Chapter 886 - 886: I Was Wrong, I Won’t Dare Again!

Not only that, while Momonosuke was mocking Juste, his shameless, cross-eyed gaze also carried a sticky, disgusting look as it brazenly traveled from Robin's long, straight legs all the way up to the mark on her chest.

"Are you really his blood relative? If you keep looking at her with those disgusting eyes, I won't mind digging your eyes out and crushing them under my feet right now."

Just then, a slightly lazy yet cold female voice suddenly came from behind the Poneglyph, interrupting everyone's movements.

'That voice...', Robin, standing beside Shanks, suddenly stiffened.

An extremely complicated emotion flashed through her eyes, and she immediately pressed her lips together.

Along with that cold echo, a graceful figure slowly walked out from behind the stone tablet. She wore a high-end pink kimono patterned with cherry blossoms and had long green hair.

She was a very beautiful woman, with a hint of sharpness at the corners of her eyes.

She ignored the tense Shanks and Juste and merely turned her head slightly, casting Momonosuke a look as if he were a pig waiting to be slaughtered.

"Huh? Sis... Sister! I was wrong! I won't do it again!"

At this moment, Momonosuke, who had been arrogant and overbearing just moments ago and had not even taken Juste seriously, shuddered the instant he heard those words. Like a mouse seeing a cat, he slipped straight off the Poneglyph with a thump.

He knelt on the ground and very skillfully, without the slightest shred of dignity, raised both hands, his face covered in nauseating flattery.

"Sis, don't be angry! I was just joking!"

Momonosuke explained with a grin, "Although I'm indeed not Father's biological son, isn't everyone united behind us now? With you and Mom around, it's only natural for me to have a little connection and lend the World Government a hand."

The more he spoke, the more shameless he became, "Whether it's being Lord Rosse's loyal stepson or becoming his brother-in-law, I'm fine with either! I'm even willing to devote myself to the gods!"

"Shut up. You disgraceful piece of trash."

The green-haired woman could no longer stand it and glared angrily at Momonosuke.

"Yes! I'll shut up right now!"

Momonosuke immediately covered his mouth and obediently shrank to the side.

Without paying any more attention to this begging dog, the green-haired woman slowly turned her head.

Her gaze passed over Shanks and the others, who were on high alert, and landed on Robin.

"Long time no see, Sister Robin."

A faint smile appeared at the corners of the woman's lips, but there was not the slightest warmth of a reunion in her eyes.

The relationship between her and Robin was actually extremely complicated.

There was no grudge between them, nor did they have much of an emotional bond.

They had simply fought side by side when facing Rosse before, so they could be considered acquaintances who knew each other fairly well.

Both had been abandoned by their mother. She had chosen to rely on Rosse, while Robin had chosen to stay away from him.

There was nothing wrong with that. Even though Rosse was her father's killer, she didn't care anymore.

After all, her biological father wasn't exactly a good person either.

"Yeah, long time no see, Hiyori. I really didn't expect that you would be the one sent to find me."

Robin's eyes narrowed slightly, her voice sounding especially desolate in the dark tomb.

"Amatsuki Hiyori," at this moment, Shanks stepped to the very front of the group.

With his remaining hand gripping Gryphon at his waist, he stared seriously at the seemingly delicate woman in the kimono before him.

"Vice Minister of the World Government's Military Affairs Department. Both her strength and position are on the level of an Admiral."

Hearing the words "Admiral level," Crocodile, following behind, sucked in a cold breath.

'Is it really necessary to send someone of this level to deal with a small fry like me?'

'Is this woman even stronger than Vivi?'

"Oh? Shanks, I didn't expect that a rat being chased around by the World Government like a stray dog would actually know quite a lot."

Hearing this, Amatsuki Hiyori did not deny it. Instead, she smiled lightly.

"I heard that you once spent some time on the same broken ship as my irresponsible parents. Back then, you were the junior errand boy in their eyes. If we go by seniority, the two of us could actually be considered the same generation, couldn't we?"

"Hahahaha! That may be true if we're talking about seniority, but I'm afraid you're looking down on me."

Shanks threw his head back and laughed heartily, but there was no trace of laughter left in his eyes.

"If we're comparing age and the amount of blood we've shed on this sea, I'm a whole generation older than a pampered little girl like you!"

The instant his words fell...

Clang!

A terrifying burst of Conqueror's Haki erupted.

The bronze stone tiles beneath Shanks's feet instantly shattered under the tremendous recoil, and his cloaked figure completely disappeared from everyone's sight in less than a tenth of a second.

Almost at the exact same moment.

Ding!

A crisp metallic collision rang out more than ten meters above the Poneglyph.

Only when sparks from the collision shot out like fireworks did Juste beside them, and even Crocodile, who had always considered himself a strong fighter, widen their eyes in disbelief.

Because even with their dynamic vision, they had barely been able to catch the trajectories of the two just now.

They could only vaguely see two figures, one red and one green, meeting in midair.

"So fast... so fast that even Observation Haki can't keep up."

Cold sweat poured from Crocodile's forehead as he secretly swallowed.

He couldn't help feeling fortunate that he had found some allies.

If he had foolishly come here alone, he probably wouldn't even have known how he died.

But what he didn't know was the more people who came, the stronger the enemy they would face.

No matter how many people came, they would ultimately have to go through some setbacks before they could obtain what they wanted.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

After Shanks and Amatsuki Hiyori exchanged blows, the two briefly separated using the force of their collision, then attacked each other again at an even more incredible speed.

Amid the sharp metallic clashes, the two famous blades locked together in midair.

Only at this moment did everyone's slow retinas finally catch up with the pace of the battle.

Shanks had already left the ground. Holding Gryphon in one hand, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, he fought Amatsuki Hiyori in midair. She wore a cherry-blossom kimono and wielded a Zanpakuto.

"Heh! No wonder he occasionally mentions you when chatting, saying that you're a man who can give him a little fun."

In midair, Amatsuki Hiyori blocked Shanks' slash with one hand, still maintaining her effortless elegance.

She let out a soft laugh, but the afterimages of her blade as she rotated her wrist were even faster, wildly attacking Shanks's vital points.

"Your strength really is quite good."

"Your swordsmanship and strength aren't bad either."

Shanks swung Gryphon and very directly put all his strength into it.

"To be able to serve as Vice Minister of the Military Affairs Department, your strength should be greater than that of the heads of the other departments, right?"

"Pointless attempt to extract information. I'm a vice minister simply because my strength is only enough for the position of vice minister. If they had the ability, who wouldn't want to be a minister?"

Amatsuki Hiyori laughed lightly, completely unconcerned about revealing information.

The clash between the two was extremely dangerous, with every move aimed at killing.

Yet as they exchanged blows at tremendous speed, both were extremely restrained, compressing and concentrating enough power to destroy the world into the exact points where their blades collided.

If they allowed their Haki and strength to leak out, even a casual wide-area sword wave would be enough to cause a devastating earthquake in an instant, burying this entire mausoleum within a hundred meters, along with everyone inside.

At that point, no one would be able to leave alive with what they wanted.

But in this extreme duel where both sides were giving it everything they had, the longer they fought, the more Shanks's sword hand began to tremble uncontrollably.

The shock in his eyes was rising at an exponential rate.

Was this the true foundation of the World Government?

Based on his understanding of the World Government's system, he knew very well that being a vice minister was really not a particularly high position within the World Government.

There were more than ten powerful figures at the level above it.

Yet even a vice minister, the daughter of an old acquaintance no less, had now grown strong enough to fight him.

Then just how powerful was the World Government's foundation?

And what about their own group, who had always been struggling to survive in the cracks and considered themselves the last hope of resisting the World Government?

Even if they combined the Whitebeard Pirates, the Revolutionary Army, the NEO Marine, and all the scattered resistance forces across the sea, forget about finding someone stronger than Shanks, even finding ten top fighters who could fight him to a draw would probably be an extravagant hope.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Weren't you guys just as anxious as ants on a hot pan? Why not take this opportunity to have a good look at that lousy stone tablet you've been treating like a treasure?"

Momonosuke, who had been hiding to the side, acted as though nothing had happened. He instantly switched from his earlier obsequious manner back to his usual smug, grinning face.

He even helpfully pointed at the Poneglyph behind him, reminding the people standing there dumbfounded.

"Hah! Save your crocodile tears! The only reason I stepped into this place today is to twist off your head and take it back to the New World!"

Juste let out a cold snort like an enraged lion.

BOOM!

Two blazing red-orange flames erupted from Juste's fists, lighting up the dark, damp tomb as brightly as day.

Logia, Mera Mera no Mi, Activated!

His towering, iron-like body, carrying scorching heat, charged straight toward Momonosuke like a cannonball fired from its barrel, crushing the floor tiles beneath his feet.

However, even at the moment his anger reached its peak, Juste did not completely lose his reason.

During his charge, he discreetly used the corner of his eye to signal Crocodile and Robin behind him.

He had not forgotten the real objective of their infiltration into the mausoleum.

He wanted to tear Momonosuke the traitor apart with his own hands, but they absolutely could not let that stone covered in secrets slip away either.

Juste didn't need to say anything. The moment the two began fighting, Robin's long legs were already stepping down the ancient tomb's stairs as she hurried toward the Poneglyph.

She had brought neither paper nor pen, but her eyes were like cameras, rapidly scanning and recording the complicated ancient writing on the stone tablet.

Crocodile's movements beside her were even simpler, more brutal, and more practical.

"Desert Girasole: Engraving!"

His hook-bearing hand suddenly swept through the air, pulling at it.

The dust in the surrounding air and the fine sand in the tomb passage quickly gathered at his fingertips under his precise control of the Suna Suna no Mi, as though they had been given life.

Then Crocodile directly pulled out a thick wooden board from inside his clothes.

The extremely compact sand moved across the board like the sharpest engraving knife, rapidly carving and reproducing the ancient writing on the Poneglyph onto the wooden board, one-to-one.

He couldn't understand this ancient writing that looked like a bunch of random scribbles, but even if Robin was playing tricks and gave him false information, as long as he had this physical rubbing, he refused to believe that, with such a vast sea and enough money and ability, he couldn't find another scholar capable of deciphering ancient history.

As for Momonosuke, who stood where he was, he seemed not to have noticed Crocodile and the others' little tricks at all.

Or rather, he simply didn't care.

In his view, he had already latched onto the World Government's powerful backing.

His cheap older sister could even beat Shanks without any trouble. In the pyramid of power in this world, he was now in the position of benefiting from someone else's success and having everyone around him rise with him, truly beneath only three people and above countless others.

Even if these pirates still struggling in the mud got the stone tablet, what kind of waves could they possibly make?

"Hey, your fists still pack a bit of a punch. But they're just as weak and powerless as ever."

Momonosuke drew the great-grade blade at his waist, his lecherous face full of smugness and mockery.

"Juste, you haven't forgotten, have you? Back when you were still young on Whitebeard's ship, I pinned you to the deck countless times and beat you until you were running around in panic with a wooden sword!"

If they were talking about absolute strength, even before defecting, Momonosuke at most had a three-to-seven chance against Juste in the Whitebeard Pirates, with Juste having the seven.

But now, after joining the World Government, it was hard to say.

Whoosh!

Amid an extremely sharp sound of something tearing through the air, Momonosuke laughed loudly, gripped the great-grade blade with both hands, and charged straight toward Juste in an extremely arrogant counterattack, facing the flames hot enough to melt steel.

"Die! Traitor!"

Juste roared. The flames around his right fist instantly expanded several times, smashing down with tremendous force!

Ding!

The edge of the great-grade blade struck the flaming iron fist.

The enormous collision of force exploded into a powerful ring of air beneath their feet, making the surrounding torches sway wildly.

At the instant of the collision, feeling the force coming through his hand, a trace of contempt flashed in Juste's eyes.

He had thought this brat had gained some kind of opportunity through the World Government, but the force transmitted by that slash just now was still the same old case of looking strong on the outside but being weak underneath.

If that was all there was to him, Momonosuke was absolutely going to die here today.