Vivi's expression turned to shock as she saw the man introducing himself as Wapol.
"You... no way you're Wapol?!"
"Do you know him, Vivi? Could that guy really be a king of one of the World Government's allied nations?"
"Hancock, he is indeed the king of the Drum Kingdom."
"When I was a child, I saw him at the World Government summit, the Reverie."
"Hahahaha! It's been a while, you damn daughter of Cobra!"
Vivi recalled the time she met Wapol when she was a child.
Back then, she had accompanied her father, King Cobra, to Mariejois for the Reverie—a seven-day conference held in the Holy Land of Mariejois where fifty kings, each representing a nation allied with the World Government, gathered.
*****
"The Revolutionary Army's leader Dragon's ideology is dangerous! In five or six years, he could become a major threat to the World Government."
At the great round table where all fifty kings had convened, Wapol looked over at one monarch brandishing Dragon's photograph and spoke up.
"Ha, a country that wavers at the whims of some so-called revolutionary was bound to collapse on its own."
"If you want to catch him, do it yourselves—it's none of our concern, so don't drag our country into it."
Bang!
"Wapol! What do you take the Reverie for?!"
At that moment, King Cobra slammed his fist on the table, rose to his feet, and shouted at Wapol.
"We are here representing our people! Even when you speak, do so with the responsibility of a king!"
"Cobra...!"
"I agree with His Majesty King Cobra. The Reverie is not a gathering to attend lightly."
"The new king of the Drum Kingdom is rather shallow..."
Immediately after Cobra spoke, the other kings voiced their support, and a few even whispered derisively.
After the meeting concluded, Wapol emerged into the hallway, his face twisted in anger as he strode along.
Cobra, how dare you disgrace me... huh?
At that moment, Wapol caught sight of Princess Vivi as she had been six years ago at the Reverie, when she was just ten years old.
Kyaa!
"Princess!"
"Oh dear! My hand just slipped?!"
Wapol slapped Vivi's cheek as she walked ahead of him, and she collapsed to the ground.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"My hand almost slipped just now—so pardon my rudeness."
"By the way, aren't you the princess of Alabasta? How pitiful to be the daughter of such a hapless king."
When Igaram hurried to Vivi's side and scooped her up, Wapol looked down at them and taunted.
*****
"He slapped her? That little girl?!"
"Heh! Should have kept better track of your dear old dad!"
Upon hearing their backstory, Hancock shouted in fury, and as Wapol picked his nose and continued speaking, Nami also cried out.
"To hit the princess in a place like that! Are you out of your mind?!"
"It'd be no surprise if that started a war! It's the citizens who bear the brunt of a king's mistake like yours!"
"If you want to start a war, then do your worst! At least no war has broken out yet!"
"I can't believe someone like him is a king..."
"Hold on—why did you, as a king, become an official agent of Baroque Works?"
In response to Vivi's question, the hooded man standing beside Wapol spoke up.
"Ah~ then let me tell you the sad history of the Drum Kingdom."
"A few months ago, some incredibly powerful pirates invaded our Drum Kingdom."
"So you lost to those pirates, then..."
"Oh, we didn't actually engage in battle."
"As soon as we confirmed how strong they were, Wapol took us—his retainers and soldiers—and fled to sea."
"That's right, Chess! Even looking back now, it was a brilliant decision!"
"A king abandoning his own people? Is that something a monarch should do?!"
As Vivi's outrage flared, the curly-haired retainer spoke up.
"More important than the citizens are the country itself—the king, his wise retainers, and the territory!"
"That's right, Merio! Unless they're all dead, the people will just breed and increase quickly, so it's fine!"
As the rest of the crew—Luffy aside—reacted with looks of contempt, Wapol continued speaking with a mournful expression.
"While living on the run, I borrowed a generous amount from Baroque Works to keep up appearances."
"But when I tried to run without paying it back, the boss sent agents! We wiped them out—until that Mr. 1 showed up and mercilessly beat up me and my retainers!"
"We nearly lost our lives as well!"
"A ton of soldiers died too!"
Wapol and his two retainers recalled those memories.
At the scene, dozens of fallen soldiers lay lifeless around them, and before the three kneeling figures stood a bald man with dark skin, his arms stained with blood.
"In the end, I toiled as a company operative just to stay alive! That's how I climbed up to Mr. 3!"
"Then the chance came while I was still the company's slave: my orders were to kill the Princess of Alabasta—namely, you!"
"If I succeeded this time, they'd consider my loan paid off and even give me an Eternal Pose to the Drum Kingdom!"
"I was worried since you're among giants, but thankfully the time has come!"
"Ha! And you come with only three? You've been outnumbered from the start—aren't you afraid?!"
"You pale-skinned brat... how dare you speak to Wapol like that?!"
As Usopp spat those words, sixteen holes formed in Wapol's torso as if plated with iron.
At the same time, small black nodules sprang from each of the sixteen holes, and Luffy watched with a stupefied expression.
"You've grown sixteen boobs?!"
"Th-These aren't breasts! These are…!"
"Wapol! There's a dinosaur behind you…!"
"It's a Ceratops!"
As Wapol spoke, his retainers pointed and shouted towards the dinosaur advancing on them.
Roooaaar!
The Ceratops dinosaur—around ten meters long—stood on four legs, its beaked mouth flanked by horns on its nose and the sides of its skull.
The Ceratops opened its beak-like maw and bellowed in Wapol's direction.
"Pfft, you're startled by that puny thing?!"
Saying that, Wapol extended his hand, the palm from which the three black nodules had manifested, in the Ceratops's direction.
Kaboom!
With the blast, the Ceratops's head was blown to pieces in an instant.
The headless body flailed its limbs wildly before collapsing forward onto its belly.
"What the hell was that?! He made the dinosaur's head explode just with a palm gesture!"
"He fired cannonballs, Nami. Those three little projectiles that appeared from his palm just now were cannonballs that blasted off the dinosaur's head."
"And what Luffy thought were boobs are actually cannons! There are cannons—and people—inside those holes!"
At Nami's words, Usopp, relying on his keen eyesight, explained how the cannonballs had instantly emerged from Wapol's palm and been shot off.
He then observed that the objects shooting out of the holes in Wapol's body were indeed cannons, and that very small people were loading the ammunition.
"This... is the power of the Devil Fruit Wapol ate, the [Munch-Munch Fruit]."
"It creates a special field around his body that shrinks any object within its range, storing them inside a unique pocket dimension."
"Then, once anything shrunk exits that field's boundary, it returns to its original size."
"That means the moment those tiny cannonballs fired from Wapol's body cross the boundary, they'll revert to their full size—about the size of a person's head—before flying toward you!"
"Right now, inside Wapol's body there are hordes of our soldiers, along with various weapons and ammunition, all stored away!"
"Do you see now why Wapol could rise all the way to the rank of Mr. 3 without a partner?"
"Chess, Merio, even they must have realized it."
"Essentially, I am a one-man army unto myself!"
After that lengthy explanation of his ability, Wapol pointed at Hancock with a lecherous grin.
"Hey, black-haired woman! Now that you know what I am, come over here!"
"Do that, and when we return to the Drum Kingdom you'll be my concubine!"
I was wondering why he wasn't attacking and just rattling off his ability—now I know it was because of Hancock.
Originally, in the manga Mr. 3 was an official agent sent by Crocodile to kill me when I was investigating Baroque Works for the Navy.
Back then, I wiped out almost all of those agents myself, including him and Igaram's partner.
Given that I killed someone with the same Devil Fruit power as in the original, it made sense that the original Mr. 3 wouldn't show up here.
But why did that lead to Wapol becoming Mr. 3? And why did his Devil Fruit ability change like some perverted old geezer?
As Luffy thought this, Hancock spoke up with contempt in her gaze.
"I refuse, you filthy swine! How am I supposed to live with someone as revolting as you?!"
"How dare you defy me, your king... Prepare to fire!"
"At last, the time to return to our kingdom has come, Lord Wapol!"
"Princess Vivi! If Cobra ever finds out you've died, he'll have quite the look on his face... but what are you doing?"
Wapol and his two retainers watched as Luffy began making an unfamiliar hand gesture.
Standing next to a sneering Hancock, Luffy pointed at them three times, moving his finger from left to right.
Then he raised his hand edge to his tilted neck, repeating a chopping gesture from top to bottom.
Understood, Luffy.
Shing!
Zoro burst from the undergrowth and cleaved Wapol and his two retainers in half.
Goodbye, you typical blabbering villain.
As Luffy thought this, Zoro—who had just appeared out of nowhere—walked past the bodies rolling on the ground.
"So I understood that correctly?"
"Yep, Zoro, you heard it perfectly."
"Well, that's a relief... but what the heck is this?"
At that moment, Wapol's body parts suddenly started writhing, and seeing this, Zoro darted over to join Luffy and the others.
As the writhing remains suddenly swelled up, dozens of people dressed in a variety of uniforms leapt out from within.
At the same time, an avalanche of guns, cannons, ammunition, and countless other items cascaded out like a waterfall. Only when the torrent subsided did the people buried underneath scramble free and emerge.
"Wapol is dead!"
"Lord that jerk? We're free now!"
"But how are we supposed to get back to the Drum Kingdom now...!"
As they tumbled out in a heap, Zoro thrust his sword toward them; they immediately dropped to their knees, hands raised in surrender.
"We surrender!"
*****
The individuals who had been inside Wapol's body were bound with ropes, sitting on the ground with their knees pressed to their chests.
They watched with terrified expressions as the two giants, having completed their duel, sat on the ground and spoke with Luffy and his crew.
"You were engaged in a life-or-death duel just like us—congratulations on your victory."
"Well, compared to your duel, it's not really something to celebrate winning."
"They were trying to kill us, Luffy. If beating people like them isn't something to celebrate, then what is?"
People really are straightforward, huh.
So that's why they've been fighting for a hundred years over which Sea King's bigger on each side of the island.
Who would believe the Giant Warrior Pirates disbanded on their own because of that?
It's been a hundred years—they themselves have long forgotten it. Even if I told them now, they wouldn't recall.
"By the way, that brings our duels tally to our 73,466th contest."
"Our 73,466th draw, haha!"
"You two are incredible... I really want to visit Elbaf, where you grew up!"
"If the opportunity ever arises, we'll welcome you anytime, Usopp."
"Of course, that can only happen if one of us is defeated."
Meanwhile, as if on cue, Sanji arrived shortly after Zoro and joined the group.
"Luffy, those two—are they giants? What in the world happened here?"
"Before we get into that, I'm more curious why you and Zoro—whom I left to guard the ship—are here."
"When I woke up, the Ero Cook wasn't on the ship, so I figured I'd just look around. If I couldn't find him, I'd head back to the ship."
"So I got off the ship and was just taking a quick look around the forest when..."
"No way... you lost your way back to the ship?"
"I think I went in deeper than I planned—the trees were so thick I couldn't distinguish the path."
"So I kept walking, saw a dinosaur, tried to capture it, and ended up here."
"Sanji... you got lost too and ended up here?"
"While you two went into the jungle, Marimo was sleeping on the ship. I was enjoying some quiet time for the first time in ages."
"But then I heard some rhythmic noise in the distance, so I stepped off the ship to investigate for a moment."
"Following the sound, I discovered a place extravagantly decorated from roof to floor with fabric, and the noise turned out to be a Telegraph Beetle sending signals inside."
"The one making the call claimed to be Mr. 0, and he called me Mr. 3."
"Mr. 0 is the codename Crocodile uses, the one Vivi mentioned."
"At that point, I realized that the place was basically a camp built by the men Crocodile sent."
"So I pretended to be Mr. 3 and said that Vivi and I had handled it."
"When Crocodile heard that, he confirmed our success and tried to deliver the goods. He said he sent some guys called the Unluckies."
"But in the middle of the call, some eagle- and otter-like guys attacked me, so I dealt with them."
"Sounds like those were the Unluckies then."
"I wasn't sure at first... but when I saw their gear, I became certain they were the Unluckies."
As he spoke, Sanji produced an [Eternal Pose] from inside his coat.
"This is an [Eternal Pose] pointing to Alabasta."
"Sanji~!"
Seeing the [Eternal Pose] Sanji had drawn out, Vivi threw her arms around him and spoke.
"Thank you so much! Thanks to you, we'll be able to head straight to Alabasta!"
"Hehehe~ It's really nothing at all!"
Seeing that, Dorry and Brogy smiled and spoke up.
"Things worked out for you, Vivi. It was a pleasure to meet you, even if only for a short time."
"It's a pity we must part so soon."
"Thank you both for your hospitality."
"By the way, don't you plan to finish your duel back in Elbaf? Isn't it only right to conclude it in your homeland?"
"You're both incredibly strong—would Elbaf be okay without either of you?"
"We actually considered returning to Elbaf to finish our duel, Vivi."
"But to be honest, we decided against it—returning to our homeland might make our lives feel too precious."
"And apart from the duel, we don't worry about Elbaf at all."
"Because there's someone in Elbaf even stronger than we are."
"Wait! You told me you two were the greatest warriors of Elbaf?!"
"That guy is so strong that even if both of us attacked him at once, we couldn't guarantee a victory, Usopp."
"And since he's not a warrior anymore, that makes us the strongest warriors."
As they said that, the two exchanged glances and smiled brightly before continuing,
"That is, the current King of Elbaf and our friend—Harald!"
"Including Harald, the three of us have been Elbaf's strongest trio since childhood!"
"A giant stronger than both of you..."
"Uh... I don't think you two realize something."
As Usopp expressed surprise at Harald, Luffy looked up at the two giants and said:
"Harald, the King of Elbaf... was murdered twelve years ago."
"He died? Not only is he a giant stronger than the two of you, but he was murdered?!"
Thud!
At Luffy's words, Usopp gaped in shock while Dorry and Brogy kneeled on one knee.
In that moment, as the ground trembled and everyone faltered, the two stood unmoving, pressing their faces close to Luffy's.
"What did you say... Luffy?"
"He was murdered? Harald?!"