"Everyone, disperse immediately! Your actions are seriously obstructing public transportation and commercial activity in the city!"
The leading guard captain looked stern as he suddenly raised his rifle, pointing the muzzle toward the sky.
Bang! Bang!
Two sharp warning shots exploded into the sky, instantly drowning out the noise of the crowd.
The captain shouted sternly, "This is your final warning! Disband the demonstration immediately, or you will be forcibly arrested for disturbing public order!"
Faced with the guards' live ammunition, the demonstrators who had still been shouting moments ago began to stir uneasily. Fear appeared in many people's eyes, and their feet began involuntarily moving backward.
It seemed that this farce was about to be brought under control.
However, at this moment, a glint flashed through Crocodile's eyes as he sat in a corner nearby.
"Want to end it just like this? Heh! How could that work? The stage hasn't drawn blood yet..."
Crocodile bit down on his cigar. The middle finger of his left hand, hidden beneath his black coat, made an extremely subtle hook toward the air.
The Sand-Sand Fruit's power activated.
A thin stream of sand almost impossible to see with the naked eye silently moved along the ground, instantly wrapping itself around the wrist of a young guard at the very front of the crowd.
To everyone else, it looked as though the guard's hand had simply slipped under the scorching sun. In reality, an irresistible force of sand directly forced his rifle barrel downward.
BANG!
A gunshot far more muffled than the warning shots before suddenly erupted in the middle of the crowd.
Muzzle flash burst out, and a bullet tore through the air.
"Pfft!"
At the very front of the demonstration, a tall, heavily built man who was holding a banner and shouting in protest suddenly stiffened. A glaring splash of blood burst from his chest.
He lowered his head in disbelief and looked at the blood pouring from his chest. Then, with a "thud," he fell backward heavily into a pool of blood.
Silence.
Deathly silence covered the entire street.
The bustling marketplace from moments ago seemed to have even lost the sound of the wind.
"Murder... They killed someone!"
With a heart-wrenching scream, the crowd completely exploded.
"They really opened fire! Those royal lackeys shot at citizens!"
"Let's fight them!"
The blood instantly set everyone's last shred of reason ablaze.
The demonstrators, who had originally only wanted to vent their anger, fell into complete madness after seeing one of their companions lying in a pool of blood.
Some fled, while others went completely berserk.
With red eyes, they picked up stones and sticks from the roadside, and even grabbed iron pots from the vendors' stalls. Like an enraged herd of antelopes, they charged madly at the guards.
"No! Wait! We never ordered anyone to fire! It was an accidental discharge!"
The guard captain was also scared out of his wits and desperately tried to control the situation. The young guard whose rifle had been manipulated by the sand was even more frightened, collapsing onto the ground and crying that he had never pulled the trigger.
But how could the enraged crowd listen to their explanation?
BANG! BANG! BANG!
As the crowd crazily charged and surrounded them, some guards whose lives were threatened began firing wildly without following orders in their extreme panic.
The scene instantly turned into an extremely bloody melee.
But because of the difference in weapons between the two sides, it was completely a one-sided slaughter of civilians by the guards.
Screams, gunshots, and the sound of shattering glass rang throughout the street.
"A bunch of bastards!"
At this critical moment, amid the chaos of bloodshed, a roar like muffled thunder suddenly exploded above everyone's heads.
Luffy, who had still been sitting at the table and devouring grilled meat moments ago, had somehow climbed onto the top of the awning.
The boy's face had completely darkened. His straw hat was pulled low, and his eyes burned with fury.
He understood nothing about politics and knew nothing about schemes or conspiracies.
All he could see was one thing: soldiers carrying weapons were shooting at unarmed civilians.
"Luffy! Wait!"
Usopp only had time to shout once. In truth, he had no intention of stopping him either.
Some things didn't need him to do anything extra.
Wherever Luffy was, there would always be people watching.
And there were already people watching this scene now.
"Gum-Gum!"
Luffy's body suddenly leaned backward, and both arms stretched endlessly behind him, like two enormous slingshots pulled taut to their limit.
With a furious shout, he yelled, "Gatling Gun!"
A storm of fists accompanied by sharp sonic booms rained down from the sky.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The guards holding their rifles didn't even have time to react before they were blasted away by the sudden terrifying force, like leaves swept away by an autumn wind.
More than a dozen elite guards screamed as they crashed through the walls on both sides of the street. Their rifles were smashed into scrap along with them, and they lay scattered across the ground, completely losing their ability to fight.
In less than five seconds, the center of the conflict that had just been in complete chaos was forcibly cleared by Luffy in an utterly domineering manner.
Crocodile sat on a bench and took a light sip of chilled fruit juice.
Looking at the straw-hatted boy standing in the middle of the scene, being treated like a righteous hero by the surviving civilians around him, Crocodile's lips uncontrollably curled upward into a sinister smile of having achieved his scheme.
Playing the hero?
What a simple and useful idiot.
The melee in the street did not completely end because of Luffy's heroic entrance.
Among the royal guards who had been knocked down all over the ground by Luffy, the young guard whose gun had originally gone off because of Crocodile's sand was now clutching his broken arm in pain, struggling to move backward through the ruins.
Seven or eight demonstrators with bloodshot eyes approached the young guard with sinister smiles, like hyenas closing in on a drowning dog.
A bald, burly man who had just been waving a flag kicked the guard over, then picked up the rifle that was still smoking on the ground.
He coldly pressed the dark muzzle against the young guard's forehead.
At this moment, Luffy was surrounded by the demonstrators, who were cheering and praising him like a hero.
Given Luffy's short stature, he could not see what was happening outside the circle.
Otherwise, with his personality, there was absolutely no way he would allow what was about to happen.
"Don't... don't kill me! It really wasn't my fault! The gun went off by itself!"
The young guard cried in terror, constantly backing away.
"Go to hell with your accidental discharge!"
The bald man spat viciously. His face twisted with extreme anger.
"You royal lackeys have thrown your weight around for long enough. Today you dared to shoot at us in the middle of the street! Go to hell and repent to the brother you killed! Die!"
With that, the man's finger pressed hard against the trigger, just about to pull it.
However, at that very moment...
Buzz!
An indescribable and terrifying pressure, like heavy water pouring down from the heavens, suddenly descended without warning.
In an instant, it pressed down upon the entire street, even upon everyone throughout the city of Nanohana.
The air seemed to have been completely drained away at that moment.
The bald man's veins bulged across his forehead. He watched helplessly as his finger touched the trigger, while his mind frantically ordered him to fire.
But this pressure was like invisible shackles locking his muscles in place. He could not move even a millimeter.
It wasn't just him. The demonstrators who had still been cheering throughout the street, the guards who were crying out in pain, and even Crocodile, who had been secretly pleased with himself in the corner, were all like insects frozen in amber, unable to move at all.
"What is this?"
Crocodile's pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.
As a Logia user, he could not even turn his body into sand.
Just as everyone was horrified beyond words, a dazzling beam of heavenly light, as if a god had torn open the curtain of the sky, suddenly shot straight down into the middle of the blood-soaked street with a boom.
Then, within that heart-stopping pillar of light, a pair of enormous illusory white wings formed entirely from interwoven energy and radiance slowly unfolded above Nanohana City, their wingspan reaching hundreds of meters.
The clouds in the sky were forcibly swept away by the wings. The sight was almost enough to make everyone who witnessed it lose the ability to think.
"Phew..."
Amid the complete silence, only Sanji, hiding beneath the awning, continued to calmly smoke his cigarette.
Completely unaffected by the terrifying pressure, he even had the leisure to blow out a smoke ring and casually comment,
"Every time they make a grand entrance like this, it's always their style. They make such a huge spectacle that anyone who didn't know better would think a god was descending."
"Then why don't you have such a flashy entrance effect?"
Usopp beside him had also been stunned by the sacred sight filling the sky, his mouth hanging open. But after hearing Sanji's comment, he still couldn't resist lowering his voice and teasing him:
"I remember when you first came aboard our ship, you were just wearing an ordinary cook's uniform. Compared with the person up there now, that entrance really doesn't measure up!"
Of the entire Straw Hat crew, only Usopp, who had known Sanji for a long time, dared to joke with this young master at a time like this.
After all, they were all familiar with each other. Pretending not to have known each other in front of the others was merely to play along with Luffy's pirate game.
"Heh! I have no interest in making such an exaggerated and idiotic entrance. That kind of god-descending act is something only vain women would like."
Sanji flicked away his cigarette ash and shook his head disdainfully.
"But... she really is beautiful. And she gives off a feeling that's especially sacred and untouchable."
Nami held her hands against her chest and stared blankly at the sky, murmuring softly.
Along with Nami's voice, an extremely noble and slender figure stepped through the holy light that pierced the heavens and earth, slowly descending toward the ground from the center of the wings.
It was none other than the Queen of Arabasta... Jaygarcia Vivi.
At this moment, she was wearing the dark blue suit she had changed into in front of Titi.
In fact, ever since she had left Mary Geoise and come to this desert to take control of everything, she had never worn Arabasta's traditional clothing.
At the same time, she had never deliberately concealed her identity within the World Government.
In fact, the day she officially ascended the throne in Arabasta was also the day she joined the World Government's Legal Affairs Department.
At her coronation ceremony, she wore nothing more than an ordinary law enforcement uniform.
As time passed, she rose step by step from the most ordinary law enforcement uniform to the top, becoming the department head she was today.
The only thing that symbolized her royal identity was the Arabasta crown atop her head, reflecting a cold golden light beneath the sun.
"That outfit, and that scales insignia..."
Zoro's pupils contracted slightly. His hand subconsciously gripped the hilt at his waist as he said in a low voice,
"That is the World Government Legal Affairs Department's uniform, isn't it?"
Even a swordsman like him, who had only operated in the East Blue, knew just how terrifying that department was.
On the sea, if you offended the Marines, at worst you would be wanted. As long as you could escape the Marines' pursuit, it wasn't a particularly big problem.
But if you offended the World Government's Legal Affairs Department...
That terrifying department, with its reach everywhere, would find you no matter which corner of the four seas you fled to. Whether you went to the heavens or underground, they would find you and pass judgment on you.
"That's not all, green-haired kid..."
The bearded stall owner, who had just been hiding beneath the table, now poked half his head out despite the pressure. He looked at Vivi in the air with fanaticism and awe, his voice filled with immense pride:
"The one in the sky is Arabasta's dictator, the supreme Queen Vivi! But besides that identity, she's also the highest authority of the World Government's Legal Affairs Department, the department head."
"Department head of the Legal Affairs Department?"
This time, even Zoro was genuinely shocked.
No one had ever told him before that the queen they might have to oppose actually held a title capable of making everyone across the four seas tremble.
"Seriously? You guys sail around the sea and don't even know who Her Majesty Queen Vivi is?"
Nami covered her mouth exaggeratedly and couldn't help looking at Zoro like he was illiterate.
"Where have you been looking whenever you read the newspapers? Queen Vivi has been voted the world's second most desired perfect woman for three consecutive years. She's an extraordinary existence possessing power, beauty, and intelligence."
"Tch! I'm not a woman. Why would I care about some stupid popularity ranking like that?"
Zoro rolled his eyes.
"Huh? Then who's first? Princess Shirahoshi, because she's famous for her beauty?"
Usopp leaned over, his face full of curiosity.
"Of course it's Gion!"
Nami's eyes sparkled, "That lady used the sword in her hands to cut down countless S-class powerhouses and remains undefeated as the world's greatest swordswoman."
"In the eyes of countless women, she's practically been hyped up into the world's strongest. She's insanely cool, okay!"
"As for Princess Shirahoshi... she appears in front of ordinary people far too rarely. And whenever she makes a public appearance in the newspapers, she's always presented as an approachable goddess. She really can't be considered a representative of independent women."
"Shirahoshi... approachable? Pfft... Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Sanji was smoking at the time. Hearing those two words, he nearly choked to death, and the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
It was hard to imagine that Shirahoshi, known as the little demon king in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, could have such a glorious, dignified, and approachable image in the eyes of ordinary people outside.
That filter on their perception was just too ridiculous.
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