Evidence of Crime

Hearing this, Yaen thought for a moment and replied earnestly.

"A name is nothing more than a label. Not leaving one's name behind after doing a good deed is one of my guiding principles. After all, I am very worried about being retaliated against by bad guys."

Not leaving a name after a good deed?

Worried about retaliation from bad guys?

Capone Bege was completely stunned. He never expected such words to come out of the mouth of the bespectacled youth before him, who was like a monster.

Is this what you call doing a good deed?

And worried about retaliation from bad guys? What is that supposed to mean?

With your strength, you're afraid of bad guys and worried about their retaliation? Or does that mean my Capone Mafia isn't even worthy of being called bad guys?

Seeing the expression on Capone Bege's face, which looked as if he had been insulted and humiliated, Yaen thought about explaining, but stopped himself.

After all, the most important reason Yaen didn't want to reveal his name was the fear that it might accidentally spread and lead to some strange reputation.

Low-key, cautious, and steady...

This was Yaen's style of conduct.

Even if he were truly strong—strong enough to kill Whitebeard with a single punch while holding the rank of Navy Private First Class—there was absolutely no need to be arrogant or conceited.

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

Zoan types weren't scary, and Logia types weren't scary either; the ones to fear were those unconventional abilities like the Ghost Fruit, the Rewind Fruit, the Hobby Hobby Fruit, and so on.

In the face of such fruit abilities, regardless of how strong or weak one was, everyone was treated almost equally.

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

Besides, destroying a Mafia organization wasn't exactly a big deal.

Just then, the ability user closest to Yaen, who possessed something similar to the Black Bear Fruit, suddenly erupted.

While a large number of cherry blossoms continuously sliced through his flesh, the massive body of the Black Bear Fruit user leaped straight up from the floor, gathering violent power into his bear paws to slam down toward Yaen's head.

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

In the West Blue, this level of strength was already quite considerable. An ordinary Navy branch officer of lieutenant rank might not even have a chance to survive such a sneak attack.

However...

"Just because I look refined, don't go underestimating me..."

Yaen said helplessly, his palm tightening around the hilt of his Zanpakutō.

In an instant, the cherry blossoms that had been swirling around and continuously slicing at the Black Bear Fruit user accelerated several times over.

A mist of blood rose amidst the brilliant pink petals, and the bear paw slowly came to a halt, stopping completely just ten centimeters away from Yaen.

"Bang!"

The Black Bear Fruit user, whose body weight had already been reduced by nearly half, crashed heavily to the floor, never to make another sound.

"As a Black Bear Fruit user, why couldn't you just play dead? If you hadn't tried to ambush me, you wouldn't necessarily have had to die. I'm a very kind person."

Yaen said this with a look of helplessness on his face, then turned his gaze toward the other three Zoan Devil Fruit users.

However, seeing that even the one among them with the strongest physique—the Black Bear Fruit user—had been killed in an instant, those few ability users lost even the slightest thought of resistance.

For a moment, enduring the excruciating pain of being continuously sliced by the cherry blossoms, they dared not pass by Yaen. Instead, they retreated in unison, crashing through the room's windows and plummeting downstairs as their escape route.

"Ah, this..."

The corner of Yaen's mouth twitched slightly. He raised his hand gently, but it was already too late to stop them. He spoke slowly, a beat too late.

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

The next moment, a rapid series of sounds indicating frost forming echoed from downstairs. Yaen knew then that they had likely departed quite peacefully, without much suffering.

Immediately after, Yaen turned his gaze back to Capone Bege, who was standing before him with a pale face and sweating profusely, and asked.

"Do you have handcuffs?"

Although Capone Bege didn't quite understand what Yaen meant, driven by fear, he answered hurriedly and flusteredly, "Yes, yes, I do!"

Thereupon, Capone Bege rushed to the drawer behind the desk, took out four or five pairs of handcuffs, and laid them on the table, looking as if he were letting him take his pick.

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

Yaen was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized the true purpose of these handcuffs and couldn't help but tease, "Yo, you're quite the player, aren't you?"

"I... I guess so," Capone Bege said sheepishly.

The next moment, a single sentence from Yaen made Capone Bege's face turn even paler.

"Since that's the case, pick the pair you like best and put them on yourself."

"No... can we not do this? Please... spare me, sir," Capone Bege pleaded, his voice trembling.

"Spare you? What were you doing earlier?"

Faced with this display of a tough guy shedding tears, Yaen grew somewhat impatient. "Stop dawdling, or I'll have to force them on you."

Capone Bege gritted his teeth hard. With a look of both despair and resignation on his face, his hand trembled as he picked up a pair of pure gold handcuffs.

Then, Capone Bege lay straight down on the table, shackling his left hand and left foot together. He then picked up another diamond-encrusted pair of handcuffs with his right hand and was just about to shackle his right hand and right foot together.

Watching Capone Bege's bizarre posture, Yaen realized what was happening a beat too late, and his expression turned exceptionally ugly as he asked.

"What are you doing? I told you to handcuff your hands together and come with me."

"Huh?!"

For a moment, Capone Bege's face was filled with both surprise and embarrassment.

Immediately, as if afraid that Yaen might change his mind, Capone Bege hurriedly used the key to unlock the cuffs on his left hand and foot. He then shackled his hands together and respectfully handed the key to Yaen.

"Vile bastard, vile thoughts!"

Yaen remarked. Just as he was about to leave with Capone Bege, his gaze inadvertently caught sight of a safe in the corner.

Yaen wasn't particularly interested in money, but out of a desire to hunt for treasure, he spoke up directly.

"Go, open that safe. I need to inspect the evidence of your crimes."

"Yes, yes, yes."

Understanding that he had completely fallen into Yaen's hands, Capone Bege had no intention of resisting and cooperated perfectly as he opened the half-man-tall safe for Yaen.

"Hiss..."

It was gleaming with gold!

Things like green-colored Belly had no right to appear here; the inside was almost entirely filled with high-value minerals like gold and jewelry.

Although Yaen was the foster son of Admiral Sengoku, his daily life was not exactly wealthy, and he barely even had any living expenses.

"Evidence, this is all concrete evidence of the Mafia's illegal profiteering!" Yaen muttered to himself.