[Pirate] I! Orochimaru! I will never split! Chapter 209

Without Baby 5 and the other’s intervention, the Punk Hazard incident concluded smoothly.

Caesar’s capture went very well.

A group of G- 5 Marines who had fought together were singing and dancing, preparing to hold a banquet below deck.

Orochimaru, however, was leisurely taking a bath on the Sunny, claiming he didn’t want to participate.

He hadn’t fought alongside them, so he wouldn’t join the banquet.

Law sat beside Smoker, frowning as he drank the special hot soup Sanji had made, his mind constantly pondering.

It was too smooth; Doflamingo hadn’t actually sent anyone to rescue Caesar and Vergo. This was completely out of character for him.

Without a hostage, he couldn’t contact Doflamingo. After all, he had left Vergo’s Den Den Mushi with Vergo for his last words.

If he couldn’t make the trade with Doflamingo, all his plans would fall through.

Could it be that Doflamingo really had no connection to Caesar? Impossible, he didn’t believe it.

Doflamingo was clearly still trading artificial Devil Fruits with Kaido. Did he have other collaborations as well?… A miscalculation.

Law’s brows furrowed tightly. Since this path wouldn’t work, he couldn’t threaten Doflamingo into resigning his Warlord position.

Then he would just have to wait until they reached Dressrosa and improvise.

But Caesar couldn’t be handed over to the Marines yet. He was afraid this might be Doflamingo’s empty fort strategy.

The Sunny set sail again, and the Straw Hats finally breathed a sigh of relief… The task wasn’t difficult, but they were mentally exhausted.

After his bath, Orochimaru, out of habit, transformed into his half-snake form, bare-chested, and pushed open the door leading to the deck.

Everyone looked over at the sound, suddenly snapping back to attention.

No wonder they felt something was missing; it was Orochimaru.

However, looking at Orochimaru’s appearance, he was probably too lazy to get involved. After all, they had captured Orochimaru’s free, self-service patron.

That’s why he chose to return to the Sunny for a bath, presumably.

“But Orochimaru is too relaxed, isn’t he? Does he really trust them that much? It’s embarrassing 〃∀〃”

Usopp thought to himself, wanting to complain to Orochimaru about the other unreliable people, and how in the end, it was he, Grandpa Usopp, who had to step in and catch them.

However, things turned out to be somewhat unexpected for everyone. When Orochimaru saw Kin’emon and Momonosuke kneeling on the ground before him, his pupils suddenly constricted.

[Snake-snake doesn’t plan to reveal his identity now; it should be at Zou, at least… to give Momonosuke a billion points of shock.]

Orochimaru suddenly realized what he had forgotten. Were these two really on the ship at this time?

When he had Doflamingo take that artificial Devil Fruit before, he had subconsciously overlooked Momonosuke’s matter… Damn it.

Orochimaru retreated two steps, his voice inexplicably two parts sharper than usual.

“Zoro! Give me your clothes! Now!”

Although he didn’t know what was happening, Zoro clearly sensed Orochimaru’s unease.

His body reacted instinctively, making Zoro flash in front of Orochimaru, taking off his jacket, and wrapping Orochimaru tightly with his own clothes.

Before Orochimaru could ponder deeply, Momonosuke, upon seeing Orochimaru’s snake body, seemed to be greatly stimulated.

“Snake… there’s a snake… big snake… don’t come closer!”

Momonosuke’s face instantly turned pale, his body began to tremble uncontrollably, his eyes wide, filled with terror and fear.

As if encountering the most terrifying thing in the world, he waved his hands wildly.

Then Momonosuke’s body began to change, gradually turning golden.

In everyone’s sight, he transformed into a golden cicada about the size of his body.

(Sorry, because I also hate bugs… but I still wanted him to turn into a bug, so the only one I can accept is a cicada… because writing about something too disgusting would make me feel disgusted too…)

In the eyes of those who hated bugs, Momonosuke at this moment was no different from a golden fly.

“Ugh… so gross!”

Nami, seeing this, instinctively shrieked and leaned closer to Robin.

The startled Momonosuke, like a headless fly, darted around, actually charging directly towards Orochimaru.

Orochimaru didn’t react to this sudden development for a moment. Momonosuke could still have a Devil Fruit? Where did it come from?

He himself was stunned. By the time he reacted, Momonosuke was about to fly over, and Orochimaru was also somewhat frozen for a moment.

His mind was only thinking that Momonosuke had turned into a bug… a bug…

“Oh no!”

Luffy, who had been laughing and playing just moments before, saw Orochimaru’s slightly unfocused eyes and his face immediately turned serious.

He instantly activated Gear Second, appeared in front of Orochimaru, and directly threw a punch, sending the bug-transformed Momonosuke flying.

Luffy’s punch was quite precise; Momonosuke merely rolled a few times on the ground, finally landing in Kin’emon’s arms.

For a moment, the scene descended into chaos. Everyone was somewhat bewildered, as all of this had happened in an instant, leaving no time to react or think about what had transpired.

Sanji lit a cigarette and took a deep puff.

“Someone explain what happened. Luffy… what’s going on?”

Luffy scratched his head, then turned and hugged the dazed Orochimaru behind him, patting his back like Sabo would.

“Orochimaru is afraid of bugs. Always has been, since he was little. If a bug touches him, he’ll uncontrollably turn into his snake form.

At his current size, if he turns into a snake, the Sunny will sink… Usually, Orochimaru can avoid them though… Today, it seems…”

Robin frowned, looking at Kin’emon and the now transformed-back Momonosuke…

“Orochimaru seems… stimulated…”

She didn’t voice her subsequent speculation, as there were outsiders present.

The group nodded knowingly. After all, none of them had discovered that Orochimaru was afraid of bugs.

Although Orochimaru usually did avoid bugs, and his attacks would burn them directly to ashes with ninjutsu, they had all assumed Orochimaru was just afraid of dirt.

So everyone’s attention refocused on Kin’emon.

Kin’emon looked at the unconscious Momonosuke, also somewhat bewildered. After all, it was his first time seeing Momonosuke transform.

“I also don’t know why Momonosuke turned into this. Is it some foreign sorcery?

However, I do know that Momonosuke is afraid of snakes and dragons… extremely afraid… so…”

The Sunny immediately fell into silence. Sanji finished the last puff of his cigarette with a melancholic expression, then slowly extinguished the butt in the ashtray.

“So this is a bug afraid of snakes, who encountered a snake afraid of bugs?”

Everyone was speechless in unison. Only Luffy… seemed to suddenly remember something, as Orochimaru’s little classroom was deeply ingrained in his mind.

Meanwhile, Caesar gradually regained consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes, his head still a bit muddled.

When his vision focused and he saw Orochimaru in his half-snake form in Luffy’s arms, he couldn’t help but freeze.

His eyes were filled with confusion and astonishment, but he knew very well that it was not appropriate to speak much at this moment, so he forcibly swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Caesar had always been very shrewd. His mind quickly flashed back to Orochimaru’s previous warning to him: that he must pretend not to be familiar with him in front of others.

After all, to the outside world, there was almost no interaction between them. Caesar was well aware of his situation; he didn’t want to anger Orochimaru. He was still waiting to be rescued.

Law also looked at this group of people with a somewhat weary expression. They had just set sail!

What kind of things were these… Orochimaru, such a grown man, was still afraid of bugs?

A child?… No, even children aren’t afraid of bugs, are they?