Alabasta.
West of Alubarna, the capital of the kingdom, about three nautical miles from where Pain and the others were fighting.
Aokiji had been hiding here for a long time, and Aokiji's pet penguin was constantly observing the battlefield, transmitting real-time information about the battle to Aokiji through a special method.
"This is really troublesome... I've slept for a while and they still haven't finished fighting... Camel... you keep an eye on it... call me if there's any special situation..." Aokiji muttered to himself, then put on his eye mask and continued to sleep.
Rewind to after Pain and the others were ambushed; they were in a standoff and temporarily held back from acting.
Pain used the Body Replacement Jutsu to appear next to Preta Path, his gaze sweeping over the newcomers, finally settling on Lucci.
Oden and Reynold also quickly came to Pain's side, joining him.
Seeing that the ambush had failed, the CP0 members retreated to Lucci's side, ready for battle.
"The dark organization Akatsuki... you ambushed and killed World Government Advanced intelligence agents Kalifa... Blueno... We are now arresting you in the name of the World Government..." Hattori, the pigeon on Lucci's shoulder, spoke for Lucci.
Lucci and the others did not mention that they came for Kozuki Oden but instead directly laid the blame on the assassination of Kalifa and Blueno, using this as their justification for action.
Pain recalled the previous ambush scene; Oden faced three opponents, Reynold two, and himself two.
From this arrangement by CP0, Pain could easily tell that CP0's focus was on Oden.
Thinking of this, Pain said to Oden and Reynold, "The focus of these people's previous ambush arrangement was aimed at Oden... Reynold, go back to Sky Island and inform Konan and Golden Lion... tell them to act when they see my signal..."
The signal Pain referred to was the release of Chibaku Tensei.
Once Pain was forced to use his ultimate technique, it meant the battle situation exceeded the current capacity and required support.
If Chibaku Tensei was not used, it meant the situation was still under control and they did not need to show themselves.
After Pain gave his orders, Reynold disappeared.
Spandam, seeing that the enemy assigned to him had fled without a fight, secretly rejoiced and deliberately asked with feigned helplessness, "Your Excellency... the enemy you assigned to us has fled... does that mean we don't have to fight?..."
"No... you and Fukurou will cooperate with Nero to attack Crocodile..." Lucci said expressionlessly.
Spandam's actions were a classic case of 'asking for trouble'; if he hadn't asked, Lucci might have forgotten about him due to the impending major battle.
Lucci had originally intended for Fukurou to join the attack on Kozuki Oden to increase their chances of victory.
But Spandam actively asked, hoping to use the opportunity to withdraw from the fight; how could Lucci let him off easy?
Lucci didn't care about the
fleeing
enemy; after instructing Spandam and Fukurou, he made the first move, using a "Soru" directly towards Oden.
Kaku and Jabra transformed using their Devil Fruit abilities and followed closely behind.
Oden, seeing the three rushing towards him, was not afraid.
He leaped, creating distance from Pain, and ran to another location, leading Lucci and the others there to fight.
Kumadori and the others, seeing Lucci had already acted, also wasted no words.
Kumadori went straight for Pain, while Nero and Fukurou headed directly for Preta Path.
The enemy's arrangement made Pain frown inwardly.
Their strength was temporarily unclear; two against three wasn't without a chance of victory, but winning without knowing the enemy's strength and without revealing his trump cards might be difficult.
Pain turned his head to look in Oden's direction; although he was fighting three, he wasn't at a disadvantage for the time being.
Pain was unsure if these World Government people had any backup plans; if they did, Pain revealing his trump card first would affect the chances of victory.
Just as Pain's Divided Soul was occurring, Kumadori appeared behind Pain using "Soru," holding a metal staff, muttering his catchphrase.
"Yo yo yee... to be so disdainfully distracted while fighting me... I was negligent... please allow me to commit seppuku!..." Before he finished speaking, a staff had already struck the back of Pain's head, showing no mercy.
Pain used a Body Replacement Jutsu to appear in the distance, temporarily with no intention of counterattacking, preparing to wait and see.
At Preta Path's location, Fukurou and Nero attacked Preta Path together.
Pain, controlling Preta Path with his will, was somewhat struggling to cope, but holding off the two for now was not an issue.
Although Nero was hiding his strength, without going all out, he couldn't pose a threat to Preta Path, and even if Fukurou went all out, he wouldn't be a match for Preta Path.
Kumadori was not surprised when his attack struck a large wooden enemy and it reappeared in the distance; after all, the previous ambush was also like this.
"Yo yo yee... Your Excellency is truly fast... I am far behind... please allow me to commit seppuku..."
"Tekkai... Oh no!... Unfortunately, I can't die!..." Kumadori spoke to himself like a stage actor; as his words fell, his long pink hair instantly extended infinitely, attacking Pain.
"Life Return: Hair Bind Jutsu!..."
Swish swish swish!... A head of pink long hair rapidly pursued Pain, trying to entangle his agile figure.
Pain's movements were nimble, easily dodging the hair's pursuit, and while dodging, he consciously led the enemy towards where Preta Path was fighting.
Pain, who originally intended to gauge the enemy's strength before making a decision, suddenly changed his mind and decided to end the battle quickly, because Preta Path, controlled by Pain, quickly fell into a disadvantage after engaging with Nero and the others.
Once it was lost, it could not be revived temporarily, which would affect Pain's combat power, and Pain would not allow such a situation to happen.
As Pain ran towards Preta Path, he also controlled Preta Path to move closer to him.
Pain and Preta Path merged, controlling Preta Path to use "Desertification World" to attack Nero and Fukurou, while his main body quickly formed hand seals and lightly shouted at Kumadori, who was chasing after him.
"Forbidden Jutsu: Shouten no Jutsu!..."
A sandstorm grew with the wind, carrying the attribute of eroding all things, chasing Fukurou and Nero.
Seeing the unfavorable situation, the two used "Soru" to retreat at extreme speed, with the sandstorm hot on their heels.
Fukurou and Nero were dodging at extreme speed, but the unlucky one was Spandam.
Spandam understood that his current situation required him to obey Lucci's orders; if he didn't, once Oden was taken down, Spandam would not only receive no credit but would also be dealt with by Lucci using it as an excuse.
So Spandam had been hiding to the side, waiting for an opportunity to ambush, but unfortunately, the attack range of "Desertification World" was too large, instantly engulfing Spandam, who had the worst Doriki and was unable to dodge.
Nero and Fukurou could use "Soru" to dodge, but Spandam, without anyone to protect him, was no different from an ordinary Marine soldier.
Furthermore, he was deliberately sent to the battlefield by Lucci to die; who would protect him?
Spandam's eyes widened in horror; he couldn't even let out a scream before he was eroded into a skeletal frame by the sand, dead beyond dead.
"What's going on!?... What's happening!?... Why... why is my body out of control!?..."
Looking at Kumadori, the target of Pain's "Shouten no Jutsu," his body was undergoing tremendous changes while he was still relentlessly chasing Pain.
Kumadori had no idea what was happening to his body; his face had long lost its composure, replaced by panic.
His consciousness was slowly dissipating, his mental faculties gradually losing control, and his bones, appearance, and other features were all converging towards Pain.
After two seconds of transformation, the once living Kumadori had disappeared, replaced by another "Pain" who opened his eyes, and upon closer inspection, his eyes were no different from the original body.
This was Pain's Shouten no Jutsu, which could give others the same appearance as Pain and allow them to use all of Pain's techniques (including Kekkei Genkai).
The transformed person only possessed 30% of the original body's abilities, their actions were controlled by the original body, and they permanently lost their self-awareness, dying once their Chakra ran out.
Pain had never used Shouten no Jutsu against enemies before because people in this world did not have Chakra within their bodies, and Pain was unsure if it would be effective.
Now that the jutsu was successful, Pain understood that people in this world simply lacked the Cultivate system and methods of his previous life; once they obtained the Cultivate methods of his previous life, people in this world could also Cultivate Chakra and Ninjutsu.
Pain injected a corpse-endurable amount of Chakra into the deceased Kumadori, controlling Preta Path and the "Kumadori" controlled by Shouten no Jutsu to attack Fukurou and Nero.
At this moment, the storm that had been chasing Nero and Fukurou had dissipated, and the two were staring in shock at what was happening to Kumadori.
"Kumadori just disappeared into thin air?... And an identical person to the enemy appeared?..."
"How can this be!?..."
To be continued...