One Piece: The Dragon All-Star - 197

Chapter 197: Kai Blunders Into the Combat Testing Arena! The Traitor York!

Punk Hazard, outer perimeter.

“Thanks for the hard work.”

Kai hung up the call from Enel, forcing down the smile tugging at his mouth.

Since Enel had already located Vegapunk, it was time for Kai to take the stage.

“How do we get in?” Kuma asked quietly beside him.

According to Vegapunk’s intel, today’s “guests” inside the facility were far beyond what they had expected.

Kai lifted a brow, his grin turning bold and reckless.

“Is that even a question?”

He planted a foot and shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

“We charge straight in.”

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, his body blurred into a streak and slammed head-on into the towering alloy perimeter wall.

A barrier built to withstand heavy artillery was as fragile as dried cardboard before his monstrous strength.

It exploded open with a massive hole.

In the same instant, an ear-splitting alarm tore through the base’s silence, screaming across every sector.

Inside the base, the combat testing arena.

The people preparing to begin Seraphim testing all froze at the sudden alarm.

“What happened?”

“That is a top-level intrusion alarm. A powerful enemy has broken in,” Shaka explained quickly, a note of urgency slipping into his usually flat tone.

“A powerful enemy?” Tokikake looked pleased instead of worried, a grin full of interest spreading across his face. “Which unlucky bastard picked this timing to force his way in?”

Was that not perfect?

They had walked straight into the gun barrel.

The other vice admirals chuckled too, relaxed.

With this lineup, unless an entire Yonko crew was storming the facility, everyone else was just delivering themselves for free.

But Admiral Kizaru and Kuzan traded a quick look.

Both frowned slightly as the same bad feeling rose in their chests.

Moments later, an emergency call from the surveillance room confirmed it.

“Ad‑Admiral Kizaru! I‑it’s him—Disaster Kai! Disaster Kai is here!”

The Den Den Mushi voice shook with terror.

“What?”

Kizaru’s lazy gaze sharpened at once. “Where is he now?”

“We—we can’t track his exact route!” the Marine blurted, voice cracking. “He broke in from the east and just kept going straight west—smashing through everything, nothing’s stopping him—”

Then he suddenly screamed, almost choking on the words. “Wait—his line… it’s straight for the combat testing arena! He’s heading right for it!”

The room went still.

And in the next heartbeat.

Boom.

A deafening blast exploded.

The special wall that even Pacifista lasers could not budge was punched through like paper, leaving a jagged-edged hole.

A black shadow wrapped in smoke and debris shot out of it.

Several vice admirals positioned up front could not react at all. They only felt an unstoppable, violent force slam into them.

Their bodies flew up like kites with snapped strings, hurled hard into the air.

The shadow did not slow, still on course to smash through the opposite wall and escape.

“Cannot let you leave that easily.”

Kuzan’s voice was as lazy as ever, but his movement was lightning fast.

He raised his right arm. A terrifying surge of freezing air became a pale shockwave and blasted out.

“Ice Time Capsule!”

The freezing strike aimed at the shadow’s back was met by a casual backhanded palm.

Frost spread instantly, locking the entire arm and part of the torso inside a thick shell of ice.

“Kai, leaving without even saying hello?” Kuzan lowered his hand and spoke slowly.

Almost at the same moment Kuzan moved, a dazzling golden flash appeared behind Kai like a teleport, forming a perfect pincer.

Gion and Tokikake reacted instantly, spreading left and right to seal two more angles with sharp pressure.

In a breath, a ring formed around Kai, built from two admirals and two admiral candidates.

“My, my. So it is you all.”

Kai sounded completely unhurried.

“Admiral Kizaru, Admiral Kuzan, and Vice Admiral Gion. What a grand welcome.”

Faced with that luxury blockade, Kai greeted them as casually as if he had run into acquaintances on the street.

He gave his right arm a small shake.

Crackling sounds rang out as the ice shattered under strain, and it collapsed to the floor in chunks, revealing him completely unharmed.

Kai brushed at his shoulder as if dust might be there, then flicked his gaze toward the vice admirals lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

A bright, mocking smile spread across his face.

“Oh? Those guys I just sent flying were vice admirals? My mistake. I thought they were speed bumps.”

“Enough!” Gion’s voice snapped like a whip. “Kai, today is the day you go down and get taken in!”

Her named sword Konpira rang as it left the sheath, tip leveled at his chest, her eyes gone cold.

New grudges and old surged in her chest.

Today, she would settle them here.

“Is that so?” Kai laughed softly. “Not so sure about that.”

He looked away like he did not care, turning his attention to the Pacifistas and Seraphim moving in under Shaka’s command.

So because Kuma wasn’t in the Warlords anymore, they used Edward Weevil as the template instead?

That did fit.

But what caught Kai’s eye most were the small Seraphim with black wings on their backs.

Click.

Kai pulled out an Image Den Den Mushi and casually adjusted the angle toward the Seraphim, then pressed the shutter.

“Mmm. Perfect angle.”

Kai’s mouth curled.

“Never thought Mihawk as a kid would be pretty cute.”

Just imagining printing the photo into an album and slapping it down in front of the World’s Strongest Swordsman made Kai’s shoulders tremble with excitement.

This kind of joke would feed him for a lifetime.

“You bastard!”

Seeing Kai act like he was alone even while surrounded, Gion clenched her teeth so hard her jaw ached, fingers whitening on the hilt.

With this many monsters around him, he still dared to ignore them?

She shot a look at Kuzan and Kizaru, waiting for the order.

“Kai-kun, it would be better if you stayed and explained yourself,” Kizaru said, hands in his pockets, tone still unhurried.

But the gaze behind his lenses had grown heavier.

“If you make too much of a mess, even an old man like me is going to get a headache.”

“A headache?” Kai lifted his brows, then grinned. “Then do not deal with it.”

Under everyone’s stunned eyes, he made Kizaru a blunt offer.

“Want to switch jobs and join the Beasts Pirates? The pay and perks will be generous.”

“Mmm. I will pass,” Kizaru said, rubbing his chin with a shrug. “Never wanted to work for pirates.”

“Everything has a first time,” Kai said, sweeping his gaze across the arena. “Besides, are pirates and the Government really so different?”

“Looks like we cannot negotiate,” Kizaru said.

Kizaru fell silent for a moment, then said nothing more.

His hands crossed in front of his chest, golden light bursting from his fingertips.

“Yasakani no Magatama!”

A storm of brilliant light bullets poured down like a violent rain, instantly opening the siege.

“Ice Block: Pheasant Beak!”

Kuzan moved almost at the same time, freezing the air, condensing it into a huge ice bird that shrieked and dove.

“Rokushiki Secret Art: Finger Pistol: Boar Rush!”

Tokikake stabbed a finger forward, and a boar-shaped shockwave blasted out.

“Blooming Flowers: Soaring Swan!”

Gion’s sword light burst like flowers in full bloom, slicing in from all directions.

And it was not over.

Under Shaka’s command, seven Seraphim and ten Pacifistas attacked at once.

In a single instant, a dazzling, lethal storm swallowed Kai completely.

Deafening blasts and blinding light devoured the entire testing arena.

“Did we hit him?” Gion stared at the boiling smoke and chaotic energy.

In her Observation Haki, Kai’s presence had not moved at all.

“Tch. The newspaper made him sound like a god, and this is it?” Tokikake whistled, a cocky grin on his face.

He did not notice that neither Kuzan nor Kizaru had relaxed even slightly.

If anything, their faces had grown more severe.

In the next second, Kai’s voice drifted out from the center of the smoke, calm and almost lazy.

“Nice power behind those moves. I approve.”

A gust swept through. The smoke peeled away.

And the moment the scene inside became visible, everyone’s breathing stopped.

“How, how is that possible?”

Gion’s pupils shrank as her voice slipped out.

“No way… how is he still standing?” Tokikake grabbed at his hair, his face full of disbelief.

At the center of the battlefield, Kai still stood exactly where he had been, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed.

Not only was he uninjured, but even his clothes showed not a single tear.

Faint light flowed across his body, as if he were wrapped in a crystal armor.

Kuzan’s brow knotted hard. A deeply ominous feeling rose in him.

Was it this whole setup doing it? Otherwise, there was no way to explain it.

Two admirals. Two admiral candidates. Seven Seraphim. Ten Pacifistas.

A full combined strike like that, and he was untouched.

This was beyond anything Kuzan knew about defense.

Forget Kaido.

Even Charlotte Linlin, the so-called iron balloon, could never do something like this.

“So this is the power of technology,” Kai thought.

“That’s enough talk. I’m leaving.”

Kai never bothered to explain his abilities to his enemies.

While they were still stunned, his body flickered and blurred into an afterimage, charging again along his chosen route.

“Stop him,” Kuzan and Kizaru moved almost at the same time.

Freezing air and violent lasers intertwined again, striking Kai’s back perfectly.

But whether it was frost or light, the moment they hit that crystal sheen, they sank like mud into the sea and did nothing.

“How can this be?” Gion’s pupils tightened.

But her combat instincts crushed down the shock instantly.

“Do not freeze up. Chase him.”

Tokikake stomped, using Soru to explode forward into pursuit.

“Wait,” Kizaru’s voice cut in, low and suddenly sharp.

He had already pulled out a special encrypted Den Den Mushi and pressed it to his ear.

Whatever he heard on the other side made his expression darken at a visible speed, like storm clouds gathering.

He slammed the call shut, jaw tight. “Move. Now,” he snapped. “Mother Flame project laboratory, double-time—Vegapunk’s in trouble. We got played; this is a diversion.”

A little earlier.

Vegapunk’s excited barrage of questions at Enel had woken York from sleep.

“Mmm. What is going on?”

Rubbing sleepy eyes, she sat up. Her blurred gaze quickly focused.

Enel, surrounded by the main body and the other satellites, came into view.

York jolted.

Sleep vanished in an instant.

Very quickly, she learned the whole story from Vegapunk himself.

When the other satellites heard that Vegapunk had struck a deal with Kai and planned to break free of the World Government’s control, they all expressed willingness to leave with the main body and pursue real scientific freedom and ideals.

“Then let us work together and open a new future,” Vegapunk said.

He was not surprised by their decision.

They shared the same memories.

Even if their personalities were slightly adjusted, he believed the pure heart that wanted to use science to benefit humanity and explore the unknown was something they all shared.

Under the World Government, that ideal would never be allowed to stretch its wings.

But drowned in excitement, he did not notice the flash of panic that crossed York’s eyes.

“Ah. I need the bathroom. It is time to, you know, go,” York suddenly said.

Vegapunk did not suspect a thing. He only urged her on.

“Go and come right back. I have temporarily looped the nearby surveillance into normal footage, but it may not fool them for long. The guards in the monitoring room could notice at any time.”

“Got it. I will be right back,” York said quickly, nodding, and trotted out.

Enel glanced at York’s retreating back, a faint sense of wrongness pricking at him.

But seeing that Vegapunk and the other satellites showed no reaction, Enel forced the doubt down.

Kai said the old man was the smartest in the world.

Nothing should go wrong, right?

Elsewhere.

York left the lab, but she did not head for any bathroom.

Her steps quickened until she was nearly running through the empty corridors.

She charged out of the core research zone, ignoring the startled looks from passing researchers.

To be safe, she kept running until she reached a quiet corner with no one around, then stopped, panting.

With her back against cold metal, the innocent look she usually wore was gone.

In its place was a twisted resolve.

“Do not blame me. You are the ones betraying the World Government.”

She pulled a Den Den Mushi from an inner pocket, preparing to contact the only person who could help her now.

“Admiral Kizaru. Save me. The Beasts Pirates broke in!”

York cried like her world was ending.

After receiving Kizaru’s definite reply, she finally relaxed and ended the call.

Goodbye, Vegapunks.

I will be the only Vegapunk.

York cast one last look toward the laboratory, then turned away without hesitation.

That was when a cold, indifferent voice spoke, and the world dropped out from under her.

“So tell me. What should a traitor’s ending look like, York?”