Chapter 25: A Two-Hundred-Million Bounty Pirate? One Strike!

The royal palace's once elegant and splendid throne room was now a scene of chaos and ruin.

Silver cutlery that had adorned the grand dining table had been swept away. The gilded trim along the surrounding walls had been violently ripped off. Golden ornaments were piled into burlap sacks and stacked against the walls like loot.

Newk sprawled arrogantly on the throne, one hand gripping a goblet of wine, the other draped possessively around a beautiful woman whose clothes were in disarray. He looked utterly at ease. The body of Nikola McCartney lay sprawled at Newk's feet, his features frozen in a final grimace of pain.

The woman trembling in Newk's arms was pale with terror. Though she tried her best not to look at Nikola McCartney's corpse beside her, her eyes kept darting in that direction despite herself, tears pooling but refusing to fall under her strained control.

Below the throne, the crew of the Newk Pirates laughed and shouted merrily, raising their cups in drunken revelry. A few, overtaken by their drunken joy, even began to dance in the middle of the hall. The palace maidservants scurried about, shaking as they refilled the pirates' cups. One young girl seemed unable to bear the pressure and burst into tears.

The festive atmosphere shattered at the sudden sound of weeping.

Newk, who'd been grinning broadly on his throne, instantly grew cold. He set down his wine goblet and fixed a piercing gaze on the maid who had begun to cry.

Terrified, the maid stared back at Newk. But before she could even open her mouth to beg for mercy, a mass of mud shot out from Newk's hand and splattered across her face.

The smell of wet earth rushed into her nostrils. She struggled for a moment before collapsing lifelessly to the floor.

Seeing this, the pirates exchanged glances, then burst into raucous laughter, utterly unfazed by a death in their midst. They went right back to drinking, dancing, and pulling trembling maidservants into their arms. One pirate leered at the woman in his grasp and whispered:

"If you want to stay alive, you'd better behave yourself."

In that moment, the grand throne room had become nothing more than a playground for pirates.

"Brothers! Keep enjoying yourselves!"

"Once we've eaten and drunk our fill, we'll go wipe out the Marine base here!"

"The New World belongs to us pirates! When did the Marines think they could stick their noses into the New World?!"

"The Newk Pirates are the new rulers of the Kingdom of Neil! And I… I am the king!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Seated on the throne, Newk let out a wild laugh. Then he grabbed his goblet, drained it in one long swallow, and slammed it down on the table before the trembling woman in his arms, growling:

"Pour me more wine!"

As the woman reached shakily to pour, Newk lowered his gaze to her pale chest, licking his lips. His eyes burned red as he suddenly seized her wrist, clearly intending to drag her away with him.

"Damn, why did it suddenly get so cold?"

At that moment, a pirate lounging near the hall's entrance shivered unexpectedly. As he moved to stand up and fetch a cloak, a pale sheet of frost crept silently into the throne room.

Raising his eyes, he realized that somehow, two strangers had appeared inside the hall.

One was a tall, slender man with a cool, impassive expression. He wore a round hat and round-lensed sunglasses, and kept both hands tucked into the pockets of his Marine cloak. Even his breath exhaled faint clouds of frost.

One of the man's legs had turned entirely to solid ice, and cold radiated from his body. The ground beneath his feet was already coated in a thin layer of ice.

Beside him stood a red-haired young man gripping a long katana. The youth's features were handsome, marked with red patterns running from his forehead to the corners of his eyes. His expression was calm as he lifted his gaze to look directly at Newk, who was just about to leave his throne.

"Who the hell are you two?!"

From his throne, Newk finally noticed the strangers who'd appeared in the hall. He released the woman's wrist and stared hard at the two figures.

Then his eyes fell on the Marine insignia on the tall man's chest and hat, and realization dawned.

"The Marines, huh?!"

"Heh heh heh… ha ha ha ha ha!"

"You sure got here fast! That must've been the work of that little wench who ran away earlier, huh?!"

"I was planning to pay the Marines a visit myself later. Didn't expect you'd deliver yourselves to me instead!"

"What, just the two of you? Where's the rest of your squad? Come on out! I'll take you all on at once! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Recognizing them as Marines, Newk wasn't afraid in the slightest. Instead, he threw back his head and laughed maniacally.

He'd already lost count of how many Marines of this level he'd disposed of in the past.

"Arrogant… unbelievably arrogant!"

Kuzan lifted his eyes to glare at the laughing Newk, rage burning so hot in his chest that his voice grew hoarse.

The two intruders who'd burst into the throne room were indeed Kuzan and Yorichi Tsugikuni. The moment they breached the mud fortress and entered the palace, they both sensed the presence of pirates in the great hall.

With his keen Observation Haki, Kuzan had already picked up on the atrocities that had taken place inside the palace. The entry halls had been littered with the corpses of royal guards.

As for Yorichi, he'd stepped over body after body to reach the throne room, and in his heart, he had already passed a death sentence on the pirate sitting on the throne.

A freezing aura radiated from Kuzan as he prepared to act. But just then, Yorichi stepped forward, lifting his katana and pointing it directly at Newk. In a low voice, he said to Kuzan:

"Kuzan, your powers… they're too merciful for men like these."

"Let me handle it."

On the throne, Newk stared at the red-haired youth who dared point a blade at him. He blinked in astonishment before throwing his head back in another roaring laugh.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Kid, you think you're gonna take me on?!"

"Come on, then! Come on!"

"I'm a Mud-Mud Human, thanks to the Mud-Mud Fruit! Swords and bullets can't hurt me at all!"

"Ha ha ha! Go on, try it! Try and cut me—"

But Newk never finished his sentence.

No one could say exactly when Yorichi vanished from in front of Kuzan. A thunderous boom split the air like a lightning strike.

Yorichi suddenly appeared directly in front of Newk. His blade fell in a single, blazing arc.

Newk was still mid-laugh when, without warning, he realized his view had inexplicably risen higher. An instant later, his vision plunged downward again. In a daze, he found himself staring at Yorichi's calm, emotionless face. A thought flashed through his stunned mind:

"When did this kid get here?!"

His spinning vision revealed his pirate crewmates staring up at him in horror. Then he saw his own headless body below him.

"Isn't… isn't that my body? Why… why am I looking at my own body?"

A chill of pure terror swept through him. He tried to speak, to scream, but no words would come. His consciousness was already dissolving into nothingness.

Horror coiled around his mind as Newk finally understood, in his last fleeting moments, that he was going to die.

"I'm going to die?! Impossible! How could I die?! A brat like this… how could a brat like this—"

Breath of Thunder — First Form — Thunderclap and Flash!

Blending the technique of Soru with Armament Haki infused into his blade, Yorichi reached a blinding speed in an instant. Newk, despite his Logia powers, never had the chance to fully activate his defenses before Yorichi's single strike decapitated him.

Yorichi gave a sharp flick of his sword, spraying droplets of blood from the blade. He slowly slid the katana back into its sheath.

With a dull thud, Newk's headless corpse collapsed at Yorichi's feet. Yorichi cast a glance down at the fallen pirate and murmured quietly to himself:

"Old habits really are hard to break. I wonder… does this come off as too brutal?"

Yorichi, long accustomed to decapitating demons, struck swiftly and mercilessly, as sharp and lethal as ever.

"Captain…"

"Captain Newk!!!"

"He's dead… he's really dead!!"

Once Newk fell and didn't rise again, it finally dawned on the Newk Pirates that their captain who had eaten a Logia-type Devil Fruit and believed himself immune to physical attacks had been slain in a single stroke.

The pirates' drunken revelry vanished in an instant. Staring at Yorichi standing by the throne, sword in hand, the remaining members of the Newk Pirates felt not the slightest will to fight. Panic-stricken, they all surged toward the throne room doors, desperate to escape.

"Ice Time!"

Just as Newk's remaining followers tried to flee, Kuzan finally made his move. Spreading his arms slightly, he unleashed an intense wave of frost. The thin frost beneath his feet transformed instantly into solid ice, spreading outward at blinding speed to engulf the pirates.

Crackling sounds filled the air as a freezing wind swept through the hall.

In the blink of an eye, the pirates rushing for the door were turned into icy statues, their faces frozen mid-scream in perfect, lifelike terror.

Boom!!!

"Kuzan! Yorichi!"

"Where are you two?!"

At that moment, a thunderous crash echoed from the palace courtyard. Immediately afterward, Garp's bellowing voice boomed into the throne room. A sudden gale swept in, carrying dust and debris swirling through the hall.

The pirate ice sculptures shattered into shimmering ice dust under the force of the roaring wind.

"…"

Kuzan let out an exasperated sigh, raising a wall of ice within the throne room to shield himself and the others from the whirlwind.

Yorichi, already resheathing his sword, stepped back to stand beside Kuzan. Hearing the commotion outside, he couldn't help sighing inwardly.

"With a style like that… being in the Marines really does seem like a waste of his talents."