First Mission

"Mr. 5, that bastard, bastard, bastard!" Miss Valentine muttered furiously. She seemed to have decided every pebble beneath her feet was Li Ziming, kicking each one away with all her might.

"One day, I'll show that guy what I can do!" Miss Valentine snapped. The ground cracked beneath her as her weight suddenly increased.

"This assignment should be easy, though." Miss Valentine looked over the mission details Robin had given her. She was to visit an island where someone apparently quite strong lived and invite that person to join the organization.

"What's with people these days? Why do senior officers like us have to invite them personally? Do the people at the top think we're errand runners?" Miss Valentine was thoroughly annoyed. Some nobody with a bit of a reputation dared to put her to this trouble. Once she found them, she would make them regret it with the Kilo Kilo no Mi.

But when Miss Valentine reached her destination, she froze in horror. Her target was already lying on the ground, while a circle of marines surrounded a girl nearby.

"We were only supposed to transport some goods. I never thought we'd come across such an interesting ability." Marine A held a pink-haired girl in one hand. She wore cuffs and looked utterly drained.

"Yeah, and she's going to grow into quite a beauty. If we offer her to the rear admiral, we'll get a nice reward." Marine B looked at the girl as though he could already see his future.

"..." The girl said nothing. She only glared furiously at the marines around her.

"Hey! Let that kid go!" Miss Valentine suddenly wondered if she'd lost her mind. She had stepped right out into the open.

"Well, well. Do you want to become our rear admiral's woman too?" Marine A's words sent the other marines into fits of laughter.

"Don't underestimate me!" Miss Valentine suddenly floated into the air.

"Careful, she's a Devil Fruit user! Get the Seastone Cuffs ready!" The marines were scum, but they were well trained. Someone quickly prepared the cuffs, and everyone raised their guns toward Miss Valentine in the air.

This is bad! Miss Valentine panicked. She hadn't expected them to open fire on her right away. If they did, they would riddle her with bullets. She bitterly regretted rushing out on impulse.

"Excuse me, but pointing guns at a lady isn't very gentlemanly."

Miss Valentine swore she had never heard a sweeter voice.

"Another one—" Before Marine A could finish, a coin flew up to his face.

"To borrow a saying, art is an explosion." At Li Ziming's words, the coin exploded.

Marine A dropped where he stood.

"Watch out for that guy! He can cause explosions!" Marine B immediately warned the others.

"Tsk. So if I take you out, will this squad lose its commander?" Li Ziming had already used Soru to reach Marine B. He placed a palm over the marine's heart. "Directional Blast!"

Boom! A massive blast erupted from Li Ziming's palm. It blew a hole straight through Marine B's chest, killing him on the spot.

"Are you all right, beautiful lady?" Li Ziming searched Marine B for a while but found no key to the Seastone Cuffs. "I'm afraid I couldn't find the key," he said apologetically.

"You bastard!" Miss Valentine punched Li Ziming. "Do you know how scared I was?"

"You brought that on yourself, didn't you?" Li Ziming rolled his eyes.

"Oh? Does that mean you're not going to help this girl?" Miss Valentine glared right back.

"Of course I'm going to help. A gentleman couldn't let such a beautiful lady fall into the hands of those perverts," Li Ziming said as though it were obvious.

The girl stared at Li Ziming and Miss Valentine in astonishment. The marines around them didn't dare move. Admiration for the two of them suddenly welled up in her heart.

"Hey, your Devil Fruit ability is powerful. Try reducing your weight to move faster, then increase it at the instant you strike to hit harder." Li Ziming had suddenly begun coaching Miss Valentine on how to use her ability.

"What are you getting at?" Miss Valentine had no idea why her partner was bringing this up now.

"I might not be able to look after you in a moment. Be careful, and take care of this kid too." Li Ziming pushed the girl toward Miss Valentine. His whole demeanor suddenly changed. "He's here!"

At that moment, Miss Valentine felt an intimidating pressure too.

"Rear admiral!" Some marines parted to make way, revealing a figure who wasn't particularly tall. In fact, he looked rather thin.

Yet that slightly frail-looking figure left the nearby marines hardly daring to breathe. Their bodies even trembled.

"Useless trash!" The rear admiral suddenly kicked a marine beside him. His leg sliced into the man like a blade, cutting him clean in two across the waist.

He can hold back a Rankyaku like that? His Six Powers are seriously strong. Li Ziming could tell the man was formidable.

"I don't need trash on my ship!" the rear admiral said coldly. "Charge! There are only two of them. Use the Seastone Cuffs properly and you can win! Otherwise, you die right now!"

"Charge!" The rear admiral's authority over them was obvious. Though the marines were still terrified, they rushed toward Li Ziming and the others.

Li Ziming shot forward. The speed Soru gave him left the nearby marines no time to react, and he appeared directly in front of the rear admiral.

"Soru?" The rear admiral seemed mildly interested, but only mildly. "You don't think that's enough to beat me, do you? With those shoddy Six Powers you picked up who knows where?" His face twisted into a snarl. "When it comes to the Six Powers, I'm confident I'm second to none but those CP9 agents!" He launched a Rankyaku at Li Ziming.

"Including vice admirals, admirals, and the Fleet Admiral?" Li Ziming mocked. He dodged the Rankyaku with Soru and tossed a coin at him.

Boom! A violent explosion erupted beside the rear admiral.

"What a worthless ability!" The rear admiral easily withstood the blast with Tekkai, then used Soru to appear in front of Li Ziming. "Looks like I gave you too much credit. Shigan!"

The rear admiral thrust a finger at Li Ziming as though it were made of steel, but striking him felt like jabbing a steel plate.

"Sorry, but I know a little about using Haki too." Li Ziming pulled off his tattered coat. A metallic sheen still lingered where the rear admiral had struck him.

"Devil Fruit abilities, the Six Powers, Haki... You've learned a lot." The rear admiral found him troublesome. Li Ziming had shown off plenty of abilities, but none seemed especially strong, so he was only somewhat concerned.

"Sure. These days, you have to learn a few things to protect yourself," Li Ziming said bluntly. "Otherwise, you won't survive on these seas."

"Too bad you ran into me!" the rear admiral declared smugly. "Today is the day you die!"

Instead of tensing up, Li Ziming relaxed completely. "Hey, Miss Valentine, aren't you done over there yet?"

"How could I be done so fast? There are so many of them, I have to protect this kid, and I have to watch out for those awful Seastone Cuffs! I've got my hands full. Besides, you haven't finished either!" Miss Valentine snapped. But since she still had the energy to argue with Li Ziming, she seemed to be all right.

"Hmph, I—" The rear admiral was about to speak when blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. "What's going on?" He stared at Li Ziming in disbelief.

"I do know a lot, but my Devil Fruit ability is what I've developed the most. I can turn any part of my body, or anything I touch, into a bomb and detonate it. Living things are the exception. I can even control when the explosion happens. Naturally, that includes the air I breathe out. You inhaled the explosive air I made, and it exploded inside your body. Your organs are damaged now, aren't they?" Li Ziming laid out his strategy in detail.

"You're right." The rear admiral managed to steady himself again. "But you got careless. Something this minor couldn't possibly take me down!"

"Are you sure it didn't?" Li Ziming shrugged. "Can you still beat me?"

"Hmph. I learned this way of using the Six Powers from those CP9 agents. Life—urk!" The rear admiral spat a mouthful of blood and collapsed. He stared at Li Ziming in disbelief, then slowly went still.

"That look of anger and confusion at the very end really was satisfying. Good thing I told you how I did it and gave you that tiny bit of hope." Li Ziming had deliberately explained his method to give the rear admiral hope before letting him die in despair. He hadn't expected the man to know CP9's Life Return, though. If the rear admiral had managed to use it, the rest of the fight might have been difficult.

Li Ziming had defeated him exactly as he'd described, with one exception: the first time, he had detonated only a tiny portion of the explosive air inside the rear admiral. Air filled the human body; it wasn't found only around the organs. It was even present between cells. If Li Ziming had wanted to, he could have blown the rear admiral to dust in an instant. He simply thought that would be too disgusting.

"The rear admiral's dead! Run!" With the rear admiral dead, the marines lost all will to fight and scattered.

"You're pretty strong," Miss Valentine said, staring at Li Ziming in surprise.

Li Ziming shrugged and searched the rear admiral, but he found no sign of the key.

"Forget it. Let's go to the marine ship." Li Ziming sounded excited.

"What are you planning?" Miss Valentine stared at him in alarm, wondering if he had gone mad.

"After beating the boss, you have to open the treasure chest." Li Ziming looked like an excited player who had just won a boss fight. "Relax, relax. We have to find this girl's key anyway. And now that the person we were sent to recruit is dead, we'll need to bring something back to show for the trip."

That was enough to convince Miss Valentine. The two of them took the girl they had rescued aboard the rear admiral's ship.