"Mom, how can you be like this?" Alice pouted her little mouth high, clearly very dissatisfied with her mother's hesitation.
How could she compete with her own daughter for a man?
Leonora, throwing caution to the wind, shouted, "Then go ahead and tell Nayuta, Alice. If that girl finds out, what do you think she will do?"
Hearing this, Alice and Erina also understood. Although Nayuta could delete people's memories, whether that girl would agree was really hard to say.
After all, she listened to no one except Makoto. And even with Makoto, if he made a request, that girl often demanded exorbitant prices in return.
If they really told Nayuta about this, Alice and Erina didn't dare imagine what would happen… would she mock them severely, or tell the whole ship about it?
Watching her daughter and niece's troubled expressions, Leonora snorted and said smugly: "So, let's each take a step back. Mom isn't going to compete with you, Alice. You already have enough competitors anyway."
Watching her inexplicably smug mother, Alice looked speechless, 'What is this all about?'
"Woof!" Just then, Pochita, following at their feet, barked. Leonora and the others looked up in the direction of Pochita's bark and saw that without realizing it, they had arrived at a ruin.
Erina remembered something and said, "Oh, when we asked for directions yesterday, a fisherman told us that the only special thing on this island is the ruins. It's said that this was once the territory of a vampire, who was later defeated by a god's messenger."
Alice and Leonora also looked at the ruins. The most striking among them was an abandoned, eerie, desolate church, which indeed had the flavor of a vampire's castle from a Western fantasy novel.
If it were just the three of them, Erina and the others would have turned and run. After all, girls are most afraid of places like this.
But with Pochita there, there was nothing to worry about.
The three walked into the abandoned church and were immediately drawn to a conspicuous fruit on the podium.
The fruit was shaped like a giant tomato, entirely purplish-red, with the characteristic patterns of a Devil Fruit on its surface.
"Is that... a Devil Fruit?" Alice's eyes lit up. The three women quickly stepped forward and gathered around the fruit to discuss it.
"I wonder what ability it has?"
"Maybe... eat it and see?"
"Don't be reckless. Let's take it back and look it up in a picture book."
None of the three chose to eat the Devil Fruit… after all, they knew that a person could only eat one Devil Fruit in their lifetime.
Once eaten, the ability was set and couldn't be changed. Incidentally, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was still in Makoto's hands... none of the women had chosen to eat it.
Because they all knew that once eaten, the ability was fixed. And after Makoto's explanation, they also knew that although the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was a rare Logia, it was the weakest of the Logia class.
If possible, they still wanted to eat a stronger fruit, even girls like Kei who had just started learning combat techniques.
"Then let's take it back for now," Alice said, reaching for the Devil Fruit.
Just then, Pochita showed a rather fierce expression, barked 'Woof', and transformed into Chainsaw Devil Form.
The chainsaws roared, and he swung his chainsaw in a sudden slash.
Before Alice and the others could react, a red flash suddenly rushed into the abandoned church, like a blood-red arrow, colliding with the chainsaw Pochita was swinging.
"Boom!" Half of the island shook violently. The large church, hit by the shockwave, rapidly collapsed.
This commotion immediately attracted the attention of Makoto and his group, still on the ship at the harbor.
Alice and the other two women were hit by the blast of the wind and raised their hands to protect their faces.
When the shock from the collision gradually subsided, the three women looked up and saw a middle-aged man, estimated to be around forty, with some white stubble on his face, a gaunt appearance, and looking like a gentleman, holding a red umbrella like a sword, its tip pressed against the chainsaw of Pochita in his Chainsaw Devil Form.
The man looked with interest at Pochita, who had blocked his attack, and said, "A dog that turned into a human? Is it a dog that ate a Human-Human Fruit, or a human that ate a Dog-Dog Fruit?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the man's expression changed. As if predicting it in advance, he withdrew his red umbrella and stepped back.
Pochita swung his blade in return, but missed. However, the sword energy he unleashed directly split the outer wall in two. The already crumbling church completely collapsed at this moment!
"Who is this guy?" Alice and the other two thought as they stared at the man. But before they could speak, the man had already introduced himself. "Patrick Redfield. That is my name."
The three women's expressions changed. But the man spoke again: "No need to be surprised, ladies. This is an ability I was born with."
As he spoke, Redfield raised his left hand, the one not holding the umbrella, pointing at the Devil Fruit in Alice's arms. "Please give me that Devil Fruit. You don't know its value."
"Patrick Redfield..." Erina repeated the name the man had given. A few seconds later, her expression changed slightly. "The Red Count with a bounty over one billion?"
Having been in this world for several months, they had of course looked through bounty posters and learned about the strong people in this world. At the very least, Erina and the others remembered those with bounties over one billion.
"Then we definitely can't give it to you," Alice said without hesitation. "A Devil Fruit coveted by a great pirate with a bounty over one billion must be pretty amazing, right?"
As she spoke, she hugged the large tomato-shaped Devil Fruit even tighter.
Redfield's face darkened. "In that case, don't blame me for being impolite."
Although the three women opposite him were all absolute beauties, one in a thousand, Redfield had no intention of going easy on them.
He had been born with special advanced Observation Haki, able to read people's hearts. Thus, he had witnessed the ugliness of human nature in various forms from a young age, and so had always acted alone on the seas.
He also had an instinctive disgust for the creature known as woman. After all, those 'fairies' in TikTok exist in any world.
With that, Redfield charged forward. He swung his red umbrella, unleashing a blood-red sword light.
This was his fighting style… primarily using the three types of Haki, a master swordsman using his umbrella as a sword.
However, Pochita was at least as fast as Redfield, if not faster. The two engaged in close-quarters combat with blades.
Redfield's strength went without saying… in the original work, Sengoku had commented that his strength was comparable to Whitebeard and Roger.
But the problem was, it also depended on who he was facing. Even without Makoto, Pochita was a top-tier Devil hailed as the [Hero of Hell]. Even without using his Black Chainsaw form, Redfield couldn't defeat him.
The more Redfield fought, the more shocked he became. He wondered what kind of identity this dog had, to possess such strength?
After several more exchanges, Redfield was completely at a disadvantage.
Redfield felt he couldn't go on like this. He also noticed that the three women behind Pochita had little combat ability, and his ultimate goal was the Devil Fruit, not defeating this dog in front of him.
With this in mind, Redfield changed his tactics. He distanced himself from Pochita. Then, with Conqueror's Haki Infusion, he swung his red umbrella with full force, unleashing a red sword wave that was at least as strong as the one Mihawk would use in the future Summit War to cut the iceberg.
Redfield's goal was simple… to force Pochita to protect the three women, then seize the opportunity to snatch the Devil Fruit from Alice's arms. He felt that with his full-power strike, no matter how strong that dog was, having to protect three people would inevitably create an opening, right?
Watching this powerful sword wave infused with Conqueror's Haki flying towards him, the eyes behind Pochita's chainsaw mask blinked.
Suddenly, the chainsaws in both his hands also emitted a blood-red arc. He swung his blade in return. Instantly, Redfield's sword pressure was split in two.
"Conqueror's Haki Infusion!?" Redfield was completely dumbfounded, 'Even a dog can use this technique?'
But what he didn't know was… during the time Makoto was training his three types of Haki, Pochita had been attached to Makoto's body. Whatever Makoto could do, Pochita could do. The two could be said to be one entity with two bodies.
Before Redfield could finish being astonished, he saw Pochita charging towards him. The wildly buzzing chainsaw stabbed straight into his abdomen.
Squelch—
The chainsaw pierced the Red Count's body, and blood splattered.
Meanwhile, over on the ship. Saeko, dressed very coolly and swinging a huge barbell, asked Makoto if something had happened and if they should go check it out.
Makoto said, "With Pochita there, no need to worry."
If it were Utaha or Reze protecting Erina and the others, then Makoto would have gone to check. But with Pochita… there was absolutely no need to worry. And right now, Makoto had his own people to deal with. He turned his head to look.
A ship, not inferior in size to the Otherworlder-Go, was sailing towards them. On the sail, a word was spelled out in English… Rocks.
Rocks D. Xebec!
The only normal person in the latter half of One Piece.