Chapter 20: Snake-Snake Fruit

Kado bent his body, standing on the deck of the Green Hat Pirate crew's ship with his toes touching the ground. He looked around with a sneaky expression, and to his surprise, aside from Bellal and Snow Bear in the distance, the large pirate ship was completely empty. This meant that the Green Hat Pirate crew only had combatants, with no other members aboard. Such a phenomenon was highly unusual.

Sneaking through the window, Kado quietly entered the ship's cabin. His nose twitched as he caught the strong smell of blood in the air. He thought to himself that the stench might be coming from the Golden Scaled Fish. Following the scent of blood, he made his way into the ship's basement.

The closer he got to the basement, the stronger the smell of blood became, mixed with the unmistakable stench of something rotting.

Kado pinched his nose, trying to suppress the discomfort, as he stepped into the basement. The lighting in the basement was dim, and through the haze, he could make out something hanging from the ceiling—dark, shadowy shapes swaying back and forth. One of them, about a meter long, appeared to resemble a fish.

Thinking he had found the Golden Scaled Fish, Kado was overjoyed. Ignoring the unbearable stench, he hurried forward a few steps.

However, when Kado got closer to the shadow, he almost cried out in shock.

Hanging from the ceiling were actually silhouettes of people, these people were covered with blood marks, blood slowly slid down their bodies and dripped into the wooden basin at their feet. The blood in the wooden bowls was still steaming, a vivid, captivating red, Kado's heart was filled with indescribable anger.

"Kill me Bellal, you bastard, you'll never become the Pirate King in your life, you'll never conquer the Grand Line in your life, haha, kill me now, I'll be waiting for you in hell, I'll be waiting to see you bastards get punished"

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching scream came from the shadow in front of Kado. The sound was filled with an indescribable malice, like an evil spirit from hell, sending chills down one's spine.

"Hey, who are you? How did you end up here? Are you the one guarding the Golden Scale Fish?"

Kado stepped closer to the hanging shadow and asked.

"Eh? You're not Bellal?" The shadow stopped howling, surprised.

"What? You mean that green-headed guy? No way, I'm a normal human!" Kado quickly waved his hand, distancing himself from that so-called "green hat" person. "I'm still a virgin, I don't even have a girlfriend! I definitely don't want to be associated with that 'green hat' label right now!"

"You dare insult Bellal? Aren't you afraid he'll kill you?" the shadow asked.

"Tch, with his appearance, how could he be a match for me? If it weren't for the Golden Scale Fish being more important, I would've already beaten that guy and shown you," Kado said, his eyes scanning around, searching for the location of the Golden Scale Fish.

"You're a pirate trying to steal the Golden Scale Fish!" Another shadow hanging in the room suddenly spoke, startling Kado.

"Yeah, of course, what else would I be doing here?" Kado replied, clearly surprised. He pointed at the four black figures hanging from the ceiling and asked, "Are these all living people? Is the Golden Scale Fish not here?"

"Of course, we're all still alive. How could Bellal let us die so easily?" Another shadow spoke up. "That guy still dreams of showing us the day he conquers the Grand Line, haha. He's insane! How could someone like him ever conquer the Grand Line? He's definitely gone mad."

"No, there are only three people hanging here. These three are my companions. The other one is the Golden Scale Fish you're looking for," the shadow in front of Cardo said, motioning towards the fish-shaped shadow, indicating that it was the Golden Scale Fish.

"Oh, thank you so much," Kado said as he ran over. Sure enough, hanging there was a large fish covered in golden scales, a large fishhook piercing through its upper jaw, suspending it in midair.

"Heh heh, finally found it. I'm a genius. I found the Golden Scale Fish that other pirates have been fighting over without breaking a sweat," Kado said, stroking the slick scales of the Golden Scale Fish, his face lit up with excitement, almost laughing out loud.

The Golden Scale Fish was over a meter long, weighing around 60 to 70 kilograms. Its scales shimmered with a brilliant golden light, and if it weren't for the strong smell of fish and blood, the fish would almost appear to be made of pure gold, radiant and dazzling.

"Quick, get out of here! Don't let anyone see you. You must take the Golden Scale Fish with you. If Bellal finds out the fish was stolen, his expression will be priceless! Haha, I can hardly wait," the other shadow laughed loudly, as if something amusing had just happened.

"Oh, right," Kado said as he placed the Golden Scale Fish on the deck of the ship. He walked over to the shadow, took out a dagger from his backpack, and cut the ropes binding the shadow.

"What are you doing?" the shadow cried out. "We don't need your help. It'll only drag you down. We've been hanging here for months. Our bodies are so weak that we can't even escape."

Kado did not stop what he was doing. In a short time, he had freed all three of the shadows. As the previous shadow had said, their bodies were covered in deep cuts, and the ropes around their wrists had left purple bruises. Their bodies were limp and weak, and they clearly had no strength to escape.

"Alright, mission accomplished," Kado clapped his hands and asked, "By the way, I still don't know how you ended up like this. Are you enemies of that green-hat guy?"

"You... you actually saved us without even knowing who we are?" One of the shadows lying on the ground let out a bitter laugh. "We're not enemies of Bellal. On the contrary, we were once his companions, the ones who sailed with him on adventures at sea for several years."

"Companions!" Kado was shocked. He had previously thought these tortured shadows were enemies of Bellal.

"Yes," another shadow responded. "We were all his companions before, but not anymore. That guy is a madman, the kind who deserves to go straight to hell."

Under Kado's questioning, the shadow slowly began to tell their story.

"We were once a group of ambitious pirates, undefeated in the entire West Blue. In order to fulfill the dreams of many pirates, we set out on a journey to the Grand Line. Unfortunately, we met with failure in the Grand Line. A failure like that, though, would have been inevitable at some point. But for some reason, after that defeat, Bellal's personality changed drastically. He shifted all the blame onto the three of us, believing it was because our strength wasn't enough that he failed. He thought he was invincible. And so, he began to torment us every day. To prove himself, Bellal wouldn't even allow us to die. He wanted us to witness his rise to becoming the Pirate King..."

"Haha, that guy will never become the Pirate King, He is delusional, he has gone mad, I have been waiting, I want to see him die, see him fail." One of the shadows laughed maniacally, his laughter laced with pain and confusion.

"Yeah, I swear, that guy will never become the Pirate King," Kado clenched his fists, a fierce light flashing in his eyes.

"Wow, you've said so much all at once. Kid, you should hurry up and escape. If Bellal comes back, you'll be caught in the middle," one of the shadows advised. "We've already prepared ourselves to face death. You don't need to worry about us."

"Hehe, here's some good news for you," Kado smiled. "There's a powerful pirate outside who's fighting Bellal. He doesn't have the time to worry about anything else right now."

After chatting with these unfortunate people for a while, Kado moved them one by one into the ship's cabin. He then searched through the Green Hat Pirate Ship, finding some food and treasure.

He took out some steaming meat and handed it to the three unlucky pirates, telling them to recover their strength so they would have the energy to witness Bellal's defeat later.

The three pirates had long since lost hope in life and didn't say much in response to Kado's persistence. With the strength they had regained, they grabbed the food with their hands and began eating it hungrily.

Kado smiled, opened the cabin door, and watched the battle between Bellal and Snow Bear.

At this moment, Kado finally understood why Bellal's pirate crew was called the "Green Hat" crew. It was because Bellal was a user of the Snake-Snake Fruit. Unlike the two main powers of the Snake-Snake Fruit from Amazon Lily, this guy's fruit ability turned him into a giant, slimy green python.

End of chapter

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