Cain was still grumbling with an unhappy look on his face when a group of people marched in escorting a mermaid.
With one glance, he recognized her as Camie.
If she was here, then she must have crossed paths with Luffy and the others.
Come to think of it, Arlong's crew had already been dealt with by Cain long ago.
Luffy and the others shouldn't have ever fought Hatchan, so in theory they shouldn't know him.
But Nami had definitely seen Hatchan before, so they had probably already put the past behind them and become friends.
That thought had only just crossed Cain's mind when he glanced at the people about to make a move on Camie and gave a soft grunt.
The group instantly reacted as if they'd been electrocuted.
They stopped at once and hurried over to Cain, bowing and scraping.
"What are your orders, sir?"
Over this stretch of time, Cain and Rayleigh had been coming here every few nights.
Instead of buying people, they kept selling themselves, to the point that Doflamingo had called several times demanding that they please get Cain out of there.
But since this time they simply refused to leave, the staff had no choice but to treat him like some great lord.
Cain raised a hand, signaling them to keep it down.
The group hurriedly agreed, quickly shackled Camie, and shoved her into the tank.
Leaning against the wall, Cain began wondering how he should make a dramatic entrance later when he reunited with Luffy.
Soon enough, the auction officially began, and the guests started filing in.
His Observation Haki spread out, and instantly he sensed several not-so-weak presences.
No need to guess—those had to be Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid.
Before long, Camie was brought out onto the stage.
Just as Cain expected, Nami, Hatchan, and the others found their way here.
What surprised him, however, was that Uta was with them too.
Then again, that made sense.
Once Luffy and the others landed on the island, they must have gone straight to Shakky's bar with Hatchan, so running into Uta there wasn't strange at all.
Still, the moment Cain thought of that, he also thought of those Celestial Dragon bastards.
'They'd better not go looking to die.'
And yet, the more he wished for something not to happen, the more certain it became.
Saint Charlos burst through the doors, and the entire auction house fell silent in an instant.
With one glance, he locked onto Uta, lust written all over his face.
He had clearly had his eye on this wildly popular diva for quite some time.
Then he raised his voice and shouted, "I've taken a liking to you! Come home with me! You'll sing lullabies for me and no one else! I'll pay one billion beli to buy you!"
Cain was right behind the stage wall, and he heard every single word clearly.
His face darkened like the bottom of a pot, and the temperature around him seemed noticeably colder than everywhere else.
Sanji immediately sensed trouble and tried to drag everyone back, but the panicking crowd shoved them into the aisle between the seats, forcing them step by step toward the auction stage.
Earlier, Hatchan and Pappag had both warned them that attacking a Celestial Dragon would bring an Admiral down on them.
Since Sabaody was so close to Marine Headquarters, this was absolutely not trouble they could afford to stir up.
But facing Charlos and the others as they stepped closer and closer, Uta showed not the slightest fear.
Instead, she smiled brightly and said, "So you really are a Celestial Dragons? I've read about you in books. They say you rule the world and want to dominate everyone you see. You really are the most disgusting people in existence~!"
Still smiling, Uta already had a Tone Dial ready in her hand.
She naturally understood what kind of people Celestial Dragons were.
This wasn't the sort of thing she could escape just by meekly enduring.
Better to just fight—her ability made it clear enough that she wasn't exactly incapable of doing so.
Nami panicked and reached out to pull Uta back, but she was a step too slow.
Saint Charlos immediately flew into a rage and screamed.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL WOMAN! BEAT HER TO DEATH! NO—I'LL MAKE YOU MY SLAVE! YOU'LL SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE—"
Boom—!!
A deafening explosion rang out.
The wall behind the auction stage was smashed open in an instant, and a blur shot through the hole.
The floor beneath them burst apart, a violent gale sweeping through the hall.
No one could even see the afterimage clearly.
Crack!
A sharp shattering sound tore through the air as Charlos's glass bubble helmet exploded apart.
"Well, well, looks like someone incredible just showed up!" Kid shouted with a grin.
Law, still seated, narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on that figure.
"C-cain, what are you doing here?" Sanji blurted out the moment he recognized him.
Cain was already standing directly in front of Charlos.
The chains on his body had long since been shattered by Haki.
With one hand, he gripped Charlos tightly by the throat, red glinting in his eyes as he shouted.
"I'VE PUT UP WITH YOU FOR LONG ENOUGH!"
Boom!!
Another massive crash followed as Luffy, Zoro, and the others came plunging in through the ceiling atop the Flying Fish Riders' fish, slamming hard onto the auction hall floor.
Usopp, Robin, and their new member Brook the skeleton all jumped down as well.
The entire crowd finally snapped out of its shock and instantly erupted into chaos, fleeing in every direction like mad!
A Celestial Dragon had been attacked—catastrophe was about to descend.
In the blink of an eye, the hall was left with only the Straw Hats, Law and Kid with their subordinates, and a few Celestial Dragons with their guards.
The Celestial Dragon guards reacted immediately and rushed forward, surrounding Cain completely.
Charlos, still struggling in Cain's grip, screamed that Cain should be sentenced to death, and shouted at his father, Saint Roswald, demanding that Uta and Camie on the stage be taken away as well.
Roswald, both panicked and furious, feared for his son's safety while also barking at the guards.
"QUICK! BRING THAT MERMAID TO ME!"
There was no way Luffy would stand there and let that happen.
He immediately sent the guards in front of him flying with a flurry of punches, and in the process he also knocked Roswald himself flat.
Nearby, Saint Shalria shouted frantically for support, then raised a golden pistol and prepared to pull the trigger.
Meanwhile, the auction host, upon realizing it was Cain causing the disturbance, clamped both hands over his mouth and didn't dare utter a word.
At the same time, Cain's grip around Charlos's neck slowly tightened, the force growing heavier and heavier, as though he meant to crush the bones there completely.
In a cold voice, he said, "A mere trash thinks he can take Uta away… don't dream."
Not even a Figarland could do that.
In the next moment, Cain's Conqueror's Haki erupted.
This wave was even greater than before, a tangible pressure sweeping outward like solid force.
Black-red lightning raged in every direction, splitting apart the seats and floorboards of the entire auction house.
Dust roared upward, and even the walls were torn open with several savage cracks.
Those he identified as enemies all dropped at once, though even some unrelated weaklings couldn't endure it and fainted too—like Pappag the starfish.
Both Law and Kid felt the crushing pressure of that Haki and were shaken to the core.
'So the Marines' bounty posters had been wrong after all.'
'Excluding the fifty-beli "pet raccoon," the weakest bounty in the Straw Hat crew—the one with only a ten million berry, Cain—actually possessed power terrifying enough to rival monsters.'
Charlos kept being knocked unconscious by the Haki, only to wake up again from the pain of Cain's grip, his screams coming one after another.
Luffy, still completely confused about what exactly was going on, only knew that the people trying to take Camie had been beaten down by him, and everyone else had been dealt with by Cain.
So from his perspective, everything had turned out fine—happy ending.
Just as Cain was about to kill Charlos, Rayleigh stepped through the hole in the wall and called out,
"My, my, Cain. The moment Uta gets involved, you really can't control your temper, can you? Try not to destroy the island this old man depends on to make a living."
As he spoke, Rayleigh raised a hand, shattered the tank, and tore the collar off Camie's neck.
If a Celestial Dragon died here, what came wouldn't just be an Admiral.
It would be a Buster Call that would wipe the entire island off the map.
If Sabaody were destroyed, pirates would have no path into the New World and would be trapped in the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas instead.
The world would only grow more chaotic.
Cain thought it over.
Since Rayleigh clearly didn't want Charlos dead, then fine.
Immediately controlling his strength, he snapped Charlos's spine at the neck—leaving him alive, but permanently paralyzing everything from the waist down.
Then he casually tossed him aside.