The Real and the Fake Face Off

"Snort,"

Wearing a black suit and top hat, with a pigeon perched on his shoulder, Lucci calmly looked at Roman with his hands in his pockets.

"Regardless of whether your boast is true or false, CP9 has really been looked down upon."

"I don't care if you look wide or narrow! Give Robin back to us!"

Luffy forward, but a tall figure instantly blocked his way, his 2.5-meter-tall frame resembling a thick city wall.

"How dare a group of evil pirates be so rampant! It's because of people like you that ordinary people in this world live in such misery..."

"Get out of my way!"

Luffy has no interest in debating whether something is 'just' or not; he is a person who truly acts only according to his conscience! He acts according to his own will, has his own moral bottom line and way of doing things, and hates those who coerce others.

A typical example of chaotic goodness.

Call out--

Since the other party is blocking our way, let's use our fists to clear the way!

Facing Luffy's sudden punch, the tall man with a bull's head named Bruno smiled coldly, stood firm in a horse stance, and neither dodged nor avoided the punch, adopting a posture of taking the hit head-on.

"Tekkai!"

Clang!!

Luffy slammed his fist into the opponent's chest with a dull thud, and his brow furrowed.

"So hard."

It doesn't look like flesh and blood at all, but rather like a solid steel statue!

"Ahem... We are different from you pirates. We possess a technique called 'Six Powers'. Our bodies are like steel—?"

Brulo, who was forcing himself to recite his lines despite the pain in his chest, was taken aback because the pirates opposite him weren't listening to his rant at all; instead, they all turned to look at one of their companions.

Why are you all looking at me?

Faced with the Straw Hat crew's puzzled looks, Roman was speechless. "Although I can also use 'Tekkai,' I'm not stupid. Why would I just stand there and let myself get hit?"

Didn't you know that all the members of CP died from Tekkai?

·····

"Hmph hmph hmph," Bruno, having taken a heavy punch from Luffy, decided to broaden the horizons of these 'country bumpkins' and charged straight at Luffy! Luffy instinctively retaliated with a punch, but:

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Amidst the dense barrage of punches, the towering Bruno swayed from side to side with an eerie, paper-like gait. He seemed as light as a feather, allowing Luffy's heavy punches to rain down like cannonballs, yet he always managed to dodge them by the narrowest of times.

Brush,

Bruno stepped back gracefully, appearing 'cool' but actually nearly tripped and barely dodged Luffy's combo punches. He calmly continued speaking.

"Such a skillless attack in the face of ' Kami-e'—?"

The group of people opposite them all looked at the handsome young pirate, leaving the CP9 members completely bewildered.

"Why are you looking at me again?"

Facing the Straw Hat crew's strange looks, Roman said helplessly, "Kami-e... it's very simple, isn't it? It's normal that I know how to use it..."

????

"Stop playing around—"

"Storm Kick!"

Wearing a baseball cap and sporting a long nose, Kaku suddenly kicked out, exceeding the speed of sound and creating a sharp, massive white slashing wave (actually transparent) that sliced through the Straw Hat crew at the waist! Ordinary people wouldn't even know how they died. But:

With a flash, Sanji stepped forward and kicked out in the same manner. The same huge white slash wave arrived first, suddenly meeting the huge crescent moon kicked out by the opponent.

Bang!

The two slashes collided violently, crushing, rubbing, and cutting each other at an extremely high frequency and speed in a very short time, before exploding with a deafening roar, turning into scattered gusts of wind that whipped up rings of whirlwinds in the room! The clothes of everyone present rattled violently.

However, this is not the result that CP9 wanted!

"Storm Kick?!"

Lucci, the team leader, cast a grim glance at Sanji, who remained unperturbed.

"Why do you possess what's unique to CP9..."

"Hey, hey, hey, you pigeon farmer."

Sanji put his foot down and tapped his heel.

"You can learn this technique of rapidly contracting and extending the leg muscles to generate kinetic energy and launch a slashing wave with a single glance, right?"

After saying that, he took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked off the ash.

"Could it be... some kind of precious 'secret technique' to you?"

········

I never knew Sanji could be so sarcastic!

"Six Powers? It's not like everyone knows a few tricks." Roman stepped forward and spread his hands. "You don't need to show off the rest, like Geppo, Shave, Shigan."

With a wave of his hand, sheets of white paper flew over from the White Going Merry and wrapped Roman up to look like an armored knight.

"Let's skip the trash talk and get straight to the fight!"

"Interesting!"

His expression remained unchanged, but the bulging veins on his forehead spoke volumes about Rob Lucci's terrible mood! Their CP9's prized skills were like cabbages in their eyes. Such blatant evil...

Unforgivable—

Shave!

In an instant, he had vanished from his spot. Before anyone else could react.

Clang clang clang clang clang!!

A series of rapid impacts, like machine gun fire hitting tank armor! Sparks flew everywhere! Then the tall figure of the 'White Knight' appeared in front of Nami, along with Rob Lucci, who had just launched his finger attack.

"Shigan 'Yellow Lotus'!"

This is Lucci's special Shigan. First, bend your index finger, then use the super-fast firing speed to stab the enemy's body. Then, change the position of the next shot up, down, left, and right, and you can immediately deal the damage of a heavy machine gun sweep!

"Tekkai!"

What blocked his sudden attack was, of course, Roman, who was on Observation Haki fully activated. The armor composed of hundreds of tightly stacked sheets of paper, as tough as steel, was a true Tekkai!

Unexpectedly, they started the fight with CP9's stubbornness... but:

"It's one thing to strike first, but to attack a woman—"

"Evil knows no gender," Lucci said, unmoved by Roman's words. "And in battle, the priority should always be eliminating the weaker, more threatening ones."

"That makes sense,"

There's no doubt that Lucci could immediately see that Nami was the weakest member of the Straw Hat crew, but the fact that he could also discern that Nami 'posed a great threat' suggests only one possibility:

Observation Haki!

"Then don't blame us—"

Having just blocked a Shigan attack, Roman flipped his hands and grabbed the opponent's wrists, then:

Second Gear!

Just as Roman blocked Lucci's attack, Luffy's voice came from the side. And:

Brush,

In a flash, Luffy appeared out of thin air next to Lucci, just as Lucci had done with 'Shave'.

"Gomu Gomu no Jet Bullet!"

Boom—!

Amidst a white shockwave, the house suddenly exploded, instantly creating a large, human-shaped hole in the wall beside it. Luffy and Roman immediately jumped out of the hole one after the other, clearly heading to cause trouble for Lucci.

After all, the opponent is hailed as the strongest member of CP9 in eight hundred years. Roman's conservative estimate is that he definitely possesses dual Haki. Even though his training has been delayed for many years due to his undercover work, if he messes up because of carelessness, he could really end up in Impel Down.

Quiet······

For a moment, the room fell into a deathly silence. The remaining people from both sides looked at each other in bewilderment, but only for a second.

Clang,

Zoro drew his katana from his waist and pointed it at Kaku, who had a long nose.

"This guy is mine now."

"Then let me handle this big guy."

Sanji took a drag of his cigarette and walked toward Bruno.

"Then I—"

Just as Chopper was about to say something, Nami interrupted him.

"Chopper, you save them first."

The room also contained the seriously injured Mayor Iceburg and the rope-playing foreman Barry— the Straw Hat crew had no intention of scapegoating anyone; only by saving the two of them could they clear their own names of 'injustice'.

Although the Straw Hat crew didn't care.

"She's in my hands."

The last enemy in the room was, of course, the former secretary Kalifa, wielding Thorn Whip. Annoyed at Nami's 'calling out' her, she pushed up her glasses with her fingertip.

"Do you think I'm weak? I'll be careful not to kill you, after all, this is our agreement with Nico Robin."

"Yeah?"

Nami opened the book in her hand, and sheets of white paper fluttered out and surrounded her.

"But I can't guarantee I won't hurt you, since we're 'evil' pirates."

Brush!

In an instant, everyone in the room moved at the same time, suddenly lunging at their opponents.