Regardless, in Law's view, there was no future between Kuro and Coo.
The specific reasons the Gatekeeper Clan wanted to eliminate them probably didn't matter as much anymore.
What could be confirmed was that they and the Gatekeeper Clan were mortal enemies.
With this relationship, Kuro thinking he could win over Coo was pure fantasy.
Moreover, judging from Coo's ability to withstand the pain of God Hand and her refusal to give in even before being violated by Kuro, she seemed the type who would never compromise.
Thus, she was like an egg without a single crack. What was Kuro, a fly, supposed to do?
But those involved are often blind. Kuro probably had absolutely no self-awareness in this regard.
Of course, if Kuro could make Coo fall for him, Law would be overjoyed.
Having Coo on the team would increase their combat power in ways that couldn't be easily described.
Unfortunately, the probability of that was basically zero.
Law signaled his teammates to step back, then walked over to Kuro.
Noticing Law's approach, Kuro showed little reaction but still radiated a faint trace of wariness that Law detected.
Their relationship was master and Nen Beast... if one truly wanted to hide something, it was usually impossible.
Law stood behind Kuro, paused, then spoke, "There's no future for you two."
"I love her."
"But she doesn't love you."
"But I have her."
"What you have is her body, not her heart."
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that I love her."
"Face reality. She will never love you. She detests you."
Kuro paused, then slowly turned his head, looking at Law with an extremely serious expression. "With enough sincerity, you can move even a stone!"
"..."
Law fell silent, resisting the urge to punch Kuro.
Not far away, everyone else also fell silent, restraining the desire to speak up and deflate Kuro's confidence.
Kuro shifted two steps to the right, placing his body between Law and Coo, radiating the sense of responsibility and courage befitting a man.
"Even if you disagree, I will stand firm!"
"She is my woman now. So, even if you are my master, I will never let you harm her!"
Kuro looked at Law, his face full of fearless defiance.
After pouring out his heart, Kuro had reason to believe that at this very moment, brilliant rays of light were surely shining upon him.
'Hmph, as long as I protect her like this, even risking my life, she will surely be touched and fall for me.'
On the surface, Kuro appeared fearless, but inside, he was gleefully imagining the subsequent script.
Law rubbed his forehead, struggling to restrain the urge to kick Kuro away.
Outside the circle, Biscuit raised her hand and patted Buhara standing beside her.
"What's up?" Buhara looked at Biscuit, puzzled.
"Got any snacks? Give me a pack," Biscuit asked.
Buhara hesitated, then handed Biscuit a pack of snacks.
Tonpa glanced at Biscuit, who was perfecting the art of watching a spectacle, and thought, 'How excessive.'
Then he also patted Buhara and said seriously, "Get me one too."
"You guys... this is a serious matter!" Shiro widened his eyes at them, his face full of disbelief.
"Hey, Buhara has quite a stash. Shiro, want a pack too?"
Ging also found a pack of nori-flavored ring cookies from Buhara. It was thanks to the Hide-and-Seek Dimension's ample space that it could accommodate not only Biscuit's vast skincare products but also Buhara's high demand for snacks.
Hearing Ging's words, Shiro declared righteously, "Do I look like the kind of person who pours salt on someone's wound?"
"Oh, you don't want it? Then I'll just give this pack of vanilla-flavored doughnuts back to Buhara."
"Wait, I'll take two packs!"
"..."
Buhara winced as his snack stash was depleted pack by pack by his teammates.
Thus, except for a few, everyone else held snacks, standing outside the circle, watching the standoff between Kuro and Law.
Sheila's eyes sparkled as she watched the scene, her hand moving a pen across paper, making scratching sounds.
Salin and Bruna, seeing Sheila drawing something, leaned in curiously.
On the paper, Law was still Law, but Sheila had drawn some wicked Aura around him, while Kuro and Coo had been anthropomorphized.
In the drawing, Kuro spread his arms protectively, shielding Coo behind him.
And Coo had become a pitiful, beautiful young maiden, collapsed on the ground.
Bruna looked at the drawing and blinked her big, watery eyes, 'So a camera wasn't the only way to capture a scene... there was also Sheila's expressive style of drawing.'
She felt like she had discovered a new continent, thinking she should learn to draw in her spare time.
Salin silently watched Sheila drawing excitedly, the corner of her mouth twitching. Then she looked at the crowd of onlookers, all enjoying the spectacle, and shook her head slightly.
"Say, if Captain Kuro's seed takes root..." Nique asked curiously.
Posing this question, he couldn't help but recall a painful memory from his past.
Back then, he had gone looking for pleasure with human women, but his virginity had been taken by Law...
Although it had been returned, it had still become an indelible memory.
Hearing Nique's words, Nobunaga stroked his sparse beard and said with interest, "Now that would be interesting."
The watching crowd watched the scene with keen interest, except for Sanbica, Machi, and the skeleton, who didn't participate.
Inside the circle, Law looked at Kuro and said, "Stop sticking your nose in this. Get out of the way and go wait over there."
"No!" Kuro was fearless. "I won't let you hurt her!"
"..." Law.
Just then, a gnashing female voice came from behind Kuro.
"Get this beast... out of my sight!"
It was Coo speaking.
At this moment, Coo barely lifted her head, staring at Kuro with hatred and disgust.
Hearing Coo's voice, Kuro turned and met her undisguised look of disgust.
Instantly, Kuro was struck as if by lightning, frozen in place. His cat face displayed human-like grief and disbelief.
He opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing, silently turning and walking step by step towards a corner.
Outside the circle, the watching crowd exchanged glances.
As for Law, he watched Kuro's desolate retreating figure. For some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to feel sympathy.
Coo watched Kuro's back with disgust, then glared fiercely at Law. In her eyes, Law was also one of the prime culprits.
Having lived so long, she had never suffered such humiliation.
'To be taken by... just a cat...'
Thinking of it made her burn with shame and anger.
Meeting Coo's fierce gaze, Law remained unmoved. "First, your end won't be pleasant. So, you can choose to cooperate and die without pain, or resist and die in agony."
Hearing this, Coo only sneered, completely unafraid.
Seeing this, Law sighed inwardly, 'Truly a hard bone.'
The cat before him was a mountain of information, but it seemed very difficult to mine.
'How could I extract information from Coo? Would I have to torture her to death?'
Coo's heart was currently stored in Law's God Hand book. With just a thought, Law could inflict intense pain on her.
Watching Coo's silent sneer, Law willed his ability to activate.
Instantly, Coo's sneer froze and then faded, her brow furrowing slightly.
The pain, like a rolling pin, ground over every nerve in her body.
Yet, this was nothing.
The Dark Continent had countless dead zones. Some special and rare ones were similar to the Ink Ground, which possessed Rule-like properties.
Among those special dead zones, several were called Hells of Pain.
Long ago, to accomplish certain tasks, Coo had gone to such places with her kin. In the end, only she had withstood the pain and survived.
Compared to the agony endured in the Hell of Pain, this human's methods were not enough to make her submit.
Back then, she had stayed in that painful dead zone for over sixty days, cleansed by pain every second, unable even to close her eyes.
Enduring the pain caused by God Hand squeezing her heart, Coo no longer interacted with Law. She sat slumped on the ground, not uttering a word.
In her current state, she couldn't even commit suicide.
Law stood before her, looking down.
He was sure he had pushed God Hand's effect to its limit, but Coo's reaction was simply too cold, as if the pain she felt was just an itch.
Though this had been verified, his available methods were limited. For now, he could only try to grind her down with time.
While inflicting pain, Law instructed his teammates to find a way to establish a view outside the Hide-and-Seek Dimension.
The black disc, like the Mountain Ship, was a large relic left by ancient humans.
The image of the Mountain Ship indiscriminately bombarding the ancient labyrinth city with lightning was still vivid in their minds, not to mention the disc's pinpoint beam strikes.
With their current capabilities, they couldn't contend with such a large relic.
So, they could only set up visual surveillance outside. Only once the disc left could they exit the apartment.
Hearing Law's instructions, Nique pondered a method.
The source of vision had always been attached to Kuro, but now...
Nique glanced at Kuro, curled up in the corner, radiating a world-weary Aura. He shook his head and sought other means.
The only other suitable candidate for Nen Beast cooperation was Sheila's Ai-chan.
Thinking this, Nique went to discuss it with Sheila.
Learning it was Law's order, Sheila naturally didn't refuse and readily summoned Ai-chan.
After some work, Nique successfully attached the little fox to Ai-chan, then had Knov open the door to send Ai-chan outside.
Then, Sheila ordered Ai-chan to hide in a concealed pile of rubble and covered her with In, erasing her form.
Thus, a hidden surveillance camera was complete.
Knov closed the apartment's entrance, and Nique projected the little fox's perspective onto the room's wall.
In the image, the lifeless black disc hovered silently above the ruins, motionless.
Below lay the ruins, bombarded by energy beams, patches of scorched earth a shocking sight. It was unknown if the negative first floor had suffered a large-scale collapse.
Nique's projection diverted his teammates' attention... they all observed the disc in the image.
They had witnessed the power of the disc's energy beams earlier.
Compared to a Magical Beast species that used Nen on their physical bodies, this powerful, externalized energy attack was far more threatening.
In their past experiences, they had nothing comparable.
No matter how powerful an Emitter, they couldn't produce a long-range attack of such power.
"Can large relics extract energy from the core source and convert it into attacks?"
Based on available information, Ging drew a rough conclusion.
He lightly pinched his chin, his eyes thoughtful.
Then, he looked at the core energy crystal taken from the Masked Man, his gaze falling on the hairless human figure at its apex.
Even the Masked Man didn't know the formation process of the Core Energy, only that each energy crystal fused with a human lacking reproductive organs.
Those humans shared many common traits, but their facial features and hair length could differ.
'Without a means to convert the energy, having just this core energy crystal seems of little use.'
Thinking this, Law withdrew his gaze from the crystal and looked back at the disc in the image.
That was true, but even if they were fortunate enough to find an ancient human relic, they might not know how to use it.
Of course, if they could master one, they might be able to traverse every corner of the Dark Continent within their lifetimes.
After all, even Don Freecss had spent hundreds of years exploring only half of the Dark Continent, while their current progress, precisely calculated, was maybe 5%.
But if they used the method of clearing fog of war to calculate map exploration progress, they might have reached about 30%.
His teammates' attention was mostly on the image from the little fox Nen Beast, while Law continued to inflict pain on Coo.
Time passed. An hour went by.
Coo's reaction didn't change. Compared to past subjects who had confessed under duress, Coo's response could even be called calm.
"You're very tough."
Law couldn't help but remark.
Hearing Law's words, Coo still showed no reaction, her gaze downcast, quietly looking at the ground.
Law sighed lightly but didn't terminate the ability's effect.
His patience was limited, but it wouldn't run out so quickly.
Coo was dangerous. Though she seemed harmless now, who knew when she might change, like secretly accumulating strength?
Until the time rope burned to its end, Law wouldn't give up trying.
If he couldn't extract information from Coo, it would be like returning empty-handed from a mountain of treasure. Law would be extremely frustrated.
During the dragging standoff, Bruna quietly came to Law's shoulder.
Law turned his head and smiled gently at Bruna, a greeting.
Bruna gazed at Coo. Her species' gift was sensitivity to touch. She could feel that Coo was enduring intense pain, yet her surface demeanor could be described as calm as water, creating a clear contradiction.
"I can feel it, she is in great pain."
"Yes."
Law acknowledged softly.
Bruna extended a tentacle and gently stroked Law's neck. "And I can feel that you are troubled."
Hearing this, Law couldn't help but laugh. He reached up and patted Bruna's head, changing the subject. "How's Kuro doing over there?"
"Mm, he's very despaired."
"Is that so..."
Bruna nodded slightly, then suggested, "According to a book, male felines use mating to regulate their emotions."
Law raised an eyebrow.
And over with Coo, her body trembled slightly.