"Erase my existence? If you can, then try!"
Tom, charging forward, stopped a few meters from Ain and swung a "True Punch" at her with his left hand.
Is that woman's goal to completely eliminate me?
Her attitude is completely different from Marine Headquarters Captain Hina's. Why is that?
Could it be that the World Government's higher-ups are deeply divided over my situation?
One side wants me captured alive, the other wants me erased from existence. Either way, it's bad for me.
Tom quickly pieced things together. He saw Ain easily dodge his attack and was about to pull out the fishing rod from his arm-sleeve device when Ain's right hand, wreathed in cherry-pink flames, reached for him.
She's fast!
Tom saw only a blur before his eyes as Ain's pink-glowing hand aimed for his head.
Too late to counter!
Dodge!
Judging that Ain's right hand was about to touch his face, Tom instantly made a decision and leaped backward. As he jumped back, a piece of tattered cloth fell from his worn-out robe.
Then Tom saw Ain's pale pink-glowing hand touch that scrap of cloth. The cloth vanished as if it had evaporated.
"What's going on?"
Tom leaped back again, putting distance between them.
"As I said, anything I touch, I can revert back twelve years. That scrap of cloth that fell from your clothes hasn't existed for twelve years yet, so it disappeared."
As Ain spoke, she charged at Tom again. "Do you understand now? You'll disappear from this world just like that cloth!"
"I see."
Tom felt something was off. Then, a flash of insight struck him, and he immediately realized something. Shocked, he exclaimed, "Wait! If you touch the clothes I'm wearing, won't I be naked?!"
"I get it now! You're not just a female Marine—you're a female pervert!"
Tom's words nearly made Ain stumble and fall as she charged at him.
The beautiful face that had been filled with killing intent was now flushed bright red—not from shyness or youthful romance, but from sheer anger.
That's right. Ain hadn't expected the man in front of her to say something like that. She had encountered many pirates before, but never one as reckless with his words as Tom. What was going on inside that head of his?
"Shut up, you detestable pirate!"
Ain, now thoroughly enraged, attacked Tom fiercely, each strike aimed at his vital points.
Clearly, she wanted to finish him off in one blow.
Meanwhile, after running for some time with Nami and Vivi on the camel, Chopper asked Nami, "Will Tom be okay?"
"I think so too. Should we go back and check? What if something happens to him while we leave him alone?"
Vivi's face was full of worry.
"He said he could handle that Marine alone. Let's not worry about him anymore."
Nami, riding the camel, said to Vivi sitting behind her. "The reason he had us leave first was for your sake."
"Whatever the case, our most important task right now is to get to Yuba with you to stop the rebel army. He knows that, which is why he did this."
Nami's words left Vivi silent. Their group had been scattered by the sandstorm, and there was no telling when they would regroup.
This was only the first day in the desert, and so much had already happened. Under normal circumstances, reaching Yuba would take several days. The rebel army couldn't wait for them forever. Vivi knew they had to race against time to reach Yuba.
If they failed to stop the rebel army in time and battle broke out between the rebels and the royal army, the consequences would be disastrous. Vivi felt lost. She was a member of the Straw Hat crew, but when Tom was in trouble, she couldn't stay to help—she had to keep moving farther away.
This made Vivi question the Straw Hats' teamwork. Wasn't a team supposed to help each other when a comrade was in trouble?
Nami's heart wasn't as calm as her face suggested. That idiot... he probably already knew the Marines were after him. No wonder I felt he was acting strange.
It's not unusual for Marines to chase pirates, but that female Marine seemed specifically after him. That's not normal.
On the Grand Line, there are countless pirates with bounties as low as Tom's thirty million. Why would the Marines send someone specifically to kill him?
And he lied to me, saying we were both shot by Cupid's arrow. I actually believed him. When he gets back, I'm going to get to the bottom of this.
Nami's thoughts raced. After a while, she calmed down and temporarily set aside her concerns about Tom. She asked Chopper, "Do you know this camel?"
"Yes. We met back in Nanohana. He helped me."
When Chopper had accompanied Sanji shopping in Nanohana, the strong perfume in the air and the scorching heat had been too much. He had climbed into a carriage to rest.
When he woke up, the carriage had started moving. After it stopped, the driver opened the door and saw Chopper lying there pretending to be dead. He called his companions over to investigate.
Chopper had then hidden on the camel that was traveling with the carriage. The camel found an opportunity and carried Chopper out of the city.
Chopper had asked the camel why it helped him. The camel had replied, "No reason. Handsome, aren't I?"
The camel's words had made Chopper laugh. Then the camel had held its head high and proudly walked away. Chopper, now outside the city, had followed his nose back to find his crew.
Meanwhile, Ace stood alone in the vast yellow desert. After the sandstorm stopped, he had been with Luffy. But as they walked and talked, he suddenly realized Luffy had vanished.
Zoro and Sanji, after the sandstorm, were now together. The two, who usually couldn't stand each other, were only getting worse with just the two of them.
"Why am I stuck with you, you boring Moss-head? If it were Nami-san and Vivi-san, that would be wonderful."
"I don't want to be with you either, you idiot Curly-brow. How about we split up here and meet up again after we find Luffy and the others?"
"Stop right there! If you, a natural plant, get lost in this desert, we won't have the time to go looking for you!"
"Who are you calling a natural plant? You, the Curly-brow who always lets women boss him around!"
After exchanging just a few words, Sanji and Zoro started fighting.
As for Tom, after Ain's fierce assault, he was busy dodging her fluid attacks and had no time to speak.
But knowing that Ain could make things disappear, Tom decided not to use his fishing rod. If she touched his weapon and made it vanish, he'd be in big trouble.
Currently, Tom was slightly at a disadvantage. Ain's cherry-pink-glowing hands put considerable pressure on him, and she was very agile. In the short term, he couldn't restrain her, let alone use his own Devil Fruit ability.
Despite his caution, Tom hadn't expected that this female Marine was also a swordswoman. As he sidestepped her touch attack, Ain produced a sharp short sword in her right hand and thrust it toward his heart.
Tom barely avoided the stab. Though it didn't hit a vital spot, his left arm was slashed deeply. Drops of blood fell from his left hand onto the sand, causing his body to momentarily stiffen unnaturally.
Although Tom quickly adjusted, Ain seized the opportunity. Her cherry-pink-glowing hands touched his bloodied left hand. "You're finished!"
"Ugh!!!!!"
The moment Ain touched Tom's left hand, his entire body was covered in a faint pink glow.
"Judging by your appearance, you're probably no older than twenty-four. One more touch, and I can completely erase you from this world—reverted twelve years to a child. Then my mission will be complete."
Ain's face was cold as she spoke. Without hesitation, she touched Tom's head again as his body began to shrink.
But just as Ain's cherry-pink-flamed hand touched Tom the second time, dozens of eerie green stripes appeared on his face and body, crawling all over him like venomous snakes.
Not only that, even within his blood-red pupils, a thin green line slowly appeared, standing vertically in the center of each eye. Then that green line expanded within the crimson iris...
When Ain saw the strange green stripes appear on Tom, his shrinking body returned to its original size. Sensing something wrong, she then saw what looked like another pair of eyes within Tom's blood-red pupils.
As the green line in Tom's crimson pupils gradually expanded, Ain had the illusion that a pair of blood-green eyes were opening within those red irises.
"Die, you monster!"
Snapping out of it, Ain dared not look into Tom's eerily sinister blood-green pupils any longer. In a panic, she stabbed her short sword toward Tom's heart.
"Sorry. It seems you can't kill me after all."
Tom kicked the short sword from Ain's hand. The green stripes crawling on his face had also disappeared. His blood-green pupils, filled with icy menace, stared intently at Ain. "Thanks to you, I've finally developed a new Devil Fruit ability. I've grown further."
"Impossible! Why are you unharmed? I touched you twice! Why do you still exist? You should have been erased!"
Ain's usually composed face was now filled with incredulity and barely concealed panic. She stepped back several times, as if she had seen a ghost.
"Erase my existence? You're funny."
Tom walked toward Ain. He had a guess as to why Ain's Revert-Revert Fruit ability couldn't erase him: he wasn't originally a person of this world. If he shouldn't exist in the first place, what was there to erase? But he didn't say this. He raised his left hand and spoke to Ain. "Actually, your ability did affect me."
"See? I was covered in wounds, but with the help of your Revert-Revert Fruit, all my injuries have healed. Even the wound you cut on my left arm has closed."
Tom showed Ain his left arm. There wasn't a single scar on it. His blood-green eyes, filled with cold menace, fixed on Ain. Tilting his head, he smiled at her. "Want to touch me one more time?"
"Don't underestimate me, you pirate!"
After forcing herself to calm down, Ain's cherry-pink pupils were filled with suicidal resolve. She charged at Tom, repeatedly touching him with her pink-flame-wreathed hands. "Revert! I command you to revert!"
"It's no use. I like moving forward. Growing constantly."
When Ain's hands touched Tom, the eerie green stripes once again covered his entire body. He grabbed Ain by the neck with one hand and lifted her off the ground. "I don't know why, but since earlier, I've had this feeling... that you're my servant. No, rather, your reversion ability, when combined with mine, allows me to display far greater strength than usual. Even approaching immortality."
"Stop talking nonsense! I would rather die than cooperate with a pirate like you! In the future, I will follow in Instructor Zephyr's footsteps and become an excellent Marine! I will never spare evil pirates like you!"
Ain, with Tom's hand around her neck, was having difficulty breathing, but her stubborn gaze never wavered.
"You remind me of a friend I know. He also admires the Marines."
Seeing Ain's unyielding stubbornness, Tom thought of Koby, that boy with a bit of extra weight. He casually tossed Ain aside. Having clearly realized that the green stripes could seal physical regression, he had a strong intuition that this woman named Ain was somehow connected to him. So, even though he had originally planned to eliminate her in this desolate desert, he ultimately held back.
"If one day you realize you're on the wrong path, you can come find me. We'll talk then."
Tom said to Ain, who still wanted to charge at him. "If you take one more step forward, I won't hesitate to knock you out and leave you lying alone in this desert for a few days."
Hearing Tom's words, Ain hesitated. Even if she risked her life now, she probably couldn't defeat Tom. But she felt deeply unwilling. Her beautiful cherry-pink pupils flickered uncertainly. "I won't thank you for this, Trick-Eye Hunter! Don't regret what you've done today!"
"You want to use me as a stepping stone to achieve your goals. But you've chosen the wrong target."
Tom's blood-green pupils radiated a deep, cold light. "No one in this world can walk all over me. Next time we meet, I will be countless times stronger than I am now!"
Leaving those words behind, Tom walked away without looking back. Ain watched his gradually disappearing figure, her expression wavering. She bit her lip hard but ultimately did not pursue. "Just you wait, Trick-Eye Hunter! I will never forget what happened today! And... that unnatural stiffness after I stabbed him... was he faking it?"
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T/N :
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