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  .....

  At this moment, Crusher Kruze felt deeply mencholic.

  He lit a cigarette and gazed at the sky at a 45-degree angle.

  "My life... what a damn rollercoaster," he thought.

  As a young man, he joihe legendary Rocks Pirates.

  For a while, he ehe perks of being part of such a fearsome crew, roaming the seas without fear.

  But by the time he turned 35 and was about to be promoted, the captain lost his mind.

  The old man decided to attack God Valley, only to be crushed by Garp and Roger. The Rocks Pirates fell apart.

  Fortunately, the senior officer, Golden Lion Shiki, ied most of Rocks' assets aablished the infamous Flying Pirates.

  Kruze mao join Shiki’s crew, leveraging his es to climb to a manager-level position.

  After enduring for years, he finally became a senior officer and thought he could enjoy the fruits of his bor.

  But then, Rot captured, and his netain lost his mind too, charging into Marineford alone.

  Unsurprisingly, Shiki was defeated by Garp and Sengoku, and the Flying Pirates also colpsed.

  After two rounds of setbacks, Kruze finally uood.

  "Relying on others is useless. If you want something dht, do it yourself!"

  So, taking advantage of the chaos after the Flying Pirates disbanded, he gathered his own crew and formed his pirate group.

  He even recruited Fire Flower, a veteran pirate stronger and more experiehan himself, as his “crew parent.”

  Over the past few years, Kruze had been doing well in the New World.

  Although he was nowhere near as powerful as his old bosses, he had still made a name for himself as a notorious pirate.

  Retly, his old buddy Wang Zhi extended an invitation.

  "Brothers, it’s tough going solo. Since we all e from Rocks, why not unite?

  We build something great together and revive the old glory!"

  Kruze was tempted. Five major pirates f an alliance, recruiting more people, seiziory—it might just work!

  But who could have predicted...

  Before the alliance was eveablished, the news was leaked by Big Mom, another former Rocks member!

  And worse, the Navy didn’t even send an admiral. A vice admiral alone was enough to crush him.

  If it weren’t for Fire Flower holding off the vice admiral and if Kruze hadn’t just eaten a Devil Fruit, he would’ve ended up in Impel Down already.

  After this series of humiliations, Kruze finally had a realization.

  "The New World isn’t for me. Why fight to the death here when I rule paradise instead?"

  So, he set sail, hired the Sea King couriers at a hefty price, and relocated to Paradise.

  Here, any pirate with a bounty over 1 billion berries was like a god!

  But misforturuck again.

  The moment he arrived, a Marine warship was already on his tail.

  He initially thought he could approad fight, but when he saas standing at the bow of the Marine ship—Zephyr—he froze.

  Without a sed thought, he turned his ship around and fled.

  As fhting back? Don’t be ridiculous. Fighting Zephyr was worse than fag that vice admiral!

  And so, the chase began—a Marine warship pursuing a pirate vessel across the sea.

  "Captain, Captain!"

  A pirate rushed up to him.

  "The warship’s too fast! We ’t shake them!"

  Kruze snapped out of his thoughts, his mood worsening.

  "Damn it! Is there an isnd nearby?!"

  "There’s an uninhabited isnd cluster at eleven o’clock. We reach it in about three hours!"

  "Good. Head there! We’ll fight on nd!"

  Running into an admiral was bad enough, but Zephyr wasn’t a Devil Fruit user—he was.

  A sea battle was the st thing Kruze wanted. One punch from Zephyr could sink the ship, and then they’d all be fish food.

  Those top Marines loved that tactic: sink the ship, then capture survivors.

  What a pain!

  Soon, the Shattered Pirates reached the uninhabited isnd.

  Despite his gloomy mood, Kruze put on a brave fad rallied his crew to prepare for battle.

  As they formed ranks, Zephyr’s warship arrived.

  Zephyr disembarked with a group of Marines, grinning at the pirates.

  "Just a formality, but I’ll ask anyway: anyone here want to surrender?"

  The response was a on bst.

  The onball roared through the air, heading straight for Zephyr.

  Zephyr raised an eyebrow but didn’t move.

  Instead, a Marine swordsman stepped forward, his bde fshing. The onball shattered into tless fragments.

  “Not a bad response,” Zephyr said, looking pleased.

  “For me, capturing you is much easier than asking for your surrender!”

  Kruze’s heart sank.

  "Which idiot fired the on?!" he thought bitterly.

  But there was n baow.

  On the Marine side, Notis was quickly rep information about the pirates.

  “Ghost Hand Kraus, bounty: 484 million berries.”“Silent Stalker Belhan, bounty: 220 million berries.”“Butcher Fang, bounty: 181 million berries.”“Mad Bull Osendnos, bounty: 70 million berries.”

  “And…”

  As expected of the main ship of the Shattered Pirates—though they didn’t have many crew members, a rge portion of them were high-bounty criminals.

  “Attack!!”

  With Kruze’s roar, the pirates charged wildly at the Marines.

  Zephyr raised a hand, signaling the Mario ehey surged forward, while Zephyr himself fixed his gaze on Kruze.

  Kruze pressed his glowing white hands against the ground.

  “Crush Zone!”

  The earth beh them shattered instantly, transf intments of dirt and rock. Many Mariumbled, nearly losing their bance.

  Smoker, who had been hanging back zily, suddenly perked up.

  “This ability... not bad at all,” he muttered.

  Ever since mastering the Dark-Dark Fruit’s ability to steal powers, he had developed an obsession with strong Devil Fruits.

  Zephyr chuckled. “Iing.”

  In a fsh, he charged forward, appearing right in front of Kruze.

  Startled, Kruze reacted quickly, his hands glowing with white energy as he grabbed Zephyr’s wrist.

  The energy exploded, redug the surrounding dirt, stone, aation to powder.

  But Zephyr’s arm, protected by Armament Haki, remained unscathed.

  “Impressive ability! Too bad you’re too weak!”

  With a swift punch to Kruze’s stomach, Zephyr sent him flying. Kruze coughed up blood—along with half the fish he had eateerday.

  The blow only seemed to ignite Kruze’s ferocity. He unched a relentless barrage of attacks at Zephyr.

  Zephyr blocked and dodged with ease, tering with a few more puhat brought Kruze to his knees.

  Looking around at the chaotic battlefield, Zephyr decided not to intervene further.

  “This is a good ce for them to gain real bat experience,” he thought. Nothing was more important than training the geion.

  Suddenly, a figure leaped high into the air. Transf into a e mid-flight, it soared toward the horizon.

  “?!”

  Both the Marines and the pirates were stunned.

  “Is that… Crun?!”

  “Grun’s a Devil Fruit user?!”

  Even Kruze, lying on the ground, was dumbfounded.

  Zephyr narrowed his eyes, stepping on Kruze’s face.

  “Expin! Who is that guy?!”

  “I… I don’t know!” Kruze stammered. “Grun only joined retly. He’s always been useless. I never knew he had a Devil Fruit ability…”

  “I’ll go after him!”

  Before anyone could react, Smoker leaped into the air, using Moonwalk to pursue Grun.

  “No, stop!” Zephyr shouted.

  “There’s no way he cateoh a flight ability using Moonwalk…”

  But then he residered. “If he ’t catch him, he’ll e back eventually.” Zephyr turned his attention back to the battlefield.

  Smoker tinued his pursuit, using Moonwalk to close the gap. At first, he mao keep up, but soon Grun began to pull away.

  As they approached the edge of the isnd cluster, Smoker raised his hand.

  “Dark Water!”

  Grun suddenly felt an immense force pulling him back, as if he were dragging a massive boulder.

  Looking over his shoulder, he saw Smoker using his ability. Panid frustration fshed across his face.

  “This idiot!” Grun fumed.

  “If I keep flying, we’ll both end up falling into the sea…”

  Making a quick decision, Grun nded heavily on the ground and gred coldly at Smoker.

  Smoker desded as well, a sly smirk on his face as he stared at his oppo.