I felt confident in the amount of training and battle experience I’d had. Doflamingo’s family taught me the basics of fighting, and since moving in with Wolf on the island, I’d learned more techniques and gained strength.
But there was a major difference between now and the past. When I fought for Doflamingo, I believed in nothing and acted on nothing beyond my impulse to cause as much damage in the world as I could before I died.
Things were different now; there were people and places that I wanted to protect. The lives of the residents of Pleasure Town and of my dearest friends were hanging in the balance. I couldn’t afford to lose. It wasn’t an option.
A deep breath or two helped to release the tension in my muscles. If the leader of a group is feeling tense, those under him won’t be able to let go and fight with all their might.
To set the tone, I shouted, “Let’s go, people! Make sure you survive this! And make sure you win!”
“Yeah!” they called back to me.
I gripped the sword Wolf had given me at the lab and turned around. We faced more opponents now than we had earlier in town. There were fifty or sixty of them, and they each wore a leering expression as they waited to see what we would do. Clearly, they felt their overwhelming advantage in numbers would guarantee them victory.
“Don’t threaten us with a good time,” I said, fixing them with a murderous glare. Their obnoxious smiles vanished.
I didn’t see the two notable figures among the group: the captain, Artur Bacca, and his sumo-like henchman, Connie Boakeno.
This fight would be simple. We just needed to break through the enemy mass, defeat Bacca and Boakeno, and then we would win. If we fell in battle before that, we would lose.
“That’s big talk from an old fart and some little kids!” one of the pirates snarled, tired of the stalemate. He rushed at me with a sword. This was the signal for us to charge. First, four of them blocked my path, each one attacking from a different angle.
“You’re not fast enough,” I said. I could practically see them moving in slow motion. I delivered a kick to the jaw of the enemy coming from the right. A palm strike took care of the one in front. I thrust an elbow into the solar plexus of the enemy on the left. From there, my stance carried me into a roundhouse kick against the one creeping up from behind. Just like that, four enemies down.
“W-whoa. He’s tough,” I heard one of the pirates mutter.
The side that lost their nerve in the midst of the fight would lose. I wasn’t going to let that opportunity pass me by. Five, six, seven… For each enemy that came after me, I countered them and knocked them out cold. Onward I went.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nearby, I could hear my companions shouting things like “Achow!” and “Ora-ora-oraaa!” Bepo was using martial arts and Penguin was mowing them down with spears, while Shachi destroyed the enemy’s weapons with his hatchet. Naturally, Wolf was having no trouble delivering precise knockout blows to his opponents.
Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen… The pirates were going down without landing a single hit on us. Eventually, their attacks ceased. I glanced around and realized that the five of us were the only ones standing.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Easy peasy!” Penguin crowed.
“I guess all that practice really did make perfect,” Shachi marveled.
“Let’s keep it up and take down the boss!” Bepo shouted excitedly.
They were all getting carried away—except for Wolf, whose gaze was firm, his brow furrowed.
Yes, the real trouble was up ahead of us. The fight with Bacca and Boakeno was the true challenge.
“Keep rushing straight through to the back room—they’re probably there. Don’t expect the same results against them!” Wolf warned us. The flush of victory drained from Penguin’s, Shachi’s, and Bepo’s expressions.
“All right, let’s go!” I shouted and threw open the door.
“Hakkeyoi!” came the ear-splitting reply, as a mass of flesh burst toward me.
It was Connie Boakeno. He had a sumo wrestler’s mawashi belt around his tanned waist and a topknot on his head. His powerful charge split us into two groups.
Wolf and I had quicker reflexes and avoided the attack, but Bepo and the other two were bowled backward by Boakeno’s bulk. I rushed to help them. But Penguin held up a hand, urging me to stop and stay where I was.
“You and Wolf take care of Bacca!” Penguin shouted. “We’ll handle the sumo wrestler!”
For an instant, I hesitated. The sumo guy was a formidable foe, that much was for certain. But if we turned back to help the others, Bacca would likely attack us from behind.
“Let’s keep moving, Law,” Wolf said, laying a firm hand on my shoulder. “Trust them. They haven’t been training every day for nothing. One thing a leader has to learn to do is trust in his team’s strength.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. “Bepo! Shachi! Penguin! I’m the one who trained you up! You better not lose and make me look bad!”
“You got it!” they called back.
Wolf and I turned away and continued through the temple until we came to a massive door.
“Wait. Put these on before we go in,” Wolf said.
“What are they?”
“Small lenses for your eyes. Bacca’s hypnosis beam enters through the eyes, but if you have these, you can prevent it from taking over your mind.”
“Sounds like a good thing to have.”
“I’ve been working on this for years. I always thought the day might come when I would have to take care of Bacca myself. So I made sure I had the right inventions ready.”
A fight against his own son, his flesh and blood. Wolf must have felt much anguish over this decision. But now wasn’t the time to ask him about it. I just took the lenses and put them in my eyes.
“All right, then! Let’s go, Junker!”
“You bet!”
We opened the door.