Chapter 44: 44. Kuro

"If I can't even be like Yoriichi, then what confidence should I have in order to face that person." Zoro said as he continued his training. Soon they reached the Syrup Village. And the first thing they saw was a man standing on a cliff that was just beside the sea.

The village had only one entrance and that was from the road that was carved out in the middle of the two high cliffs. This natural blockage allowed the village to be safe and not suffer from pirate attacks in this age of great pirates.

The man who was standing on the right cliff was wearing khaki colored clothes with an unusually long nose. He had curly hair and had a bandana to cover his hair.

Who else was it, if it wasn't Ussop. Seeing that the pirates were coming to the village he arranged a number of flags around with the help of his three young friends. Of course, he lied about having 80 million men of his own.

Nami saw right through his lie while Zoro and Ken just watched while laughing on their own. Luffy as usual believed his lie before. It was there Luffy spoke of Yassop and recognized that Ussop was the son of Yassop.

Seeing that Luffy knew of Shanks, he invited them for a meal in a restaurant while Luffy was excited. Food always excites this guy!! After having quite a huge amount of food Luffy said.

"Shanks is a great pirate and your father is a great marksman."

"Yes, I don't remember my father too much but he went to live his dream. I am proud of my father." Ken was a little flabbergasted by this guy's brain. His mother died because she couldn't get enough medical help. Maybe if Yassop was there, he would have been of some help but this guy never blamed his father.

The medical level of these small villages weren't high level anyways so probably his mother would have died nonetheless but Ussop never blamed his father for leaving which was commendable. When a person goes out for his dream, there are many things that get sacrificed along the way.

Yassop was probably the best example.

Zoro and Nami were curious about this great pirate Shanks which Luffy was spouting about for a long time but they didn't ask more as Luffy himself didn't have much knowledge about Shanks and the Red-haired Pirates.

"Ussop!! We need a good ship. Can you take us to that mansion. They seemed wealthy and might be able to help us building a ship. We have money and are ready to pay." Ken came to the main point as he pointed at the mansion from the window.

The huge mansion where Kaya lived. Ussop of course denied having people that could make ships and just bailed out on them saying he had something to do. Later the small children who 'betrayed' Ussop and ran away came back and took the 4 people to the mansion where Ussop was.

It was there the children spoke about the lies that Ussop normally told to Kaya to make her laugh as she was sick all the year round. Luffy went straight in when he heard that not bothering Zoro and others.

"Luffy wait..." Nami couldn't even speak before Luffy had vanished.

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"Let's follow him." Ken smiled and he too went in with Zoro. Nami seeing no other option but to go in with them. It was there they saw the scene where Kuro was reprimanding Ussop who was sitting on the branch of the tree that was near the window of Kaya's room.

"... You are nothing but the son of a filthy pirate. Nothing you do will surprise me. Stay away from the young lady. If you want money, tell me how much. I will give you and then get lost from here."

"Stop it Kurohadole. It's too much.." Kaya screamed from top of her lungs. This was Kuro, who disguised himself as the butler of the house and had been hiding in the mansion to take away all the money from the mansion later.

He was the Captain of the Black Cat Pirates.

Kuro had already seen that Ussop was here with his new friends and he didn't want anything bad to happen right as he was very close to his finish line. After the death of Kaya it will be over and everything will be fine after he gets all the money.

"Filthy you say..." Ussop was visibly shaking as Kuro continued insulting his father and him being the filthy son of a pirate. Even Luffy and others who had arrived had a serious face as they felt the insult was directed towards them too.

Ussop jumped down from the tree and was ready to punch Kuro but was stopped in the last second by Ken.

"Leave me Ken. He insulted my father. I want to beat his ass."

"I know..." Ken said and he slowly brought out his Stormbreaker from his back. The black clouds soon gathered overhead. Nami was again amazed by this phenomenon which she had seen in Orange Town. Whenever Ken used that battle axe, there would be black clouds above with sounds of thunder.

Lightning was flowing through the axe as Ken brought it out. Ken looked at the eyes of Kuro and with no words he just used his axe to swing at the head of Kuro.

Kuro wasn't expecting that as he thought only Ussop would be angry and would resort to violence, and this would help him justify his words. But this guy who had just appeared didn't give him any chance and just swung his weapon at himself.

He was already little taken aback seeing this weird weapon but the fast action by Ken didn't even allow Kuro to dodge and took the shot head on. Kuro flew away sideways and slammed into the wall.

He coughed blood as he was slammed. Kuro felt like he had been hammered by a thousand ton weight. Ussop and Kaya had their hands in their mouths as they didn't expect Ken to be so violent.