Kalev instinctively took a step back—only to realize in the next moment just how deeply fear had already taken root.
His shame turned to anger as he opened his mouth to speak.
"You dare defy the World Governme—"
Splurt!
The sentence was never finished.
A massive golden hook buried itself in Kalev's skull.
The blood that gushed from the wound turned a sickly green as it mixed with the venom coating the weapon.
The other CP9 agents finally processed what had just happened. Beneath their headscarves, faces twisted in horror. Their hearts sank.
Kalev—their strongest fighter, a man who had mastered the Navy's Rokushiki techniques—was dead?
Just like that?
Was this the power of a Warlord of the Sea?
With no strength left to hold himself up, Kalev collapsed onto the deck with a loud thud.
The sound jolted the stunned CP agents back to their senses.
In the next instant, they unleashed their signature techniques.
Shigan Air Bullets. Rankyaku Slash Waves. A barrage of attacks surged toward Crocodile.
Drip.
A droplet of blood slid off Crocodile's golden hook and hit the deck—a grim signal.
Crocodile's left arm morphed into a massive sand-bladed greatsword. Like a chainsaw revving to life, it cleaved through the incoming attacks with sheer force.
Then his body blurred, tracing a strange, serpentine path right through the group.
Shlick! Shlick! Shlick! Shlick!
The sound was like fabric being torn. One after another, bodies were split clean in half and slammed into the deck.
Before blood or organs could defile Crocodile's deck—
Boom!
The corpses exploded into ash, leaving not a trace behind.
CP agents with Doriki levels well above 500—defeated in an instant!
"AAAAAH!!!"
Holding the severed head of the sole survivor he'd deliberately spared, Crocodile let out a long, satisfied breath. His expression softened slightly as he made his way slowly across the deck.
"Tell the World Government to stop following me. A mere Warlord of the Sea isn't enough to chain me down!!!"
He had made mistakes before—wrong choices that had led to weakness.
But now, with the completed Pluton nearly in his grasp...
The title of Warlord? He no longer needed it.
As his words rang out, a powerful wave of Haki burst from within him—unyielding and wild.
Boom!
The half-dead CP agent was flung onto the small boat they'd used to arrive.
Blood poured out like an open faucet. His consciousness began to fade, and with it came a desperate, final hope—that his colleagues investigating Iceburg would hurry, and save his life...
...
In the scrapyards of Water 7—
Iceburg lay half-buried beneath rubble, barely clinging to life. A jagged gash ran from his shoulder down to his waist, his flesh mangled and torn.
Nearby, a few CP agents were quietly exchanging intel they had gathered.
"Confirmed—Iceburg was injured by Crocodile. The wound matches the pattern from the West Blue incident."
"We've found the ship blueprints. Looks like the design is meant to launch into the sky. Could Crocodile be heading for Skypiea?"
"Didn't he personally request Iceburg to build that ship? Could all of this have been staged?"
"Should we take him to Enies Lobby?"
"Not without Pluton's blueprints. We move recklessly, we lose everything. And Iceburg's current position complicates things. Let's wait for news from Kalev's side."
At that moment, the lookout posted outside cried out in alarm.
"Something's wrong! Crocodile's ship is setting sail again!"
The agents exchanged grim looks.
"Kalev and the others... something's happened to them!"
"Forget Iceburg for now. Keep monitoring him from the shadows..."
...
Sky Island.
Inside Judge's personal laboratory.
Rows of metallic shells were moving along a conveyor belt.
Each shell entered a transparent chamber, where a mechanical arm reached out, grabbed the shell, laid it flat, and then retracted into the wall.
Outside the chamber, Judge focused intently on the control panel, orchestrating the next step in the sequence.
Clang!
A giant iron hammer crashed down with thunderous force.
When it rose again, the shell's indicator light flickered—glowing a bright red.
It was the sign of a successful energy charge.
But Judge's face showed no trace of satisfaction. He'd seen too many of these "successes" fail. Hope had dulled into numbness.
He guided the mechanical arm to lift the newly charged shell and fire it at a test wall made of Seastone.
Boom!!
A dent appeared in the Seastone wall—visible even to the naked eye.
A second later, the shell glowed red.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted in rapid succession within the sealed chamber.
When the smoke cleared, the failed prototype was plucked out by a robotic arm and tossed into the recycling bin to be reforged into steel.
The fact that failed models had an entire room dedicated to them said everything about how many setbacks Judge had faced.
"Another failure."
He scratched his aching scalp and halted the experiment, collapsing back into his chair and staring blankly at the ceiling.
Slash Shells and Laser Shells—two of the most powerful yet utterly unrefined types of Dials.
Thanks to his extensive research on the Pluton blueprints and the Ark Maxim, Judge had long since grasped the theory behind their structure and function.
Replicated Dials could mimic those effects—on paper.
But the materials currently available simply couldn't handle the intense energy output when the Dials activated.
No matter how tough the steel, no matter what synthetic polymer mimicked the shell casing, every material he'd tested ruptured on first use.
These things couldn't serve as reliable weapons. At best, they were glorified one-use bombs.
Well—except for that one.
Judge's gaze drifted to a pink Laser Shell sitting on the desk.
It was the only one made from material sliced off Reiju's battle suit.
That special alloy had been taken from Egghead, smuggled out before they left.
And now, he had none left.
Even if he melted down every suit they had, it still wouldn't be enough to begin mass-producing units for the BOSS.
"What is this 'special material' you mentioned, BOSS?"
Judge muttered under his breath, recalling the moment Doflamingo had visited the lab just days ago.
After witnessing a Laser Shell self-detonate, Doflamingo had sworn with absolute confidence:
There was a material out there—strong enough to handle the energy discharge of a Laser Shell, durable enough to absorb the recoil of a Slash Shell.
If the BOSS said it existed, then it had to. The future he saw always came to pass.
Murmuring encouragement to himself, Judge turned to the wall beside him.
Five battle suits hung there—pink, red, blue, black, and green.
"Maybe I'll try cutting Reiju's suit again… test this batch of shells one more time."
He hesitated for a long moment, but finally made up his mind.
After all, Reiju wasn't using it right now.
And as a scientist, the thrill of pushing an experiment closer to success was too powerful to resist.
...
In the Third Ring residential zone—
Reiju using her steel-hard bones and unshakable strength, she had crushed every other trainee beneath her boots.
Yet even with her superhuman body, she suddenly felt a strange chill in the air.
Reiju furrowed her brow, her eyes scanning the surroundings as she barked a warning.
"Who's hiding over there?! Show yourself!"
"Ohohohoho~ Reiju, there's no need to be so tense. You've already won~!"
With a laugh as sweet as syrup, the famed parenting guru Jora stepped forward, wearing her signature grandmotherly smile.
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg