Sanji walked silently through the dense forest, alone.
Just moments ago, a few ferocious beasts had their eyes on him, drooling so much that their saliva dripped onto his head. But before they could do anything, he kicked them all away with ease.
However, those beasts were too small. If they wanted to take down that moss-headed swordsman, they'd have to find something bigger.
At that moment, Sanji noticed a red pattern painted on a large rock.
It was strange to see such a design in an ancient forest, but after glancing at it twice, he didn't give it much thought and kept walking.
Then, he heard footsteps.
Four small dinosaurs with sharp claws came rushing toward him. He vaguely noticed odd yellow-green patterns drawn on their bellies, but he didn't dwell on it.
Without hesitation, Sanji aimed a kick at one of the dinosaurs—
But strangely, his foot landed on the large rock with the red pattern instead.
"Huh? I was aiming for the dinosaur—how did I end up kicking a rock?"
Sanji was confused. As the four dinosaurs attacked again, he dodged their claws and countered with his kicking techniques.
Only...
"Damn it! What the hell?! Why am I attacking this rock?!"
Then it hit him.
"It's these weird patterns!"
Realizing this, Sanji prepared to erase them.
Just then, a little girl suddenly appeared behind him, holding a paint palette in one hand and a colored pencil in the other. With two quick strokes, she drew ten yellow patterns on Sanji's back.
Out of nowhere, Sanji burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Hahahaha! Hahahaha! You—hahaha—you're—!"
He was laughing so hard he couldn't even finish his sentence.
The little girl silently munched on a biscuit. "Color combination—Hilarious Yellow! If you touch my yellow paint, you won't be able to stop laughing."
Hearing that, Sanji immediately understood. Still laughing wildly, he tried to take off his clothes. But the girl was quick—she added two more brush strokes, layering blue over the yellow. The color shifted to green.
"Color combination—Leisurely Green!"
The little girl quietly set out some refreshments, and Sanji began sipping tea peacefully.
If you touch the green paint, you'll want to drink tea!
When Mr. 3 arrived, he was met with an absurd sight—Sanji and Miss Golden Week casually drinking tea and eating biscuits. Immediately, he felt exhausted. Sanji might be a good crewmate, but he didn't seem to take things too seriously.
Fortunately, his plan had worked.
"Candle Lock!"
Mr. 3 trapped Sanji with wax restraints and smirked. "As expected, the Straw Hats aren't as strong as the newspapers made them out to be. Under my brilliant plan, even Black Leg Sanji, with a 100 million bounty, was easily captured!"
Even though Sanji was restrained by the candle shackles, he still had the urge to drink tea.
He rolled toward the teacup, managing to rub off the pattern on his back. The moment the paint disappeared, he snapped back to his senses.
"So, you're from Baroque Works! Well, I hadn't come looking for you yet, but you showed up first! How dare you bully Vivi-chan and try to overthrow her kingdom—I won't let you off!"
Sanji shouted angrily, struggling against his restraints.
However, the candle shackles were incredibly strong, completely binding his hands and feet, leaving him with no way to fight back.
Miss Golden Week calmly munched on her biscuit. "Mr. 3, he says he won't let us off."
Mr. 3 shook his head. **"Just the desperate roars of a trapped animal.
Now that we've confirmed the Straw Hats are all hype, we can proceed with our plan.
For now, we won't bother rescuing Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine.
We'll personally take down the Straw Hats and the two giants. Bringing back a total bounty of 300 million berries should be enough to get me promoted to Mr. 2… or maybe even Mr. 1!"**
Sanji fell silent at those words.
Mr. 3 clearly knew nothing about the Straw Hats, but Sanji did.
Sure, he had been captured because of a trick, but the rest of the crew wouldn't go down so easily. Forget about facing Luffy or Carl—if he so much as ran into Usopp or Jango, Mr. 3 would regret his confidence.
At that moment, the rest of the Straw Hats had no idea that Sanji had been ambushed. They continued their journey as usual.
Zoro had just finished hunting an oversized prey and was hauling it back when, as always, he got completely lost. The constant shaking of the island was making him more and more impatient.
Just then, he spotted Chef Seok standing under a tree not far away.
Zoro was about to greet him, but something made him freeze.
After honing his Observation Haki, he had grown used to sensing presences. But right now, he clearly felt something was off—this damn cook… wasn't alive.
His instincts immediately went on high alert.
"Oi, shitty cook, you bastard—did you catch anything?"
Zoro walked toward him, unbothered.
But as he got closer, he finally saw it—Sanji's blank, lifeless expression.
He wasn't alive at all.
At that moment, Zoro sensed danger nearby.
Without hesitation, he swung his sword—only to strike a solid white wall with a loud clang.
"A wall? No… this feels like wax!"
Zoro quickly dodged to the other side of the wax wall, but there was no one in sight. However, he did notice footprints leading away.
"They ran? Who the hell was that?"
"Is this wall the work of a Devil Fruit user?"
"And they even made a wax figure of that perverted cook so lifelike… Does that mean the real pervert is in trouble?"
A sense of unease crept into Zoro's mind, and he immediately set off, following the footprints.
Before long, he found himself lost again.
Meanwhile, Mr. 3 had run a long distance and was now leaning against a large tree, panting heavily. His heart pounded in his chest—clearly, he had been shaken.
"That Pirate Hunter is stronger than I thought… The Straw Hats aren't just rumors after all."
He furrowed his brows, adjusting his plan.
"I'll deal with the Pirate Hunter last. It's better to take down the weaker ones with lower bounties first."
"As for the princess and that curly-browed cook… they're too weak to even bother making a plan for."
Back to Carl.
After eating a Devil Fruit, Luffy felt more energized than ever.
But in front of Carl, he remained respectful. Even though Carl treated him like a workhorse, Luffy didn't mind. The reason? He knew he couldn't win against him.
There was no need to even try—Luffy had already witnessed Carl ruling an entire island!
At this moment, Carl was riding on Luffy's back, moving slowly. The massive black sword wasn't floating behind him as usual. Instead, it was dragging behind him, along with the giant corpse of a plesiosaur.
Though this plesiosaur wasn't particularly large, it was still Luffy's trophy.
They had already eaten dinosaurs from the land, so now they wanted to try ones from the sea. Honestly, if the Straw Hats' ship and refrigerator weren't so small, Carl and Luffy would have wiped out every dinosaur on the island.
Just then, Carl noticed a strange pattern on the ground.
The moment he saw it, something clicked in his mind, and he smirked.
"Heh… so they're still here. That works out just fine. If we take them down one by one, Crocodile will have no one left, and stopping the rebellion will be even easier. Plus, Miss Golden Week's ability is actually pretty interesting."
Thinking this, Luffy came to a stop, and Carl rested his blade.
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