At the palace gate, the eyes of countless citizens were filled with astonishment.
The group of pregnant women who had followed the King and the Marines into the palace just a few minutes ago were now running out frantically, their faces pale and tears streaming down their cheeks as if they had lost their souls.
Many of them, with their round bellies, stepped on the stairs with unstable centers of gravity, stumbling and falling straight down!
"Watch out!"
The faces of the people below changed drastically, and they cried out in alarm. At the critical moment, the purple-robed man in the crowd raised his hand and lightly waved his cane. Invisible gravity, like a broad hand, steadily supported several pregnant women who were about to fall.
Inside the palace, the Marines led by Doberman finally reacted.
Nearly a thousand women had run away completely, leaving the palace maids holding hundreds of infants standing helplessly on the spot.
Doberman slammed his hand on the armrest of his chair and roared, "Catch them back! Don't let a single one escape!"
Originally, as a hawk, Doberman wasn't very opposed to the World Government's decision. Now that the truth had been revealed, he couldn't be bothered to pretend anymore.
The soldiers under him showed reluctance and hesitated to move. Doberman shouted again, "What are you waiting for? Go quickly!"
The soldiers gritted their teeth and rushed out, while the rest reached out to snatch the infants from the maids' arms.
"Simply a bunch of bandits."
Broly's tone was full of mockery as he watched the show.
Cobra also darkened his face and questioned, "Vice Admiral, you've gone too far!"
Doberman couldn't be bothered to pretend either and said coldly, "This is an order from the World Government. Do you want Alabasta to defect from the affiliated countries?"
Before Cobra could finish his sentence, the miserable screams of soldiers suddenly came from outside the palace.
Everyone's expression changed. Doberman immediately ordered, "Watch these infants. The rest of you, come out with me!"
When he rushed to the palace gate, Doberman was dumbfounded instantly, and Cobra, who followed closely behind, also froze in place.
Broly leisurely strolled over to continue watching the excitement.
He saw the purple-robed man protecting the group of pregnant women behind him, holding a cane sword, with several bloodied Marine soldiers lying around his feet.
"You are..."
"You are..."
Broly and the big man looked at each other at the same time, surprise revealing in their eyes.
The big man recognized at a glance that the child was the Demon Child with a bounty as high as 5 billion Berries, and Broly also recognized that the man was the future Marine Admiral, [Fujitora] Issho.
But Doberman naturally didn't know Issho. Seeing his subordinates hacked half to death, he asked with a dark face, "Who are you? A pirate? How dare you attack the Marines?"
Issho was expressionless, his voice deep and slow: "A passerby."
He took another half step forward, resting his cane sword on the ground, and pressed, "Vice Admiral, what crime have these women committed to deserve the Marines chasing them relentlessly like bandits?"
How could Doberman reveal the truth that the Marines were going to "cut off" all these pregnant women to track down Roger's son? He only drew his saber with a cold face: "The Marines are conducting business; no need to explain to you!"
Seeing him unwilling to respond, Issho stopped being polite. He slowly drew his cane sword and turned to whisper to the pregnant women behind him, "Everyone, run quickly. This old man will hold them off here."
"Arrest them all!"
Doberman shouted violently, swinging his saber and charging at Issho.
The crisp sound of clashing metal exploded suddenly. The moment the blades collided, Doberman's knees bent sharply, and his whole body was pressed down half a height.
Clearly, his strength was far inferior to the opponent.
Doberman was shocked: Where did this monster come from?
He admitted defeat to Broly, after all, the other party could instantly kill Sengoku. But this strange big man could also suppress him, severely stinging his pride as a Marine hawk.
While the two were entangled, other Marines bypassed them and chased after the pregnant women mixing into the crowd.
Although there were many citizens in Alubarna, the targets with big bellies were particularly conspicuous.
"Stop!"
Issho, who had not yet gone blind, shouted low, activating his Gravity Fruit to blast Doberman away, and backhandedly slashed out a sword energy.
With a "swish," the sword energy split a Marine straight down, blood splattering instantly.
He didn't hold back with this strike; the soldier was split in half on the spot.
Issho showed unbearable expression and sighed low: "Why must it come to this..."
He had spared the lives of the few Marines he injured earlier, but with this strike, he was truly anxious.
"You showed an opening!"
Doberman seized the gap, transforming into "Opening Brother," roaring and swinging his saber from behind.
Issho blocked backhandedly, barely stopping the attack. But in this moment of opening, more Marines had already grabbed pregnant women. Some acted roughly, tackling the pregnant women directly to the ground.
"Ah—!"
A heart-wrenching scream rang out. A pregnant woman was pressed to the ground by a Marine, her bulging belly slamming hard against the corner of a nearby stall table, blood instantly dyeing the ground red.
The Marine scrambled up in panic, waving his hands repeatedly in defense: "It's not my business! She insisted on running; I already told her to stop..."
This scene completely ignited Issho's anger. He roared low, activating the Gravity Fruit with full force!
With a "bang," Doberman was pressed dead into the ground, creating a pit more than two meters deep.
Issho swung his sword again. A blue sword energy took the outline of a fierce tiger, roaring as it rushed toward the group of Marines. The screams of dozens of soldiers instantly resounded through the palace square.
Witnessing this bloody scene, the citizens screamed in terror and fled in all directions.
Doberman gritted his teeth and crawled out of the deep pit. Stiff due to the gravity, he shouted at Cobra: "Cobra! Why are you still dazing off? As an affiliated country, it is only natural to assist the Marines! Those pregnant women..."
Cobra's face was dark.
Honestly, not ordering his soldiers to take out the Marines was already giving Doberman face.
Just then, Issho's sword slashed again.
Doberman barely raised his saber to block using his Observation Haki, but he was still a step too slow. The tip of the sword cut his face, leaving a bloody gash.
Issho questioned coldly: "Is this your Marine justice? Harming innocent women and children, what about those infants?!"
Enduring the severe pain, Doberman gritted his teeth: "Marine justice is not for you ignorant people to comment on!"
Extremely angry, Issho struck continuously. Sword lights wove into sword flowers, instantly adding several wounds to Doberman's face. He didn't strike to kill, only wanting to force the truth out of the other party.
"Haha!"
Broly couldn't help laughing out loud.
In the original work, Doberman had quite a few scars on his face, but it was never mentioned how he got them. Unexpectedly, because of him, this butterfly, they were cut by Fujitora.
Doberman, who had been hacked to the ground, had become a bloody man, with not a single piece of good skin left on his face.
Hearing Broly's laughter, he turned his head with red eyes and glared over, anger almost burning through his reason, completely disregarding the gap in strength between the two sides.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
It's all because that kid talked nonsense that things turned out like this!
Noticing Doberman's look that wished to eat him alive, Broly laughed even more rampantly, spreading his hands: "I just repeated the dirty deeds you did. Why glare at me? Should good people deserve to be held at gunpoint?"
As soon as these words came out, even the extremely angry Cobra and Issho were stunned, silently criticizing in their hearts simultaneously: Do you count as a good person?