On Island 27 of the Sabaody Archipelago, the entire area erupted into chaos as if it were boiling water, following the news that the Straw Hat kid had punched a Celestial Dragon at the auction house.
The locally stationed Marines, pirates fleeing in panic, and innocent civilians caught in the crossfire—in an instant, the whole island was filled with the sounds of combat and pandemonium.
Not long after, the support fleet dispatched by Marine Headquarters arrived.
"It's... it's Marine Admiral Kizaru!!!"
"Run! The Admiral is on the island!"
"How could someone like him be on this island!"
After a certain individual landed on the island in a flashy pose, using a cannonball as a stepping stool, the unlucky pirates on Island 27 were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, their wails echoing through the alleys.
"Moshi Moshi, Moshi Moshi... Why can't I hear anything?"
Kizaru strolled leisurely down the smoke-filled street. While casually dealing with pirates along the way, he studied the Den Den Mushi (Transponder Snail) on his wrist, his expression one of confusion.
With every lift of his hand, beams of laser-like energy shot from his fingertips. Explosions rang out, and the pirates who tried to flee fell one by one like cut vegetables.
"Moshi Moshi..."
The pirates were either pierced through their bodies or blasted away by the explosions caused by the light beams hitting the ground. In just a few minutes since Kizaru landed, the pirates on Island 27 were nearly wiped out.
However, Kizaru showed no sign of joy, as the Den Den Mushi on his wrist still wasn't connecting.
This was the Transponder Snail used to contact his subordinate, Sentomaru. Due to the urgency of the situation, Kizaru had only reported to Sengoku before setting off with the battleship and didn't have sufficient intelligence.
He only knew the main culprits who had offended the Celestial Dragons: the Straw Hat Kid, Kid, Law, and others.
Everything else—the full sequence of events, the current situation, and the exact location of the culprits—needed to be told to him by Sentomaru, who had landed on the Sabaody Archipelago earlier.
Yet, he couldn't get through to the snail used to contact his subordinate.
After continuing to call out to his wrist a few more times, Kizaru finally gave up. He decided to find someone on the road to ask.
However, at this hour, civilians had long since hidden inside their tightly locked homes. The Marines were likely just disembarking from the warship and were still some distance away. And the few pirates left on the street had all been laid low by him.
Kizaru searched for a long time, finally using his Admiral-level Observation Haki to locate two people.
Based solely on appearance, they seemed to be a brother and sister with the same hair color.
They didn't look like pirates. At a time like this, pirates would have either run away or been looting during the chaos. But these two young people were sitting conspicuously outside a restaurant, enjoying a continuous stream of food being served from the door.
Nor were they ordinary people. Judging by the speed at which the food vanished, the "siblings" were like bottomless pits, constantly stuffing food into their mouths. The stack of empty plates grew higher and higher, but their stomachs didn't seem to change.
"Oh dear, eating right outside the restaurant. You're quite spirited, little fellow."
Kizaru quietly approached them, casually picked up a plate of food, and started eating a couple of bites while striking up a conversation.
"..."
Xiang En was panicking right now, the kind of panic that made him sweat profusely.
I'm screwed. They had just left the human auction house, and knowing that Luffy and the others would be surrounded by the Marines, he had taken Kagura and run as far away as possible without looking back.
In this short trip of only a few dozen minutes, they had used every possible mode of transport unique to the Sabaody Archipelago—bubble bikes, sea-flying fish, and so on—to run straight from Island 1 to Island 27 in one go.
But who could tell him why, just as he and Kagura had finally found a restaurant willing to sell them food, and were enjoying hotpot and singing songs, a Marine Admiral suddenly popped up!
Gazing at the middle-aged, utterly sleazy face, hidden behind sunglasses, that was now inches away, Xiang En's expression was a masterpiece of distress.
The pressure is immense.
Unlike the "slacker" Admiral shown in the anime, in this close proximity, that nearly three-meter-tall body, even masked by that lecherous uncle's face, still emitted a profound, ocean-deep sense of oppression that Xiang En, even with his acquired Yato bloodline, could feel.
This feeling wasn't unfamiliar; Rayleigh could give him the same sensation. However, perhaps due to Mr. Rayleigh's age, this head-on sense of crisis wasn't as intense as Kizaru's.
Fortunately, I'm not a pirate right now. Given the personality Kizaru displayed in the anime, as long as I don't provoke him, he should...
However.
"You perverted, smelly old man! How dare you just steal our lunch!"
Kagura only just reacted, flaring up like an angry cat.
Next, as if her voice couldn't express her fury, and under Xiang En's bewildered gaze, she shot up with a swoosh, grabbed the parasol, and swung it straight down toward Kizaru's head!
Sshh-sshh~
The parasol chopped down. Under the terrifying force of the Yato clan, a red afterimage flashed and disappeared, creating a powerful blast of air.
What the heck are you doing!
Xiang En's eyes nearly popped out. He never in a million years imagined this scene happening.
"So fast!"
Kizaru's pupils contracted slightly. The speed of the short burst from this girl, whom he saw as small, was even faster than his Observation Haki.
However.
After a slight moment of feeling the impact, Kizaru relaxed. The aggressive parasol had no Armament Haki coating it.
Without Armament Haki, no matter how fast or powerful an attack was, it couldn't hit the physical form of a Logia-type Devil Fruit user.
The reality was exactly as he thought.
The shaft of the umbrella passed through his head without any resistance, like a vegetable knife slicing through tofu. It smoothly cut him vertically in two and slammed heavily into the ground.
Bang!
The ground cracked, and as the dust cleared, a large crater nearly ten meters wide was revealed.
"Oh? Missed?"
Having landed, Kagura puzzledly weighed the umbrella in her hand, a look of confusion on her face.
"What do you mean, missed? Don't you see that huge pit in the ground?" Xiang En walked up.
"But the feeling was wrong. I clearly hit his head, but I didn't feel a thing."
"That's because he's a Logia-type ability user! Didn't I just tell you about this while we were eating?"
"Oh! You mean the 'guys you need Haki to hit, the ones you shouldn't provoke without Haki,' like you told me, Xia-chan?" Kagura realized.
"You got the answer right. I'm truly relieved that you remembered what I said," Xiang En's voice was already one of utter resignation.
"But couldn't you have remembered it before you attacked him!"
Guys, do you get it? I just spawned from the fountain, haven't even started farming, and my teammate is already fighting the Baron.