"What's a birdman?"
"A person with bird wings, duh!"
"Look at that winged guy, what else would he be?"
"True… yeah, he's definitely a birdman."
Standing in the doorway, Millie and Mina whispered in confusion.
Hearing both Aeridar's comment and the twins' chatter, Copra staggered, almost tripping over himself.
"..."
Arlan's lips twitched.
Birdman. A guy with bird wings.
What a vivid description—I can't even argue with it.
"I'm a Zoan-type Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Falcon user," Copra growled, voice raspy and tinged with suppressed irritation.
"Falcon, huh? That's going to be annoying. Another one who can fly…"
Arlan's muscles tensed, ready for sudden attack.
"Bird-Bird Fruit? Still makes you a birdman!" Aeridar quipped again, unbothered.
"Birdman! Birdman~!"
Millie and Mina chanted in unison, hand in hand.
"I'm going to kill you all!"
Rage flared in Copra's eyes. With a beat of his wings, he shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
"He's coming!"
Arlan's expression sharpened. He stomped the ground and leapt into the air, lashing out with a kick.
BOOM!
A massive tree across the street—thick enough that two people couldn't wrap around it—was engulfed in fire and toppled with a thunderous crash.
But Arlan's kick hit nothing. The shockwave from his missed strike had blasted the tree apart. Copra had easily veered past him—his real target was Aeridar.
Steel gleamed cold in his hand. A razor-sharp, short steel spear aimed straight for Aeridar's chest. He hadn't even reached him yet, but the slicing wind had already started to sting.
"A third-rate pirate… dares to lay a hand on my captain?"
A thunderous voice boomed out.
In the blink of an eye, a towering figure exploded from behind Aeridar.
WHAM!!
The air rippled violently. Copra was sent flying backward like a dark blur. Midair, his wings flared open to stop his descent, hovering in place. But the gusts his wings generated blasted outward, sweeping the area like a windstorm. Luckily, they weren't on a main street, or a dozen pedestrians would've been sent flying.
In the sky, the front of Copra's shirt had a brownish imprint—like rust left by a giant fist. His steel spear had snapped clean in half.
No, not snapped—it looked like the middle of it had rusted into dust and crumbled apart.
Standing in front of Aeridar now was a shirtless man, nearly three meters tall. From his massive hand, rust-colored flakes fell like sand, making a faint shushing sound.
"Ha! Well done, Backan!"
Aeridar clapped the giant man on the shoulder, laughing heartily.
He was the former captain of the Mountain Pirates, now the 4th Division Commander of the Chris Pirates—Mountain Axe: Diego Backan.
"Another Devil Fruit user?!"
In midair, Copra's face darkened. With a dull clang, he tossed aside the broken halves of his spear.
He hadn't expected to run into not one, but two Devil Fruit users in this backwater town. Including himself, that made three. Of course, he didn't yet realize Aeridar was also a Devil Fruit user. If he had, he'd have realized it was four—and probably bolted then and there. No way he could survive being ganged up on by three powerful ability users.
"That's the Rust-Rust Fruit! It's seriously powerful…"
Millie and Mina gaped in awe as the flakes of rust drifted to the ground.
The Rust-Rust Fruit—canonically the ability of Marine HQ Captain Shu—had been a Devil Fruit originally seized from pirates. The Marines had it locked away in a Seastone box. Then the Mountain Pirates stole it. And eventually, Aeridar hijacked both the fruit and the crew.
Neither the Marines nor Backan could open the Seastone box, lacking both a key and a way to break the durable case. But Aeridar had a special crew member—a former thief he'd recruited exactly for situations like this. Opening locked treasure chests and vaults with no keys was his specialty.
That thief had taken several days to crack the box open.
And to show his trust and win loyalty, Aeridar had let Backan eat the Devil Fruit inside.
To everyone's surprise, it turned out to be the very same Rust-Rust Fruit from the original storyline. Its power allowed the user to corrode anything they touched—including human bodies. Metal weapons stood no chance.
With Backan's immense strength combined with this power, he was nearly untouchable. Swords? Useless. Bullets and cannonballs? Might as well throw sand. Even human bodies with iron in their blood couldn't withstand rust and a punch from that monster.
"A Paramecia-type again… another problem user," Copra muttered as he looked at his ruined spear. He was already guessing Backan's ability. Looks like I can't let that brute get near my weapons again—or they'll rust to nothing.
Still, Copra pulled another identical spear from the long black case on his back.
After all, Arlan—the one with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit—was still a threat.
"You bastard… You ignored me?! You actually dared to attack my captain right in front of me?!"
Arlan's face darkened with fury. He'd been completely played, and his pride was boiling.
"Captain…? Their captain is here too…?"
Copra only now caught that detail. He hadn't heard Backan clearly before, but now Arlan had confirmed it—Aeridar was their captain.
That easygoing, laughing young man… was the captain?
That meant he was the strongest of them all.
Copra's confidence faltered.
"You arrogant prick! Ignoring me like I'm nothing?!"
Seeing Copra still midair and not even looking at him, Arlan exploded in rage. He stomped the ground and launched into the sky.
A white burst of compressed air flared under his foot—Geppo—the "Moonwalk" technique. With visible shockwaves beneath his feet, he stepped through the air itself toward Copra.
"NANI?! He can use that too?!"
Copra's eyes widened in disbelief. Arlan's technique looked exactly like the one used by that bounty hunter he'd met weeks ago—running through the air and unleashing slicing vacuum kicks. That guy was stronger than him by a good margin, and Copra had only survived because of his ability to fly.
That same bounty hunter, with only 200 men, had routed his 600-strong Flying Shot Pirates.
And there was also that fat man who could transform into a brown bear. Far stronger than Copra, and again—he'd only escaped thanks to flight. That battle had nearly wiped out his crew, leaving only a hundred survivors.
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