"Trash, trash..."
Nami's voice echoed like a demon's whisper, lingering in his ears.
But as a member of CP9, the usually proud Bruno had no strength to retort.
Just a few minutes!
Kaku and Kalifa had already collapsed unconscious, losing all combat ability.
Meanwhile, these two girls remained completely unharmed.
Now, with just himself left...
He couldn't win. There was no way he could win!
He had to escape!
Gritting his teeth against the searing pain in his chest, Bruno struggled to his feet and activated Shave.
Whoosh!
In a flash, he appeared before the fallen Kaku and Kalifa, reaching out to grab them both.
Yet at that very moment—
A blur flashed before his eyes. The blue-haired girl had somehow appeared right in front of him, smiling.
Shave!
Bruno's expression darkened further. This girl was also proficient in the Six Styles?!
"Hey."
Nojiko stood mere inches away, her lips curling into a grin. "Trying to save your friends at a time like this... aren't you being a bit too naive?"
Boom!
Another fist came crashing down!
In an instant, Bruno was sent flying backward, his back slamming hard against the wall. The impact of this punch was even more devastating. As he collapsed to the ground, his vision spun wildly, nearly knocking him unconscious.
No chance to save them at all.
One more hit like that, and he'd be done for.
Bruno clenched his teeth in frustration.
Sorry, Kaku! Kalifa!
With trembling hands, he pressed his right palm against the ground and activated the power of the Door-Door Fruit.
Air Door Opening!
Hum!
A square door suddenly swung open on the ground, revealing a strange, green-hued dimensional space. Bruno's body immediately plummeted into it, vanishing without a trace in the next instant.
The door snapped shut just as quickly, leaving the ground perfectly intact once more.
"Eh?!" Nami, who had been sitting cross-legged on the wall, widened her eyes in shock. "Where'd he go?"
"Gone."
Nojiko rushed to the spot where Bruno had disappeared, looking left and right with a frown. "No traces at all. How did he do that? A Devil Fruit ability?"
"It's the Paramecia-type Door-Door Fruit," Robin said, her brow slightly furrowed. "The user can create doors anywhere—in the air, on walls, or the ground—opening passages to other dimensional spaces. It's unpredictable... a troublesome ability indeed."
"Seriously? There's a cheat fruit like that?" Nami hopped down from the wall and kicked Kaku's long nose in annoyance. "Ugh, I wanted to show him my Devil Fruit powers too. Who knew he'd be such a coward..."
"Doesn't matter. These two are enough."
Nojiko glanced at the unconscious agents. "Let's take them with us and regroup with Kuina. Even if these CP9 agents aren't that strong, they're still lurking in the shadows while we're out in the open. We should be cautious and gather everyone first. Once these two wake up, we'll see if we can squeeze any information out of them—find out if there are more of their allies on this island."
"Hey!"
The window upstairs suddenly swung open, and a plump middle-aged woman stuck her head out, shouting angrily, "What's going on down there? Have you no sense of public decency? You're making a racket!"
Her eyes then landed on the cracked wall below, and she gaped in shock. "My wall…"
"Sorry about that, ma'am."
Nami immediately pulled out a small stack of bills from her wallet and tossed it up. "Here's 200,000 Berry. That should be more than enough to fix the wall. Consider the rest as our apology."
The woman caught the money, froze for a second, and then her anger instantly melted away as she beamed while counting the cash. "Ah, young people these days are so considerate!"
"Go on, go on! Have fun, tear the whole wall down if you want!"
With that, the woman shut the window and disappeared from sight.
Robin glanced at Nami and shook her head helplessly. "You gave too much."
Even in a big city like Water 7, repairing that wall wouldn't cost more than 60,000 or 70,000 Berry at most.
"It's just pocket change, no big deal!" Nami waved her hand dismissively, grinning. "We did cause trouble for them, after all. So what if we overpaid? Once we sell that treasure, we'll have hundreds of millions more Berry anyway."
Her brother's money was hers to spend.
Money was something they could always get more of—who cared about a measly couple hundred thousand Berry?
…
Meanwhile.
Hundreds of meters away, in a dimly lit alley.
Thud!
Bruno tumbled out of midair, landing hard on the ground. The searing pain radiating through his body forced a muffled groan from his lips.
"Dammit…"
Gritting his teeth, he clutched his wound, sweat beading on his forehead as he scanned his surroundings. Once he confirmed no one had noticed him, he quickly assessed his situation.
He couldn't return to his bar.
Even though he'd been wearing a mask earlier, his voice and build had likely given him away.
That left only one place to go.
"I have to warn Lucci—fast!"
Bruno staggered to his feet, clutching his chest as he limped deeper into the alley.
"Nico Robin… and her crew… just who the hell are these people?!"
…
Galley-La Company.
Inside a small, dust-covered room opposite the gates of Dock 1—a place long neglected and untouched by cleaning.
This had been the secret meeting base the CP9 agents purchased when they first infiltrated Water 7.
But after Bruno started running his bar, their discussions naturally shifted there, leaving this place abandoned.
Now.
Bruno, still masked, sat anxiously behind the table, waiting until the man finally arrived.
—Lucci pushed open the door, his ever-present white pigeon perched on his shoulder.
He looked no different from usual, still clad in his shipwright uniform, but his eyes were cold, his entire body exuding a dangerous aura.
"Hey, Bruno."
Lucci didn't speak—instead, the pigeon on his shoulder crossed its wings and chirped, "You look like hell."
Bruno gave a bitter laugh and removed his mask, revealing his pale, pained face. "Sorry, Lucci… the mission failed."
"What about Kaku and Kalifa?" The pigeon's gaze swept over the wound on his chest and abdomen, its brow furrowing slightly.
"Both captured."
Bruno gritted his teeth and said, "Those two girls... are strong, much stronger than we anticipated. I barely managed to escape thanks to my Devil Fruit ability."
Lucci remained silent for a moment before walking to the window, gazing down at the bustling shipyard below.
The white pigeon used its wing to pinch its chin, frowning at Bruno.
"Explain in detail."
Bruno nodded, took a deep breath, and recounted the events step by step.
From Robin's unusual reaction, to Nojiko shattering his Iron Body with a single punch, to the bizarre injuries on Kaku and Kalifa...
"Logia-type ability users?!"
Lucci finally stopped using ventriloquism. He turned around, a flicker of surprise flashing in his eyes. "And two of them appeared at once?"
"That's what they claimed. It's the only explanation for why even Kaku and Kalifa's martial arts couldn't lay a finger on them."
Bruno forced a bitter smile. "Moreover, they're familiar with the Six Styles—perhaps even more proficient than we are..."
Lucci tapped his fingers lightly against the windowsill, deep in thought.
"Nico Robin..." he murmured under his breath. "Since when did she gain such companions?"
"Lucci."
Bruno hesitated before speaking up. "What do we do now? I think... we might have provoked people we shouldn't have."
"Oh?"
Lucci glanced at him. "Are you scared?"
"Not of them!"
Bruno shook his head. "But if ordinary crew members are this strong, what kind of person must their Captain be? The more I think about it, the more unsettling it becomes. Behind them, there might be a presence we can't contend with."
"Is that so? Interesting... You're actually right about that."
Lucci remained expressionless as he pulled out a thick stack of bounty posters from his coat and tossed them over.
"These are all the bounties collected this year. The ones at the bottom seem to match the two you described. Take a look for yourself."
Bruno froze for a second before hurriedly flipping through them.
Soon enough, he found the two girls who had left a deep impression on him.
"Fist of Winter Nojiko – Bounty: 130,000,000 Berries."
"Orange-Haired Nami – Bounty: 80,000 Berries."
"So they really aren't ordinary..."
Bruno's expression darkened. "130 million Berries—that's already at the level of a Supernova Captain. And the other one has a bounty of 80,000... Wait, 80,000 Berries?!"
He widened his eyes and checked again. There were indeed only four zeros.
A fighter who could easily defeat Kalifa... had a bounty of just 80,000?
Bruno was stunned.
"This pirate crew also has a pet, said to be a Flame-Flame Fruit user, with a bounty of 100 million Berries."
Lucci shook his head slightly. "Now it seems the Navy's incompetent fools messed up the intel, causing a ridiculous misunderstanding."
That absurd?
Before Bruno could process it, Lucci spoke again, his tone calm.
"More importantly, you should see who their Captain is..."
He plucked a bounty poster from the stack with two fingers and placed it on top.
Bruno instinctively looked down—and his pupils shrank instantly.
"Blade Swordsman Xiano – Bounty: 1,000,000,000 Berries..."
"It's him!"
Bruno's throat tightened, his voice turning hoarse as he stared fixedly at the photo of the black-haired youth on the bounty poster, cold sweat beading on his forehead:
"So Nico Robin's new Captain... is this man?!!"
"Now you understand why that Devil Child dares to act so brazenly."
Lucci's gaze was shadowed, "With such an extraordinary figure backing her, forget about us CP9—even that mysterious and powerful organization, CP0, wouldn't dare provoke them lightly..."
"Then what should we do?"
Bruno was visibly shaken. "Snatching Nico Robin from such a monster is practically impossible. But Kaku and Kalifa are still in their hands. We can't just abandon them..."
"Those two are expendable."
Lucci's expression was icy, yet the corners of his lips curled into a savage grin. "Compared to that, Bruno, don't you think..."
"A Pirate worth a billion Berries... is worth killing!"
A chilling murderous intent spread, making the temperature in the secret chamber seem to drop.
"Huh?"
Bruno's jaw dropped as he looked up blankly, completely unprepared for Lucci's words.
"The two of us... go, go kill that Xiano?"
"Exactly."
Lucci's gaze was as sharp as a blade. He slowly rose to his feet, the white pigeon on his shoulder donning sunglasses with an air of grandeur.
"Don't forget, CP9's mission has never been limited to capturing Nico Robin or obtaining those blueprints."
His voice was low, carrying an undeniable pressure. "Any threat to the World Government, anyone who dares to challenge justice—they are all our targets."
That much was true.
But... wasn't this target a bit too ambitious?
Bruno swallowed hard. "Lucci, that's a monster with a billion-Berry bounty! Even the Warlords of the Sea can't touch him. How could we possibly—"
"Fool."
Lucci cut him off coldly, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes.
"Are we the same as those Pirates who rely solely on brute force?"
He raised a hand, tapping his temple lightly. "Remember, we're CP9's secret agents. We've never relied on head-on confrontations."
Bruno froze. "You mean..."
"As long as we find the right weakness, even the strongest prey will fall to the hunter's gun."
Lucci's gaze was frigid. "This man named Xiano is a Master Swordsman who shakes the world. For any Swordsman, their sword is as vital as life itself. But... what if he loses it?"
Bruno's eyes instinctively shifted to the bounty poster.
"See it? That tachi he never parts with."
Lucci stared into Bruno's eyes, enunciating each word clearly:
"Remember, that is your target."
"When we find him, if he's alone, I'll draw his attention first. Then, you'll use the Door-Door Fruit's power to snatch that sword from behind him and take it straight to the other side of the door."
"After that... it'll be my turn to go all out."
Lucci also glanced at the seemingly unimpressive youth on the bounty poster. He tilted his neck slightly, producing a series of cracking sounds like popping beans.
"A Master Swordsman without his sword is like a tiger with its fangs pulled out. No matter how skilled he may be, he cannot display his full potential."
"And I will use my unparalleled Martial Arts to make this guy realize just how vast the gap between us truly is... in a pure battle of physical prowess!"
Bruno still seemed hesitant.
Lucci was right—a Swordsman losing his weapon would undoubtedly suffer a significant drop in combat ability.
But... that was a monster with a bounty of one billion Berries!
"But... what if we fail?" Bruno couldn't help but ask. "Just the two of us might not be enough. Shouldn't we ask Spandam for supp—"
"There is no 'what if.'"
At the mention of that name, Lucci's expression twisted with disgust as he coldly cut him off. "Who do you think I am? Do you believe I'm as incompetent as the rest of you?"
A one-billion-Berry bounty was indeed impressive.
But he was no pushover either.
He was Rob Lucci!
The most ruthless killing weapon in CP9's history, the strongest Enies Lobby had seen in 800 years!!!
If he could eliminate such a major threat for the World Government...
His prestige in Enies Lobby would undoubtedly rise to new heights.
He might even be recalled, no longer burdened with the tedious task of searching for Pluton.
Instead, he could be directly promoted—breaking all norms—to become a member of that mysterious and formidable organization, CP0!
With this thought, Lucci's gaze grew even more resolute.
Once he had settled on a plan, his nature would never allow him to turn back!
To uphold justice...
Even if there were risks, they were utterly insignificant!
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