Encountering Tashigi

"Let's call it a day!" Seeing Smoker covered in wounds and no longer able to maintain his elemental form, Locke sheathed his Tang Dao.

"What... trying to run away? Cough! Cough!" Though Smoker was still standing, the blood loss had made speaking difficult. He coughed up two mouthfuls of blood as he spoke.

"I just don't want to kill you." Locke curled his lip.

"I don't need your pity!" Ignoring his injuries, Smoker charged at Locke again.

Locke sidestepped Smoker's attack, then swung back and struck him on the side of the neck.

Smoker collapsed without any ability to resist.

"Remember, my name is Locke. I look forward to meeting you again." Locke spoke into Smoker's ear as he fell.

"You..." Before he could finish, Smoker had already passed out. A faint cloud of dust rose as he hit the ground.

Looking at the unconscious Smoker, Locke smiled and shook his head, then chased after Annie in the direction she had disappeared.

Before long, Locke caught up with Annie.

Annie was standing on Colonel Nezumi's head. Nezumi was kneeling on the ground with his eyes tightly shut, his face twisted by overwhelming fear, his entire body trembling nonstop.

"Big brother."

Seeing Locke approach, Annie immediately flew toward him and plastered her entire puppet body over his face.

Locke's vision was almost completely blocked by Annie's puppet body.

Helpless, Locke reached out, lifted Annie off his face, and placed her properly on his shoulder.

"Big brother, this Marine colonel really is a bad person. He did so many bad things!" Annie said from Locke's shoulder.

"If he weren't a bad person, we wouldn't have come to catch him," Locke explained.

"Mm! Mm! We're good people, so we should punish bad people." Annie nodded obediently, fully agreeing with Locke.

"Big brother, Annie's amazing, right? I caught the bad guy in one go." Annie bragged. Though her expression could not be seen while she possessed the puppet, Locke could guess that she was wearing a clear Praise me, praise me look.

"Mm! Our Annie is the best." Locke patted Annie's head in praise.

Hearing Locke's words, Annie happily flew circles around him, giggling continuously.

"All right, sit still first. We're getting ready to leave." Locke caught Annie again and placed her on his shoulder.

After Annie nodded, Locke walked over to where Colonel Nezumi was kneeling and picked him up as though he were a piece of trash.

"Guys, we're leaving!" A purple phantom appeared behind Locke and gave a loud shout before dissipating.

"Come on, let's head back to the ship." After that, Locke led Annie toward the Phantom, carrying Colonel Nezumi with him.

At that moment, Big Bear was facing the Marines charging toward them alone. Behind him, Second Bear had placed Panda, whose wounds had just been treated, to one side and was now giving Yun Zhannan's injuries some simple treatment.

Suddenly, Locke's order to retreat reached their ears, along with that familiar purple phantom.

Big Bear and Second Bear exchanged a look. Then Big Bear knocked back the Marines charging at him once more before going over to Second Bear and carrying Panda onto his back.

Second Bear quickly finished treating Yun Zhannan and carried him onto his back as well.

Once they had each taken one of them onto their backs, they did not linger and swiftly rushed toward the Phantom.

At that moment, the Phantom was being fiercely bombarded by Smoker's warship. However, Carmen, who had remained aboard, blocked every shot with telekinesis and occasionally used it to send the incoming cannonballs flying back.

At the beginning, Carmen had failed to notice the Marines behind them, and the Phantom had been struck several times, leaving a few holes in the ship.

Once Carmen reacted, she quickly used telekinesis to defend against the attacks and did not allow the Phantom to be hit again.

But when the Marines gradually realized that the cannonballs were useless, they stopped firing.

Instead, they steered their warship closer to the Phantom.

It had to be said that the Telekinesis Fruit was truly an extremely powerful fruit. Its ability was simple to use and immensely strong. Even though Carmen had only acquired it a few days ago, she could already unleash tremendous power.

As the warship drew near, the Marines jumped off one after another, intending to board the pirate ship. Unexpectedly, halfway across, they crashed into a telekinetic wall created by Carmen's ability and fell into the sea one by one.

A crowd of people fell into the water one after another, creating quite a spectacular sight.

But when Carmen saw Tashigi jumping over from the warship, she froze. She even forgot to maintain the telekinetic wall and simply stared at her, allowing more than a dozen Marines behind Tashigi to cross over as well.

"Kuina! Is that you? Weren't you dead?" Ignoring the other Marines, Carmen asked Tashigi in shock.

"Kuina? Who's that? Pirate, accept the judgment of Marine justice!" With that, she led the Marines who had crossed over with her and charged at Carmen.

"How annoying." Carmen merely raised a hand at the charging Marines, freezing them in place. Then, with another wave, she sent every Marine except Tashigi flying away.

"Finally, it's quiet. Now we can have a proper chat."

Seeing all her subordinates sent flying while she herself was unable to move, nervous sweat appeared on Tashigi's forehead.

"Kuina, do you really not recognize me? I'm Carmen!" With only Tashigi and Carmen left on the ship, Carmen spoke again.

Tashigi understood that she was completely no match for the woman before her. But seeing that Carmen did not seem to intend to attack her, she visibly relaxed.

"Who is Kuina? My name is Tashigi," Tashigi said without moving.

"Tashigi? That makes sense. She died. She couldn't possibly appear here." Carmen's agitation gradually calmed as she murmured.

"What do you mean, died? I'm perfectly alive." Since Tashigi was still some distance away from Carmen, she did not hear what Carmen had said clearly.

"Nothing. You just look very much like a friend I used to know," Carmen said again after calming down.

"I don't care who you think I resemble, but release me right now and obediently accept the Marines' judgment! Otherwise, when Colonel Smoker finishes dealing with the attack on the island and gets here, you'll suffer needlessly." Tashigi threatened.

Tashigi had great confidence in Smoker. After all, a Logia Devil Fruit user was practically unbeatable in the East Blue, known as the weakest sea.