Miss Valentine's golden hair stood on end, her delicate face contorted: "Unforgivable! You will pay the price for looking down on us!" She suddenly opened her parasol, about to unleash "10,000 Kilogram Press."
Mr.5 frantically blew his nose, ready to fire explosive boogers: "Die—"
"Hey, hey," Luffy suddenly stepped in front of everyone, his eyes under the straw hat sharpening, "Leave these two nobodies to me."
Before the two could react, a suffocating pressure suddenly erupted from Luffy!
In an instant,
The entire Going Merry trembled slightly, and the dust on the deck was stirred up by an invisible force, forming a small whirlwind.
"Conqueror's Haki!"
The Haki, as substantial as a hurricane, roared towards the two agents!
Mr.5's explosive hairstyle instantly stood poker straight, his sunglasses shattered with a 'snap'; Miss Valentine's golden hair all stood on end, and her parasol was torn to shreds.
"What... what is this..." Mr.5's pupils constricted to pinpricks, the muscles in his face twitching uncontrollably. He felt a thousand-pound weight pressing on his chest, and even breathing became difficult.
Miss Valentine directly knelt to the ground, her exquisite makeup ruined by cold sweat: "Im... impossible... What kind of ability is this..."
The two's faces turned pale at a visible speed, their eyeballs uncontrollably rolling upwards. Finally, with two 'thuds,' they collapsed onto the deck like two puddles of mud, completely unconscious.
Silence—
The deck was silent, with only the sound of the sea breeze rustling the sails.
"Woah oh ka ka....." Usopp was the first to break the silence, carefully poking the two unconscious figures with his toe, "Really... instantly knocked out?"
Chopper's blue nose twitched incessantly: "So... so amazing! He didn't even move his hands and..."
Zoro, arms crossed, uncharacteristically showed an expression of approval: "Not bad, even if they're just nobodies."
Nami's eyes were already sparkling as she pulled out her small notebook: "This ability is too practical! From now on, when we encounter cannon fodder, just let Luffy use Haki. It saves time and effort!"
Sanji blew out a smoke ring, shaking his head with a smile: "It seems the Captain is finally acting a bit like a Captain, but Ron is still calmer!"
Ron stepped forward and patted Luffy's shoulder: "Good control, it didn't affect anyone on the ship." He glanced at the unconscious agents, "But now we need to figure out how to wake them up; we still need them to lead the way."
Luffy had already reverted to his usual silly grin, rubbing his stomach and shouting: "Ah! I'm so hungry after fighting! Sanji, I want meat!"
Meanwhile, Usopp had already taken out the Sea Stone handcuffs he 'borrowed' from the Marine branch in Loguetown and cuffed one hand of each of them.
Just as everyone was discussing,
Nami suddenly pulled out the treasure map from her embrace, excitedly tugging Ron's sleeve: "Ron! Let's go dig for treasure!"
Her finger excitedly pointed to the sparkling dot on the map: "The treasure map has located the treasure! It's just..." Her voice suddenly hesitated, "This location looks like... I don't know where..."
Ron leaned closer to examine it, his brow gradually furrowing: "This is... Alabasta's Royal Plaza?"
He looked up and met Nami's gaze, both seeing confusion in the other's eyes, "We're going to dig for treasure in broad daylight? This is too..."
Nami bit her lower lip, her orange hair fluttering in the desert's hot wind: "So what do we do now?"
After thinking for a moment, she held up two fingers, "We have two choices now: one is to go directly to Rainbase to deal with Crocodile, and the other is to go to the Royal Capital to dig for treasure first."
Just as Ron was deep in thought, a groan came from the deck.
Mr.5 and Miss Valentine slowly regained consciousness. When they saw everyone gathered around them, they immediately clung to each other in terror as if they had seen a ghost.
"Im... impossible..." Mr.5's voice trembled violently, "We were... instantly defeated..."
Miss Valentine's face was ashen, her meticulously styled golden hair now a bird's nest: "What... what kind of monsters are you..."
Ron crouched down, looking directly into their eyes: "Crocodile is currently at the casino 'Rain Dinners' in Rainbase, right?"
Both of them trembled at his words, their pupils contracting violently. This subtle reaction said it all.
"Looks like I don't need to ask." Ron stood up, about to say he would let one of them go back to report, when Usopp suddenly screamed in terror from the crow's nest: "No, this is bad! Three Marine warships have appeared behind us!"
Everyone instantly rushed to the ship's rail. On the azure sea, three majestic warships were approaching at full speed, their seagull emblems at the bow gleaming in the sunlight.
"That's...!" Zoro narrowed his single eye, already recognizing the white-haired man standing at the bow of the ship.
"Smoker!" Nami cried out, "He actually chased us all the way to Alabasta!"
White Hunter Smoker stood on the warship's deck, cigar smoke swirling around him. The Jitte in his hand glinted coldly in the sunlight, his gaze as sharp as a hawk's, locked onto the Going Merry.
Luffy pushed down his straw hat, a excited smile on his face: "Wow! It's that smoky guy! Is he here to get beaten up? I can use Conqueror's Haki now."
Just as the Going Merry and the Marine warships were in a tense standoff, a scorching line of fire suddenly streaked across the sky. Everyone looked up to see a figure wearing an orange cowboy hat descending from the sky, treading on flames, landing steadily on the deck.
"Yo, Luffy! Ron!" Ace took off his hat, revealing a brilliant smile, his characteristic freckles particularly striking in the sunlight, "It's great to meet you here!"
"Ace!!" Luffy was so excited he turned into a rubber spring, pouncing directly at his brother, "How are you here?!"
Ace laughed as he caught Luffy, ruffling his straw hat: "If I hadn't met that blue-haired little girl, I might have missed you."
Ron's eyebrow twitched at his words: "Blue-haired little girl? Was it Vivi?" He quickly stepped forward, "You saw Vivi?"
"Ah, that's right." Ace nodded, casually patting out the still-burning flames on his shoulder, "She was being chased by a strange guy who could make candles. I happened to be passing by, so I saved her." He scratched his face a bit awkwardly, "But that candle ability user was too weak; I didn't even try very hard, and his candles just melted..."
"Melted???"
Everyone asked in unison, their faces filled with confusion.
Ace then realized, laughing heartily: "Ah, I forgot to introduce myself!"
His right hand 'whooshed' with a scorching flame, which he casually manipulated under everyone's astonished gazes,
"I am a Flame-Flame Human who ate the Flame-Flame Fruit, able to freely control fire."
....
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