Seeing this incredibly young man sitting beside Shakky, Roger's mind raced, but he didn't remember anyone of this description, whether among pirates or Marines.
"Hey, kid, are you the one holding Shakky hostage and spreading those rumors?" Roger shouted rudely.
"One Devil Fruit for one kiss. If you have the goods, trade. If not, die. Oh wait, even if you have the goods, you die." Beam stopped pretending.
The players who had been training Haki with the Kuja Pirates in the rear town were also drawn over by the commotion.
"It's the Roger Pirates..." Tritoma, who had lost some of her girlish naivety and gained a bit more feminine sensibility, said with some surprise, but then returned to calmness. "Makes sense. Roger is Shakky-san's number one suitor. It's not strange he came."
"Is he strong?" Hachiman asked curiously.
Tritoma nodded: "Mm, in terms of overall strength, the Roger Pirates are definitely top five in this era."
"Bastard! Who gave you permission to do this to Shakky?!" Roger was furious. He drew his famous blade, one of the Supreme Grade Blades, named after his son, Ace, and charged towards the platform.
A crimson sword glow gathered at the blade's edge, enough to split mountains and earth with a single slash.
He wasn't using his full power, but he wasn't holding back much either.
Although Roger wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, any force capable of subduing the Kuja Pirates couldn't be weak.
Yu placed his right hand on his left arm, cocking it like a gun. His arms instantly transformed into two heavy cannons, which he raised and fired armor-piercing rounds at Roger continuously.
Bang bang bang!
The rain of bullets and the flying slash clashed, one above the other.
Although Roger's initial flying slash had the clear advantage, a gun barrel also extended from Yu's head, unleashing an even more violent laser with a bang, temporarily blocking Roger's flying slash.
"What ability is that?" Roger's expression changed, but then the corner of his mouth curled up slightly. "In that case, I'll get a bit more serious."
With that, Roger twisted his wrist and unleashed a second wave of sword energy.
Instantly, Yu couldn't hold on and stumbled back a few steps.
'Damn, swordsmen in this world really do use their swords to shoot energy waves.'
Just as Yu gritted his teeth and was about to be overwhelmed, Makoto's right eye, with its three tomoes spinning rapidly, transformed into an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, locking onto Roger.
Suddenly, Roger felt a strong sense of crisis well up inside him. By pure instinct, he dodged to the side.
Whoosh!
Instantly, a clump of dark black flames rose from where Roger had just been standing.
The Amaterasu flames, having lost their target, instinctively shot backwards and landed on a crew member of the Roger Pirates.
"Ow! Hot, hot!" The crew member was immediately knocked to the ground, rolling around continuously, but the flames wouldn't go out.
"Get in the water!" The third-in-command, Gaban, made a quick decision and kicked the crew member into the sea.
Almost all of the Roger Pirates were non-ability users... everyone could swim.
However, they soon discovered that even in the sea, the black flames on the crew member showed no sign of extinguishing.
Rayleigh noticed that Gaban's toes had also caught the strange black flames.
"Gaban, take off your shoes!" Rayleigh shouted, sensing something was wrong.
Gaban trusted him and quickly shook off the shoe, throwing it into the sea.
In just those few seconds, the crew member Gaban had kicked into the sea had already gone silent.
His body floated on the surface, the strange black flames still consuming his corpse.
The Roger Pirates, all of whom possessed Observation Haki, sensed that he had no vital signs left.
"Rowing!"
The entire Roger Pirates' crew cried out the deceased's name, wanting to pull him out, but Rayleigh stopped them: "Don't move. The flames haven't gone out yet."
'Those flames were too sinister!'
'We absolutely cannot touch them, or it would only create more casualties.'
Then, Rayleigh turned his head and looked at Makoto's group: "Who? Who did that?"
"Kid, you killed Rowing, didn't you?!" Roger immediately locked onto Makoto.
His Observation Haki had just sensed it… that kid's body, more precisely his right eye, was emitting a strange energy.
"If you hadn't dodged, he'd be fine." Makoto said cheerfully.
Even Roger, with his thick skin, was speechless at that moment, 'Damn, how could someone be so shameless?'
"This is a good practical training opportunity." Makoto raised his voice. "Attack!"
He had originally spread the news through Morgans to lure pirates in for his mutually assured destruction scheme.
If ordinary people like the farmer, or normal Marines like Smoker, had shown up, Makoto might have let them go.
But the Roger Pirates clearly didn't fall into that category.
Instantly, Megumi, Ran, Kotonoha, and the other women who had been training in the rear town marched out in full force.
Saeko, holding the katana Tritoma had given her a few days earlier, licked her lips, trembling with excitement: "Can I finally fight? My sword has been craving action."
"Hey, hey, calm down! That's the Roger Pirates!" Tritoma couldn't help but remind her.
Although their captain and vice-captain had a pretty good relationship with the Roger Pirates, Tritoma herself didn't have any particular feelings for this group of super-husbands.
Besides, although her relationship with Makoto was currently only physical, he was still the man who had taken her first time and given her endless pleasure.
So, psychologically speaking, Tritoma still leaned more towards Makoto's side.
"It's fine." Makoto said. "Fight your hardest. If there's danger, I'll step in. Whoever grabs a Devil Fruit gets to keep it."
Makoto's words were like a shot of adrenaline injected into all the players.
"Thank you for your kindness, Commander!"
Saeko's pretty face flushed red. She suddenly drew her sword and charged forward.
Reze, Kotonoha, Megumi, and the others followed closely behind.
Even Reze, currently the strongest among the female companions, had little chance of winning against the Roger Pirates, let alone Saeko.
What was the difference between this and just getting a starter Pokémon from Professor Oak and immediately challenging the Elite Four?
But with Makoto around, it was different.
Saeko, charging at the front, swung her sword at Roger.
"Are you joking, little girl?" Seeing this, Roger couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He didn't even deign to counter with his sword, simply raising his leg to kick this insolent girl away.
But the moment his foot was less than half a meter from Saeko—
Grey-black flame-like energy suddenly rose from Makoto's body surface, transforming into the second form of Susanoo.
Then, a rapidly spinning magatama shot towards Roger, forcing him to hurriedly raise his sword to block.
And in that instant, Saeko swung her blade at his heart.
Clang!
A sound like metal striking metal rang out. Saeko was surprised to find her sword seemed to have hit some kind of mineral substance... it couldn't penetrate at all.
Recalling the principles of the three types of Haki that Tritoma had explained to them over the past two days, Saeko instantly understood.
She thought inwardly, 'So this is Armament Haki? It can be used for both offense and defense.'
"Captain, we'll help you!"
"Let's get Shakky-chan back!"
"Shakky! Wait up, go on a date with me."
The other crew members of the Roger Pirates also charged forward.
Although they didn't sense any strong auras from the players, the kid sitting on the stage seemed to have very sinister abilities. Relying on Roger alone might be troublesome.
Besides, this was a golden opportunity to win Shakky's heart!
Seeing that Saeko was unharmed, the players' confidence surged again.
"Alright! I'm definitely going to make a name for myself this time!" Uesugi Futaro, holding a javelin also obtained from the Kuja Pirates, charged madly from the side towards the Oro Jackson docked at the port.
As one of the top five students in his year at Shuchi'in High School in the real world, Futaro claimed he was different from the other players… he could actually think.
Makoto had just said that whoever found treasure first could keep it.
With that in mind, he didn't necessarily have to fight the enemies. He could just run to the enemy ship and get the loot first.
This time, he was definitely going to get a powerful Devil Fruit and soar to the top.
And Makoto had just said… if there was danger, he would help. So he didn't have to worry.
Uesugi Raiha watched her brother run far away in one breath and shouted anxiously: "Wait a minute! Onii-ch—"
Bang!
The Roger Pirates' sniper, Petermoo, simply shot Futaro in the leg.
Futaro screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his broken leg and wailing in agony.
This shot was like a bucket of cold water poured over the players' heads.
Miyuki, who had also drawn his sword and was about to charge the Oro Jackson, looked stupidly at Makoto: "U-Um... C-Commander, didn't you just say..."
Makoto said matter-of-factly: "He's not one of my people. Why would I save him?"
Then, Makoto noticed Alice was also in danger.
He vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of Alice, took the Flying Thunder God kunai from her hand, and kicked MAX Marx, one of the veteran members of the Roger Pirates and the head chef.
Miyuki silently watched the wailing Futaro.
He knew this guy too.
Their academic scores were comparable. Although they had never spoken, they had been secretly rivals.
'Thank goodness I hadn't charged too fast... otherwise, that would be my fate.'
"You idiot brother!" Kei, guessing Miyuki's thoughts, scolded him.
'One after another, you've studied until your brains are fried.'
'Who do you think you are?'
'Why would Nishikawa Makoto protect you?'
'He'll definitely only protect his own people.'