Gasparde

Three hours earlier...

With the Celestial Dragon's death, after the initial shock and fear, the four CP9 agents and Gasparde all came to the same conclusion.

They absolutely could not let these two brazen lunatics escape.

Failing to protect a Celestial Dragon was already a capital offense. They could only hope that by capturing the killers, they might atone for their failure and escape death.

"What are you still standing around for? Surround these two lunatics! Don't let them get away..."

Gasparde snarled viciously, his hatred for the two madmen soaring to the heavens.

From this moment on, his future in the Marines had been utterly destroyed.

The Marines who heard their superior's order snapped out of their daze as well.

Countless Marine soldiers emerged from the cabins with weapons in hand. Their faces tense, they rushed onto the deck and tightly surrounded Ye Mu and Enel.

"Don't let those two get away!"

Gasparde roared again. Unlike before, this order was directed at the four CP9 agents.

The leader of the four CP9 agents was a fat, bald man with slightly reddish skin and a beard that looked like a goat's.

His expression was ugly, his face as black as the bottom of a pot.

The other three did not look much better.

"Capture them..."

The moment the words fell, he did not hesitate to activate his Devil Fruit: the Sheep-Sheep Fruit, Argali Form. Visible to the naked eye, pink wool covered his entire body. His frame doubled in size, his limbs turned into hard sheep hooves, and huge, sharp horns sprouted from his head.

The remaining three surrounded Ye Mu and Enel from three directions.

One possessed the Paramecia Gear-Gear Fruit, allowing him to turn any part of his body into gears and attack through high-speed rotation. The other two were pure hand-to-hand combat specialists.

At the sight of this, Enel's eyes lit up. He turned to Ye Mu and said,

"Leave these guys to me..."

"No problem, but remember not to kill them. We still have use for these four..."

After saying that, Ye Mu looked at the dense crowd of Marines surrounding them.

"Before that, let's clear the field."

The moment Enel heard Ye Mu's words, he immediately understood what he meant, and his expression filled with displeasure.

"You bastard..."

Gasparde and the four CP9 agents listened to the two lunatics speaking such arrogant nonsense, and their expressions darkened further.

If he had not wanted to capture them alive, he would have ordered his men to fire long ago.

But at that moment, the red-haired youth's expression sharpened, and a strange smile appeared on his lips.

Before Gasparde and the four CP9 agents could react, they felt an overwhelming, terrifying aura erupt from the young man before them.

In that instant, time seemed to freeze. Every Marine present felt as though something had seized their hearts, leaving them unable even to breathe. Then, as if their brain nerves had been brutally crushed beneath a massive hammer, their consciousnesses shattered instantly, leaving their minds completely blank.

It had clearly lasted only an instant, yet to Gasparde, it felt as though an entire century had passed.

His expression shifted from grimness to utter terror.

"Gasp... gasp... gasp..."

Gasparde could not control his legs at all. It was as though all strength had left his body. He collapsed to his knees before Ye Mu, retching in pain before struggling to gasp for air as if he had been suffocating for a long time.

The moment he fell to his knees, countless Marines standing on the deck rolled their eyes back and collapsed one after another like falling dominoes.

In an instant, aside from Ye Mu and Enel, only the four CP9 agents remained standing on the entire deck.

Yet those four CP9 agents seemed completely unaffected.

They did not even understand what had happened. Wearing expressions as though they had seen ghosts, they stared at the fallen Marines around them and Gasparde kneeling on the deck.

Until Gasparde's voice rang out.

"Con... Conqueror's Haki..."

"What!???"

"How is that possible..."

The four CP9 agents' expressions changed instantly. Though they had never faced Conqueror's Haki directly, how could they not know its fearsome reputation? It was a power possessed only by those with the qualities of a king.

At that moment, they understood.

The two youths before them were not lunatics, but terrifying monsters.

The leading CP9 agent, the Sheep-Sheep Fruit user, saw the horrifying scene and made his choice without needing a second thought.

Power burst from his entire body. With a stomp of his feet, his figure vanished from where he stood.

But he was not attacking Ye Mu.

He was fleeing.

He was definitely no match for these two monsters. If he did not run, death was the only path left to him.

If he fled, however, while he might still be sentenced to death for failing to protect the Celestial Dragon...

But...

"If I can get the information here out, perhaps I won't have to die."

Thinking this, within only a few breaths, he flashed from the bow of the ship to the stern.

This was Soru, one of the Six Powers.

By stomping the ground dozens of times at high speed in an instant—0.36 seconds—it generated explosive recoil force for rapid movement.

It was one of the abilities every CP9 agent had to master. With the enhanced physical abilities granted by a Zoan Fruit, his Soru speed was the fastest among the four present.

But at that moment, a blue figure suddenly appeared in the corner of his eye, accompanied by the crackling sound of lightning.

At the same time, a sentence that nearly scared his soul out of his body rang out.

"Hey, where do you think you're running to..."

He turned back in terror, and the only thing that entered his sight was a black fist the size of a casserole...

On the deck, the other three CP9 agents saw their captain actually abandon them and flee. Their expressions immediately turned ugly, and without hesitation, they burst forth at their fastest speed and vanished from where they stood.

However, they were clever enough to flee in three separate directions.

But Ye Mu did not move. Enel was enough to handle these people.

He slowly walked over to Marine Rear Admiral Gasparde, who was kneeling on the ground, and looked at the still-gasping man.

"So, Marine, are you ready to answer my questions now? This ship was transporting Heavenly Tribute, wasn't it..."

Gasparde's face was filled with terror. He no longer possessed the composure he had shown as a Marine officer and readily answered.

"N-no... This is only a warship assigned to protect it..."

"Hm?"

Hearing Ye Mu's displeasure, Gasparde was instantly frightened and explained everything in detail.

"Our destination is Maheb, a World Government member nation in the West Blue. We are to protect the ship transporting Heavenly Tribute from Maheb to Mary Geoise. That ship is the one carrying the Heavenly Tribute..."

Ye Mu's expression darkened slightly.

"So the ship is actually empty right now..."

"Y-yes..."

Disappointment instantly replaced Ye Mu's expectations. He had originally hoped to make a fortune by robbing the Heavenly Tribute.

Although he already possessed all the gold of the Golden Land and did not lack money.

Still, who would ever complain about having too much money? Not to mention there might be Devil Fruits, fine blades, and things like that inside.

However, his disappointment vanished in an instant. Instead, he looked with interest at the Marine Rear Admiral before him, who seemed like a completely different person.

"You changed rather quickly. I thought you'd be a little more stubborn. It seems the so-called justice of the Marines doesn't really exist in your heart..."

Hearing Ye Mu's words, Gasparde's expression turned ugly. Then, as though he had thrown caution to the wind, he said,

"Marine justice? I never believed in something like that..."