The agents of Baroque Works stared at the hole in the wall where Mr. 1 had disappeared. The strongest assassin under Crocodile had been taken down just like that.
Without even giving them time to mourn Mr. 1's death, the next one to rush into action was Mr. 4.
"Don't get full of yourself."
Beside him, Lassoo let out a strange cough.
A baseball shot from the dog-gun's mouth, tearing through the air with a sharp whistle.
It was not an ordinary ball.
The moment it approached Shiki, the fuse hidden inside sparked.
Mr. 4 slowly raised his bat, as if he had already seen the result.
"Home run."
Boom!
A violent explosion swallowed Shiki's position.
Flames and smoke rushed outward, shaking the already damaged hall. The agents hurriedly braced themselves, while broken glass and stone fragments scattered across the floor.
Mr. 4 stared blankly at the smoke for a moment.
Beside him, Miss Merry Christmas burst into laughter after witnessing such a ridiculous scene. He actually had not dodged. Maybe he had mistaken it for an ordinary ball.
"Hahaha! Three hundred million, my ass! No matter how high your bounty is, if you get blown up, you're still dead!"
But her laughter stopped in the next instant.
From within the smoke, a hand stretched out.
Mr. 4, who had been standing there, suddenly felt as if an invisible hand had grabbed him. His body was lifted off the ground and smashed straight into the floor. The only thing left visible was his legs, twitching for a while before finally going still.
Miss Doublefinger glanced at him and exhaled smoke.
"Useless."
Mr. 3's forehead was covered in cold sweat, but he forced himself to step forward.
"Galdino, Galdino… Don't be careless! Numbers are not everything in battle!"
Thick wax gushed from his arms and spread across the floor like a white tide. In an instant, it rose into countless pillars, forming a cage around Shiki.
"Candle Lock!"
The wax hardened faster than steel, closing in from every direction.
Mr. 3 pushed up his glasses and smiled sharply.
"No matter how strong you are, once my wax seals your body, you won't be able to move even a finger!"
Shiki looked at the wax walls surrounding him with curiosity. If he had to say which side character from Baroque Works had clutched the hardest and achieved the most with his Devil Fruit, it would be this guy.
Now he even wondered what had happened to those two giants in Little Garden. Did his arrival change anything? Well, now was not the time to think about that.
With that, he lightly tapped the wax surrounding him.
"Too bad… your tricks won't work on me."
Mr. 3's smile stiffened.
The next moment, all the wax pillars left the ground.
The entire cage rose into the air under Shiki's control, twisted around, and pointed every pillar back toward Mr. 3 like a field of spears.
Mr. 3's jaw dropped.
"Eh?"
Shiki waved his hand.
At his command, the wax spears shot forward.
"Waaaah!"
Mr. 3 screamed and threw himself to the ground.
The wax pillars pierced the wall behind him, trapping his hair, sleeves, and the lower half of his coat in place.
He trembled, unable to move. But before he could say anything, the last thing he saw was a sharp piece of wax less than an inch from his nose.
Splutch!
Shiki looked at the dead Mr. 3 and said calmly.
"You can stay there."
Then, without turning his head, he stretched one hand back and caught two figures who were trying to sneak up on him, freezing them in midair with his Fuwa Fuwa no Mi.
"You guys are nothing but withered leaves dancing in the wind, unable to stop a raging tempest!"
Miss Doublefinger and Miss Merry Christmas were hurled into the air and sent flying straight through the rooftop, leaving behind holes in the exact shape of their bodies.
Boom!
Bon Clay watched the scene, both hands pressed dramatically against his cheeks.
"Ahhh! How brutal! How cruel! How dazzling!"
Then his expression changed, and he leapt forward with a sharp spin.
"But that makes you even more worthy of being defeated by me!"
His swan coat fluttered as he danced across the broken floor with strange yet flexible movements.
"Okama Kenpo!"
His legs whipped out like blades.
"Memories of That Summer Day!"
The kick struck toward Shiki's face.
Shiki turned his head slightly.
The swan-shaped shoe passed by his cheek.
Bon Clay spun again, faster this time.
"Un, deux, trois!"
A rain of kicks came from every direction, each one carrying enough force to shatter stone.
Shiki stood in the center without moving his feet.
Every kick missed by the smallest possible distance.
Bon Clay's eyes sharpened.
Despite his ridiculous movements, he was not weak.
He could tell… this man was not merely fast. He was reading him. No matter what Bon Clay did, Shiki could see it coming before the attack even arrived.
"Then how about this!"
Bon Clay suddenly twisted his body and thrust his hand toward Shiki's face.
Before his fingertips could touch Shiki's cheek, his wrist was caught.
Bon Clay's expression changed.
Shiki looked at him with mild interest.
"Bon Clay, right? I still have some respect for you, but don't mistake that for having two lives… now buzz off."
"You…"
Bon Clay's eyes widened slightly.
The next instant, Shiki flicked Bon Clay's forehead with one finger.
Pa!
Bon Clay's entire body spun backward like a top, crashing through several chairs before slamming into the wall.
He slid down slowly.
Even then, one leg rose weakly into the air.
"What… a cruel… handsome man…"
Then he fainted. He was one of the few lucky ones Shiki held back against and did not directly kill. After all, Shiki had indeed been impressed by the character Bon Clay had displayed in the anime.
Almost all of Baroque Works' top agents had fallen in less than a minute.
Robin watched everything quietly from the side, unlike the other Baroque Works agents, without making a move.
Her smile remained on her lips, but her eyes flickered with an unusual light, as if she were thinking about making some kind of decision.
Crocodile, on the other hand, did not have that luxury. Seeing his forces taken down so easily, like trash, made his face darken.
His cigar had burned down between his fingers, but he did not seem to notice.
Shiki looked toward him as if he were looking at an interesting clown.
"So, Crocodile."
He stepped over the broken table and walked forward.
"You called all of them here just to show me this?"
Crocodile stared at him coldly, and a low laugh escaped his throat.
"Ku ha ha ha…"
"Shiki. You're even more arrogant than the reports said."
Sand slowly began to spill from his body. The power alone made the air in the hall grow dry.
"You broke into my casino, attacked my subordinates, and ruined my property!"
His golden hook gleamed.
"Do you understand what that means?!"
Shiki stopped a few steps away from him and gave him a playful smile.
"It means I saved you some time."
"Since I came all the way here, you don't need to crawl out yourself anymore… How about it? Are you moved?"
The veins near Crocodile's temple twitched.
Without warning, he struck.
"Desert Spada."
A blade of sand shot across the hall, cutting through the floor as it rushed toward Shiki, who was only a short distance away.
Wherever it passed, stone dried, cracked, and split apart.
Shiki raised one hand.
Advanced Armament Haki bloomed across his body, spreading outward like a repulsive force and scattering the blow away.
Boom!
Seeing his attack dealt with so easily, and sensing that force, Crocodile understood it without a doubt.
This pirate knew Haki.
Crocodile's expression became even more dangerous after that discovery. He instantly understood why Shiki had been confident enough to barge straight into his territory alone.
"So that's why you're so confident… To think a new pirate who just entered the Grand Line knows Haki."
Shiki rested one hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Not really."
His tone was casual.
"Haki is just one of the basics. I'm surprised you don't know it. Did you run away from the New World after realizing your talentless self couldn't even manifest Haki?"
Crocodile's face turned colder, and the veins on his forehead bulged as if they were about to burst.
The sand around him surged, and his entire body scattered into grains.
"Don't think knowing a little Haki makes you qualified to act recklessly in front of me."
His voice echoed from every direction.
"This is Alabasta."
Sand poured in through the broken walls, through the shattered ceiling, through every gap and crack. It gathered into a violent current, circling the room like a storm.
"Here, everything belongs to me."
The sandstorm swallowed Shiki.
Robin took a step back, her black hair swaying in the wind.
"Crocodile is getting serious…"
In the heart of the storm, Shiki's cloak fluttered.
The sand scraped against him from every direction like countless blades.
Yet he stood there calmly and answered by lifting one foot and stomping lightly.
Tap.
It looked insignificant.
Yet the sandstorm stopped.
Every grain of sand hung in the air, frozen as though time itself had been seized.
"Are you done? Is there anything else you can do?"
Crocodile's pupils shrank. Even the cigar fell from his mouth as his lips twitched wildly, his eyes bloodshot as he roared.
"Damn it, Shiki!!! What have you done?"
"Pathetic!"
Shiki did not answer his question. Instead, he shook his head in disappointment and slowly unsheathed his sword, which soon flashed with red lightning.
"Now I should be able to do it more perfectly…"
He muttered to himself, closing his eyes for a moment.
Then he opened them.
A red light flashed in his pupils as he swung his sword forward, not forgetting to rile Crocodile up at the same time.
"Your ability is troublesome against weaklings. But against someone who can touch you, you're just a man hiding behind sand."
"Divine Departure!"
Crocodile, who was surrounded by sand, only felt a huge black and red sword light appear directly in front of him.
It bypassed the sand as if it was not even there and struck across his body.
Ghhk!!
The sword slash nearly split him in half.
Crocodile's body was sent flying through the wall like a cannonball. Stone, wood, glass, and steel beams exploded in his wake as he smashed through several buildings behind Rain Dinners without stopping.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The entire town seemed to tremble.
People screamed and scattered through the streets as a black and red slash tore across Rainbase, leaving a long wound carved through the city itself.
The hero of Alabasta, the untouchable Warlord who had stood above the desert for years, crashed through one final building before his body finally dropped into the middle of a ruined street, his eyes turned white and blood leaking from his mouth.
For a moment, silence fell over the smoke-covered crater.
Then, something unexpected happened.
A laugh rang out.
Loud. Rough. Filled with exaggerated delight.
"Zehahaha…"
From within the smoke caused by Crocodile's crash, a large shadow appeared.
The figure walked slowly, his heavy boots stepping over broken stones.
He was a large man with a thick body, wild black hair under a black bandana, and a rough beard. His open white shirt revealed a hairy chest, and his grin was wide, uneven, and filled with a strange, greedy joy.
Behind him stood several others.
A muscular man with a championship belt across his waist laughed loudly, his arms crossed over his chest.
A tall, thin man wearing a strange hat held a long rifle in his hands, his eyes cold as he looked far into the distance.
A sickly man sat weakly on a pale horse, coughing as if he might drop dead at any moment.
Beside them, a pale man with a cane and a tall hat stood with an elegant smile, tapping the ground softly.
The smoke thinned, and their figures became clear.
Jesus Burgess.
Van Augur.
Doc Q and his horse, Stronger.
Laffitte.
And standing in front of them, laughing as though he had just discovered buried treasure, was Marshall D. Teach.
Blackbeard.
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