North Blue.
The Blood Bull Pirates.
Aboard their ship.
BOOM!
BOOM!
A minotaur-like figure was sent flying once more, crashing into the ship's hold.
Johnny, the Blood Bull Pirates' captain, struggled to his feet.
He gazed at his fallen crewmates, including his brother, who had taken a fatal blow for him.
Memories of their years together flooded his mind, and tears streamed down his face as he roared, "You damned bastard! What did I ever do to you?!"
"Why!"
"Why!"
"You damned demon!!"
His eyes bloodshot, he transformed into a raging bull and charged furiously towards Sakazuki.
Sakazuki watched the three-meter-tall bull stampede toward him and said coldly, "Why? Because you all deserve to die."
Sakazuki's right arm transformed into molten magma, a seething, crimson red.
Upon closer inspection, one could discern the barely-contained flow of magma within.
As Johnny reached him, Sakazuki leaped into the air, bringing his fist down upon the minotaur's head.
The moment the fist connected, a torrent of magma erupted from the point of impact.
*BOOM!*
The three-meter-tall bull was slammed into the deck, engulfed in magma.
Johnny, knocked unconscious, reverted to his human form, only to be jolted awake by the searing heat of the magma consuming him.
Feebly, he cried out in agony, incapable of resistance.
He could only wail in pain:
"Agh! Agh! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Sakazuki walked up to Johnny and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him into the air.
He manipulated the magma to gradually encase Johnny, and said:
"Three years. More than a dozen slaughtered villages."
"Go to hell and repent."
"Trash."
After enveloping Johnny from head to toe in magma, he fell silent, forming a large, molten cocoon.
Sakazuki turned and entered the ship's hold. He collected some treasure and tossed it into his small boat nearby.
Retrieving a Log Pose, he raised the sail and set off.
Sakazuki was barely a hundred meters away from the Blood Bull Pirates' ship when the magma cocoon encasing Johnny began to pulsate, growing larger and smaller, faster and faster, as if it were a heart. Suddenly...
BANG!
It exploded!
A massive eruption of magma covered the entire ship.
The magma burned and corroded everything.
The ship gradually sank beneath the waves, disappearing from sight.
All the evil was buried at the bottom of the sea.
Aboard his boat, Sakazuki ignored the explosion behind him.
He pulled out a stack of wanted posters, each marked with a large "X."
Flipping to the last one, he marked an "X" on Johnny's bounty poster and tossed it to the ground.
"They're all gone, huh? It's time to join the Marines."
Sakazuki stood at the bow of his boat, gazing at the sea.
The Sakazuki of this moment was vastly different from the frail boy who had transmigrated five years ago.
With his Devil Fruit powers, he could easily hunt wild beasts.
With sufficient nourishment, he had grown taller and stronger than the average adult in just five short years.
He wore a red coat, his face was stern, and his physique was robust.
He carried a long sword on his back, a trophy from a pirate crew he had hunted down.
Sakazuki had spent three years in Goya Town.
While training, he also gathered intelligence. The stack of wanted posters was the result of those years of collecting information.
This was, after all, a real world, not the romanticized version seen in his previous life's anime.
Each of those wanted posters featured pirates who had slaughtered villages and towns.
He wanted to kill each and every one of them over and over.
Combined with his experiences over the years, it had solidified his resolve.
The only good pirate is a dead pirate.
He had set sail two years ago, hunting them down one by one according to the bounty posters.
In just two years, he had earned the moniker "The Demon."
This was not yet the Great Pirate Era.
Roger's dying words had not yet been uttered.
But chaos was brewing. According to the information he had gathered over the years, the number of newly emerging pirates was steadily increasing each year. Ultimately, one person could only do so much.
He could develop his Devil Fruit abilities with the knowledge from his previous life.
But his self-taught physical skills had reached their limit.
He knew some martial arts moves, the principles of the Six Powers.
But without guidance, he had no way to learn them.
For example, *Shave*. He knew it involved explosively stepping on the ground dozens of times in an instant (0.36 seconds).
It created a burst of reactionary force that allowed for high-speed movement, making it appear as if the user had vanished from the enemy's sight.
But it was just theory. He didn't know how to exert the force, how much strength was required, or even where to begin.
There was also Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and more.
Trying to figure all this out on his own was a desperate measure.
Therefore... he would join the Marines. He would set a small goal first.
What about leaving no pirate alive?
---
Half a month later.
North Blue, Windmill Island, Marine Recruitment Office of the 194th Branch.
"Next."
"Name?"
"Sakazuki."
"Age?"
"12."
Hearing this, the Marine clerk looked up at Sakazuki, who was taller and sturdier than him.
His mouth twitched. He then asked:
"Why do you want to join the Marines?"
Sakazuki exuded a chilling aura:
"To eradicate all the pirates in this world."
The Marine clerk nodded knowingly:
"Do you have any special skills?"
Sakazuki responded:
"Logia-type, Magma-Magma Fruit, user."
The Marine clerk blinked:
"Huh...? Huh?"
"WHAT?!?!"
He shot to his feet.