"Luffy, we absolutely have to win this fight!"
Seeing Luffy wake up, that was the first thing Nami said.
Luffy was slightly surprised. "You..."
Nami immediately raised her fist, her eyes gleaming. "I'm doing this for the treasure!"
Luffy dismissed his surprise and tightened his grip on his straw hat.
"Yeah, as long as everyone ends up happy, that's fine."
Luffy then spotted Bai Yun at the top of the opposite slope.
"Ah! Bai Yun! I finally found you. Are you alright?"
Bai Yun shook his head. "I'm fine, Captain. Just punch that hypnotist for me."
Kuro was somewhat surprised. With all those strange abilities, Bai Yun wasn't the captain?
Jango was in the middle of hypnotically reinforcing the thick-skinned, mottled cat, which hadn't gone down despite Zoro's slash.
Just as he finished, he suddenly shivered. Why was the attack coming straight for him?
The moment he turned his head, Luffy's fist accurately connected with his face, sending Jango flying directly onto the ground beside Kuro.
Bai Yun looked at Kuro. "It looks like our odds of winning are still better, Mr. Refrigerator."
Kuro remained expressionless, instantly blurring forward and slashing at Bai Yun with the cat claws on his right hand.
A long staff appeared in Bai Yun's hand to block, but his consciousness was already hazy from the fever, and he couldn't muster even half his strength. He was immediately knocked down the slope by the force of Kuro's attack.
Zoro immediately caught him. "No way, your strength..."
Zoro was about to say that Bai Yun's strength shouldn't have been so low, but then he felt Bai Yun's abnormally high body temperature—he was burning up like a hot water bottle.
Luffy flew over in an instant.
"You have a fever!"
"It's normal. I just need some rest. I'll leave the rest to you guys."
Bai Yun replied with a smile.
"Of course. You rest well, Bai Yun. I'll send this despicable butler flying."
"I believe you."
..."Ugh, that hurts."
Jango regained his senses, feeling a searing pain across his right cheek.
He opened his eyes and saw Kuro staring down at him, which startled him into immediately scrambling to his feet.
"Kuro Cap... Cap—"
"Shut up!!"
"Go to the mansion in the village now, find Kaya, hypnotize her into writing a will, and then kill her! Prove that you are still useful!"
Kuro adjusted his glasses and commanded.
"Yes! Yes! I'll go right away."
Jango immediately ran toward the village. Usopp, whose head was bleeding heavily from being struck, struggled to grab his leg.
"No... stop!!"
"Don't you dare hurt Kaya!!"
Fearing that Kuro would slice him if he delayed any longer, Jango kicked Usopp away.
"Get lost!"
Kuro's figure flashed as he prepared to deliver the finishing blow.
"You really are useless, Usopp."
"You still owe me a punch!"
At the same time, the crazed mottled cat lunged at Zoro and Bai Yun.
"Go help Usopp."
"I'll handle this fat cat."
Bai Yun said.
Zoro didn't say anything, charging straight ahead.
Bai Yun executed a quick sidestep and delivered a whip kick, sending the mottled cat slamming into the cliff face on the right. The impact was violent, cracking the rock inch by inch.
Luffy also aimed a punch at Kuro, who was about to attack Usopp. However, having witnessed Luffy send Jango flying moments earlier, Kuro easily dodged the fist.
Zoro rescued Usopp and carried him away to chase Jango.
Their biggest enemy wasn't Jango, but Zoro's terrible sense of direction... Back on the slope, Luffy threw punch after punch, sweeping past Bai Yun and flying toward Kuro, engaging him in battle.
Meanwhile, Bai Yun remained stationary. The mottled cat, having been sent flying by Bai Yun's whip kick, surged with rage.
"Flying Cat Kick!!"
Despite its bulky body, the mottled cat leaped lightly, aiming a kick down at Bai Yun. If it could crack the ground with a kick before it went berserk, its current attack was bound to be devastating.
Bai Yun showed no panic. He lifted his head, staring calmly. A long staff appeared with a rotation of his arm, and the instant the cat slammed down, he struck its abdomen horizontally. He then used the momentum to forcefully smash it into the ground.
With a loud bang, the resulting dust cloud scattered outwards.
The enormous force embedded the mottled cat directly into the earth, and the middle section of the slope immediately became riddled with cracks.
Bai Yun had used sixty percent of the staff skill he had copied from Hongou. He figured that staff technique was probably his strongest close-combat skill, and utilizing it now would help him understand and improve upon it.
The copied skill could only be used once, but his own skills could be used freely.
The mottled cat couldn't get back up. Bai Yun turned his head, and the members of the Black Cat Pirates nearby were shocked—to defeat the berserk mottled cat in a single move! What kind of 'Killing God' had these people materialized from?
But Bai Yun wasn't looking at these background characters; he was watching Nami's busy silhouette on the Black Cat Pirates' ship.
Turning back to watch Luffy and Kuro's battle, Bai Yun smiled. "Looks like my job here is done."
He strolled over to the edge of the slope, sat down, leaned against the cliff face, and began taking a well-deserved rest.