Chapter 97: Baratie's Unfinished Battle! Gin VS Sanji!
Another street.
Sanji moved nimbly through the street, knocking down all the King's Army and Rebel Army soldiers who appeared.
"They're all Vivi-chan's citizens. Don't fight here."
He lifted his leg, looked at the fallen people, said his piece, then his body twisted like noodles again, eyes turning into hearts. "Vivi-chan! Your knight has arrived! I will definitely help you stop this rebellion!"
Saying this, he ran wildly towards the royal palace.
At this time, he wasn't far from the royal palace situated high above. Crossing this street, he could see the huge steps leading to the palace. But just then, several people walked out from a nearby mansion.
One of them was holding a treasure chest, covered with a layer of Beli and gold coins, seemingly having harvested plentifully.
"Robbed quite a bit," that person smiled. "This way, Lord Sag will definitely be satisfied."
"Better loot some more just to be safe. The Captain didn't manage to rob anything in the royal palace. And Captain Pearl, really... robbing even a girl's private savings. Even if it's five hundred thousand Beli, as pirates, we still talk about morality," another person said.
"That's true…"
"Put it down!"
Just as they were moving, a black shadow suddenly shot out from the air, landing a kick squarely on the face of the person holding the treasure chest, sending him spinning in the air before crashing to the ground and sliding several meters.
"Who are you?!"
The other pirates quickly drew their weapons, shouting out loud.
"A girl's private savings…" It was as if a fire burned in Sanji's eyes. "You wouldn't be talking about Vivi-chan's five hundred thousand Beli, right? Not only are you robbing during a civil war, you actually robbed Vivi's money!"
Five hundred thousand Beli. During their voyage, he had heard similar words when Nami was demanding payment from Vivi.
A princess of a country, having only five hundred thousand Beli as private savings, was already pitiful enough.
And this group actually robbed it?!
Of course, that wasn't the main point!
"What's wrong with pirates robbing? Speaking of which, who the hell are you?!"
"Shut up! I don't care about that kind of thing!" Sanji shouted. "You definitely broke into her private chambers, didn't you?! Damn it, I wanted to go too!"
"Is that what you care about?!"
The pirates collectively rolled their eyes and roared angrily, raising their weapons about to charge.
Sanji tutted, bent his leg, just about to kick, when his eyes suddenly focused, looking behind him.
"Stop."
A voice sounded, stopping the pirates' actions.
"Commander Gin?!"
At the exit of the street, a man holding twin tonfas appeared, walking towards them.
"You are no match for him. Continue looting. Leave this person to me."
Gin walked to the front of the pirates, directly facing Sanji. His gloomy, fierce face revealed a smile. "Mr. Sanji, we meet again."
Sanji's eyes focused. "Gin… Natural Disaster Pirates? You really did cooperate with Crocodile. What are you trying to do?"
"We are not clear about the Captain's plan. The order received was just to rob. Mr. Sanji, logically speaking, you should have been stopped by the agents outside. Why did you appear here?" Gin asked.
"Agents? If you mean that group of weirdly shaped guys, by the time we arrived, they had already been dealt with by the Marines. Gin, move aside. I don't want to fight you. Let me go to the royal palace," Sanji shouted.
"I see…"
Gin nodded, pulled the corner of his mouth slightly, revealing a forced smile.
"Mr. Sanji, you are my benefactor, and so is your pirate crew, having treated our subordinates. I don't want to fight you either. Captain Sag even said we could invite you to the party. But if you want to go to the royal palace, that's not possible. Captain Sag's plan cannot fail."
"As a subordinate, I have the duty to eliminate any unknown factors. Could I please ask you to leave this city? Once Captain Sag's plan is complete, you can do whatever you want."
Sanji was slightly taken aback, took out a cigarette and lit it, took a deep drag, slowly exhaled smoke, and said gravely, "Seems like we can't agree!"
Gin sighed, lowered the twin tonfas in his hands, the side with the iron balls drooping downwards. His eyes sunk, making his face resemble that of an evil ghost.
"Mr. Sanji, let me say this first. I'm not the same as before. If you fight me, please try your best not to die!"
"Is that so? I've also become stronger. Last time at Baratie, we didn't have a serious fight. Let's do it now!" Sanji smiled.
"Then…"
Gin bent his legs slightly, exhaled a breath. "Here I come! Soru!"
Whoosh!
In just an instant, Gin appeared in front of Sanji. Under Sanji's astonished gaze, the tonfa carrying the iron ball fiercely smashed into Sanji's waist, causing his side to bend, and he spat out some blood drops.
However, the iron ball didn't successfully send Sanji flying. His hands deadly pressed down on the tonfa. He flew up with a fierce kick, his leg turning into several afterimages mid-kick, striking towards Gin's body.
"Kami-e."
Gin's body softened, twisting continuously with the wind force stirred up by the kick, dodging the non-stop kicks. When one foot poked straight forward, his body tilted further to the side. Just as he completely dodged, the other tonfa carrying an iron ball rapidly smashed towards Sanji's body.
Whoosh!
The iron ball hit empty air. In the opening of Gin's attack, Sanji used the pressed tonfa to push off with both hands, jumped upwards, spun his body fiercely in the air, and brought one leg down like a battle axe towards Gin's head.
This strike was hard to dodge.
If his skull was hit, it wouldn't feel good either.
However…
"Tekkai."
Boom!
Sanji's heel pressed down on Gin's head. The powerful and heavy kick even stirred up a wave of air that rippled outwards. But Gin's body remained unmoved, seemingly completely unaffected by the strike.
"So hard! You…" Sanji exclaimed in surprise.
"I told you, I'm different now, Mr. Sanji."
Bang!
Gin swung the tonfa in his left hand in a circle, the iron ball heavily smashing into Sanji's abdomen, causing him to instinctively double over, gasping, and spitting out several more drops of blood.
"You bastard!"
He gritted his teeth tightly, grabbed the tonfa with one hand, and taking advantage of Gin's attacking posture, whipped one leg out like a lash, fiercely slamming it into his neck.
"Collier Shoot!"
Just then, Gin's movement paused. He indifferently voiced, "Tekkai."
Boom!
An empty sound like hitting hard iron erupted. Gin remained unmoved. His fierce eyes looked towards Sanji, the corner of his mouth curling into a fierce grin. His arm suddenly exerted force, pressing the iron ball against Sanji's abdomen, and slammed him fiercely onto the ground.
The heavy force caused cracks to appear on the ground. Gin swung the tonfa in his other hand, and as Sanji landed, smashed it fiercely towards his head.
"Tsk!"
Sanji fiercely spat out the cigarette in his mouth, flicking it towards Gin's eyes, making him instinctively blink. At that moment, Sanji fiercely shifted sideways, braced himself with his hands, and kicked Gin's abdomen with his hind leg, like lifting a hoof.
During an attack, Tekkai naturally wouldn't be used. The fierce kick made Gin subconsciously retreat several steps, and the iron ball he smashed down lost its direction.
Boom!!
A fierce sound transmitted from the ground. Under the iron ball's strike, the ground was smashed into a deep crater, gravel flying outwards.
"Chance!"
Sanji braced himself on the ground, his entire body spinning fiercely, turning into a pitch-black whirlwind. His legs, amidst this continuous rotation, kicked with great force and momentum towards Gin's waist area.
"Gros Frappe!" (Rough Smash!)
"Tekkai!!"
Gin's eyes widened, he stood firm, and roared out loud.
Bang!!
That kick fiercely struck his waist. The huge force made Gin's eyes involuntarily roll upwards, his body shifting slightly to the side.
His eyes turned fierce. He thrust the tonfa directly forward, the iron ball hitting Sanji's face, sending his body soaring into the air and slamming straight into the ground, sliding forward some distance.
"Rankyaku!"
Just as Sanji landed, Gin fiercely kicked upwards, bringing up a vertical pale blue slash, rushing straight towards him.
Sanji felt all the fine hairs on his body stand on end. As he fell, he rolled sideways, letting the slash strike the ground. With a chih sound, an opening appeared as if cut by a sharp blade.
Sanji wiped the blood appearing at the corner of his mouth and stood up, clutching his abdomen.
Those two hits really didn't feel good.
"Worthy of being Mr. Sanji."
Blood vessels appeared in the whites of Gin's eyes. He grinned. "The force is really great. Even my Tekkai almost collapsed."
"What are these things you're doing?" Sanji swept his eyes over the cut opening, his expression becoming serious.
A body harder than ordinary people, and this slash…
What kind of strange moves were these?
"Rokushiki. Skills honed by Captain Sag, taught to us," Gin said gravely.
"Indeed very powerful moves. That guy named Sag is quite something. Gin, seems like you followed the right person this time. In this pirate crew, you must be a major cadre," Sanji smiled with relief.
Compared to being with Krieg, Gin's condition was much better.
"No," Gin shook his head. "Although the Captain gives me this level of treatment in the loot division, I don't feel I am competent enough."
Even with Rokushiki, his usage was very crude.
Besides his most proficient 'Kami-e', among the remaining Rokushiki, he had learned four styles; only Geppo he still couldn't learn.
But these four styles, he had only just grasped, not yet proficient.
Captain Sag said his body quality was good and he could practice all aspects of Rokushiki. In order not to disappoint the Captain's expectations, when on the ship, besides supervising the subordinates' training, he himself was also training doubly hard.
In terms of aptitude, he also didn't feel he was 'not bad' as Captain Sag said. Compared to the major cadres he recognized, he himself was too far behind.
"You're still not competent like this? When did you become so humble?" Sanji smiled.
"Mr. Sanji, you should have seen them in Nanohana. The three women beside Captain Sag are not ordinary people. They are the true three major cadres of our pirate crew."
Gin said, "Lady Lily is a very powerful swordswoman. I know you have Roronoa Zoro on your ship, but I don't think he would be Lady Lily's opponent, because Lady Lily possesses the power to cut steel and also possesses Rokushiki more proficiently than me."
Lady Lily's 'Soru' and 'Geppo' were already very proficient. It wasn't that she couldn't learn the others, just that she didn't need them, so she gave up that training.
"Lady Marika is unfathomable, possessing the same 'Life Return' as Captain Sag. Her own strength is also astonishingly great; she can easily lift a building. The cannonballs she throws barehanded are even stronger than those fired from a cannon."
"Lady Renettia, although still very young, is the soul figure of the Death Omen Star. She herself is an ability user like Straw Hat Luffy, and also extraordinary."
And…
Lady Lily was also a navigator, mastering very profound theory, and possessing extremely strong command ability.
Lady Marika was an excellent chef, an indispensable presence on the ship.
Lady Renettia was proficient in mechanics and shipbuilding.
"Compared to them, I am useless except for fighting. All I know is fighting. But even so, I don't want to disappoint Captain Sag's expectations for me. For this, I will train doubly hard, strive to follow Captain Sag's steps. I believe Captain Sag will definitely become the Pirate King!"
Gin said gravely, "Mr. Sanji, if you can't even defeat me, I advise you not to approach the royal palace. You really will die."
Sanji shook his head with a smile, relit a cigarette, exhaled smoke with a whoosh. He looked at the swirling smoke and murmured, "Pirate King, huh…"
"Gin."
He looked solemnly at Gin. "I also believe in our captain. Luffy, he will definitely become the Pirate King!"
"And it's not just you who has a mission. Our captain entrusted me to help Vivi stop this rebellion. The royal palace, I absolutely must go, even at the cost of my life!"
"Is that so…"
Gin tightened his grip on his tonfas. "Then I can only defeat you, Mr. Sanji."
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