With the three main fighters heavily injured, Ozz's clones began to fade away as well.
He unhooked the black spear at his waist and strode toward the remaining Straw Hats.
Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji staggered forward, trying to stop him, but their bodies were too wrecked to move.
The rest of the crew fought with everything they had just to struggle against his pressure.
"Hey, little Robin… you still remember what you signed back then, right?"
He took one step.
The tall figure propping himself on that black spear flashed in front of Robin in an instant.
A large hand pinched her chin. Ozz wore a faint smile as he leaned down and whispered by her ear.
Robin's face went rigid.
She remembered that contract of sale.
But that single gesture made everyone else think Ozz was about to hurt her.
Usopp, closest to them, went crazy firing ammunition. Brook swung his cane sword like his life depended on it.
Their attacks passed through Ozz as if clipping through air, like he wasn't even there.
"So go work it off. The Revolutionary Army counts as an investment, too."
Only Robin heard that whisper.
The next second, Ozz straightened. His tall body cast a shadow that swallowed Robin whole.
Under Robin's pleading gaze and the Straw Hats' desperate shouts, Ozz shoved both hands into his pockets, lifted one leg high, and…
Bang.
A single warp kick.
Just as Nico Robin reached toward Luffy, she vanished from where she stood.
"Robin!!!!"
Luffy screamed like something inside him snapped.
"Why did Robin disappear?! What happened?!"
Ozz didn't explain. He only smiled cruelly, rubbing his chin like he was considering it.
"Who knows. Maybe she's dead. Maybe she isn't."
"…!"
Everyone froze.
Luffy's eyes trembled violently.
But there was no time to grieve. He forced himself to shout a captain's order through his shaking throat.
"Everyone! Run! Do whatever it takes, just escape!!!"
"This isn't something we can fight!!!"
No one argued.
Only the three main fighters, battered and bleeding, dragged their bodies forward, trying to stand between Ozz and the others.
They didn't even have the breath to ask why Ozz was doing this.
Ozz shifted a step and appeared in front of Usopp.
Brook tried to block him with his body.
One kick.
Brook vanished.
"Brook!!!"
Sanji roared and launched himself with a flying kick, but Ozz pinned him in midair with a single glance.
"My foolish adopted son…"
Ozz's eyes carried something complicated, almost pitying, but Sanji couldn't understand it at all.
Then came the kick.
Sanji vanished too, sent straight into a "gentle paradise."
"Next is you. Yasopp's son."
Ozz walked forward step by step, ignoring the chain of explosions and shots like they were dust.
"I'll be waiting for you at the peak of sniping."
Another kick.
"Stop!!!"
Luffy finally exploded in rage, steam pouring off his Gear Second body as he threw a punch at Ozz.
He hit nothing but an afterimage.
Then he was blasted several meters away.
"Zoro!!!"
Zoro lay on the ground, barely able to lift his head. His eyes were full of unwillingness and despair.
"Why…"
"This is reality, Zoro."
One kick.
Ozz found Mihawk a new toy.
Then came Franky and Chopper.
No need for words.
One kick each.
Finally, Ozz's gaze settled on Nami.
Seeing him move toward her, Luffy sprinted for Nami at the same time. Nami reached out with tears in her eyes, staring at Luffy.
"Luffy, help…"
"Nami!!!"
A kick.
On the subject of kicking flowers with spicy feet…
After eating so many of her tangerines, if he weren't insisting on sending everyone away neatly, he might've even let her stay.
Well.
Someone always has to play the villain.
These brats had a decent relationship with him, sure…
But they were clueless about how high the sky was and how deep the sea ran.
They needed a beating.
If he didn't do it, Kuma would have.
At least Ozz could have more fun with it.
A little entertainment for a life that had gotten too flat.
With everyone launched away in perfect order, their fates unknown, Luffy stared at the empty space around him.
Tears poured out of him like a flood.
"Ahhh… ahhhhhh…"
He hammered the ground, hating his own weakness.
"What am I even doing…"
"I can't save a single one of my friends…"
Desperate, ugly sobbing.
He finally understood what Moria must have felt back then.
"This is your weakness. Can you still say it out loud now?"
"Still want to talk about becoming some kind of king?"
Seeing Luffy broken, Ozz didn't drag it out.
He simply delivered one last kick.
Area 23 was a ruined wasteland.
Ozz stretched lazily.
Messing around once in a while really did clear the mind.
Especially this feeling of playing the final boss.
"Even if you call it 'motivation'… this is a little too much."
A scruffy old man in a cloak walked in from the edge of the zone, holding a flask.
Rayleigh looked at the scene, now empty except for Ozz, and sighed.
No way…
Did the group carrying that will really shatter here?
You promised you wouldn't go too far…
"Relax, Uncle Rayleigh."
Ozz slung his spear away and walked beside Rayleigh, heading toward the center of the island.
"These brats have tough wills. And there's plenty more fun ahead. I won't let them die that easily."
Rayleigh could only look helpless. There wasn't much he could say.
"Then where did you send them?"
"Places I've traveled over the years."
Most of them were sent to places close to where fate would've taken them anyway.
Only Luffy's destination was changed, just a little.
He was sent to Duramos.
That old man had complained more than once that life was getting too boring, telling Ozz to come back more often.
Ozz did return from time to time, but he couldn't stay by the old man's side forever.
So he tossed him a living bundle of chaos, hoping it would liven things up.
"I see…"
Rayleigh nodded.
He still had to train Luffy. At least now he had a destination.
But…
That wasn't going to be easy.
Gick absolutely hated his guts, after all.
There were too many old grudges between them…
Rayleigh worried in silence.
Ozz was already walking ahead.
On his territory…
There was still a whole group of Supernovas in Seastone cuffs waiting for him.
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