"Jihahahahahaha! Even if it's the holy land, when the residents are greedy fools, it's fragile! Hey!"
Holy Land Marie Geoise.
The dwelling of the Celestial Dragons, rulers of the world, was now being rapidly buried under massive amounts of ship wreckage, building debris, and earth.
Not merely dropping them, all the debris was smeared with oil, which was then set ablaze by fire arrows one after another, falling and burning the holy land.
—Hurry! Hurry and save me!!
—You slaves protect the furnishings! They cost more than you're worth!!
—Don't run! What if you die and block the road?!
"Oh ho, filthy greed is bursting out all over the place."
The pirate dropping massive bullet-like debris one after another from heights that ordinary attacks could never reach focused his gaze on his target amidst the hellish scene of screams and chaos below.
"Now then... is that the food storage?"
From among the debris of various sizes still covering the sky, he used his ability to draw several large ships near himself.
"Jihahahaha. As expected of a festival organizer, he thinks up interesting things. That brat is different from treasure-hunting wannabes too."
The pirate then threw his still-lit cigar at the ships, setting them ablaze.
"A spark for good measure, eat this!!"
The literally blazing bullets that left the pirate's hands fell toward quite important facilities within this holy land.
They fell and—
—Extreme Biting Cat Claw!!
Suddenly the inferno was extinguished, the massive ship hull was shattered all at once, and most of the fragments were blown away outside the holy land.
"Huh? Have the knight order guys already started moving?"
Just as he was about to drop more burning ships one after another,
The pirate's instincts kicked in.
He instinctively swung a blade attached where his legs should be toward the empty air directly in front of him.
The single strike that should have cut through nothing but air was stopped with a sharp metallic sound.
"Found you, you damn bastard!"
"Cipher Pol? ...No, those three claws are..."
There, with the dawn light behind him, floated a boy in a black suit, blocking the blade with his foot.
"You keep causing nothing but trouble in the West Blue and everywhere else!"
"So it's you, you're the one!!"
Even if it were metal, the strike that could easily bisect most ordinary things was effortlessly blocked by the man's Haki-clad foot.
"Perfect! I'll keep the most troublesome one occupied right here!"
"Jihahahaha! Lucky me! The guy I wanted to meet once has come to me!!"
"Golden Lion!!"
"Black Cat!!!"
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇
(Damn! I managed to prevent the food storage from complete collapse, but there's still damage!!)
Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the others are moving too, but they're doing everything they can just to prevent damage to the Celestial Dragons.
Of all things, he's setting them on fire before dropping them, so there are casualties among not just the Celestial Dragons but their bodyguards and slaves too.
"I heard there was some strange pirate who found that island, but I didn't expect it to really be a brat!"
"Thanks to you attacking the Marines, I could see the route. That was careless of you!"
"I don't give a damn! Most of those guys were supposed to be used up in the West Blue anyway. Thanks to you catching them, their lives were extended, weren't they?!"
"You bastard!"
"Jihahahaha!"
What the hell is this guy?!
I heard both his legs were cut off, but why are there swords for legs?!
Why is there a ship's wheel stuck in his head?!
(Actually, as expected of a great pirate from the Pirate King's generation! He has almost no openings!)
There are several chances to attack. He has slightly more openings than Rayleigh.
I'm aiming for those spots and firing Biting Cat Black Cat Style Storm Leg attacks and going for direct kicks, but I'm just barely missing.
He dodges with minimal movement!
And these shoes aren't my usual ones with iron plates built in, so the feeling is completely different!
"You move well though, brat!"
"When you fight only against superior opponents every day, you naturally become like this!"
"Not bad! Not bad at all!"
He says that while being completely intent on killing me!
Here it comes!
"Zanpa!!"
"Biting Cat!!"
A flying slash with Mihawk-level cutting power, come to think of it, Hina mentioned her ship was cut down, I counter with my own slash to cancel it out.
Using that aftermath, I'm blowing away more continuously falling debris outside the holy land as much as possible, but there's just too much and the damage keeps expanding.
(Not just the Celestial Dragons, but until the evacuation of ordinary people like slaves and bodyguards is complete, Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the others can't move as they want)
I can hear the sound of debris being blown away below, but with such overwhelming quantity, that's probably all they can manage.
The restriction on numbers to avoid putting too much pressure on the Celestial Dragons is working against us.
"To easily handle that, you're quite the brat! How about it, want to become my subordinate?!"
"I already lead a crew myself, I refuse!"
"Just hear me out!"
If you want me to listen, stop attacking!
? Did he move his hand?
—An ability-based attack!
"Tch!"
I use Silent Step to gain distance at the same time burning ship wreckage gathers where I was, colliding and becoming a massive pile of debris.
If I'd stayed there, I would have been crushed, and even if I'd luckily escaped to a gap, I'd have been done for from oxygen deprivation... no wait, I'm getting a bad future vision?!
"Shishi Odoshi—"
This guy really has a rich repertoire of techniques!
If that image is a few seconds in the future... ah, damn it!
"Tekka Maki!"
The debris, large and small, that continued burning even after being pulverized gathered, undulating like waves before forming into several lion shapes that attacked.
Ah, this is bad?!
A barrage of Biting Cat Wild Willow shots would only weaken it slightly, not completely cancel it!
I could barely cancel it out with one serious Biting Cat shot, but that's just one point! Even if I stop the debris, it'll just fall and the food storage will be destroyed!
Technique! Isn't there some finishing move for times like this, please help me!
I fought against the Dark King and Hawk Eyes that much! There should be at least one reward, so why is every path I choose still hell?!
—'Listen well, Kuro-kun. It goes without saying that your advantage lies in that inhuman speed of yours.'
No good! I was too focused on handling 360-degree simultaneous slashes from all directions, so I was still practicing high-power wide-range techniques!
—'Therefore, what you should think about is how to cleverly substitute other aspects using that speed.'
Actually, what I was practicing to instantly produce high power was improving Armament Haki proficiency and shortening Winter Cat activation time, but uniformly producing power over a large area is a bit impossible for my body, isn't it?!
—'For example, well. What I showed earlier requires a weapon, but with leg techniques, this might be reproducible.'
...So I should do that?! No, I tried to fire it several times, but each time I dislocated my foot and had to handle those two's attacks with just my pivot leg and hands?!
(No, I have to do it now! If it's a technique controlled by abilities, dodging poorly would be a bad move! Break through head-on!!)
I concentrate all the Haki flowing within me into my leg.
Not just the right leg, but reinforcing the pivot leg too seemed to work best in previous actual combat.
—'What I'm about to show you is my attempt to imitate a signature technique of one of our enemies. You might be able to cook it well and make it your own.'
Back then, when I was concentrating on Haki control, I missed one of Mihawk's delayed slashes and nearly had my right hand cut off!
—'Yes, this is it—'
"Silent Step... Biting Cat... ugh..."
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇
(Did he finally die?)
Taking out a new cigar from his pocket, the pirate watched the backs of the blazing lion-shaped waves.
(That kid who that brat is so attached to showed promise, but I got a bit too carried away.
Right now, all the forces capable of properly facing him are dealing with debris on the ground.
The pirate slightly regretted the bad timing of meeting the 'Black Cat,' whose judgment and ability to reach this altitude and choose to engage without hesitation he acknowledged.
"If we were in a place where I could take all the time I wanted, I might have played with you until you became my subordinate."
The pirate's job was to pressure the World Government and Marines, nothing more, nothing less.
Just do what needs to be done and get out quickly.
"Now, let me destroy that food storage for real this time. I was right to save a special one packed full of cannonballs."
The pirate's objective was pressure. And what he was asked to do if possible was destroy the Celestial Dragons' 'food storage.'
"Jihahaha... Now, this time I'll burn it all down—"
—Biting Cat... ugh...!
A voice came from beyond the lions he'd created.
It wasn't one of desperation or dying words.
It was the voice of one wielding power with firm resolve.
And with the voice, the sound of waves reached the pirate's ears through the air.
Not the all-encompassing sound of the sea.
—This is... though false, still the honorable spear of the giant race... ugh
The sound of royal pressure that made his skin crawl.
(Conqueror's Haki?!)
—'Apocryphal Elbaf Spear!'!!
The pirate quickly floated his body higher to escape the effective range.
Simultaneously, an invisible—but faintly black-tinged sharp strike opened a large hole in one of the flame-wrapped lions.
And after a slight time lag, all the remaining lions were blown away.
"Oh shi... the main ship!"
And though the flames had been extinguished, all the still-hot fragments pierced through the ship he'd prepared specifically to destroy the food storage, packed full of cannonballs, gunpowder, and oil.
"Tch! That damn brat, you really did it!!"
"...The visible future is bright red? ...Ah?! Wait a minute, that's kind of—"
The next moment, a giant blazing sunflower bloomed in the sky above the holy land at dawn.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇
Hell was being burned away in a sea of fire.
(Finally... finally a chance to escape has come... but...)
This is hell. Nothing but hell where demons live who try to use up both fishmen like himself and even humans equally as 'toys.'
What 'holy land'—don't make me laugh...!
(Damn... my leg got caught in the rubble...)
With his original strength, this much would have been manageable.
With fishman physical power, this level of weight was nothing.
But those demons took advantage of that, piling harsh manual labor on him one after another, and thoroughly tormenting his body.
As amusement, they'd shoot through his limbs and make him carry loads anyway.
If he completed work while enduring the fear and pain of the bomb-rigged collar, they'd shoot him more for dirtying the hallway with filthy fish blood.
(No good, the fire's reached here...)
Several slaves were already dead.
All shot for trying to flee and abandon their masters.
He'd been shot too, but was saved by his body's toughness and the Celestial Dragons fleeing quickly.
Saved.
The building was destroyed by debris, but perhaps because that debris blocked things well, the smoke was only getting thicker.
(At least...)
At least let me die easily.
Like this, as if falling asleep.
Thinking this quietly, he closed his eyes.
...But then, suddenly very close by,
The thunderous sound of something being slammed forcefully into the ground echoed with tremors.
—Goff... ugh... Ah damn! My Observation Haki training is still lacking!
Suddenly, a honest young voice completely unmixed with mockery or innocent black thoughts—something rarely heard in this holy land—came from beyond the rubble.
—Damn it, I need to somehow capture that guy who's the key to the operation... human presence?
After two light tapping sounds like kicking the ground, the next moment, debris and wreckage blocking the smoke's escape route were blown away with a thunderous roar.
"...Someone who was captured. Wait just a moment."
"Wait, that one's already caught fire! If you touch it—"
The suited child who suddenly appeared calmly extended his hand toward something that would cause burns if touched, displaying unimaginable strength for his appearance and easily lifting the rubble.
While making a sizzling sound of flesh burning from his hands, he supported the rubble and prompted escape with a calm face.
"Good. Now that collar... I'm really glad it didn't detonate from this heat."
"Kid, your hand is—"
"Your injuries are more severe."
Damn, all those bastards really need to suffer to make this worthwhile. The suited man grumbled while reaching for the bomb-fitted collar that bound him to this hell.
"Hmph."
Before he could voice a warning, the collar was crushed with a squish, and the shackle was removed with the casual ease of tearing off a worn-out rubber band.
"Escape if you can. I can help because of this chaos, but I don't have the capacity to save all the slaves."
He must have thrown away the collar at invisible speed. An explosion occurred some distance away.
The surroundings were still raining burning rubble, with Celestial Dragons and their guards fleeing in panic everywhere.
"Sorry. It's my lack of power."
"No..."
At least this man reached out his hand.
None of the residents of this hell had reached out to him.
Not even fellow slaves.
Sometimes for entertainment, slaves killed slaves.
He'd seen many who were commanded to laugh, killed slaves while laughing, then went before their masters and were brutally killed for laughing at them.
"...Tch, they won't overlook the other side either."
The man removed his partially burned suit jacket and offered it.
"If you're stuck for escape routes, go to the West Blue. Take this and go to a place with the same flag mark, and they should guide you to where fishmen and mermaids live in hiding."
"...You are—"
Who exactly are you?
He tried to ask, but the man's eyes were focused on the sky where light other than flames was gradually beginning to show.
"Go quickly, this will become a battlefield soon too."
"—! Sorry!"
There were things he wanted to ask and say, but his legs automatically headed toward where he could hear the ocean.
He wanted to leave this hell as quickly as possible.
Running while clutching the jacket with the three-clawed cat mark that the boy had given him, he suddenly looked back.
"I am—my name is Fisher Tiger! I will never forget this debt!!"
***
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