Criminal Evidence

Yaen heard this, thought about it, and replied earnestly.

"Names are just codenames. Remaining anonymous after doing good deeds is one of my personal rules. After all, I'm very worried about being retaliated against by bad guys."

Remaining anonymous after doing good deeds?

Worried about being retaliated against by bad guys?

Capone Bege was completely stunned, completely not expecting such words to actually come out of the bespectacled teenager's mouth who looked like a monster before him.

Is this doing a good deed?

And worried about being retaliated against by bad guys? What does that mean?

Someone like you is scared of bad guys and worried about retaliation from bad guys? Or is my Capone Mafia not even worthy of being considered bad guys?

Looking at Capone Bege's expression, which looked as though he had been deeply insulted and humiliated, Yaen thought about it and intended to explain, but stopped himself.

After all, the most important reason why Yaen did not want to speak his name was the worry that it would accidentally spread and lead to some kind of weird reputation again.

Low-key, cautious, steady...

This was Yaen's style of conduct.

Even if he really became strong, strong enough to serve in the position of a Marine Private First Class and punch Whitebeard to death with a single blow, there was still no need to become arrogant and conceited.

After all, the Devil Fruit abilities on this vast ocean were bizarre and varied.

Zoans weren't scary, and Logias weren't scary either; what he feared were those unorthodox Devil Fruit abilities like the Hollow-Hollow Fruit, the Return-Return Fruit, and the Hobby-Hobby Fruit.

In front of such Devil Fruit abilities, regardless of how high or low one's strength was, they treated everyone almost equally.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, Yaen felt there was no need to broadcast his name every time he wiped out a mafia organization.

Besides, wiping out a mafia organization wasn't such a big deal anyway.

Right at that moment, the user closest to Yaen, who possessed a power resembling the Black Bear Fruit, suddenly erupted.

While a mass of cherry blossoms continuously sliced into his flesh, the Black Bear Fruit User's massive body directly leaped up from the floor, savage power gathering at his bear paws as he slammed down toward Yaen's head.

From the roaring sound of the wind, Yaen could roughly estimate that the power of this strike was enough to knock down a building.

Placed in West Blue, this kind of strength was already considered quite impressive; ordinary Marine branch officers of lieutenant rank might not have a chance of surviving such an ambush.

However...

"Don't look at me all scholarly and underestimate me..."

Yaen said helplessly, tightening his grip on the hilt of the Zanpakutō.

In an instant, the cherry blossoms that were previously wrapping around and continuously slicing the Black Bear Fruit User suddenly accelerated several times over.

A mist of blood drifted within that brilliant pink flurry of cherry blossoms, while that bear paw slowly came to a halt, finally stopping completely ten centimeters away from Yaen.

"Boom!"

Weighing nearly half as much less than usual, the Black Bear Fruit User crashed heavily onto the floor, making not the slightest sound of life thereafter.

"Why can't you just play dead as a Black Bear Fruit User? If you hadn't ambushed me, you might not have had to die. I'm very kind."

Yaen said with a hint of helplessness on his face, turning his gaze toward the other three Zoan Devil Fruit Users.

However, even though the physically strongest among them, the Black Bear Fruit User, had died in an instant, those users lost even the tiniest shred of a thought to resist.

For a moment, enduring the excruciating pain of being continually sliced by the cherry blossoms and not daring to pass anywhere near Yaen, they retreated in unison, smashed through the room's windows, and plunged straight down to the floor below as an escape route.

"Ah, well..."

The corners of Yaen's mouth twitched slightly, and he lifted a hand gently, though it was already too late to stop them, saying slowly a half-beat behind.

"Don't... downstairs is an even more terrifying... monster..."

The next instant, a series of frosty, freezing sounds rang out urgently from downstairs, and Yaen knew they probably departed quite peacefully without much pain.

Immediately afterward, Yaen cast his gaze once more toward the pale, sweating Capone Bege in front of him and asked.

"Got handcuffs?"

Although Capone Bege didn't quite understand Yaen's meaning, driven by fear, he hurriedly and anxiously replied, "Got 'em, got 'em, got 'em!"

Instantly, Capone Bege hurried over to the drawer behind the desk, took out four or five pairs of handcuffs, and laid them out on the tabletop, looking like someone leaving the choices entirely up to the customer.

Pure gold, diamond-encrusted, patterned, uniquely shaped...

Yaen was slightly dazed, but quickly realized the true purpose of these handcuffs and couldn't help teasing, "Yo, you're quite fancy with your usual playtime, huh?"

"Not... not really." Capone Bege said awkwardly.

The next moment, a sentence spoken by Yaen made Capone Bege's complexion turn even paler.

"Since that's the case, pick your favorite pair and put them on yourself."

"No... can you not do this? Spa... spare me, sir." Capone Bege pleaded with a trembling voice.

"Spare you? What were you doing earlier?"

Facing the sight of a tough guy shedding tears, Yaen grew somewhat impatient and said, "Stop dawdling, or else I'll have no choice but to use force."

Capone Bege bit down hard, his face displaying an expression that was both despairing and resolute as his trembling hands picked up a pair of pure gold handcuffs.

Then, Capone Bege lay straight down on the desk, cuffed his left hand and left foot together, picked up a diamond-encrusted patterned pair with his right hand, and just as he was about to cuff his right hand and right foot together—

Watching Capone Bege's bizarre posture, and realizing it belatedly, Yaen asked with an exceptionally ugly expression.

"What are you doing? I told you to cuff your own hands and then come with me."

"Ha?!"

For a moment, Capone Bege's face was filled with pleasant surprise and awkwardness.

Immediately afterward, fearing that Yaen might go back on his word, Capone Bege hurriedly unlocked the handcuffs binding his left hand and left foot with a key, cuffed his own hands together instead, and respectfully handed the key over to Yaen.

"Wicked bastard, wicked mindset!"

Yaen made this remark, and just as he was about to take Capone Bege and leave, his gaze accidentally caught sight of a safe in the corner.

Yaen wasn't very interested in money, but driven by the urge for treasure hunting, he spoke up directly.

"Go on, open that safe. I need to inspect your criminal evidence."

"Yes, yes, yes."

Understanding that he had completely fallen into Yaen's hands, Capone Bege showed no intention of resisting and cooperatively opened the waist-high safe for Yaen.

"Hiss..."

Golden light flashed brilliantly!

Those greenish things called Belly didn't even qualify to appear here; the interior was almost entirely filled with high-value minerals like gold and jewels.

Even though Yaen was Admiral Sengoku's adopted son, his everyday life could not be considered wealthy, and he hardly even received any allowance.

"Evidence, this is all solid and tangible evidence of the mafia's illegal profiteering!" Yaen muttered to himself.