Chapter 1: Freedom and Chains
The last few days had been more than a rollercoaster for Kell. Starting the week off by dying wasn't ideal for him, but at the very least he was under the assumption that he would die one day, so this wasn't a complete surprise either. What was a surprise was that he was run over by a truck while browsing the internet on his phone as he crossed the street. His mother had always warned him against that habit, but he never really took her seriously.
I'm sorry mom, I'll promise to listen to others more from now on…
What was surprising was waking up in a dark cell bound in chains literally the next moment of consciousness. Not unlike the feeling of aggravating annoyance that you get when you sleep the whole night, but it feels like you simply blinked, he was completely drained for a solid minute as he looked around to situate himself.
To his immediate right was another man with heavy chains that restrained his movements, and turning to his left, he was greeted by a similar sight. Certainly, no matter which way Kell looked around in the dimly lit room, he could only spot miserable men and women bound into what he could only assume to be slavery.
And even though he was not separated from this situation, his current predicament was the last thing he was thinking about. What really mattered was what he was doing here, instead of being deader than disco.
The answer was naturally that he had died and been sent to another world to have a second chance at life. How exactly was he aware of this? He was unsure as to how such a thought had wormed into his head and declared itself as irrefutable fact, but whenever he wondered as to how he ended up in this world, that was the only thing his brain could create.
It certainly creeped him out, as he was quickly able to sense that this was a form of mind control to prevent him from questioning what was happening, but precisely because of the nature of the situation he was unable to consider the thought anymore as he was sucked back into his current predicament.
Looking down at his own chains, he was able to inspect the manacles that kept his wrists secured, and he was surprised at how thick the metal was. There was no way he could break out of these chains, so he was going to need to find the keys if he had any chance of getting free.
Running away wasn't an option, as his ankles were also chained up to his fellow prisoners with chains just as heavy as the ones on his wrists. Furthermore, Kell took another glance around the depressing room to see if anyone was trying to escape as well, but he instead found that every single person here looked defeated, as though their fates were sealed.
He understood that the situation was grim, but he had been expecting to see some rebellious spirit, at least in some of the prisoners.
What could have happened to cause everyone to look so out of it? It's as if they have completely given up and have no intention of even trying to escape.
Suddenly realizing that he was not wearing his own clothes, Kell instantly missed his phone and all the knowledge found within. He would have looked up a lock-picking tutorial by now. Instead, his pockets were empty, but he was relieved that he was still wearing similar clothes to what he was using when he died. Black pants and a gray t-shirt. It wasn't much, but it was something.
Realizing that even if he knew how to lock-pick, without tools it would be useless, Kell started to think of another way to escape when the only door to the room was suddenly slammed open by a rather rotund fellow.
Everything was already weird so seeing a man wearing chainmail armor along with an executioner mask was not surprising at this point as Kell was focusing on getting any clues that would help him figure out his next move.
"Alright you maggots, get ready to move!" the man shouted with venom in his voice as his face shook with disdain for the enslaved subjects. With practiced precision, he took pulled a large whip from his hip and pulled his arm as far back as he could to deliver a blow to a nearby man.
The loud crack of the whip was almost enough to drown out the sound of the man's screams, but Kell didn't have time to pay attention to that as the rest of the slaves began to get up with shaky legs.
For now, it would be good to follow the flow until he got a decent chance of escape, he thought.
Following the line of slaves out towards the exit, Kell observed several more guards with similar armor watching them with whips in their hands and swords on their waists. He had no doubt that if anyone acted out of line, they would serve as cruel enforcers.
Judging by the unhidden malice in their eyes, Kell was certain that they would take any chance to deal out punishments as they saw fit.
Continuing down the large dark hallway, the group eventually reached the entrance to a new chamber, and even from a bit further away in the back, Kell could feel the heat coming out of the room in waves.
When the smirking guard opened the door, many of the prisoners had to hold themselves back from gagging as a disgusting pungent smell assaulted their noses. The guards, who clearly had been accustomed to the smell by now, barked out a boisterous laugh at their physical disgust.
"Don't get grossed out by the stench of your own kind," he remarked to the group, as he began to push them further down into the chamber with his whip, "Pretty soon you will all get to experience this pain firsthand."
Not liking where this was going, Kell's mind ran a thousand miles a minute as he followed the group into the room and caught a glimpse of a giant furnace.
Several other prisoners were already there, waiting in line for their turn.
A sudden scream of tremendous pain caught the attention of the new slave group, and they turned to see a shirtless girl being branded with a hot iron. Finally understanding what that awful smell was, several slaves, dropped to their knees in fear but were quickly whipped for their insolence by the nearby guards.
However, Kell despite the obvious danger around him, Kell could only focus on two things at the moment. The mark that was branded on the little girl, and the girl herself.
The still smoldering brand on the girl's back was extremely familiar to Kell, and he was able to recognize it as the Hoof of the Flying Dragon, otherwise known as the mark of the Celestial Dragons, the world nobles of the One Piece world.
The girl herself was also familiar, and even though she was missing the air of authority and beauty that she was known for when she would grow up, she was unmistakably the future pirate empress, Boa Hancock.
I'm in the world of One Piece… and I'm a slave of the Celestial Nobles… fuck!
Slaves of the Celestial Nobles did not live easy lives. The men would be worked to death or tortured for their amusement, and the women would be raped until the nobles get bored with them and threw them away. Although it was never shown or explicitly stated in the story, the implication was that Boa was raped as a child during her time in captivity.
Kell wasn't exactly a nice person, but even he couldn't leave a child to that fate if he could help it. He wasn't sure how, but he was going to try to escape at some point, but if he had the opportunity then he would also try to help Boa and her sisters too. Still, that was only if he had the chance to do so, he had no intention of risking himself unnecessarily if the chance to help her didn't present itself.
Besides, she was fed her devil fruit during this time, she would certainly need it for her future.
Racking his brain to think about his next move, Kell was shocked when he was suddenly pulled forward by a guard. His turn had arrived.
Getting branded was not in his plans, he certainly didn't want to feel heated metal burn his skin, much less be dehumanized so far as to be treated as property thanks to a mark, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
He could try to resist, but he was likely in Mariejois, and that meant that even if he somehow broke free of his chains and by some miracle managed to escape or defeat the dozen or so guards in the room, he would still have to deal with either CP0 or maybe even an admiral stationed here.
There was no point in trying to resist here. Being branded would be painful, but not any worse than dying.
The smirking smith worker approached with glee on his face and a branding iron in his hands as Kell's shirt was torn off his body by a guard behind him. Leveling the iron to Kell's chest, he prepared to sear his flesh with the hot metal.
Getting ready for the worst pain in his life, he clenched his teeth to suppress any screams. He did not want to give the guards the satisfaction of seeing him break down from the pain.
Then the metal made contact with his skin. The brutal contact sent a shiver down his whole body as his nerves were instantly lit up in tremendous pain and his skin bubbled and marred from the burns inflicted on him. The scream that he tried to hold back was let out despite his best efforts, and an ugly hoof was imprinted on his skin.
Or at least that should have been the case.
Instead, he was taken aback by how painless the branding process was, even as the smith worker tried to press the iron further into his chest when he noticed Kell's lack of a reaction.
Kell could only stare at his chest in confusion as he noticed how fit he suddenly was. It was a weird thing to think about during the branding process, but the iron wasn't hurting him, and looking down at his chest he was able to notice how defined his muscles were. He wasn't out of shape in his previous life, but this was a level of fitness out of a Hollywood movie.
"What the hell!" came the sudden shock of the smith worker as he retracted his iron to get a glimpse of his work, only to step back in shock at what he was seeing.
"Is there a problem?" the voice of the guard behind Kell asked as he eyed the shaken worker.
The guard stepped up to see what the fuzz was about and his eyes went wide as he saw that Kell's chest was unmarred and perfectly fine even after a full minute of contact with the hot iron, "What the fuck," he muttered under his breath as he reached out to touch Kell's chest where he should have been burned, "Wait a minute, his chest isn't even hot, did you even make contact, you idiot?"
Taking offense to this remark, the smith worker offered the still hot iron to the guard, "Are you serious? I have branded thousands of slaves by now, I am pretty sure I know how to do my job, give it a try!"
Snatching the iron out of the worker's hands, the guard quickly took the hot iron to Kell's chest without bothering to level the rod to make sure the mark came out alright.
Once again, Kell was surprised that he was not able to feel any pain at all, and his lack of a reaction caused the guard to narrow his eyes as he removed the iron to verify the smith worker's words.
"How is this possible?" the smith worker asked nobody in particular as Kell was once again unharmed by the branding iron.
The guard stayed still for a moment before reaching for a handcuff on his belt, with a panicked hurry, he suddenly latched one of the cuffs on Kell's wrist before he let out a sigh of relief, "A devil fruit power most likely."
The answer caught the worker off guard, "Wait, a devil fruit holder? I thought that those were supposed to be handled by other facilities," he asked as the guard went on to place the other cuff on Kell's other wrist. It seemed to be made out of seastone.
The guard let out the tension that had begun to build in his body now that Kell had been secured with seastone cuffs, "Occasionally we do get some devil fruit eaters that either are able to hide their devil fruit abilities or don't even know they have them, but they are quite rare."
"Oh… Do we report this?"
"Well actually…"
However, the conversation was tuned out by Kell as he suddenly became aware of something that he was surprised that he hadn't been able to notice by now. If he paid attention to his surroundings, he was able to hear the heartbeat of the people around him in the room, if he really tried he could even hear the sounds of birds chirping outside wherever he was and the chatter of people having cordial small talk. It was all very clear to him.
And while the thought that this was the work of a devil fruit, the seastone cuffs on his wrists told him otherwise, as they did absolutely nothing to stop him or weaken him in any way. No, it was something else, he was sure of it.
In light of this new revelation, all the options of escape that Kell had previously dismissed had to be brought back into consideration. Before, he had simply assumed that the chains on his cuffs were far too thick to break out of with physical force, but he had never even thought about trying to break them. Wanting to cover his bases, Kell used the smallest amount of force he could muster to break the chains and was surprised to see them snap instantly without issue.
The loud snap brought the entire room to a sudden silence as everyone stared at Kell and the broken chains at his feet. He still had two cuffs on each wrist, but the chains keeping them together had completely broken, and his hands were free.
Even the guard at his side, who had been trained to react and contain these types of situations, was only able to stare in confusion at what he was seeing. For what felt like a minute, both Kell and the unnamed guard could only stare at each other, both unsure as to what exactly was going on.
But as the tension continued to mount, the guard finally snapped back to his senses and attempted to use the iron he was holding to smack Kell in the head. Typically, Kell would have flinched at an attack like this, but he was unable to bring himself to do so when the iron that was headed his way was so slow to the point where he felt that he had all the time in the world to get away.
Taking the time to look around, Kell noticed that it wasn't just the guard in front of him that was moving slowly, it was the entire world around him. Everything and everyone appeared to be in a slow motion movie scene, but of course, Kell knew better than that. It wasn't that everyone else was slow, it was that he was fast. His perception of time at the very least was much faster than everyone else.
Looking back at the hot iron headed his way, he was rather amused to see it had barely moved from where it last was, even though Kell had already had plenty of time to consider his current position.
At that moment, an inexplicable high took over Kell's mind as he felt his brain light up as if on fire. He felt as though everything was possible for him, and that no matter what or who stood in front of him, he was completely unstoppable. As if he just simply reached out, the world would answer his every whim and desire.
So he followed this feeling and let his hand reach out to the guard in front of him. Delicately, as if afraid of breaking the man in front of him, Kell stopped his open palm less than a centimeter from the guard's chest. Then he gave him a light push.
As he made contact, time seemed to resume at regular speed as the man turned from a towering, domineering guard into a thin mist of blood and flesh in the blink of an eye.
"Oh," was the only thing that Kell could say as he stared at the hand that he had used to strike the man. He had been expecting to shove the man away quite far based on intuition, and the last thing he had been expecting was for the man to turn into ground beef.
While Kell found himself rather calm despite the fact that he had committed murder, the rest of the room did not share his disposition as the rest of the guards sprung into action while the slaves could only stare in awe at the sudden development.
One of the guards had managed to sneak up on Kell who was completely lost in thought, and with a practiced hand, swung his sword while aiming at Kell's neck. However, instead of beheading Kell, the guard's sword ricocheted away as the entire force behind the blow rebounded into the guard's arm. It was like striking a steel wall.
Having the idea that he had changed somehow after arriving in this fictional world finally properly settled into him, Kell's mind was working overtime to consider all the possibilities ahead of him.
Fisher Tiger breaks into Mariejois to free the slaves a few years from now, so technically I should be free to simply run away from here without worrying about the others, but…
Intoxicated by the power coursing through his veins, Kell allowed his mind to conjure up a rather reckless plan. Why should he wait for Fisher Tiger to free everyone when he could do it himself right now, he thought.
Deciding to simply go with the flow unless things get dicey, Kell finally began to pay attention to what was happening around him.
Several blades were being swung at him and bounced off his skin without being able to even put a scratch on him. Although none of the guards had managed to hurt him, they had either not cared and continued to hack away at him or thought that with enough damage they would eventually manage to hurt him.
Kell swatted away the blades that aimed that him with ease in a blur of motion which sent a couple of guards who didn't let go of their blades flying into the nearby walls with a sickening crack. Not wanting to pay attention to the damage he certainly caused those guards, Kell instead looked at the guards who managed to let go of their weapons before they were sent flying along with them.
"Where are the reinforcements!" One called out without taking his eyes off Kell, he seemed to be the one in charge judging by how far away he was from Kell, and the large set of keys on his waist would provide a quick way to release the other slaves.
"They are on their way, sir!" another guard called out while keeping a small snail next to his ear.
Oh yeah, I forgot snails serve as telephones in this world… Kinda creepy.
Finding his voice for the first time since he arrived in this world, Kell spoke up, "Hand over those keys unless you want to end up like your friend over here," he stated plainly while pointing to the splatter of blood on the ground next to him.
His threat managed to tense up the entire room as the guards looked at what remained of what had been a perfectly normal human being a few minutes ago. The possibility that they would end up with a smear on the floor was very real, and no average man wanted to gamble with his life.
Seeing the silence as a refusal, Kell stepped forward towards what he assumed to be the guard's captain, but that was all that was needed to incentivize the rest of the guards to make a break for the exit.
The captain turned to all directions in a panicked frenzy as he looked on while his men ran for their lives, "Wh-what are you idiots doing!? GET BACK HERE!"
However, his words were no deterrent, and soon he was left defenseless in the room.
Seeing as how the man had yet to relinquish the keys to the slave's chains, Kell took another step forward.
Jumping in fear at the approaching monster, the guard began to threaten Kell, "Wait a minute! Do you imbecile have any idea where you are? This is the holy land, Mariejois, the home of the Celestial Dragons, the Gods of this world! If you hurt me they will never let you get away with it! Do you understand me!? Huh!? You'll never get away from them, so don't even think about trying anything, do you hear me?"
Completely ignoring the man's tirade, Kell simply repeated himself, "You can hand over the keys willingly, and I won't hurt you, or I can pick them up from you after I make you into meat paste, your call."
Finally relenting, the guard pulled out the keys from his waist with trembling hands, "All right, fine, here are the damn keys, just don't break your promise," he said as he handed the keys over the Kell who then quickly passed them to a nearby slave who took no time on quickly undoing his restraints and passing the keys on to the person next to him.
Thanks to the salivating prospect of taking back their freedom after nearing the point of no return, most of the slaves had freed themselves and were now staring at Kell with a mixture of confusion and gratitude.
In contrast, the guard who had been unable to escape with his men could only look on in fear as more and more of the slaves were set free. For him, it was a lose-lose situation. Whether he was attacked by Kell, or not, he would still have to answer to the Celestial Dragons about the freed slaves, and they would not take kindly to his failure.
Eager to get away from the room, the guard asked in a quivering voice, "So can I go now? I did what you asked, so let me go now!"
Kell listened to the man and frowned slightly, it was true that he did promise not to hurt him if he handed over the keys willingly, which he had done, but letting him live didn't sit right with him either. He had never killed anyone prior to waking up in this world, but somehow the thought of murder didn't seem to phase him in the slightest.
On the other hand, Kell was able to pick up the sound of hundreds of men running around the outside with the clinging of armor and swords. A large fighting force was preparing to suppress the rebellion he had started, but that was something he had already expected when he let the other guards escape.
Looking at the group of slaves here, Kell did not recognize anyone aside from the Boa sisters, so he had no reason to expect them to be able to fight or defend themselves at all. That wasn't even mentioning the other slaves that were already housed within Mariejois, who he planned to help out as well. If he wanted things to go smoothly, he would have to go deal with the brunt of the enemies here, so the slaves could leave unimpeded. Which meant he had to leave right away.
"I wasn't lying about not hurting you," Kell started as he began to walk away, "But I didn't say anything about the other slaves not doing anything, and it's not like I have any control over them, so I guess your fate will be decided by them."
Even before he finished his sentence, the rest of the slaves had already surrounded the man with brimming anger in their eyes, they had been enslaved and dehumanized after being stolen from their home and then sold as property. It was difficult to quantify the anger and outrage felt by these people, and Kell could not take away their revenge from them, not from a moral standpoint anyway.
"If these people can find it in their hearts to forgive you, then i'm sure that you'll live to see another day," Kell said even as the screams of the guard started to reverberate throughout the room.
Not wasting any more time, Kell approached the Boa sisters, who were cautiously watching the situation develop from the sidelines. They tensed up as Kell approached them, but did not act. It was to be expected, after all, Kuja's had little interactions with men and being captured by the Celestial Dragons had likely not improved the image of men in the girl's minds.
Still, they seemed to at the very least acknowledge that Kell had saved them from further harm from the Celestial Dragons and gave him some kind of respect.
"You three are from the Kuja tribe?" he asked, already knowing the answer, but they seemed to clamp up at being recognized, "Look, there isn't much time before reinforcements arrive, so I will be going out to distract the guards outside, so I need you three to guide the rest of the slaves to the platform that brought us up here, do you understand?"
Unfortunately, either because they were too afraid or untrusting, none of the Boa sisters responded to his request.
"Look, like I said there isn't much time so if you want to be able to escape out of here, you need to listen to me for now, can you do that?"
Finally, perhaps after growing some confidence, the young Hancock managed to speak up with false bravado, "Why- why are you asking us for this? And how do you know we are from the Kuja tribe?"
Happy to get a response, Kell gave the most sincere smile he could, "I guessed based on how strong you three looked, and i'm asking you three to do this because you are the strongest people among this group, and having all of you guys run around Mariejois in a panic isn't going to help anyone, so I need someone to lead this group while I go distract the guards. I heard that the women from the Kuja tribe were strong, but only the strongest were allowed to leave the island, that means that you three must be pretty strong to have been allowed to leave the island despite being so young, right?"
Seeming to beam at the praise, all three nodded with confidence, "Of course, our teacher said that we're prodigies!"
Kell didn't doubt that based on how strong Hancock would become in the future, so he simply nodded, "Good, that means I can trust you guys to lead these people out of here while I go help out the rest of the slaves here in Mariejois, right?"
Stepping up, the green haired Boa Sandersonia, nodded at his words, "Leave it to us!"
Hearing what he wanted to hear, Kell gave the sisters a nod and immediately headed out for the door.
Yokono felt a migraine coming up his neck and settle in his brain, he was not having the best of days, he thought. Since he was the only member of CP0 to be left behind in Mariejois due to his status as a novice, he had initially been bummed out that he would miss out on all the action, but when he received a report of an intruder who had set the new batch of slaves free, his mind began to race.
It was bad enough that he had just begun his trial as a CP0 member after years of training, but if things went to shit after he was left in charge of protecting the holy land, he knew that his career would be more than dead in the water.
I mean, who the hell would even think about attacking Mariejois? This is the land of the Gods for crying out loud, and if I don't settle this quickly, I know I'm fucked. Is there even anyone here who could even help me right now?
Yokono was under several assumptions about his enemy, and as he prepared to head out and capture the intruder, he began to sun simulations in his mind to get a good idea of the enemy's plan. Becoming strong was not the only requirement to join CP0, he also had been trained to beat his opponents not on in body, but in mind and spirit as well, and that meant he needed to get inside the head of his opponent.
To attack Mariejois you must be crazy, but upon closer inspection doesn't this work out rather too well? The intruder is attacking now of all times, when most members of CP0 are away, not to mention that the neither the admirals nor Sengoku are currently here. Doesn't this seem all too perfect? This intruder must have been biding his time and carefully planning this operation, I can't be too careless with this.
Stepping out of his room, Yokono ran through the empty, opulent hallways as he scanned his surroundings in search of the intruder. By now all the Celestial Dragons had been evacuated to a secret bunker, so the only people that should have remained in the city were the guards, the slaves, and the intruder.
That meant that he should have heard the sound of fighting by now, and he had been planning on using that sound to guide him towards the enemy since reports of his whereabouts had stopped several minutes ago.
Getting a bad feeling in his gut, Yokono increased his speed as he headed to the outside, the last place where the intruder had been reported at.
Running out of the large building, Yokono speed along the grassy hills around Mariejois while following the scent of gunpowder in the air. Even if there were no reports of the intruder, there were still other ways to track him down. One of the main weapons used by guards in Mariejois was a standard-issue rifle, one which was well known for leaving behind a strong smell of gunpowder after usage.
Turning on his heel, he let his nose guide him to where the smell was strongest. However, even as the smell grew stronger and stronger, there were still no sounds of fighting to be heard.
What is going on here? By now, I should be- Wait, what is this?
Yokono's train of thought was stopped when he noticed a rather large red stain on an otherwise green scenery. The sharp contrast it drew against the peaceful greenery was jarring, and soon everywhere he looked he could only see red.
Giant stains of red covered every inch of the open plain, and while it might have looked like an eccentric artist had decided to make an artist expression with a little too much paint, the smell was a dead giveaway. This was blood and guts, or to be more precise, the blood and guts of the guards that were stationed here.
Everyone was dead.
Before he could investigate further, the voice of a young man called out, "Are you with CP0?"
Instantly jumping back to gain some distance between the young man who was standing in the middle of a pool of blood, Yokono readied himself for a fight.
But when his opponent didn't purse or make any attempts to start a fight, Yokono began to analyze the young man in front of him.
His appearance was rather normal, if not a bit handsome, white skin, blue eyes, black hair, and a stature of roughly six feet. His clothing were also normal as he carried neither a weapon nor armor. The thing that did catch his eye was the blood dripping from the man's hands. He had caught the intruder literally red-handed.
Noticing his stare, the intruder wiped his hands in an attempt to remove the blood from himself, "Oh that? I know that this is hard to believe, but I wasn't trying to kill anyone," he started in an apologetic tone, "I mean, even though they were shooting at me and trying to stab me, I really was trying to knock them out, but I am having a hard time getting my strength under control, it's harder than it looks."
Yokono didn't know what to make of this man, his ramblings sounded like the mutterings of a delusional man, but it was undeniable that this man was the cause of all these deaths. That meant that Yokono had no room to play around or answer the man's questions. He needed to act, and quickly.
He was unsure as to how the man had killed everyone, but he was completely uninjured, so he was certainly strong, and that meant that Yokono had no intention of holding back. Furthermore, he might have been a rookie who just managed to join CP0, but that didn't mean he was not qualified as one of the World's Government greatest assets.
Putting every ounce of strength into his legs, Yokono blurred forward in a burst of speed as he activated soru to try to flank his enemy on the side. If you are unaware of your opponent's strength, then it is never a good idea to attack in the front, Yokono knew this perfectly well, and he was not arrogant enough to believe this basic rule did not apply to him.
Even though he was not underestimating his opponent in the slightest, the moment he started to approach the young man with soru, he understood that he was fighting an opponent leagues above him in terms of strength.
Even as Yokono moved with speeds that other soru users would be hard press to match, the young man followed his every move with his eyes, as though he could see right through Yokono. Every nerve in Yokono's body was telling him to run, but before he was a human with self-interests, he was a CP0 agent who would willingly use his own body as a shield for the sake of the World Government, so he had no intention of running away.
Imbuing his fingers with the toughest haki he could muster, Yokono speed up even further to get behind the young man, hoping to manage to land even a single blow from behind.
As Yokono got behind the intruder and lunged himself forward, ready to deliver a volley of deadly shigan blows, he was disturbed that the young man made no effort to either dodge or defend himself. Not even bothering to turn around, as if he was taunting Yokono.
Even though his opponent had not reacted, Yokono never dropped his guard even as his fingers were a few centimeters from reaching their targets, but the surprise counter never came and Yokono's attack made contact.
Unfortunately, the man's body was so unbelievably tough that Yokono's attack ended up crushing his fingers as the force behind his attack was completely repelled, which caused his fingers to break and crush themselves against the intruder.
Holding back the immense pain from his fingers, Yokono instead jumped backwards to gain some distance as he spun on his heel to twist his body to gain momentum and release a strong rankyaku from his legs. Even if his fingers were busted up, and his fighting potential greatly diminished from the unexpected injury, he still had his legs and he had been trained to fight no matter what condition his body was in.
However, even the strong wave of compressed air was unable to damage the man as the attack pass through him without so much as making him flinch and ended up slicing the building behind him in two.
This is bad… His body is hard as shit! I mean, I can push my fingers through steel with ease, but they break against his skin? But why don't I feel any haki from him? Is this a devil fruit power? No, those shackles on his wrists, I recognize them, they're seastone. Then what is-
"Hey, you should get ready to protect yourself," the young man suddenly warned Yokono, "I'm going to attack you now, and while I have been trying to control my strength as much as possible, I have had little luck in not turning people into splatters, so I think you should use that technique to protect yourself for this next move."
Yokono was at a loss as to how to deal with this man. While Yokono was fighting while putting his life on the line, he was acting as though everything was a game. Yokono wanted to retort that warning your opponents that you were going to attack was simply idiotic and arrogant beyond belief, but for the first time the young man began to move forward, ready to attack.
Yokono had barely enough time to activate tekkai thanks to being warned to do so before the intruder disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared right in front of Yokono with an open palm.
The blow came in the next instant, and even though Yokono had reinforced his body with both haki and tekkai, he felt his entire body threaten to burst at the seems from the force that was pushed into his chest.
The man's attack was so strong that Yokono felt as if his own blood had begun to flow backwards and his organs ruptured and burst like balloons.
But either thanks to divine intervention or sheer luck, his body had managed to hold just enough to stop before the point of no return and managed to remain more or less put together rather than a stain on the ground.
Yokono fell unconscious.
"Finally, I was beginning to think that my power was just to explode the people I touch, but this guy managed to stay alive, or at the very least intact after getting hit," Kell pondered out loud as he reached down to check the man's pulse and was happy to feel something.
It was faint, but it was a pulse. The man who he assumed to be a CP0 agent based on the white suit was clearly incredibly injured, but he was the first person who he had fought with and not killed.
Not that he was trying to kill the guards that attacked him, he was merely trying to knock them unconscious, but no matter how light the taps he did on them, the result was always the same. It had reached the point where Kell though that his power was to make people instantly burst from the inside out or something, so he was pleased to see that it was just about controlling his strength.
The verdict on the exception which was the CP0 agent was still in the air, after all it could have been several factors that allowed him to survive. Either a CP0 agent was that much more durable than a regular human, which was certainly true, or it could have been the use of haki and tekkai, or maybe Kell had finally had gotten a better grasp on how to control his strength.
Either way, I will have to train to control myself, I can't keep killing everyone I fight with or people are going to assume I'm crazy or something.
Turning away from the downed CP0 agent, Kell head towards the center of Mariejois since he had learned the location of some of the treasure vaults of the Celestial Dragons from interrogating some of the more talkative guards.
He had also learned that there were currently no admirals inside Mariejois, and while he had been expecting CP0 to be here, only one agent had shown up, which meant he had more or less free rein of the place for now.
He had already found the rest of the slaves and allowed them to run towards the elevator that headed down to the Grand Line. The slaves had no idea how to control the elevator down, so they were currently trying to figure it out.
Kell wanted to get down with them rather than having to find his own way down, but before he could join them, there was something he had to do while he was here.
"Now then, where are those devil fruit vaults."
AN: Originally this chapter was around 10k words, but it made some scenes too long, so I streamlined it to this length, doing those edits was a pain, so I hope it was worth it.
I also struggled with the terms of One Piece like soru vs shave, but I think this is fine (on a side note, I refuse to acknowledge the term Mary Geoise).
Lastly, this was supposed to be a gamer fic at first, but I was intimidated by the numbers, so I decided to go for kryptonian powers instead. I mean, this is a power fantasy at its core, so I figure I could cut the bullshit and just jump to the OP powers that all gamer fics end up at in the end. Speaking of cutting the bullshit, I made this OC not think about how he showed up here with "mind control" but that's just me being lazy and not wanting to waste time on a scene that everyone has already written and read by now (e.g: died and god/the system gave me powers and a second chance in a fantasy world). There won't be any MC being mind controlled in the future, so you don't have to worry about that.
Thanks for reading!