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"Hey there, Luffy." Kyoma lowered his dragon head slightly, staring at the ship hooked between his two claws.
The wind howled, and the Marine sail flags fluttered, but the people on the ship weren't Marines at all. Crocodile, Jinbei, Ivankov, Buggy, Galdino... all of them looked familiar, though it was the first time meeting them in this world.
"Hey, do you know me?" Luffy was surprised. He couldn't remember where he'd met such a massive dragon.
"Didn't you invite me to join you at Shakky's Rip-off Bar?" Kyoma reminded him.
"Oh." Luffy suddenly realized, his eyes shining as he pointed excitedly at Kyoma. "So you're Kyoba. It's been a long time since we last met."
"Where's Kaguha with the same hair color as you? Is she here too?"
Luffy was clearly excited to see his friend from before, especially since Kyoma was here to help him.
He stretched his rubber neck enthusiastically, trying to see if Kagura was perched on Kyoma's dragon back.
"It's Kyoma and Kagura..." Kyoma was left speechless, though he knew this guy's memory wasn't the best. At least Luffy remembered half the names mostly correctly.
"Kagura didn't come. I was here to watch the show, and I happened to see you in trouble, so I'm sending you to the battlefield."
"I see." Luffy calmed down and looked at Kyoma with a wide grin.
"Kyoma-san, I am truly grateful for your assistance this time." Jinbei suddenly stepped forward and spoke respectfully.
"So he's Straw-Hat's friend, and a Devil Fruit user? He looks like he could be a handsome boy." Ivankov threw a wink, and Kyoma almost vomited, his dragon body trembling noticeably.
"Hey, Red Dragon, after I take off Whitebeard's head, are you interested in accompanying me to the New World to do something big?" Crocodile exhaled a puff of smoke.
"Huh?" Another recruitment offer? Kyoma's mind stalled.
Why did everyone want to recruit him the moment they saw him? Was he a magnet for job offers?
Last time it was Luffy, the time before that was Kizaru, and now Crocodile. Though he had to admit, Crocodile certainly had the bearing of a boss.
"Wait until you actually take it off before saying that." Kyoma hadn't agreed when Kizaru and Luffy made their offers back when he had nothing, and he certainly wasn't going to now. A single Crocodile was far from qualified.
"Crocodile, I won't allow you to attack Ace's captain." Luffy stood up defiantly.
"Hmph, brat, don't think I won't kill you." Crocodile's tone was harsh, clearly angry after being rejected.
"Now is not the time to argue, Crocodile." Jinbei intervened.
"Don't forget what you promised me, Croco-boy..." In the end, Crocodile was still pressured by Ivankov's veiled threat.
Kyoma was genuinely curious about what leverage Ivankov held over Crocodile. Could it be that, as speculated online, Crocodile's previous gender wasn't what it appeared to be?
'Croco mom, confirmed?'
Suddenly, Kyoma felt something tickling his underside, as if someone was poking his claws.
He lowered his head again and spotted Buggy and Galdino.
"Sir, after you send Straw Hat to his death, could you please take the two of us with you on the return trip?"
The two were clever enough not to ask loudly. Instead, they held up a piece of wood they'd found somewhere, on which Galdino had written in white wax.
'These two guys...'
Kyoma was genuinely surprised by their resourcefulness.
He really did plan to drop Luffy's ship at Marineford and then fly straight back to Law's submarine.
After all, this was the battlefield of the War of the Best, filled with powerful fighters. Staying even a moment longer would be dangerous.
However, if these two weren't present during the war, wouldn't it be far less entertaining? Considering his own viewing experience, Kyoma decided to ignore their request entirely, pretending he hadn't seen it.
"Damn, this guy definitely saw it and is just pretending," Kyoma heard the two muttering quietly below.
"It doesn't matter. When he drops the ship, we'll grab onto his claws."
"Hehehe... you crafty bastard, that's brilliant."
'These two idiots...' Kyoma was exasperated. After his dragon transformation, both his vision and hearing had been greatly enhanced, and these two were so close to him that it was impossible not to overhear.
"We're here."
Before he knew it, they'd already reached the sky above the battlefield. If he flew any farther, he'd be dangerously close to the execution platform. Several piercing gazes had already locked onto him.
Kyoma's dragon body was massive. Even at a hundred meters in the air, he cast an enormous black shadow across the ground below.
"Go." Kyoma didn't hesitate.
He dove downward, stirring up powerful gusts of wind that sent many of the fighting Marines and pirates tumbling across the ground, and hurled the Marine ship from between his claws.
"Ahhhhh."
Accompanied by the screams of Luffy and the others, the hull crashed onto the ice with a fierce friction sound, sliding forward while knocking aside many unlucky combatants along the way.
Finally, just as it was about to collide with the pirate ship where Whitebeard stood, the Yonko stopped it with one hand.
"You guys?"
Whitebeard looked somewhat confused.
In truth, his attention had been captured by the sudden appearance of the red dragon in the sky.
At first, he thought it was a surprise attack by the Marines and had been ready to use the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit to stop it.
But the red dragon had simply dropped a ship before quickly rushing back to the sky, as if afraid of being attacked.
And it wasn't just him.
Unlike the original timeline, where they'd been shocked by Luffy's ship falling from the sky, almost everyone present at this moment had their eyes fixed on the red dragon above.
"Where did that dragon come from?"
"Is it the Marines' reinforcements? It seems to have dropped a ship. No, wait, everyone on that ship appears to be pirates."
"That's Crocodile and Jinbei. How is that possible? Aren't those guys imprisoned in Impel Down? How could they suddenly appear here?"
After flying to a safe altitude, Kyoma also wanted to observe the scene more closely before leaving.
This was a rare opportunity, after all.
Whitebeard…
'He is incredibly strong, stopping an entire ship with one hand as if it weighed nothing.'
'Wow, the Pirate Empress Hancock is truly tall and stunning. It's a shame she is now completely obsessed with a certain straw hat-wearing man.'
Akainu's expression was distinctly unfriendly, his fists clenched as if preparing to launch magma at him.
It seemed Kyoma should make his escape quickly.
He hadn't seen that laid-back old man Kizaru in a while, and he found himself oddly missing him.
But Kizaru still looked as lazy as ever.
'Wait, why is his hand glowing, and why is it pointed directly at me?'
Bzzt.
A laser burst forth, passing instantly by the blue phoenix that had been confronting Kizaru, and shot directly toward the red dragon that had suddenly appeared in the sky.
"Oops, I accidentally missed my target."