“Meow… no… something’s wrong…”
“There’s something in the air… affecting us…”
Although their eyes had reddened, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi did not immediately start a fight. Instead, they quickly realized there was an underlying problem.
This was related to their mastery of Sulong. For Minks, the hardest part was not entering the Sulong state.
As long as they looked at the full moon, they would naturally enter that berserk state.
The difficult part was controlling that violent aura and being able to end the transformation before exhausting all of their stamina. In other words, maintaining control over themselves.
As a result, Minks actually possessed greater control over this capability and naturally detected that something was wrong.
Thump.
Kuma remained silent, but he raised his hand and slapped his own chest.
The next moment, a strangely colored paw-shaped bubble was extracted from his body.
As that bizarre thing left his body, the inexplicable anger burning within Kuma was immediately suppressed.
“As expected… there’s a problem. Everyone, hold on a moment.”
Kuma’s speech remained as steady as ever, but his body was already in motion. Spreading his arms, he slowly brought them together. The surrounding air was affected by his power, condensing into a transparent bear paw-shaped bubble between his palms.
“Pad Cannon.”
Boom!
Kuma fired the compressed air at the ground beneath him. As the bubble exploded, a shockwave surged outward, and the resulting gust blew away the surrounding air, temporarily dispersing the strange powder.
Then Kuma’s massive body displayed agility completely at odds with his size. As he moved swiftly through the crowd, a peculiar bear paw-shaped bubble appeared behind each person. Whatever had been affecting them was slapped out of their bodies by Kuma.
“It was a kind of anger. Something was stimulating the anger in our hearts. I slapped the anger out, but if we don’t find the source of the problem, we’ll probably be affected again soon.”
“It should be in the air. There’s a strange smell… I have masks here. Let’s try wearing them first. Something’s wrong with this island. Let’s retreat to the ship and talk there.”
Luna handed out masks, and the group began withdrawing.
Meanwhile, things were not going so well for Dorry and Brogy.
Already in the midst of a duel, they had been affected even more severely. The two, who had been preparing to stop fighting, once again dragged their exhausted bodies into battle. This time, it looked as though they truly intended to fight to the death.
“You all go ahead. I’ll be there shortly.”
Though he had never met the two giants before, Kuma left the group. After giving himself a slap, he flew behind Dorry and slapped the anger out from his heart as well.
Then he repeated the process and slapped out Brogy’s anger too.
Whether he knew them or not didn’t matter. If there was a chance to help, Kuma would always lend a hand.
“Stop fighting. Something strange is interfering with you.”
Once the anger no longer affected them, Dorry and Brogy regained their senses and realized what had just happened.
“To dare interfere with a warrior’s honorable duel…”
“Unforgivable…. Dorry, let’s work together and find these ba*tards first. Then we’ll settle our match!”
“Agreed. Big kid, let us first see you off. It takes a full year to record this island’s magnetic field in a Log Pose, but we happen to have a Log Pose that’s already recorded.
Warriors of Elbaf do not forget a debt of gratitude. We’ll give it to you.”
Placing Kuma on his shoulder, Brogy strode off in the direction Luna’s group had gone, while Dorry returned to his camp to fetch the Log Pose.
They still had an Eternal Pose leading back to Elbaf, so they weren’t particularly concerned about such things.
On the other side of the island, however, the expressions beneath Bishop’s and Rook’s masks were far from pleasant.
“Rook, looks like your ability has been countered.”
“Can’t be helped. Who would’ve known they had someone with that kind of power? But we’ve already drained Blue Ogre’s and Red Ogre’s stamina. Their duel had pushed them to their limits anyway. They shouldn’t have much fighting power left now.
And it’s not a full moon. As for the rest of them… they’re nothing to worry about.”
Rook’s Devil Fruit ability wasn’t particularly complicated. He had eaten the Emotion-Emotion Fruit, making him an Emotion Human.
He could release a special powder that caused anyone who inhaled it to lose control of their emotions, while Rook himself could amplify a specific emotion in the affected target.
Against opponents with sufficiently powerful Haki, his ability wasn’t very useful. But for an agent who frequently carried out infiltration missions, it was perfect for sowing chaos behind enemy lines.
Especially since Devil Fruits carry many traits of a “first-encounter kill”—without understanding such abilities, one can easily fall into internal chaos.
“The others don’t matter. As long as we get the Red Ogre, the Blue Ogre, and that pink-haired woman, that’s enough. That Devil Fruit user has separated from them. Let’s move before he gets back.”
Combining Geppo and Soru, Bishop raced after Luna’s group. Rook followed close behind, scattering a fresh batch of powder.
This time, it wasn’t anger. Instead, he amplified emotions such as depression and loneliness. Through these negative feelings, people would become increasingly selfish.
Even among the closest of companions, under the influence of his ability, rifts can easily arise.
[We’re crewmates. We should look out for each other.]
[Who is he? Why should I help him?]
Rook’s power still wasn’t directly visible, yet it had already begun subtly influencing everyone. After confirming that Bishop had reached the designated position, he stimulated his ability to the maximum and gave the signal to act.
Pink hair was highly conspicuous. Having locked onto his target, Bishop accelerated further and charged straight toward Ginny.
Without the influence from Rook’s ability, both Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, who were covering the rear, would have been capable of stopping him. But now, a thought had arisen in their hearts:
Why should they help?
Although they realized they were being affected, a few seconds of hesitation was all an elite CP0 agent needed to abduct his target.
“Ginny! No…”
Luna felt as if two little people were arguing inside her head. One told her to turn back, while the other urged her to think only of herself. The conflicting impulses clashed, leaving her frozen in place.
At that moment, however, a giant axe suddenly cleaved through the air, cutting off Bishop’s escape route.
“You b*stards who interfered with our duel, you’re government lapdogs, aren’t you?!”
There were hardly any people on Little Garden to begin with. Kuma had helped them, and the people ahead were Kuma’s companions. In Brogy’s eyes, they had already been labeled as friends.
That meant the person kidnapping Ginny was naturally an enemy.
Having been a pirate for decades, Brogy harbored no goodwill toward the World Government and would never trust a CP0 agent. The moment he saw that white suit, he had already identified his target.
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