There was no cheering, no hurried attempt to clean himself up.
Only a pair of rolled-back eyes scanning the surroundings, as if searching for something.
His entire demeanor seemed to have changed into another person altogether.
If outsiders had been present, they would have gasped—not because Cavendish had broken free from the ice in under five minutes, but because the nobleman who treasured elegance and glory more than life itself now stood disheveled and unbothered by it.
That was completely contrary to anyone's image of Cavendish.
And yet, it was… normal.
Because of his dual personality—his own little secret, one even he himself barely understood.
Only one fact was certain: once he fell asleep, his second personality would awaken.
Though technically "asleep," that other self possessed strength far beyond Cavendish's waking form.
Or rather—
This was Cavendish's true power.
Whoosh!
A violent aura of killing intent erupted as Cavendish vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already on the deck of a Marine battleship.
His blank, white eyes swept across the frozen soldiers, and his rapier lifted ever so slightly.
A massacre was about to begin.
The Marines had no chance of resisting; they could only die in ignorance.
Everything unfolded just as Cavendish had expected.
His second personality would slaughter these Marines, satisfy its bloodlust, and then fall asleep—allowing him to awaken and take back control to continue his plans.
In his mind, he was certain he could snatch Ren from Vice Admiral Onigumo's grasp.
No solid reasoning—just confidence, and the resolve to risk his life for fame.
If luck turned against him and the second personality wasn't satisfied with the kill count here, it would surely be drawn toward the chaos at Mock Town.
Maybe it would massacre a group of pirates before sleeping again.
Or maybe it would charge into battle and get beaten half to death—or, if fortune favored him, swoop in for the spoils after others had done the fighting.
Either way, one thing was clear—
He was going to claim Ren's head!
Even the Marines couldn't protect him!
That was what the "White Horse Prince" had declared.
But just as the plan was unfolding perfectly in his mind, a streak of light blazed across the sky, trailing a long comet-like tail.
Nojiko watched Kuzan depart the sea area, as Ren had instructed her.
The admiral had noticed her and Vivi's presence, but merely looked up once before dismissing them.
"So this is what an Admiral is like? For Ren to be wary of him… just how strong is he?"
Nojiko felt a chill run down her spine. She was about to leave when Vivi suddenly warned,
"Big Sister Nojiko, behind us! Something's coming from the warship!"
Suspended in the air by the heat currents, Vivi had spotted it—something darting across the ocean's surface in flickering bursts of motion.
It was so fast it looked like it was blinking across the waves.
"That is…?"
Nojiko frowned, sensing a sharp, murderous aura locking onto both her and Vivi.
But before she could react, the figure below suddenly veered off course—
That blade-like killing intent redirected, fixing itself on Kuzan instead.
Clearly, compared to two drifting women high in the sky, Cavendish's second persona had chosen the more "satisfying" target.
Unfortunately for him, that wasn't exactly the wise choice.
Under Nojiko and Vivi's astonished gazes, the unfamiliar swordsman charged straight toward Kuzan—without hesitation or thought.
Kuzan blinked. "???"
He didn't know why, but it was probably revenge from some defeated pirate.
"That guy… Cavendish, the Supernova from this year?"
"This speed… it's at the level of Soru? Impressive, but compared to that other one… you're still too weak."
Kuzan stopped pedaling his bicycle and turned, raising his hand. A chilling wave of frost burst forth—small in scale, but frighteningly fast and unimaginably cold.
Whoosh!
Cavendish's figure vanished. Swordlight flared as he slashed at the freezing air in a blinding series of flashes.
No trick had ever managed to stop his blade before.
But in the blink of an eye, frost crept along the edge of his sword—and raced up his entire body at terrifying speed.
Cavendish's second persona's eyes widened. He recognized this freezing attack.
It was him—the same man who had unleashed that earlier cold wave!
He tried instinctively to retreat, but the sword he'd thrust out—and half his body along with it—was already frozen solid.
His speed dropped, which made the freezing spread faster. The faster it spread, the slower he became.
And in the end…
Only a frozen shadow remained, crashing into the sea below.
Splash!
Waves rose and fell.
Kuzan sighed, shook his head, and mounted his bicycle again, riding away.
Compared to the man in Mock Town, this Supernova was still far too immature.
High above, Nojiko and Vivi stared at each other in disbelief until Vivi finally blurted out,
"He rushed that fast… just to get frozen solid?"
"I don't know," Nojiko replied, her expression complicated. "Maybe he didn't even know who Kuzan was. Not everyone's like our captain—they can't just know everything without contact."
"True… Ren really is amazing. It's like he understands everything."
Vivi nodded, eyes shimmering with admiration.
She had always known Ren was powerful, but she'd never understood just how powerful.
Even during the Darwin Island incident, or the chaos at Nanohana, she'd been confused about the scope of his abilities.
It was only after Robin joined and shared more that Vivi began to grasp the true depth of Ren's strength.
As one of his own—
No matter what position she held in the crew, or what kind of enemy they faced—
There was never any need to fear unexpected danger.
Because almost every "unexpected" situation was already within Ren's control.
To enemies, that control manifested as pure terror.
That suffocating realization that no matter what they did, Ren had already foreseen it—guiding them unknowingly into a dead end from the very first encounter.
Only when defeat and death loomed did they finally understand what kind of monster they'd been facing.
That was the dread of becoming Ren's enemy.
Following such a captain gave Vivi a constant sense of safety—and the motivation to grow stronger for the sake of their crew.
If there was one thing that troubled her, it was the subtle feeling of being an outsider.
"Nami and Nojiko are basically family with Ren… Robin isn't, but she's rarely with us all the time anyway. Zoro and Urouge are men, so that doesn't even count. That just leaves me… I've always felt a bit apart from them. And after this mission… it feels even clearer."
As these thoughts turned over in her mind, Nojiko's voice interrupted her musings.
"Let's go down and check."
——
Meanwhile, Ren was tidying up the battlefield. The BUG Poké Ball's capture process would take a few more minutes, so he used the time to recover something else.
The Teleportation Device.
Yes—
The Teleportation Device.
It had played a critical role in his plan to confront Kuzan at Mock Town.
The so-called "endless stream of Rens" that Kuzan had seen… all thanks to it.
In truth, the whole plan wasn't complicated—just a clever exploitation of information asymmetry.
To negotiate effectively with a being as powerful as Kuzan, the first step was making him take you seriously.
Not just a casual, "Oh, you're the one who recruited Robin," but a genuine, "What a terrifying man" kind of impression.
The words of an unknown weakling, no matter how reasonable or logical, would sound like a frog croaking at the bottom of a well to someone like Kuzan.
But a heartfelt declaration from a name that echoed across the seas—even if it made little sense—would still make a powerhouse pause to think.
That difference in perceived importance was the natural gap between the strong and the insignificant.
Only by bridging that gap could Ren make Kuzan subconsciously acknowledge his words.
However, there was an obvious issue with the plan—
Facing Kuzan head-on to earn that recognition was impossible. Against Vice Admiral Onigumo, Ren could at least hold his own for hours.
But against Kuzan? He wouldn't even last five minutes.
So the only choice… was to take an unconventional path.
The perfect tool for that was the Space-Time: Creator card.
Before acting, Ren had activated Space-Time: Twelve Hours, summoning alternate versions of himself from other timelines.
Of course, due to missing time units, he couldn't summon all twelve.
The cost was astronomical.
For this operation, summoning just the first duplicate—his "Second Ren"—cost him time units measured in hours.
To maintain its existence for one hour required ten hours' worth of time energy.
The Third Ren required one hundred hours per hour of existence—and so on, each one exponentially costlier than the last.
Most critically, while Space-Time: Temporal Mist could steal the remaining lifespan of slain beings, its conversion efficiency was barely ten percent.
To summon all twelve Rens would require slaughtering nearly all of Ruluka Island—and even then, it might not be enough.
In short, the materials invested before weren't nearly enough to make a truly invincible card.
Still, its mere existence had opened a new door for him.
In total, six Rens had participated in the Mock Town operation.
Ren-1 served as bait and was the strongest configuration.Ren-2 eliminated Vice Admiral Onigumo.The remaining four adapted as needed to Kuzan's arrival.
Then came the second key component—
The Teleportation Device.
Following the mental blueprint he'd drafted, Ren had buried the device underground near Mock Town.
Once registered, it could teleport any marked organism back to the designated point within a certain range.
And though the Rens from different timelines existed simultaneously, they all shared the same registration data.
That was why Kuzan witnessed an endless series of "Rens" emerging from the exact same direction and location.
As for why they seemed unkillable—that was merely an illusion.
Ren's true reliance was the synergy between Space-Time: Creator and Translucent Body.
Indeed—
Every Ren from alternate timelines possessed his full arsenal of abilities.
And Translucent Body was the key.
To achieve the desired intimidation, being frozen was part of the plan.
Kuzan needed to believe he had dealt a lethal blow—to feel that his attack had truly landed.
So Ren took the initial impact intentionally, then used Space-Time: Twelve Hours to transfer the damage elsewhere, activating Translucent Body to evade the follow-up, and finally dismissed the summoned duplicates.
That sequence produced the impossible sight Kuzan had witnessed:
"An unkillable Ren."
Of course, the plan's most delicate act was faking seastone immunity.
The outside world's understanding of Ren was that his powers came from some kind of Devil Fruit—after all, in this world, most supernatural abilities did.
And all Devil Fruits shared one weakness: seastone.
By exploiting that cognitive bias, Ren had engineered Onigumo's devastating defeat.
Had Kuzan not intervened, the Vice Admiral would likely be dead.
Even so, Onigumo would probably still rationalize the "seastone immunity" as an error—thinking he'd hit a clone instead of the real body.
Some Devil Fruit constructs weren't affected by seastone; only contact with the user's true body could suppress their power completely.
But honestly, that was just limited thinking.
To the Marines, any bizarre ability was automatically categorized as a Devil Fruit power—and Devil Fruits must be countered by seastone.
The idea of a non-Devil Fruit user wielding such miraculous abilities was unthinkable.
Historically, the only recorded exceptions were the Lunarians, the so-called "flame-winged people."
Yet even they merely possessed a few special traits, incomparable to actual Devil Fruits.
Ren, however… was something else entirely.
Which meant that once he revealed this ability to Kuzan, it was only a matter of time before its true nature drew attention.
An Admiral wouldn't let his subordinates die over a misunderstanding.
Even if others didn't grasp the details, Kuzan would surely guide their thoughts in the right direction.
Once the Marines broke free of their cognitive blinders, the truth—no matter how impossible—would come to light.
After all, the sea's true ruling force wasn't just brute strength, but knowledge as well.
And that could create tremendous future trouble.
Devil Fruits defied nature, yes—but even they had weaknesses: seastone and the sea itself.
Ren, however, possessed an evolving power with a high ceiling… and seemingly no weakness at all.
It was inevitable that the great powers of the world would begin to take notice.
Fortunately, the plan had gone smoothly.
Kuzan's compromise had slowed the rate of exposure.
Until Ren completed his preparatory stages, his secret would remain safe.
And by the time it did come to light, his power would have grown so great that no one would dare challenge him.
Crack.
As Ren finished storing away the teleportation device, he heard a sharp mechanical sound.
The capture sequence had just completed.
A red-and-white sphere dropped onto the ground.
Ren walked over and picked it up. The holographic screen blinked to life.
{Captured – Cyborg Stussy}
{Extracting related data…}
{Converting biological form…}
{Forcing master-servant contract…}
{Data transformation in progress…}
Streams of cascading data flowed down like a digital waterfall—evidence that Ren had just gained another powerful card to play.
No matter what, Stussy was now sealed within the ball.
Next, it was time to see just how powerful this BUG Poké Ball truly was.
Ren opened the light screen and began examining the stats—of what was now labeled as a Pokémon named Stussy.
(End of Chapter)