Chapter 472: Capture in the Haunted Castle

As Usopp prowled the room with his sniper rifle, scanning every corner, a figure in a frilly pink dress—Perona—slowly rose from the floor behind him.

“Negative! Negative!”

A swarm of Negative Ghosts burst from Perona’s hands, all of them phasing right through Usopp.

To Perona’s surprise, Usopp didn’t even flinch when the Negative Ghosts passed through him. Instead, he simply spun around and pressed the barrel of his rifle right against her forehead.

“Gotcha!”

Usopp, a master of Haki, had already coated every bullet in Armament Haki before even pulling the trigger.

With the gun jammed against her head, even though Perona was in her spirit form, she could almost see the word ‘death’ blaring in her mind.

“Wait, wait! Hold on, just a second!”

Facing a deadly crisis, Perona had no choice but to throw her hands up. She definitely wanted to keep living a little longer.

She hadn’t expected Usopp to find her physical body this quickly. If it weren’t for that loud bang from earlier, he might’ve shot her dead already.

“Well? Any last words? Go ahead and say them—I won’t listen.”

Usopp didn’t budge. Pretty faces didn’t work on him—he was the toughest warrior on the seas.

Even her Negative Ghosts couldn’t faze him. His right hand rested steady on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.

Of course, if someone managed to look like Kaya, maybe then he’d just surrender willingly.

“Wait—you’re going to shoot me whether I talk or not. Why? Am I really that different from the others?”

Perona was shaking with nerves. Her fate was in Usopp’s hands, and she knew she didn’t stand a chance of dodging a point-blank bullet—not in a fraction of a second. So it was smarter to play along.

Meanwhile, Usopp was torn. Whenever he sniped foes from a distance, they were always tough, so his shots were mostly to distract them.

But this was different. He could tell Perona, with her Devil Fruit power, had hardly any stamina left. One shot and her head would explode like a watermelon.

He’d eaten watermelon before, so just imagining it made his stomach turn a little.

“How about this—you have any Seastone shackles or something? I’ll surrender!”

Sensing Usopp’s hesitation, Perona knew there was room to negotiate. As long as he didn’t shoot, they could talk.

The mention of Seastone made Usopp’s eyes widen. How had he not thought of that before?

Still holding his sniper rifle, he warned, “Don’t move. If you even twitch, I can’t promise the gun won’t go off.”

“Relax! I promise, I won’t move an inch.”

Even with her promise, Usopp didn’t let down his guard. He kept his eyes pinned to her and reached into his pack with his left hand, finally fishing out a set of Seastone Shackles and tossing them toward Perona.

“Well? Put them on yourself.”

Perona’s face paled. She knew exactly how dangerous Seastone was. She figured the moment she picked them up, her strength would drain, and she’d probably collapse right there.

“Fine, but don’t move. Hands behind your back.”

Seeing her discomfort, Usopp realized that making her put the shackles on herself might backfire. If she went limp from the Seastone and he had to get close, she’d get a chance to break free.

So, with his left hand, he pulled out an ornate pistol from his belt.

He slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder, kept the pistol aimed at Perona, and slowly approached. Crouching, he picked up the shackles and quickly locked her hands behind her back. Perona, her strength sapped instantly, couldn’t help but lean into Usopp for support.

Usopp didn’t hold back. He grabbed a simple handcart in the room and dumped Perona onto it, then wheeled her toward the stairs.

“I’m going to make sure everyone sees what Usopp is made of!”

“Reporting in! Captured one enemy combatant!”

“Heeheehee!”

“DADADADADA!!!”

Whistling some tune, Usopp gleefully pushed his little cart out of the castle.

…

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Meanwhile, the battle outside was raging as fiercely as ever.

Zoro, Franky, and Brook had all joined the attack on the giant Oz. Only Luffy and Moria were still locked in a one-on-one fight.

“Straw Hat, you really think you can become King of the Pirates? You can’t even beat me, yet you dare say something that bold?”

Moria slashed at Luffy again and again with his massive blade.

He wasn’t even using his full strength—just fighting at peak Vice Admiral level. But years of experience and a powerful body couldn’t be erased by any shortcut.

Besides, if he went too easy, people might notice he was holding back.

Across from him, Luffy’s face was battered blue and swollen, his whole body covered in cuts. Nothing was down to the bone, but he looked downright pitiful.

“Wuuhh—Luffy… pirate… argh… want… king!”

Even beat up, Luffy managed to shout his dream as clearly as he could—no matter how garbled it sounded.

“Bang!”

Moria’s blade crashed down on Luffy’s head, sending him flying.

But in this fight, Luffy had trained his Observation Haki to the limit. Each time Moria’s attack neared, his body reacted before his mind, Armor Haki snapping into place to shield him.

Thrown aside, Luffy staggered but somehow stood once more.

“Straw Hat, I’ll give you this—you’ve got spirit. But spirit alone won’t win in this world. Here, the only thing that matters is strength.”

“Let me teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”

“Shadow Clone!”

Moria pressed his hands together, splitting his shadow into nine bodies. Each shadow gripped a long blade. Even as mere shadows, the blades gleamed, catching the weak sheen of moonlight.

“Slash!”

Nine shadow clones, each as strong as a Vice Admiral, charged Luffy with their swords raised high.

“Luffy!”

This was the moment—the opening Moria had created for Ye Fan.

Ye Fan was watching the fight closely. He needed to find the one trigger that would push Luffy to awaken Gear Fifth for real.

“No!”

“Ye Fan!”

“How could this happen?”

Luffy heard the sickening sound of blades cutting into flesh.

He didn’t feel any pain, but the sound of his friends’ desperate cries made his head snap up in panic.

“Ye… Ye Fan?”

Standing before him, arms wide, was Ye Fan. “Run!”

Blood streamed from Ye Fan’s lips. He was badly cut all over; more wounds than you could count, some so deep you could see bone.

His back was sliced to ribbons, blood pooling on the ground beneath him.

“That… that’s way too much blood. At this rate, he’ll die!”

“Someone help! We need a doctor—a doctor!”

“Ah—wait, I am the doctor! Ye Fan, hang on! I’m coming!”