Water 7. Junk Island Old Site.
The old shipyard, under Golden Lion's control, finally surfaced, and Nero quickly removed the spatial barrier, sitting down on the shipyard's land to rest.
Pain watched as the old shipyard, under Golden Lion's control, flew towards the Floating Island, but he didn't feel relieved; instead, his brows were tightly furrowed.
Because in Preta Path's vision, Admiral Kizaru and Three Vice Admirals had already appeared, and Pain knew that this major battle was inevitable.
Pain's biggest difficulty now was the long cooldown period after releasing "Super Chibaku Tensei"; at the very least, he wouldn't be able to use it again today.
Without the control of "Super Chibaku Tensei", Pain wasn't confident in defeating Kizaru, unless he released the Chakra Dragon of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, draining his Chakra for a decisive blow; otherwise, he could at most maintain a stalemate.
Given Kizaru's speed, Pain wasn't even sure if he could restrain Kizaru with Chibaku Tensei, so Pain hoped there would be no other complications in the upcoming battle.
Pain also didn't understand the strength of the three people Kizaru brought, so he had many concerns, but often things don't go as planned.
The more Pain hoped no other complications would arise, the more complications occurred.
In a dilapidated house a certain distance from Junk Island, Lucci, Reno, and Kaku had already encountered Kaido's subordinates, Apoo and Hawkins.
The three of them, Lucci, Reno, and Kaku, searched the outskirts of Junk Island and finally found Hawkins and Apoo at this location.
"Who are you...?"
"Why are you here...?"
Lucci and Kaku silently watched Hawkins and Apoo. Since they had just joined the Akatsuki Organization, Lucci and Kaku hadn't adapted to their current identities, so they gave the right to speak to Reno, and they wouldn't say much about how to act.
"You are from the Akatsuki Organization, aren't you...?"
"We are subordinates of Emperor Kaido..."
"He is Scratchmen Apoo..."
"I am Basil Hawkins..."
"Our purpose in being here is simple..."
"That is to recruit your Akatsuki Organization on behalf of Emperor Kaido..."
"Emperor Kaido greatly admires your Akatsuki Organization's leader."
Hawkins answered Reno's questions on behalf of both of them.
"Emperor Kaido...?"
"Recruit...?"
"Have you perhaps made a mistake...?"
"Our Akatsuki Organization will not accept any recruitment..."
"This is a place of trouble..."
"If the two of you have no other business, you may leave..."
Reno rejected Kaido's recruitment on behalf of Pain, because Reno understood Pain's goal, which was to destroy these Peak powers; how could he accept recruitment? Reno asking them to leave was just to avoid further complications.
After all, it was not yet time to make enemies on all sides; the Akatsuki Organization's wings were not yet fully grown and still needed to bide its time. Reno was very clear about the Akatsuki Organization's current situation.
"Kaido's recruitment is not so easy to refuse..."
"I advise you to inform your leader Pain..."
"If you miss this recruitment..."
"Then you will face a formidable enemy like Kaido..."
Hawkins hadn't met the main person, so he wouldn't give up. Even if he met the main person and was rejected by Pain, Hawkins would still find a way to take Pain away to complete his mission.
Although Hawkins understood that this possibility was very low, Hawkins was very persistent about Kaido's orders.
"I've already made my words very clear..."
"If you don't want to start a war now, please go back..."
"We will not fear any formidable enemy..."
"I don't want to say my answer a third time..."
Reno again refused on behalf of Pain, because Reno knew Pain's answer, so this kind of recruitment could be rejected without consultation.
"Is that so...?"
"I am very regretful about this answer..."
"Then..."
"We can only resort to other methods..."
Water Seven. Junk Island Old Site, East.
Oden and Konan had already encountered Burgess and Auger of the Blackbeard Pirates. Burgess and Auger were discovered by Konan's disguised sentry as they approached, so Konan brought Oden here to intercept them.
"This is a place of trouble..."
"No matter who you are..."
"You can leave now."
Konan calmly spoke, expelling the burly man Burgess and the tall, thin man Auger in front of her.
Oden didn't recognize these two. When Oden became famous, Burgess and Auger were probably still children, and Blackbeard had risen in recent years, so Oden hadn't paid much attention to Blackbeard.
"Akatsuki Organization...?"
"Wahahaha..."
"We were looking for you..."
"I didn't expect you to come to us..."
"Is the Ancient Weapon Pluton ready?"
"We are here to harvest..."
"Wuh... hahaha..."
Burgess was very excited. After four days of not seeing anyone from the Akatsuki Organization, he finally saw them today, and Burgess felt very lucky.
"This is fate!..."
Auger added an irrelevant remark.
"Konan..."
"It seems they're after us..."
"Oh well..."
"Let's finish this quickly..."
Oden spoke as if he were greeting Konan. As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately took action, with Konan following closely behind.
Water 7. Junk Island Old Site.
Junk Island had originally disappeared, but with the explosion of Chibaku Tensei, a large amount of rocks fell into the sea, forming new land.
It's just that this land became riddled with potholes, making it difficult for any patch of ground to remain intact.
"Yo...!"
"Akatsuki Organization leader Pain..."
"We meet again, huh...?"
"What are you busy with...?"
Kizaru and the Three Vice Admirals ignored the falling rocks in the air and stood opposite Pain, taunting him.
Pain really disliked Kizaru's way of speaking. If possible, the first Admiral he wanted to kill was Kizaru.
But now, with the strength of both sides unknown, Pain could only take it one step at a time and see the situation.
"Admiral Kizaru..."
"Have you been waiting for me on the island all this time?"
Although Pain understood that too much commotion would attract the World Government's attention, he hadn't expected Kizaru and the others to arrive so quickly.
The original plan was to retreat as quickly as possible after securing the old shipyard, so even if the World Government discovered the commotion and rushed over, it would be too late.
But the current situation was very different from what he had imagined, and Reno's people and Konan's group hadn't appeared either. Pain suspected that they had also encountered enemies.
"Not really..."
"We were sleeping soundly at Iceberg's Mansion..."
"But you woke us up..."
"Are you planning to flee in disarray again, just like last time?"
"Then hurry up..."
"Otherwise, once we make our move, you won't have a chance to escape, you know."
Kizaru was actually a very arrogant person, but every time he faced an enemy, he acted casually and feigned fear. In terms of common understanding, he was too good at putting on an act.
Pain was very disgusted by such an enemy and wasn't going to say anything more to Kizaru. While Pain and Kizaru were talking, Animal Path, controlled by Pain, had already invisibly arrived beside Pain.
As soon as Animal Path used Summoning Jutsu, all Six Paths appeared out of thin air after a puff of white smoke. Golden Lion, after controlling the old shipyard to fly to the Floating Island, also brought Nero to Pain's side.
Kizaru and the others hadn't seen Nero before, so they didn't know the status of CP0 and all thought that everyone in CP0 had died in Pain's attack on Enies Lobby.
Now, as soon as Golden Lion appeared with Nero, even though Nero had changed clothes, Momousagi recognized him immediately.
"Nero...?"
"What do you mean by this...?"
"Are you...!"
Momousagi thought disbelievingly, but then found it incredible. In the end, Momousagi could only directly assume that Nero had been assigned an undercover mission by Akainu.
As soon as Momousagi thought of this, she cooperatively cursed Nero as a traitor, and also gave Onigumo and Kizaru a look, meaning for them to cooperate.
Onigumo and the others were puzzled, but under Momousagi's "hint," they understood her meaning and cooperatively cursed Nero.
This scene instantly left Nero utterly stunned and speechless.
Nero had already guessed what Momousagi and the others' actions meant, so he chose to remain silent, effectively "defaulting" to Momousagi's idea.
Pain controlled the Six Paths to attack first, targeting Kizaru and Onigumo.
Golden Lion also chose a target, which was Momousagi.
The remaining Nero and Smoker were directly paired up for a battle.
All three battlefields erupted simultaneously; the great war... was imminent!
To be continued...
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