In the New World, Borosa Island was a transit hub, an island specifically providing rest, entertainment, and repairs for pirates.
On the island, there was a small town where pirates gathered. Gambling dens, red-light districts, taverns—it had everything one could imagine and was bustling with activity every day.
There were no so-called ordinary people on this island; its inhabitants were essentially all pirates and criminals. Every single one of them had hands stained with blood.
In the town center, people came and went. Every individual passing by either had a sword at their waist or carried a gun. Perhaps even a seemingly delicate young girl or a tender-looking child had taken lives.
Here, rules were non-existent. Disagreements escalating into full-blown brawls could happen at any moment. Someone dying here was an extraordinarily common occurrence. It was abnormal if a few homicides didn't happen daily; the dead were tossed into the sea like garbage.
If you lacked vigilance here, you might not even know how you died!
On this day, a colossal, battleship-class pirate ship approached the island. As its massive hull neared the port, the other pirate ships looked like mere infants before it.
The pirates left guarding the other ships in the port turned pale with fright at the sight of the behemoth vessel.
On the deck of this pirate ship stood an incredibly tall giant. He wore a straw hat and held a giant sword, dozens of meters long, in his hand, his gaze calmly directed towards the town on the island.
"That's the Giant! It's the flagship of Demon Man Oars, under the Fire Tank Pirates! And that's Demon Man Oars! So terrifying!" a knowledgeable pirate recognized the colossal ship and the immense giant on its deck.
Indeed, the giant was Little Oars Jr. The massive ship he commanded, the Giant, was a vessel painstakingly crafted by the artisans of Sky Island. It was Little Oars Jr.'s personal flagship, a pirate ship capable of carrying giants.
"Captain Oars, that's the ship of the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates!" a crewman on the Giant shouted, pointing towards one of the many pirate ships in the port.
Little Oars Jr. looked over, then took a single stride, leaping onto the island and heading towards that pirate ship with great, swift steps.
The pirates left guarding the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates' ship were scared witless.
Little Oars Jr. grabbed the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates' ship with one hand, directly lifting the entire vessel and slamming it onto the ground. The pirates on board were dazed and disoriented from the impact.
"Where is your captain?" Little Oars Jr. asked in a booming voice, pointing his longsword at one of the young pirates.
The blade of the longsword was longer than the young pirate's entire body. Its razor-sharp edge rested against his head, and the pirate was so terrified he nearly wet his pants.
"The captain… he's… he's… in town… drinking," the young pirate stammered.
"Wait for me here. I'll be right back," Little Oars Jr. said, glancing at the crewmen on the deck of the Giant.
Then, he gently tapped the young pirate with his longsword, sending the pirate sprawling to the ground.
"You, lead the way."
The young pirate scrambled to his feet and, trembling, led the way.
However, Little Oars Jr. found him too slow, so he simply grabbed him and strode towards the town with massive steps.
Pirates along the way scattered in panic, not daring to obstruct Little Oars Jr.'s path.
"Where is he?" Little Oars Jr. asked, looking at the young pirate in his hand.
"In… in that tavern up ahead," the young pirate slowly pointed to a tavern. Little Oars Jr. casually tossed him aside and strode towards it. He grabbed the tavern's roof with his massive hand and, incredibly, ripped it right off.
The pirates inside the tavern were dumbfounded. They looked up to see a gigantic face, a pair of enormous eyes swiveling, scanning the crowd within.
The pirates' dumbfounded expressions instantly turned to terror.
"Found you, Yedoman, Captain of the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates!" a colossal voice boomed through the tavern.
Among the crowd, a middle-aged man's expression changed drastically. He saw a giant hand reaching down from where the roof used to be, coming straight for him.
He immediately drilled into the ground and vanished.
The giant hand missed him. Little Oars Jr.'s face showed some displeasure. With a casual swipe, he smashed the entire tavern to pieces.
His gaze swept through the crowd, but the captain of the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Little Oars Jr. stomped his foot on the ground, causing numerous cracks to appear. In one of the fissures underground, he spotted him.
But the man was like an eel, drilling back into the earth and disappearing once more.
Yedoman, Captain of the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates, user of the Pass-Pass Fruit, capable of passing through any non-living matter. He was Little Oars Jr.'s target for this capture mission.
"Get out here!" Little Oars Jr. slammed his fist into the ground, shattering an area dozens of meters wide. Surrounding houses and buildings instantly crumbled, and the powerful impact flattened the vicinity.
The entire town trembled, and pirates from all over ran out to see what was happening.
On a building in the distance, an arrogant young man wearing sunglasses and a pink feather coat smirked with untamed insolence.
"Demon Man Oars… a subordinate of the Demon Dragon. What's he doing here?"
This arrogant young man was none other than Heavenly Yaksha, Doflamingo.
"Doffy, this guy is very strong," three middle-aged men stood beside Doflamingo—Lao G, Diamante, and Pica—all his strongest executives.
"I hear the Demon Dragon is capturing Devil Fruit users everywhere. I wonder what he's planning?" Diamante said in a low voice.
"I don't care what he's planning. But right now, I really want to kill this Demon Man Oars," Doflamingo said, his face filled with killing intent. To this day, he remembered the humiliation Bege had brought upon him.
"Young Master, we can't afford a head-on clash with the Demon Dragon just yet," Lao G said gravely.
"Indeed," Doflamingo's killing intent gradually subsided. He was a rational man and knew that the current Donquixote Family was no match for the Fire Tank Pirates.
A strange smile reappeared on his face. "However, since we've run into him, it wouldn't be right to just pretend we didn't see him, would it?"
"Aren't they trying to capture a Devil Fruit user? I simply won't let him succeed." Doflamingo flicked his fingers, and one invisible string after another shot through the air, instantly latching onto Little Oars Jr. Oars' movements noticeably faltered, his arm moving involuntarily.
Little Oars Jr.'s expression gradually darkened. He raised his longsword and, with a single slash through the air, severed all the strings.
"Hoh? Such strength," Doflamingo's expression showed surprise.
"Doffy, he's spotted us," Diamante said solemnly, his hand still gripping his longsword.
Doflamingo looked over. Little Oars Jr. was staring at him with a grim expression. Doflamingo flashed his characteristically unruly smile.
"Although I can't kill him, making him suffer a bit should be no problem."
Little Oars Jr. looked at the cracks in the ground. His Observation Haki could no longer sense the location of Yedoman, captain of the Rampaging Shrimp Pirates. He had escaped, taking advantage of the moment Oars was being controlled.
Little Oars Jr.'s expression instantly turned to rage.
"Doflamingo! You're courting death!" Oars strode forward, the giant sword in his hand instantly turning red-hot, radiating intense heat. The longsword he wielded was also a Dial Weapon meticulously crafted by Sky Island artisans.
"You let my target get away! Then you'll take his place!"