Gabra leapt forward and smacked Kaku squarely on the forehead.
Smack!
The crisp sound echoed through the street, finally forcing Kaku to stop spinning his neck like a lunatic.
Kaku blinked repeatedly before glaring furiously at Gabra.
"You bastard! How dare yo... Ugh!"
Before he could finish yelling, Gabra immediately covered Kaku's mouth with a dark expression and pointed toward Bruno's direction.
Kaku froze for a second before turning his head.
"When did Kalifa get here...?"
Then his eyes narrowed.
"No, something's wrong."
Gabra gave a silent nod before signaling Kumadori and Fukuro. The four quietly moved over and stopped a short distance behind the man in black.
Yet the man himself acted as if he hadn't noticed them at all.
He simply looked at Bruno and Kalifa with an amused smile.
"Why are you suddenly so nervous? Is the performance over already?"
Bruno swallowed hard before forcing out a stiff smile.
"My apologies, sir, but I suddenly remembered I have something important to take care of..."
As he spoke, Bruno slowly guided Kalifa backward toward the others.
The man in black made no move to stop them. He merely turned around and watched silently.
The moment Bruno reached Gabra and the others, his hand instantly tore through the air.
A door appeared in empty space.
Without hesitation, Gabra and the others rushed inside.
Bruno was the last one to enter. The instant he stepped through, he quickly shut the air door behind him.
Click.
After entering the Door-Door Space, everyone finally breathed out in relief.
Kalifa wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and spoke with a grim expression.
"That man definitely knows who we are. He came specifically for us."
The others nodded with ugly expressions.
Bruno looked especially uneasy.
"If that's true, then our identities are already exposed. CP0 may have surrounded the island by now. We need to find Lucci immediately and leave this place."
Kalifa and the others agreed instantly.
Then suddenly...
"That performance earlier was quite entertaining."
The voice descended from above like icy water poured directly onto their heads.
"!!!"
Everyone's eyes widened as they looked upward simultaneously.
Above the Door-Door Space, the man in black floated quietly in midair.
Black wings spread behind his back as he looked down at them with a faint smile.
The moment Kalifa saw those wings, her face lost all color.
"Impossible..."
Her voice trembled violently.
"Could it really be him...?"
Bruno looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"When did you get in here?!"
As the user of the Door-Door Fruit, Bruno had entered last.
Before closing the door, he had deliberately checked the man's position.
At that moment, the man in black had clearly never moved.
Yet somehow, he was already inside.
Under the horrified gazes of the CP9 members, the man slowly descended from the air.
The black wings behind him dissolved into streams of dark light before disappearing completely.
He glanced toward Bruno and chuckled softly.
"You closed the door so slowly, it almost felt like you were inviting me in."
Those words instantly dragged everyone's hearts deeper into despair.
Entering the Door-Door Space during the exact moment the door closed, without any of them noticing...
That speed was monstrous.
Even Lucci, the strongest among them, couldn't accomplish something like that.
The CP9 members exchanged tense looks before immediately taking combat stances.
No matter how terrifying the opponent was, surrender was not an option.
As agents of CP9, capture meant death.
No...
Someone of this status might not even bother taking them alive.
Kaku narrowed his eyes at the man in black while quietly making several subtle hand gestures toward Bruno.
It was a coded signal unique to intelligence agents.
Bruno understood instantly.
A trace of sorrow flashed through his eyes.
Kaku's meaning was simple.
They would hold the man off while Bruno escaped and sealed the Door-Door Space completely, trapping the enemy inside.
In other words...
They were prepared to die here.
The atmosphere inside the Door-Door Space became deathly silent.
Kaku slowly adjusted the brim of his hat as cold killing intent flashed through his eyes.
The next second, he transformed into his hybrid Zoan form.
His long neck began rotating violently again.
"Tempest Kick!"
Swish!
A massive green slash tore through the air toward the man in black.
Yet the man simply raised one hand casually.
Clap.
The enormous wind blade stopped directly between his fingers.
Blocked effortlessly.
The pupils of the CP9 members shrank violently.
Kaku's face twisted with disbelief.
"Impossible... He blocked Tempest Kick with his bare hand?!"
At this point, the man in black had already displayed overwhelming speed and absurd defensive power.
None of them could even imagine how terrifying he would become if he actually attacked seriously.
Gabra reacted immediately.
He grabbed the stunned Bruno and hurled him backward.
"Hurry up and go!"
Bruno flew backward through the air while Gabra and the others activated Shave simultaneously.
In an instant, they appeared directly before the man in black, prepared to attack from all directions.
Then...
Buzz!
A deep purple aura suddenly spread throughout the entire Door-Door Space.
The terrifying pressure descended without warning.
Boom!!
Bruno, Gabra, Kaku, Kalifa, Kumadori, and Fukuro were all slammed violently onto the ground as though mountains had crashed onto their backs.
Their bodies pressed tightly against the dark green floor.
None of them could move.
Completely suppressed.
From beginning to end, the man in black never even lifted a finger.
He merely looked down at them with amusement in his eyes.
"Was this part of the performance too?"
Gabra gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.
At this moment, he couldn't even twitch a finger.
"What terrifying power..."
In his eyes, this had to be some unbelievably monstrous Devil Fruit ability.
The power difference was simply hopeless.
Kalifa lay against the ground with difficulty breathing.
The more she thought about it, the more certain she became of her earlier suspicion.
"You... could you possibly be..."
Before she could finish speaking, the crushing pressure suddenly disappeared.
Everyone instantly felt their bodies become light again.
Then the man's indifferent voice sounded once more.
"Stand up."
The CP9 members slowly climbed to their feet, their expressions filled with fear and tension.
Kalifa stared directly at the man in black.
The man glanced at her briefly before slowly pulling down his collar, revealing his face completely.
The instant Gabra and the others saw him clearly, their entire bodies froze like statues struck by lightning.
Kalifa's lips trembled uncontrollably.
"So it really is... Saint Lloyd."
===
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