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'Miss System, the fight against the World Pirates is about to begin. Aren't you going to give me a quest?' Zechs asked in his mind.
The last time he had been about to fight the small fleet led by Admiral Kong, he had received a quest. Although he had failed to complete every objective, the rewards he earned had still been extremely satisfying.
Now that he was facing the World Pirates, Zechs had been looking forward to receiving another one.
'Defeating the World Pirates should come with a pretty good reward, right?' he thought greedily.
But Miss System immediately poured cold water over his expectations, [There is no quest available at the moment.]
'Eh? Why not? Aren't you the one who gives me quests?' Zechs asked in surprise. He had always assumed Miss System was the one creating them.
[Host, quests are generated automatically. I only relay them. At the moment, there is no quest available.] Miss System replied.
'Well... that's disappointing,' Zechs thought with a sigh.
He had been hoping to gain something extra from this conflict with the World Pirates, but it seemed that would not happen.
He also wondered why he had not received a quest this time when he had received one during the previous battle against Kong.
'Is it because, compared to Linlin, the Byrnndi World… and his World Pirates barely matter to the overall plot of this world? Maybe even if something happens to them, it would not affect the canon or the larger story at all... Yeah, that's probably it...'
He was not completely certain, but it seemed like the most reasonable explanation.
'Can't be helped, I guess.' Shaking his head, he looked toward the three cadres of the World Pirates and the dozen or so subordinates they had brought with them.
Despite boarding the warship with the intention of fighting, they had not attacked immediately.
Instead, they were arguing amongst themselves. More specifically, Gairam and Sebastian were arguing with Nightin, who had stopped them from charging in and starting the fight.
Sebastian, who had already been preparing to swing his spiked mace, looked irritated at being stopped halfway and demanded with a frown, "What the hell, woman? Why are you stopping us?!!"
"Sebastian, have you forgotten why we came here?" Nightin scolded the Wotan angrily.
Sebastian frowned and shot back, "Isn't that exactly what I'm doing? Once I beat them all up, everything will be easy."
"No. First, we ask nicely," Nightin said firmly. "I'm sure they'll agree. And if they agree, then there won't be any need to fight."
Sebastian looked helpless at her words. He turned toward Gairam for support, but Gairam merely shrugged, lowered his hammer, and nodded. "Fine."
"Good boys," Nightin said with a satisfied smile.
"What exactly are you people going on about?" Pudding asked, tilting her head slightly. "Weren't you here to fight?"
She already held her gun ready to fire, but seeing the other side argue amongst themselves instead of attacking immediately left her somewhat confused.
Katakuri also remained silent and watched. The situation was completely under control, so there was no need to rush. He decided to listen first to what these three cadres of the World Pirates had to say.
Faced with Pudding's question, Nightin looked over the three of them once more. First, she looked at Pudding and showed little interest. Then she looked at Katakuri and blinked. 'Rugged... and older... not exactly a cutie... but not bad...'
A faint smile appeared on her face before she turned toward Zechs. The moment she saw him, her eyes almost turned into hearts, and her heart began pounding wildly. 'Ahh... he's really so handsome!!! The cutest guy I've ever seen...'
For a moment, Zechs' appearance left her so dazed that she forgot to speak entirely, greatly annoying Sebastian and Gairam.
"Woman... are you going to say something or not?" Sebastian snapped.
"Oh—r-right!" Nightin said quickly.
She wiped away the thin line of blood that had almost started running from her nose, causing Pudding to frown even more, as Nightin began, "Cutie—ahem—I mean, Asmodeus Zechs. I'm Nightin, doctor of the World Pirates, and... haa... I'm here to invite you to become mine— ahem! I mean, join the World Pirates and swear loyalty to Captain World. What do you think?"
'This old hag...!!!' Pudding narrowed her eyes. Although Nightin had tried to hide her true intentions, Zechs' appearance had clearly made her slip up.
'She's a fox trying to steal my Zechs-sama!'
It was already bad enough that the World Pirates had attacked them out of nowhere and underestimated them so badly. Now they even wanted Zechs to surrender to Byrnndi World. And on top of that, Nightin clearly did not have good intentions toward him.
How could Pudding not be angry? She was so furious and dissatisfied that she almost pulled the trigger and riddled the woman with bullets.
Before she could, however, she felt Zechs place a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
Then Zechs looked at Nightin. Instead of answering her invitation, he asked calmly, "You said you're a doctor?"
Nightin blinked, confused as to why he was asking this instead of responding to her offer, but she did not think too much about it and nodded, "That's right. I'm the doctor."
"Hm. I see..." Zechs hummed. Then he looked toward the brown-haired man carrying the double-sided hammer. "And you... If I'm not mistaken, you're the shipwright and engineer, right?"
Gairam laughed loudly, "Gairarara! I didn't expect my reputation to be so great that even the infamous Asmodeus Zechs had heard of my skills."
Although his words sounded modest, his tone was anything but. Pride practically dripped from his voice.
"Alright then," Zechs said after getting his answer. Then he turned to Katakuri and Pudding. "That woman, Nightin... and this guy, whatever his name is... don't kill them. As for the others... well, they don't matter."
Zechs' words instantly changed the expressions of the three cadres of the World Pirates, as well as the dozen crewmen behind them. Almost all of them immediately raised their weapons, ready to attack.
Pudding and Katakuri were no slower.
Pudding tightened her grip on her rifle, her finger on the trigger, while Katakuri lowered his trident, Mogura, into a fighting stance.
"Wait... stop... stop, all of you!" Nightin shouted, still trying to prevent a fight.
Then she hurriedly turned back toward Zechs. "Cutie, what are you doing? You should know you can't beat us, so I'm giving you an easy way out. Just surrender and become mine. Onee-san will take good care of you..."
"Zechs-sama... I don't like this old hag," Pudding said darkly.
"O-Old hag?!" Nightin froze in disbelief, and her expression immediately darkened.
Zechs ignored her completely and repeated, "Capture her and that engineer guy alive."
"Do you want to recruit them?" Katakuri asked.
"She is a doctor… and as for that engineer, he might prove to be useful in finding that," responded Zechs.
"I see… understood." Katakuri nodded.
"Tch... fine..." Pudding clicked her tongue, but still agreed.
With that, Zechs manifested his wings behind his back and, before anyone from the World Pirates could react, he flapped them once, immediately rising into the sky.
"Don't underestimate Byrnndi World," Katakuri called after him. "That guy isn't easy to deal with."
"Yeah... I know," Zechs replied.
He had no intention of underestimating the world. The Moa-Moa no Mi was an extremely powerful Devil Fruit, and Byrnndi World himself was no weakling either. He was the kind of opponent who would not go down easily.
Just because Byrnndi World had lost to Monkey D. Luffy, a version of Luffy who had not even properly mastered Armament Haki yet, did not mean World was weak.
In those theatrical scenarios, even East Blue-era Luffy dares to defeat absurd monsters like Garp, Roger, Rocks, or perhaps even Imu if they ever appeared as enemies. That was simply how those stories worked.
No matter how powerful his opponent was supposed to be, the theatrical version of Luffy would always somehow defeat them. Regardless of the difference in strength.
He had beaten Shiki before even learning Haki. Later, he defeated Zephyr, Douglas Bullet, Patrick Redfield, and others like them. Every one of those men was a monster. Yet against the theatrical version of Luffy, they all ended up being defeated.
Byrnndi World was much the same.
With the power of the Moa-Moa no Mi, which could increase things by up to a hundred times, World should at the very least be around the YC+ level. The concept of multiplying something a hundredfold was simply too absurd. And World itself was already physically powerful and possessed a good understanding of Haki.
Someone like that was absolutely not to be underestimated.
'But... against the current me, it shouldn't be a problem.' With this thought, Zechs flew straight toward World's pirate ship.
…
Nightin, Gairam, and Sebastian were all surprised when Zechs suddenly rose into the air and shot away like a streak of light, heading straight toward their pirate ship while completely ignoring them.
"This guy can fly?!" Gairam exclaimed. "What kind of Devil Fruit does he have?" Then he realised where Zechs was going. "He's heading for our ship... Does he want to fight Captain World?" A grin spread across his face. "Gairarara... he's looking for death."
Gairam did not believe Asmodeus Zechs stood even the slightest chance against their captain. In his eyes, Zechs was flying straight to his own death.
Nightin, however, immediately paled. "No... wait..."
She hurriedly leaned forward and shouted toward the flying streamer. "Cutie! Where are you going?! Don't go to our ship! You're not Captain World's opponent! He'll kill you!!!"
But Zechs did not slow down in the slightest, nor did he look back.
That only made Nightin even more anxious. She quickly turned toward the Wotan. "Sebastian, take me back to the ship! I need to make sure Captain World doesn't kill him!"
"I'm not interested in that," Sebastian replied flatly, not caring.
"Are you an idiot? Captain World is going to kill him!" Nightin shouted.
"Then that's his problem," Sebastian replied with a shrug. "We gave him the chance to surrender. If he still wants to throw his life away, that's on him."
"Shut up, Sebastian! I can't let that cutie get himself killed or hurt!!!" Nightin snapped.
She again demanded that Sebastian take her back to the ship, but the Wotan completely ignored her. That only made her more dissatisfied… But she was also helpless, and had only one option before her, "If you won't take me there... then..."
Without hesitation, she prepared to jump off the warship and into the sea so she could swim back herself. No matter what, she could not let such a cute guy die, or even get injured, at World's hands.
Gairam, already irritated by her behaviour, grabbed her arm. "Stop acting an idiot, Nightin. We still have enemies to deal with. Besides, even if you went back now, you'd already be too late."
"I don't care! There are only two of them, so you two can handle them yourselves! I care about my cutie!" Nightin shouted as she took another step toward the railing, fully prepared to jump into the sea if she had to.
Bang!
But at that moment, a gunshot rang out.
A bullet struck the deck exactly where Nightin had been about to place her foot. If not for her quick instincts and the speed with which she withdrew her feet, it would have hit her directly.
Having dodged the bullet, Nightin looked at the person who fired it. The culprit was naturally Pudding.
She looked at Nightin coldly and said, "My Zechs-sama doesn't need an old hag like you interfering in his business. So stay here quietly... unless you want me to ignore his orders and kill you."
Although Pudding knew she would definitely get her ass spanked as punishment for disobeying Zechs' orders if she killed Nightin, and the thought of that future genuinely scared her, it still felt more bearable than letting that fox continue targeting her master.
"Old hag?" Nightin's face darkened once again as she glared at her. "Girl... who exactly are you calling an old hag?"
"What, are you so old you've already got Alzheimer's?" Pudding snorted coldly. "Who else here is a woman besides the two of us? Obviously, I'm talking about you, old hag."
"That does it..." Nightin said as she began walking toward Pudding with a cold expression. "You're dead."
"Yeah? Then come on, old hag!!!" Pudding showed no fear at all and immediately pulled the trigger several times.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Hmph. Mere bullets... do you think they can do anything to me?" Nightin scoffed.
Using her Observation Haki, Nightin easily followed the bullets' trajectories and dodged them before wrapped her heels in Armament Haki, then charging toward Pudding and lashing out with a Haki infused kick.
But Pudding had already sensed her movement with her own Observation Haki and swiftly dodged.
"Running away?" Nightin taunted.
"Who's running away?" Pudding scoffed. At the same time, she pulled the trigger again.
Bang! Bang!
And so, a battle broke out between Pudding and Nightin.
…
Seeing Nightin and Pudding begin fighting, Gairam turned toward Katakuri on the other side of the ship. "I guess I should get started too..." he said as he raised his hammer.
But Sebastian immediately objected. "Hey! I want to fight him!!!"
"No, I'm the one fighting him!!!" Gairam shot back.
Neither of them wanted to give way, and the two immediately began arguing over who would fight the last remaining opponent.
The ordinary crewmen watching from behind could only look at one another helplessly, unsure what they were supposed to do.
Then, suddenly, an overwhelming pressure descended upon all of them.
It was so intense and suffocating that the weaker crewmen instantly foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the deck one after another like dominoes.
Gairam and Sebastian, who had still been arguing moments before, both froze and turned toward the source of that pressure.
It was Katakuri. He stood there silently with his trident in hand, looking at the two of them coldly.
"Conqueror's Haki..." Sebastian muttered. Cold sweat covered his back, and even his huge body trembled slightly.
"Just like Captain World..." Gairam stammered. Goosebumps rose all over his body as he suddenly found it difficult to breathe.
The pressure was overwhelming.
Gairam and Sebastian instantly realised that this Katakuri, the man they had been taking lightly and were planning to defeat easily, would not be easy to defeat.
In fact, the pressure was so great that both of them came to the same conclusion at the same time: Alone, neither of them was likely to be his opponent.
"Let's attack together," they said simultaneously.
"Yeah," Katakuri replied calmly as he lowered himself into a fighting stance. "Both of you, come at me together. It'll save time."
The two did not answer.
Instead, they immediately prepared to attack.
Sebastian, the false kelpfish Wotan, used his camouflage ability to blend into his surroundings and become invisible before silently moving toward Katakuri.
At the same time, Gairam slammed his hand against the deck, activating the power of his Devil Fruit with the intention of breaking that section of the ship into cubes, ruining Katakuri's footing, and creating an opening for Sebastian to attack.
"Pointless," Katakuri said. Having already seen the future, he touched the deck with his own hand before Gairam could finish and activated the awakened power of his Mochi-Mochi no Mi.
'Flowing Mochi.'
Instantly, the wooden deck transformed into mochi.
Gairam's power failed before it could activate properly, and instead the spreading mochi wrapped around his legs and arms.
At the same time, the mochi also spread toward the invisible Sebastian and trapped his feet as well.
"What... what is this?!" Gairam exclaimed in shock as the mochi wrapped around his fists and began coiling around his arms.
"What kind of Devil Fruit power is this?!" Sebastian shouted, unable to move with the sticky mochi trapping his legs.
"Is it over?" Katakuri murmured as he looked into the future. Then he shook his head. "It seems not..."
Sure enough, the next moment, the situation changed. Despite being trapped, neither Sebastian nor Gairam had any intention of admitting defeat so easily.
As the user of the Cube-Cube Fruit, Gairam could turn anything into cubes or break it apart into them. Originally, he had intended to shatter the deck, but now that the entire area had become mochi, that was no longer possible.
That did not mean he was helpless. Instead of using his power on the deck, he used his power on the mochi itself.
'Cube Break!'
The mochi wrapped around his arms and legs suddenly split apart into countless cubes, allowing him to break free.
Sebastian, meanwhile, had to use a different method.
He did not possess a Devil Fruit power that could free him so easily, but he was still a fishman.
Using his control over water, he gathered moisture from the air around his fist before suddenly blasting it toward the mochi restraining him.
The moment the water struck, the mochi softened and weakened, allowing Sebastian to tear himself free as well. "That worked?"
Of course, Sebastian was still surprised by the result. He had not known that water was Mochi's weakness, but he was not about to complain.
The moment he broke free, he swung his Haki-coated mace at Katakuri. "Now die, you bastard!!!"
"It's still useless," Katakuri replied calmly. He raised his trident coated in Haki and blocked the spiked mace head-on.
"Don't forget about me!!!" Gairam shouted as he charged in from the side with his two-faced hammer.
"Of course not," Katakuri answered. He moulded his body at the last moment, allowing Gairam's Haki-coated hammer to pass harmlessly through the opening he created. Then, after forcing Sebastian back with his trident, Katakuri spun and lashed out with a powerful whip kick at both of them at once.
Bang! Bang!
Both men managed to block, but Katakuri's strength still forced them backward across the deck and collide with the railing
Thud! Thud!
Yet that wasn't enough to defeat them, and the two, without hesitation, got back up and raised their weapons once more, then charged at him again.
Katakuri vs Gairam and Sebastian broke out.
…
Aboard the World Pirates' ship—
"Haaa?!" Byojack exclaimed in shock when he saw Asmodeus Zechs suddenly fly away from his own ship, leaving his two crewmates behind to deal with Nightin, Gairam, and Sabastian while he headed straight toward them.
World narrowed his eyes.
He was not only watching Zechs. He was also paying attention to Pudding fighting Nightin, and, more importantly, to Katakuri, who was soloing against Gairam and Sebastian.
He had felt the pressure Katakuri released earlier.
"That guy has Conqueror's Haki...? And it's this strong..." World muttered. "Could it be that he's actually the captain, not Asmodeus Zechs?"
As a Conqueror's Haki user himself, World found it hard to believe that someone with such an overwhelming presence would willingly serve under another person, especially under someone he considered weak.
World even began to suspect that Katakuri might be another prisoner who had escaped from Impel Down alongside Zechs.
After all, they knew almost nothing about him.
That meant Katakuri might have been some powerful figure who had been imprisoned in Impel Down years ago, only to finally escape and now command Asmodeus Zechs as his subordinate.
But regardless of whether Katakuri was another escaped prisoner or not, one thing was certain in World's mind. 'That guy is definitely more dangerous than Asmodeus Zechs.'
Even so, World was not afraid. If anything, he only found the situation more interesting.
"World... Asmodeus Zechs is almost here!!!" Byojack warned him.
"Don't worry," World replied. "That guy is just an appetizer. The real fight will be against that Katakuri fellow."
As he spoke, he grabbed Byojack and set him down on the deck. Then he looked toward Zechs, who was rapidly approaching the ship through the air, and shouted, "Asmodeus Zechs! Are you ready to surrender to me and become my subordinate?"
In response, Zechs drew the sword at his waist, coated it in Armament Haki, and shouted back, "Byrnndi World... are you ready to die?"
World narrowed his eyes. "So you've made your choice."
Since that was the case, he no longer wasted time with meaningless words. He wrapped his own arm in Armament Haki and then leapt off the ship.
"World, be careful!" Byojack shouted from behind. He did not know why, but he had a bad feeling.
"I know," World replied lightly.
Then, using Moonwalk, World stepped through the air several times, intercepting Zechs before he could reach the ship. "Boy... you made a mistake refusing my offer," he shouted. "Now... it's time to die!"
"You sure do talk a lot," Zechs replied with a shrug. "Did no one ever tell you that you're hella annoying? I bet you don't even have a girlfriend... or any woman at all."
World's lips twitched. Being called annoying was one thing, but the part about not having a girlfriend or a woman struck a nerve.
Technically... it was true. But that was not because he talked too much or was annoying.
Absolutely not. The real reason was simply that he had never cared about that sort of thing. If he wanted to, women would line up for him; he just didn't bother.
Even so, Zechs' words still hit where they hurt, because whatever the reason, the fact remained that he did not have a woman.
"That does it! You really are asking to die!" World roared. With an irritated expression, he also decided to use his Devil Fruit power.
'More-More Thirtyfold Speed!'
In an instant, his speed increased thirty times over. He flashed in front of Zechs and threw a punch at him.
But Zechs was not afraid in the slightest. Nor was he surprised by the speed World displayed. At the perfect moment, he swung his sword.
'Netori Slash!'
Clang!!!
BOOM!!!
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