"Don't push it, brat!"
Manba was stunned at first, then suddenly flew into a rage, grabbing Luffy by the collar.
"You dare say you don't know us? How could you say that with a straight face? Do you know how much food you've stolen from us these past few days?!"
"Food?"
Luffy thought hard, then suddenly widened his eyes. "Uncle, you mean that roasted meat? That stuff was yours?"
"What else?!"
Manba got even angrier, shouting so hard that spit flew all over Luffy's face. "You think roast meat just grows out of the ground?!"
"But I didn't see anyone nearby," Luffy said, confused. "So I just picked it up. I thought it was roasted by some wild animals in the mountains."
That did sound kind of ridiculous.
But Luffy really wasn't lying.
Apes that could fish, monkeys that brewed liquor, bears that knitted sweaters, leopards that built treehouses...
The Corbo Mountains were full of strange and talented beasts, nothing was too bizarre to believe—Luffy had seen it all with his own eyes.
Compared to that, animals that could roast meat didn't seem all that unusual. Maybe their cooking was even better than most people's.
Manba had also seen things like that before, so he froze for a moment.
"So it was a misunderstanding? Then how come the last few times we caught you after food went missing, you just started fighting us without a word?"
"You guys were all holding weapons and shouting from far away that you were from the Manba Bandit Group—it was really scary, Uncle!"
Luffy pulled a bitter face. "I've always had a bad impression of mountain bandits. Even after that woman took me in, I still felt the same. I just… I really hate people who become bandits!"
A twitch formed at the corner of Manba's eye.
What, did bandits steal your rice or something?
Good thing you're talking to me. If it were the real infamous bandit chief Sieg, and you said that stuff in front of him, he'd have twisted your little head right off!
"Forget it. Untie this kid."
Manba sighed and waved his hand listlessly.
"Really?" Luffy's face lit up.
"But there's one condition."
Manba snorted. "You've got a partner, right? When's he coming to rescue you?"
"That kid also stole food from us a few times. Aren't you two both pretty good at fighting? When he gets here, you two can go out and hunt for us. Bring back all the meat you took… Ten times over!"
Ten times?!
Luffy's eyes bulged. That was insane!
He and Ace were tossed into the mountains by Dadan under Garp's orders to train. They had to survive this winter on their own.
The wild beasts in these mountains were ferocious and tough to hunt. Feeding themselves was already hard enough. Now they had to produce ten times the meat?
"Ten's too much! Six times!"
"Nine times. I'll cut you some slack since you're still a kid."
"Five times!"
"Eight! That's the bottom line!"
"Three times!"
"You can't just haggle like that, brat! Learn some math for crying out loud!"
Manba roared, nearly fainting from the rage. He waved off his men. "No! Don't untie him! We'll wait for his partner to show up. No way that guy's just as dumb!"
"Then maybe you should untie him now."
A calm voice suddenly spoke from above. "I'm afraid if his partner shows up, you'll get pissed to death again."
"Who's there?!"
Manba's expression changed. He yanked out his machete and pointed it toward the voice—only to see a black-haired boy crouching on a tree branch, looking at him with a strange expression.
"Three-million-berry bandit Manba?"
Shano shook the wanted poster he had taken from Skinny Monkey, comparing it back and forth with the man before him. "No matter how I look at it, you two don't match at all..."
The Manba on the wanted poster had a sinister gaze and was covered in flab.
But this man standing here was only slightly bulky. His facial features were totally different.
The only thing they had in common was a long scar on their faces.
"This photo really you?"
Shano turned the poster sideways and pointed at the picture.
"That's me." Manba nodded. "I used to be really fat."
"Then that's not you."
Shano sneered. "I heard about Manba before I even came into the mountains. That guy did every evil thing under the sun—murder, rape, arson. The townspeople fear his name like the plague. If you were really him, would that little brat still be running his mouth here?"
"And your underlings don't look like real bandits at all. Otherwise, they wouldn't need three or four guys to fail at taking down an eight-year-old."
Shano glanced around.
Most of the dozen or so "bandits" in this camp were thin and sickly, wearing tattered clothes. Their weapons were barely functional.
Only two of them carried outdated flintlocks. The rest just held sharpened sticks.
Manba fell silent for a moment and murmured, "...So you figured it out."
"But one of your guys—his aim is surprisingly good."
Shano tossed down the gagged Skinny Monkey. "If I hadn't dodged fast, he would've shot me right between the eyes."
"Good aim?"
Manba was stunned. He looked at the moaning Skinny Monkey and yanked the cloth from his mouth. "Gin, when did you become a sharpshooter?"
"I didn't! I swear I didn't!"
Skinny Monkey gasped for air, nearly crying. "I was aiming at the tree branch under his feet to make him fall! I didn't think I'd miss by just a little..."
A little? From his foot to his forehead?
I'm almost six feet tall!
Shano's forehead twitched with a vein.
Manba, on the other hand, quickly caught on and began explaining in a rush:
"Sir, this has to be a misunderstanding. Gin here wouldn't just aim for your head right away! That's not the kind of guy he is. And his aim isn't nearly that good!"
"Honestly, his shooting is horrible—everyone we know can vouch for that. That's why he ended up joining me in the mountains."
"He used to be a candidate for the Royal Guard. But at the New Year's celebration two years ago, he was asked to fire a ceremonial shot into the air—and accidentally blasted Her Majesty the Queen in the face... Got his leg busted and was dumped in the Gray Terminal."
How is he even still alive?
Shano was stunned. He looked at the wronged-looking Skinny Monkey and rubbed his forehead helplessly. "So… you guys aren't really bandits. You're all just people from the Gray Terminal?"
Suddenly, his expression shifted, growing a little complicated. "Your homes… were they burned down?"
The Goa Kingdom had always been praised as "the most beautiful kingdom in the East Blue."
But that was only the polished surface of the inner city. Hidden behind its towering walls was the massive, disgusting garbage disposal site known as the Gray Terminal.
Everything filthy and undesirable—trash and starving commoners—was thrown there. Over time, it became a wretched slum.
And just last year, to prepare for a Celestial Dragon's visit, the king of Goa went one step further.
He burned it all. Homes, people, the whole Gray Terminal—wiped out like garbage.
"Yeah, gone. All of it."
Manba looked distant, eyes filled with memories. "A lot of people died that night. I heard some kind folks calling themselves the Revolutionary Army brought a big ship and rescued some refugees at the harbor. But others, like us, ran south, driven by the fire into the Corbo Mountains to survive."
"On the outskirts of the mountain, I stumbled upon the burned corpse of the real Manba. So starting a few months ago, I just decided to take up his name. That way, at least I could scare off real bandits and protect my people."
He let out a long sigh and looked up with a bitter smile.
"Sir, we never wanted to live like this. Honestly, we're scared that if we go on this way, we'll really turn into bandits. But… what choice do we have?"