Passionate Duo Queue

Beneath the temple, Shiki's warm cannonball exploded, catching everyone still below off guard and blasting them off their feet. Only one person was an exception: Oak, who had read the original story and had long expected this.

Knowing Shiki had this kind of dirty trick up his sleeve, he had already retreated into another passage when Newgate called to those above, avoiding the blast.

Feeling the force of the explosion next door from the other passage, he was speechless.

Shiki really was a ruthless bastard!

Dropping a cannonball instead of a ladder was bad enough, but he had even wrapped the damn thing in Armament Haki!

Who was he trying to blow up? Such a hard mystery to solve!

As he turned out from another passage, Oak saw Fierce, Shiki's sworn enemy, along with Newgate and Kaido. Just as he was about to step forward and "check" whether they were all right, he suddenly sensed surging rage.

"Bastard!"

Newgate looked at his beard, blasted black with soot, and let out a furious roar. Then he clenched his fist and assumed his signature stance.

"Damn it, I forgot about that!"

Oak cursed when he saw it. He was about to stop him, only to realize it was already too late.

"Duang~"

Newgate's iron fist, wrapped in tremor power, slammed fiercely upward.

"Crack, crack, crack~"

Oak watched as the air before his eyes split with terrifying cracks like a shattered mirror.

"No!"

He let out a pained howl, then resigned himself to squatting in a corner, ready to endure what came next.

Above,

"Are they trying to trap us?!"

Linlin gave a disdainful laugh as she looked at the iron grates blocking every exit.

"Destroy them, quickly!! Buckin!"

Linlin called for Buckin. Buckin stepped forward, about to act, when the entire temple suddenly began to shake violently. Losing her footing, she was flung straight to the ground.

"Eh, the ground is sinking!"

Ochoku noticed something was wrong. Not only was the temple shaking, but the ground across the entire island was sinking at high speed.

Shiki, who had been floating in the air, noticed it too. Even the air was trembling, and huge cracks were spreading through it.

"This is...?"

"No! This is an earthquake..."

They finally realized what was happening, but it was already too late.

"Rumble, rumble~"

Every structure in the temple collapsed in an instant beneath this unprecedented earthquake.

The sea outside churned violently as the island instantly broke apart. Unmatched destructive power sought to grind everything within this space to pieces!

"That bastard did this!"

Everyone understood that only one person could have caused something on this scale. As they were swept up in the rubble and fell underground, they all began greeting someone's entire family.

"Newgate×u0026%￥#@..."

Linlin, Ochoku, Ganzui, Buckin, and everyone else lost all control of their bodies, able only to watch as they fell.

Only after the island had been completely leveled and the entire temple had vanished did the disaster finally subside when they hit the bottom.

After venting his frustration with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power to destroy everything, Newgate finally felt refreshed. Kaido, standing beside him and watching all of it, stared at him with a face full of admiration.

"I'm so jealous. I want an ability like that too!!"

Newgate was in an excellent mood after letting loose. Seeing Kaido like this, he turned his head and spoke to him.

"Ah! An ability?"

"If you want one, you'll have to search carefully. After all, you'll spend the rest of your life with a body that can't swim..."

As the big brother, Newgate earnestly advised Kaido to make sure he chose a Devil Fruit ability that suited him.

"That's true..."

Kaido nodded in strong agreement.

First an explosion, then an earthquake—Fierce's head buzzed from the two consecutive disasters.

"Hey, which one of you bastards got us into this miserable state?"

After climbing up from the ground, he looked at the people who had fallen from above and began searching for the original culprit.

Ochoku pointed at the sky exposed above the underground passage after the earthquake. A carefree golden figure was casually drifting past...

"So it was you, Shiki, you bastard?!"

Fierce cursed loudly at the sky.

"Ohh, Fierce!! You're still alive? That's wonderful. I was really worried about you just now..."

Shiki turned around, his face flushed as he laughed bashfully.

"Worried my ass!!"

Fierce converted all the damage he had suffered from the two disasters into power. Without changing size, he stomped the ground and shot straight into the sky.

"Stop fooling around! Everyone, hurry up!!"

In the distance, Rocks looked at the pair of sworn enemies locked in their passionate duo queue and gritted his teeth helplessly as he barked out a rebuke.

Faced with this chaotic crew, he couldn't stop his head from aching. He kept rubbing his forehead, wondering what sins he had committed in his past life to end up with teammates like these in this one.

"Are the treasures all right?"

Ignoring the two duo-queuing in the sky, he asked the others about the treasure. It had an extremely important purpose this time, and he did not want any losses.

"Of course!"

Ganzui carried a sack of treasure over to his side.

"Let's head over too!"

Oak climbed out of a pile of rubble, gathered up his treasure again, then found Newgate and Kaido and nodded toward Rocks.

The ultrasonic waves released by his bat traits had brought back some unusual information.

Newgate seemed to have noticed something as well. He nodded too, and the three quickly moved toward Rocks.

"Hey! Rocks, look around!!"

At the same time, John, who had been following Rocks, pointed toward the horizon and shouted a warning.

"It's the Navy! We've been surrounded!!"

On the horizons in every direction, an astonishing fleet of warships far beyond Buster Call scale surged over the sea, completely encircling the already ruined island.

Rocks only looked disdainful.

"Guhahahaha, now we're in trouble!!"

Newgate, who had just arrived, burst into hearty laughter.

"Hey, brats, now isn't the time to argue. Get ready to set sail, hurry!!"

Rocks shouted a warning toward the others, mainly directed at Shiki and Fierce, telling everyone to load the treasure onto the ship and prepare to depart.

"These Marines came fast. Was our information leaked?"

Newgate flung his treasure onto the ship, then casually turned sideways and quietly asked Oak.

Only their own people knew about this operation, yet the Navy had arrived almost as quickly as they had and surrounded the place.

Remembering how Oak had kept saying Ochoku aboard the ship was a traitor, Newgate swept his gaze over Ochoku, his eyes containing endless depth.

Before the operation, this guy seemed to have been the only one who had left the group alone and disappeared for a while.