Seeing that there was nothing urgent to attend to, Meiser went to play with Chopper. The little guy was quite happy to spend time with him.
Chatting before the battle was a good way to pass the time.
"Hey, guys!" Zambai came running down and said, "There's a detached Sea Train carriage up ahead blocking the tracks!"
"Is it Sanji?!"
Luffy's eyes immediately lit up. Did this mean Sanji had already rescued Robin?
"Not sure," Zambai shook his head. "But we can definitely see people inside."
"We'll know once we check it out," Meiser said as he walked to a nearby window. "Even if Sanji isn't there, we can still get information about him from the others."
With his Sharingan, extracting information from people wasn't difficult.
"I'll go too," Luffy said.
"No need, I can handle it alone."
"No way, I'm coming with you!"
Meiser sighed helplessly as Luffy stubbornly followed him outside. He pointed into the distance. "It's so far. How do you plan to get there?"
He could sprint across the water at top speed, but Luffy couldn't.
"Hey, leave it to me."
Luffy grinned, jogged to the front of the train, and stretched out his arms to grab both ends of the Rocketman.
Then, with perfect nonchalance, he wrapped one leg around Meiser's waist.
Seeing this, Meiser's pupils shrank. "You can't possibly be planning to—"
"Haha, let's go together, Meiser!"
Without giving him a chance to protest, Luffy released his arms and launched them both forward like a cannonball!
"Damn it, I can run on my own!"
Meiser's furious shout echoed through the air, leaving Franky and his crew utterly dumbfounded.
"You still don't understand Luffy," Zoro said with amusement.
He had experienced this treatment more times than he could count.
When things were dangerous, Luffy was incredibly reliable—but when things were safe, Luffy became the biggest threat.
Thud!
A dull impact sounded as Meiser's head slammed into the distant train carriage.
The noise alone confirmed it was a solid skull.
"Luffy... I swear I'll kill you one day..."
"Hahaha, safe landing!"
"Huh?"
"My deepest apologies..."
Seeing the long blade resting against his neck, Luffy immediately apologized.
"Tch. If I weren't this tough, that would've killed me," Meiser grumbled.
Most ninjas were glass cannons—those like him were rare.
"But you're fine..." Luffy muttered under his breath.
Rolling his eyes, Meiser couldn't be bothered to argue with this single-celled idiot.
Glancing at the crowd staring at them in shock, Meiser flashed a friendly smile. "Mind if I ask you something?"
"Pirates! They're pirates!!"
"Quick, shoot them down!!"
"They must be chasing the train ahead—don't let them pass!"
"Get them!"
Their response was met with a pair of black eyes, swirling with three tomoe.
"What a pain."
"Everyone, look at me!"
...
After Meiser's "friendly" interrogation, the group quickly became obedient.
No choice, the unruly ones were still lying on the ground, their expressions suggesting they'd experienced something terrifying.
But whether they were dead or just unconscious, no one knew—nor dared to check.
"Would've been easier if you'd just cooperated from the start," Meiser remarked.
"Meiser, what did you do?" Luffy stared at him wide-eyed. "Why did a whole group suddenly collapse?"
Not only that, but before falling, those people had looked as if they'd seen something horrifying.
"Nothing much. Just showed them something interesting," Meiser said calmly.
Using illusions was the most efficient method—it instantly subdued all these troublemakers at once.
"Alright then."
Luffy scratched his head. Though he didn't understand how Meiser had done it... the problem was solved, wasn't it?
"Hey, have any of you seen Sanji?" Luffy asked.
"Sanji... who?" one man ventured cautiously.
"Hm?"
"Boss, we really don't know!"
That single "hm" from Meiser nearly scared the man out of his wits.
No helping it—this guy was terrifying. With just a glance, he'd left most of their group unable to stand. When those blood-red eyes had locked onto him earlier, he'd thought he'd been dragged straight to hell.
"Fine, I'll look for him myself." Luffy ignored them and ran ahead to search for Sanji.
"Hey, Sanji, are you there?!"
"Sanji!"
"I'm coming to find you!"
Meanwhile, Meiser pointed at one of the men. "You. Come here."
"Boss, please don't kill me..." The suited man trembled.
"If I wanted to kill you, would I let you speak?" Meiser said. "Stop wasting time. Get over here."
"Y-yes, boss..."
The suited man shuffled toward Meiser, his lips pale with fear. Though the distance was only a few meters, it felt like an eternity to him—as though an entire lifetime had passed.
Meiser found it almost amusing. Just how scared was this guy?
"Relax. As long as you cooperate, I won't kill you."
The suited man said nothing, merely glancing at his unconscious comrades.
His expression seemed to say: Boss, that's not very convincing.
"Explain. Why are you all here?" Meiser asked. "What exactly happened?"
Meiser was curious. Could they have stayed behind to ambush the Rocketman? But that didn't make sense. From what Chopper had said earlier, very few people knew they'd left Water 7 on the Rocketman. And those who knew wouldn't have revealed their secrets to the enemy. Besides... something like crossing the Aqua Laguna? The enemy probably wouldn't even believe it.
Meiser still remembered how terrifying that tidal wave had looked.
"If I talk... you won't kill me?"
"You don't get to negotiate," Meiser said flatly.
"Then..." The suited man pressed his lips together, as if weighing whether to share the information.
If talking meant death either way, he figured he might as well stay silent.
"Never mind. I'll handle it myself," Meiser said.
"Handle it... yourself?"
The suited man stared at Meiser in confusion, unsure what he meant.
However, when he saw the Sharingan in Meiser's eyes, his own immediately lost their light, as if he had turned into a puppet.
"Is Sanji here?"
"I don't know who Sanji is, but there are only our people here."
"I see..." Meiser frowned and asked, "Then how did you end up like this?"
"Someone led us to the last carriage of the Sea Train, then disconnected the links between the carriages. That's how we got left behind."
"So that's how it is."
Hmm, sounds like something Sanji would do. That guy's brain isn't just ordinarily clever.
Which means Sanji is still on the Sea Train ahead.
The others watched Meiser with uneasy suspicion, not understanding why the man in the suit was now answering every question without hesitation—as if... he was being controlled!
"How terrifying... Is he a Devil Fruit user?!"
Combined with what had just happened, the fear in their eyes grew even stronger.