Stupidity Is a Disease with No Cure / An Unexpected Visitor; Pluton Blocks the Way

"All hands! Battle formation!"

The marines moved quickly, surrounding Dongze so tightly that nothing could get through. Their black gun barrels held a deadly threat.

Dongze saw Jason sneering down from the balcony and laughed.

"Hahaha!"

Jason's face darkened. "Shut up! What are you laughing at?"

"Did old man Garp tell you to do this?"

"Why would a brat who's still wet behind the ears deserve that kind of attention from this Vice Admiral? If you were a pirate, I'd have taken you down already!"

"So this was your own idea?"

"What a shame."

"What's a shame?"

Jason's expression suddenly changed. A crushing pressure surged toward him like a raging sea, impossible to withstand. His heart seized, and his face turned white as paper.

Across the square, marines dropped one after another like dumplings into a pot. Within a few breaths, Dongze was the only one still standing.

A terrifying thought seized Jason. Conqueror's Haki!

"Im... impossible!"

Folly Beyond Cure

Sabaody Archipelago, Island 65, fell silent.

Vice Admiral Jason stood on the balcony overlooking the square. Dongze stood below, surrounded by unconscious marines.

"I don't like looking up when I talk to people. Come down!"

At the cold command, Jason's face changed again. The pressure bearing down on him grew even more terrifying. He could almost hear his bones creaking under the strain.

The dread in his chest deepened. In a daze, he seemed to hear someone whispering beside his ear, and terror swept over him.

As the Vice Admiral stationed at Sabaody Archipelago, Jason was no weakling. He had seen Conqueror's Haki before. This was the last stop on land before the New World, and all kinds of people passed through.

He had encountered plenty of Supernovas and veteran pirates, including some who possessed Conqueror's Haki.

But Haki this powerful was absurd. Even the legendary Red-Hair might be no stronger!

Then a creak rose from beneath his feet, jolting him.

Blood surged up his throat.

"Blech!"

Before Jason could catch his breath, fear flashed through his eyes. The creaks became a continuous chorus. The balcony beneath him was groaning, about to give way!

"How is this possible?"

Everyone knew Conqueror's Haki overwhelmed opponents through sheer force of will. He had thought the crushing weight he felt earlier was only his imagination.

Now, looking at the balcony beneath him, he knew it had been real.

But how could Dongze's Conqueror's Haki have reached this level? Jason could only laugh bitterly. Every trace of his earlier contempt had vanished.

Only terror remained.

Looking into Dongze's unfathomable eyes below, Jason wanted to ask, How much for a pound of regret? I'll take ten!

Dongze's pupils contracted. He unleashed another measure of his Conqueror's Haki, and its violent force whipped up a whirlwind around him. An overwhelming surge erupted beneath his feet like a bomb.

The balcony under Jason shattered.

With a scream, Jason fell with it. The thunderous crash drew the marines guarding the gate.

They rushed in and froze at the sight!

Only Dongze, who had entered moments earlier, remained standing in the square. The other marines lay sprawled on the ground, eyes rolled white. They were plainly unconscious.

Their trump card, Vice Admiral Jason, looked even worse.

He lay amid the rubble like a dead dog, his eyes still filled with lingering terror.

It was as though he had witnessed the end of the world.

Robin entered with the marines. Her expression shifted, and she glanced at Enel beside her.

"Hey, lightning guy! What happened to them?"

Enel chuckled. "Those idiots insisted on provoking the boss. Their brains must have short-circuited. I'm starting to wonder whether they're even in the same organization as that ice guy we met before!"

"And?"

"The boss took them down in an instant. Knocked them straight out. The one lying in the rubble made the biggest fuss. I bet Dongze's about to tear him limb from limb!"

Remembering what had happened sent a chill over Enel's scalp. Dongze had never used Conqueror's Haki against an enemy in all the time Enel had known him.

In fact, Enel had never seen Dongze use anything like it.

With a single look, Dongze had flattened nearly eight hundred people. Enel had almost pissed himself.

He had thought Dongze had developed some bizarre new move: one glare, one death. How the hell was anyone supposed to deal with that?

Only when Jason named Conqueror's Haki did Enel begin to understand. It was the most mysterious of the three kinds of Haki. He had assumed Dongze couldn't use it, but clearly he'd been wrong.

Once he calmed down and looked more closely, he realized the marines weren't dead. They had only passed out.

That was why he dared come in. If Dongze had killed them with a glare, Enel would have been long gone. Who knew whether Dongze might glare at him too while he was in a bad mood?

"Heh."

"And someone like you became a Vice Admiral?"

"Stupidity is a disease with no cure."

"Yours must be terminal."

Dongze walked slowly toward the Vice Admiral, his tone hard to read.

Jason heard the mockery in his words. His face flushed with embarrassment, and he tried to get up.

"You—"

Another wave of pressure slammed down on him, forcing him flat again.

"Did I say you could get up?"

Jason's chest tightened, and he spat out another mouthful of blood.

"Vice Admiral!"

"Dongze, what are you doing?"

The marines who had been guarding the gate saw Jason barely clinging to consciousness and started toward him.

Lightning flashed, and Enel appeared in front of them.

"Nobody move!"

At the sight of lightning crackling around Enel, fear rose in the marines' hearts. Dongze might not be well known, but Enel was another matter. Word of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user had spread across the surrounding seas.

"Enel, what are you doing?"

"Saving your lives, you dumb monkeys. Isn't it obvious what's going on? You rush over there, you die!"

The marines exchanged looks and fell silent. None of them was a fool. They had moved earlier because they feared Jason would make their lives miserable later. Now that they had a reason to stop, they weren't about to press on.

Their reaction caught Enel off guard. He had thought they would keep charging. Their real concerns never crossed his mind.

Enel, you were still a little naive!

"I don't know where you get the nerve to stand there spouting nonsense and demand that I apologize to people who help tyrants commit evil. Did protecting those scum and doing their dirty work give you that sense of superiority?"

"Or have you forgotten the iron rule of the sea—that the strong reign supreme?"

As he spoke, Dongze lifted Jason with one hand. "I may not be able to kill you here, but sometimes living is worse than dying."

The moment he finished speaking, a tiny, invisible sword leaped from empty air and shot into Jason's mind.

"Aaaah!"

Three breaths later, Dongze released him, then called Robin and Enel to leave.

The marines hurried over to Jason, whose body was still twitching. They checked him and found that he was merely unconscious. They quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

The marines scattered around the square gradually woke. When they remembered what had happened, their faces went pale and their limbs trembled. They did not even dare make a threat.

Dongze's Conqueror's Haki had crushed their will.

Unless they overcame that shadow, they might never be able to raise a gun again.

After they left, Enel, unaware of what Dongze had done, grumbled, "Tch. I thought you were going to slaughter them."

Something unreadable flashed in Dongze's eyes, and he chuckled. "Heh. Of course not. What kind of person do you take me for?"

Enel felt a chill. You're not? I'll take a shit standing on my head if that's true.

An Unexpected Visitor, Pluton Blocks the Way

"Hey, young man! Need your ship coated?"

Dongze had barely left Island 60 when a fashionable old man with silver hair and a silver beard blocked his path.

The man wore beach clothes, a cape, and slippers—the unmistakable look of a big shot.

He had round glasses and a vertical scar by his right eye.

Dongze narrowed his eyes. Who could this be but the man he remembered as Pluton, Silvers Rayleigh?

But the man had approached him the moment he left the Marine base. Dongze did not believe that was a coincidence.

"Were you waiting for me?"

Rayleigh paused, surprised that Dongze's first words were a question.

He scratched his head awkwardly. "Come on, young man. I'm just looking for customers!"

Dongze's mouth twitched. "At a bridgehead a hundred paces from a Marine base?"

Rayleigh gave a couple of dry laughs. There was no way to keep that story going.

After a brief silence, Rayleigh said, "You're right. I was waiting for you."

"Dongze, who is he?"

Robin, walking behind Dongze, noticed his reaction and asked.

"He's Silvers Rayleigh, known as Pluton. He was the Pirate King Gol D. Roger's first mate, and he's one of the few truly powerful people on the seas."

Robin paused, then brightened. "Does he know about the Poneglyphs?"

Rayleigh was just as startled by Dongze's words. More than a decade had passed since Pirate King Gol D. Roger turned himself in. Few young people had recognized Rayleigh since he went into hiding.

"Oh? You know me, young man?"

Dongze nodded.

"I was planning to visit you. I didn't expect you to come to me."

"You came in such a hurry. Is something urgent?"

Rayleigh narrowed his eyes at Dongze's deduction.

Clearly, Dongze had guessed right.

"Shall we talk while we walk?"

After another moment's silence, Rayleigh replied, "All right."

They walked for a while without Rayleigh saying a word. Dongze began to wonder what had made the man so eager to see him today.

"If you have something to say, say it plainly."

Rayleigh sighed softly.

"All right."