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Chapter 38: Cleaning Up the Trash
🕑 Added 2025-08-23 06:23:02 +0000 UTCCompared to the naval forces' collapse, another "battle" raging inside the island resembled more of a hunt in a dark forest.
The members of the God's Knights moved like shadows through ruins and forests, sword light flashing as each strike claimed a pirate's life.
Their faces showed no expression whatsoever, as if they were merely carrying out the most routine of tasks.
Meanwhile, Roger's pirate crew cut through the chaos like a sharp blade thrust into the heart of the mayhem.
"Boys, the treasure's just ahead!" Roger charged forward, his "Divine Departure" sending several CP agents flying along with the buildings behind them.
"Roger, be careful—don't blow up the treasure too!" Rayleigh laughed as he reminded him, his sword easily parrying a CP agent's strike before delivering a counter-attack that left a bone-deep gash across his opponent's chest.
The crew bulldozed forward unstoppably, but Kyle's steps grew increasingly heavy.
His observation haki had already blanketed the entire area, and the fragmented scenes filtering back to him stoked the fires of rage in his chest.
He "saw" young Saint Marcus playfully chasing a slave girl about his own age with his ivory pistol.
The girl screamed in terror, running desperately, only to be shot in the leg the next second and crash to the ground with a shriek of pain.
Saint Marcus clapped his hands excitedly, as if he'd accomplished something magnificent, then slowly approached and aimed his gun at the girl's head.
"Too noisy," Kyle murmured softly.
Roger heard him and turned to ask what was wrong, but froze when he saw Kyle's golden pupils churning with an ice-cold killing intent he'd never witnessed before.
"Kyle?"
Kyle didn't answer. He simply raised his black-gold naginata slowly, its tip angled toward the ground.
"[Silent Apocalypse]"
In an instant, the world within a hundred-meter radius centered on Kyle suddenly "died."
The wind disappeared.
The thunder of cannon fire vanished.
The distant laughter of pirates, the roars of marines, the screams of slaves... everything disappeared.
Saint Marcus, about to pull the trigger, found his excited grin frozen in place.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make the slightest sound. When his gun fired, there was only a faint vibration—the ear-splitting gunshot had vanished without a trace.
The battling members of Roger's crew and the CP agents involuntarily slowed their movements. Deprived of one of their five senses, their attack predictions became subtly off-target.
The entire battlefield had transformed into a bizarre, silent play.
A CP agent preparing to deliver a killing blow stared in shock at his own sword strike. The blade sliced through air but produced no wind sound.
He opened his mouth to shout—his throat vibrated, but no sound could escape.
Absolute silence brought terror more horrifying than any noise—the unknown and the panic it spawned.
Kyle's figure flashed past everyone's vision in a blur.
The next instant, he had appeared before Saint Marcus.
The Celestial Dragon boy's expression of shock hadn't even faded when a large hand seized his throat and lifted him into the air.
Those golden pupils were right there, close enough to touch—containing no anger, no mercy, only a void of ice-cold emptiness, as if looking at a piece of trash.
"You..." Saint Marcus struggled in terror, only to discover he couldn't even make a sound to call for help.
"Kyle!" Roger's mouth seemed to form the word in shock.
Kyle slowly turned his head toward Roger and flashed him a brilliant smile—one that remained bright yet sent chills down the spine.
"Don't worry, Captain Roger."
His five fingers applied slight pressure, and Saint Marcus's head lolled limply downward. Too bad no one could hear the crisp sound of snapping bone.
"I'm just... helping to clean up the 'trash' around here."
Casually tossing the corpse to the ground, Kyle's smile vanished instantly, replaced by cold indifference.
He surveyed the Celestial Dragons and CP agents frozen in terror around him, his lips clearly forming the words:
"Next."
...
"Saint Marcus... Saint Marcus is dead!" A CP agent pointed at the small corpse on the ground, his face drained of all color.
To them, a Celestial Dragon's death was ten thousand times worse than the collapse of naval defenses.
This was direct blasphemy against the world's highest authority—a heinous crime that would shake the entire World Government to its core!
"Kill him!"
"At any cost—kill him!"
"Capture him! Make him suffer the world's most brutal tortures!"
In their silent roars, all surviving CP agents' eyes turned blood-red as they swarmed toward Kyle from all directions.
Amid the chaos, some unaffected pirates also spotted an opportunity.
"That guy just took down a Celestial Dragon! Haha!"
"Kill him—he might have some good loot!"
"Charge! Time to fish in troubled waters!"
Pirates operated on simple, pure logic—they only knew this man had become everyone's target, and chaos was the perfect soil for seizing profit.
Suddenly, naval enemies and pirate enemies—forces that should have been fighting to the death—found themselves with a common goal.
Kyle stood at the eye of the storm, quietly watching enemies rushing at him from all sides.
Black uniforms, twisted faces, gleaming blades...
His smile didn't change one bit, but the last trace of mockery in those golden pupils quietly faded, replaced by an emperor-like indifference.
Just as the first CP agent's finger pistol was about to touch his body, Kyle's gaze suddenly sharpened.
An invisible yet incredibly domineering will exploded outward with him at its center!
Whooom—!
The air seemed to freeze for an instant.
Then black-red lightning crackled from nowhere, like furious serpents coiling around Kyle's body before bursting forth in all directions!
This wasn't the power of the Wave-Wave Fruit.
This was an innate quality belonging only to kings—Conqueror's Haki!
"Ugh..."
"Thud!"
"Guh..."
The vicious expressions on the faces of pirates and CP agents charging at the front froze instantly. Their eyes rolled back, foam spilled from their mouths, and they collapsed backward in waves, hitting the ground with dull thuds.
Wherever the haki passed, bodies fell like wheat.
In just one breath, the ground around Kyle was littered with unconscious enemies, forming an eerie vacuum zone.
Only a few strong-willed individuals managed to keep their footing.
But even they were pale as sheets, cold sweat streaming down their faces, their weapon-wielding hands trembling uncontrollably as they used every ounce of strength to resist that crushing pressure emanating from the depths of their souls.
Not far away, Roger had just cleared an entire battlefield with his own "Divine Departure" when he noticed the disturbance.
"Hmm?" He stopped and looked back, just in time to witness that explosive display of haki.
"Gu ha ha ha! Look at that, Rayleigh!" Roger's grin stretched to his ears as he let out his signature hearty laugh. "That kid's been hiding quite a bit from us!"
Rayleigh, beside him, also lowered his sword, adjusting his glasses as his eyes showed a rare flash of astonishment.
"This haki..."
Rayleigh's thoughts drifted back several years to a chaotic battle with powerful enemies, when young Kyle had lost control in his fury and accidentally released Conqueror's Haki once.
But back then, that haki had been like a small flame that could be snuffed out at any moment—immature and weak, only managing to knock out a few nearby fodder soldiers.
Yet the scene before his eyes was no longer a small flame—this was a blazing inferno capable of consuming everything!
In just a few short years, it had grown to such heights.
"Really now," Rayleigh shook his head helplessly, though his mouth curved upward uncontrollably. "Our ship's full of troublesome monsters."
Roger laughed even harder, shouldering his blade with eyes full of appreciation and fighting spirit. "Now this is interesting! That's the kind of crew member I'd choose!"
On the other end of the battlefield, Garp was engaged in fierce combat with Golden Lion Shiki when he suddenly stopped, his sharp gaze sweeping toward Kyle's location.
"Hmm? This presence..." Garp frowned. "Besides Roger and Rocks, there's someone of this caliber on the island?"
Golden Lion Shiki also paused his attacks, floating in mid-air with an intrigued expression on his arrogant face. "Tch! That guy from Roger's crew? What luck!"
Kyle slowly withdrew his gaze and casually rolled his neck, producing a crisp "crack."
He surveyed the few remaining enemies still struggling to stay upright, tilted his head, and once again wore that inscrutable smile.
...
Chaos was the perfect cover.
Taking advantage of the multi-way brawl, two figures moved swiftly through the shadows of the ruins.
"Hee-haw! This is it!" Ivankov lowered his distinctive voice, his oversized head bobbing as he pointed toward a temporary warehouse. "The competition 'prizes' are all stored inside!"
Beside him, the burly teenage Bartholomew Kuma said nothing, simply using his massive frame to shoulder open the warehouse door.
The interior blazed with jewels and gold, its opulent decorations forming a stark contrast to the hellish scene outside.
The two paid no attention to the gold and gems, their eyes immediately seeking the ornate wooden boxes on the central platform.
"There they are! Ginny's intel was right!"
They rushed forward and opened two boxes. Inside lay not gold or silver, but two bizarrely shaped Devil Fruits resting quietly on velvet cushions.
One was entirely blue, covered in dragon-scale patterns and radiating an ancient, noble aura. The other was flesh-pink with cute cat paw pad designs on its surface, looking completely harmless.
"Which one's the Paw-Paw Fruit?" Ivankov rubbed his chin, slightly hesitant.
"Doesn't matter! Eat it!" Ivankov made a snap decision, reaching for the more imposing blue fruit. Better to gamble than be hunted like rabbits!
"Mamamama..."
Greedy laughter suddenly erupted behind them without warning.
BOOM!!
The warehouse wall exploded like paper—it was Charlotte Linlin! She spotted the two fruits immediately, her eyes blazing with pure avarice.
"Little mice, those are mine!"
Linlin's speed completely contradicted her massive frame as she grabbed the nearest target—Ivankov—by the throat and lifted him into the air.
"Agh!" Ivankov kicked frantically, his face turning purple.
"Run, Kuma!" He used his last breath to roar. "Go save people—even saving one person counts as our victory!"
Kuma's eyes flashed with inner conflict, but seeing Ivankov held high, he knew staying would only add another corpse to the count.
He snatched up the fruit with the paw pad pattern and ran.
Charlotte Linlin grabbed the blue dragon-scale fruit, not even bothering to look at it before stuffing it into her clothes. She casually tossed Ivankov aside like garbage and gave chase with a savage grin.
"Think you can run? Stay right there!"
Just as Kuma felt that terrifying presence about to devour him from behind, a black shadow crashed down from above, landing heavily between him and Linlin in a cloud of dust.
"Hey there, lady."
As the dust settled, Kyle stood blocking Linlin's path with his black-gold naginata, wearing a lazy smile.
"Bullying kids isn't exactly something to brag about, you know."
He'd just finished dealing with two more Celestial Dragons he'd spotted taking potshots for entertainment, along with their CP agent and God's Knight escorts.
If I kill everyone, no one will know I was the killer (not really).
Still unsatisfied, Kyle had heard the commotion here and rushed over immediately.
"Oh? Another one here to die." Charlotte Linlin narrowed her eyes, sizing up this man who'd suddenly appeared. "It's you—that kid from Roger's crew!"
"Correct, but no prize." Kyle shrugged, then turned to address the still-stunned Kuma and struggling Ivankov. "What are you standing around for? Waiting for lunch boxes? Get out of here, kids!"
Kuma and Ivankov snapped back to reality, supporting each other as they fled toward the forest depths without looking back.
During their escape, Kuma looked at the Paw-Paw Fruit in his hand, then back at the figure holding off the monster for them, and without hesitation, shoved the fruit into his mouth.
"Ugh... tastes awful!"
Charlotte Linlin didn't immediately give chase—her gaze was locked onto Kyle.
This man had grown stronger since their last encounter. The aura radiating from him actually made her feel threatened.
"Move aside, kid!"
"Can't do that." Kyle shouldered his naginata, speaking in a joking tone. "I just finished some spring cleaning, and the scene's too tidy now. If you run off, wouldn't that make me look unprofessional?"
Before he finished speaking, he'd vanished from his position.
Linlin barely had time to react before the naginata, wrapped in ring-shaped sonic boom clouds, was already slashing toward her face. She instinctively raised her weapon to block.
CLANG!!
The violent shockwave exploded outward, forcing Linlin's massive frame back half a step.
"You little..." Linlin's expression completely changed, anger and wariness mixing together.
Kyle shook out his hand and grinned.
Hard—damn hard. Truly worthy of a future Emperor.
But now he could sense several powerful auras rapidly approaching from the distance, one of which he knew all too well.
"Roger, huh... tch!"
Charlotte Linlin obviously sensed it too. She glanced at Kuma and Ivankov disappearing into the forest, then at the blue dragon fruit now in her possession, and finally gave Kyle a long, hard look.
The calculation took only an instant.
"Mamamama..." She suddenly laughed again. "Kid, you got lucky this time. I'll be taking this fruit!"
With that, she abandoned the fight, her massive frame transforming into a whirlwind as she charged off in another direction.
For her, having already secured the top-tier prize, there was no point in fighting another monster here only to get surrounded by the Navy and Roger's crew.
Seeing Linlin retreat, Kyle didn't pursue.
He turned toward the chaotic center of the battlefield, the bloodlust in his golden pupils gradually subsiding as reason reclaimed control.
"Alright, venting session's over."
"Now, time to find some real fun."
