You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/marvel6395
On the island of Kraikana, the baboons living there are called Human-Demon Baboons, a species known for their remarkable ability to imitate. If the humans around them are gentle and mild-tempered, their own behavior will be calm and docile, but if the humans they observe are violent, they will likewise become fierce and savage.
In recent years, due to the influence of Heina's "Decay-Decay Fruit", the entire Sikeal Kingdom has been shrouded in a gloomy, dark atmosphere. As a result, the Human-Demon Baboons have naturally grown wicked as well, even picking up human weapons and armor, imitating human martial arts and sword techniques...
Facing this pack of bad-tempered, hostile, kung-fu-trained baboons, Liam, who had been completely drained of strength just moments ago, really suffered a bit. After taking two punches from the baboons, his spirit suddenly revived, as if his bones and muscles were reawakened, strength gradually returning to his limbs...
Then, with a headbutt, he smashed it into a baboon's skull, sending the creature rolling over with white eyes and collapsing flat on the ground.
The other baboons were startled, but their excitement only grew, and one after another, they were pinned down by Liam.
Sitting atop a pile of baboons, Liam rested for a while. It wasn't that fighting these baboons had exhausted him. It was simply that his strength hadn't fully recovered yet. Even though he had just taken out those Human-Demon Baboons with one punch each, he had done so while feeling as if his entire body was under a "Weakened" debuff, his limbs heavy and sluggish.
The baboons were indeed strong; the martial and sword skills they'd learned by imitating humans were actually fairly decent. They might be able to bully a heavily injured Zoro, but trying to act tough before Liam was just… adorable.
"…"
Liam looked up at the sky. That arc of light that had slashed through the air and struck him down earlier, what exactly was that thing?
When it passed over him, he hadn't felt anything at all. So it definitely wasn't a flying slash or a Rankyaku from a blade. Yet after being hit by it, his strength had vanished instantly, and he'd fallen from the sky.
There was no doubt, it had to be something created by a Devil Fruit power.
Lose all strength? Which Devil Fruit had such an ability?
Liam had a faint memory of it, but for the moment, he just couldn't recall… He scratched his head. Maybe this was the downside of relying too much on his Stand for remembering things, his own memory was deteriorating.
Perched atop the baboon pile, Liam rested his chin on one hand, looking utterly serious, like a thinker lost in contemplation.
Soon, he flipped himself up with one arm and leapt down from the heap, heading straight into the forest.
…
Looking skyward, Liam retraced in his mind the position where he'd fallen earlier. Before his eyes, the sky itself seemed to turn into a sheet of graph paper, as he mentally drew lines and curves, constructing a parabolic model to estimate…
Where did the staff fall?
When that strange arc of light from the ground had hit him, he'd suddenly gone limp, losing all strength, and naturally couldn't hold onto his Ruyi Jingu Bang (golden staff). It must have fallen somewhere in this forest.
Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) can detect objects too, otherwise, one couldn't dodge bullets. But sensing objects is far less intuitive than sensing living beings...
Even with Observation Haki fully active, trying to find the staff in this dark, gloomy forest was no different from looking for a needle in the sea.
To make matters worse, the forest was filled with the auras of countless baboons, constantly disrupting his perception.
"Woah-woah! Oooh-oooh-oooh!"
Baboons' cries echoed around him, they hid among the trees where Liam passed, pairs of beastly eyes glowing in the darkness, watching him furtively.
Liam rested one hand against a tree trunk, his expression grave. He hadn't found a thing...
Behind him, a burly baboon wearing armor and holding a massive axe swung it down toward Liam's back.
Am I going to end up with early-onset dementia like this...?
Without turning around, Liam ducked down, and the axe whooshed over his head with a Bang, splitting the tree clean in two.
Liam lightly jabbed his elbow backward, the burly baboon's eyes bulged, its body trembling, and it dropped the axe from its hands.
"Just now, a metal staff fell from the sky along with me. Do you know where in this forest it landed?"
Liam stepped on the baboon's head, looking down as he asked.
Animals in the pirate world are often intelligent, especially these Human-Demon Baboons, who can imitate humans; their intellect should be enough to understand his words.
"Woah… oooh oooh!" The baboon struggled beneath his foot, and soon, more cries echoed through the surrounding forest.
Liam brought his palms together like a blade and slashed in the direction of the sound, sending out a several-meter-long arc of light…
He had just used his bare hand to unleash a Rankyaku (Tempest Kick).
I wonder if Jabra, Blueno, and the other CP9 agents would start questioning their entire existence if they saw this scene. The Rokushiki martial arts they had spent years training to master since childhood, in Liam's hands, they seemed effortless, natural, and fluid, as though he had completely transcended the forms and frameworks of Rokushiki itself.
With a single sideways "Storm Palm," he sliced through the air, shearing off the hair on top of more than ten baboons' heads, leaving those clever beasts frozen in shock. They did love to imitate humans, that much was true… but how were they supposed to imitate movements like that? Or rather… was this guy even human?
Driven by Liam to help him search for his golden-iron staff, the Human-Demon Baboons hooted and grumbled in protest, clearly unhappy about being bossed around.
Before long, thanks to his "enthusiastic" baboon helpers, Liam finally found what he'd been looking for. The staff had fallen from the sky, and nearly three-quarters of it was buried at an angle into the earth of the forest floor, the remaining tip hidden among tangled roots, no wonder he hadn't been able to find it after wandering for so long.
The baboons, all of them covered in bruises and lumps, were overjoyed to be dismissed, howling as they fled in relief.
…
Liam bent down to pull the staff out of the ground, but just then, the baboons behind him were suddenly sent flying, bleeding, as if struck by something invisible.
A blade aura, sharp and overwhelming, tore through the air!
Wearing glasses and looking every bit like a refined secretary, Gabard (one of the female swordswomen among the Four Knights) swung her sword in one fluid motion, cleaving through the baboon pack, her slash streaking straight toward Liam's back.
Bang!
The flying slash ripped through the ground and trees in its path, but its target stood completely unharmed. The attack brushed past him, and where he'd been standing, there was still an afterimage lingering in the air.
"Did I miss?" Gabard's beautiful eyes flashed sharply behind her glasses. "No… he dodged at the very last second!"
He noticed my attack beforehand? Just from instinctive reaction?
Liam kicked upward, launching the buried staff into the air. Whiz-whiz-whiz! The golden-iron rod burst free from the dirt, spinning. He stepped forward and kicked it mid-spin…
Whiz!
The staff shot toward the bespectacled swordswoman like a cannonball.
"So fast!"
Gabard hastily flicked her whip-like sword, Snap!... she managed to deflect the flying staff.
Whiz-whiz-whiz! The staff spun through the air in a wide arc. Gabard's sword hand trembled violently, the reverberation of that impact still running up her arm.
"What… incredible strength…"
The golden staff whirled back again, Liam stepped forward, leapt, and as he caught it midair, the staff was instantly coated in pitch-black Armament Haki.
"Not good!"
Gabard swung her sword, its flexible blade also wrapped in Haki, snapping straight as if it were a steel rod.
Liam brought his staff down! Gabard raised her sword to block!
Bang!
Black sparks of Haki exploded between the black staff and the blackened sword. The wind from the shockwave burst outward, scattering the surrounding leaves. The wounded baboons fled in panic, What kind of monsters are these humans?! How's a baboon supposed to imitate that?!
Such power…
Gabard's black sword was being slowly pressed down by the black iron staff. Staring into the pirate's eyes at point-blank range, she said, "Looks like the Marines have underestimated you. Four hundred million Berries doesn't do your strength justice."
Liam grinned. "Then what about your captain? Does seven hundred ninety million sound more fitting?"
"What did you just say?!" A dangerous light gleamed behind Gabard's glasses.
"Don't play deaf!"
Liam pressed harder, then with one heavy swing, he sent Gabard flying.
She flipped midair, landed on a tree, and immediately lashed out with another attack, a serpentine flying slash that hissed through the air.
"Oh? A special sword technique for a whip-blade, huh?"
Liam swung his staff, launching a flying 'staff strike', in truth, it was simply a Rankyaku unleashed through his iron rod. He had long since confirmed that a swordsman's "flying slash" was essentially the same technique, a Rankyaku performed with a sword edge.
In this world, everything connects to the same principles.
Liam used his staff. Gabard used her whip-sword. They clashed again and again throughout the forest, toppling trees in every direction, while the baboons ran for their lives.
Bang!
Gabard was kicked flying, her body whizzing backward as she crashed through tree after tree…
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"The attack that hit me from the sky earlier, was that your Devil Fruit ability?"
Liam used Soru, flashing before her in an instant, raising his golden staff. "What's it called?"
"If you're asking for a lady's name…" Gabard, leaning against a broken tree, lifted her head. A thin trickle of blood ran from her lips. Her eyes behind the glasses stared up at the descending staff, and she smiled faintly. "Then I must say, this isn't a very polite way to ask."
She raised her hand, and casually caught the heavy, descending staff in her palm.
The same staff that had earlier struck her with crushing power, that had made her sword hand ache from the force, now felt weightless, almost gentle, as if it had politely placed itself into her hand.
In front of her, Liam's grip loosened, he could no longer hold the staff. A wave of weakness washed through him; his whole body went limp as he collapsed.
"Don't flatter yourself, glasses girl…" Damn it, it was bizarre. Even speaking a single sentence seemed to drain what little energy he had left. "I'm asking for the name of your Devil Fruit."
He lifted his gaze, only to see the gleaming whip-sword poised at his throat.
"Don't move," Gabard said calmly, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Ah, sorry. I forgot. You don't actually have the strength to move right now."
"True enough," Liam replied. As he spoke, his long black hair seemed to come alive, each strand writhing like a living serpent, twisting and coiling around Gabard's flexible sword with a soft shua-shua sound.
Gabard gave a cold smile. Her sword, entangled by the black hair, pressed forward regardless, its tip slowly piercing the skin of Liam's throat.
"Hair is still just hair," she sneered. "If you think this can stop me, you're underestimating me far too much." A cold gleam flashed across her glasses. "You don't even know what my Devil Fruit is, and yet you dare to fight me so recklessly? Heh… so that's it, you've got some way to steal other people's Devil Fruit powers, don't you? No wonder you get so arrogant and careless whenever you face a Fruit user."
The blade, wrapped in black hair, pressed against Liam's neck; a thin line of blood ran down from the shallow cut, but he didn't seem to care at all. He smiled. "So, you actually know me pretty well."
Gabard adjusted her glasses again. "Chopperna Liam, bounty: 400 million Berries. Master of Armament Haki and Observation Haki. Exceptional physical ability. A rare pirate type who's also highly skilled in Rokushiki techniques. You've even mastered Life Return, letting you freely control your own hair… With strength like yours, even though you've only been active in the Paradise half of the Grand Line, many people in the New World already hold you in high regard."
"Sounds like you've been to the New World yourself," Liam chuckled. "How's the scenery over there?"
"Trying to stall for time?" Gabard teased. "Men really are naïve, aren't they? Do you think that by dragging things out, you'll somehow recover your strength little by little? Heh… cute thought."
Liam blinked. "Wait, so I can't?"
"Of course not, cough! You're sly, trying to trick me into spilling information!" Gabard pushed up her glasses again.
"Not talking, huh?" Liam said lightly. "Then forget it."
"Heh…" Gabard started to push her sword deeper, intending to make him behave, but suddenly found that her sword wouldn't go any farther.
Liam's neck was as hard as steel.
Beneath her sword, Liam lifted his head. His arms, and then his entire body, bulged with tense, powerful muscles, an explosive force radiating from every fiber.
"Impossible…!" Gabard's eyes widened in shock.
The black hair coiled around her sword snapped taut, yanking the stunned woman forward, and Liam rose to his feet, driving a single, devastating punch that sent her flying.
…
"…Be my woman, Kuujou Robin."
When Heina said this, the only one truly shocked among those present was Ross.
She was frozen, confused, Heina was a woman, wasn't she? And Robin was also a girl!
But Heina clearly had no interest in the princess. She didn't even spare Ross a glance, as if completely unconcerned that her return might cause any kind of trouble.
Robin smiled faintly. "What a shame, you're not really my type."
"I like you even more for that!" Heina laughed aloud. "How can you know unless you try?"
With that, she lunged forward, her sword thrusting straight at Robin.
B.I.B. (Black Iron Body) appeared as a dark shadow between them. Heina's eyes flickered, the sword she'd aimed at Robin was caught midair by B.I.B.'s hand.
"You two go on ahead." The black-armored figure didn't even turn around as it spoke to Robin.
"What is this…" Heina muttered. Her sword was gripped by something invisible in the air. "It feels like… some kind of phantom?"
Ross, trembling, edged closer to Robin.
Robin didn't waste time. She nodded toward B.I.B.'s back. "Be careful."
She wasn't particularly worried about B.I.B.'s safety; not only was it copied from Liam's formidable power, but as a Stand, it was elusive and intangible. Even if it couldn't win, it could easily retreat by sinking into the ground.
"Trying to run?"
Seeing Robin escort Ross away, Heina tried to give chase, but her long sword was still tightly held by that unseen force.
B.I.B.'s narrow, glowing eyes shone a pale white. Its right hand gripped Heina's sword firmly, while its left arm, covered in swirling blue flame patterns, lunged straight for Heina's chest…
(End Of This Chapter)