Shiki's Warm Shells

Newgate seemed to have seen too many hellish scenes like today's, so he said nothing. He merely crouched silently on the ground, his massive body casting a huge shadow over a wide area.

"Duang~"

A piercing tremor rang out as the power of vibrations wrapped around his fist and struck the ground. Then came a "Rumble~" as the plaza floor shook violently, splitting open into a gaping fissure that swallowed all the corpses and bones.

Oak lowered his head to look at the bottomless crack. It was pitch-black, like an abyss leading straight to hell.

"Kaido, want to try that move?"

Oak looked up at the area above the underground plaza, where a massive temple structure stood. He turned sideways to face Kaido as he spoke.

While learning Conqueror's Haki Infusion from Newgate, he and Kaido had jointly developed a combined attack out of boredom. They had never used it in actual combat, and today, he wanted to give it a try!

"Let's do it!"

Kaido was immediately intrigued by the suggestion. He slammed the spiked club resting on his shoulder into the ground, then gripped it with both hands and began gathering power.

"Shining—"

Oak drew the Seven Star Sword and swung it fiercely, green demonic flames wrapped around its blade. At the same time, Kaido swung his spiked club. Their weapons intertwined above their heads before colliding.

"Impact!"

A shockwave of green and purple shot straight into the sky.

"Rumble~"

The entire underground passage trembled violently under the influence of that pillar of light, while fragments fell from the surrounding walls with a "Rustle, rustle."

Visible to the naked eye, everything above their heads was instantly broken down, creating an eerie sense of separation. Then it gradually dissipated into nothingness, as though someone had taken an eraser to a painting and wiped every image from the canvas.

Outside, a rain of dust fell from the sky.

"The two brats secretly practiced a combined ultimate move. Who could they possibly be planning to use it on?

"Such a hard mystery!"

Fierce watched the scene and silently assessed whether the attack exceeded his limits. Then he glanced at Newgate with an ambiguous smile.

Everyone knew that these two brats had been following Newgate around the island to learn Conqueror's Haki Infusion. It was an ironclad fact that Newgate beat them senseless every day. Whenever they brought it up while drinking, they would look furious and shout that Newgate hit far too hard, that they would definitely get revenge if they ever had the chance, so...

"Gurararara, I don't know either!"

Newgate swept his gaze over the two little bastards. They had actually secretly practiced a combined ultimate move without him knowing. It seemed he had been too merciful in the past. Next time, he could hit them harder, so they would not have time or energy to think about such nonsense.

"This is bad!"

"We were careless! We actually forgot about that!"

Swept by Newgate's gaze, Oak and Kaido both shuddered. They exchanged a look, their eyes full of regret, both keenly aware that things would not end well for them once they got back.

It was not just Oak's group. The other teams had also suffered ambushes to varying degrees and fallen into all kinds of traps. But to people like them, a charity organization's traps were nothing. Instead, they found even more hidden treasure within the underground passages.

After a round of frenzied looting and destruction, the groups eventually gathered together again.

"We're heading up first!"

They found an exit leading upward in one of the passages. Linlin, Ochoku, Ganzui, Barbel, and the others were the first to return to the surface.

"Take it all! This is an unbelievable amount of money!"

With huge bags of treasure on his back, Ochoku was filled with excitement and greed. He kicked away the monks who came to resist him one by one, loudly shouting that they had to bring all the treasure back.

"Thanks for the effort. We'll be taking all of it!"

"We're leaving! See you later!"

He even turned back and smugly waved in provocation at the monks he had kicked aside.

"Wait a moment, you cannot take that money away like this. It is meant for the children..."

Ochoku's provocation severely agitated the monks. They were furious enough to want to kill these lawless bastards, but they could do nothing against their strength. They could only claim that the money was meant to support children, hoping to awaken their consciences and make them give it up willingly.

But these people were not so easily fooled. Even without the information Linlin had investigated beforehand, what they had seen in the underground passages was enough to tell them the monks were lying.

"Lies! The treasure piled up here only because you never gave it to the children!"

Linlin exposed their lie. Her long, straight legs were bare as she carried a huge sack of treasure and ran swiftly. The monks were as tiny as dwarves beneath her feet, kicked aside one by one like stray dogs by the roadside.

"Gururururu~"

The Den Den Mushi in Ochoku's hand suddenly rang.

"Hello, Ochoku!"

A familiar voice came through after he answered.

"Lower the last ladder! We're still underground!"

Newgate, Oak, and the others who remained below had finished packing up the treasure in the last passage and asked him to lower a ladder to pull them up.

"What a hassle!"

Ochoku looked disgusted when he heard the call from the Den Den Mushi, then passed the matter on to Shiki.

"Shiki!"

When Shiki heard himself being called, he put on an annoyed expression as though he had forgotten all about it.

"Ah~

"I almost forgot them!"

Shiki cared deeply about his companions and would never leave them in darkness. So he walked to the exit and tossed warm shells into the hole.

He would use the scorching heat of the shells to warm the cold bodies of his companions down below in that dark, freezing place!!

"Whoosh~"

Newgate and Kaido, waiting beneath the exit with their heads raised for the ladder, saw shells coming down instead. Their minds filled with question marks, and before they could react, the shells exploded.

"Rumble~"

The blast wave engulfed the entrance.

"Jihahahaha, looks like our shares are going to increase!"

Shiki covered his ears and laughed wildly above the exit, while everyone around him was nearly deafened by the explosion.

"You idiots!"

Ochoku, sent flying by the blast, cursed loudly.

While they were fooling around, the temple's head monks gathered inside a nearby building.

"These people know all our secrets. We absolutely cannot let them leave.

"Hasn't the army arrived yet?

"Weren't they supposed to have been lying in ambush around us, waiting only for us to hold these people back before making their move? They still haven't arrived after all this time. What the hell is the Navy doing? I will definitely lodge a complaint with the government's higher-ups afterward!!"

When the eldest head monk asked the monks beside him about reinforcements and heard that the Navy was still on the way, he immediately stomped his feet and cursed in fury.

But there was no choice. Whether to keep their secrets hidden or because he could not bear to see the treasure stolen, he had to continue holding Rocks and his crew back.

"Don't let them escape! Seal the temple!"

At the high head monk's command, the monks activated the mechanisms prepared within the temple long ago. Layer after layer of iron grates blocked every passage and exit in the temple. They absolutely could not let these pirates leave just like that.