"What?..."
To Kalifa and Blueno, the news hit like a thunderbolt.
Kalifa planted her hands on her hips and snapped, "What kind of damned order is that? They're obviously trying to blow up Ye Chen and Lucci!"
Kaku nodded. "That's exactly what it looks like. But I'm not lying to you. This really is the mission we were given."
"Why? I don't understand. Isn't Ye Chen a Shichibukai?" Blueno asked.
“Who knows? CP9's orders come either from Fleet Admiral Sengoku or...”
Kaku pointed upward. "They may have come from the Celestial Dragons!"
"That..."
The moment Kaku said it, Kalifa and Blueno fell silent.
Just then, a voice spoke beside Kaku's ear. "It's me, Ye Chen!"
"Huh?"
Kaku nearly jumped out of his skin. He sprang up and swept his gaze over the crowd, but Ye Chen was nowhere to be seen.
"Don't bother looking. You won't find me. We shouldn't meet right now. Thanks for worrying about me, but go ahead and hide the bomb on the ship. I know about it now, so I'll be fine."
Ye Chen's voice vanished as mysteriously as it had come. Kaku was stunned. He had no idea where it had come from.
Ye Chen had used Silent Voice Transmission to send his words directly to Kaku, making it difficult for anyone else to notice.
He had spotted Thunder Leopard nearby.
Ye Chen couldn't show himself, nor could he ask Kaku and the others to abandon their mission. Doing that would be selfish.
If their superiors investigated, Kaku and the others would be implicated. Even if the three of them escaped in time, Kumadori, Jabra, and Fukurou back on Enies Lobby would be in danger.
Besides, where could they run? Once the government decided to go after someone, there was no escaping it.
Even