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Clap... clap... clap...
The sound of applause echoed through the street.
"Well said."
Jin looked toward the end of the road. A tall, imposing figure stood there, like an iron tower.
"Many of those who consider themselves 'good' are, for the most part, either fools or villains. Sometimes, good intentions can do more harm than good," the man said.
"It's him!"
At the sight of the man, Wilson's pupils contracted, his surprise evident.
"Impossible! What is he doing here?? One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea... the King of Lizards, Hanafuda!"
A Warlord was on the island, and he hadn't heard a thing.
But it was understandable. If he could detect a Warlord operating in secret, his bounty would be much higher than twenty-something million.
'Hanafuda?' Jin thought. 'The Warlord who was defeated by Ace? Kaido's close friend. The one who collects Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits and travels the world?'
Jin's eyes narrowed.
He knew that the small-fry pirates from before wouldn't have had the guts to rebel on their own.
So this was the man behind it all.
"A WARLORD!"
Shuraiya was stunned. The pirates and guards around them had the same expression. Some of them were already breaking out in a cold sweat.
In the world of pirates, the gap between the strong and the weak was as wide as the ocean itself.
The Warlords—the dogs of the World Government—were all infamous pirates in their own right. Each of them possessed the power to cause catastrophic destruction, a fighting force comparable to that of an entire nation.
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The street fell silent. Some people began to back away, smart enough to know that when the city gates catch fire, the fish in the moat are in danger.
Jin watched him calmly. "So, you're the one who incited them. You want to take my place?"
Hanafuda grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth. "I just happened to be in the area. I heard about what was going on in Hannabal Island and got interested. I wanted to see if you were... qualified."
"Qualified?" Jin asked.
"Yes," Hanafuda said. "Qualified to be my subordinate."
Jin froze.
Then he burst out laughing. "I think you've got that backward. You should be the one working for me. I'm a king. You're just a Warlord."
"...Hmph!" Hanafuda scoffed.
He was, in fact, Kaido's undercover agent, responsible for collecting Devil Fruits. He'd been working for him since before Doflamingo had come into the picture. It was his defeat at the hands of Ace, and his subsequent death, that had led Kaido to choose Doflamingo as his replacement.
His status as a Warlord was just a cover, a convenience. He didn't really care about it.
When the news of what had happened in Hannabal Island had reached him, Hanafuda had a gut feeling that this island could become the central hub for pirates in the first half of the Grand Line. If he could take it, it would be the perfect place to gather intelligence, collect fruits—and recruit talent for the Beasts Pirates.
A KING? SO WHAT?
The Beasts Pirates were known for their audacity.
In Hanafuda's mind, all he had to do was control Jin. He didn't need to be the one in the spotlight.
Jin sensed his intentions and smiled. "We'll see if you're strong enough to do that."
"Cocky bastard," Hanafuda said, hefting the kusarigama in his hand.
"Let's take this somewhere else," Jin said. "You don't want to destroy this nice little town we've built, do you?"
"Indeed," Hanafuda replied. "It will be my territory soon. It would be a shame to damage it."
Jin leaped onto a rooftop and began to bound across the town, pushing off the air with a boom and covering thirty meters in a single step.
"The Six Powers... Moonwalk?" Hanafuda raised an eyebrow. The intelligence he had received hadn't mentioned that. But Jin's movements were always kept top secret. Only Dalton and Wilson knew that he had gone to G-3 for special training.
"Interesting," Hanafuda said with a confident grin. "I hope you can give me a good fight."
How could he not be confident? This was the first half of the Grand Line, not the New World, with its hordes of monsters. The chances of him being defeated here were practically zero. Unless he ran into a Marine Admiral.
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"Is he really going to fight a Warlord?"
"He's insane."
"Does he not know how big the gap is?"
The people in the town murmured among themselves.
Shuraiya frowned.
Even Wilson wasn't so sure. He had seen Jin's strange powers, and he knew he had trained with the Marines. But this was a Warlord.
"The king will win!"
Only Maya was unwavering in her belief.
She had also undergone special training at G-3 and had reached the level of a commissioned officer. If she had improved so much, then how much stronger must the king, who had been trained by the hero Garp himself, have become?
Wilson glanced at her. He didn't know where the little girl's confidence came from, but it gave him a little courage of his own.
"Lock down the port!" he commanded. "No ships in or out!"
This assassination attempt was not over yet.
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To the northwest of Hannabal Island was a windy region where a large river snaked out to sea, creating a vast area of tidal flats and reefs. This was the mouth of the river from the Dead End Race.
The constant high tides and strong winds made it completely uninhabitable. It was a no-man's land.
On a dry patch of reef, Jin landed, and Hanafuda followed. They faced each other, about twenty meters apart.
Hanafuda was 514cm tall. He wore a large black coat, adorned with a sash and other decorations. He had a pair of mechanical gauntlets on his hands. His weapon was a crescent-bladed scythe, with a long iron chain attached to the end, connected to a large, spiked iron ball.
It was a fearsome and strange weapon.
Usually, the stranger the weapon, the faster you die.
But if you master it, the stranger the weapon, the greater the damage.
"Very well," Hanafuda said, swinging the scythe in a circle, the chain rattling. "Let's see what makes you think you can take on a Warlord."
With a whoosh, the scythe flew through the air.
Jin sidestepped, and the scythe crashed into a massive rock behind him, a rock that had stood against the wind and the sun for centuries, and shattered it into a thousand pieces.
Hanafuda yanked on the chain, and the scythe flew back, its blade glinting in the light as it swung around for a reverse cut.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Jin ducked, and the blade passed just over him.
Hanafuda spun the scythe and grinned. "Hey, is that all you can do? Dodge?"
Jin cracked his knuckles. "You know, you remind me of a certain hero."
"A hero?" Hanafuda said, surprised.
"Thresh, the Chain Warden."
He vanished. In the next instant, he was standing right in front of Hanafuda, and he threw a punch.
WHAAAAAAAM!!!
The fist slammed into Hanafuda's stomach.
"Gwah...!"
His body bent into the shape of a shrimp, and he was sent flying back twenty or thirty meters, crashing through a dozen rocks before he finally came to a stop.
He struggled to his feet, his face contorted in pain.
He was in shock. He couldn't believe it.
How?
Here, in the first half of the Grand Line, he had been wounded by a single punch from a man he had considered a mere toy.
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