Bullfish Bay.
This is a very large inner bay. At its end lies a small lake. When the tide rises, the lake water connects with the seawater; when the tide recedes, the lake becomes independent again.
What made Vane feel a bit lucky was that there was a small waterfall above the lake.
He pushed a massive boulder beneath the waterfall and let the cascading water pound against the rock.
Bang! Bang!
From beneath the waterfall came the sounds of flesh colliding with rushing water, then finally smashing against hard stone.
"…Nine hundred ninety-eight, nine hundred ninety-nine, one thousand!"
The water pouring down from above could no longer reduce the force of Vane's fists striking the stone, yet only two fist marks remained on the rock.
One looked like a normal imprint smashed out by an iron fist. Beside it, the other bore faint cutting marks around the imprint.
The latter was caused by the cutting effect carried by the fist force extended from Frost Breathing. The appearance of these cutting traces meant his line of thinking wasn't wrong.
One thousand rounds of Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist, one thousand rounds of Whirlwind Cutting Fist, cycling like this… no mistake—after thinking it over, Vane had still shamelessly copied the names of these two techniques from the neighboring One Punch Man.
Today he had already done three thousand of each. Two more rounds, then when the tide came in he would go outside Bullfish Bay to catch bullfish and eat a meal—then a day of training would be complete.
"Vane! A ferry has arrived at the dock. There's a woman who wants to see you, meow."
Just as Vane was about to start his final round of practice, Meowth appeared on the shore and called out to him.
Vane failed to control his strength for a moment and smashed his fist heavily into the stone.
Centered on his fist, the rock rapidly cracked and shattered into a pile of rubble.
After enduring six thousand strikes, the rock's internal structure had already become extremely fragile. Controlling one's strength was also part of training, so he would usually shatter the stone with the final punch each day.
Today, with Meowth suddenly appearing, the balance of his punch was disrupted and the stone shattered ahead of schedule.
"Still need more training."
"What happened, Meowth?"
"Today there was a ship…"
Meowth explained everything it knew to Vane.
"So it's people from the gangs."
Among the four seas of pirates—the East, South, West, and North—the East Sea is the home of heroes and also the hometown of the Pirate King.
The South Sea is famous for technology, and many future high-ranking Marines come from there.
The North Sea has the legend of Germa 66.
The West Sea will later become famous as the homeland of one of the Yonko, Red-Haired, but for now it's better known for Kano Country.
However, the West Sea also has a very distinctive atmosphere: gangs run rampant. Even a poor place like Shell Town knows this.
The people of Shell Town might not know that there's a powerful country in the same sea called Kano Country, but they definitely know that gangs in the West Sea are terrifying.
Gang businesses are everywhere—tobacco, alcohol, firearms, food, slaves, luxury goods, shipping. You could say that in the current operating model of the West Sea, gangs play a crucial role.
Doflamingo, who's been running an underground arms market in the North Sea, can't even get a foot into the West Sea market at this stage—it's already full.
And later, one of the Supernovas from the same generation as Luffy, Capone Bege, is a pure gang product—the Paramecia-type Devil Fruit user of the "Castle-Castle Fruit."
Bege's ability makes his body essentially a castle. Every time he fights, a whole group of people rush out, or they fire guns and cannons outward from inside his body.
Others think they've surrounded him, but in reality, he's the one surrounding everyone else.
...
Vane returned to Shell Town and met Gangster Lena.
Lena was very beautiful, perfectly matching Vane's impression of beautiful women in the pirate world—classic long legs with a slender waist and ample curves, paired with short black hair like Ada Wong from Resident Evil, deadly to both men and women.
Very beautiful. Yet Vane still smelled danger on her—at the very least, she wouldn't be any weaker than Big Blade Buri.
"The one who killed Big Blade Buri… was that you?"
Lena was also somewhat surprised upon seeing Vane. This man—no, this boy—was very young, probably no more than sixteen.
She was surprised at first, but quickly put away any sense of disdain. The first time she killed someone, she was only twelve. In this era of the seas where talents emerge endlessly, age has never been an issue.
She'd heard that recently, a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old had also appeared on the assassin market. Relying on his Devil Fruit ability, pirates with bounties of twenty to thirty million were no match for him.
Perhaps the person before her was also a Devil Fruit user.
"That's right. I killed the Buri Pirates. I wonder what business a lady from the gangs has with me?"
Could she be here to cause trouble? Were gangs and pirates connected?
Lena took out the bounty posters of Big Blade Buri and Small Blade Dolon.
"I'm here to do business with you. Our gang can buy their heads. Of course, the price will be one-fifth lower than exchanging them directly at a Marine base."
"We can also take care of the remaining members of the Buri Pirates, as well as their pirate ship."
The value of a pirate ship wouldn't be lower than the combined value of two bounty heads. As for the ordinary crew, the gang naturally had its own ways of handling them.
As soon as Vane heard this, he felt he'd taken a big loss. At the start, to intimidate the captured pirates, he'd sunk quite a few people into the sea. Now it seemed he'd sunk an entire bag of money.
"Besides buying things, do you sell things too?"
"Of course."
There was only one gang in the Thorn Rose Sea. In this small sea region, all legitimate or illegitimate business belonged to them.
"Then you can take the heads of those two pirates. Among the rest, I want to keep a batch— the others can go to you. As for the ship, I don't want to sell it for now."
After days of labor, Meowth had clearly seen which of the twenty-plus pirates worked hard and which slacked off. As someone who'd played the role of a villain for a long time, Meowth could clearly judge who was honest and who harbored ill intentions.
The repairs were already more than halfway complete, and they didn't need so much manpower anymore—so they'd sell the rest to the gang as a package.
In the end, ten pirates were escorted onto the ferry with blank expressions, along with two frozen heads and a purchase order.
On the order were the materials Meowth needed. Some more sensitive materials weren't bought directly; instead, related weapons were purchased so parts could be dismantled from them.
After this back-and-forth, Vane had twenty million Belly left in hand, eight million of which would be paid after the gang gathered the materials and delivered them to Shell Town.
On the ferry's deck, the ten pirates were being lectured by Lena.
"You are now lifelong slave laborers of the Thorn Gang. Obediently accept the work arrangements of the gang. As long as you work for twenty years, you'll have a chance to become low-level gang members."
The treatment of those who voluntarily joined a gang and those who were forced to join it was obviously different. What's more, these people had been bought as property. Lena said they could become gang members after twenty years, but in reality, it would already be a miracle if even one succeeded.
Especially recently, large numbers of bought or forcibly joined gang members had been mysteriously disappearing.
"Twenty years! Don't even dream about it."
They were all West Sea people. The lowest-level work in gangs was barely different from slavery. How could these freedom-loving pirates tolerate working in a pitch-dark place for twenty years?
Before, building houses on Shell Town was under the oppression of one man and one cat. Now the ferry had left port. Aside from some ordinary passengers, there were only the captain, sailors, and one woman from the gang on board.
The shackles on their feet were relatively loose to make labor easier, so now they planned to hijack the ferry, quickly leave this sea, and defect to other big-name pirates with bounties.
"Stinking woman, die!"
The closest tall pirate lunged straight at Lena.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three gunshots rang out. A firearm appeared in Lena's hand, capable of loading multiple rounds. It was clearly a more advanced gun, and smoke was still curling from the muzzle.
One shot to the brow, one to the heart, one to the throat. The tall pirate collapsed to the ground instantly.
"She—when did she get a gun in her hand?"
"So… so fast."
Lena blew away the smoke from the muzzle and looked at the remaining people.
"Twenty years, or end up like him. Choose."