"BOOMMMMM!"
Crocodile was sent flying, slamming hard into the Sky Island's cloud terrain.
Like a human bulldozer, his body plowed through the island cloud, carving out a hundred-meter-long trench.
Thud!
He finally crashed into the pointed leather shoe of a statue—Doflamingo's.
That marked the end of Crocodile's short, humiliating flight.
The statue was the pinnacle of Smoothie's current mastery of her Float-Float Fruit—harder than the cloud-island by far.
The second impact made Crocodile cough up another mouthful of blood.
"C-Crocodile-sama… the Logia user… lost just like that?!"
Daz Bonez stood frozen, eyes wide, arms clutched over his head, knees trembling uncontrollably. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"He didn't even get a chance to turn into sand."
Lafitte pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his brow, practically slumped over his cane.
He hadn't fared any better.
"We lost the moment the fight began… the gap in strength is just too big…"
"No way! No way in hell! Crocodile-sama, please, get up!!!"
Daz Bonez screamed, completely unhinged.
How could the man who turned an island of spring into a desert kingdom with a single sandstorm lose so easily?
But Crocodile had already slipped into a baby-like slumber.
"Damn it! Stop yelling!"
With his sharp eyesight, Lafitte caught it—Bullet's ear twitched.
He regretted not skewering Daz Bonez earlier with his cane-sword and flying the hell out of there.
But as Murphy's Law would have it, the worst happened.
Bullet turned his head.
His blood-red eyes locked onto them.
Bullet was barely over seven meters tall—but in Lafitte and Daz Bonez's eyes, it felt like an ancient mountain was collapsing toward them.
They were about to be utterly consumed by the massive shadow looming over them.
The terror of their first encounter surged back into their minds.
"Whoa! Bullet! You can use Doffy's thing too?!"
Yamato's eyes sparkled like stars. She ran over excitedly, hoisting her kanabo as she came.
"Teach me!"
She knew how to sort of use that ability herself, but not the way Bullet and Doffy did. Hers was mostly just for scaring people.
"Yamato! Don't interrupt Hero Bullet-sama while he's executing the enemy!"
Monet was trailing behind her, doing everything she could to stop Yamato from interfering with the battlefield.
But under the Oni girl's monstrous strength, Monet was getting dragged helplessly across the ground.
"Aww, come on, Monet! I just wanna learn a bit—it won't take long!"
"You damn Oni brat! What the hell are you even doing here?!"
Bullet crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing the approaching brats.
Ever since the school textbooks were revised half a year ago and Bullet was glorified as a "hero," things had changed.
His violent clashes with Doflamingo—held biweekly—had started to mellow him out a little.
Doflamingo originally planned to make Bullet the Combat Division's PE instructor. On one hand, it would help Bullet connect with his humanity; on the other, it would toughen up the next generation of the Donquixote Family.
Unfortunately, Bullet's pride remained as high as ever. He refused to spar with what he considered "weaklings."
So Doflamingo had no choice but to keep their battles confined to the Combat Division for the benefit of the students.
Because of that, Bullet was no stranger to Yamato and the others.
"Hahaha! Doffy said we could go visit Fish-Man Island! We gotta head down from here, so we all came!"
Yamato even pointed toward the descent tunnel in the distance.
To her, an envoy mission to Fish-Man Island = a chance to explore a new island = playtime.
"I'm so sorry, Bullet-sama! We didn't mean to interrupt your mission!"
Monet scrambled to her feet and bowed ninety degrees.
Then she yanked Yamato by the waist, her shark-like teeth bared as she tried to pull her back.
From the ferocity on her face, she was clearly giving it everything she had.
But Yamato stood rooted to the spot, unmoved.
"You Oni brat… this isn't power you're ready to control."
Bullet spared a quick glance at the two nobodies he hadn't finished off yet.
Someone else was dealing with them now, so he turned his attention back to Yamato.
This power—he had only grasped it after enduring countless hardships.
This brat was still a long, long way off.
...
Meanwhile.
Now that Bullet's attention was elsewhere...
Lafitte and Daz Bonez, who had collapsed on the deck, let out a collective sigh of relief.
They exchanged glances.
Both saw the same thing in the other's eyes: pure panic.
And the same unspoken decision:
Run.
As for Crocodile?
He was on his own now.
They couldn't even protect themselves.
"Hoo~ Trying to run, are we?"
The unfamiliar voice came with a puff of smoke. Both men flinched and looked up.
An elegant man wearing sunglasses was slowly gliding toward them atop a sizzling, buzzing flying device.
"That won't do. Trespassing on Sky Island? That's ten years of forced labor."
Buffalo pulled out a freshly updated legal code and read it word for word.
"However, since you're Devil Fruit users… you're eligible for experimental subject status!"
It was only now that Lafitte and Daz Bonez realized—the "device" was actually a person.
They exchanged a look—no time for words.
Attack.
Lafitte's wings unfurled behind him as his figure blinked and reappeared behind Senor Pink.
His cane-sword was already unsheathed, lunging straight for the neck.
Daz Bonez drew his blade and slashed toward Buffalo's non-spinning head.
No matter what kind of powers they had, if you cut off the head, they die.
No probing, no testing—just one top and one bottom.
They had no time for a second chance.
Whoosh!
Just as the blade was about to land—
Senor Pink calmly blew a smoke ring, then finally activated his Swim-Swim Fruit.
Ripples shimmered through the air around him.
He swam through the atmosphere like a swordfish slicing through water—dodging cleanly upward and out of reach.
"A Devil Fruit user?"
Lafitte's wings flapped, pressing his hat tighter onto his head as he shot after him.
He saw Senor Pink spin around midair and pull out a sleek, mechanical-looking pistol from inside his coat.
"A gun?"
Lafitte blinked. He hadn't expected a firearm.
Toy weapons like that were only good for taking out sea trash—they couldn't even pierce his feathers.
He closed the distance fast, wings guarding his front just in case.
His other hand's cane-sword glowed with Armament Haki as he swung down with force.
After all, Devil Fruit users weren't immune to Haki.
BANG!
With the gunshot, blood exploded from his wings and shoulder.
Lafitte plummeted, like a broken-winged angel.
He twisted his head, staring at the blood pouring from his shoulder and feathers.
His sharp mind… couldn't compute.
Why was he bleeding?
He was sure that bullet and gun weren't coated in Haki.
That's why he hadn't used any to defend—he poured it all into his attack.
And yet… he got shot.
What was this sudden weakness washing over his whole body?
It felt just like when he passed through the Sea Prism Cloud earlier.
"…My Bird-Bird Fruit powers… are gone too."
Lafitte suddenly remembered a rare treasure from the seas—something tightly controlled by the World Government.
Seastone!
"Arrogant fool."
Senor Pink blew the smoke from his gun barrel, carefully stowing the weapon away.
Then he took one long, satisfying drag from his still-lit cigarette.
"The era has changed… low-level pirates."
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg