An clutched Ace and leapt into the air. Her light body drifted down toward Fuzufu's ship like a cherry blossom petal.
"A woman?" Fuzufu watched An descend and couldn't help but speak. He never expected a woman — no, a young girl — to leap from the Red Hair Pirates' ship!
Did those fools really think this little brat could handle him, a genius agent?
There had to be some limit to looking down on people!
Fuzufu felt his rage barely containable. His chest felt like someone had force-fed him a kilogram of gunpowder and then the Red Hair bastards had jammed a lit torch straight in!
It was about to blow!
But even so, he didn't want to strike such a young girl. That would be too humiliating for the title of strongest agent!
"Little girl — where's that red-haired bastard? Tell him to get out here and die!"
Drunk on the title of "strongest," consumed by arrogance and pride, Fuzufu had been ignited by fury until he could no longer see himself clearly.
Perhaps in his mind, as CP9's strongest, his combat power should be on par with the Marines' top fighters and Magellan, the warden of Impel Down!
Three Admirals could restrain four Yonko. Rounded up, that meant Yonko were inferior to the Admirals. In other words, a Yonko was nothing in front of him — wasn't that perfectly reasonable?
If Ren knew what Fuzufu was thinking, he would have agreed wholeheartedly.
What were Yonko anyway? In this talent-rich East Blue, there had been the Pirate King before, and Garp who chased the Pirate King for sport. There was even the Lord of the Coast who ate one of Shanks's arms, and the Mountain Bandit King who single-handedly killed fifty-six Yonko!
Tiny Red Hair — how laughable.
Fuzufu wasn't from the East Blue, but he was currently stationed there!
With that East Blue buff, why wouldn't he be able to take down Shanks?
Of course, as for why there were fifty-six Yonko — well, the waters ran deep there.
"You're talking about Shanks? Someone like you wants to fight Shanks?" An might as well have carved "Do You Even Qualify?" onto Fuzufu's face.
"You brat! I'll tear you to shreds!"
Fuzufu had completely detonated.
Women, children — none of that mattered anymore. All he wanted now was to show this dismissive little punk what cruelty looked like!
"Kill her!"
At his command, the agents swarmed toward An. Finger Guns, Tempest Kick — every technique derived from the Marine Six Styles was unleashed simultaneously.
Interestingly, although the Marine Six Styles bore the word "Marine" in its name, it was actually the CP agents who had fully integrated all six techniques into their fighting style.
The Marines used these moves too, but powerful pirates rarely relied on the Six Styles, and weaker Marines couldn't even learn them all. Only agents who underwent years of rigorous training could master these techniques to a fearsome level.
But ordinary agents were no match for An — and the reason was Haki!
An could use Haki. Even if she currently only wielded Observation Haki, it was more than enough to handle regular agents. And Haki was a skill that very few in CP9 possessed.
To date, only Fuzufu on this ship had mastered both colors.
Moreover, Fuzufu was more proficient in Armament Haki and lacked strong talent for Observation Haki.
Of course, "proficient" was relative.
In reality, his Armament Haki was on par with some third-rate pirates in the New World. He had simply reached the level where he could coat himself.
Using her Observation Haki advantage, An moved among the agents like a fish in water — dodging every attack before it landed while her own strikes found their marks with pinpoint accuracy.
Even Paper Art and the full-body variant couldn't evade An's attacks. Several agents were injured in an instant.
The sword called Ace unleashed powerful sword energy whenever An swung it.
She wasn't actually a great swordsman. In theory, she shouldn't have been able to produce Flying Slashes. But this Supreme Grade Blade — which Shanks had passed down and which had once belonged to Roger — seemed to possess a mystical power in her hands.
Roger's Haki, soaked into the blade over years, had not yet dissipated. It released slashes alongside An's own attacks.
…
"Isn't that girl an apprentice on Shanks's ship?" Buggy's head hovered in midair as he addressed two kids — one large, one small — sitting in the lookout's nest.
"Her name's An. She's actually the Pirate King Roger's daughter," Furaese explained.
Her intelligence source was Jasmine. Naturally, the information she shared was only what Jasmine deemed safe to disclose — harmless to Inazuma.
"The Pirate King's daughter? No wonder she's so impressive. Even at her age, I couldn't have done any better," Enel appeared from somewhere and said modestly.
"This is supposed to be a secret. If the Marines found out, it would cause major trouble." Furaese looked at Buggy with a smile. "So — you hate that red-haired guy the most, don't you? Want to tip off the Marines? That would really put the Red Hair Pirates in a bind."
Buggy could tell this woman was mocking him and immediately retorted: "I, Buggy the Great, don't resort to such dastardly, underhanded tactics! Besides, that puny Red Hair is hardly worth mentioning. I could lop off one of his arms without breaking a sweat."
Somewhere along the way, arm-removing had apparently become a fashionable trend among the Yonko.
It wasn't just Yonko either — other great pirates had taken to cutting off challengers' arms as a show of dominance and prowess.
But the achievement of removing a Yonko's arm? That still hadn't been accomplished.
If he had known, he would have fought to keep one of Big Mom's arms back on Whole Cake Island, no matter the cost.
Buggy brooded.
"Buggy isn't dastardly — thank you. That's the funniest joke I've heard all year," Enel said with a straight face.
"Shut up!"
Buggy roared.
Was it really that serious?
All he had done was set up a few traps for rival crews, use underhanded tactics when he could have won head-on, and toyed with other pirates and Marines like a jester.
Did they really need to harp on him being "dastardly"?
I, Buggy!
I smoke, I drink, I perm my hair — but I know, I'm a good pirate.
"Either way, since Shanks's apprentice is so impressive, Uta — you need to be just as strong," Buggy said to a small girl with red-and-white split-dyed hair sitting beside Furaese.
[
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