Carina went cold all over, unable to move.
The oppressive presence of a powerful fighter made even breathing difficult.
Was she going to die?
Here? Like some nobody?
Sek P raised his dagger with a sinister laugh, pointing its tip at the girl's slender neck. "In your next life, remember not to touch Lord Trejer's money."
The cold gleam fell.
Carina closed her eyes.
But the pain she expected never came.
Instead, a shriek that seemed ready to tear her eardrums apart came hurtling from the distant sky at a speed that defied the laws of physics!
The sound came even faster than the pain.
Carina felt a wave of scorching air that smelled of burning slam into her chest. Then she flew backward like a kite with its string cut, crashing heavily into a scattered pile of cargo.
She felt no pain. Her mind went completely blank in that instant.
Am I going to die?
She opened her eyes in a daze and instinctively touched her neck.
It was still there, and her head was still attached.
But some warm, sticky liquid was slowly trickling down her face.
The girl raised a trembling hand and wiped her face.
Bright red.
But it wasn't her blood.
She stared ahead in shock-the perverted hunchback who had been holding a dagger, about to slaughter her like a chicken just a second ago, had disappeared.
Literally disappeared.
Where he had stood, only a pair of legs below the knees, wearing clown boots, remained standing alone. The severed surfaces were smooth and even, as if his upper body had vanished into thin air.
Behind those legs, a straight vacuum channel, still trailing wisps of smoke, stretched all the way to the enormous pirate ship out at sea.
Rumble!!!
Only then did the belated explosion roar madly against everyone's eardrums like a giant beast jolted awake.
The Shark Super, renowned for its luxury, had its bow and half its hull smashed head-on by an irresistible force.
Countless gems and pieces of gold embedded in the railings became expensive buckshot in the violent shock, showering the entire harbor with a clatter.
Amid the rain of flying splinters, a piece of white oak, charred by intense friction until only its handle remained, fell at Carina's feet with a clink.
Was that... a wooden sword?
"Y-you've got to be kidding..."
Carina stared blankly at the still-smoking piece of charred wood, dry rattling sounds coming from her throat.
A deathly silence fell over the entire dock.
Marines holding guns and pirates brandishing cutlasses alike remained frozen in their previous poses, like a collection of ridiculous statues.
"Hey, Sek P?"
Trejer's sunglasses slipped halfway down his face. His eyes, usually filled with mockery and greed, were now utterly blank.
There was a master on this island!
Trejer stiffly turned his head toward his trusted subordinate-now nothing but a pile of mangled flesh.
The attack had come without warning. There had been no fluctuation of Haki, and not even a figure had appeared.
A single ranged attack had instantly killed his officer and demolished his ship along with him?
"Who's there? Get out here!"
Trejer snapped out of it, the golden armor on his body rattling sharply.
His instincts as a powerful fighter thundered in his mind, every hair on his body standing on end.
If that strike had been a little off, or if its target had been him...
He didn't dare follow that thought any further.
"A monster... there's a monster hiding on this island!"
One pirate broke down and screamed at the top of his lungs.
The previously arrogant pirates instantly fell into disarray, looking wildly around as though something deadly might come flying through the air at any moment.
On the other side of the battlefield, Lieutenant Commander Domon, his face covered in blood and grime, leaned behind a reef rock, gasping for breath.
As he looked at the charred wooden handle on the ground, his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
That was the handle of a bamboo sword used for swordsmanship practice. It wasn't even a real blade.
Throwing such a light piece of wood with the force of a cannonball, sending it through a human body and still smashing half a warship... that simply wasn't something a human could do.
It required tremendous strength and precise control over that strength.
"So... the rumors were true."
Domon pressed a hand against the wound in his abdomen, deep enough to expose bone, and gritted his teeth.
He had deliberately led the vicious Crazy Treasure Pirates toward the remote Shimotsuki Village with a plan of his own.
As a veteran who had ventured along the fringes of the Grand Line, he had once heard a drunken senior mention that a Great Swordsman lived in seclusion at a dojo somewhere in the East Blue.
Rumor had it that the man had long since grown weary of slaughter and only wanted to teach the younger generation in peace.
"That strike just now must have been his doing..."
Domon looked at the pirate crew in the distance, shrouded in fear.
Although the mysterious attacker was absurdly powerful, he hadn't shown himself, indicating that he didn't want to make a scene. Perhaps it had only been a warning.
But unless that lunatic Trejer died, these pirates would sooner or later slaughter the entire village to vent their anger.
He had to go to that dojo and personally beg the man to truly come out of seclusion.
"All personnel... listen up!"
With the last of his strength, Domon forced a hoarse command from his throat.
Since the man had already helped them eliminate the most troublesome killer, there was still a chance to salvage the situation. "Pull back the defensive line and cover the civilians' retreat! I have a way to deal with that golden bastard!"
With that, he staggered around, his gaze fixed on the bamboo grove deep inside the village.
That was their last hope.
Lieutenant Commander Domon's leather boots were soaked in blood and grime, dragging a long trail along the gravel road.
His lungs burned, his vision began to blur, and only one thought remained in his mind: Get into the bamboo grove. Even if I have to kneel before that man, I have to ask him to act.
As long as Koshiro was willing to act, these pirates would be nothing.
But his path to survival was cut off.
A heavy blast of wind pressure descended without warning.
Thud!
It sounded less like a person landing and more like a solid block of lead smashing into the ground.
The earth beneath Domon's feet jolted, making his knees buckle and nearly forcing him to the ground.
The dust that rose formed a wall, blocking his path to the bamboo grove.
Domon raised his head. As the dust cleared, he saw a youth in a black trench coat with his back to him, casually pulling his feet out of a knee-deep crater.
"So this is the gravity field at full power? Even walking feels like trudging through mud on the ocean floor."
The youth muttered under his breath, seemingly unconcerned by the commotion he had caused. He merely brushed nonexistent dust off his coat's hem with some distaste. "It's uncomfortable, but the experience points sure are climbing nicely."
Before Domon could determine whether the youth was friend or foe, a petite figure carrying the scent of oranges scrambled behind him.
"H-help!"
Carina clutched the back hem of the black trench coat.
She might have been a thief, but she had a sharp eye.
That flying wooden sword had already made everything clear. On this battlefield, only this figure standing before her could stop the lunatic covered in gold.
"Hey, Cat Burglar, don't wipe your snot on my new clothes."
Without turning his head, Lin Xuan reached back and tugged the corner of his coat out of the girl's hands.
The movement looked casual, but the low rush of wind stirred up by the swaying fabric made Carina's heart skip a beat.
This coat... why did it feel heavier than iron?
"Heh. So that's why someone had the nerve to blow up my ship."
In the distance, Trejer approached, stepping over shattered gems and wreckage.
One lens of his pink sunglasses had shattered, and the exposed eye was filled with murderous intent.
Trejer stared at Lin Xuan and curled his lips, revealing a mouthful of gold-inlaid teeth.
"Black hair, around sixteen, always wearing clothes that don't fit... if my information is right, you're Lin Xuan, the East Blue Super Rookie who's been causing such a stir among the Marines lately, aren't you?"
As Trejer spoke, he swung his arms casually.
With a sharp clatter, several thick chains emerged from his cuffs, raising their heads like venomous snakes.
"I only came to this backwater to find some treasure. I didn't expect to get to slaughter a Marine prodigy while I was at it. Once I hang your head on the bow of my new ship, those old geezers at Marine Headquarters will have some wonderful looks on their faces."
At those words, Lin Xuan finally turned around.
He first glanced at Trejer's golden armor, then at the wreckage strewn across the ground, before finally resting his gaze on the restless chains in the man's hands.
"Super Rookie?"
Lin Xuan tilted his head, his neck giving a sharp crack.
He didn't deny the title, though it was most likely a rumor that old bastard Garp had deliberately spread to put more pressure on him in actual combat.
"Rather than that boring title, what I'm more interested in is..." Lin Xuan grinned, revealing teeth even more starkly white than Trejer's. "Are those chains of yours tough enough?"
"You're asking to die!"
Enraged by that look of someone sizing up ingredients, Trejer roared and lashed out with his right arm.
Three wrist-thick Steel Chains tore through the air with a shriek, striking at Lin Xuan's vital points in a triangular formation.
It was a killing move that left no survivors, so fast that it left afterimages in the air.
Lieutenant Commander Domon's pupils contracted sharply. "Watch out! Those are specially made Alloy Chains..."
Clang!
A deafening crash cut off the rest of Domon's warning.
No evasion. No defense.
Lin Xuan simply stood where he was, allowing the chains that could pierce steel plates to slam into his chest.
At the instant of impact, a faint ripple spread across the seemingly ordinary black trench coat. Then a rebounding force surged back along the chains!
Trejer felt his wrist go numb, and the shock drove him back two steps.
He looked at Lin Xuan-the youth wasn't merely uninjured; he hadn't moved his feet an inch.
"That's it?"
Lin Xuan sighed and flicked his chest with his fingers, as though what had struck him wasn't a deadly weapon but a ball of cotton.
He glanced around and casually picked up a broken mast crossbeam from the wreckage beside him.
It was a piece of rotten wood that had soaked in the sea for who knew how many years, with half a blackened rope still hanging from it.
But the instant Lin Xuan gripped that rotten piece of wood, an oppressive presence abruptly descended.
"Since you won't give it your all, it's my turn."
Before you continue