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Buffalo Bar.
Blueno had just closed the front door of the bar when he silently walked to the counter and grabbed one of the floor tiles beneath his feet.
Click.
A hidden door sprang open in the floor, revealing a pre-dug secret passage beneath.
Blueno stepped into it.
"Iron Body: Descent!"
Then, he began to fall.
After plunging dozens of meters downward and passing through three spike-filled checkpoints, he landed heavily on the ground.
Yet his body remained unscathed.
He rose to his feet and surveyed the hidden chamber before him.
A moment later...
Rumble!
A heavy sound echoed from the direction he was facing.
A figure fell down from another passageway, someone with a round body and head, which looked like a ball at first glance.
He had green hair, and his mouth was shaped like a zipper.
"Fukuro, you're five seconds late," Blueno said calmly.
"What can I do? These tunnels were designed for Lucci and Kaku. I'm not even assigned to this mission. If Iceberg hadn't called a last-minute meeting tonight, Kalifa wouldn't have been tied up, and I wouldn't be here in the first place, chapa-pa!" Fukuro, the CP9 agent, replied casually.
"As a temporary information courier, you are not allowed to disclose information about other agents or missions. Those are the rules," Blueno said calmly.
He and the other three agents had been stationed in Water 7 to carry out a mission: infiltrate the mayor of Water 7, Iceberg, and investigate the ancient weapon Pluton.
Recently, the two agents primarily responsible for the Water 7 mission, Rob Lucci and Kaku, had been summoned by the government to participate in the Tri-Military Martial Arts Tournament and report on their investigation into Pluton.
As for the remaining agent, Kalifa, she was serving as Iceberg's secretary, and her mission was already extremely demanding.
As a result, the task of consolidating information for Water 7 had fallen to him, and his point of contact for information exchange had become Fukuro, the man standing before him.
Blueno was well aware of his companion's tendency to talk too much, which was why he had reminded him just now.
"I didn't reveal any information!" Fukuro protested with a serious expression, then belatedly exclaimed, "Ah!" and clapped a hand over his mouth. "I guess I let something slip again."
Seeing this, Blueno shook his head and asked helplessly, "The information?"
"It's right here."
Fukuro reached behind him and handed Blueno a massive crate. As he passed it over, he couldn't resist asking, "Spandam said this contains all the government records from the past twenty years related to 'Pluton' and 'Water 7,' which he had his men retrieve from headquarters. And I heard you also requested information on 'Roy Amos'?"
"You met him? How strong is that Marine? Lucci and Kaku are participating in the Tri-Military Martial Arts Tournament too—can they beat him? They definitely can, right? Oh, I'm not gossiping, of course! chapapa!"
'No, you're clearly gossiping,' Blueno thought, but his expression remained unchanged.
He didn't elaborate, simply hoisting the massive crate onto his right shoulder before saying. "I didn't fight him, but if he could defeat Warlord, he must be incredibly strong. I want his information just to be absolutely certain."
He avoided answering Fukuro's question about the relative strengths of Roy and the other two companions, knowing that Fukuro would inevitably blurt it out and spread the information. Lucci and Kaku were both fiercely competitive, and if they heard about it, they might come looking for trouble.
"All right. Leave on your own." Blueno said abruptly, cutting off any further awkward questions..
"Tch, how boring... chapapa!" Fukuro muttered unhappily.
Still, he turned to leave, preparing to use Geppo to leap away along the falling pipe.
But at that very moment...
Snikt!
Blueno heard the sound clearly. As a seasoned CP-9 agent, he instantly recognized it: the sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh.
And that was indeed the case.
The next instant, he saw Fukuro's massive head fly up into the air right in front of him.
Immediately after...
Snikt!
Fukuro's entire body exploded into a mist of blood.
An enemy!
Blueno made the judgment instantly.
'Who is this? What attacked Fukuro? When did they enter the secret room? How did they conceal themselves?'
Blueno didn't know, nor did he have time to think about it.
Because...
Splat!
...he felt a sharp pain in his right arm, and in the next instant, his arm was cleanly severed at the shoulder.
Bang!
The massive information box also crashed to the ground.
'A slash—but where did it come from?'
Even now, Blueno still didn't know where the attack had come from.
Yet, as a seasoned agent, he did not lose his composure despite the pain.
"He went straight for my right arm first. Does he want the documents in the box?"
Despite the situation, he was able to think and analyze calmly.
"Tekkai: Iron Body!"
With no time to mourn Fukuro, Blueno activated Tekkai, one of his most proficient techniques from the Six Powers.
The next moment...
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
A relentless barrage of slashes erupted from nearly every part of his body. The sheer intensity of the continuous assault made Blueno acutely aware that even his Iron Body wouldn't hold out for long.
"Seventeen slashes targeted my neck, seventy struck my limbs, and the rest..."
He calmly calculated the intervals between the attacks.
Then…
"Now!"
At the exact moment, he deactivated Tekkai.
Snikt!
The slashes instantly severed his legs and sliced through his abdomen.
Yet Blueno stubbornly extended his remaining arm, opened a door in mid-air, and yanked himself inside.
As the door slammed shut, even Blueno couldn't help but exhale in relief.
The interior of the alternate dimension opened by the Door-Door Fruit was absolutely safe, this was an ironclad rule in his mind.
"Simultaneous slashes hitting almost every part of the body...a Devil Fruit user?"
It didn't matter. The slashes couldn't follow him through the door.
"I can't see the opponent. Did he hide his body?"
It didn't matter. From within the separate space, he could still observe the outside world. He could simply wait for the enemy to reveal themselves.
But just as Blueno swept his gaze around subconsciously, his eyes suddenly froze.
For the first time, sheer terror appeared on his usually calm, wooden face, like seeing a ghost.
Because, at that very moment... there was someone standing right in front of him.
"A very decisive choice, abandoning your legs and the non-lethal parts of your body in exchange for a chance at survival. As expected of a CP-9 agent."
A man wearing a rat-faced mask stood before him.
He spoke softly.
"But unfortunately..."
He continued in a quiet voice:
"You never had a 'way out' to begin with."
"You are..."
As he stared at the iconic Sea Beast mask, Blueno vaguely realized the truth.
"I am the 'Zishu' of the Twelve Zodiacs—a hitman, as you can see."
As he spoke, Blueno heard the sound of a blade cutting through the air once again.
This time, he faintly caught sight of where the blade was out of the corner of his eye.
It was just below his left shoulder, almost within a blind spot of his vision.
There was a hand there.
And that hand's arm and fingers reflected a sharp, deadly gleam.
It was a hand, and also a blade. It grew from Blueno's own body, like death itself, inseparable from his shadow.
The next moment…
Shk!
The sound of a blade slicing through flesh was not crisp, nor pleasant.
(End of Chapter)