One Piece: The Living Devil

"Saint Rosse! It's Saint Rosse's ship!"

"Run!"

"The Pirate Demon is here, run!"

"..."

Rosse's warship slowly appeared within the range of Jaya Island, causing a chain reaction of commotion.

Jaya Island was not a member of the World Government, just a non-member island.

Since before the beginning of the Great Pirate Era, Jaya Island had been an important supply station for pirates, and a pirate-infested island.

Upon hearing the news that Rosse was coming, all the pirates on Jaya Island panicked.

Who wouldn't know by now?

The Marine's Sakazuki, the World Government's Rosse, the two most ruthless figures in the world.

Last year, the two of them destroyed Ohara.

Not long ago, even the Red Count was killed by them.

On top of that, these two were wandering the seas every day, hunting countless pirates.

In pirate circles, Rosse had already been given the title of Pirate Demon.

Now that this demon had come to Jaya Island, how could the pirates dare to linger?

Those with ships rushed to board them, those without either stole ships or simply swam away into the distance.

For a moment, the entire Jaya Island was plunged into chaos.

———

"Pfft, Pirate Demon...", On the ship, hearing the chaos on Jaya Island through her Observation Haki, Gion couldn't help but laugh, teasingly looking at Rosse.

"I really don't like such ambiguous nicknames, makes it sound like I'm some kind of pirate bully," Rosse shrugged helplessly. It wasn't like he had any choice in the nickname.

Though, being given that title by pirates was a good thing in a way.

At least when facing the lawful faction, just showing his name could gain goodwill.

"It really suits you, though," Gion smiled sweetly.

As for "demon," she could agree. Whether he was a demon of pirates, though, that was another question.

"No need to deal with those pirates?", Gion looked off into the distance.

With her Observation Haki, she could clearly sense the large number of pirate ships fleeing into the distance.

"Zephyr is more proactive than we are," Rosse shook his head. He had no interest in a bunch of ordinary pirates.

But to say he'd just let them go, that was impossible.

Pirates were the kind that didn't produce anything. Unless one was deliberately raising outlaws to justify one's rule, any ruling faction would disdain them.

Most importantly, pirates not only failed to produce, they also plundered and caused destruction everywhere, and occasionally even massacred innocents.

This kind of thing, Rosse simply couldn't stand it.

Everyone who contributed to production and construction was a precious asset to him.

If pirates killed even one civilian, that's one less civilian to work for him, how could he tolerate that?

But on this ship, the one most proactive about dealing with pirates was still Zephyr.

After sensing the situation on Jaya Island with his Observation Haki, Zephyr had already Moonwalked off.

The reason they let those pirates escape to sea was to avoid affecting the normal residents of Jaya Island.

Even though it was a non-member lawless zone, not everyone there was a villain.

In this regard, Zephyr was still very compassionate.

"Teacher Zephyr's killing intent is getting pretty heavy. It's even comparable to Sakazuki's," Gion sighed.

Back when she was in the Marine, she'd heard others say that Zephyr wasn't always like this.

Even when she was training under Zephyr, he didn't have such a strong killing intent.

As for the root cause...

Gion glanced at Rosse, this was the real culprit.

"He was always meant to be this way," Rosse shrugged, not feeling the slightest guilt.

It was true that after joining Rosse, Zephyr's hatred for pirates had grown deeper and deeper.

After all, Rosse wasn't exactly a good person, he was bound to do some things Zephyr disliked.

But those feelings of dissatisfaction meant little to Zephyr. Compared to the future Rosse painted, Rosse's misdeeds were almost negligible.

So all that emotion was channeled into Zephyr's hatred for pirates, and it became common for him to release that hatred by hunting them.

In Rosse's view, Zephyr was always meant to be like Sakazuki.

In the original timeline, Zephyr was even more extreme than Sakazuki and Rosse.

He used explosives to blow up three key points of the New World, intending to destroy the entire New World.

No normal person would think of doing something like that.

"Indeed... Teacher Zephyr should be this way."

The slaughter had already begun in the distance, and Gion let out a soft sigh.

She felt sorry for Zephyr.

He had never once killed a pirate, yet his wife and child were brutally murdered by pirates. Allegedly as a challenge to his reputation for never killing, to see if Zephyr could still uphold that after they murdered his family.

Just thinking about it made Gion want to kill all those pirates.

These past days traveling with Rosse, she had seen too many pirates, and too many places ravaged by them.

Each and every one of those tragedies was hard for her to accept.

When it came to the issue of pirates, her views aligned with those of Sakazuki and the current Zephyr.

Pirates should not exist in this world.

Many pirates were not oppressed commoners with no way to survive. Those types wouldn't last long at sea anyway, either dying in the ocean or at the hands of other pirates.

Without strength, one couldn't even be a pirate.

The sea was not a kind place. One careless moment, and you'd be buried in the deep.

Those who could survive as pirates were usually already powerful and local tyrants to begin with.

Such parasites deserved to be eradicated.

"Alright, let's keep moving. We're not staying on Jaya Island. Head straight for Skypiea," Rosse said calmly. Under his orders, the ship continued forward.

He came to Jaya Island not for this sparsely populated land.

Skypiea was ten thousand meters directly above Jaya Island, what he wanted to do was ride the sea current into the sky.

"Your Highness, I've calculated it," At that moment, Sora came rushing out of the ship's cabin.

"When is the Knock Up Stream?", Over the past few days, Rosse had told the others about Skypiea, but the only one who could really help him was Sora.

Telling Gion about it would only result in her waiting until they got there, to fight or find something.

To go to Skypiea the normal way, he needed Sora to calculate it.

"Your Highness, the Knock Up Stream appears about once a week, with exact timing affected by the underwater volcano. According to the intel from CP9, the next eruption should be in three days, at 10:00 a.m.," Sora said softly.

Even though the intel from CP9 had only come in that morning, it was more than enough time for her to calculate the exact timing.

"Three days later...", Rosse frowned slightly, "Too slow. I don't want to stay on this island for three days."

"Your Highness, there's another option," Sora hesitated for a moment, then said, "With your fruit ability, you should be able to trigger an underwater volcanic eruption and create the Knock Up Stream ahead of schedule. Even if it doesn't reach the ideal strength, we can still rely on your ability to reach Skypiea."

"Wait," Gion suddenly cut in and asked, "If we take the whole ship to Skypiea, how do we get back down?"

"We can just fly down. With your strength, and His Highness's fruit power, it won't be a problem," Sora smiled, with a hint of excitement on her face.

She was really eager to see what Skypiea at 10,000 meters high looked like.

And she also wanted to experience what it felt like to fall from 10,000 meters.

Especially since Rosse would be accompanying her the entire time, that made her all the more excited to try.

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