Chapter 20: I'm Not Aiming at Anyone

Whitebeard, the man hailed as the strongest on the sea—how long he can hold on now is still an unknown.

Luffy and Kaidou probably don't have much of a problem either.

Dragging things out until Red-Haired's face shows up isn't an issue, but that would go against Su Lin's original intention.

Points, points, what matters most is still points!

Going on like this won't work. Fine—no investment, no return.

He glanced at the few props and skills he'd picked out in his shopping cart; this wave should be the last harvest of points.

"Buggy, it's me." Su Lin patted Buggy on the back.

Buggy was so startled his head did a full 360-degree spin.

"How do you keep popping up out of nowhere like that!"

Buggy asked, annoyed: "Is the map you gave me real?!"

After saying that, Buggy came to his senses—this guy had just crossed swords with an Admiral and was imitating an Emperor of the Sea; it seemed he couldn't beat this guy….

Isn't this tone a bit too arrogant?

"The map is real, of course. Take this." Su Lin hooked an arm around Buggy's neck and stuffed a box into his arms: "A treasure map. You'll know what to do later. I'm going to pull off something big."

"Easy, easy."

Watching the battle from a trench while moonlighting as a director, Buggy didn't understand what Su Lin was saying; he only caught the words "more money."

"What is that guy trying to do, anyway."

He, the great Lord Buggy, had handed this chance to step into the spotlight over to this young punk who hadn't even grown all his fuzz yet.

Yet this guy kept doing all sorts of mysterious things.

Forget it—for the sake of the gold, he still had to work.

"My boys! Buck up, keep your eyes peeled!"

Buggy gave orders to his underlings in the trench holding surveillance bugs.

"Yes! Lord Buggy!" ×N

【Light Scroll: Angel's Feather】 Price 500 points: Heal, repair bodily injuries, purify and cleanse, largely reverse the body's negative states, restore the feathered one to health. —Very traditional, very common, but that doesn't stop the skill from being cool.

【Heavenly Stair】 Rental price 50 points: No real use, just very cool.

【Concealed Amplifier】 10 points: High-tech from the 22nd century, even sound distribution, auto-charging, wireless endurance.

He pulled out a historical projection—a version of himself from five minutes ago.

His true body hid into history, his consciousness beginning to control this projection.

Both hands tore the scroll open.

The sky, already choked with smoke and fire from battle, suddenly brightened a little.

The people who noticed the change looked up.

They saw countless twinkling, glowing things falling from the sky.

"What is that."

A pirate lying on the ground stared at the sky; he no longer had the strength to care how the battle was going.

With multiple gunshot and blade wounds on his body, he began to miss things from his hometown in the West Sea.

It was a town, neither big nor small, its economy relying mainly on coastal port trade.

His father had run a small trading company, and every time he came back from sea he'd bring him and his sisters gifts from abroad.

His mother would bake the hometown's West Pear cakes along with a table of food made by the servants to celebrate his father's haul.

Why was he in this place?

Why…?

Oh, he remembered.

That day, his hometown had been ravaged by pirates….

A ruined estate, shattered windows.

His family, hiding in the cellar, had been discovered.

At the critical moment, they were saved by another group of pirates.

That group of pirates stayed in their town for a while, until the town gradually recovered and the Marines got word and sent people to encircle and suppress them.

To repay the kindness, he became a pirate.

"Old man… Ace…."

The Marine leaning against a broken stone slab had no time to care what the dying pirate across from him was muttering to himself.

To lighten the burden on his family, he had long ago joined the Marines from that inland country where you could never see the sea.

Just for the extra recruitment bonus back then.

Unknowingly, sixteen years had already passed.

He had gone from a new recruit to a Navy Colonel.

Sixteen years without seeing his family.

He had originally planned to take leave and go home this year; he stared blankly at his severed arm, feeling his consciousness gradually fading.

"Feathers?"

Voices of surprise and doubt rose from all around.

Countless feathers, carrying their own glow, drifted slowly down from the sky.

Amid the rising fire and smoke of war-torn Marineford, they formed a different kind of scenery.

Like a snowy night, yet unlike the cold and loneliness of a snowy night.

"It feels kind of warm."

Devil Fruit users always have some strange, odd abilities — some are very powerful, some are completely useless.

When he was young, he had picked up a Devil Fruit, but a colleague he was on good terms with told him it was a Dung Beetle Fruit.

In fact, it was an Animal-type Gorilla Fruit.

That colleague who had tricked him and stolen his fruit had, on a previous voyage out to sea, perished together with a pirate worth 200 million berries in order to protect him.

"No matter which ability user did this, forget it — I'm tired."

"It's actually quite pretty."

One after another, exhausted Marines and pirates stretched out their arms, opened their palms, wanting to touch it.

A feather of light landed in a palm, and the glow vanished along with it.

Just a pretty show, then.

Just as he was feeling disappointed.

The pain on his body gradually faded; the scarred, battered arm saw its wounds healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"So warm."

"God…"

Such scenes were playing out again and again across the battlefield.

"Whose ability is this?"

Sengoku and Whitebeard felt the feathers of light that had fallen on their own bodies carrying healing and warmth, the pain on their bodies slowly mending.

Feathers of light drifted down across the whole sky, like a Christmas Eve snowfall, bringing a touch of solace to this battlefield of blood and fire.

"Hm?"

Luffy and Kaido, who had each taken a hit from the other, paused for a moment at this sight.

"Boring."

Kaido tossed aside his kanabo, transformed into the Azure Dragon wreathed in Kuangdao Bawang, and clashed with Luffy once more — only to be turned, by a giant-ified Luffy, into a skipping rope exactly as in the future, until his eyes went dizzy.

Then whipped back and forth.

As expected, the result was no different.

In everyone's eyes, more and more feathers of light fell from the sky over Marineford onto the battlefield.

Without regard for friend or foe, healing every wounded person equally.

Several dozen seconds later.

A massive beam of light pierced through the dark clouds and descended upon the central area of the battlefield.

"What's going on?!"

A staircase condensed from pure white light-element spiraled down from the clouds above.

Su Lin, draped in a great black cloak, wearing a white top hat, dressed in a pure white suit and leather boots, descended slowly along the spiraling staircase of light in the sky.

Each time he unhurriedly took a few steps, he would flash into light and reappear on the next level.

Accompanied by the sky full of light feathers, Su Lin was like an envoy from the heavens descending upon the war-torn soil below.

When Su Lin's foot touched the earth, the staircase dissolved into a sky full of light specks and vanished.

"This guy… so cool." Buggy was so dazzled by the light that tears and snot ran down his face; having lived this long, he never imagined someone could put on such a show.

If he hadn't made a deal with Su Lin from the very start, he probably would have been taken in by Su Lin's entrance as well.

After casting a subtle glance toward Buggy not far away, the surveillance bug's camera suddenly zoomed in.

"Give me face — let this conflict end here."

Su Lin's voice echoed in every corner of the battlefield.

"Pirates, Marines — it doesn't matter."

"Every one of you has given it your all. Tonight, just go home properly, eat dinner, and get a good night's sleep."

"You've already done your best; what comes next is not something you can decide."

"Enough pointless sacrifice. Preserve your lives — whatever grudges you have can be settled later."

Su Lin spoke with seven parts sincerity; his voice was not loud, yet it somehow reached every corner of Marineford.

"Dammit, this entrance is even more handsome than mine, Lord Buggy." Buggy bit his clothes and said enviously.

"Amazing," Buggy's underlings around him said. "Earlier he even transformed into Kaido and exchanged blows with Garp and Sengoku."

"Such an amazing person, yet just now he was arm-in-arm with Lord Buggy, whispering about something."

One underling recalled the scene of Su Lin and Buggy whispering together off to the side earlier.

"As expected, Lord Buggy — you two must be plotting some world-shaking event!"

"Truly worthy of Lord Buggy!"

"Eh? Hahaha." Buggy had no idea what these people were thinking; he only knew he couldn't let anything slip, otherwise this lot from Impel Down — whose bounties were even higher than his — would most likely not let him off.

"That's right, just you wait and see, my boys!"

Buggy would never tell them that earlier that guy Su Lin had slung an arm around Buggy's shoulder, and the two of them had stood there with lecherous looks, haggling over the price.

In the end, Su Lin traded a treasure map and a blueprint for an automatic gold-searching device in exchange for the broadcast rights.

'Still, didn't expect this.'

Buggy stroked his chin, grinning somewhat lecherously.

"This guy is the same breed as me, this lord."

At this moment, Sengoku had just withstood a tremor from Whitebeard, and Whitebeard's face had taken a punch from Sengoku, pulling them apart to catch their breath.

"So it's that little brat who came with the Straw Hat."

Sengoku pulled out the amplifier from his pocket and roared: "What kind of joke is this!"

"You think our Marines will let you and the Whitebeard Pirates off like this? Not a single one of you participants is getting away!"

"Don't even think about confusing people here!"

Hearing this, the Marine soldiers who had walked out of that miracle-like scroll began responding one after another.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku is right — pirates are pirates!"

"Don't think that just because you healed our wounds we'll stop trying to capture you."

On the pirate side, some also felt Su Lin was being foolish — why heal the Marines?

"Hey, go help that young man, he's about to be surrounded by the Marines."

"But he looks really strong — earlier he even transformed into Kaido and displayed Conqueror's Haki...."

"Kizaru has already gone over; he might not be able to handle it." The captain of the Whitebeard Pirates' Seventh Division said.

Because Su Lin's current position was right at the center of Marineford, and due to the earlier retreat, the surroundings were already filled with elite Marines.

Numerous Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals were eyeing Su Lin menacingly, and Kizaru had also flown into the sky, preparing to launch an attack.

Some pirates moved toward Su Lin's side.

"Who I am isn't important — what's important is my ability."

Su Lin looked at the Marines closing in without panic, still speaking with an easy expression, ignoring Kaido not far away who wanted to give him a clubbing but was blocked by Luffy.

"I suppose you're all very curious about what kind of ability user I actually am."

That was true — quite a few people were curious what ability user Su Lin was, but surely this guy wasn't planning to reveal his ability.

Wouldn't it be better if the enemy didn't know this kind of information?

"I am the user of the Copy-Copy Fruit."

"Every ability I have seen will be copied by me."

Fweee—

A bullet passed through Su Lin's back, but what was left of his body was a glowing hole.

"Admiral Kizaru's ability?"

Su Lin glanced at the Marine soldier who had sniped him, not caring in the slightest.

"No way — does such an outrageous ability really exist?!"

"Copy every ability!?"

"How scary~." Kizaru was also guessing at the truth of Su Lin's words.

Sabaody Archipelago · Gossip Square and the Gossip Tavern

"Headquarters! Headquarters!"

"Breaking news, breaking news!"

"The war isn't over yet, but a piece of news even bigger than the war's outcome has appeared!"

"The most powerful Devil Fruit ability has appeared!"

"The user of the Book-Book Fruit, which can copy every Fruit ability!"

In the tavern.

The pirates' wine glasses dropped to the floor one after another, making crisp clinking sounds against the wooden floorboards.

"This kind of thing..."

"I am neither a pirate nor a Marine — I am only here to end this war."

"Whoever launches an attack, I will join the other side."

"Do you understand now?"

Su Lin spread his arms wide as if to embrace everything, smiling openly.

Then he opened his eyes again, his expression shifting.

His face carried three parts disdain, three parts benevolence, three parts arrogance, and one part seriousness (as he saw it).

This was the expression he had been mulling over in his mind for a long time.

The expression of a strong man.

"What a joke!"

"A mere criminal!"

Of course some Marines jumped out to oppose it.

Su Lin had no intention of letting them stop just like that.

"Then!"

"Let me show you!"

He spread his arms even wider, forming a cross.

Two white semicircles appeared in his hands.

Crackle

Crash

A sound like glass shattering and also like firecrackers being lit and exploding.

The ground began to shake.

"This is!?"

Sengoku and Garp were feeling somewhat anxious and uneasy at this moment.

Whitebeard raised his chin, looking at Su Lin.

"Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit ability!?"

"It's actually real!?"

The ground shook more and more visibly, and the shaking was still gradually intensifying.

"Hold it! Do you want to destroy Marineford?!"

Su Lin heard this and tucked both arms away, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets, while the Conqueror's Haki belonging to Luo Jie was unleashed to its fullest extent.

"Understood, everyone."

"I'm neither asking you, nor persuading you."

"But you must listen to me and end this war."

Kaido heard this and a fighting spirit surfaced on his face; he even found it quite interesting—this fellow cared the least about the consequences of anyone present.

Su Lin naturally knew this.

His hand tore at the void.

The Su Lin who had taken on Kaido's appearance several dozen minutes earlier was ripped out; his body began once again employing the exchanged Haki, and the spiked club in his hand was eager for action.

The identical appearance made Kaido himself freeze for a moment.

He even has a clone skill? Or is this some kind of copy?!

"As expected, this fellow's Conqueror's Haki reminds me of that guy Luo Jie." Garp stared at Su Lin with a solemn expression, sweat breaking out on his head: "When did another powerhouse of this caliber appear so quietly on this sea?"

Even if Luo Jie were resurrected he wouldn't be afraid—back in the day it was he who had chased Luo Jie for many years.

But in today's situation, the fellow before them was also a user of a composite Devil Fruit ability...

"This is terrible." Sengoku stood shoulder to shoulder with Garp, gazing in Su Lin's direction.

"I'm not singling anyone out."

Su Lin decided to be arrogant to the end today—after all, it was all just a historical projection speaking.

His thumb pointed down, completely at odds with his previous peacemaker demeanor.

"What I mean is, every single one of you here is trash."