"Damn you, Leno!"
Lucci exploded with rage, murderous intent surging.
"As a former Marine Vice Admiral, you dare lay hands on CP9 members?!"
"Hey!"
Luffy finally caught on.
Pointing at Leno, he shouted angrily, "Let Robin go! Or I'll send you flying!"
Leno spread his hands, wearing a troubled expression.
"This is quite the dilemma…"
(Kizaru: "Ooh~ how scary~ Why are you copying me?")
Then his tone shifted sharply, the mockery turning blatant.
"You want to save them? Fine. Beat me first."
He crooked his finger at the two of them—full of insult and provocation.
"You two… come at me together."
The words were like lighting a fuse.
"Gomu Gomu no—!"
Steam burst violently from Luffy's body, his skin flushing red.
Gear Second.
His speed skyrocketed as his fist shot forward like a cannonball toward Leno!
"Finger Pistol: Madara!"
Lucci transformed into his leopard-man hybrid form, equally terrifying in speed.
His sharpened fingers struck like a storm, aiming at every vital point on Leno's body!
Faced with their forced yet seamless joint assault—
Leno merely spoke calmly.
"Your attacks might be nothing more than tickling to me… but I don't have a habit of standing still to get hit."
"Soru."
The instant he finished speaking—
His figure vanished like a phantom before their ferocious attacks could land!
"So fast!"
Both of them missed completely. Their expressions changed at the same time, alarm bells ringing in their minds.
"You two, as you are now, are nowhere near my level."
Leno's voice echoed above them.
"Rankyaku — Split!"
He didn't even make a dramatic motion—just casually kicked through the air.
A massive blue blade of compressed air roared outward—
And in mid-flight, it fragmented into countless smaller slashes, dense as a rainstorm!
Its coverage and saturation rivaled Kizaru's Yasakani no Magatama.
Faced with an unavoidable area-wide barrage—
Lucci instinctively roared:
"Iron Body!"
Trying to tank it head-on.
The classic Iron Body trap.
Meanwhile, Luffy relied on Gear Second's explosive speed, using a Soru-like movement technique to evade desperately.
Leno looked at Lucci, who had chosen to tank the attack head-on.
A deeply amused smile spread across his face.
"In front of me… you dare use Iron Body?"
"You really don't know what death looks like."
Just as Leno had expected, Iron Body was nothing but a massive illusionary trap.
Taking the full brunt of Rankyaku · Split, Lucci absorbed nearly all of its damage.
Blood burst from his body in countless sprays. He screamed as he was blasted backward, smashing heavily into the ground.
"Tsk. What a greedy little kitty," Leno commented lightly.
Well, leopards are felines after all.
Truth discovered.
As for Luffy, with Gear Second's speed he managed to dodge a large portion of the barrage, though several Rankyaku slashes still struck him.
Compared to Lucci, his condition was far better.
At that moment—
A sharp slash tore through the air toward the back of Leno's head.
"One Sword Style — Lion's Song!"
Hearing that voice, Leno instantly knew the "Zoro" had arrived.
He didn't even turn his head.
He merely shifted a step to the side—
Effortlessly avoiding the fatal strike.
"Tsk tsk. Sneak attacks aren't a good habit, moss-head swordsman."
"Rankyaku · Impact!"
Leno turned gracefully and delivered a heavy, crushing kick straight into Zoro's abdomen.
It was a modified Rankyaku technique inspired by Garp's Fist Bone Impact.
Even without Armament Haki, its power was staggering.
Boom!
Zoro had no time to react.
His body shot backward as if struck by a speeding train—
Embedding deeply into a distant wall, stone fragments exploding outward.
—
The rest of the Straw Hat crew arrived moments later.
Seeing Zoro stuck in the wall and Luffy battered and breathing heavily, they cried out in alarm.
"Zoro!"
"Moss-head!"
"Luffy!"
Then their eyes fell on Robin, bound behind Leno.
They shouted in unison:
"Robin!"
Leno dug at his ear impatiently.
"Hey, hey… you're all a bit noisy."
Before his words fully settled—
A terrifying wave of Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body like a physical tsunami.
It crushed down across the entire battlefield.
Thud! Thud!
Except for the three women behind him—
The remaining Straw Hats, and even Lucci who had just struggled back to his feet—
Were utterly powerless under the pressure.
They were forced to their knees… some even flattened against the ground.
"How is this possible?! Since when did you have Conqueror's Haki?!" Lucci roared through clenched teeth.
He definitely didn't have it before!
Why?!
Leno ignored him.
Luffy, on the other side, felt as if a mountain had been placed on his back.
Even kneeling was difficult.
Though Luffy possessed the potential for Conqueror's Haki—
Even if he awakened it now, it couldn't rival Leno's version, enhanced by the "Split-Split" fruit's unique trait—
Sharper. More aggressive. More penetrating.
"Bastard! What did you do to my crew?!"
Seeing his companions completely suppressed, Luffy exploded in fury!
A surge of Conqueror's Haki burst from him—
For a brief instant, it clashed against Leno's dominance!
Terrifying indeed. The protagonist's talent.
But only for a moment.
In the next second, Leno's Haki crashed down again, utterly crushing Luffy's resistance.
Leno walked toward him slowly, step by deliberate step.
"Stop! Don't go near our captain!"
Sanji, Nami, and the others struggled desperately, shouting hoarsely.
Leno glanced back at them coldly.
"Relax. I won't kill you."
He pointed behind him at Robin.
"Thanks to her. She traded her whole self… for all your lives."
The Straw Hats froze.
They turned toward Robin, eyes filled with emotion.
"Robin…"
"Robin-chan…"
"You…"
Leno looked back down at Luffy, his tone layered with complexity.
"As for you, Luffy…"
"In a sense, I'm your senior disciple. Your grandfather Garp… was once my teacher."
His voice suddenly turned ice-cold, laced with ridicule.
"…though he's nothing more than a blind, foolish old man."
"Don't you insult my grandpa!"
Even crushed beneath the Haki, Luffy glared up and shouted.
"No, no." Leno wagged a finger.
"I'm not insulting him. I'm stating a fact."
"I, Leno, was once the strongest among the younger generation of Marines. Countless achievements under my name. And what did I get?"
"Because your dear grandfather chose to favor and protect his new golden boy—Koby—he forced me to take the fall."
"He threw me into Impel Down."
"He personally pushed me into betraying the Marines."
He stared down at Luffy with pity.
"I could take your head at any moment. With the very techniques your grandfather taught me."
"But… someone traded herself for you once."
"So this time, you won't die."
"Be grateful. You've picked up your life."
It was a cruel statement.
For Luffy, it felt like a knife twisting in his chest.
It made Leno look like the villain.
Not "like."
He was.
—
Meanwhile—
Out at sea near Enies Lobby, Kizaru's Den Den Mushi began to ring.
"Moshi moshi~ this is Borsalino…"
An urgent command came through.
"Oh~ how scary~ Enies Lobby's in that much chaos?"
Kizaru clicked his tongue lazily.
"I'll head over~ honestly… overtime again…"
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