The Nine Scabbards' Last Stand! The Seductive Female Ninja!

King had already leapt into the air, the black wings on his back beating as the flame behind his head blazed fiercely.

His long blade pointed at the Red Scabbard samurai charging desperately toward them from below the mountain.

Suddenly, rings of fire appeared behind him. "Fire Dragon Emperor!"

A flaming dragon, complete with whiskers and beard, shot out from the fiery rings behind King and lunged at the Red Scabbard samurai with fangs and claws bared.

The Lunarians were currently known as the Pirate World's strongest bloodline monsters.

Defense surpassing Charlotte Linlin's, destructive flames as terrifying as magma, and lightning-fast mobility whenever the flame behind their heads went out.

It was honestly absurd that such a powerful race had dwindled to just Uncle King as its sole descendant.

"Yamato, go wake Jack and Maria."

Ian said, "This isn't the time for sleeping."

"Mm!"

Yamato turned and hopped onto Ian's back.

"Jack! Maria! Wake up!"

Yamato grabbed their shoulders and shook them with all her might.

At last, the two slowly woke up.

"Yamato? What happened just now?"

While Yamato explained things to them, the Nine Red Scabbards charging this way looked up at the falling fire dragon.

"Fire? Leave that to me!"

Foxfire Kin'emon stepped forward from the group with some pride.

His unique swordsmanship was called Foxfire Style. The secret of this school was swordsmanship wreathed in flames, but what Kin'emon was proudest of was a technique called Flame Splitter Slash, which could easily cut apart intangible fire.

In the original story, he had even cut through Kaido's Heat Breath.

But the falling flame dragon began splitting apart halfway through. In the blink of an eye, dozens of fire dragons fell from all directions like a meteor shower.

"Eh!"

Kin'emon's face instantly turned green.

He could easily cut through one, and he could grit his teeth and manage a few more.

But wasn't this way too many?!

"Leave it to me, Kin!"

The short, big-headed ninja Raizo leapt into the air. He pulled a scroll from behind his back and unfurled it. "Scroll Technique: Absorb!!"

A massive vortex abruptly appeared on the scroll. The fire dragons descending from the sky were all drawn toward it and swallowed entirely into the scroll.

"This is the Kozuki Family's ninja!"

Raizo landed, his face full of pride. "This is my ninjutsu!"

That was ninjutsu my ass.

Ian, who had returned to human form and was standing atop the mountain watching the battle, twitched at the corner of his mouth.

This guy was a Paramecia Scroll-Scroll Fruit user. He could create scrolls, and those scrolls could absorb objects or attacks.

He just didn't know that he had eaten a Devil Fruit and believed that what he used was ninjutsu.

"So that's ninjutsu? That's amazing!"

Yamato beside him naturally had no idea about any of that.

Behind them, Momonosuke and Kanjuro had been bound up like dumplings in spiderwebs and tossed onto the ground. Jack and Black Maria watched the battle while also looking down toward the battlefield below the mountain.

"Muhahaha! King! Your attack didn't work at all!"

The ground trembled as a massive yellow Brachiosaurus came charging over. Queen laughed wildly at King.

But at that moment, Raizo unfurled the scroll toward him once more. "Scroll Technique: Return!"

If the scroll could absorb attacks, then naturally it could release them again.

The surging flames transformed into a torrent in the next instant and directly swallowed the unprepared Queen.

"Wah! That hurts like hell!!"

Queen's scream came from within the flames.

"Good job, Raizo!"

The tall, fat Ashura Doji praised him. "The attack worked!"

"Tch!!"

At that very moment, two beams of light suddenly flashed out from the flames. Before Raizo could react, his right shoulder and waist were pierced through by two holes. His eyes went wide as he spat blood and flew backward.

"Raizo!!"

The samurai cried out in disbelief.

"Did it work?"

A massive shadow stepped out of the flames. "Who the hell do you think I am?!"

Queen had already transformed into his hybrid form. His tail curled upward, the modified claw at its tip spread open to reveal the muzzle of a Laser Cannon, while the cannon muzzle in his mechanical left palm was aimed at the samurai.

"Flame Emperor!"

A dark figure descended from the sky. Holding a huge mass of flames in his hand, King pressed it down toward the samurai.

Kin'emon looked up, then instinctively leaped into the air. "Flame Splitter Slash!"

His blade left its sheath, and the fire-cutting swordsmanship of Foxfire Style immediately took effect. The invisible slash not only tore apart the flames, but also struck hard at the hand releasing them.

But—

Clang!

Amid a crisp metallic ring, the pitch-black hand was not only uninjured, it was not hindered in the slightest. It seized Kin'emon by the throat and smashed him toward the ground.

Boom!

The impact was like a meteor crashing down.

"Gah!"

Kin'emon, whose back of the head slammed into the ground, instantly rolled his eyes and spat blood. Worse still, the moment he hit the ground, flames surged from that hand.

"Cut flames, can you? Then cut some more for me."

King stood upright amid the flames, holding up Kin'emon as he burned fiercely. He looked toward the samurai. "Ready to die?"

"Kin!"

Ashura Doji's expression changed dramatically.

"Mr. Kin'emon!"

Kikunojo, the youngest among them, could no longer hold back and charged straight at King.

"There's no time to worry about that!"

Ashura Doji shouted, "Everyone, attack together! We have to save Lord Momonosuke!"

Ashura Doji, Kikunojo, Denjiro, Kanjuro, Kawamatsu, Nekomamushi, and Inuarashi—the remaining seven samurai launched their charge.

Queen suddenly let out a strange laugh. "Let me show you my masterpiece!!"

Bang!

The cannon in his left hand fired, launching a shell toward the samurai.

Kikunojo, charging at the forefront, casually split the shell in two with a slash. "Don't underestimate samurai—"

The split bomb suddenly detonated, turning into a cloud of smoke that enveloped all the samurai.

Queen immediately laughed smugly. "Mwahahaha! Idiots! Go on, have a good taste of the Plague Bullet!"

"They're finished."

From the mountaintop, Ian looked at the samurai engulfed by the Plague Bullet and reached his conclusion.

Uncle Queen really was gifted when it came to fooling around with underhanded tricks like these. It was a poison gas bomb filled with deadly toxins.

But the battle here would not decide anything.

Ian looked farther away, toward the battlefield where Teacher Kai and Kozuki Oden were fighting. The monsters' clash continued, and it did not seem like a winner would be decided anytime soon.

If Kozuki Oden won, then he alone would be able to kill everyone in the Beasts Pirates.

And if such an unfortunate outcome truly came to pass, the key to stopping it would be—

Ian turned back to look at Kozuki Momonosuke and Shimotsuki Yasuie.

Well, with Kozuki Oden's indecisive nature, as long as these two were in hand, there would not be much of a problem—

Bang!

At that instant, the ground beneath Momonosuke and Yasuie suddenly collapsed. The two of them, along with Black Maria and Jack, who had been guarding them, fell down together.

What?

Before the thought of surprise could even form in his mind, Ian had already launched himself forward and rushed to the edge of the suddenly opened pit.

Ian looked down. Black Maria had reacted quickly. The instant she fell, she used her ability to transform into a giant spider, shooting out silk threads to suspend herself and Jack in midair.

But—

"Ian! It was a woman! She snatched those two away!!"

Black Maria shouted upward. "She touched the spider silk with her hand, and it snapped apart instantly."

Ian lowered his gaze and saw a tunnel at the edge of the pit!

When had it been dug?

Without the slightest hesitation, Ian jumped into the pit. At that moment, he had already donned his golden armor and transformed into his hybrid form once more.

Before he even landed, Ian beat his wings and flew into the fairly wide tunnel.

If I let you get away, I'd be in trouble.

As Ian raced through the tunnel, he took a deep breath. "Divine Flame Cannon!"

Flames erupted into a torrent in an instant, filling the entire tunnel and continuing to surge forward.

"Waaah!"

A woman's scream soon rang out from ahead.

Flames burst from beneath Ian's feet, his lower back, and behind his shoulders. Propelled forward, he shot like lightning, even overtaking the spreading flames.

Not far ahead, Ian spotted a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel.

Had they hastily opened a hole to escape the flames chasing after them?

Ian launched himself upward, bursting through the opening wrapped in flames.

He emerged on a slope not far below the summit of a small hill.

"Lord Yasuie! Take Lord Momonosuke and go first!"

Ian heard a woman's voice. Turning his head, he saw a seductively dressed woman charging toward him. "I'll deal with this guy!"

Behind her, Shimotsuki Yasuie held Kozuki Momonosuke in his arms, his expression conflicted. But in the end, he gritted his teeth. "Then I'll leave it to you!"

Holding Momonosuke, who had already been awakened, he turned and ran.

"Brat! Do you know your flames nearly disfigured me, Wano Country's number one seductive female ninja?!"

Shouting such baffling words, the woman scattered a handful of kunai and shuriken at Ian.

Ian did not even consider dodging, letting the concealed weapons bounce harmlessly off his scales.

"It won't do for a little brat to be this hard!"

Using the concealed weapons as cover, the woman had already closed in on Ian. She reached out and pressed her hand toward him. "Let big sister make you a little softer!"

Oh, right.

This woman was Shinobu, wasn't she?

The female ninja who had helped Kozuki Oden in this battle in the original story. She had once been a member of the Kozuki Family's Oniwabanshu, then became a wandering ninja after the Oniwabanshu submitted to Orochi.

If he remembered correctly, this woman's ability was troublesome too.

The Paramecia Ripening-Ripening Fruit.

It could ripen anything until it decayed.

That was how this tunnel had been dug.

If her ability was used on a person, the target would be forcibly aged, and that aging was irreversible.

But—

Ian casually reached out and grabbed the woman's hand. "Yamato."

A white wolf flashed past his side, chasing after Shimotsuki Yasuie as fast as lightning.

"Oh? Are you that impatient to grab big sister's hand, boy?"

Shinobu giggled as Ian held her hand. "But big sister prefers more mature men. Let big sister help you, then."

Ready to become an old man, brat?

Ripening Technique, activate!

And then—

"Eh?"