Zzzzz…
Blue arcs of electricity crackled through the air, faint currents crawling over the hulls of the towering steel beasts.
Their raised limbs, heads looming like mountain peaks, black cannons poised to fire—everything froze the instant the black-haired youth took that single step.
The world fell into a deathly stillness, as if time itself had slammed to a halt.
Only the colossal shadows cast by the steel giants seemed to tremble faintly in the wind.
Stussy let out a long, heavy breath.
Looking at the tall figure in front of her, she was wrapped in a powerful sense of safety—so absolute it was almost unreal.
He stood alone against more than a dozen of those terrifying machines, yet his presence felt like an army of a million.
"Life signs scanned, vital points locked, behavior analyzed… ultra-high-strength alloy exoskeleton… rocket launchers and laser cannons far beyond this era…"
Darren stroked his chin as he studied the immobilized behemoths, clicking his tongue in open admiration.
"Vegapunk really lives up to his name. These modified weapons are light-years beyond anything Germa 66 could dream of."
With a casual flick of his wrist, the tiger-like steel monster lifted into the air and drifted backward toward him.
As it hovered, Darren crooked a finger.
Its seemingly indestructible surface melted like liquid metal, peeling back to reveal the intricate core.
Perfectly meshed gears. Bearings glowing red from overheating. Integrated circuits flickering with current. The dense, complex architecture opened itself to Darren and Stussy like an autopsy.
"Even one of these could match the combat strength of a pirate with a bounty over a hundred million berries," Stussy said, shaking her head, a trace of bitterness in her voice. "And yet in front of your Devil Fruit… they're just scrap."
Her words cut off.
Because as the thought settled, Stussy realized something she didn't want to linger on—pirates worth a hundred million, pirates worth a billion… in front of this man, it was all the same.
Both could be erased with a single casual motion. What did numbers matter then?
It was only because Darren always acted so carefree—so shamelessly clownish around her—that she sometimes forgot what kind of monster this lecherous bastard was to the outside world.
"They're not a real threat to top-tier fighters," Darren said, grinning, "but if possible, I'd still like to equip the North Blue Fleet with a few of these steel monstrosities."
Stussy rolled her eyes.
Ever since she'd seen the North Blue Fleet's battle readiness with her own eyes, a question had quietly started gnawing at her.
This guy is already absurdly strong, so why is he still obsessed with stacking more firepower onto his fleet like it's some kind of fixation…?
What Stussy didn't know was that back in Darren's pre-transmigration days, that fixation actually had a name: Fear of Insufficient Firepower.
Just then, Darren snapped his fingers.
An invisible electromagnetic pulse rippled outward like a shockwave.
The surrounding steel monsters shuddered as if struck. The crimson glow in their eyes flickered—then went out.
"What did you do?" Stussy asked, watching closely.
Darren smiled faintly. "A small trick. A sudden burst of low-frequency electromagnetic waves—an EMP within a certain radius. It fries the integrated circuits in any electronic device. In simple terms…"
He shrugged.
"I remotely destroyed their 'brains.'"
Since his Devil Fruit awakening, his control over magnetic fields had become far more refined.
Before, destroying these things would've required brute force—crushing their bodies outright with a high-intensity magnetic field.
Now, a single weak pulse was enough to shut them all down.
Stussy nodded, though she only understood about half of it. Still, it left her more impressed than ever by the strange, ruthless way Darren developed his power.
"So what now?" she asked, glancing around at the bizarre, brightly colored buildings with a troubled frown.
They had already looped the area once without finding the laboratory.
They were clearly lost.
"If we can't find the way," Darren said, lips curling into a sly smile, "then we'll just find someone to guide us."
Stussy froze.
Then she understood.
Her face went pale.
She spun without hesitation and lashed out with a blind Rankyaku kick.
A dark green blade of compressed air tore across the street like a diving hawk, ripping toward a figure that had appeared there without a sound—
The slash cut clean through him, leaving a gruesome gash across his body.
"How terrifying…" a languid voice drawled. "I never imagined CP0 Senior Agent Stussy would be colluding with the World Government's arch-nemesis… the 'World's Number One Criminal.'"
Golden photons burst from the severed body, flowing together—and in an instant, the figure reconstructed itself.
A tall, unmistakably abnormal man took shape.
Jet-black hair. Comically large sunglasses. A yellow-and-white striped suit. He stroked his stubbled chin, studying Darren and Stussy with amused interest.
"Kizaru!" Stussy's heart slammed against her ribs as she shifted into a fighting stance.
This man was another "monster," just like Darren.
At the recent high-level conference at Marine Headquarters, Borsalino, Sakazuki, and Kuzan had all been promoted to Admiral candidates—each receiving a codename: Kizaru, Akainu, and Aokiji.
"Don't joke around, Borsalino," Darren said calmly, turning to face him. A faint smile touched his lips as their eyes met. "I'm not the World's Number One Criminal anymore."
"Long time no see."
Borsalino shrugged, ignoring Stussy's obvious tension entirely, and grinned at Darren. "Long time no see, Darren. Oh—and you've taken the wrong way."
Then he turned his back on them—completely—offering his defenseless spine as if it meant nothing, and began to stroll away.
"If you want the research institute," he said lightly, "you should go this way instead…"
To be continued...