Katakuri Arrives

"Full alert. Something powerful is coming."

Not long after leaving Cocos Village, Lin Qi's Observation Haki detected two powerful presences rapidly approaching.

"Shihahahahaha! Found you."

A rather handsome punk-styled man held a flaming longsword as he looked down at Lin Qi and the others from above.

"Little Brother, stop wasting words with them. Hurry up and kill them—we still need to find desserts for Mama."

Another cold and aloof woman with pink hair stood on a floating mass of butter, wineglass in hand as she urged him impatiently.

"Mamamama~ Sis, we drifted at sea for a month and a half. Of course, we need to kill them slowly to make it worthwhile."

"Boss, they are Razer and Galette, two of the Big Mom Pirates' officers," one of his subordinates reported.

Every elite Marine had to commit information about the Four Emperors' pirate crews to memory.

"Charlotte Linlin's people? From what they said, they came specifically for us. I don't remember provoking them anywhere." Lin Qi frowned.

But no matter what, since they had come knocking at his doorstep, there was naturally no reason to let them go.

"Smoker, I can sense a Pirate Ship following behind them. Once the fighting starts, the Pirate Ship is yours. The two officers are mine."

"Fine." Smoker drew his Jitte.

"What about me? Hina wants to fight too!" Hina volunteered eagerly.

"You stay behind and protect the soldiers on the ship."

The two people in the sky had undoubtedly reached Vice Admiral-level strength. For the soldiers aboard the ship, facing them meant only death.

"Fine, we'll do it your way." Galette, who cherished her family, could not refuse her Little Brother's request.

With his sister's permission, Razer jokingly swung a Flying Slash toward the Warship.

"Fire Dragon Emperor!"

The slash transformed into a giant dragon, roaring as it lunged at the Warship.

"Move!"

Lin Qi shouted and charged forward first, while Smoker quietly slipped away according to the plan.

Lin Qi ignored the incoming attack because he trusted Hina.

"All Creation!"

Sure enough, as Hina danced her hands through the air, countless chains emerged from the void, tightly binding the dragon's body and swallowing it whole.

"So fast."

In the blink of an eye, Lin Qi appeared before Razer. Without even giving him time to react, he threw a punch.

Boom!

The next moment, Razer became a shooting star and crashed straight into the depths of the sea.

"Puh—"

Razer spat out a mouthful of blood. His pupils trembled violently for a few moments before his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

"That's not right. There's no way I misjudged him. Is someone with Rear Admiral-level strength really this weak?"

Then Lin Qi suddenly understood. He was no longer the person he had been when he first set out to sea.

Back then, whether he could handle a Vice Admiral was still uncertain.

But now, he estimated that he had already reached the threshold of an Admiral.

The gap in strength was enormous. No wonder he had one-shotted his enemy with a single punch.

"Little Brother!" Galette cried out worriedly, spilling wine everywhere from her glass.

She no longer cared about maintaining her elegant image and assumed a combat stance.

The man before her was far too powerful. He had actually defeated Razer with one punch?!

Today, they had probably kicked an iron plate.

"Ma'am, you're exposing yourself." Lin Qi could barely keep his eyes open from the sight of those two enormous breasts, so he kindly reminded her.

What he received in thanks, however, was a swarm of butter.

"Butter Javelin!"

Dozens of javelins formed from cooled butter were hurled at him.

"A Paramecia? The Butter-Butter Fruit?"

Facing the butter javelins, Lin Qi grabbed the woman by the throat and sneered. "Are you scratching an itch for me?"

"You... monster."

Galette could not breathe with her throat gripped. Seeing that the places on Lin Qi's body struck by the javelins did not even leave white marks, her heart trembled.

"Should I kill you now, or keep you around to exchange for military merits?" Lin Qi slowly tightened his grip, seemingly hesitating.

Snap~

The next instant, the woman's head flew off.

Her headless body fell from the sky.

"Cough, cough... That hurts. You're a man who doesn't know how to cherish women."

Her severed head suddenly turned into butter, wriggling as it flew back to her body and reformed into human shape.

Galette's seductive face had turned purple-red as she coughed continuously.

"A Paramecia similar to a Logia?"

Lin Qi, who had been about to go help Smoker, turned back around with great interest.

"Butter Heatwave."

A vast amount of steaming hot butter was splashed toward him. Then the woman herself transformed into a mass of butter and wrapped around Lin Qi's body.

"Damn, I just praised you a little. What the hell is this?"

When Logia users turned into elements, their clothes went with them.

But after the fox-like woman before him turned into butter, she could not bring her clothes along.

Lin Qi watched her few remaining clothes fall into the sea.

Then he looked at the woman coiled around his waist like a beautiful snake, trying to crush him, and for a moment could not tell whether she wanted to kill him or seduce him.

"Have you had enough?"

With a smack, Lin Qi slapped the woman's perky buttock and released boundless cold air.

"Ah~"

Crack, crack, crack~

Under the terrifying cold, the woman froze into an ice sculpture and fell into the sea.

For an Ability User, falling into the sea was no different from a death sentence.

Deep beneath the sea, Razer, who had swallowed several mouthfuls of seawater, suddenly woke with a start. He slashed open the sea surface and leaped out.

"Cough, cough, cough. I was wise all my life, and I nearly drowned."

Razer rubbed his aching chest in disbelief. He... had just been knocked unconscious by one punch.

Was this fucking Kaido?

"Sis!"

Before he could rest, he hurriedly caught the falling Galette. Seeing his sister frozen into a block of ice, Razer's eyes nearly split open in fury.

"I'll kill you!" Razer roared toward the sky, carefully placing his sister on a reef before drawing his sword and charging forward.

"Looks like you still haven't learned your lesson."

Thirty seconds later, Razer and Galette lay neatly side by side after Lin Qi tossed them onto the Warship.

He had even thoughtfully turned the ice encasing Galette opaque, so she would not expose herself.

Just like that, two fighters with Rear Admiral-level strength had been captured without even breaking through Lin Qi's defenses.

"So amazing." Hina clapped with her little mouth hanging open.

The soldiers aboard the ship looked at the two lying on the deck and began discussing them.

"Did you see that? That man could split the sea with one sword strike, yet Captain Lin Qi defeated him so easily."

"Captain Lin Qi is mighty!"

"Captain Lin Qi, should we lock them in prison?"

"Wait a moment. Why hasn't Smoker returned yet?"

Lin Qi frowned. A Logia like Smoker should not take this long to deal with a bunch of small fry.

Could something have happened?

The ominous premonition was soon proven true.

A tall man with red spiky hair and a towel wrapped around his mouth flew over, carrying a battered and bruised Smoker in one hand.

The man was even using Geppo, one of the Six Powers.