Phantom Blade Zephyr: One Piece

"So..."

"So..."

"Let me make this clear. You want me to go and take on every soilders in there and two logia types without destroying the whole place. Also there's supposedly a pet that's made of weird acid or something?"

"Let me worry about that. You just take care of those two logias and the fodders that they have with them."

Akane looked at me weirdly,

"Tell me the truth, Z. Are you high right now?"

I didn't say anything, just gave her a side eye. We were currently in Punk Hazard. Kuzan gave me the location last month. I've realized that it's much easier to rely on an eternal log pose than the usual one. Sure, the sense of adventure won't be there. But, I don't exactly have the luxery of adventure right now. Not until I become an yonko that is. After becoming yonko, I plan to just chill for some time. I haven't had a break ever since I entered Grand Line. It's always one thing after another.

"Don't be so dramatic, Akane. Sloth can take care of it without even breaking a sweat."

"Why do you always reference to sloth every time you give me a hard test? What the hell did he do really?"

"He used to be a Navy Admiral. But more than that, Kuzan is much faster and can freeze his opponent."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means what it means."

"Aghhh! You are so furstrating! Why do you always have to be so vague?"

"That's part of my charm, Akane. I'm hurt that you don't understand that."

Akane made a face hearing that. Seriously, this girl has no sense of humor. Besides I'm really impressed with what Kuzan has done to this place. I've watched with awe in the anime when it was revealed that Kuzan and Sakazuki has transformed the whole island with their powers. But seeing it in real life is also really interesting.

A similar kind of effect happened during the fight between Blackbeard and Ace. But darkness and fire aren't totally opposite elments like ice and magma. So, their effect were more chaotic than this.

The power of logia types are truly fascinating. I'm confident that I can beat Kuzan if it comes to it. But no matter how strong my haki is, I can't change the whole environment like this. Maybe I can cut an island in half someday.

Hmm, interesting idea. I should take this as my next milestone. After I've become a yonko that is.

"Earth to Z. Earth to Z." Akane waved her hand in front of me like a child.

"I can see you, Akane. I was just thinking of something."

"Why do you always get lost in your thoughts? It's really annoying, you know."

"Well, it's mostly because I've spent most of my time in the sea living with ancient dinasours and sea kings. That might be the reason." I said sarcastically.

"Ha ha ha. Really funny. So, what do you want to do with these guys?"

Akane gestured towards the unconcious men lying in the ground. Honestly, I didn't even know who they were. They tried to incapacitate us with some sort of poison. But unluckily for them Akane has enormous poison resistance and my observation haki is one of the strongest in the sea. So, we took care of them with relative ease. Punk Hazard arc wasn't exactly my favourite arc and besides these guys were just fodders in my opinion. They call themselves as Yeti Cool Brothers or something. Really cringy name in my opinion. But I wasn't there to judge. My own nickname given by the government is 'Sword King'. That is like the most cliche name a swordsman can have after 'Sword Saint'. The name 'Phantom Blade' had a unique flair to it. But well, I gotta be satisfied with what I got.

"Let's just throw them in the sea. I have no idea who they are. But they aren't exactly good people either judging by the fact that they are working for a mad scientist that's experimenting on little kids. So..."

Before I could finish my sentence blood poured out of Akane's hand and transformed into a gigantic axe. With a single swing, she decapitated the giant yeti brothers in an instant. Her axe retracted to her hand as she looked at the two decapitated heads with pure hatred in her eyes.

I spoke carefully.

"So, I kind of forgot about telling you about experimentation with the kids thing. I knew that you would lose your compose, so I made an executive decision. Sorry for that."

Akane didn't say anything, just stared at me with dagger in her eyes. Yeah, she's not happy. It was kind of unfair of me to hide this information from her.

But by this time I knew Akane very well. And I also knew that she's going to charge in head first without any plan if she knew about the experimentation part. Ceaser Clown might not be the strongest opponent, but he was a meticulously careful person. He will not hesitate to take all the kids hostage if he felt like he was in danger. And that would be the worst possible scenario. So I planned to stealthily free the kids while Akane took down Ceaser and Monet along with the rest of the squad in Punk Hazard.

Well that plan was out of the window now. All because my big mouth. Akane calmed herself down a bit. I liked that about her. She was smart enough to realize that my decision was actually right.

"Look, I get that you like everything under your control. But, I'm not a piece in the game of chess. I'm your friend."

I was surprised to hear that. She hasn't called me her friend before. Even though what she said was nice, her tone suggested that there was a bad news coming

"But never ever do something like this ever again. You need to trust me. Better yet, you need to have a little faith in me that I can handle the situation without your intervention. So, promise me that you'll not hold something this vital ever again."

She was right. I really do have enormous trust issues. Damn it. How can I even run my crew if I can't even trust Akane?

"I promise. I'll trust you from now onwards."

Akane's expression softened hearing that.

"Good. That's all I need to hear. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to kill a bunch of people."

Akane said that as she ran off towards the facility. Suddenly I remembered one thing I forgot to mention.

"Don't kill the gas guy called Ceaser. We need him for now. After he has done his job you can kill him all you want."

I heard Akane saying something like okay in the distance. I wasn't sure if she'll do what I've said to her. Well, let's just trust her for now.

As I ran through the magma part of the island where Smiley was I rang my Den Den Mushi.

After a minute or so, several people responded at once.

"Greed, Envy and Sloth. Follow my Vivre Card and come to Punk Hazard. It's time for the first official meeting of the Seven Sins."