Chapter 55: All-out Battle!
As he took a sip of his drink, four random Baroque Works agents got a stupid idea and tried to ambush Luffy from behind. Of course, Luffy knew they were there, but he didn't care.
The four agents had no idea what hit them when four bolts of lightning shot from Luffy's throne and pierced their chests, killing all four of them.
"Trash," said Luffy with a sigh before he turned his attention back to everything that was going on underneath him. Zoro cut through the crowd as easily as Luffy expected.
The thing that surprised Luffy was how well Johnny and Yosaku held the bisento. The two of them slashed Baroque Works agents with similar ease to Zoro, and apparently, their observation of Haki increased the more they fought.
Luffy had a proud smile on his face when he saw the way they were developing, and they were progressing much faster than Luffy expected. Luffy wondered if it was time to start their training in armament haki.
While the fight was going on, Luffy's haki observation alerted him to someone moving in the bar where the rest of the crew were sleeping. Upon further analysis, he realised that it was Nami looking for something of value that the bounty hunters might have.
Chuckling to himself, Luffy returned his attention to the fight. He noticed that Zoro was screaming at one of his swords. What a strange sight to behold: a grown man talking to his sword.
"Well, third kitetsu, you're pretty sharp, but you're also a troublemaker, aren't you?" Zoro said in an irritated voice as he raised his sword to his face. "A good sword only cuts when its master directs it." "Cursed sword or not, you will listen to me," said Zoro, not noticing any of the bounty hunters sneaking up behind him.
The next thing Zoro saw was a small bolt of lightning fly past him, cutting a few strands of hair at the base of his neck before hitting the bounty hunter behind him right in the head.
Zoro was shocked for a moment before he looked back and saw a bounty hunter dead on his back with a smoking hole in the middle of his forehead. He then looked up to see where the shots were coming from and saw Luffy sitting on his throne, holding a smoking gun.
"You should pay attention to your surroundings, Zoro," Luffy grumbled, causing Zoro to nod his head and turn his attention to his new opponent, Ms. Monday.
Luffy turned towards Johnny and Yosaku and saw them fighting Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday; he then realised that someone was missing from all this fun, and it was Mr. 8. Luffy then looked straight ahead and saw Mr. 8 standing in the same place as before, staring at Luffy with an angry look on his face.
"What's the matter, Mr. 8?" Luffy asked in a mocking tone, which made Mr. 8 more angry. "Has the all-powerful Baroque Works been defeated by some little pirates from East Blue?" Luffy asked and continued to taunt him. "I wonder what your boss thinks of all this?" Luffy asked, causing Mr. 8 to turn pale before he regained his composure and shouted at Luffy.
"I'll make you pay for all of this!" he shouted at Luffy before blowing on his saxophone, and a bullet came out at Luffy. Luffy paid no heed to the bullets and just let them pass through his body, causing Mr. 8's eyes to widen.
"Hmm, that's not very good," said Luffy while continuing to taunt him. Before Mr. 8 could answer, a loud, high-pitched scream came from the area where Zoro was fighting.
Luffy and the others looked over there and saw Zoro holding Ms. Monday with his hand while squeezing him, then Zoro let go and he fell unconscious on the roof.
Two more screams came from where Johnny and Yosaku were fighting, and when Luffy and Mr. 8 looked up, they saw Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday passed out on the ground. The other Baroque Works agents were terrified at this point.
"They beat the agents by one point," one of the random agents said in a terrified voice.
"And their captain hasn't even done anything yet," said another.
"We are all going to die here today," one man said as he dropped his weapon and fell to his knees. Luffy laughed at their reactions, then watched as Zoro and the bounty hunter duo walked back towards him.
"Good job, you three," said Luffy as he rose from his throne and sent him back into the sky. "Looks like your observation haki has improved even further," he said, causing all three of them to smile.
"What are you going to do with the others?" Zoro asked as he turned his attention to the other bounty hunters. Luffy smiled and looked at the bounty hunters before he spoke to them.
"I'll give you a choice," Luffy said, shocking the bounty hunters. "You can leave Baroque Works and join me, or you can die," Luffy said, causing a few of them to tremble in fear.
"We will... we will join you." BOOM! The agents couldn't finish his sentence before something hit him and exploded on contact, killing him and several other agents in the area around the explosion.
Everyone was confused and scared by what had just happened. Zoro and the Bounty Hunter duo looked at Luffy to see if he did, but to their surprise, Luffy was just as confused as they were.
"It seems we have another guest," said Luffy quite quietly, but his three maids could hear him, and then Luffy looked into the nearby alley.
"Geez, it looks like some of you are planning to betray Baroque Works," came a male voice from the alley that Luffy was looking at. Out of the shadows of the alley, a man and a woman walked out.
All the bounty hunters' faces turned white when they saw the couple.
Luffy guessed that the two newcomers were higher-ranking members of Baroque Works who were sent here to help the island. Now Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 were up and crawling towards Mr. 8.
"You three lost against some minor pirates, now that's really sad," the woman said condescendingly as she stared at the three Baroque Works agents.
"Mr. 5, Ms. Valentine!" Ms. Wednesday said this in shock.
"Hmm, I can't do your job," said Mr. 5.
"Kyahahaha! "Well, that's obvious because of the difference between our rankings and yours," Ms. Valentine scoffed.
"You came here just to laugh at us!" Mr. 8 asked angrily.
"No, that's just a bonus," said Mr. 5.
"Kyahahaha! "We're here because of the boss' orders," said Ms. Valentine, who shares Luffy's curiosity.
"Hahaha! With you guys here, we can finally beat them. "They have no chance against you." 9 when he shakily stood up.
"That's right, let's beat them up and show them what Baroque Works can do," said Ms. Wednesday.
"Seriously, Ms. Wednesday should quit with this joke. "We didn't come here to clean up the mess you guys made," said Mr. 5 as he put his hands in his pockets.
"Did you really think we came all the way to the start of the Grand Line just to help you?" Ms. Valentine asked rhetorically. "Oh, you're even more pathetic than you look," he laughed.
"Then what are you guys here for?" Mr. 9 asked in a confused tone. To be honest, Luffy was wondering the same thing.
"You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" Mr. 5 asked as he took a few steps forward. "There are people here whose crimes against the company are quite large, to the extent that the boss sent us here to clean things up for them." He said someone had found out about his secret; I don't know what it is, and I don't want to know either. "Obviously, someone else did it, and it's totally against company rules," he said.
Luffy can feel that Mr. 8 and Ms. Wednesday are starting to feel nervous and can only guess that it is the two of them who have learned the secret.
"Our company motto is mystery." Everyone's identity must be kept secret, no matter who they are. "If someone is stupid enough to snoop around in the boss's business, well, that is a crime punishable by death," he said coldly.
"Well, well, it looks like it's getting more interesting now," said Luffy to Zoro and the bounty hunter duo.
"I guess so," Zoro added as they witnessed this interaction.
"So, while we were doing our investigation about who knows the boss' secret, we found something, kyahwah!" Ms. Valentine said while spinning his umbrella.
"Apparently an induvial of a certain high standing managed to infiltrate Baroque Works," he said, causing Luffy's eyebrows to raise in surprise.
"Kingdom?!" Mr. 9 shouted in surprise. "But wait! "I may wear a crown, but I'm not a king or anything; I swear it's just a petty hobby that has nothing to do with this," he begged the couple to believe him.
"Shut up, you idiots!" Ms. Valentine screamed in a high voice.
"You still don't get it; we're after the guys from Alabaster." "They're the ones who pissed off the boss," said Mr. 5, which made Luffy even more shocked. At this moment, Mr. 8 was trembling in fear as he stared at the ground.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone