Please Follow and Read On! Dragon's Last-Minute Training!

Two massive ships, each with four decks, two of them gun decks, one black and one white, flew nearly identical skull flags save for the color of the cat ears. Braving the cannonballs raining down from the sky and weaving between towering columns of water, they fled desperately toward the northwest.

Behind them, more than a dozen branch Warships pursued relentlessly, continuously unleashing a barrage of cannon fire.

"Damn it, why?! Why have these Marines suddenly turned into rabid dogs? Why are they so determined to bite us, meow?!"

On the White Ship, Fishing Kitten glared furiously at the distant fleet and cursed. Just then, the Den Den Mushi sitting in his palm spoke.

"Calm down, White Cat. I'm guessing it's the nobles from the South Blue kingdoms behind this. You know perfectly well how many noble ships we've robbed over the years, meow."

"Then there was three months ago, when we broke into Lenna Kingdom's palace and emptied its treasury. That must have completely enraged the nobles, so they paid a huge sum to have these Marines capture us, meow."

On the other Black Ship, Three-Legged Cat, who looked nearly identical to the other Fishing Kitten aside from his black clothes, calmly offered his analysis.

Still, he found it somewhat strange. Did the nobles of those countries really have that much influence?

Ever since the two Warships had spotted them yesterday, it was as though they had been marked. No matter where they went, groups of Warships would appear to chase them. At the most outrageous point, Warships had surrounded them from nearly three directions!

And there was something else strange. These Warships always gave him the feeling that they were deliberately keeping their distance.

"What exactly are the Marines trying to do, meow?" Three-Legged Cat ignored the thunder of cannon fire around him and scanned the surrounding sea in thought.

"Hey, who cares what they're trying to do? I'm furious! Let's pick a target and fight them first. Maybe if we beat them badly enough, they'll stop chasing us, meow!"

Fishing Kitten snarled into the Den Den Mushi.

At the same time, his eyes turned into pale yellow, walnut-shaped feline pupils. Sharp claws extended from all ten fingers, his ears lengthened and stood upright, and his entire body exuded the dangerous aura of a hunter.

"It's here! Boss White Cat's Zoan Cat-Cat Fruit, Lion Cat (African) Form!"

The nearby crew members, dressed in white fur coats and wearing white cat ears, cried out excitedly.

For South Blue pirates like them, who had seen little of the world, Devil Fruit powers retained a lasting novelty because they represented strength.

"No, meow!"

But Black Cat, Three-Legged Cat, stopped him without hesitation.

"There are too many Warships. The two of us can handle the Marines from at most three Warships at once, but there are more than twenty Warships around us now. Do you want to move into prison with me, meow?"

"If you say yes, I'd be more than happy to go in with you, meow!"

Upon hearing that, White Cat, Fishing Kitten, hesitated. The killing intent in his eyes gradually faded. Though impulsive and lively by nature, he was no fool, nor did he want to drag the other man down because of himself. He could only suppress the rage in his heart.

"Then what do we do, meow?"

Black Cat, Three-Legged Cat, said, "Keep running. Judging by the direction, I strongly suspect these Marines want to force us into the Grand Line, meow!"

He had blurted it out casually, but the more he thought about it after saying it, the more sense it made. His eyes lit up.

"Yes, that must be it. These South Blue Marines accepted the nobles' commission, but they're wary of our strength and don't want to suffer excessive casualties. So they want to drive us into the Grand Line. That would still accomplish their goal of ridding the nobles of their trouble, meow!"

"So that's how it is, meow."

White Cat, Fishing Kitten, also felt that Black Cat, Three-Legged Cat's deduction was correct. "So we're just going to do as they want, meow?"

"What else can we do? It looks like our actions over the years have thoroughly enraged the South Blue nobles. There's no longer any place for us here, meow." The latter sighed helplessly.

The former sneered.

"Hmph, it's only the Grand Line. If we have to go, then we'll go. With us brothers joining forces, where can't we make a name for ourselves? And while we're at it, we'll see whether the nobles on the Grand Line are rich, meow!"

Elsewhere, five enormous Warships, each several times larger than the South Blue branch Warships, cut through the waves in a triangular formation.

In these waters of the South Blue, they stood at the very top of the food chain.

"Rear Admiral Dragon, South Blue 175th Branch has sent word. The Black Cat Pirates and the White Cat Pirates are currently being driven toward us by their encirclement. They are ten nautical miles away!"

A colonel ran over and reported loudly.

"I understand. Pass down the order. Prepare for battle." Dragon nodded expressionlessly. Beside him, Rear Admiral Ivan let out a snort of laughter.

"These South Blue Marines sure are enthusiastic!"

In truth, Dragon had not expected things to develop this way.

He had only intended to use the capture of Black Cat and White Cat as a pretext, take a small detour toward the Thutmose Kingdom, then notify the three nearby Marine branches on the day of arrival and catch the enemy off guard.

But who would have thought that the various South Blue branches would act as though they had been injected with chicken blood, desperately trying to deliver the two "cats" right to him? Apparently, they had even prepared to provide immediate support if the battle on his side became urgent.

What did that mean?

It meant that even if Dragon were nothing but a flashy fraud, they would find a way to make sure he got to eat this cat meat and comfortably claim the military merit!

It was clear just how ignorant these South Blue Marines were. Their frog-in-a-well mentality had kept Rear Admiral Ivan smiling these past two days.

"Since that's the case, we'll take them out along the way. Two Zoan pirates with bounties close to fifty million are indeed quite a threat in the South Blue. Consider it removing a menace for the people." Dragon calmly looked out over the sea ahead.

"Pirates with bounties under fifty million, and from the Four Seas at that, probably don't even know Haki. A few officers should be enough." Rear Admiral Ivan shrugged dismissively.

"No. I'll do it myself. End the battle quickly, then turn around at once and launch a surprise attack on the Thutmose Kingdom!"

As Dragon had always said, speed was paramount in war. The detour was only for the sake of "surprise"; the speed of the "attack" that followed was the true priority.

Rear Admiral Ivan volunteered, "If that's the case, it may not be appropriate for you to act as the commanding officer. I can handle it for you and guarantee a swift victory."

As the deputy commander for this operation, he felt he should show some initiative now. Besides, building a good relationship with Dragon would only be beneficial.

"Thank you, but I'd like to do it myself and test my Devil Fruit powers." Dragon politely declined.

"Alright then~" Rear Admiral Ivan did not mind. He assumed his commanding officer simply wanted to show off in front of him and all the Marines.

After all, it was the Logia Hurricane Fruit. Dragon certainly had the capital to show it off, and Ivan also wanted to witness what a Logia battle looked like.

But in reality, Dragon was not thinking any of that nonsense.

He had only recently become an ability user. Moreover, in order to conceal the fact that he intended to defect, he had hidden his powers, leaving him with very few opportunities to fight using them. As a result, his development of the fruit's abilities was indeed lacking. Before this, he had only fought CP0 once.

So he intended to use this opportunity to come up with a few useful moves against those two "cats." After all, the Slave King he would face afterward was described in the intelligence as extremely powerful, having cultivated Haki for at least a dozen years, on top of an even longer period spent developing a Paramecia Fruit ability.

It was a bit of last-minute sharpening of the spear.

A quick report on this book's current stats: 832 bookmarks, 112 recommendations, and around 90 readers following along. It is currently ranked 42nd in the light novel category of the new signed-author book rankings. That is some improvement over before, and it is all thanks to the support of you wonderful readers who have stayed with it until now!

By the way, I noticed there are very few chapter comments and comments discussing the plot. What's going on? There are clearly plenty of side plots in the story so far. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas!

Also, Three-Legged Cat and Fishing Kitten, have you two seen this? These two characters were written based on your reader IDs!