Kuro was walking fast. Every step was a suppressed explosion of rage. Three years. He had spent three years bowing. serving tea. smiling at a sick girl and doing everything he could, just to erase his old name and build a new persona.
It was all for this day. The day he would kill them all, take the fortune, and finally have his peace.
And now? BOOOOM! Another distant sound from the beach. His plan was in ruins.
He reached the top of the slope that overlooked the beach. He stopped. He adjusted his glasses. He looked down. His rage turned into a cold, confused shock.
The beach was a graveyard of his crew's dignity. His flagship, the Bezan Black, was a burning wreck in the water. His Vice-Captain, Jango, was lying face-down in the dirt... asleep? His top fighters, the Nyaban Brothers? Both where unconscious, and a green-haired swordsman was sitting on them, looking bored.
And the rest of his men? A tall, beautiful woman with an iron mace was walking through them. But they weren't fighting her. Some were running away. But the others... the idiots were blushing. They were standing there, offering their faces to be punched. THWACK! "Thank you, goddess!" one shouted as he was knocked out.
Kuro's eye twitched. And then he saw him. Standing in the center of the chaos, unscathed, arms crossed. A boy in a straw hat. He wasn't fighting. He was overseeing the destruction like a foreman at a job site.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?!"
Kuro's shout was a thunderclap. It broke the spell. The few standing pirates snapped out of their daze. The ones who where running stopped. Zoro looked up. Alvida stopped her swing. They all looked at the man in the black suit at the top of the hill.
"Cap... Captain Kuro!" one of the Black Cat pirates whimpered, dropping his sword. His fear of the woman vanished, replaced by a much deeper, older terror. "We... we were ambushed!"
Luffy looked up. A slow, dry laugh rumbled in his chest. "Shihahaha... You must be Kuro. The 'Man of a Hundred Plans'."
Kuro glared at him. "Don't call me by that name," he hissed. "I threw that name away. I am Klahadore now, a butler. A man who just wants to enjoy his peace and quiet."
Luffy tilted his head. His smile vanished. "The hell?" Luffy said, his voice flat with genuine disgust. "A man who has given up on himself?" He slowly turned his body to face Kuro completely. "And at such a young age, too."
Kuro's face twisted. The "butler" mask fell away completely. "What do you know?" Kuro snarled. "What does a rookie brat know about the hardships of the pirate life? The Marines chasing you every day? The idiots trying to take your head for fame? It never ends!" He took a step forward, his voice dripping with venom. "I am tired of the game. I planned for three years to buy my way out. And you... you act like you know me?"
He scoffed. "You're just another upstart pirate. You probably thought you could make a name for yourself by ruining my plan. By taking my head."
Kuro reached into his bag. He pulled out two gloves. They were black, with fur on the wrists. And on each finger, a long, razor-sharp katana blade was attached. Cat Claws.
He slid them on. SHINK. The sound of the ten blades locking into place cut through the silence.
He used the palm of his hand to push up his glasses, keeping the blades away from his face. It was a habit born of a thousand kills.
"So much mess to clean," Kuro said, his voice cold and empty. "I suppose I'll have to kill everyone here."
"Captain Kuro..." one of the grunts stammered, his voice trembling. "You... you plan to kill us too? We followed your orders! We served you!"
Kuro didn't speak. He just looked at the man. It was a dead, empty stare behind those glasses. A look that said they were nothing more than consumable pawns, who were not needed anymore.
That look was enough. "HE'S CRAZY! RUN!" the pirate screamed. The few remaining conscious pirates scrambled up, turning their backs to run towards shore.
Luffy didn't look away from Kuro. He just spoke. "Zoro. Don't let any of them get away."
"Aye, Captain," Zoro said. He didn't even draw a sword. He just stepped into the path of the fleeing men, a wall of intimidation. "You heard him."
Kuro adjusted his glasses again with his palm. "You should be worrying about yourself, Straw Hat boy," Kuro sneered. "You think you're a big shot now? Just because you got a lucky 15 million bounty?" He lowered his stance, the ten blades glinting in the morning sun. "Think again. The East Blue is small. You haven't seen real speed."
Luffy just smile "Well, bring it on, brat".
Then he paused. (Oh. Right. Don't get so worked up. You're the brat now.) He suppressed a chuckle at his own expense. Being an old soul in a teenager's body was still... weird.
Looking back at angry kuro. "Gum-Gum no... PISTOL!" His fist shot forward like a bullet, aimed right at Kuro's chest.
FWOOSH!
The punch hit nothing but air. Kuro wasn't there. He had vanished, But it wasn't invisibility; it was pure, high-speed movement.
"Who are you calling 'brat,' boy?"
The voice came from behind him. Cold. Close. "Oh, crap".
Luffy didn't turn. He just dropped. SHING! Five razor-sharp blades sliced the air where his neck had been a second ago. The wind from the cut throw his hat on ground, ruffling his hair.
As his palms hit the dirt, Luffy didn't stop. He used the ground as a pivot point, twisted his hips and swung his leg backward in a blind, violent arc. "Gum-Gum no... WHIP!".
SWISH!
It hit nothing. Luffy retracted his leg and spun around, jumping back to create distance.
And then he saw, Kuro standing ten feet away, perfectly still, adjusting his glasses. He hadn't even broken a sweat. He looked like he was simply teleporting.
Seeing this, his grin widened. It wasn't a nice grin. It was the excited look of a predator finding a worthy meal.
"Fast," Luffy said, his voice filled with a dark appreciation. "Are we?"
Kuro looked at that smile. He looked at the boy who had almost just been decapitated. There was no fear in Luffy's eyes.
For the first time in three years, a single drop of cold sweat rolled down the side of Kuro's face. This kid... he isn't normal.
"Acting like everything is in the palm of your hand," Kuro spat, adjusting his glasses. "But tell me, boy... can you even see me?"
He didn't wait for an answer. FWOOSH! Kuro vanished again.
This time, he didn't go for the neck. He went low. If I cut at his legs, Kuro thought, moving faster than the eye could track, he can't dodge.
He reappeared right in front of Luffy, aiming low, his ten blades sweeping out to slice Luffy's legs off. He was fully confident. If Luffy tried to duck, he'd lose his neck. If he stood still, he'd lose his legs.
But Luffy simple look down, with the same smile, he spoke. "Heck yeah, I can".
He lifted his leg, "Gum-Gum no..."
Kuro's eyes widened. He was committed to the attack. He couldn't stop. Luffy's foot shot down like a piston. "...STAMP!"
CRUNCH!
It was a perfect interception. Luffy's sandal met Kuro's face at high speed. The force was brutal. Kuro's expensive glasses shattered instantly, shards of glass flying into the air. The impact stopped Kuro's charge dead and sent him flying backward.
Kuro didn't land gracefully this time. He hit the ground, rolled twice in a messy tangle of limbs and blades - THUD! THUD! - and slammed back-first into the cliff wall. BAM!
He slid down to a sitting position, his suit covered in dirt, his face red and bleeding from the broken glass. For a second, the "Man of a Hundred Plans" looked like nothing more than a beaten thug.
"He... he..." The voice came from one of the Black Cat pirates. He was standing near Zoro, too scared to run, too scared to fight. He pointed a shaking finger at his own captain. "Captain Kuro... is bleeding."
It was a shock. To them, Kuro was a monster. A ghost. He didn't get hit. He didn't bleed. But there he was, wiping blood from his lip.
Zoro, standing in the path of pirates, just smirked. Alvida, resting her heavy mace on her shoulder, gave a cruel, satisfied smile. They weren't surprised. They knew who their captain was.
In the middle of the tense silence, a sound drifted up from the path. "Zzzzz..." Buggy was still flat on his face, fast asleep from Jango's hypnosis. "...flashy... zzz..." and nearby lay Usopp face-down in the dirt, completely unconscious and forgotten.
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Author here:
Hlooo Friends,
Something new to announce,
The original I said I would start writing, I have posted its first two completed chapters Free on patreon.
Sooooo, if you are curious.
You know where to go.
I will only start posting it on other platforms when I have like 20 completed.
SO WISH ME LUCK