The Door That Couldn't Be Sent Flying

A few days after the events in Water 7, Ron received another assignment.

The document stated it clearly: [The Revolutionary Army incited the populace to rebel, attacked the kingdom's granary, and helped the rioters escape.]

"Another crackdown? The Revolutionary Army's been stirring up quite a bit of trouble lately."

Ron tossed the document to Vergo. "Let's go see who's causing trouble."

But when he arrived in the member kingdom, the first thing he saw wasn't rioters smashing and looting. It was a row of homes with their doors and windows sealed shut.

Children on the roadside were crying from hunger. An old man knelt at a tax collector's feet, his forehead split open from kowtowing, begging only to keep his last sack of food.

Ron asked for the tax register and flipped through a few pages. His expression grew increasingly strange.

To pay the Heavenly Tribute, the royal family had raised taxes year after year. This year was even worse: they had collected next year's taxes in advance.

Anyone who couldn't pay in grain had their house and land confiscated. If that still wasn't enough, they were hauled off to forced labor.

"Does your king think his people don't need to eat?"

The official wiped the sweat from his face. "Th-this is all to pay the Heavenly Tribute!"

"If you starve everyone to death, what good will it do to scrape together the Heavenly Tribute?"

Ron snapped the ledger shut.

The Revolutionary Army had stolen grain?

It was grain the royal family had just squeezed from the farmers, and they had also rescued a group of people who were about to be taken away for forced labor.

"Vergo, secure the tax register and find people to verify the entries one by one. Also find out where they're holding the people taken for forced labor. Don't let the royal family silence them while we're away."

Vergo froze for a moment, then immediately stood at attention. "Understood."

"What about the Revolutionary Army?"

Ron looked toward the mountain road outside the city.

"I'll go take a look."

On an old street outside the city, grain carts were carrying the people away in batches.

At the back of the group, an exceptionally tall man covered their retreat alone. He wore a plain Revolutionary Army uniform and gloves on both hands, and stood like a mountain.

Bartholomew Kuma.

Ron stepped out of an Air Door. Kuma glanced at the Justice Coat behind him and said in a deep voice, "They can no longer fight."

"I can see that. That's why I didn't arrest them."

Kuma was slightly taken aback.

"But you're an officer in the Revolutionary Army, and you did have a hand in this. How about a fight?"

Ron glanced at the grain carts, which hadn't gone far.

"There are too many people here. Let's go somewhere else."

Kuma was silent for a moment, then turned and walked toward the end of the old street.

An abandoned quarry lay there, surrounded by piles of rubble. No one had lived there for a long time.

Kuma took off his gloves, revealing the pink pads on his palms.

"Come on."

Boom!

Ron stepped forward, shattering the flagstone beneath his foot, and brought Zhenyuan crashing down with tremendous weight!

Kuma raised a palm to meet it.

Smack!

The blade struck the pad and was forcibly deflected to one side. The impact sent a numbing jolt through Ron's entire arm.

Ron's eyes lit up.

This was the first time anyone had deflected Zhenyuan's force without relying on Haki to withstand it.

"Interesting!"

"Your strength is astonishing too."

Before Kuma had finished speaking, he suddenly vanished from where he stood.

The instant his paw pads repelled the air, he appeared beside Ron and thrust a palm toward his chest.

Bang!

Ron vanished in an instant.

The Revolutionary Army members waiting in the distance to help them escape stared wide-eyed.

"Is it over?"

Kuma clapped his palms together. "Yes. We should retreat quickly. There's nothing to gain from angering the Marines."

Just as he turned around—

Click.

A door opened out of thin air behind Kuma, and Ron leaned halfway out.

"Looking for me?"

Kuma slowly turned his head, a rare look of shock on his face. "I sent you to an uninhabited island dozens of nautical miles away."

"I know. It was pretty far."

Ron grinned. "Should I thank you for saving me the travel fare?"

"..."

Kuma raised his hand again, force gathering in his palm.

"Pressure Cannon!"

More than a dozen paw-shaped shock waves blasted out in succession. The abandoned quarry's rock walls exploded one after another, sending rubble flying everywhere.

Ron stepped back and disappeared into a door. The shock waves plunged into the Spatial Door behind him, then shot out from Kuma's side.

Kuma backhanded the attacks away, then slapped downward. His enormous body flashed above Ron at high speed.

"Pressure Cannon!"

Boom!

The shock wave plowed a deep trench through the rocky ground, sending rubble flying into the air!

But Ron dropped out of a door on the other side and brought Zhenyuan down toward the middle of Kuma's back.

Kuma turned his palm back and deflected the heavy sword. The next instant, Ron stepped through another door and circled back to his front.

Bang, bang, bang!

Zhenyuan and the paw pads collided again and again.

Kuma had just blocked the heavy sword slashing toward him when a Spatial Door suddenly split open beneath his feet!

"What?!"

He leaped backward.

But another soft sound came from his side.

Click!

Zhenyuan swept out of another door!

Kuma hastily raised his palm and slapped the blade aside.

Bang!

A tremendous force traveled up his arm, sending him staggering back several steps.

"You can do that too?!"

After several exchanges, even the normally mild-mannered Kuma couldn't help asking, "Why can you still come back?"

"Doors are for going home."

Ron grinned, then suddenly gripped his sword with both hands.

"Dimension Slash!"

No flying slash appeared. Instead, a thin black line materialized in the air beside Kuma's shoulder!

Kuma's Observation Haki screamed a warning, and he pressed his paw pad toward that spot in the air in advance.

Hum!

The impact and spatial disturbance at the point of contact were forcibly repelled, shifting the black line slightly off course.

Slice!

Kuma's sleeve was still cut open, and blood welled from his shoulder.

Ron paused for a moment.

"You can even repel that?"

"Not completely."

Kuma glanced down at the blood on his shoulder.

"Your slash is dangerous."

Ron's grin grew even wider.

As the fight continued, Kuma found it increasingly difficult.

Zhenyuan's weight pressed down on him without letup, while the unpredictable Spatial Doors kept him from ever truly opening up the distance.

His paw pads could protect him from the front, but not from every direction.

Kuma's breathing grew heavy. Though he could repel the vast majority of attacks from the front, he could never guess where the next door would open.

Kuma used all his strength to slap the heavy sword away, but the next second, a soft click came from behind him.

A fist wreathed in Armament Haki blasted out of a door!

Bang!!

Kuma's enormous body slid dozens of meters, his feet plowing two deep trenches in the ground.

After regaining his footing, he didn't attack again. The last grain cart had already disappeared at the end of the mountain road.

Ron put Zhenyuan away as well.

Kuma looked at him. "Why didn't you chase those people?"

"Did they commit a crime?"

"In this country, refusing to pay taxes is a crime."

"Then there's something wrong with this country's head."

"..."

"If the Revolutionary Army massacred villages or robbed civilians, I'd arrest them all the same."

"But you did nothing wrong today."

Kuma was silent for a long moment. "Then why did you fight me?"

Ron patted the Zhenyuan Sword's scabbard. "Because I was interested in your ability."

Kuma: "..."

So that was the main reason for that fierce battle just now?

"Kuma—!"

A woman came running back with a group of people. When she saw the blood on Kuma's shoulder, her expression changed at once.

"You're hurt?!"

Ginny immediately pulled out a shotgun and stepped protectively in front of Kuma, glaring fiercely at Ron.

"Marine! Why did you hit him so hard?!"

The woman's voice turned shrill with anger. "I knew it, all Marines are—"

"Hey, hey, hey! He wasn't exactly holding back either!!"

Ginny was momentarily at a loss for words. Then she looked him up and down.

"You're that monster Rear Admiral?"

"Don't you Revolutionary Army people introduce yourselves first when you meet someone?"

"Ginny, I'm fine."

Hearing the name, Ron's smile faltered slightly.

Ginny... He remembered that name. Something seemed to have happened later.

But as for what it was, all that remained in his mind was a vague unease.

He walked toward the Air Door, then suddenly looked back.

"Big guy, let me leave you with a word of advice."

Kuma looked up.

"Cherish the person in front of you."

At those words, Ginny's eyes lit up. Then her face flushed red.

"Did you hear that, Kuma?! Cherish the person in front of you!"

"He didn't say he meant you."

"It means about the same thing! Even the Marines think there's something wrong with you!"

The Revolutionary Army base.

After listening to Kuma's report, Dragon, Ivankov, and the others grew increasingly solemn.

"You're saying he can open doors to move around quickly?"

Dragon tapped his fingertips on the map. "How far?"

"I'm not sure. I sent him to a distant uninhabited island, and he was back a few seconds later."

When he finished speaking, the meeting room suddenly fell silent.

"Wait..."

Dragon slowly raised his head. "You personally sent him to a distant uninhabited island?"

"Yes."

"And a few seconds later, he came back on his own?"

"Yes. In my judgment, as long as he's been somewhere before, distance can hardly restrict him."

A few beads of cold sweat slowly appeared on Dragon's forehead.

Sweat King

He looked at the base's thick walls and, as if compelled by some mysterious force, asked, "Kuma, has he been here?"

"No."

Dragon visibly breathed a sigh of relief at the answer.

Ivankov burst out laughing. "Hee-haw! Dragon, you were scared just now, weren't you?"

"No."

Ginny pointed at him. "You're sweating!"

"It's hot."

Everyone looked out the window. With the end of the year approaching, the cold wind was whipping the curtains wildly.

When the laughter died down, Dragon spread out the map again.

"Make a separate file on Ron."

"His fighting strength isn't what's frightening."

Dragon pointed at the map. "As long as he's seen a place with his own eyes, its walls are meaningless."

"He could enter our command post at any time."

Kuma looked at the base markers on the map and added:

"He didn't arrest the evacuating civilians."

"Before we fought, he even suggested moving somewhere with no one around."

Dragon raised his head.

"Then why did he attack you?"

"He said he was interested in my ability."

"..."

Ivankov couldn't help widening his eyes.

"Just because of that?!"

"Yes."

Dragon fell silent for a moment.

"It seems this rear admiral is a little different from the Marines we've encountered before."

"But he's still a Marine."

"Don't mistake personal goodwill for being on the same side."

He put away the map.

"Don't engage him unless it's necessary."

"With someone like him, it would be best if we could become friends."

"If we can't, we still shouldn't become enemies lightly."