Chapter 148: An Encounter with Kaido
Disappointment.
Deep disappointment.
This was the only emotion Shane felt at this moment.
At first, he had been looking forward to this fight.
Although Lucci had not yet mastered the two types of Haki, that was fine. He could just not use it either. Garp had done the same thing back in the Goa Kingdom.
Restricting Haki and fighting with just physical arts, fist against fist, could still be a thrilling duel.
But unfortunately…
Lucci was too weak.
Even when he stood still and let him attack, he couldn't break his defense.
This man, who in his memories had been so imposing and had even seemed more intimidating than some of the Warlords…
now, to him, taking him down was no different than taking down Nami.
"Now, it's my turn,"
Shane said calmly. "You've hit me so many times. It's only fair that I hit you back once, right?"
"If you can take this punch, you live."
"If you can't, you die."
"After all…" Shane looked down at Lucci, his eyes full of mockery, "…the weak have no right to live. Isn't that what you believe in?"
Before infiltrating Water 7, Lucci had already spilled the blood of countless innocents, far more than most villains.
When he was only thirteen, a small, weak affiliated nation had been in crisis due to a pirate invasion. All five hundred of its soldiers had been defeated, and they had had to send an emergency request for help to the World Government.
Lucci, who had been sent as reinforcements, had ignored the pirates and had instead brutally slaughtered all five hundred of the soldiers, leaving no survivors.
The reason was simple.
He felt that the weakness of those five hundred soldiers made them unworthy of their duty, unworthy of living in this world.
For a person like that…
The other CP9 agents were one thing. If they didn't come looking for trouble, Shane couldn't be bothered with them.
But Lucci, he had no reason to show mercy.
In the next instant, Shane deactivated his "Paper Art: Martial Body" form.
CRACK!
His figure instantly swelled at an incredible speed, his loose clothes tearing.
With a ripping sound, the handsome young man was gone.
In his place stood an absolute monster.
A 4.5-meter-tall body, as imposing as a mountain, his corded muscles like forged steel, his veins bulging and writhing under his skin like living things.
The moonlight was completely blocked, and a shadow as heavy as an iron curtain fell, bringing with it a suffocating, terrifying pressure.
Lucci stared up at the massive figure before him, his lips trembling, his face pale.
So this is his true form?!!
Why didn't he show it earlier?! Why did he pretend to be a young man?!
If he had known this from the start… how could he have possibly underestimated a monster's physique like this!
"Oh? Have I grown a little taller?"
Shane ignored Lucci. He looked down at his own body and grinned, his voice low.
"My weight… it seems to be over a ton now."
He slowly clenched his fist, and his knuckles cracked like thunder. Even the air around him was compressed into visible ripples.
"Good, I'm used to it now. Get ready to take my punch, Lucci."
Shane nonchalantly reached out a massive hand, grabbed Lucci's head as if it were a ping-pong ball, and tossed him into the air.
Before he could even react, his body was already a hundred meters in the air. He began to fall, and in his vision, Shane, below, had clenched his fist and was looking up at him with a savage grin.
BOOM—!!!
Shane's fist shot out.
He had no intention of using a Six Powers secret art, let alone a trump card like the Spear of Elbaf.
Lucci wasn't worthy.
No fancy techniques, no Haki infusion. Just a simple, ordinary punch, a pure explosion of power.
But even so!
The shockwave from his fist compressing the air exploded outward, instantly tearing up the ground in a radius of dozens of meters. The terrifying sonic boom even shattered all the glass in Dock One.
Dammit, dammit, dammit!
"Iron Body!"
Feeling the terrifying force, Lucci's face contorted in a mask of desperation.
At the same time, his body quickly completed its beast transformation, turning into a full leopard.
Although he knew there was little hope of blocking it, he had to try!
Squeak~
Just as the force of the punch was about to swallow him, a幽绿色 door suddenly opened beneath him.
"Air Door!!!"
Blueno's figure appeared from the doorway, his arms crossed in front of Lucci, and he also gritted his teeth and activated his Iron Body.
"Blueno…" Lucci's eyes widened in surprise.
BOOM—!!!
With a deafening explosion, Blueno's Iron Body didn't even last half a second before it was torn to shreds by the shockwave like a piece of cloth.
His chest immediately caved in, the sound of his bones shattering clearly audible. Blood sprayed from his mouth, nose, and ears, and he was sent flying like a broken kite.
The 幽绿色 door was even more fragile.
Under the violent shockwave, it shattered like a piece of glass, dissolving into a shower of green light.
And the remaining force of the shockwave, passing through the green light, slammed into Lucci.
THUMP!
With a dull thud!
Although Blueno and his door had blocked most of the impact, the remaining terrifying force was still enough to instantly shatter his leopard form's defense.
After a moment's hesitation in the air, his body fell limply to the ground, creating a spiderweb of cracks.
The dust and smoke rose.
"Blueno…"
Lucci struggled to turn his head, searching for Blueno, blood pouring from the corner of his mouth.
Even though Blueno had taken the brunt of the punch for him, he had still been sent back to his human form, all his bones shattered, his internal organs as if they had been rearranged.
He soon found Blueno.
His comrade, who had just sacrificed himself to save him, was now lying a few meters away.
Having taken the full force of the impact, he was in an even more pathetic state, his body a bloody mess, his aura fading. He was clearly not going to make it.
"L-Lucci…"
Blueno's gaze met his. He shakily raised a hand and drew a door on the ground. "While… while I still have some breath left, hurry and get in and escape! If I die, my ability will disappear…"
Escape?
"Cough…" Lucci coughed up a mouthful of blood, his gaze vacant as he looked at the doorway.
"Escape…?"
He suddenly turned his head and looked up at the night sky, a low, hoarse laugh escaping his lips.
"I can escape… but where can my heart and my will escape to?"
Blueno was taken aback.
He had never seen Lucci with such an expression. His usually cold, confident eyes were now filled with self-loathing and despair.
"I've lost… didn't you see? I've lost, completely…"
Lucci's voice grew softer and softer.
He raised his right arm and looked at his trembling hands. The index finger that Shane had torn off, now that he no longer had the stamina to use Life Return, was bleeding again.
"The strongest genius in 800 years of CP9… the pinnacle of the physical arts… it's all a joke…"
His voice suddenly rose, and he began to laugh hysterically, a crazed look on his face.
"A JOKE!!!"
He had used every trump card he had, and he still couldn't even leave a scratch on his opponent!
And his opponent, with a casual, ordinary punch, had been able to push him to the brink of death!
And in terms of age, he was almost thirty, and his opponent was only eighteen… how could such a massive, chasm-like gap not make one's spirit shatter with despair?!
THUMP!
A fist suddenly slammed into his face, and Lucci's crazed laughter was cut short.
Blueno, in his last moments, had struggled to his side and grabbed him by the collar, his voice raspy. "Lucci! You bastard! Don't forget, my life was given for yours! You don't have the right to decide whether you live or die!"
"To lose to a monster like that, isn't that to be expected?! Pull yourself together! Don't see it as an unacceptable shame!"
"Go, now! As long as you're alive… there's still a chance!"
Lucci stared blankly at Blueno, the despair in his eyes not yet faded.
"A chance?"
he said with a bitter laugh. "That monster… how can I possibly…"
"Then get stronger!"
Blueno coughed up a mouthful of blood, but he still stared at him. "Didn't you always say… that the weak have no right to live?"
"So what does that make you, giving up like this?!"
Lucci's body suddenly trembled.
That's right…
Physical weakness is not to be feared. The sinking of the will is. If even he gives up, then what's the difference between him and the "weak" he has executed with his own hands?
He gritted his teeth and struggled to push himself up, his gaze refocusing.
"Blueno…"
"Less talk… just go!"
Thump, thump, thump.
Shane's footsteps came from the distance.
They were unhurried, but with every step, it was as if they were landing in the space between heartbeats, a terrifying, soul-chilling sound, like the tolling of a death knell.
He's coming…
That monster of a man!
Blueno's face was pale, and his body trembled, but he used the last of his strength to push the doorway in front of Lucci. "If you don't go now, it'll be too late, Lucci! Hurry!"
"The reason I saved you was because I wanted to ask you to escape and find a way to save Kaku and Kalifa from those girls! Among all of us, you're the only one who can do it…"
Lucci was finally moved.
He looked deeply at Blueno, then said no more. He dragged his broken body and struggled to crawl into the doorway.
However, just as Lucci was about to crawl through the doorway—
"Wororororo~! Such a powerful aura! There's no mistaking it! I've finally found you, you brat Shane!!!"
A hearty, triumphant laugh suddenly came from the night sky.
BOOM!!!
In the next second, a massive black shadow fell from the sky like a meteorite and, with a terrifying force, crashed down between the two of them!
In an instant, the ground cracked and exploded, and a terrifying shockwave swept out in all directions.
Lucci and Blueno's bodies were instantly crushed to a pulp by the immense force, not even having time to scream.
And the 幽绿色 door, because its user had died, instantly vanished.
Whoosh…
The dust gradually settled.
A man as burly as a demon god slowly stood up.
The newcomer had long, black hair, a pair of ferocious long horns on his head, a bare upper body covered in scars, and a giant kanabo on his back. In his right hand, he held a liquor gourd, and he was chugging it down.
"Hmm?"
Shane had been yawning. He had no interest in the bond between the CP9 agents and had been about to finish off Lucci.
But then…
This pleasant surprise!
Looking at the big guy who was chugging down liquor, "Hey, hey, hey, isn't that…"
His previously indifferent expression instantly lit up, and his pupils burned with a fierce fighting spirit. He slowly grinned, and his smile grew wider and wider, finally turning into a wild laugh. "So you really found me? It seems both of our luck is pretty good!!!"
…
Outside the massive iron gate of Dock One, more and more Bulls were gathering. The citizens who had just arrived had witnessed the scene of the demon-like figure descending from the sky.
They were all stunned.
"Hey, am I seeing things?"
"That guy, is that… Kaido?!"
In the crowd, someone was the first to recognize the massive figure, his voice trembling.
"The Kaido who rules the seas like an emperor, who commands the Beast Pirates?!!"
"The Four Emperors… what is one of the Four Emperors doing here?!"
Fear spread like a plague, and the previously noisy waterway was instantly plunged into a dead silence.
The onlookers' faces were pale. Some even collapsed to the ground, their teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"R-Run!!!"
Someone shrieked, and the crowd instantly broke, everyone driving their Bulls and frantically turning to flee. The waterway became a chaotic mess, the screams echoing in the air.
"It's Kaido! It's really Kaido!"
"Shouldn't a big shot like that be in the New World?! What is he doing in Water 7?!"
"We're doomed! The Marines?! The World Government?! Someone save us!"
The desperate cries echoed in the empty space.
But Kaido didn't care. He was used to all of this. After downing the liquor gourd, he let out a satisfied burp and looked up at his opponent.
In the moonlight, when he got a clear look at Shane's face, Kaido was taken aback, a look of confusion on his face. "Did I get the wrong person again?"
He had sensed an incredibly powerful aura in the air and had come down.
But the person before him didn't match the description at all!
But… there's another powerhouse like this in the first half of the Grand Line?
Maybe he can try to recruit this one too!
"What do you mean, 'wrong person,' Kaido?!"
Shane clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking. He couldn't help but laugh heartily. "The real deal is standing right in front of you, and you don't even recognize me? Weren't you just shouting my name?"
"You're Shane?"
Kaido frowned. He took a wrinkled wanted poster from his coat and held it up, comparing it to Shane's face.
He looked suspicious.
"This is you?"
The photo on the wanted poster was of a handsome young man with a sword on his back.
But the man before him was a burly, muscular man who looked nothing like a swordsman.
"That's me,"
Shane nodded.
"Who are you trying to fool?! You don't look anything alike!"
Kaido crumpled the wanted poster into a ball and slammed it on the ground, roaring, "Do you think I'm an idiot?! Am I that easy to fool?!!"
"Tsk, what a pain…"
Shane sighed helplessly, and his entire body suddenly began to shrink.
SWISH!
Under Kaido's shocked gaze, the four-meter-plus-tall burly figure, in the blink of an eye, reverted to the black-haired young man from the wanted poster.
"How about now?"
Shane said, his hands in his pockets, shrugging as he looked up at Kaido. "Do you recognize me now?"
"..."
Kaido's eyes widened. He stared at Shane for a long time before he finally snapped out of his shock. He picked up the wanted poster from the ground and carefully compared it again.
A look of wild joy finally appeared in his eyes!
So it really is the kid!
The vast sea, and he'd spent so long looking! Was it easy for him?!
Thank goodness he hadn't made a mistake this time! He had finally found him!
"Wororororo, brat…"
Kaido grinned, and he was about to say something when—
"ROAR—!!!"
An earth-shattering elephant's cry suddenly rang out, and the entire ground of Dock One trembled!
Kaido whipped his head around and saw a massive mammoth charging toward them from the distance. With every step, the ground boomed, and its thick tusks glinted coldly in the moonlight.
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