"How did this guy recognize me, Moi?"
Mr 2... Bon Kurei, the okama, couldn't understand how the person in front of him had seen through his disguise. His Clone-Clone Fruit had produced a flawless appearance and voice, and he had never failed before.
But that no longer mattered.
Because even after his identity was exposed, his kicking technique showed not the slightest hesitation.
"The so-called Way of the Okama is a path you walk straight down, even when you know it's difficult..."
"Okama Hasshoken: Magnificent Swan Dance!"
The leg, clad in ballet shoes, tore through the air, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, and kicked straight towards Shinryu's head!
Yet, at that moment, Shinryu was clearly not at all nervous.
He didn't even get up from the lounge chair. His left arm was still around his final cup of cola.
Casually, he raised his right hand and lifted his index finger slightly.
"Buzz...!"
In an instant, Bon Kurei felt the temperature around him plummet!
Just as the tip of his foot came within half a metre of Shinryu's mask, a massive wall of ice condensed out of thin air and stood between them.
"Bang!"
The hall echoed with the sound of a heavy collision as Bon Kurei's kick slammed ruthlessly into the ice wall.
Then...
"It's so cold... no, no, no... it's so painful... no, that's not it... this thing is way too hard, isn't it?!"
Bon Kurei stared in disbelief. His well-trained leg, his pride and joy, capable of shattering a massive boulder with a single kick, had struck the ice wall, yet it didn't budge at all.
Not only that, but it didn't even show a single crack.
Instead, a sharp pain surged through Bon Kurei's leg, brought on by the extreme cold and freezing aura. At the same time, he could clearly see layers of ice spreading from his leg towards the rest of his body.
"Ice... hey, hey! Isn't your ability supposed to control rainfall?!" Bon Kurei widened his eyes and shouted without hesitation.
"Miss! Christmas, shouldn't it be about time now?! The intel was wrong; Moi isn't a match for this guy. Let's attack together!"
As his voice fell....
"Rooooom..."
A dull rumble came from beneath the floor before the ground began to tremble faintly. Then, with a loud crash, the stone tiles of the Southern Palace Hall shattered.
Several deep, dark tunnels could clearly be seen beneath the surface, no one knew when they had been dug.
"Oh?" Shinryu raised an eyebrow, seemingly sensing something.
At that moment, a round figure emerged from one of the tunnels.
It was a chubby man holding an enormous baseball bat, accompanied by a strange creature that resembled both a gun and a dachshund.
Baroque Works agent Mr. 4, Babe, and his pet, the firearm 'Lassoo,' who had eaten the Dog-Dog Fruit: Dachshund Model.
"Lassoo," Mr 4 said slowly. "Prepare to fire."
Immediately, the dachshund gun slowly lifted its head.
Babe raised the massive bat and assumed a batting stance.
"Four Hundred Pound Cannon!" He muttered the name of the technique.
That's right, this was their passionate combo attack. Lassoo would spit out the projectile, and Babe would deliver the hit, completing the long-range strike.
But...
Shinryu: '...'
Bon Kurei: '...'
As he watched the master and pet move at an agonizingly slow pace, Bon Kurei's expression turned absurd.
"Hey, hey, hey... this is not the time to put on a comedy act! Who are you going to hit with movements that slow? Moi's about to be frozen solid here!"
He shouted, looking at the ice that had already spread up to his thigh.
"Of course it'll hit! Because everything, including your defeat, Mr 2, is all part of my meticulous plan!"
A sinister voice rang out.
Then, from another tunnel, a tuft of hair shaped like the number 3 popped out, and notably, there was a fuse on top of that hair, which was currently burning with a small flame.
Another figure emerged, a thick-lipped man wearing glasses. By this point, both his hands had already turned into pure white wax.
Mr 3, the Candle Ability user... Galdino.
Clumps of wax were connected to his arms, and at the other end...
"Hmm?"
Shinryu suddenly let out an interested sound.
He could see white wax oozing up from the ground beneath his feet and binding his legs tightly in place.
"When you were getting utterly crushed, I'd already asked Miss Christmas to dig tunnels beneath this guy's feet," Galdino said smugly to Bon Kurei. "And thanks to you drawing his attention, MR. 4, do it!"
As he finished speaking, Babe and the dachshund gun Lassoo, who had been preparing at a snail's pace for ages, finally completed their setup.
Lassoo opened its mouth and spat out four wooden boxes.
Babe finally swung his bat.
"Bang!"
The immense strength of his bulky body instantly smashed the four wooden boxes apart, and their contents shot straight towards Shinryu at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the four objects had completely bound Shinryu's hands and feet.
They were four pairs of handcuffs and shackles.
"These are specially crafted Marine handcuffs and shackles inlaid with Seastone, plus my 'candle'. Now this guy has no way to escape."
Galdino burst into unrestrained laughter.
As he spoke, more and more white wax wrapped around Shinryu, binding him tighter and tighter.
Then...
"Hahahahaha! I'll help too!"
Amidst exaggerated laughter, a woman holding a parasol descended from above.
"Hey, wait! Miss Valentine, Moi is still here!'
Bon Kurei shouted in panic.
The ice was still spreading and connected to his leg, so even though Shinryu had already been sealed in wax, he still couldn't escape.
However, the woman who had eaten the lightweight Kilo-Kilo Fruit, code-named Miss Valentine, paid him no attention.
"Boom!"
Her tremendous weight instantly smashed Shinryu, still encased in wax, and Bon Kurei straight into the ground.
Immediately afterwards...
"Swish!"
"Swish!"
"Swish!"
Three more figures suddenly burst out of the underground tunnels.
One was a dark-skinned man with an afro and sunglasses... the explosive ability user, Mr 5 'Gem'.
Another was a sexy, blue-haired woman in leather... the Spike Ability user, Miss Doublefinger, aka Zala.
And the last... A massively built, muscular man with a monk's haircut, the Blade Ability User, Mr. 1 'Daz Bones'.
All three attacked simultaneously at this moment.
Miss Doublefinger's hair instantly transformed into razor-sharp spikes that pierced Shinryu's body.
Mr. 1's arms turned into sharp blades and silently sliced Shinryu's form apart.
"Hey! You stabbed Moi! Aren't we coworkers? Aren't we friends?!'
Amid the relentless piercing and slashing, Bon Kurei twisted and shouted as he dodged frantically.
It wasn't until one of MR. 1's slashes severed the ice connecting his leg to Shinryu, finally causing him to fall to the ground with a cry of pain.
"You guys...!"
But before he could finish, he saw the two agents who had been wildly cutting and stabbing Shinryu retreat. The afro-haired MR. 5 tore off one of his own hairs.
Bon Kurei's expression instantly changed.
He immediately leapt backwards... and then...
"BOOM!"
A violent explosion, triggered by Mr. 5, erupted.
The massive blast instantly kicked up thick smoke and blazing flames, shaking the entire Southern Palace Hall.
"Bang!"
Bon Kurei finally snapped after being blasted onto the ground once again.
"You guys are just trying to kill Moi, aren't you?! You're jealous of my beauty, aren't you?!" He shouted angrily and pointed straight at Galdino. "Especially you, Galdino, you're trying to kill Moi so you can take my place as MR. 2, right?!"
"Tch... he's still alive... Ah, I mean, how could that possibly be?" Bon Kurei scowled.
"I heard that first part loud and clear, okay?!" He huffed.
"But no matter what you do, it's useless! This time, I'm taking the biggest credit for taking down this guy, there's no way I'll let you become Mr. 2!"
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Galdino was clearly not convinced.
"How could you be the one with the greatest credit?"
He smoothed back his hair.
'Whether it was you acting as the decoy, us approaching him from underground, the Seastone handcuffs sealing his abilities, or the follow-up attacks, this artistic plan was devised entirely by me. No matter how you look at it, I should get top credit, right?"
"No, no, no. The greatest merit is obviously mine."
At that moment, a short, chubby woman emerged from beneath the ground. Her hands were fitted with enormous mole-claw gloves.
She was the Mole Ability user, Miss Christmas.
"If it weren't for me digging the tunnels, none of you could've gotten close to him, let alone kill him so easily."
"It was me."
"Clearly it was me."
"It... it was me."
"Woof woof!"
While the Baroque Works agents bickered noisily amongst themselves...
"What's wrong?" Miss Doublefinger looked at her partner, Mr 1, who remained calm and indifferent, and asked softly.
At that moment, Mr. 1 didn't join the argument at all. As one of the highest-ranked agents, he had nowhere left to climb, and he wasn't interested in taking credit anyway.
He simply stared at the massive smoke and flames caused by the explosion and said quietly,
"MR.0 ordered me to kill him at all costs and ensure the plan proceeds smoothly. I'm waiting to confirm the target's death."
He knew very well how much the mysterious Baroque Works leader, Mr 0, valued this mission, the sheer number of people sent here was proof of that.
Aside from Miss Goldenweek, almost all of Baroque Works' elite had been dispatched. Miss Goldenweek's absence was due to her being a child and therefore unsuitable for long-distance assassination missions.
"…Relax. He's definitely dead." Miss Doublefinger felt her partner was being overly cautious.
"I pierced him at least a hundred times, you nearly chopped his body to pieces, and then there was that explosion. No one could survive that." She spoke lazily, then glanced toward the increasingly noisy area outside the hall.
"Besides, after that explosion, the guards will probably be back any moment."
She had clearly already decided to retreat.
"After confirming the target's death, we withdraw." MR.1 remained unmoved.
Miss Doublefinger sighed helplessly.
"You really are…"
Her words cut off abruptly.
In fact, all the Baroque Works agents froze at the exact same moment. Because in that instant, every one of them felt as if they had plunged into an icy abyss.
No… more precisely, the word "as if" didn't quite apply.
"So cold…"
"What do you mean by cold? Have you lost your mind? So hot. No… scorching hot!"
The surrounding environment seemed to be constantly shifting. The air felt bitterly cold, yet the ground beneath their feet burned red-hot.
Scorching heat and extreme cold began to intertwine at the same time.
Then…
"Tap." "Tap." "Tap."
Footsteps echoed and each step felt as if it were stomping directly on their hearts.
Then…
"So it's not just one… hmm, a full eight of you. Very nice."
They all heard that pleasant voice. And with it, a figure emerged from the smoke.
Moments later, they saw the dragon-head mask.
And Shinryu, completely unharmed, casually tossing aside the Seastone shackles as he walked out.
"How is that possible…"
Those four words became the shared thought of everyone present.
Their attacks had clearly hit him. They had clearly put Seastone handcuffs on him.
Everything had been flawless. But Shinryu clearly had no interest in their confusion.
"I should tell you this, you ruined my last cup of cola, so now…" He looked at the Baroque Works agents, and for the first time, a dangerous edge entered his voice.
"I'm a little angry."
"You'd better go all out, otherwise… you'll die."
(End of Chapter)
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