The moment that yellow figure appeared, the atmosphere at the scene instantly exploded.
He looked like nothing more than a sleazy old man well past his prime, yet he radiated an overwhelming sense of presence.
The Marines seemed to be looking at an idol as they shouted excitedly, "It's Admiral Kizaru! With Admiral Kizaru here, that pirate who tried to attack a Celestial Dragon is dead for sure! Admiral Kizaru ate the Glint-Glint Fruit, his speed is beyond imagination! That brat won't even be able to fight back!"
The pirates, meanwhile, kept retreating, their pupils shrinking with fear as they cursed under their breath.
"Damn idiot! He had to go after a Celestial Dragon at a time like this? Doesn't he know every Admiral except Sengoku is stationed on this island right now?
This is just great. He brought Admiral Kizaru here. If Kizaru decides to come after us too, this is going to turn into a total nightmare!"
From the crowd's whispers, the Straw Hats also realized just how terrifying an Admiral was. But even now, even the usually timid Chopper and Usopp stood there trembling as they faced Admiral Kizaru head-on.
Their crewmate had been attacked by an Admiral. Even if they knew they weren't his match, they would never abandon one of their own.
Chopper was especially wracked with guilt. Luffy had wanted to punch that Celestial Dragon only because he was trying to protect him, and that was what had brought the Admiral down on him.
Now that the Admiral had appeared, the Marines, who were supposed to protect the world and defend ordinary people, had not arrested the Celestial Dragons for their crimes. Instead, they had attacked Luffy.
Chopper's fingertips dug hard into his own skin as he shouted furiously, "You bastard! Aren't you supposed to be an Admiral who protects civilians? Why didn't you do anything when that fat pig murdered a civilian? Why didn't you do anything when he tried to bully and buy someone by force? But now Luffy just wanted to send a criminal flying, and suddenly you show up!"
The entire scene fell silent.
The Celestial Dragons' lofty status had long since become accepted as common sense in the pirate world.
But no one had expected that at this moment, a tiny, weak-looking reindeer would stand in front of an Admiral and challenge the very legitimacy of the Celestial Dragons' authority.
The crowd stopped talking altogether. Instead, they turned all kinds of complicated looks toward Kizaru, waiting to see how he would answer.
Some of those looks were openly malicious. Some were just there for the spectacle. Some carried accusation. But there was one thing they all shared, confusion and expectation. Clearly, very few of them truly believed the Celestial Dragons' status made any sense.
Even Kizaru found himself a little troubled by that.
To be honest, even he didn't think the Celestial Dragons' status was especially reasonable. But there was no helping it. He had always been lazy by nature. Maybe when he was younger he would have thought harder about things like that, but now he only wanted to drift through life in peace.
So he scratched his cheek with one finger and said in an indifferent tone, "Ah, little tanuki, I don't really know much about any of that either. Maybe you can ask the undead for the answer once you're sent to the front lines."
That was the reality now. The fighting against the undead had become so intense that, in the name of not wasting combat manpower, captured pirates were being sent to the front lines as cannon fodder.
And Kizaru was fully prepared to send the Straw Hats there too.
His answer left Chopper furious. "You bastard! I'm not a tanuki, I'm a reindeer! And you Marines don't deserve to be called Marines. You don't deserve to wear those coats of justice either!"
Kizaru merely spread his hands and got ready to attack again.
The Straw Hats in front of him were simply too weak. And because they were weak, their words carried no persuasive force in his ears at all.
If someone on the level of Red-Haired Shanks had said something like that, he might have taken a few words to heart. But in the pirate world, the weak had no right to be heard.
From the distant ruins of a building, a figure suddenly rushed out.
Luffy clutched his stomach, pain written across his face.
That last blow had seemed to strike his real body directly, without being negated by his Devil Fruit. The pain was excruciating.
In fact, if his body had not been so tough, he would have already lost consciousness completely.
"So strong. So this is a Marine Admiral on the same level as Aokiji? Even so, I'm still gonna send you flying!"
Even faced with an overwhelming difference in power, Luffy showed not a shred of fear as he charged straight at Kizaru.
But Kizaru had already lost any interest in playing around with the Straw Hats. He just wanted to deal with them quickly, take them to the Marine base, and hand them over to the Hero of the Marines, Garp.
He didn't want to offend the Celestial Dragons, and he didn't want to offend Garp either. He just wanted to live his life quietly. This was the best way to do it.
So Kizaru raised one leg, the tip of his foot glowing with dazzling golden light, and slowly aimed it at the Straw Hats with a smile.
"Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
In the next instant, a brilliant beam of light shot toward the Straw Hats. If it hit them, they would lose all ability to resist on the spot.
But right then, to Kizaru's shock, a figure emerged from a swirl out of nowhere and casually raised one hand in front of the beam.
And just like that, the attack, powerful enough to defeat great pirates worth hundreds of millions, was stopped cold.
When the light faded, both the Marines and the pirates nearby finally realized what had changed.
They stared in stunned disbelief at the mysterious man standing in front of the Straw Hats, the one who had casually snuffed out the Admiral's beam with one hand.
"Who is he? He actually blocked an Admiral's attack, and with one hand!"
Faced with Kizaru's attack, the Straw Hats had not even had time to react.
All they had felt was a blur in front of their eyes, and then Harry was suddenly standing before them, having blocked the Admiral's attack for them.
Nami let out a slow breath, and the tension gradually drained from her body.
As Harry's follower, she probably understood him better than anyone else there.
So she knew that even after most of his power had been suppressed, Harry was still a completely out-of-scale existence in this world.
With Harry here, they no longer had anything to worry about. Admirals, Celestial Dragons, whatever they were, he would deal with them easily.
His attack had been blocked, and with such effortless ease at that. Even the other two Admirals would have struggled to pull off something like that.
For once, the usual careless look on Kizaru's sleazy face turned solemn. He quietly studied the mysterious man before him and asked, "My, my, how frightening. A mysterious powerhouse appears out of nowhere, yet the Marines have no record of you at all. A man with strength like yours shouldn't be some nobody."
Harry ignored the question completely. Instead, he looked at the Marine Admiral before him, one of the highest military powers in the pirate world, with open mockery in his eyes.
Just from the way the Admirals protected the Celestial Dragons, Harry could already see how twisted this world was.
"No wonder this world attracted the attention of a demon god. So much negative emotion really is a feast for certain beings."
Then Harry lifted his head, looked directly at the Admiral, and smiled.
"You're a disgraceful Marine. Sorry, but you won't be taking Luffy and the others away. And you won't be able to protect those pigs behind you either."
Even with Harry provoking him like that, Kizaru still didn't seem angry.
Maybe somewhere deep down, he knew Harry was right. He really was a disgraceful Marine.
But he would still fulfill his duty. Even if his strength stood at the peak of the world, he still had to protect the Celestial Dragons behind him.
He might not have been a worthy Marine in the true sense, but to the World Government and the Marines, he was still a fairly competent Admiral.
Kizaru narrowed his eyes, recognizing that things were about to get troublesome, but he remained full of confidence. He did not believe that some random newcomer could truly rival an Admiral.
"How scary, little brother. But sadly, I still have to take them away. And now I'll be taking you too, since interfering with Marine business is a crime as well."
Harry only shrugged. "Then come and do it."
The people nearby saw that this mysterious powerhouse, someone who had so easily blocked an Admiral's attack, was actually going to fight Kizaru. At once, they became both terrified and thrilled.
A clash between monsters like these was basically a natural disaster. To avoid being caught in the aftermath, everyone quickly fled farther away from the two men.
From a safe distance, they began discussing how the battle might turn out.
One lion mink sighed in admiration. "That guy's got guts, I'll give him that. Just daring to provoke an Admiral is enough to make his name famous. But there's no way he can beat Kizaru. How could some unknown punk possibly defeat an Admiral?"
A purple-haired member of the Longarm Tribe nodded in full agreement. "Exactly. If you've never truly faced an Admiral, then you can't understand how terrifying their pressure really is.
Still, looking on the bright side, if that young man who blocked the Admiral's attack can stall him even for a little while, the others might be able to escape from Kizaru."
At that moment, a white-haired old man in glasses fixed a meaningful gaze on the young man with the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. He took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.
"Young people these days really are something else."
The Longarm Tribe man beside him heard that and asked, "What, you think that pirate's really got a shot?"
The old man slowly shook his head. "No, I wouldn't say that either. But that young man has a special air about him, the kind of kingly presence that only comes from absolute confidence in one's own strength. He just might create a miracle."
Harry naturally understood how powerful an Admiral was. So with his magical reserves greatly reduced, he didn't dare take this lightly. The moment he moved, he went all out.
He pulled his wand from his pocket dimension, and at once it was wrapped in a blazing green disintegration beam.
Harry grinned and said teasingly, "Kizaru, have you ever been cut by light?"
In the next instant, he raised the wand, now cloaked in that disintegration beam, and slashed down hard.
A dazzling blade of disintegration light instantly expanded to dozens of meters in height, swallowing everything in front of it.
That single move left everyone present who knew what they were looking at utterly shaken.
"A master swordsman, and one who's perfectly fused a Devil Fruit power with swordsmanship!"
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