Two People Who Love to Laugh

Tiger was finding it harder and harder to understand "humans."

But more precisely, he was finding it harder and harder to understand "Aiven Lindsey."

He could actually get into an argument with a little kid!

It was pretty childish.

Yet the words he shouted made Tiger fall into deep thought as well.

Truly incomprehensible...

The two walked a bit further, and Lindsey broke free of Tiger's hand.

"Hold on."

Lindsey flexed his ankle, then stomped hard on the ground.

Thud!

An inexplicable ripple spread to the surroundings.

Tiger only felt the earth beneath his feet begin to tremble, but it was far from the violence of an earthquake—it was even somewhat restrained.

Was this also Aiven Lindsey's Devil Fruit ability?

"This is way harder than tearing the ground apart."

Lindsey murmured, the "Kun Trigram" pattern in his pupils beginning to rotate slowly, activating his ability in as "gentle" a manner as possible.

"Destroying the ground from different angles, breaking it down and reconstructing it, changing the terrain..."

As Lindsey spoke, the surrounding ground swelled, and several "stalagmites" slowly rose.

These "stalagmites," formed from earth, gradually spread across the nearby residential area.

Many collapsed floor slabs were propped up, including the house of the boy who had argued with Lindsey earlier—his dilapidated home was now supported by two hard stalagmites.

That way, while waiting for the houses to be repaired, the people here wouldn't have to sleep out in the open.

As for Lindsey, he was lost in thought about the effect of this move, casually asking Tiger beside him.

"Say, if I speed up the spread of this ability and adjust the sharpness of the stalagmite tips, could I stomp out a whole field of spikes?"

"..."

What kind of nonsense was this?

Tiger felt a headache coming on.

Aiven Lindsey's thoughts jumped wildly—one moment he was on one topic, the next he'd leap to something else.

But to be fair, Tiger didn't actually dislike what this human had done.

In short, Aiven Lindsey wasn't a bad person...

Lindsey and Tiger crossed past Island 32 and finally found a route straight to the docks.

The cannon fire continued.

The Celestial Dragon, Saint Lolowim, was even more volatile than his older brother, and he especially loved firearms.

The guards of his CP Organization were all equipped with powerful handheld cannons, and they used them without any regard for civilians.

In an instant, the entire Sabaody Archipelago was being baptized by gunfire, the deafening roar of cannons everywhere.

Though the Fish-Man Race had physiques far superior to ordinary humans, they were still flesh and blood, their defenses nowhere near as strong as Lindsey's Earth Demon Form.

Whoosh—

Boom! Boom!

After tanking two stray cannon blasts, Lindsey and Tiger quickened their pace.

Along the way, Lindsey noticeably spoke less, as if something had come to mind. Tiger didn't disturb him.

What had Lindsey remembered?

A long, long time ago, when his consciousness was still hazy, he vaguely recalled being moved somewhere while in his stone statue state.

It seemed to be... Ohara?

Yes, that archaeological holy land that had long since vanished!

On that island, Lindsey had endured a bombardment dozens of times fiercer than this—one called the "Buster Call"!

Ohara had been completely erased from this sea by the World Government's Buster Call.

Along with a vast number of ancient texts, Lindsey had been submerged in seawater by Ohara's scholars for preservation, escaping both the cannon fire and the flames.

Of course, in his stone statue state, Lindsey's hardness was no different from a Poneglyph's, so he was naturally unafraid of fire. The archaeologists of Ohara had actually been trying to preserve those paper documents.

Looking back on the past.

"Really not a very pleasant, blurry memory."

Lindsey rubbed his temples, casually caught another cannonball flying toward him, then hurled it back with force toward the CP Guard not far away.

Boom!

The bomb exploded, and Lindsey and Tiger charged through the smoke, pressing forward.

But just as the two were getting closer to the harbor, a squad of Navy soldiers suddenly ran toward them from the opposite direction.

"Tch..."

Tiger frowned, clenched his fists, and prepared to engage the enemy.

But what he never expected was that when the two sides met, the Navy didn't make a move. Instead, they brushed past Tiger and Lindsey and ran straight in another direction!

Tiger: "?"

He didn't understand the meaning, but then he noticed that Lindsey was also running toward that group of Navy soldiers!

Tiger: "??"

Fortunately, no battle broke out between the two sides, and Tiger was able to stop and observe.

He saw that squad of Navy soldiers run straight to the vicinity of a collapsed tavern and start digging through the rubble.

"Hurry, there are several people pinned under the bar counter, come help!"

So there were people trapped in the tavern ruins.

At this moment, the orders the Navy soldiers had received were to prioritize rescuing civilians first, and only then pursue fugitives.

Therefore, even though they came face to face with the two "causes" of this commotion, the Navy soldiers still chose the higher-priority task.

Before long, most of the rubble was cleared away, leaving only two massive, thick floor slabs pressing down tightly on the gap under the bar counter.

"Damn it, it's too heavy, we can't move it."

"Put your backs into it, the next round of shelling is coming!"

"..."

The group of Navy soldiers strained together, but the two layers of heavy floor slabs were ultimately too heavy to budge.

"Call for backup, now!"

Just as the leading Navy soldier was about to call for reinforcements, two dark figures suddenly appeared on either side of the floor slabs.

They were equally burly, and at the same time, they each extended their large hands, grabbed the sides of the slabs, and then heaved them up with force.

Clatter...

The enormous, two-layer-thick steel floor slabs were lifted with ease, no different from picking up a chocolate stick stuck in ice cream.

"Thank you...?"

The leading Navy soldier looked left and right, and saw two people he never would have expected.

On the left was a burly old man with graying hair, a scarred face and a big grin, draped in the Navy's Justice cloak on his back;

On the right was a man with reddish-brown skin, crimson eyes, sharp fangs, and a form that didn't look human, more like a legendary "demon."

What a coincidence, wasn't it?

The leading Navy soldier recognized both of them.

The former was none other than the [Navy Hero] Garp, and the latter was Aiven Lindsey, the core focal point of this entire riot!

By common sense, these two should have been absolute enemies, but now they were joining hands to save people.

"..."

The Navy squad leader fell silent.

He had an extremely ominous premonition.

But fortunately, both Garp and Lindsey had a leisurely, unhurried air about them.

On Garp's side, he called out to the civilians under the bar counter: "Ahahaha, you all evacuate quickly, the Navy base is still very safe over there."

"..."

On Lindsey's side, he waved his hand at the Navy soldiers nearby and reminded them: "You all, back up a bit."

"..."

"Back up a little more, still too close, yes... a bit farther."

"..."

Before long, within a radius of about a hundred meters, only Garp and Lindsey remained, both holding up that "weightless" reinforced floor slab.

The two stared at each other, breathing heavily in silence.

An indescribable feeling spread between them, as if even the air had twisted, blurring the true space before their eyes!

Garp bared his teeth and grinned;

Lindsey flashed his fangs and smiled.

"Heh!"

Neither knew who laughed first, but it became the official signal for their battle to begin!

Whoosh!

Fists from left and right swung out simultaneously, the sound of tearing air merging into a single roar, then—

They slammed heavily into each other's faces.

Boom!

Its force far surpassed cannon fire!

A thunderous explosion erupted!