"Woo!!!"
The sharp blast of a steam whistle echoed across the empty wilderness.
A pitch-black steam train, like a giant steel snake, raced under the gloomy sky. The roar of the wheels hitting the tracks sent nearby birds and beasts fleeing in fear.
This was the "Iron Snake," the pride of the Black Steel Empire. It connected the port of Ironforge with the capital, Stahlburg. It was the main route carrying the country's industrial lifeblood.
At the rear of the train, Carriage No. 12.
This was a cheap carriage for commoners. The air was thick with all kinds of unpleasant smells. Most of the passengers were lower-class workers heading to the capital to find work.
However, thanks to the Black Steel Empire's strong industry, even this lowest-class carriage was fairly spacious. Both sides had large benches that could fit three people, and the center aisle was wide enough for a handcart to pass through. It did not feel cramped.
Still, in one corner near the carriage connection, things looked much more crowded.
"I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry," a gentle, muffled voice said quietly.
Kuma curled up his huge body as much as possible, trying to take up less space. But with his nearly seven-meter height, even while sitting, his head almost touched the ceiling. His broad shoulders alone took up the space meant for three people.
He had been forced to buy three seats just to barely sit down.
"Ginny, am I wasting too much money?"
Kuma lowered his head and looked at Ginny, who seemed especially small sitting across from him. His voice was full of guilt. "The hotel last night already cost a lot. Now I'm taking up three seats on the train too. What if we run out of money?"
In this gentle giant's heart, he truly believed Ginny was short on cash. After all, her heartbroken face while paying for the room last night had looked very real.
"Oh, you silly Kuma!"
Ginny held her money bag tightly. It was actually quite full, but she still put on a careful, worried look. "How can I blame you for that? Being big is just how you were born. Don't worry. Even if we don't have much left, I can still cover the food for this trip."
As she spoke, she stuffed a peeled orange into Kuma's mouth and said with a smile, "Just put up with it for now. This train is so fast, we should reach the capital soon. Come on, eat something and stop looking so down."
Kuma chewed the orange. Although he still felt bad, his eyes softened as he looked at Ginny's smiling face.
In the middle of the train, Luxury Carriage No. 6.
The atmosphere here was completely different from the cheap carriage in the back.
Thick wine-red carpets covered the floor, making footsteps almost silent. There was no smell of sweat. Instead, the air carried the faint scent of cigars and expensive leather.
Every passenger had their own leather sofa and a wide mahogany table. There were even waiters in tailcoats carrying trays and walking quietly through the aisle.
Aiden had bought the best window seat.
At this moment, he was leaning comfortably against the soft sofa, holding a thick hardcover book, Chronicles of the Black Steel Empire.
"Friedrich II... this guy was actually an artistic young man who liked painting? He even published a painting collection?"
Aiden flipped through the pages. Looking at the young king's face in the illustrations, he felt the man's life experience was somewhat similar to...
A certain failed painter from his past life.
Around him, several well-dressed businessmen were talking in low voices. Most of their topics were about rising ore prices and which city the army had just taken. Their words were full of greed for war profits.
"The service is fine, and the red wine is decent. But these tracks weren't laid very well. It's shaking so much the words are blurry," Aiden thought to himself.
The scenery outside the window rushed past. After staring at the same wasteland for so long, it became boring. On top of that, the second half of the book was full of dull praise, making Aiden sleepy.
Snap.
He casually placed the thick history book over his face.
"Time for a nap. I just hope no annoying person comes to bother me..."
Aiden crossed his arms over his chest. His breathing soon settled down.
At the front of the train, Noble Carriage No. 2.
This was a private carriage for the privileged class. It was luxuriously decorated, and there was even a small band playing soft music.
Diamante sat there with his legs crossed, slowly swirling a wine glass. He held it up to the light and checked the wine with a critical look. From time to time, he let out unhappy grunts at the Black Steel Empire liaison officer beside him.
Not far from him, Rosinante sat quietly on a private sofa.
He wore sunglasses and clown makeup. Although he did not say a word, the mafia subordinates around him still served him with great care.
"Corazon, is the cushion soft enough?"
"Sir, do you want me to turn the air conditioning up a little?"
Rosinante only nodded blankly. As the biological younger brother of the Donquixote Family's leader, Doflamingo, everyone privately thought he was a little clumsy, but no one dared to disrespect him openly.
Just then.
The train entered a long tunnel.
The light outside the windows disappeared at once, leaving only the dim yellow lights inside the carriage.
At the same moment the darkness fell, something suddenly happened in the commoner carriage at the rear.
Crash!!!
With a series of loud breaking sounds, the windows on both sides of the rear carriage shattered at the same time.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several sharp gunshots followed.
A few figures wearing camouflage flipped in through the broken windows. To seize control quickly, they first fired several warning shots into the ceiling.
But in the chaos, a few stray bullets struck the metal and ricocheted. They whistled toward a mother and daughter in the corner.
"Ah!!" the mother screamed in terror and instinctively pulled the child into her arms.
At that critical moment.
Kuma, who had been sitting in his seat, pulled off his right glove at incredible speed, revealing the pink paw pad on his palm.
Slap.
Kuma lightly tapped the air with his palm.
Without making a sound, the bullet about to take a life seemed to hit an invisible wall in midair. It was instantly bounced away and buried deep into the empty floor and ceiling.
At the same time, the hijackers opened the metal canisters attached to their bodies.
"For the Kingdom of Roka!!"
Thick white smoke instantly filled the carriage.
"Oh no! It's poison gas!" someone shouted in fear.
Beside him, Ginny twitched her nose and immediately caught the smell. She grabbed Kuma, who was about to stand up, and whispered quickly, "Don't panic! It's just high-concentration sleeping gas! It's not lethal! They didn't kill anyone directly, which means they don't want to hurt innocent people. Let's pretend to pass out. Don't expose ourselves!"
The moment he heard that, Kuma understood what Ginny meant.
He let his body go limp and slumped over the table. At the same time, his huge body fully covered Ginny beneath him.
"Cough, cough..."
"My head feels so dizzy..."
The commoners in the carriage, as well as a few ordinary soldiers in charge of security, could not resist the gas at all. In just a few seconds, they all collapsed one after another and lost consciousness.
After confirming they had seized control, the hijackers began clearing the carriage.
"There's a huge guy here!"
One of them noticed Kuma slumped over the table and was startled by his size.
"That big? He isn't a giant, is he? It'll be trouble if he wakes up."
To be safe, the man raised his gun butt and slammed it several times against the back of Kuma's head and back.
Thump! Thump!
The blows made dull impact sounds.
Ginny, hidden in Kuma's arms, was so angry she almost jumped up on the spot. You dare hit my Kuma?!
But a broad, warm hand gently pressed against her head, telling her to stay calm. Kuma did not move at all and silently took the blows. Even his breathing did not change.
"He's completely out. Let's go! Next carriage! Our target is the engine!"
After making sure there was no threat, the hijackers quickly moved forward.
Only after the footsteps faded did Kuma slightly open his eyes.
He first looked around at the unconscious women and children nearby. After confirming that no one's life was in danger, he lightly waved his paw-marked palm.
A gentle gust swept through the carriage and blew all the remaining gas out through the broken windows.
The hijackers moved very quickly.
They used the same method all the way through, breaking into carriage after carriage, releasing gas, and taking control of several middle sections of the train.
Luxury Carriage No. 6.
Crash!
The glass of the connecting door shattered, and several canisters releasing white smoke rolled into the aisle.
Aiden's nose twitched as he napped.
An unpleasant smell reached him. Any normal person would have passed out after just a few breaths.
But for Aiden, this level of toxin was nothing.
In fact, the moment those people climbed onto the train from outside, his Observation Haki had already locked onto them.
What surprised him slightly was that although these hijackers looked fierce and acted in an organized way, they had only knocked out guards and passengers on their way in. They had not used harsher methods.
Especially after he heard the slogan they shouted before attacking, "For the Kingdom of Roka."
"The Kingdom of Roka..."
Aiden knew that name very well. Viktor Hugo had tried so hard to become a Shichibukai for exactly one reason, to protect his homeland, the Kingdom of Roka.
"So they're survivors from that country that was invaded by the Black Steel Empire..."
"Do they want to threaten the Black Steel Empire by hijacking this train? Their method is a little naive, but their courage isn't bad."
After understanding this, Aiden had no interest in stepping in yet. He decided to wait and watch.
"Let's see how far you can get."
With that thought, Aiden shifted into a more comfortable position and pulled the book down more tightly over his face.
"This carriage is done too!"
"There seems to be some rich young master here, sleeping like a dead pig."
Several hijackers rushed in. They glanced at Aiden lying on the sofa and did not stay long. One of them casually took the expensive-looking lighter from Aiden's table before hurrying on.
At the same time, in Noble Carriage No. 2 ahead.
Boom!
The glass panel in the connecting door was smashed open by the hijackers.
To deal with whatever elite guards might be inside, they used the same trick again. Before stepping in, they threw five or six canisters of special high-concentration sleeping gas into the carriage.
Siss...
White smoke quickly spread through the luxurious room.
The band that had been playing, the waiters carrying wine trays, and the Black Steel Empire liaison officer who had still been talking only a moment ago all rolled their eyes back after inhaling the gas and collapsed to the floor.
However, Diamante, sitting in the center of the sofa, was completely unaffected.
He covered his nose and mouth with his cloak and coldly looked at his fallen subordinates and colleagues. There was not a trace of pity in his eyes, only the violence of a man whose mood had been ruined.
"A bunch of useless trash."
Diamante cursed in a cold voice. He had no intention of saving anyone and simply let the sleeping gas fill the entire carriage.
He slowly drew the long sword at his waist and waited for the enemies rushing in through the smoke, a cruel smile curling at his lips. "I don't care where you little bugs came from. Since you dared to come here, you can all die."
When no one rushed in for a while, the long sword in his hand began to change in a strange way. The blade fluttered like cloth, yet it still gave off the cold shine of steel.
"Half Moon..."
Diamante gathered his strength, preparing to unleash a wide slash and tear apart the intruders together with the entire front half of the carriage.
As for whether his own men on the floor would get caught in it, that did not matter to him. The weak had no right to survive.
However.
At the exact moment his attack was about to be released.
Zzzzt!
The sound of blue electricity suddenly exploded beside his ear.
Diamante's pupils shrank. Before he could react, a tall figure appeared in front of him without warning, less than half a meter away.
Fast. Too fast.
So fast that even his thoughts could not keep up.
"How could I forget about you? Don't interrupt me while I'm enjoying the show."
A lazy voice sounded out.
The next second, a large hand closed around Diamante's face like a steel clamp, instantly stopping all of his movements and Devil Fruit abilities.
"Mmph?!"
Diamante tried to struggle, but the strength he had always been proud of was laughable in that hand.
Aiden held Diamante's face with one hand.
Then he clenched his right fist and casually threw a punch.
Boom!!!
That punch looked casual, but the moment it hit Diamante's stomach, it exploded with terrifying force.
The shockwave from it instantly blew away the thick gas in the carriage and cleared a vacuum area several meters wide.
"Puh-wah..."
Diamante did not even manage to scream. His whole body instantly curled up like a shrimp, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out on the spot.
Aiden let go.
Like tossing away a bag of garbage, he casually threw the Donquixote Family executive under a nearby sofa.
After doing all that, Aiden brushed off his hands as if nothing had happened.
No hurried footsteps came from outside the connecting door right away.
Clearly, the noise from Aiden and Diamante had only convinced the hijackers even more that there were powerful guards here.
They had decided to wait a little longer for the sleeping gas to fully do its work.
Because of that short pause, a strange silence filled the carriage.
"Perfect. I have time to catch up."
Aiden turned around and looked at the single sofa in the corner.
There, Rosinante lay on the floor in an extremely awkward position, motionless, as if he had also been taken down by the gas.
Aiden walked over, looked down at the clumsy undercover agent, and lightly nudged his leg with the tip of his shoe.
Rosinante trembled on the floor, but still refused to get up, clearly making one last effort to keep pretending.
Aiden sighed, crouched down, leaned close to his ear, and quietly teased him, "It's been a long time. Are you still going to pretend to sleep?"
"Oh, and did no one ever tell you? This clown makeup of yours is really ugly."
Looking at Rosinante's messy face, Aiden felt speechless.
Where was the golden retriever from his memory, the one who always wore that warm smile? Why had he painted himself into this mess, with lips redder than blood? What kind of taste was that? It was painful to look at.
The moment he heard that familiar voice, Rosinante could no longer keep pretending.
He suddenly opened his eyes. His sunglasses slipped crookedly to one side, revealing eyes full of shock and panic.
He stiffly raised his head and looked at the face with that familiar teasing smile.
A year ago, at Ohara, this face had belonged to his most reliable comrade.
And now, in the newspapers, it belonged to Captain "Reaper" Aiden, the man whose name made countless pirates fear him.
"Ai... Aiden?!"
To Be Continued
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