G-17 Fortress, inside Vice Admiral Hisoka's office.
"Do you seriously not have any beverages to serve a guest other than strawberry milk? I absolutely detest this kind of cloyingly sweet drink."
Black Cage Hina looked at the carton of strawberry milk in her hand, which was still radiating a slight chill, and furrowed her brows.
"Hina is very displeased."
"If you don't like it, don't drink it. Pearl, go put Colonel Hina's carton back in the fridge." Hisoka sat lazily on the sofa opposite Hina, digging his nose without a care for his image.
Hisoka's sister was obviously not as unreliable as her brother. She bowed slightly to Hina. "I am truly sorry, Colonel Hina. I do have some instant coffee here, if you don't mind..."
"No, don't trouble yourself, Pearl." Reaching out to stop Pearl, Hina looked once again at the decadent Marine before her.
"You're just as washed up as you were five years ago, Hisoka." Hina's tone was somewhat sentimental. "Ever since that incident occurred, you've completely collapsed. It seems the 'Golden Shura' will never reappear in this world again."
"Hina is very disappointed..."
"Tch... Did you hit menopause early or something? You're so nagging." Hisoka's cloudy, dead-fish eyes glanced at the beautiful pink-haired female Marine. Simultaneously, he flicked the booger from his finger with casual disregard. That look of utter indifference caused several angry tick marks to pop up on Hina's smooth forehead.
"You bastard..." Black Cage stared fiercely at her old classmate, looking very much like she was ready to start a brawl at the slightest provocation.
"What? You want to fight? Don't make me laugh! If you want to defeat me, you'd need to add Smoker into the mix, and maybe then you'd have a chance!" Hisoka tilted his head back with considerable arrogance.
Incidentally, Black Cage Hina, White Hunter Smoker, and Golden Shura Hisoka were all students from the same graduating class at the Marine Academy. Compared to the well-behaved student Hina and the problem child Smoker, Hisoka was a rare breed: a massive troublemaker who was also a genius honor student, deeply favored by Instructor Zephyr.
It was just that his personality was sometimes in dire need of a beating.
However, just as the smell of gunpowder in the air became extremely heavy, a soft voice suddenly sounded in the quiet office.
"Brother, behaving like this is wrong..." Pearl said softly in an extremely flat tone, and unusually, she did not use a formal address this time.
As soon as her voice fell, Hisoka shot up from his seat as if a switch had been flipped and bowed deeply toward Hina with great force.
"Please, you must forgive my rudeness just now, Colonel Hina!" The decadent Marine's expression was extremely sincere, and his movements were crisp—as if the person he was apologizing to wasn't a Colonel, but Fleet Admiral Sengoku himself.
Hina blinked, looking at the naturally curly blond man in front of her, then at the calm-faced Pearl standing beside him. She was stunned for a moment before sighing.
"Fine. Aside from being as washed up as usual, you still listen to your sister just the same. You damn sis-con..."
Hearing this, Pearl turned her head away, her expression looking slightly unnatural.
Hisoka sat back down on the sofa, looking smug, as if being a sister-complex was something glorious.
"Speaking of which, it's one thing for you to turtle up in this small fortress alone, but why must you drag your precious sister down with you?" Hina crossed her arms over her chest, turned to glance at the blond girl, and then looked solemnly at Hisoka.
"Although your sister isn't comparable to a 'genius' like you in terms of combat power, Pearl has uniquely gifted talents in intelligence processing, situational analysis, and strategy. Even Vice Admiral Tsuru has praised her endlessly regarding this."
"If she were allowed to join the Marine Headquarters' Think Tank, her future would be absolutely limitless. You shouldn't be..."
"Enough!"
Hisoka interrupted Hina loudly. His dead-fish eyes, usually half-closed, now shone with a mysterious brilliance, his expression extremely serious.
"Don't say anymore, Hina. I know you are thinking of us siblings, but..."
Saying this, the decadent Marine revealed a warm smile. "She is my sister. She is my last remaining family in this world. How could I bear to be separated from her?"
"..."
Black Cage Hina opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.
"Brother..." Pearl looked down at the naturally curly blond man sitting on the sofa, her originally cold eyes shimmering with moving emotion.
"Besides, Pearl is so cute. Marine Headquarters is full of crude brutes; what if she gets bullied? How could I possibly rest easy?! And what if some other man sets his sights on her? She's so innocent..." Hisoka then began to ramble on like a chatterbox, leaving both Pearl and Hina with heads full of black lines.
Actually, after all that talk, this guy really is just a simple sis-con.
Ignoring her idiot brother who was currently lowering the bar for intelligence, Pearl looked at Hina.
"Colonel Hina, as far as I know, before you captured Nico Robin, she had already been caught by that Warlock, correct?"
"Yes, that's right." Black Cage Hina nodded. "And at the time, he said it was a 'gift' for Smoker to use for a promotion. What is it, Pearl? Do you have a perspective on this?"
Hina knew well that this blond girl was extremely good at analyzing situations, so she placed considerable weight on Pearl's opinion.
Hisoka also shut his mouth and looked quietly at his precious sister.
"There is a problem, and it is a big problem." Pearl nodded to the two of them. She then took a wanted poster out of the pocket she carried with her. The portrait on it was none other than The Warlock—Sherlock.
"I have investigated information regarding The Warlock, and as my investigation deepened, I increasingly felt that this bespectacled man is a terrifying individual."
"Although I don't know why he changed professions to become a pirate, I am certain he never acts without purpose."
Composing herself, a look of worry appeared on Pearl's pretty face. "I believe that the capture of Nico Robin was a conspiracy from start to finish—a conspiracy to kill with a borrowed knife!"
"We Marines are that knife. And the person The Warlock wants to kill... judging by the current situation, I think the most likely person is..."
Soru!
Before Pearl could finish her sentence, her brother, Vice Admiral Hisoka, suddenly underwent a drastic change in expression. Immediately, like a bolt of white lightning, he rushed out the window.
The next moment, ear-piercing alarms rang out through the G-17 Fortress.
Hina hurriedly ran to the window to look out, only to discover with shock that the entire fortress was already surrounded by endless yellow sand. It was like a natural disaster had descended upon the world. Many Marine soldiers were wailing in pain within the sandstorm that blotted out the sun. Amidst their screams, the moisture was sucked from their bodies by the sand, turning them into dried corpses.
In the distance, the sturdy walls of several prisons weathered into rolling yellow sand as if thousands of years had passed in an instant, and a large number of prisoners ran out from inside. In mid-air, Hisoka was treading Moonwalk, engaged in a fierce battle with a blurred figure.
Violent shockwaves of energy oscillated constantly between Hisoka and the blurred figure. Dust billowed, and sand obscured the sun. The yellow sand hid their figures, leaving only dazzling blade shadows and a brilliant, sand-yellow radiance flying, spiraling, and colliding within the endless dust storm!
"...Sand-Sand Fruit, Crocodile," Pearl murmured with a dazed expression, though there was no longer any need for her to state the obvious.
Pell the Falcon's flight speed was extremely fast—much faster than the camels ridden by the Royal Army.
Therefore, when Sherlock caught up with the Royal Army marching south, the latter was still a considerable distance away from the Rebel Army's stronghold in Katorea.
Sherlock stood on the back of the bird, his back straight as a ramrod. The oncoming strong winds were all deflected elsewhere by his Mirror Reflection, allowing him to stand with perfect stability.
Even from this distance, he could hear the rumbling sounds very clearly. Sherlock pushed up his glasses and looked down from high in the sky. The 300,000-strong Royal Army appeared as dense clusters of tiny dots, looking just like ants. It was fortunate Sherlock didn't have trypophobia, or he might have been frightened enough to fall out of the sky.
"300,000 people... that's a bit of a stretch. The sunlight and environment are no problem; I just hope the effects of Chopper's special medicine are potent enough."
Sherlock pondered for a moment, then took a small paper packet out of his Mirror Space. He carefully opened the packaging, revealing a small pinch of sparkling powder inside, resembling the sugar used in a kitchen.
"Insomnia." Sherlock narrowed his eyes slightly, then dipped his finger to pick up a little of the medicinal powder. taking a deep breath, he resolutely put it into his mouth.
"Ugh..."
Pell, who was staring blankly at the Royal Army on the ground, suddenly felt the person on his back trembling violently. He hurriedly asked, "Hey, Sherlock, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"No, nothing's wrong... I'm perfectly fine!"
Up until now, the worst thing Sherlock had ever eaten was the Mirror-Mirror Fruit back in the day. Since a person can only consume one Devil Fruit, The Warlock thought that taste would only ever appear in his memories. But unexpectedly...
"That really is a taste like hell." Sherlock smacked his lips with a look of lingering fear. "How on earth did Chopper develop such a deranged medicinal powder? Don't tell me his Rumble Balls taste like this too!"
After that taste, which felt as if it could drag a person into an endless abyss, exploded in Sherlock's mouth, The Warlock gradually felt his body becoming somewhat light, as if he could fly away at any second. His heart beat violently, and his spirit became unusually hyper-excited. His brain felt like a volcano about to erupt, harboring immense energy.
exhaling a breath of turbid air, Sherlock gently closed his eyes, intending to calm his restless heart.
After taking several deep breaths, Sherlock felt himself entering a state that was profoundly mysterious.
Silence.
The surroundings were surprisingly quiet, leaving only countless faint sounds of breathing.
His own breathing, Pell's breathing, the breathing of the 300,000 Royal Army soldiers on the ground, the breathing of the air, the breathing of the sand, the breathing of the rocks...
...The Breath of All Things!
(What is going on? Why can I suddenly sense these strange things??)
Sherlock felt extremely astonished by this. Although his eyes were currently closed, he felt instead that he had been blind with his eyes open before, and only now was he opening his eyes for the first time—truly "seeing" this colorful world for the first time.
— Transmission Mirror!
With a thought from Sherlock, an invisible wave rippled out from him in all directions. Subsequently, countless clear images flooded into The Warlock's mind like a bursting dam, allowing him to instantly know everything happening within a hundred-mile radius.
Fine sand drifting in the wind, beads of sweat slowly sliding down the faces of the Royal Army soldiers, camel hooves crushing stones into powder, sharp weapons reflecting light under the sun—all these details, originally too minute to notice, were now suddenly seen by Sherlock with absolute clarity.
"This..." Sherlock was stunned, and then a light of excitement shot out from his eyes behind the lenses.
Although he didn't know why, this feeling of near-omniscience was absolutely exhilarating!
Just then, Sherlock suddenly frowned. A wave of intense dizziness washed over his mind, and that wondrous feeling of near-omniscience began fading rapidly.
(Is the drug wearing off? Damn it! That was too fast.)
Sherlock thought to himself that the mission was more important, so he had no choice but to grimace and eat a bit more Insomnia.
The hellish taste assaulted him once again.
"Sherlock, are you really okay?" Pell asked again, somewhat worried.
"..." Sherlock did not reply this time. He focused his mind again, silently activating his Fruit ability.
The abilities of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit were quite fantastical. Compared to Paramecia types like the Gum-Gum Fruit, Chop-Chop Fruit, or Munch-Munch Fruit, the Mirror-Mirror Fruit's abilities were more complex and diverse.
Creating weapon reflections, reflecting attacks, invisibility, storing items...
And—illusions used to confuse others.
— Phantom Mirror: Lost Trace!
Sherlock focused his mind and silently extended his hand toward the ground. Immediately, an invisible wave radiated from The Warlock himself, instantly shrouding the 300,000 Royal Army soldiers who stretched across the land like a long dragon...
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