Chapter 47: Captain Mouse

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the warship slowly steered into the harbor.

A gangplank, a full three meters wide, was lowered. Two files of marines stood at attention along the edges with rifles, their expressions stern. A red carpet extended all the way from the top of the gangplank down to the shore.

Only then did a figure wearing a long white trench coat leisurely pace down the vessel.

With a thin face, a goatee, and eyes narrowed into mere slits, the man descended.

"Hmph, such a big show," Nami pouted. "I was getting all excited, and in the end, it's just this sleazy-looking guy. Anyone can tell he's no good."

"Shh, Nami!"

Nojiko hurriedly covered her mouth. "That guy is a ridiculously big shot! Don't talk nonsense, or you'll bring trouble to Brother Shano!"

"Hmm?"

Mouse squinted over. He hadn't quite caught what the two little girls were saying, but they happened to be standing right at the edge of the red carpet, looking terribly obstructive.

He lazily waved a hand in signal. Two marines behind him exchanged glances, stepped forward reluctantly, and prepared to push Nami and Nojiko aside.

Before they could touch them, however, a sturdy, powerful arm reached out and blocked the path of the two marines.

"Marines from the 16th Branch?"

Shano gently pushed the two marines aside, raised his eyes to look at Mouse above, and asked, "Colonel, sir, what brings you to our neck of the woods so suddenly?"

"Audacious! Do we Marines need to report to you commoners beforehand about what we do?" Mouse let out a cold snort.

"Let me ask you, I heard that the Conomi Islands were attacked by the Arlong Pirates, and the last place they were spotted was right here in Cocoyasi Village. That is why I brought my subordinates here on a special mission to capture this gang of pirates. You're a villager of this place, right? Do you know which way those fish-men went?"

"No idea," Shano shook his head.

"No idea?" Mouse forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Care to think a bit harder?"

What he had said just moments before was, of course, a lie.

Over half a month ago, Mouse had received intelligence that the fish-man Arlong, formerly belonging to the Sun Pirates with a bounty as high as twenty million berries, had broken into the waters under the jurisdiction of the 16th Branch.

How could he possibly afford to provoke someone like that?

Overwhelmed with panic and terrified that the fish-man would come looking for trouble, Mouse had specifically called a superior who had once promoted him, asking for guidance.

His superior's attitude had been extremely ambiguous, signaling to him both overtly and covertly to turn a blind eye.

The superior had even specially reminded him that Arlong's gang had close ties with the current Warlord of the Sea, Jinbe.

The legal raiding rights granted to the Warlords by the World Government perhaps applied to Arlong as well.

Realizing this, Mouse had spent the past month and a half quite at ease, playing deaf and dumb while ignoring the continuous emergency distress signals sent to the base.

It wasn't until a few days ago that he suddenly heard rumors that the Arlong Pirates had perished somewhere around the Conomi Islands.

Filled with a mix of surprise and joy, he had hurriedly mobilized from the base.

Now, seeing that Shano seemed unwilling to cooperate, Mouse clicked his tongue and waved a hand to signal his men to drive away the other idle onlookers who had gradually gathered out of curiosity.

Then, staring fixedly at the sturdy young man before him—who clearly looked somewhat foolish and gullible—he said with a grin:

"Forget it, I'll be straight with you. I just received intelligence that those fish-men died on this island. Surely you must have seen their bodies?"

He held up two fingers. "Don't worry, as long as you honestly cooperate, I can give you this much as a commendation and reward for supporting the Marines' operation."

"Two million berries?" Shano raised an eyebrow.

Wasn't this guy a bit too stingy? He wanted to embezzle the head bounties worth over eighty million berries, yet was only willing to fork over this paltry amount?

"It's twenty thousand berries!"

Mouse snapped impatiently. "Look at you, kid, not very old, but awfully greedy. You really dare to dream, don't you? Do you have any idea how much the higher-ups reward me when I pull off something this big? At most, a few hundred thousand!"

Shano sneered inwardly. Only a fool would believe this guy went to all this trouble for that tiny bit of reward money.

Ninety-nine percent of the chance, he had already lined up someone in private to falsely claim the bounty and planned to split the profits afterward.

Reluctant to waste any more time with this fellow, Shano originally intended to just walk away, but worrying that this guy might wander into the village to harass and threaten the villagers, he simply said:

"I killed them."

"Huh?" Mouse froze, not processing it for a second. "What did you say?"

"The Arlong Pirates, all sixty-seven of them from top to bottom, were killed by me," Shano said calmly, turning his head to shout, "Scarface!"

"Here, Boss!" A rough, booming voice echoed from the ship.

"Bring out all those heads one by one, and let Colonel Mouse have a look."

"Yes, Boss!"

Before long, a row of fish-man heads was lined up along the ship's rail.

To prevent them from rotting and stinking, they had even been specially sealed in blocks of ice. Looking through the layer of ice, they appeared vividly lifelike, with quite a few still gaping their mouths and bulging their eyes, filled with terror.

One could only wonder what kind of horrors they had experienced before death to retain such expressions even afterwards.

"This, this..." Mouse stammered, dumbfounded. "It really is..."

"Colonel," a sub-lieutenant adjutant stepped forward. "Should I take some men up to verify?"

"No need!" Mouse immediately reached out to stop him.

He had drooled over the wanted posters of these fish-men long ago and knew them intimately; there was no way he could be mistaken!

This was indeed the Arlong Pirates. Every single one of them with a bounty was right here, missing none.

"I never expected this, I truly didn't."

Mouse burst into loud laughter, his attitude turning enthusiastically warm in an instant as he reached out to sling an arm around Shano's shoulder.

"Heroes truly come from the youth! Such formidable pirates were actually wiped out all by yourself. No wonder you were waiting on the shore—were you planning to head out to sea to collect the bounty?"

"That's right. I've already contacted the 77th Branch and was just getting ready to head over." Shano gave a slight shift of his body, effortlessly dodging the arm Mouse had extended.

The 77th Branch?

Mouse's eyes widened. He hurriedly leaned in closer and lowered his voice.

"Little brother, you might not know how things work. For famous bounty hunters like you, collecting the full bounty is extraordinarily difficult, let alone for a commoner like yourself. Don't believe the sweet talk from the 77th Branch; once you get there, you'll be lucky if they leave you with thirty percent of the bounty."

Shano quietly watched him.

"Speak your mind if you have something to say, spit it out if you have something to let go."

Mouse's smile stiffened slightly, but he quickly recovered his usual demeanor, coughed, and said with a beaming smile:

"Don't be so impatient! My point is, since you're traveling all that way, why not just hand all these pirate heads directly to me? Considering how well we hit it off, I can make an exception and give you a very decent split. Fifty-fifty—you take half, I take half. How about it?"

"..."

Shano shook his head, too lazy to engage any further. He turned and walked toward the ship. "Nojiko, Nami, let's go."

"Oh! Coming!" The two little girls had been so engrossed in the show that, startled back to reality, they hurriedly scurried to catch up.

"Stop right there!"

A sudden roar came from behind as Mouse, driven mad by humiliation and anger, whipped out his pistol and aimed it squarely at their retreating backs. "Lawless outlaws... Who gave you permission to leave!"

Shano turned his head back, caught sight of the dark muzzle of the gun, and his eyes narrowed slightly.