back of the guy’s head, cursing with each stomp: “I’ll teach you to be unhygienic! I’ll teach you to pick your nose! Damn it, you disgust me!”
Miss Valentine snapped out of it and screamed, frantically trying to pull Ian away—it was purely an instinctive reaction.
But how could she pull Ian away when he was this enraged? By the time she finally remembered to fight, jumping up to increase her weight and stomp down on Ian’s head, Ian had already stomped Mr. 5 a dozen times!
Seeing Miss Valentine jump up, Ian immediately knew what she was planning. He drew Thousand Cherry Blossoms with his right hand, gripped the sword with both hands, and slashed upward toward her.
Swish! The moment he swung, a powerful wind pressure formed, sharp as a blade, tearing apart much of Valentine’s clothing! Midair, Valentine let out a cry of surprise, hurriedly dropping her parasol and covering her exposed parts with both hands.
It was only because she was a woman that Ian showed mercy, using only the wind pressure to teach her a lesson instead of letting the blade touch her.
When Valentine landed, Ian’s Thousand Cherry Blossoms was already resting its tip between her eyebrows. With killing intent, he said coldly, “You’d better not move.”
“Ah… ah…” Valentine trembled all over. The cold aura from the sword tip sent a wave of fear through her, and she forgot to even answer Ian.
Meanwhile, Bola, behind the shattered bar, leaped out and attacked Ian. She was a Thorn-Thorn Fruit user. As she jumped out, long spikes grew from her fists, and she gritted her teeth, stabbing them toward Ian’s back.
But Ian spun around, his left hand turning black as he opened his palm and slapped it toward Bola’s thorny spikes!
Seeing Ian’s response, Bola flashed a triumphant smile. But the next second, she realized her spikes couldn’t pierce Ian’s palm!
Instead, the force of the collision bent her spikes!
With a sharp crack, Ian’s Armament Haki-hardened palm snapped Bola’s spikes and then grabbed her fist.
“Ah!!” The moment she was grabbed, Bola let out a scream. An intense heat surged from Ian’s left hand, burning her fist severely!
Bola quickly pulled back, and Ian let her go. When she retreated, she saw that her right fist now had several blackened finger marks, severely burned!
Although Ian’s Black Dragon Wave was sealed on his right hand, he could now emit it from both hands. That meant whenever he wanted, his left hand could also generate high temperatures—just like back in Salamis when Sentomaru’s axe had been destroyed that way.
Bola collapsed to her knees in pain, drenched in sweat as if she’d been pulled from the water.
It might sound slow, but everything happened within just a few seconds. In that short time, Ian had effortlessly taken down three senior officers of Baroque Works with overwhelming force.
“Hmph!” Seeing that Valentine and Bola had both calmed down, Ian snorted, sheathed Thousand Cherry Blossoms, then crouched down, grabbed Mr. 5 by his hair, and lifted him out of the floor.
Mr. 5 was in a miserable state—his nose was bleeding, several teeth had been knocked out, and his whole face looked caved in.
Ian picked up his own coffee cup, held it to Mr. 5’s lips, and said coldly, “Drink it!”
This cup of coffee had been contaminated by Mr. 5’s booger. Since he liked playing that game so much, he could drink it himself—an eye for an eye!
Mr. 5 wasn’t unconscious yet, but seeing Ian’s icy glare and Bola’s pitiful condition, he chickened out. Ian tipped the cup, and Mr. 5 had no choice but to gulp down the coffee.
Who knew what he was feeling at that moment…
After the coffee was finished, Ian tossed Mr. 5 onto the floor, stood up, grabbed the turban on his head, and tore off all his clothes.
From his pants pocket, he pulled out his hat, stuffed the Den Den Mushi inside, put it on his head, and walked over to Bola, looking down at her.
“Th… that hat…” Bola trembled, staring at Ian. A huge wave of fear overwhelmed her.
She finally recognized who this person was…
“Wh… why are you… why are you here!?” Bola asked Ian in terror, forgetting even the pain in her hand.
Ian didn’t answer. He sighed and asked Bola, “You’re a senior officer of Baroque Works, right?”
Bola didn’t dare lie and nodded.
“Good. Can you contact your boss?” Ian asked.
Bola shook her head. “N… no. We officers only receive orders. It’s one-way communication. We can’t contact the boss at all.”
Just as I thought, Ian mused.
Earlier, when Mr. 5 came in and started provoking him, Ian had suspected something. In Baroque Works, becoming a senior officer required Crocodile’s approval, and competition among officers was fierce. To climb the ranks and get a higher code name, you had to defeat those ahead of you. Mr. 5 had probably overheard Ian’s words outside the café and, not wanting to be pushed down further in rank, had come in to pick a fight.
Too bad he picked the wrong target…
Now, having confirmed his guess from Bola, Ian realized that joining Baroque Works through this route wouldn’t work—unless he was willing to start as a low-level grunt.
Thinking it over, Ian asked Bola, “If something happens to you officers, your boss would know, right?”
“Yes, he would. As long as Mr. 13 comes here, he’ll know!” Bola confessed everything. “He’s the boss’s dedicated messenger for orders.”
Ian was taken aback. “Mr. 13?”
“It’s a sea otter, codenamed ‘Unlucky’…” Bola explained.
“You don’t mean that guy, do you?” Ian pointed behind Bola.
Bola turned around and saw two cool-looking animals crouching on the windowsill. One was a sea otter wearing sunglasses and spotted clothes, and next to it was a similarly sunglass-wearing vulture.
“Mr. 13!? Ms. Friday!?” Bola exclaimed in surprise.
These two seemed to have just arrived. When they saw Ian looking at them, the cool sea otter with sunglasses pulled out a drawing board, grabbed a pen, and started sketching.
A few seconds later, a sketch of Ian appeared on the board. Then Mr. 13—Unlucky—turned the board around to show Ian.
Ian looked at it and was instantly horrified. Damn! This sea otter had turned into a spirit!? It drew that well! The sketch looked just like a photograph…