"Damn it."
Kaku's expression darkened the instant he read the situation. He shifted to the side, poised to launch a sneak attack.
But in the very next second, he froze solid.
"Don't move."
Eneru, who had been standing beside Nami just a moment ago, was now at Kaku's side — no one had seen him move. His voice was cold and unhurried, carrying the weight of a man utterly unconcerned with resistance.
His right hand was already raised, one finger pressed to Kaku's temple.
Kaku's face went rigid. A bead of cold sweat traced a slow line down his forehead.
He couldn't understand it. All the man had done was point a finger at him — and yet every hair on his body stood on end, as though the slightest twitch would bring instant, absolute death.
"Hmm? Another expert?!"
Lucci caught the sound and snapped his gaze sideways. His eyes landed on the tall, unfamiliar figure now standing beside Kaku — the man with four great drums mounted on his back — and a flicker of genuine surprise crossed his face.
The speed of that movement had surpassed even a standard Soru. Even Lucci, distracted as he was, hadn't caught so much as a blur.
"This…"
Iceberg turned slowly, eyes falling on his secretary crumpled on the ground. His expression shifted — uncertainty and disbelief warring openly on his face.
Will, hands in pockets, watched him with a faint smirk.
"Your secretary has quite the range of hobbies, Iceberg."
"A whip, no less. And those movements — she's trained." He tilted his head slightly. "You really do have an eye for talent."
Iceberg found himself momentarily at a loss for words.
After what he'd just witnessed, it was impossible for a man of his experience — president of the Galley-La Company, mayor of Water 7 — not to see the truth staring him in the face. His secretary's actions had been unmistakable. And Kaku, standing at the sidelines, had been behaving strangely for some time now.
His thoughts drifted to the World Government officials who had been hounding him without pause.
So it really does come down to Pluton after all.
Iceberg's expression hardened, his mind working quickly.
I never imagined they'd go this far — not just pressuring me openly, but planting people this close to me. Karifa. Kaku. Who else? How many more?
In an instant, the trust he had extended to those around him began to crack, suspicion spreading from somewhere deep in his chest.
"What's going on?!"
"What happened over there?!"
"Look — Miss Kalifa's been knocked down!"
"What?! Who did it?!"
"Mr. Kaku — someone's got him!"
The shipwrights from the nearby docks had heard the commotion and come running, gripping hammers, chisels, and whatever else was close at hand. When they saw the scene, the tools came up in unison, faces hard with fury, ready to charge.
"Everyone, stop!"
Iceberg's voice cut through the noise like a blade. He raised a hand, then turned to them with a commanding stare.
"Take the rest of the day off — all of you. Clear out of Dock 1. Now."
"What?!"
The workers exchanged baffled glances, the tension in the air telling them something had gone very wrong. But Iceberg's expression left no room for argument. One by one, tools were set down. One by one, the shipwrights filed out of the dock.
Lucci filed out with them, unhurried, his pace a beat slower than the rest — all while his sharp eyes continued to sweep the room behind him.
Nami, still standing guard over the money chests, watched the situation grow steadily more complicated. She leaned forward slightly and called out:
"Will — the letter of introduction. Show it to him."
That snapped Will back to it. He reached into his coat, produced a neatly folded letter, and handed it directly to Iceberg.
"A letter of introduction?"
Iceberg accepted it with a puzzled frown, unfolded it, and read. When he looked up again, something in his expression had eased.
"So Kokoro sent you."
"That explains why you came straight to me to buy a ship."
Most visitors to Water 7 browsed the individual yards. Nobody walked up to the company president with a purchase order. And Kokoro — stubborn, principled Kokoro, so much like their master Tom — would never put her name behind someone she hadn't judged worthy herself.
He could always confirm it by Den Den Mushi later.
The wariness in Iceberg's eyes dimmed, just slightly.
Then —
A weakness.
Lucci, still drifting toward the exit, eyes never truly leaving the room, caught it in an instant. His body vanished.
Swish —!
He reappeared mid-air beside Will in a heartbeat, extending a single finger and driving it forward with savage precision.
"Shigan!"
But when his finger connected with Will, it passed through — straight through, like punching smoke. The figure dissolved into a fading afterimage.
"Nani?!"
Lucci's eyes went wide. A surge of danger screamed through every instinct he had.
"Paper Arts: Reverse Kill —!"
Will hadn't been standing still at all. He'd rolled his weight sideways at the last possible moment, and now, riding the momentum of that lean, his fist came around in a fierce, heavy arc — aimed square at Lucci's chest.
"Damn it — too slow —!"
Lucci's eyes went feral. He dropped his voice to a guttural snarl:
"Tekkai: Utsugi —!!"
—Thud.
The blow landed dead center on Lucci's chest, but the impact bent outward strangely, deflected just enough to bleed off a portion of the force. Lucci let himself be carried back by it, flipped cleanly, and touched down in a composed landing.
His brow furrowed, just faintly. He hadn't fully absorbed that punch. The damage was real.
His tall hat tumbled off and hit the ground several feet away. The white pigeon that had been perched on his shoulder glided down after it, settled on the brim, and fixed its small eyes on the confrontation ahead as though intending to watch from there.
"Oh? A specialized deflection technique built on top of Tekkai, is it?"
Will flexed his fingers, feeling the rebound that had travelled through his knuckles. A light came into his eyes.
"Much more interesting than the woman who folded in one hit," he said, genuinely impressed. "You're in a different class entirely, I'll give you that."
It seemed a punch at that level was still a touch too gentle for Lucci.
"Lucci — even you —?!"
Iceberg's face had gone pale. He stared at the man he had known for years — diligent, skilled, dependable — with an expression that couldn't quite reconcile what his eyes were showing him.
Three of them. For years.
"Who are you people?! Are you actually from the World Government?!"
The fury beneath the words was undisguised.
Lucci, now fully composed, met his gaze without so much as a flicker.
"Correct. We are agents of CP9, operating under direct authority of the World Government."
"I suspect you already know why we've been stationed at your side all this time."
"We came for the blueprint to Pluton."
There was no point maintaining the pretense. He could see the other man had already pieced it together.
He paused, then added in an almost reasonable tone:
"You should trust the World Government, Iceberg. Surrendering the blueprint into our custody is the only option that guarantees its safety — and it would protect countless people from piracy besides."
Iceberg didn't even blink.
"I know exactly what the World Government is," he said, cold as iron. "That's precisely why I will never hand it to you."
"Hmph."
Lucci accepted this with a quiet snort. He had expected nothing else. After years of watching this man, he knew full well how immovable he was. That appeal had been a formality.
He let it go, and turned his full attention to Will.
Something lit behind his eyes — sharp, hungry.
"'Madman' Will. A bounty of seven hundred million Berries — and you've earned every bit of it." A slow smile began to form. "I've even heard you killed a CP9 operative. But let me tell you something: the gap between CP9 members is not small."
He reached up and ripped his suspenders free in one motion, shrugging off his white vest. The smile spread.
"And I am the strongest among them."
"It seems I can finally have my fill today."
Years undercover in Water 7. Years without a single opponent worth the effort. The craving for a real fight had built in his chest until it was nearly unbearable — and that, more than anything, was why he had stayed in CP9. The legal sanction to fight. To truly fight.
Lucci's body began to change.
Muscle layered over muscle. His frame expanded and surged upward, his trouser legs splitting at the seams as his proportions transformed entirely. When it was over, a humanoid leopard stood where the man had been — broad, ferocious, radiating raw physical power. Leopard-print hide stretched over a physique that dwarfed Will's considerably. A long tail swept back and forth behind him with slow, predatory ease.
"What — what is that?!"
Iceberg stumbled back several steps, eyes wide, his own limitations suddenly very clear to him.
Behind Will, Nami had already retreated to the far side of the dock's wooden railing, the money chests secured at her side, watching in careful silence.
Lucci rolled his fists closed. He could feel the power coursing through him — greater, fuller, more complete than before. A confident smile settled on his face.
He raised one hand and pointed.
"'Madman' Will." His voice rang out with absolute conviction. "Your strength is worthy of everything I've got."
The words had barely left his mouth before he vanished — faster now, noticeably faster than before.
"Hah — you've got some nerve, haven't you?"
Will couldn't help but grin. Something genuinely eager stirred behind his eyes.
"Then let's see what you're really made of, Lucci!"
Swish —!
Lucci materialized directly in front of him. Both hands came up at once, and he unleashed a relentless barrage of jabbing strikes, each one carrying the full weight of his transformed body behind it.
"Shigan: Madara —!!"
"Good!"
Will didn't step back. He raised both hands to meet it head-on, fingers blurring into a cascade of afterimages, his two index fingers driving forward in a torrent of counter-thrusts.
"Shigan: Myriad Stars —!!"
Clang — clang — clang — clang —!!!
A deafening cascade of metallic collisions rang through the dock.
Lucci's shock was immediate and genuine. The intelligence reports had mentioned Will's capabilities, but seeing it firsthand was something else entirely — the man was matching Shigan with Shigan, blocking every strike cleanly. And his fingers — there was something abnormal about them, something dense and unyielding, like striking reinforced metal. Pain was already radiating up from Lucci's own fingertips.
On the other side of the dock, Kaku saw his opening.
The moment the exchange between Will and Lucci erupted, he spun, drove his leg upward, and launched his attack at Eneru — who had already lowered his hand and was picking idly at his ear.
"Rankyaku —!!"
Whoosh —!
A pale crescent of pressurized air screamed from Kaku's leg and tore clean through Eneru's torso.
Kaku blinked.
Strange.
Then his eyes went wide.
Eneru's bisected body was glowing. Blue-white light poured from the cuts, electricity crackling and spitting freely from every wound, arcing through the air around him like a living thing.
"Tch. How tedious."
Eneru didn't particularly care about these small fry — but he wasn't about to stand there playing a target dummy either. He looked at Kaku with a half-lidded gaze, raised one finger, and murmured:
"Discharge."
Zzzzzt —!!
A bolt of blue lightning screamed from his fingertip with a sharp, tearing crack — and punched straight through Kaku's body.
For a single suspended second, Kaku felt as though he had grabbed a live wire with both hands. His entire body shook violently, locked in a spasm of burning agony, electricity dancing visibly across his skin.
When the light faded, he pitched forward — singed at the edges, trailing wisps of smoke, residual sparks still crawling across him. One hand hit the ground just in time, barely catching himself before he went completely flat. It was sheer force of will that kept him from blacking out entirely.
"Oh?"
Eneru's eyes opened a fraction wider. The corner of his mouth curved.
"Still conscious? Your CP9 types do have rather durable bodies."
Across the dock, Lucci had already disengaged from the exchange with Will and stepped back. His peripheral vision swept to Kaku, and something shifted behind his eyes.
Electricity. Another Devil Fruit user.
The picture wasn't good.
Kalifa had been face-down on the ground from the moment she took Will's punch, breathing hard, unable to rise. Kaku had just been dropped by a lightning bolt, and recovering any time soon looked unlikely. If both of these opponents turned on him simultaneously, even Lucci would be fighting from a disadvantaged position.
He raised both hands to a guard, mind already accelerating through possibilities, calculating.
There had to be a way out of this.
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