At Nami's words, everyone fell silent, unable to offer even the slightest rebuttal.
Then they heard a commotion erupt from the street.
"It's the Marines!"
Everyone immediately tensed.
The next moment—
"Yo! Zoro, so you guys are here!"
A familiar voice rang out.
Everyone turned to look and saw Luffy.
But before the joy could even appear on their faces, they were stunned by the huge number of Marines behind him.
The Marines were shouting as they chased after him.
"We found the Straw Hat crew!"
"Don't let them get away!"
"It's the Marine Captain from Loguetown! Run!" Usopp shouted first.
Everyone was shocked.
There was no time to keep discussing what had just happened.
They all turned and ran.
At the same time, angry complaints rang out.
"Luffy, you idiot! Why did you bring the Marines here?!"
"Sorry! I just happened to run into them!"
"Leave Straw Hat to me. I won't let him escape."
"White Snake!"
Smoker's right hand turned into smoke, then took the shape of a serpent and shot straight toward Luffy.
"You're not getting away."
Just then, a burst of flame suddenly appeared.
"Sun Ring!"
The flames slammed into the white smoke and instantly blocked Smoker's attack.
Luffy and the others were all startled.
The newcomer's body was wreathed in blazing fire.
When the flames finally faded, they revealed a man wearing an orange cowboy hat.
Luffy froze for a moment, then his face lit up with joy.
"Ace!"
Ace turned his head at the call.
"You really haven't changed at all, Luffy."
"What's your relationship with him? Why are you helping him?" Smoker demanded.
Ace looked toward Smoker.
"Didn't I already tell you? He's my little brother."
Smoker was visibly taken aback.
But his face quickly darkened again.
"Move aside, Portgas D. Ace. I'm not interested in you. The one I'm after is Straw Hat."
"Is that so? Then I can't let you do that."
"Wait, what's that?" Tashigi's voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone looked up and followed the direction she was pointing.
Then all their pupils shrank.
What were they seeing?
Far off in the sky, a black shadow was rapidly growing larger.
It was flying toward them at terrifying speed.
When it got closer, they finally saw what it was clearly.
"A giant dragon?!" someone cried out.
Then they felt an overwhelming pressure descend on them.
"It's him. It really is him. I'd never forget him." Zoro's face darkened.
"It's over, we're done for! Run!" Usopp cried.
"So big..." Chopper gasped.
After circling once, the crimson dragon descended at high speed.
Boom!
A tremendous impact thundered through the ground.
kane's landing brought a violent gale with it.
No one could even keep their eyes open.
When everything finally settled, everyone looked over.
The giant dragon was staring right at them.
This time, kane had not returned to human form.
As for Robin, she had already mixed into the crowd during the chaos caused by the violent wind.
The dragon's massive body, its crimson and unbreakable-looking scales, its thick tail, and its razor-sharp claws made everyone widen their eyes in terror.
"This damned pressure is exactly the same as when we fought Mihawk," Sanji said through clenched teeth.
In front of such a colossal creature, no one even dared breathe loudly.
"A giant dragon? Right! Who are you? Why do you look kind of familiar?" Luffy's voice rang out.
His eyes were even shining brightly, and he looked extremely excited.
The deathly tense crowd instantly collapsed.
"Are you an idiot?! That's the Marine Vice Admiral we ran into before!" Sanji jumped up and roared.
Luffy still looked confused.
"The one who fought Hawk-Eyes," Zoro added.
No matter how slow he was, Luffy finally remembered.
"Oh! So it's that bastard old Marine gramps!"
"Shut up!" Sanji roared.
"Don't provoke him, Luffy! We'd better run!" Usopp shouted as well.
The next moment, kane lowered his head, and a gigantic dragon roar exploded from his throat.
The roar brought with it a terrifying storm.
Howling winds raged, sand and stone flew everywhere, and even the hardened ground was torn up by the gale.
The entire Straw Hat crew was blown away like dust.
Sand filled the sky, making it impossible to see anything clearly.
After some time, calm finally returned.
Tashigi slowly opened her eyes as well.
But the sight before her left her dumbstruck.
Beside her, Smoker did not even notice that the cigar in his mouth was nearly burned out.
The giant dragon from before had already disappeared completely.
In its place stood an old Marine in a justice coat, a cigar in his mouth.
And in front of him was a long sloping stretch of land, exposing the bedrock beneath the desert surface.
Several hundred meters ahead of kane, the entire ground looked as if a layer had simply been shaved away.
It was hard to imagine that this had all been caused by nothing more than a single roar from him.
If that roar had been aimed at the town just now, the result was easy to imagine.
Looking at his handiwork before him, kane revealed a satisfied expression.
Now this was the power a god-tier Devil Fruit ought to have!
Soon, the Straw Hat crew began popping their heads out one after another.
But the moment they saw the scene before them, they were completely stunned.
"Hey! This can't be real, right?!"
"That old gramps... is he really human? He's seriously terrifying, Usopp!" Chopper cried out.
For once, Chopper fully believed Usopp's words.
"It's Vice Admiral kane!" Tashigi shouted.
At her words, the surrounding Marines finally came to their senses.
"So this is Vice Admiral kane—the man who crossed blades with the world's greatest swordsman, Hawk-Eyes, in the East Blue, the man who exposed Crocodile's conspiracy ahead of time and crushed it, the man who suppressed all of Baroque Works?" one Marine exclaimed.
As those words sounded out, more Marines nearby revealed looks of admiration.
"I can't believe I actually got to see Vice Admiral kane!"
The Marines were all excited beyond measure.
Smoker took another deep drag, then exhaled a huge ring of smoke.
"So this is the power you were talking about? It really is astonishing. But I still don't acknowledge your justice!"
"H-Hey! Hey! Hey! That's not power a Marine Vice Admiral should have!" Ace said after confirming that Luffy was fine.
But compared to the shock everyone else felt, Ace's expression, though extremely grave, did not show all that much surprise.
From his point of view, judging from what had just happened, his old man Whitebeard was much stronger.
After all, Whitebeard was known as the strongest man in the world.
Looking at the stunned Straw Hat crew, kane smiled.
"Brats, we meet again."
"I'm not one of your brats. I'm the man who'll become King of the Pirates," Luffy declared, his voice as firm as ever.
"Oh? Is that so? But just now, you lot couldn't even take one g
reeting from me."
As kane looked at Luffy in front of him, he suddenly thought of that very famous line.
"When two Emperors meet, the heavens split. When an Emperor and the Fifth Emperor meet... the Fifth Emperor cracks."
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