Chaton Tokikake

Faced with so many attacks, even Tsuru didn't dare underestimate them. The attacks from Gray, Pica, and Diamante in particular were on a completely different level from everyone else's.

"Good thing I brought him along in case anything went wrong!" Tsuru had only just thought this when the man who'd come with her made his move.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

With three gunshots, bullets coated in Armament Haki struck Gray's Sky Crystal Flying Wheels before they could reach him.

Clang! Clang!

"Countering an attack with an attack to cancel out the kinetic energy of the crystals?" Once his Observation Haki had made the situation clear, Gray sped up his Magnetic Field Rotation again the instant the Sky Crystal Flying Wheels were knocked back.

The Flying Wheels, which had just slowed down, spun even faster than before.

The two Sky Crystal Flying Wheels hovered in front of him as Gray looked toward the Marine who had fired the shots.

At first glance, only one word came to mind: "Ugly!"

"So ugly!"

"Could anyone really be uglier than Kizaru, the Light Man who ate the Sleaze-Sleaze Fruit?" Gray naturally didn't hold back, saying exactly what he was thinking.

He spoke his thoughts out loud.

"Hey, hey! Trebol, I think I've spotted your brother!"

Trebol: ?

After testing their attacks and finding they couldn't hurt Tsuru, the other officers were now facing off against her with grim expressions.

Hearing Gray, everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Look over there!" Gray pointed at the ugly guy beside Tsuru and teased Trebol. "He's just as ugly as you! I wouldn't believe you weren't brothers!"

"Bullshit, Gray! Open your eyes and take a good look! I'm clearly way more handsome than him!" The moment Trebol saw Tokikake's face, for some reason, he immediately felt a lot more confident.

"Sure, sure!" The two of them were much of a muchness, and Gray gave Trebol a perfunctory reply.

Meanwhile, as Tokikake listened to Gray and the others talking loudly as if no one else were there, the veins on his forehead bulged:

"That kid over there! This is what a mature man looks like. What would a brat like you know?"

Hearing the furious bellow, Gray blinked in confusion like Aqua: ???

Tsuru: ...

The other officers: ...

The silence was deafening!

One sentence from Tokikake had left both sides speechless.

"I'd rather not be that kind of mature!" Gray's disdainful look and dismissive words sent Tokikake into a rage.

And Gray did have every right to say that.

Now thirteen, he'd trained for three years and never lacked food to nourish him. The childishness had begun to fade from his face.

At 1.73 meters tall, with black hair, bright eyes, and sharply defined features, he was obviously a handsome young man.

(I really can't describe him properly, so just imagine Gray from Fairy Tail. As for the protagonist's height, it's naturally the standard height for an Admiral.)

"Brat! You're always so damn annoying!" Since he couldn't win an argument, Tokikake decided to use the gun in his hand to shut his enemy up.

"Heh! You're getting worked up. Did I hit a sore spot?" Gray wasn't intimidated by Tokikake's threat.

"All right, Tokikake!" Tsuru forcefully made him calm down. "Don't let your anger cloud your judgment!"

"We're here to capture them, not argue with them!"

"If that brat's so good with his mouth, leave him to you. I'll take care of the rest!" As soon as she finished speaking, Tsuru tossed aside the Justice cloak that had been in her way and launched an attack. "Tempest Kick!"

A huge Slash Wave swept toward Gray and the others.

"Whoa~ So scaaary!" Gray, sitting in his Flying Chair, said it was scary, but all he did was lightly tap the chair. It carried him up into the sky.

Tokikake: ...

"For some reason, this feels familiar!" The thought came to him out of nowhere, but he had no time to figure out why. He hurried after Gray.

"Brat, don't think you can get away!"

Boom!

Tokikake kicked off with Geppo, creating a sonic boom as he chased after Gray. His right hand already had his pistol aimed at him.

"Oooh, so scary! A Marine's shooting at a child!" Gray raised both hands in surrender. At that moment, he looked as if Kizaru had possessed him. His expression and mannerisms were exactly the same, and even his unhurried tone was indistinguishable from Kizaru's.

But even as he mocked Tokikake, Gray didn't stop attacking or ease up.

If anything, the more he taunted him, the harder he attacked.

The two speeding Sky Crystal Flying Wheels crackled with brighter and brighter electricity as they spun faster and faster—a clear sign that Gray was taking Tokikake seriously.

Bang! Bang!

Even though Tokikake's Observation Haki let him see the Flying Wheels' trajectories, he had to coat his bullets with all his strength in Armament Haki to knock them back again and again.

The two Flying Wheels attacked in a crisscrossing pattern, leaving him so busy fending them off that he had no time to pay attention to Gray's taunts.

"This kid's young, but his Devil Fruit ability is a real pain!"

"And fighting in the sky puts me at a serious disadvantage." Up in the air, he couldn't bring his powerful physique into play at full strength.

On top of that, he was attacking with a pistol. There was only so much space on each bullet, so he couldn't coat it with much Haki.

And the pistol itself didn't have much range, leaving Tokikake feeling constrained at every turn.

"If Vice Admiral Tsuru's report was right, this looks like the Spin-Spin Fruit's ability!"

"The Spin-Spin Fruit is this powerful?" Watching Gray fly freely through the sky in his Flying Chair while controlling two Flying Wheels that crossed paths and covered for each other as they attacked, Tokikake couldn't keep his thoughts from churning.

"Ugly man, aren't you coming over?" From a thousand meters away from Tokikake, Gray controlled the Flying Wheels with all his might.

To tilt the fight in his favor and secure victory, he was also leading Tokikake higher and higher into the sky.

Though he looked relaxed, he was secretly attacking at his usual full strength.

His Observation Haki kept the whole area under surveillance. The two Flying Wheels attacked Tokikake from alternating angles, leaving no openings for him to shoot at Gray himself.

Not that shooting at Gray would do much. But if he could keep his enemy suppressed, there was no reason to let him relax.

After all, the best defense was offense.

"My name's Tokikake, not 'Ugly Man'!" Tokikake roared in exasperation, and Gray's attacks grew even fiercer.

"Oh? Looks like Ugly Man still has some energy left!" Seeing that Tokikake still had time to answer, Gray ignored his stamina and stepped up his attacks again.

After nearly three years of training, as long as he wasn't pushing past his limits, Gray could confidently say of a fight like this: I can keep this up all day!

Three years of surviving under gravity training had brought Gray up to ten times normal gravity, and daily, nonstop physical training had made his body grow stronger at a rapid pace.

Even without using his Devil Fruit ability, Gray was confident he could easily handle a minor character like Arlong.

And developing his Devil Fruit ability and exploring its potential had strengthened his attacks even further.

The Spin-Spin Fruit's abilities took a lot of stamina to start up and accelerate, but maintaining a constant speed barely consumed any at all.

The gains from three years of training were now on full display in his fight against Tokikake.

Chaton Tokikake: Skilled in both types of Haki, with gun skills that could be called unfailing. If Gray's Observation Haki weren't also one of his strengths, he wouldn't be able to keep Tokikake suppressed in the sky.

A gunman who could fight at full strength, especially someone like Tokikake with Armament Haki, posed a greater threat to Gray himself.