Chapter 408: The Shadow Left by Big Brother (12/28)
On the surface of the East Blue, a ship was advancing under the push of the sea breeze.
Luffy and Zoro were sitting inside the ship, chatting with each other.
After defeating Morgan, they had already left Shells Town, and just like in the original story, Koby stayed behind in Shells Town to join the Marines. As for Luffy and Zoro, because they had beaten Marine Captain Morgan, they were now truly starting out as pirates, not just talking about it anymore.
"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy half-lay in the boat, pressing down on his straw hat, and asked Zoro, "I didn't expect Koby to want to become a Marine. He said someone once encouraged him to do that. What was that guy's name again…"
"It's Ian!" Zoro's expression was a bit sour, so he answered grumpily.
He hadn't expected that the pink-haired kid Luffy brought along had actually met his senior brother Ian before, and had even been involved in Ian's capture of the pirate Buggy. If he hadn't heard Koby mention it during their chat, Zoro would never have known about this.
This made Zoro quite annoyed, because he felt that everywhere he went in the East Blue, he kept hearing Ian's name. Even though Ian was his senior brother, it felt like all the spotlight was being stolen by him.
"Haha!" Luffy laughed carelessly and said, "Zoro, your face looks awful! Do you know this guy named Ian?"
"Of course!" Zoro nodded and said, "He's my senior brother!"
"Senior brother?" Luffy sat up, propping his hands on his ankles, and said in surprise, "Is he your big brother?"
"Yeah, he's older than me!" Zoro said. "So calling him big brother isn't wrong, but we're not blood-related!"
"That's great!" Luffy laughed heartily and said, "I have a big brother too. He went out to sea and became a pirate, but he set out earlier than me!"
Hearing that Luffy also had a big brother, Zoro suddenly felt a bit indignant and said, "Your big brother is a pirate too? But I bet he's definitely not as strong as my senior brother!"
"Don't talk nonsense! Ace is really strong!" Luffy said angrily. "He must have become a really powerful pirate by now!"
Zoro scoffed disdainfully and said, "How strong? Is he at the level of a Warlord? My senior brother Ian is now one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!"
Maybe because they both had big brothers, out of a sense of rivalry, Zoro revealed Ian's identity to Luffy. Although he was reluctant to admit it, Ian's achievements as his senior brother still made Zoro envious and proud. After all, no matter what, the whole world probably knew Ian's name by now.
But unfortunately, his desire to show off was wasted.
"What's a Warlord? Is it something tasty?" Luffy asked stupidly.
"You!" Zoro gritted his teeth in frustration, wondering if he had boarded the wrong ship. Luffy didn't even know what the Seven Warlords were—was such an idiot really his captain!?
To give Luffy a direct understanding of how powerful his senior brother Ian was, Zoro had to waste his breath explaining the Seven Warlords to Luffy.
But after he finished explaining, Luffy said seriously, "Even so, your senior brother is definitely not as strong as Ace! Because I've never beaten Ace!"
Hearing this, Zoro could only cover his face. In Luffy's logic, anyone he couldn't beat was the strongest…
The two were still arguing about who was stronger, Ian or Ace, never imagining that the two big brothers they were talking about were actually allies.
It just goes to show how strange fate can be.
While they were still debating, they suddenly heard a rumbling sound in the distance.
"What's that?" Luffy stood up curiously and looked toward the direction of the sound.
But in the distance, he saw a strange-looking large ship chasing another ship ahead. Not only was it chasing, but it was also firing cannons nonstop, trying to sink the other ship.
The fleeing ship was constantly changing direction on the sea surface, dodging the cannonballs.
"What's going on?" Luffy and Zoro watched the scene curiously.
However, before they could figure it out, the fleeing ship suddenly changed course and sped straight toward Luffy and Zoro.
The large ship firing cannons also turned around and gave chase.
"Not… not good!" Zoro immediately understood the fleeing ship's intention. He quickly called Luffy to adjust the sail, trying to steer away and avoid being dragged into the trouble.
But unfortunately, their luck was terrible. The chasing large ship fired a cannonball that missed the fleeing ship but grazed the sail of Luffy and Zoro's boat.
With a crack, the sail, which wasn't sturdy to begin with, was torn away by the hit.
"Ah, what bad luck!" Luffy said dejectedly, looking at his boat. "The ship's broken. How are we going to sail now?"
"Shut up! You're worried about the ship at a time like this?" Zoro yelled, his neck veins bulging. "We're about to be sunk!"
Just as Zoro grabbed an oar to row, the fleeing ship passed by theirs, and a girl with orange hair and big eyes threw a box onto Luffy and Zoro's boat.
"Bye-bye!" The orange-haired girl stuck out her tongue at Zoro and Luffy, then quickly rowed away.
"Why did she throw that over here?" Luffy asked, looking at the box in confusion.
"Idiot! We've been set up!" Zoro said, veins popping on his forehead. Luffy didn't understand the situation, but he did.
But before they could escape, they found themselves caught by the large ship.
Without a sail, their boat couldn't get away. When the large ship got close, Zoro realized it was a pirate ship.
"Captain Buggy, we've got them!" A voice rang out from the ship, and then, with splashes, several pirates jumped down, holding knives in their mouths, and surrounded Luffy and Zoro's boat.
"Dammit, it's the Buggy Pirates?" Zoro immediately recognized the name of the crew.
Red-nosed Buggy appeared at the ship's railing and roared at Zoro and Luffy below, "You bastards, give me back my box!"
Since they were innocent victims, Zoro and Luffy didn't resist and let the pirates take the box.
But unexpectedly, the box was empty. Not only Luffy and Zoro, but even Buggy had been tricked!
Buggy had seen the girl throw the box through his telescope and thought he'd gotten it back, but when he heard it was empty, he flew into a rage.
"Capture them!" Buggy pointed at Zoro and Luffy.
"Hey, red-nosed guy!" Luffy put his hands on his hips and said unhappily, "We don't know that woman at all! Why are you arresting us?"
"Shut up!" Buggy was even more annoyed when Luffy called him red-nosed. "The great Captain Buggy says so, and that's that!"
Zoro looked at the hostile members of the Buggy Pirates surrounding him, said nothing, and drew the swords at his waist.
The Buggy Pirates grinned maliciously, jumped onto the boat, and attacked the two, but Zoro cut them down like vegetables and knocked them into the sea.
Realizing that his men were no match for Zoro and Luffy, Buggy got angry. He waved his hand and had his men bring over a cannon. At the ship's railing, he aimed the cannon downward at their boat.
"Watch out!" Zoro only noticed the situation above when he heard the cannon fire. He barely had time to grab Luffy and jump to the side, and the next second, their boat was blown to pieces.
Luffy, being a Devil Fruit user, became weak as soon as he fell into the water. Fortunately, Zoro could swim, so he dragged Luffy to the surface.
Seeing Luffy's limp state, Zoro cursed under his breath, "What a pain!" but he had no choice but to climb onto Buggy's ship with Luffy.
Once on board, they were surrounded, but Luffy hadn't recovered from his weakness, so Zoro had to face the Buggy Pirates alone.
"Dammit, you thieves! You dared to steal the great Captain Buggy's sea chart!" Buggy glared at Zoro and said through gritted teeth. "That woman is your accomplice, isn't she? When I catch her, I'll make you pay!"
"If you want to make us pay, you'll have to ask me first!" Zoro drew his swords, bit one in his mouth, and pointed the other at Buggy. "You're the pirate Buggy, right? Perfect. I've been looking for you for a while but couldn't find you. Now that you've come to me, it saves me the trouble of getting lost and wandering around!"
Buggy didn't know who Zoro was at first, but after Cabaji whispered a few words in his ear, Buggy understood.
"Great, another bounty hunter!" Buggy said hatefully. "And a swordsman at that. I hate bounty hunter swordsmen the most! Roronoa Zoro, you're unlucky to run into Captain Buggy. Let me deal with you myself!"
Needless to say, the one who made Buggy so resentful was Ian, who had captured him before. And now Ian had gone to the Grand Line and become a famous member of the Seven Warlords. Just hearing Ian's name made Buggy tremble with fear.
Since he couldn't beat Ian or do anything about him, Buggy could only take out his anger on other bounty hunters. Unfortunately, Zoro's profession and fighting style reminded Buggy of his bad memories.
Although Zoro was confident and wanted to fight Buggy, unfortunately, Buggy's Devil Fruit ability was too much of a counter for a swordsman like him.
Buggy, who was immune to slashing attacks, rendered Zoro's proud swordsmanship useless. And Luffy, weakened by the seawater, couldn't help at all.
In the end, Zoro was stabbed from behind by Buggy using his Chop-Chop Fruit ability, and he was captured along with Luffy, both tied up by Buggy…