"CP9 is done for."
Buggy's words were unusually firm, spoken without a hint of his usual doubt or exaggeration.
He crossed his arms, watching the distant chaos with a surprisingly serious expression.
Ray nodded in agreement, his eyes narrowed slightly as he analyzed the skirmishes.
"Three minutes," Ray said calmly. "With a rough estimate, CP9 will undoubtedly be crippled within three minutes."
At that moment, Buggy turned to look at the silver-haired man beside him.
A question had been lingering on his mind since he saw Ray effortlessly swat away the government agents earlier.
"Hey, Ray," Buggy asked, his voice low. "Will you kill them?"
Hearing this, Ray didn't respond immediately.
He merely watched the battle silently.
To him, death was a natural part of the world, but he wasn't a butcher who killed without purpose.
"Tch," Buggy scoffed, rolling his eyes at the lack of answer. "You're still as expressionless as ever. How boring."
Feeling somewhat awkward about the silence, Buggy scurried over to Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, who were sitting on a nearby ledge.
He decided to pester them instead.
"Hey, Luffy," Buggy prodded. "If it were you, would you kill them? Those agents want your heads, you know."
After hearing this, Luffy picked his nose and shot a disdainful glance at his clown comrade.
"I wouldn't go out of my way to kill them," Luffy said simply. "Beating them up is enough. But... if Ray wants to do it, we won't stop him. He has his reasons."
Zoro, polishing his swords, grunted in agreement. "Same here. If they get in the way, I cut them. Whether they die or not is up to their luck."
Sanji exhaled a puff of smoke. "I don't kill unless necessary. But I won't lose sleep over government dogs."
Hearing their unified answers, Buggy nodded slowly in understanding.
A shiver went down his spine.
"You guys..." Buggy muttered, looking at the monsters before him. "You're really going to be my future arch-nemeses. Remind me never to truly piss you off."
...
On the windswept roof of the mayor's office, the situation was shifting rapidly.
Chopper, in his small "Brain Point" form, was dodging a barrage of attacks from Kumadori.
The kabuki actor's hair was thrashing around like a nest of angry snakes.
"Yoyoi! My hair binds the souls of my ancestors!" Kumadori shouted, sending a wave of hair spikes forward.
However, Chopper had already deciphered the pattern.
Seimei Kikan was indeed peculiar—the ability to freely control hair and bodily functions made attacks unpredictable and wide-ranging.
Moreover, all CP9 members possessed the defensive technique "Tekkai", which turned their skin as hard as steel.
If it were the old Chopper, he would have been severely injured by now, struggling to find an opening.
But the current Chopper was different.
He had been through hellish training.
With his awakened Observation Haki, he saw the attacks before they even started. He effortlessly weaved through the "Hair Gun" barrage, moving like a leaf in the wind.
"Too slow!" Chopper shouted.
He activated his Armament Haki.
His small hooves turned pitch black.
Simple, straightforward power would be enough to conclude the battle.
Chopper transformed instantly into his "Arm Point," his biceps bulging with immense power.
He used Observation Haki to evade one last desperate thrust of hair and leaped swiftly onto Kumadori's chest, moving too fast for the agent to dodge.
"Kokutei: Cherry Blossom Cloven Hoof!"
Chopper unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of punches.
Dozens of hoof prints, glowing with Haki and resembling falling cherry blossoms, drifted through the air around them.
Kumadori's eyes widened.
He realized he couldn't dodge.
"TEKKAI!"
Under the control of Life Return, the muscles in Kumadori's chest tightened to their absolute limit.
His body became a living fortress of steel.
Unfortunately for him, steel was fragile under Chopper's iron hooves.
CRACK!
The sound of ribs shattering echoed across the roof.
After enduring for just one second, Kumadori's eyes rolled back into his head.
He vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed backward, crashing onto the roof tiles, unconscious.
...
The Backyard Garden
In the serene garden behind the office, Nami and Kalifa were engaged in a fierce duel.
Kalifa was growing increasingly astonished.
She was a master of Rokushiki, trained since childhood to be a killing machine. She had put in ten times the effort of a normal Marine.
Yet, this female pirate—this "Vicious Cat Burglar" who looked like she belonged in a fashion magazine—was blocking all her attacks with nothing but a metal staff.
'How?' Kalifa thought, frustration bubbling up.
'Is it talent? Or has this woman put in even more effort in training than I have?'
Nami spun her staff, parrying a high-speed kick.
"You're distracted," Nami teased.
"Shut up!" Kalifa snapped. "I represent the justice of the World Government! I cannot lose to a pirate!"
"SORU!" Kalifa vanished.
She reappeared instantly in front of Nami, her leg swinging like a guillotine.
"Rankyaku!"
Using Soru to enhance her momentum and Tekkai to harden her leg, she aimed a kick directly at Nami's heart.
This was her strongest attack.
Acting on instinct honed by Ray's brutal sparring sessions, Nami blocked horizontally with her Clima-Tact.
CLANG!
The impact sent Nami sliding back over ten meters.
She glided through the air and landed gracefully with a backflip, her boots skidding on the grass.
'She's strong,' Nami thought, shaking her hands to dispel the numbness.
'But honestly... she's only a bit stronger than the small fry monsters i fought in the Monster Mountain Range.'
Thinking this, Nami smiled confidently and pointed her staff at Kalifa.
"Sorry, little lady," Nami said coolly. "It ends here."
Unwilling to accept defeat, Kalifa adjusted her glasses and charged at Nami at high speed again.
"Don't get cocky!"
But from such a distance, Nami had plenty of time to react.
The moment Kalifa closed in, Nami triggered the mechanism on her weapon.
A powerful gust of wind burst from the rear of the Clima-Tact, while a sharp spear tip extended from the front.
"Gale Spear!"
The hurricane from behind propelled Nami forward like a rocket, enhancing her attack momentum.
Moreover, Nami had coated the tip of the Clima Spear with black Armament Haki.
In contrast, Kalifa was mid-charge and couldn't change direction.
"Damn it! TEKKAI!"
Left with no choice, Kalifa crossed her arms over her chest, hardening her skin to the maximum.
However, the Haki-coated spear tip was too sharp, and the velocity was too high.
SHK-CRACK!
In an instant, Nami's Clima Spear pierced through Kalifa's steel-hard arms and drove five centimeters deep into her sternum.
"Gah!" Kalifa gasped, her eyes widening in shock.
Seizing the moment of Kalifa's pain, Nami pulled back and delivered a spinning kick to Kalifa's jaw, sending the blonde agent flying back over ten meters.
Nami smirked coldly, spinning her staff.
"This garden has become my world."
"Thunderbolt Tempo!"
Dark clouds gathered instantly above the garden. Yellow lightning converged from all directions, striking Kalifa at the center of the lawn.
ZAP!
"This is sexual harassmeeeeent!" Kalifa wailed as she was electrocuted.
In an instant, the sexy beauty was charred black, spewing smoke from her mouth as she collapsed, defeated.
Nami blew on the tip of her staff like a smoking gun.
"Heh... I'm just too strong."
...
The Plaza
Not far away, Jabra was still chasing Usopp all over the stone plaza.
"Come back here! I'm going to eat you!" Jabra howled.
Usopp, noticing that his teammates had already finished their battles, panicked.
"Nami! Chopper! Help me, quick! I'm gonna die!" he screamed, tears streaming down his face.
From the garden, Nami looked utterly speechless, ignoring his calls completely.
She began looting Kalifa's unconscious body instead.
Chopper, however, was a good boy.
He immediately jumped down from the rooftop and charged straight toward Jabra. "I'm coming, Usopp!"
But suddenly, Usopp realized a huge problem.
The entire plaza was already filled with his traps!
"Wait! Chopper, stop!" Usopp yelled.
But it was too late.
He couldn't worry about Chopper now. He had to deal with the wolf.
"No choice," Usopp muttered, wiping his tears. "Time to hunt."
Usopp stopped running.
He stood still in the center of the plaza and sighed.
To Jabra, this looked like a resignation.
"Hahaha! Have you finally given up, you long-nosed fool?" Jabra laughed, ecstatic.
After toying with his prey for so long, it was finally time to feast.
"AWOOO!"
Jabra accelerated, his claws extending as he leaped toward Usopp's throat.
"SORU!"
He was fast, but to Usopp, who had awakened Observation Haki, Jabra's trajectory was as clear as day.
Everything was already part of his plan.
"Demon Star: Tyrant Man-Eating Flower, bloom!" Usopp whispered.
SNAP!
In front of Usopp, a massive, green plant suddenly erupted from the stone tiles.
It was a giant Venus Flytrap with razor-sharp teeth, appearing directly under Jabra's leap path.
Sensing the heat of prey above, the flower instantly snapped its jaws shut.
"What?!" Jabra's beast instincts screamed danger. "Devious bastard! GEPPO!"
He kicked the air frantically, launching himself higher to narrowly avoid being swallowed whole.
"Close one!" Jabra panted.
He prepared to dive bomb Usopp again.
But Usopp was already aiming his slingshot.
"Special Attack: Firebird Star!"
A bird made of flames screeched through the air. But it didn't aim for Jabra directly—it aimed for the air around him.
The pollen released by the Man-Eating Flower was highly flammable.
BOOM!
"GYAHHH!"
Fierce flames engulfed the wolf-man. The explosion blasted him out of the sky, sending him crashing downward.
Usopp chuckled, adjusting his goggles. "You should watch where you fly. That pollen is explosive, you know."
"And below... there are still traps waiting for you, you wicked wolf!"
As Jabra fell, still smoking, Usopp fired again.
"Special Attack Demon Star: Bamboo Thrust!"
A forest of bamboo shot out of the ground like spears.
"TEKKAI!" Jabra roared in panic.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
His hardened body barely withstood the sharp points, but the impact sent him bouncing back into the air like a pinball.
"Special Attack Demon Star: Wolf Grass Impact!"
Before Jabra could take his next move, he was met with the face of a giant wolf and a blast of demonic energy shot out from the front of the giant wolf.
WHAM!
Jabra was smashed into the ground again.
"Special Attack Demon Star: Devouring Swamp!"
Dozens of seeds sprouted instantly around the crash site. The stone plaza dissolved into a dark, bubbling swamp of mud and plant tentacles.
The tentacles seized Jabra's limbs, pulling him down with immense force.
"Let go!" Jabra struggled, but the pull was too strong.
His Tekkai shattered under the strain. He was dragged waist-deep into the mire.
"It burns!" Jabra screamed.
The corrosive swamp water hissed against his skin.
Usopp grinned, pulling back his slingshot for the final blow.
"Special Attack Demon Star: Thorny Demon Spike!"
Inside the swamp, dozens of iron-hard spikes shot up from below the surface.
SQUELCH!
Three seconds later, blood stained the surface of the swamp water dark red.
Jabra groaned once, then fell silent, sinking into the depths.
Usopp blew the smoke from his slingshot.
"You treated me as prey?" Usopp scoffed, striking a hero pose. "Your Usopp-sama is now the hunter. The seeds from the Demon Realm are too powerful. Tsk, as expected of me."
Just as Usopp was basking in his glory, a familiar, muffled voice cried out from nearby.
"USOOPPP! Heeeeeeeeeelp! Come save me quickly! I'm about to be digested!"
Fifty meters away, poor Chopper, who had come to help, had triggered a leftover seed trap.
He was currently caught in the jaws of another giant Man-Eating Flower, flailing his little legs in the air.
Usopp: "..."
The spectators on the hill: "..."
---------
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