"Hey, Hancock! Long time no see!"
Jiang Lin raised a hand and greeted Boa Hancock with a smile. His innocent grin and familiar tone sent a jolt through the Marine soldiers who had only just begun to hope again.
Could the Empress and Jiang Lin be working together?
The Marine soldiers quickly dismissed the thought.
The Empress was a Shichibukai. She would never give up that status to help Jiang Lin.
"Jiang Lin!"
The Empress looked at him with a trace of admiration. She still remembered how he had stopped her pirate ship outside Amazon Lily and challenged her.
Back then, Jiang Lin had been nowhere near this strong. Though he had already copied Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit, he had been no match for her. A single burst of Conqueror's Haki had knocked him unconscious when he was already at his limit.
Now Jiang Lin had stepped alone into the battle between the Whitebeard Pirates and Marine Headquarters. After driving Kizaru back, he had attacked Whitebeard by himself.
It had turned out that he only wanted to copy Whitebeard's power. Even so, his nerve and formidable strength made him an important piece on the battlefield of Marineford, where powerful fighters stood on every side.
"Empress, ever thought about becoming a man?"
Jiang Lin gave her a wicked grin. He had just gained the power of two Devil Fruits and needed an opponent to test his limits. In his eyes, the Empress was the perfect choice.
"Don't you dare!"
The Empress snapped her proudly raised head toward him. A distinct blush colored her face. He had clearly gotten under her skin.
"Haha... I'm kidding. If I turned you into a man, the readers would tear me to pieces."
Chuckling, Jiang Lin removed the Sand-Sand Fruit and loaded the Tremor-Tremor Fruit he had just acquired.
Tremor-Tremor Fruit (boosted by Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Phoenix) loaded. Duration: ten minutes. Cooldown: thirty seconds.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit combined with the Glint-Glint Fruit was now one of Jiang Lin's strongest means of attack.
"Boa Hancock, fight me!"
With a shout, Jiang Lin charged at the Empress.
"Are you serious?"
The Empress narrowed her eyes. Shock flickered in her gaze as she looked at Jiang Lin. The pressure he gave off was immense. With two Devil Fruit powers loaded, he seemed like another Whitebeard, leaving both her and the nearby Marine powerhouses looking grim.
"So this is the Copy-Copy Fruit's power? It can reproduce someone else's Devil Fruit ability this perfectly?"
Garp stood at the edge of the battlefield, staring at Jiang Lin in astonishment. Though he was far away, he could clearly sense the energy pouring off him.
But Garp had misunderstood the source of Jiang Lin's power. There was no Copy-Copy Fruit. Jiang Lin could reproduce other people's Devil Fruit abilities because of the system.
Whatever the source, his ability to copy powers had made Marine Headquarters wary of him.
"D! With that power of yours... we cannot let you leave here alive!"
Standing on the Execution Platform, Sengoku watched Jiang Lin battle the Empress in the distance. Resolve hardened his face.
As the Pirate King's son, Ace had originally been the most important piece in this battle.
But Jiang Lin's intrusion had made the game far less predictable.
"Jiang Lin..."
Ace sensed the shift in Sengoku's emotions and looked toward Jiang Lin with worry. Jiang Lin had exposed his "copying" ability to the Marine leadership to save him, and guilt weighed heavily on Ace.
"Mero Mero Mellow!"
While Sengoku, Ace, and the Marine leaders each had their own thoughts about Jiang Lin, the Empress brought her hands together before her chest, formed a large heart, and attacked.
"Yata Mirror!"
Jiang Lin turned to light, evaded her attack, and appeared above her head.
"Fall in love with me!"
Pale red mist streamed from Jiang Lin's body toward the Empress below.
"Perfume Femur!"
The Empress had fallen for Jiang Lin's trick once. She would not let the same move catch her again.
She pushed off the ground with one foot and leaped above Jiang Lin. Then her right leg whipped up, striking at his left shoulder faster than the eye could follow.
Clang!
A faint tremor rang out. Jiang Lin clenched both fists and shattered the air around him.
"Ah!"
A startled cry came from midair. Thrown off balance, the Empress plummeted toward the ground.
"Watch out!"
Seeing that she might be hurt, Jiang Lin immediately stopped his attack. He flashed to the spot where she would land and caught her.
"P-put me down!"
The Empress blushed and jumped out of Jiang Lin's arms after he caught her in a princess carry.
"Ah... sorry! I didn't think that would happen!"
Jiang Lin apologized as soon as she was on her feet. He had only just gained the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power and could not control it perfectly yet.
If he had not noticed something was wrong and stopped in time, the Empress might have suffered far worse than a fall. The shockwave could even have shattered her body.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit lived up to Sengoku's claim that it had the power to destroy the world. Jiang Lin had defeated the Empress, one of the Shichibukai, with ease.
That left him even more confident about what came next.
"You... you..."
After stepping away from Jiang Lin, the Empress stood there blushing for a long moment. In the end, she could not get a complete sentence out.
"Love you! Heh!"
Jiang Lin playfully made a heart with his hands, then walked past the Empress as she stood frozen in place.
"Lady Boa... Lady Boa Hancock lost too!"
The Marine soldiers waiting behind the Empress for the outcome stared in shock, their mouths hanging open.
The Shichibukai were said to possess strength rivaling an entire nation. If even someone like her could not stop Jiang Lin, perhaps only a Marine Admiral could.
"Well, well. Looks like I can't stay out of this after all."
Kizaru shook his head helplessly. Then he turned into a streak of light and appeared before Jiang Lin.
"Kizaru! Perfect timing. I still remember the beating you gave me at the Sabaody Archipelago."
Jiang Lin smiled and turned his gaze on Kizaru. Their eyes met, and a palpable tension surged between them.