Chapter 17
That’s right—the wanted poster Smoker had Wendel give me was for none other than Iron Hand Barlow, now dead on the floor. By sheer coincidence, Barlow walked into the tavern right after Wendel handed me the poster. That’s why Wendel looked so rattled when he saw him.
When I spotted Barlow, I was ready to take him out on the spot and cash in Smoker’s bounty. But then he dangled a “big job” in front of me—the Devil Fruit gig—so I held off, planning to complete his task, pocket the reward, and then finish Smoker’s job. In other words, whether Barlow screwed me over or not, that Devil Fruit was never his. My little tantrum back there? Just an excuse to flip the table.
“Tch, two jobs in one go. Talk about efficiency,” I mutter to myself, locking the Devil Fruit box shut. The one hundred twenty million Berries Barlow brought? Mine now. The Hunter’s Shop account pings with 5,000 bounty hunter points for completing the delivery.
It’s a loophole, I guess—or just the rules. When I touched Barlow’s Berries and he touched the Devil Fruit, the Shop auto-marked the job as done and sent the points. As for Barlow’s bounty points, those won’t hit until I cash in his head with Smoker or the Marines.
Barlow’s two beefy goons are still standing there, frozen like idiots. Everything happened too fast—I flipped on Barlow and killed him in under a minute. They didn’t have time to blink, let alone act. Now their boss is dead, and they’re stuck, unsure what to do.
Fight me? No way—they know they’d lose, seeing how easily I took out their captain. Run? If I don’t want them escaping, any move could land them next to Barlow. So they just stand there, helpless, caught between fight and flight.
As I tidy up the Berries and the Devil Fruit box, I notice the two lugs staring at me like scared kids.
Their eyes meet mine, and they flinch, practically shivering, heads dropping to avoid my gaze.
I’m in a good mood after scoring those points, so I give them a break. “What, sticking around? Expecting me to buy you a drink?”
“N-no, no way! We’re gone! You’re busy, we get it!” one of them stammers, shaking his head and bolting for the door.
The other scrambles after him, terrified I’ll change my mind if he’s a step too slow.
But as they reach the door, two thick streams of white smoke blast it open, wrapping around them and yanking them into the air.
“Where do you think you’re going, pirates?” a gruff voice rumbles. A silver-haired man in a white jacket strides in, puffing on two cigars, smoke billowing from his mouth and body.
Behind him trails a girl with short hair, a backpack slung over her shoulder, clutching a long sword. A pair of glasses sits on her nose, giving her a slightly dorky charm.
Thud! The smoking man slams the two goons together with his smoke and drops them to the floor. He walks straight to me, glancing at Barlow’s body, the wanted poster still on his face. His mouth quirks. “Finishing one job and killing your client right after? That’s low, Morgan.”
I shrug. “What can I say? He was my next target. And I only killed him after we closed the deal, so technically, he wasn’t my client anymore. I call it efficiency—two jobs, minimal downtime.”
“Tch, you’re always full of excuses,” the man snorts. He turns to Wendel behind me. “Wendel, the usual.” Then he drops into Barlow’s old seat.
“Yes, Mr. Smoker!” Wendel hurries to the bar, getting to work.
I pull up a chair and sit across from Smoker. “Shouldn’t you be somewhere else right now? If I’m not mistaken, Barlow’s pirate ship is docked at the harbor. As a Marine captain, aren’t you supposed to be out there busting the crew headed for the Grand Line?”
Smoker, usually hell-bent on crushing pirates, leans back casually, taking a deep drag on his cigar. “The harbor’s handled,” he says, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “I sent someone I trust. Those pirates won’t get far.”
He sounds so sure, like his guy’s got it all locked down.