Dimension Slash

Baku, captain of the Blood Axe Pirates, spun around. A person had appeared behind him at some point.

He had black hair, a white Marine coat, and the face of a boy of fifteen or sixteen, yet he stood over two and a half meters tall.

The enormous two-handed greatsword on his back was longer than an average Marine was tall.

Baku froze for half a second, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. His voice cracked. "How did you get up here?!"

Even as he asked, the giant axe in his hands came whistling down at Ron's face!

Ron merely tilted his head slightly, and the axe blade whistled past his ear.

The next second.

Clang!

Zhenyuan came out of its sheath.

All Baku saw was a flash of cold light sweep past his eyes.

Ron had already charged past him.

Several pirates were pointing guns at the hostages. Before they could pull their triggers, lines of blood appeared across their throats, one after another.

Thud! Thud!

Several bodies fell in succession.

By the time Baku turned around, Ron was already standing behind him.

"You really like using ordinary people as shields, don't you?"

The hairs all over Baku's body stood on end. He was just about to turn around.

Bang!

Zhenyuan's hilt smashed into his face.

Several teeth flew out along with a spray of blood. Baku crashed sideways through the ship's railing, half his body hanging over the side. He nearly fell into the sea.

"Captain!"

A pirate to the left hurriedly raised his gun.

Click.

A narrow black rift suddenly opened in the space before the pirate.

The rift swept sideways.

The pirate was still holding up his gun, but his body had already separated at the waist.

Ron stepped out of another door in space and swept Zhenyuan sideways in the same motion.

Pirates on the deck were cut in half one after another, their faces still frozen in terror.

Two pirates at the stairway turned to flee, but as soon as they took a step, a door appeared out of thin air in front of them.

"What the hell is that?!"

Unable to stop, both of them plunged headfirst through it.

The next second, they tumbled straight out of the air in front of Ron.

The horror had yet to fade from their faces when the blade swept across their throats.

Only two gunshots rang out on the deck before it fell completely silent.

Meanwhile, in the lower hold.

Nine pirates heard that something was wrong upstairs, and their faces changed in unison.

"Why's it gone quiet up there?"

"Where's the captain?!"

"Forget all that! Bring the hostages over. If anyone dares come down, kill one of them first!"

One pirate grabbed the old man by the hair and raised his knife to strike.

Click.

A door suddenly opened in the bulkhead beside him, and Ron stepped out.

"I hate this more than anything."

The blade flashed.

Clatter!

The knife fell from the pirate's hand, and he toppled after it.

The old man stared blankly at the body by his feet, unable to come to his senses for a long while.

"S-shoot!"

The remaining pirates reached for their guns in terror.

But the last thing they saw was a flash of cold light sweeping past the tips of their noses.

Thud.

The last body fell.

From the moment Ron boarded the ship to the end of the fighting on the deck and in the main lower hold, only fourteen seconds had passed.

The lower hold was so quiet that only the hostages' breathing could be heard.

Ron put Zhenyuan away and untied the hostages nearest him first.

"If you can move, help untie the others."

He opened another Air Door and brought down the hostages rescued on the deck.

Before long, all forty-seven people had gathered together.

"Can you walk?"

Two seconds passed before a middle-aged man nodded instinctively. "Y-yes."

"Then let's go."

Ron raised his hand, aiming his palm at the empty space in front of them.

Crack.

A door more than three meters tall slowly opened before the crowd.

On the other side was the deck of the Marine warship, hundreds of meters away!

The hostages froze.

The Marines on the warship reacted quickly, immediately gathering around the doorway.

"What are you all standing there for?"

Ron called through the door, "Take them in!"

The adjutant was the first to react. "Medics! Stretchers! Hurry!"

The elderly were helped through, the children were carried, and the injured were handed straight over to the medics. A line quickly formed.

When a little girl's turn came, she stood still.

Ron bent down. "Is your leg hurt?"

The little girl shook her head. Her eyes were red and full of tears as she held out both little hands to him. "Carry me."

Ron glanced at her outstretched hands, then bent down and picked her up.

As soon as he straightened, the little girl grabbed his collar with both hands and refused to let go.

"...Don't pull."

Her little hands tightened their grip.

Ron's mouth twitched. "All right."

When the adjutant reached out to take her, the little girl still refused to let go. Only after Ron quietly said, "It's safe here," did she release him and let a medic carry her away.

The last injured person passed through the door.

"Forty-seven, everyone's accounted for!"

The adjutant had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Ron went back to the pirate ship.

Baku was still hanging over the broken railing, long since unconscious.

Ron grabbed him by the collar and opened an Air Door.

A moment later.

Thud!

A burly man with a bloodied face flew out of the door.

It was Baku.

Ron stepped out after him and casually closed the door.

"Keep him alive. We still have to report back to headquarters and bring someone in alive for questioning."

The adjutant looked at Baku's face, swollen like a pig's head, his mouth twitching. "Major, please throw him a little more gently next time."

"He won't die."

"I'm talking about the deck!"

Ron glanced down at the cracked planks. "Put in a repair request later."

"Major! There are still people on the pirate ship!"

A shout suddenly came from the lookout.

"They're raising the sails! That ship's getting away!"

In the distance, the pirate ship that had lost control had somehow raised its sails again.

The four pirates who had been hiding in the lowest cargo hold had climbed onto the deck at some point.

They hadn't dared show themselves earlier. Only after they saw Ron return to the warship did they work up the nerve to come out and raise the sails.

"Quick! Raise the sails!"

"He's back on the Marine ship!"

"Stop fucking shouting! Turn the helm!!"

The four of them scrambled to turn the helm, and with the wind at its back, the pirate ship gradually pulled away.

The pirate at the bow looked back and saw that the warship wasn't pursuing them. He immediately broke into laughter.

"Hahaha! They're not chasing us! They haven't come after us!"

"Quick! Keep going! The farther we get from that monster, the better!"

A recruit on the warship grew anxious. "Major! Should we pursue them?"

Ron didn't move. He took a water bottle from a nearby Marine and tipped his head back for a drink.

The adjutant handed him a file.

"Major, we've finished confirming the pirates' identities."

Ron took the file and turned a couple of pages.

"They slaughtered a village?"

"Yes. Seventy-six dead, including twelve children."

Ron closed the file and handed it back to the adjutant.

"Understood."

He turned to look into the distance. The pirate ship had already escaped several hundred meters away.

Ron's right hand settled on Zhenyuan's hilt.

Several veterans beside him stepped back half a pace almost simultaneously. They were all too familiar with that movement.

Clang.

The greatsword came out of its sheath.

Ron looked at the distant pirate ship and casually swung his sword sideways.

The next instant.

On the sea, several extremely thin black rifts appeared out of nowhere around the pirate ship, which was dozens of meters long.

Some were horizontal, some diagonal, and some vertical, as if an invisible hand had already drawn cutting lines across that space.

This was the special sword technique Ron had developed using the Door-Door Fruit—Dimension Slash.

"Crack."

At the first soft sound, the bow shifted neatly out of place.

"Crack! Crack, crack, crack, crack!"

Before the four pirates at the bow could react, the black rifts had already swept through them.

The middle section of the entire ship suddenly slid to one side!

There was no explosion, nor any towering sword-energy shockwave.

The ship simply shifted apart along those lines, piece after piece crashing into the sea.

Rumble!!

A huge wave shot into the sky!

On the warship, a recruit pointed into the distance, his mouth hanging open. "W-what was that—"

The veteran didn't answer. He swallowed.

"The major's sword."

The recruit wanted to ask more, but the veteran had already turned to coil the mooring lines.

"Don't ask."

After walking a couple of steps, he added, "Anyway, it's not the kind of sword energy you lot usually practice."

The recruit opened his mouth.

So do you actually understand it or not?

Clang.

Zhenyuan returned to its sheath.

The adjutant hesitated. "Major, actually... you could have taken them alive. It would have been easier for headquarters to interrogate them."

Ron turned and glanced at him.

"Isn't Baku still alive?"

"Uh... true."

"Leaving one alive should be enough to report back."

The adjutant said no more.

Just then, a communications soldier rushed onto the deck.

"Major! An urgent call from a nearby branch!"

As soon as the Den Den Mushi connected, someone on the other end cried out in haste.

"Something terrible has happened in the Kingdom of Belo!"

"Three days ago, pirates captured five hundred kingdom soldiers and threatened their lives to force the king to abdicate!"

Ron frowned.

"What's the situation now?"

"Today's the deadline! The World Government has already sent someone over!"

"Who did they send?"

"I think it's a young Cipher Pol agent, only thirteen years old."

Ron's expression changed sharply.

"Rob Lucci?"

"Yes! That's him!"