Chapter 35: Xiliu's Style!

Two hours later, the warship successfully rendezvoused with another vessel. Following the Major's instructions, Shiryu stepped onto the other ship's deck alone via the gangplank.

At the same time, he immediately spotted the silhouette of Sakazuki standing at the bow.

In Shiryu's eyes, although this Vice Admiral Akainu was a head shorter than himself, the aura radiating from his entire being was even more imposing than Magellan's.

This made his mood turn slightly heavy, and his expression had long since become composed.

"Reporting to Vice Admiral Akainu: Shiryu, former Chief Warden of Impel Down and current Marine Colonel at Marineford, reporting for duty."

As soon as he finished speaking, Sakazuki slowly turned around, arms crossed over his chest, his oppressive gaze sweeping over the man.

"As the former Chief Warden of Impel Down, specifically responsible for guarding prisoners, what is your view on pirates? Speak!"

Hearing this, Shiryu subconsciously pondered the other man's intent. His knowledge of Sakazuki was limited to what was introduced in the newspapers—the title of Admiral candidate and the Logia-type Magma-Magma Fruit ability. As for his personality or likes and dislikes, he was completely in the dark.

Since that was the case, he chose to answer according to his own heart.

"A bunch of trash. Aside from ability users, the rest shouldn't be locked up wasting food. If they must be put to use, they are only good as target practice for soldiers' guns or as fodder for testing blades."

Sakazuki's brow twitched slightly. Although his expression remained impassive, he felt quite satisfied inwardly. He had originally thought that if a soft-hearted person showed up, he would simply kick them overboard to swim back to Marineford and wait for reassignment.

"Not bad. I hope you can follow through on those words later." Having said that, he issued an order to the marine standing by on the side: "Depart!"

"Yes, sir!"

The marine hurried back to the cabin to relay the order, and soon, the massive behemoth beneath their feet began to move.

"You should be aware of the mission this time, shouldn't you?" Sakazuki asked in a deep voice.

Shiryu nodded. On his way here, he had already reviewed the mission details sent by the other party. It stated that the Kingdom of Mednar, located on the fourth island of the first route in the first half of the Grand Line, had been attacked by a large number of pirates.

Coincidentally, the first route ran close to the Calm Belt where Impel Down is located, making them one of the closest warships. Upon hearing the words "a large number of pirates," Sakazuki had accepted the mission immediately, giving Marineford no chance to divert it to other nearby warships.

To save time, Sakazuki had not gone to Impel Down to pick up Shiryu, but instead had him travel quickly on someone else's warship.

"For this mission, I will not strike first. You will lead the team to resolve it!"

"No problem. I am looking forward to it as well." Shiryu's right hand touched the red hilt of the blade 'Thunderstorm' at his waist as he revealed a cold, sinister smile.

He truly hadn't expected to have the chance to go on a killing spree so soon after leaving Impel Down. He was even more satisfied with this transfer, though his commanding officer seemed a bit too overbearing.

In Impel Down, although he was the third-in-command as Chief Warden, he was effectively the second-in-command. Aside from orders from Director Columbus, he didn't need to pay attention to anyone, including Deputy Director Magellan.

As for the other jail wardens and guards, seeing him was no different from a mouse seeing a cat.

As for Director Columbus, aside from the World Government's need for his cooperation, his presence was generally not strong. He was a man of few words and even turned a blind eye to Shiryu's occasional extrajudicial killings of prisoners. He basically didn't care about the prisoners in the first four levels; in his eyes, only the prisoners with bounties over a hundred million from the fifth level onwards were considered important assets.

On the contrary, Magellan frequently reprimanded him for this, which was why Shiryu found the former so annoying. It was just killing a few small-fry; why the endless nagging?

As the Marineford-class warship, meticulously crafted by the shipwrights of Water 7, sailed at full speed, it demonstrated incredible efficiency and velocity, reaching the waters near the Kingdom of Mednar in just one hour and seven minutes.

At this distance, Sakazuki, Shiryu, and the others on deck could already hear the roaring sound carried by the sea breeze. Looking into the distance, they could vaguely see seven or eight warships flying pirate flags, continuously shelling the island's towns.

Among them, one ship gradually ceased its bombardment and slowly turned its bow, appearing to be heading out of the pier to flee.

"It seems they've spotted us," Shiryu smiled, feeling the sea breeze.

He casually pulled out a cigar, put it in his mouth, and lit it. Whenever he was about to kill—especially many people—his emotions would become excited. At such times, taking a puff of smoke was his greatest indulgence.

Regarding his words and actions, Sakazuki did not respond or interfere. Since he had said the mission was handed over to the man, he would let him do as he pleased.

Of course, he wouldn't actually let the pirates escape in front of him.

[*Swish!*]

In the next second, just like the other Marine officers, Shiryu, draped in his "Justice" coat, turned into a blur and vanished from his spot, leaving only a faint trail of smoke drifting in the air.

This left the group of officers and marines on deck quite expectant of their adjutant's upcoming performance.

Meanwhile, the other pirate warships also stopped their shelling and hurriedly turned their bows. Clearly, they had also noticed the approaching massive warship.

Among them, the first ship to react had already completed its turn and was heading in another direction.

"Quick! Faster!"

"Now is not the time to fight the Marines!"

On the pirate ship, a massive man in iron armor, nearly four meters tall with a sturdy build and a ferocious face, shouted commands while waving a machete.

The other pirates on the ship, in terms of both temperament and attire, looked like very normal soldiers; in short, they didn't give off a "pirate" vibe at all.

[*Whizz—!*]

Just then, a sharp whistling sound rang in their ears, causing the giant and the crew to change color. The giant instinctively screamed, "Watch out for cannon fire!"

Not just him; everyone thought the distant warship had opened fire.

But several seconds later, as the whistling sound faded, nothing happened. Not only was the hull not hit by cannon fire, but there wasn't even a water pillar exploding on the sea surface.

This caused rows of "golden question marks" to appear over their heads.

"Yo, trash. Your time is up. Smile~"

Suddenly, a chilling, sinister laugh rang out from above. Everyone looked up in unison and indeed saw a Marine officer over three meters tall standing atop the mast, looking down at them mockingly with eyes glowing with a reddish light.

"You!"

The giant raised his machete and pointed it at the man, just as he was about to say something vicious, the person in his sight vanished in the blink of an eye. He only caught a vague glimpse of a blood-red light.

"Ka—! Boss Kas!"

The surrounding pirates were stunned, because they saw the Marine who had been on the mast a second ago suddenly appear behind Boss Kas. The long blade at his waist had already been unsheathed, flashing with a cold light under the sunlight.

Simultaneously, a thin line of blood gradually appeared on the giant's neck, and his armor shattered into pieces, falling to the deck.

God only knew how many strikes he had taken in that single instant.

Shiryu didn't even glance at Kas behind him. Even if the man was still breathing and conscious, in his eyes, he was already a corpse.

[*Swish!*]

In the next second, he turned into a white blur, weaving through the screams and cries of hundreds of armed pirates at high speed, carving streaks of blood-red blade light through the air.

When Shiryu killed, he didn't like cutting ships or destroying vessels; he preferred to hack them down one by one with his blade. The sensation of the edge slicing through flesh truly intoxicated him.

As the saying goes, killing is a bad habit, but he simply couldn't quit!