Saint Saturn

Boom!

"Hm?"

Inside the enormous castle, Saint Saturn felt an extremely faint tremor beneath his feet.

It was barely perceptible, yet undeniably real.

He frowned, a vague sense of foreboding rising within him.

But just as he was about to release his Observation Haki to investigate, a shrill alarm suddenly reached his ears.

The alarm sounded both unfamiliar and familiar, deepening the unease in his heart.

He rose and walked to the window. The moment he looked outside, his expression changed.

Red lights flashed continuously within a white building in the distance, and the alarm was coming from there!

Only then did Saint Saturn remember that this was the alarm he had installed for the laboratory's most important area.

It had never been triggered before, which was why it had felt unfamiliar.

Where had these rats come from?!

They actually dared to break into my laboratory!

Fury surged from the depths of Saint Saturn's heart. He leaped straight out of the window and sped toward the laboratory!

Inside the laboratory, the blaring alarm was unbearably grating.

Kane's group passed through the blasted-open code door and saw a white semicircular space.

Doors stood in neat rows, each with a note board hanging on it, covered in densely packed writing.

With a sweep of his gaze, Kane spotted Ginny's name on one of the note boards. At the same time, he saw the label under the research project section...

Azure Jade Scales!

Kane's heart sank as he suddenly realized something.

Kuma found Ginny's name as well. He rushed forward excitedly, smashed open the door, and charged inside without hesitation.

Inside the room, the frail Ginny lay on a wide hospital bed. Several tubes were inserted into her body, their other ends connected to several instruments of unknown purpose.

The moment Kuma saw that familiar face from his memories, he could no longer hold it in. Tears poured from his eyes as he rushed over and threw his arms around her.

"Ginny, I, I... sob..."

The violent sound of the door breaking had not awakened Ginny, but Kuma's embrace and choked sobs pulled her from unconsciousness.

She weakly opened her eyes and saw someone in armor. Large tears dripped through the gaps in his visor and landed on her face.

Those tears seemed to carry the warmth of sunlight, crashing into her heart alongside familiar sobs.

"Kuma..."

Ginny recognized Kuma almost instantly. So what if he wore armor and had become smaller? This person was her Kuma.

"Am I... going to die? To actually... have a dream like this..."

"Ginny! Hee-haw-haw-haw!"

A shrill but familiar cry exploded beside Ginny's ear.

Someone in armor, dancing a strange dance, appeared in her vision. Even more tears than Kuma's streamed exaggeratedly from the gaps in the armor.

"Boss? How wonderful... I can even dream of you..."

"If you want to dream, do it after we get back. Hurry up and leave!"

This time, it was an unfamiliar voice. Ginny finally came fully awake and saw the third person entering the ward, along with the door Kuma had smashed apart.

The instant she realized what had happened, her mind went blank. Before her brain could react, tears had already spilled from her eyes.

"It wasn't a dream..."

Ginny's lips trembled, and she burst into tears, clinging tightly to Kuma as she sobbed incoherently.

"Kuma... I missed you so much...

"I was so scared... scared I'd never see you again...

"Waaah..."

Kane watched the three of them huddle together and wail. His eyes reddened slightly, but he still had no choice but to interrupt.

"Hurry up! If we don't leave now, it'll be too late!"

As he spoke, he kicked Ivankov aside, roughly tore away the tubes connected to Ginny, wrapped her in a bedsheet, and shoved her straight into Kuma's arms.

"Don't let natural light touch her! Not sunlight or moonlight! Move!"

Kuma hurriedly held Ginny securely, but the weightlessness of her body in his arms made tears stream down his face again.

When they followed Kane out of the ward, Hancock and her sisters had already rescued the others from their rooms and laid them on three beds pushed together, waiting anxiously.

The laboratory walls and doors contained a great deal of Seastone, which would interfere with Kuma's abilities. Kane decisively led everyone toward the exit.

Ivankov and Hancock's sisters dragged the beds while Kuma carried Ginny. Everyone watched Kane's back at the front, and for some reason, they all felt at ease.

Once Kuma calmed down slightly, he remembered the sparse sapphire-like stones embedded in Ginny's skin, and a dreadful premonition immediately rose in his heart.

He had already come to see Kane as the backbone of the group. He hurried after him, caught up, and asked anxiously,

"Kane, Ginny's skin..."

"Azure Jade Scales, a rare disease."

Kane knew what he wanted to ask and answered quickly.

"Once a patient is exposed to natural light, their skin turns blue and hard, as though covered in a layer of sapphire.

"It's extremely difficult to treat. Fortunately, Ginny has a very strong will to live and seems to have some resistance to it. The disease has progressed rather slowly in her."

Kuma asked in surprise, "How do you know this?"

"It was written here."

Kane raised the note board in his hand, unable to suppress the fury in his voice.

"Ginny has survived the longest among the experimental subjects from the same batch. Since she possesses a slight resistance to Azure Jade Scales, the Celestial Dragons were preparing to conduct the next stage of experiments on her."

Kuma's sense of foreboding grew even stronger. "What experiment?"

"...Whether the resistance can be inherited."

Kane's voice was ice-cold. He had even crushed dents into the metal note board in his hand.

"They planned to make Ginny pregnant, then study whether her child would have resistance as well."

A chill instantly ran through Kuma's entire body. Then overwhelming fury surged within his chest, nearly burning away his reason.

But when he thought about what Ginny would have endured if they had not rescued her in time, boundless relief and lingering fear rose in his heart.

He looked at Kane gratefully. If he had not met Kane, if Kane had not risked everything to bring them into Mary Geoise...

Kuma did not even dare imagine that scene. Still shaken and worried, he asked,

"Is there any chance Ginny's Azure Jade Scales can be cured?"

"Yes."

Kane sifted through every piece of information he knew and answered with certainty.

"Ivankov has the Hormone-Hormone Fruit, Law has the Op-Op Fruit, and there are many highly skilled doctors on the Grand Line and in the New World. There will always be hope of a cure."

Kuma trusted Kane completely by now. Hearing that, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said gratefully,

"Kane, thank you. If it weren't for you, I..."

"We're at the exit. Save it until we're safe!"

Kane cut Kuma off and charged toward the laboratory doors first.

But just as one of his legs stepped through the doorway, an enormous figure descended from the sky!

Boom!

The ground shook violently. Eight massive, sharp spider legs stabbed firmly into the earth. Saint Saturn, towering like a small mountain and seething with rage, looked down at Kane from above.

"You lowly insects dared to trespass in my laboratory. Who gave you the nerve?!"

"Your laboratory? Call it and see if it answers!"

As Kane's words fell, Kuma and the others rushed out behind him.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at Saint Saturn's monstrous form. Ivankov even let out an exaggerated scream.

Saint Saturn saw the experimental subjects they had rescued, and his fury immediately boiled over. His enormous, sharp spider legs lifted high into the air and stabbed toward them like giant spears falling from the heavens.

Kane hurriedly stepped in front of everyone, raising both arms as they transformed into a massive shield. Armament Haki had only just coated it when the attacks came raining down!

Thud, thud, thud, thud...

The clanging of metal against metal rang out endlessly. The immense force drove Kane's feet deep into the soil.

"Get them to the rendezvous point!"

Kane shouted at Kuma, locking his gaze onto Saint Saturn as he cursed his bad luck inwardly.

On another battlefield, Saint Somaz looked at Kane's battered clone, who was struggling to fend him off, and sneered.

"You seem terribly afraid of getting hurt. Why is that? Are you afraid of pain?

"If that's true, then that's wonderful. I'm best at giving people pain. I imagine your cries will sound quite lovely."

"You old pervert. Next time we meet, I'll kill you."

Kane's clone looked disdainful as he slowly straightened up and made a throat-slitting gesture at Saint Somaz.

"Courting death!"

Saint Somaz flew into a rage. Countless thorns converged from all directions, stabbing straight at Kane's clone like spears!

Yet at the instant Kane's clone was about to be pierced by the thorn spears, he turned directly into countless flower petals and scattered away.

As he watched the petals churned into the air by the thorn spears gradually disappear, Saint Somaz immediately realized he had been played.

His old face flushed red, then white. In the end, the boiling rage in his heart could only erupt as a roar that shot into the sky.

At the same time Saint Somaz lost his target, the other three clones, who had set fires and then tirelessly begun freeing slaves, vanished as well.

Outside the laboratory, Kane, fully focused, took a deep breath and forced himself one step forward beneath the nearly shattered massive shield, making Saint Saturn's assault pause for an instant.

Kane seized the opportunity. The Flower-Flower Fruit and Arms-Arms Fruit activated together, and over a hundred firearms and cannons of astonishing caliber appeared all around him.

The next instant, deafening gunfire and cannon fire erupted at once. Every kind of bullet and shell rained down upon Saint Saturn.

Armor-piercing rounds, incendiary rounds, high-explosive shells...

Terrifying shockwaves swept through the area as billowing dust engulfed Saint Saturn.

Caught off guard, Saint Saturn was briefly stunned. These bullets did little damage to him, but they were as irritating as flying insects.

With an angry roar, he swept away the dust, only to see two round little balls fly before his eyes and explode with a bang.

Blinding white light instantly filled his vision, and Saint Saturn even felt his head grow dizzy.

But he quickly recovered. His Observation Haki spread across the surroundings, swiftly locating that hateful insect. A sharp spider leg wrapped in Haki stabbed viciously toward him.

Kane instinctively dodged aside, but then he saw Hancock directly behind him. His heart sank, and he hurriedly grabbed her and rolled along the ground.

Buzz!

The spider leg skimmed past Hancock's scalp, producing an enormous whistling sound.

Yet held in Kane's arms, Hancock somehow felt completely safe. Even the spider leg that had nearly brought her death seemed like a gentle breeze brushing past her hair, not frightening in the slightest.

She felt as though the whole world had slowed down, and everything in her sight had become crystal clear.

She saw her softly drifting hair brush against Kane's visor, clinging to it as though reluctant to leave.

She heard Kane's steady breathing, its warm breath slipping into her ears.

And at such close range, locked in each other's embrace, she saw through his visor a pair of eyes as black as ink.

Those eyes watched her, full of concern, making even her reflection within them seem vivid and alive.

Mr. Kane's eyes...

They're so beautiful...

[Boa Hancock's favorability has reached 62. Second ability replication may begin.]