Chapter 34

Cover
Vol 4 Pg:151

Straw Hat and animals playing music.

Quick Summary
Luffy is now awake, but the battle is suspended by the apparition of Kaya. But Kuro does not want to negociate since he need to kill Kaya to live a peacefull life and as a revenge for the boring years he had to endure.

Long Summary
Trying to wake up Luffy, Nami just steps on his face as Jango's weapon comes flying through the air towards her. Luffy wakes up, angry Nami stepped on his face, the ring goes into the back of his head. Kuro is angry because he thought Luffy was already dead. Luffy stops the ring from cutting deep into his skull by stomping his feet against the ground hard. To the horror of the Black Cat Pirates, Luffy takes the ring out of his head and acts as if it was nothing, just saying that it hurt and he wants to know who threw it. The Black cat Pirates then realize there is no way they can beat them in the 5 minutes Kuro set them.

Luffy yells at Nami, thinking it was her who threw the ring. But then he sees her bleeding shoulder. Nami tells him to get the fight over and done with, that its a battle they cannot afford to loose. Luffy's attention turns to Kuro. Kuro tells his former crew that they now have 3 minutes left to kill Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Usopp. The crew state they know they cannot keep to such a short deadline even with Jango and Buchi at their aid.

As Buchi is ordered to go after Zoro while Jango takes on Luffy, attention is drawn to behind Kuro. Kaya has arrived to speak to Kurahadol. Usopp is horrified she came here. Kuro is surprised to her here, Kaya explains Merry told her the truth. As Kuro speaks, Maya begins to realise this is indeed not the Kurahadol she knew. She says her sorry to Usopp for not believing him. Usopp is angry she did not run away, but Kaya asks him why is he fighting for the village when the other villagers ran him out of town.

She then offers Kuro all her fortune if he leaves the village. Kuro steps in and explains it is not treasure alone he seeks, but also a peaceful life. For the last past 3 years he has built up a reputation with the villagers, he has created a peaceful life and the incident involving his former crew and her will are all part of the scheme. Usopp tells Kaya to run now she has spoken to him, but instead she pulls a gun out on him, Kaya demands him to leave.

Kuro comments that she has become "stronger" over the last 3 years. He then recollects the events of the last 3 years with her, the things they did together but then as a change of tone he calls the events "stupid things" and tells her straight he has done everything for her today, the day she dies. Kaya drops the gun as Kuro goes on about enduring the boring days in the past 3 years, Usopp is angry Kuro is betraying Kaya's feelings. Usopp strikes at Kuro, but Kuro dodges the attack. As Kuro goes to strike Usopp for striking him hard when he was pretending to be a butler, Luffy intervenes since Kuro doesn't like to be hit.

Anime Episode
Episode 14