Chapter 135 Big Brother?
"What's wrong? I like these grapes very much. They give me the same joy I felt when I killed Doflamingo." Standing before the stall, Zane swallowed a grape and looked at the frozen Monet with a smile.
There is a very good saying.
Careless words invite disaster.
Whether it was Monet, Sugar, or any other officer of the Donquixote Pirates...
If you want to hide, hide well. Whatever you do, don't talk too much.
Because it is highly likely that your words have already reached someone else's ears without you knowing.
For instance, Zane's!
His ears were exceptionally sharp.
The more powerful the Observation Haki, the more unreasonable it became.
In your eyes, the enemy has yet to appear, but in the enemy's eyes, you might already be right in front of them.
Take Monet, for example.
She never expected her enemy to suddenly appear before her without any warning.
But that no longer mattered.
Following Zane's words, she had abandoned all thought.
Kill!!!
Veins bulged, and bloodshot lines filled her eyes.
Intense killing intent and a chilling frost erupted simultaneously.
Monet violently flipped the stall in front of her. Her entire being seemed to transform into a legendary Snow Hag, her expression twisting into a hideous snarl as she bared her fangs and lunged at Zane.
"Sigma Fist!"
With his right hand clenched into a fist and his smile unchanged, Zane watched the lunging Monet and threw a casual backhand punch.
The back of his fist struck from the side, landing accurately on her cheek.
Bang!!!
Powerful force combined with Armament Haki was more than a Logia-type like Monet could bear. Her cheek caved in, her expression twisted, and she was sent spinning through the air.
Boom!!!
Blood mixed with teeth sprayed from her mouth. Monet crashed into a nearby building, the impact piercing through the walls and causing the structure to collapse.
"Big brother, I'm so scared!"
A small figure leaped over the overturned stall and lunged toward Zane, her cute face wearing a pitiful expression.
'Eh? Big brother?'
Looking at Sugar lunging with open arms, Zane's brow twitched. With a flick of his finger, a bolt of lightning struck down.
"Thunderclap!"
"Aaaaah!!!"
The small body was engulfed in lightning. With a scream, Sugar was instantly charred black and collapsed to the ground.
"Tch... You could have called me anything else, but you just had to say 'Big Brother'. Don't you know I can't stand those words?"
Looking at the unconscious, electrified Sugar, Zane curled his lip.
He raised his hand and swiped at the empty air beside him.
Creak!!!
A portal manifested in the void. As the door opened, figures quickly stepped out one after another.
"Boss!"
"Captain!"
The figures stepping out of the space portal were none other than the Hunting Team officers led by Manlong.
They warily scanned the surroundings. Once they confirmed there was no immediate danger, they saluted Zane.
"Right, I'll leave the rest of the fighting to you all."
Zane looked at his capable subordinates and waved his hand with a smile.
"Leave it to me!"
"No problem, Captain!"
Manlong nodded steadily, a crimson glow flashing in his eyes. His Observation Haki quickly captured the nearby auras, and he looked toward the distant mountain.
Boom!!!
Repulsive force erupted. Amidst flying air currents, Manlong shot into the sky like a rocket, propelling himself straight toward the mountain.
Wyper and the others quickly followed suit, rushing off at high speeds.
While his subordinates went to deal with the enemies, Zane used his toe to kick the unconscious Sugar into the air.
He raised his hand, a hole appearing in his palm. A surge of suction emerged, instantly drawing Sugar into his Munch-Munch Space.
"Don't waste your effort. While you were busy playing the devoted sister, that Land of the Dead you prepared was already taken care of by me."
Zane turned to look at the ruins where Monet had crashed. He walked toward it with a light chuckle.
If he was showing himself, it meant he had already swept the entire island.
Whether it was Pica's group or the hidden Land of the Dead...
Under the scrutiny of Observation Haki and God's Eye, there was nowhere to hide.
Boom!!!
A blizzard erupted, blowing away the debris. Monet, clutching a detonator tightly in her hand, looked at Zane with a ghoulish expression.
Why.
Why was it like this?
She was prepared to drag her enemy to hell with her, even if it meant her own death.
But why was she unable to do even that?
"Blizzard!!"
Intense resentment and anger transformed into power. As Zane approached, Monet shrieked, transforming into a towering snow tornado that swept forward violently.
"This is a far cry from Kuzan's Chilly-Chilly Fruit."
Facing the incoming snow tornado, Zane didn't even slow down. He even had the leisure to compare her fruit to Kuzan's.
He leaped into the air.
Just as the snow tornado reached him, Zane jumped right into its center.
The violent cold winds were completely unable to slow him down, let alone breach his Nen aura defense.
High-intensity Armament Haki coated his palm.
With a simple reach...
Zane easily snatched Monet's physical form out of the tornado.
The wind and snow converged, and Monet appeared in Zane's hand, her face firmly gripped.
Descending with the momentum, Zane ruthlessly slammed her into the ground.
Boom!!!
The ground at the port shook violently.
Amidst the spray of shattered rock, the massive snow tornado abruptly dissipated.
Within the crater of the collapsed ground, a blood-stained Monet lay deep in the pit, her head still firmly pinned down by Zane's hand.
'How should I handle this?'
Lifting the heavily injured and unconscious Monet into the air...
Zane thought for a moment and decided that plundering was the best option.
Although he had his natural instincts as a man and her appearance and figure suited his aesthetic...
But he knew very well that this woman was fiercely loyal to Doflamingo.
While he could completely brainwash her using Window to the Soul...
But winning a woman over in such a way was a bit beneath him.
She wasn't exactly some peerless beauty who was irreplaceable. Why stoop to such unsightly behavior?
'It's a pity I can't strip the Devil Fruit away,' Zane thought with some regret.
Her strength could only be described as average.
Although the Snow-Snow Fruit was a Logia-type, it didn't really catch his eye.
In other words, plundering would only yield some mental attributes and progress toward the imprint entries provided by the Devil Fruit.
In comparison, he actually wanted to extract the Snow-Snow Fruit and let it be reborn so he could use it to train his subordinates.
However, he had already tried many methods.
Among the Devil Fruit users he had encountered in the past...
He hadn't plundered every single one of them immediately.
He had conducted several experiments.
For example, killing a user while they were trapped within the Munch-Munch Fruit's space.
Or surrounding them with large amounts of Sea Prism Stone.
But unfortunately.
Even when he surrounded the test subject with piles of fruit, the Devil Fruit never respawned on any of them.
It simply wasn't meant to be.
Although it felt like a waste, Zane didn't dally. He quickly activated [LET'S DUEL!], bringing Monet into Equality Space.
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