Chapter 352: Dominating the Battle

"So... so strong..." 

"With Lord Sanji's power, there's no way he could be a failure..." 

"Cough... maybe there was a mistake. You all know what Yonji is like." 

The clone soldiers all nodded repeatedly. Their understanding of "Lord Sanji" had come mostly from the arrogant and reckless Yonji. But now? If Sanji was a "failure," then what did that make the other three? Worthless trash? 

"This loser... how can he be this strong?!" 

It wasn't just Judge who had lost. Even Vinsmoke Niji—his blue wavy hair swept to one side, his eyebrows curling counterclockwise, dressed in a blue combat suit with a black cape—was kneeling on one knee. 

"Electricity, huh?" 

Sanji casually blew a smoke ring, unfazed. 

"That little spark of yours isn't even as strong as the 'shock training' we use on the Straw Hat Crew. Are you seriously calling that a weapon?" 

"You—?!" 

"Stand down, Niji." 

Vinsmoke Ichiji, the eldest, stepped forward. 

"It's obvious Sanji has undergone special resistance training against electricity. Your ability is useless against him." 

"No, no, no. That wasn't 'training.' It was straight-up torture..." 

Sanji's expression softened as he recalled their past training—gritting their teeth, laughing, and enduring Nami's lightning strikes. His anger slowly faded. 

"Thanks to our lovely navigator, I've gotten so used to lightning, fire, explosions—whatever. At the end of the day, they all just paralyze, speed up, crash, or explode. Nothing new."

Is the Vinsmoke family weak?

Of course not!

Not to mention Vinsmoke Judge, the head of the family, the other three brothers and sister are all modified humans with "bloodline factors." The "bloodline factor" is essentially the "gene sequence" that Roman is familiar with. And in this world, powerful creatures are everywhere.

Take the island Luffy trained on as an example. Those creatures may not know "Haki," but they can still beat Luffy easily! They even forced Luffy to develop Gear Fourth to dominate the island.

And the entire Vinsmoke family, except for Sanji, is full of people with skin as tough as steel, speed that rivals a galloping horse, and strength enough to bend steel. Then, with the superpowers brought by the "bloodline factor," they could definitely be considered high-ranking members of the Four Emperors! But: "It's hard to imagine that you all don't have Haki."

In this New World, it seems that only the Vinsmoke family relies purely on physical strength for battle. The "bloodline factor" gives them incredibly tough bodies, almost inhuman. However, because of this, they have never been able to break through their natural limitations to become true masters.

Not having emotions (though there are some) makes them very sharp as "weapons," but because of this, they can't focus on throwing punches with all their heart. Without a life-threatening situation to trigger a "danger-sensing" explosion, that's why the Vinsmoke family all lack Haki.

"In any case, the reason I came here was originally... forget it, it's in the past."

"Marriage or something, whoever wants to go can go!"

"...To defeat Father, Niji, and Yonji,"

As the eldest brother, Ichiji was the most "perfectly modified" one, proud, cold-blooded, and ruthless, viewing human lives as nothing. Compared to his two younger brothers, he was more calm and cautious— and even more heartless.

"What a waste of this fighting power."

"Sorry about that, but my strength was honed to protect my friends! It has nothing to do with you cold-blooded people, so—"

Sanji looked at his "big brother," Vinsmoke Ichiji, who had fiery red long hair on the right, covering his right eye, a left-rotating eyebrow, a red combat suit, and a white cloak.

"Are you going to fight me?"

...To fight, or not to fight, that was the question.

If they fought, Ichiji had no guarantee of winning. But if they didn't, his pride wouldn't let him back down. So: "Reiju, take action!"

With a call, Ichiji immediately charged toward Sanji at high speed! Meanwhile, Reiju also joined the battle. — Yes, if he couldn't beat Sanji one-on-one, he'd gang up on him. As a modified human, Ichiji had no shame in doing so.

Swish,

Sanji could fight with his other three brothers, but when facing Reiju, the only one he was close to as a child, he hesitated for a moment, and:

Snap,

"What is this?"

Sanji was thrown back, his wrists now locked with two "handcuffs." Vinsmoke Judge let out a sigh of relief.

With Sanji's displayed strength, if he tried to escape into the sea, no one could stop him. If that happened, the Vinsmoke family would either have to send another person for the marriage or prepare to face the wrath of "BIG MOM."

"This is an explosive bracelet,"

Vinsmoke Judge stepped forward, stopping Ichiji's attack.

"I didn't want to escalate things to this point... You know about the slave explosion collars from Sabaody, right? This thing works on the same principle. If you try to break the bracelet or leave the confines of the world, it will explode automatically."

"As a 'chef,' you wouldn't want to lose your hands, would you?"

"...You're still the same scum as ever."

Vinsmoke Judge remained indifferent to his son's words. After all, if it weren't for the arranged marriage, he wouldn't even acknowledge this "waste" of a son.

Now, though the strength was unexpectedly strong, his mentality was still as weak as ever! Useless—

"Say what you want, the key is in BIG MOM's hands. This marriage is going to happen!"

"Hmph,"

After three rounds of fighting, Sanji turned and walked towards a nearby building, clearly showing no interest in looking at his "father" again.

"Have you resigned yourself?"

While Vinsmoke Judge thought this, Sanji was actually thinking:

"Well, let's wait for Luffy to come... Actually, never mind, let's let Roman handle it. Luffy always manages to make simple things more dramatic."

"Explosion wristband?"

"This thing was already demonstrated for everyone to break apart violently by 'Dark King' Rayleigh back in Sabaody. Both Luffy and Roman can use Haki techniques, so they're not scared of this kind of thing. Besides, Roman has all sorts of strange abilities, so an explosion wristband is nothing for him. Now, let's just patiently wait for Luffy and the others to show up."

"Since the message from my sister is: 'Beat them up hard,' it means Roman has already handled the Straw Hat Crew's back-up. After all, Roman has the identities of 'Marine Admiral Candidate' and 'Celestial Dragon,' so he has enough power to protect our family in East Blue. The rest is up to the Four Emperors, BIG MOM!"

"I'm the future Pirate King's cook, so let me cook for you?"

"Do you think you're worthy?" ————

"I'm the future Pirate King's cook, so let me cook for you?"

········· "Is it okay for us to be eavesdropping on Sanji's conversation?" Nami raised her hand.

"Ah, well... I just wanted to see if he needed help, but..." Roman shrugged helplessly. He remembered that Sanji had a storyline where he was bullied by his 'family.' So, he tried using the 'phone paper' on Sanji's wrist to understand what was going on, but all he heard was Sanji putting on a tough act...

"Waah, Sanji said he's not going to get married!" 

Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper huddled together, crying their eyes out.

"Sanji, we're sorry! We underestimated you!" X3

"Hmph, what's so great about women?" 

Zoro lifted an eyelid and glanced at the piece of paper in the middle of the group. Sanji's self-talk from the paper made the corner of Zoro's mouth twitch slightly. 

Even though he always called Sanji a 'perverted kappa,' how could Zoro not care about what was going on with Sanji? "If we're taking Sanji, we can leave right now."

The Straw Hat Crew was floating not far above Cake Island, and 'BIG MOM' had already noticed the ship transformed from an airplane into a 'flying ship.' Of course, at the same time, Roman's white dove was also flying openly in the sky above Cake Island.

Two people who are both skilled in reconnaissance and Kenbunshoku Haki running into each other is why the Straw Hat Crew needs to keep their 'distance.'

"Although we've been exposed to BIG MOM's ears and eyes, I can still use the 'Door Door Pages' to open a direct path and sneak into the Vinsmoke family castle to take Sanji. But nothing else can be done."

"No way! What about Jinbe and the Poneglyphs?"

Now that they knew Sanji wasn't really going to 'marry' and leave the crew, Luffy's 'intelligence' was back, or perhaps his recklessness was. 

"We can't just run away with our tails between our legs. How are we supposed to be Pirate King if we do that?"

"Exactly," 

Roman nodded, clearly having a detailed reason.

"If we just sneak away with Sanji, BIG MOM's crew will look down on us. And they will definitely attack our family in East Blue without hesitation. Even if the people I sent can protect them, what if BIG MOM expands her attack range?"

"They could destroy the Baratie, attack Cocoyasi Village, or even go after the Shimotsuki Dojo..."

The last one doesn't matter, unless the Three Sweet Commanders go, otherwise it's just a suicide mission.

It's just like America in the past—bombing small countries when they feel like it, and "sanctioning" whoever they want. The reason is simple: I have the strength, I can hit you, and you can't fight back! "Only when we show our strong strength, and can retaliate against BIG MOM's pirate crew in the same way, will they not attack East Blue. Because that would provoke our revenge."

Why doesn't America "use force" against the other four powers? It's because the other four powers have the strength to fight back, even to hurt them or go down together!

Peace is built on strength. Peace without strength is not peace, it's charity.

Although there are people in the Straw Hat Crew like Robin, Roman, and Brook, who have no ties to the outside world, everyone in the crew is a partner. They would never want to see anyone's family harmed, so: "Roman, you're in charge of the plan."

Luffy made the decision, 

"Tell us what to do—" 

He adjusted his straw hat, 

"I'm going to take back Sanji, Jinbe's getting on my ship, and I want the Poneglyph leading to Laugh Tale!—I want it all, because I'm going to be the Pirate King!"

"Got it, Pirate King."

(End of chapter)

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