Chapter 172: The Miserable Marines
Boa Hancock usually held men in utter contempt. Most men who showed infatuation toward her had never been taken seriously by her at all.
But now, for the first time, she found herself thinking, "We're cooperating," when it came to a man.
For Boa Hancock, this was a strange experience.
It was precisely because of this that she truly began to notice Ian. This wasn't a love-at-first-sight kind of feeling, but rather that someone who had been as insignificant as air suddenly seemed to have a presence!
Yes, presence. It was funny to say, but Ian had originally been nothing more than a background character in Boa Hancock's eyes. Now, however, he had finally become a supporting character worthy of being on camera.
What surprised Boa Hancock even more was that she could sense Ian was deliberately cooperating with her.
In other words, Ian understood what she was thinking right now.
Having a man read her thoughts made Boa Hancock realize Ian's uniqueness. Her intuition told her that this man seemed to know something.
Who was he? Why did he know she wanted to stop the Marines from capturing the black-clad masked man? And why was he cooperating with her so willingly?
For a moment, Boa Hancock grew curious about Ian.
Originally, she had thought this so-called Dragon Hunter Pirates was just an ordinary pirate crew. She had even overheard their name from the Marines. She knew nothing about this crew. The reason she had picked a fight with them was simply to find an excuse to intervene. When she had clashed with Ian earlier, she had deliberately held back to ensure he wasn't defeated too quickly.
But now, it seemed that this crew's captain was not weak at all! At the very least, if she didn't get serious, she couldn't land a single hit on him!
How could someone this powerful be the captain of an unknown pirate crew?
She wanted to ask Ian, "Who are you?" But unfortunately, the current situation didn't allow her to ask. After all, Momonga and Fighting Dog were right there. If she asked, it would be too obvious.
If she didn't even know his name, how could she have come to pick a fight with him?
While fighting Ian, Boa Hancock glanced at the masked man. Earlier, during her fight with Ian, she had frequently used her petrification abilities, scaring some Marine soldiers into staying back. This should have been the perfect time for him to escape. But when she looked, she saw that the masked man had no intention of leaving!
Boa Hancock felt a pang of anxiety. Could it be that he actually wanted to fight two Vice Admirals and so many Marine soldiers?
Boa Hancock wasn't the only one anxious. Blackbeard was also getting impatient. He threw a punch at Momonga, forcing him back, and then shouted at the masked man, "Hey, old man! Hurry up and make a move! Beat them back, and we need to get out of here!"
Both Blackbeard and Boa Hancock believed the masked man was the real deal. In their eyes, this guy had escaped from Aokiji. If he wanted to leave, no one should be able to stop him. So they eagerly hoped he would step in and break the stalemate.
However, no one expected that when Blackbeard shouted, the masked man trembled and collapsed to the ground.
He had been standing there not because he was fearless, but because he was completely terrified. When Fighting Dog had swung his sword at him twice, the masked man's mind had gone blank. He thought he was going to die. He hadn't even noticed that Ian and Boa Hancock's fight had saved him.
Now, jolted back to reality by Blackbeard's shout, his legs gave out, and he couldn't hold himself up anymore. He fell to the ground.
Once on the ground, he burst into loud sobs and cried, "It wasn't me! It really wasn't me!"
Everyone froze. Blackbeard and Momonga stopped fighting. Ian and Boa Hancock also paused. They all looked at the sobbing masked man, then at the wet patch on the ground where he had fallen.
Fighting Dog couldn't hold back anymore. He rushed over and ripped off the man's face mask, revealing his true face.
Under the mask was a sleazy-looking guy. Where was the aura of a master?
"Damn it! This guy is the Cheat Swordsman Flodess!" Fighting Dog recognized him and growled in frustration, "This guy is nothing but a con artist with a bounty of fourteen million Berries!"
Boom! Vice Admiral Momonga and the surrounding Marine soldiers felt as if they had been struck by lightning, standing there dumbfounded.
"Fake... fake!?"
Did they even need to ask? If this Flodess had the guts to sneak into Mary Geoise, set fires, and kill Celestial Dragons, would he be crying and begging for mercy just from the pressure of the Marine encirclement?
After confirming the masked man's identity, Momonga and Fighting Dog were both stunned.
They had gone to all this trouble to attack Whitebeard's territory, hoping to catch the mastermind behind the Mary Geoise incident. If they had caught the real culprit, it would have been worth it, even if it angered Whitebeard.
But in the end, they had run into a fake!?
Momonga and Fighting Dog felt like the world was spinning. This blow was too heavy for them. It meant they would not only return empty-handed but also risk a potential war with the Whitebeard Pirates.
For a moment, they both wanted to kill this Cheat Swordsman Flodess.
But someone was even angrier than them: Blackbeard Teach!
He rushed over in fury and punched Flodess in the face, making his nose and mouth bleed.
Even then, Blackbeard didn't stop. He pinned Flodess to the ground and beat him mercilessly.
No one knew that the one who had wanted to recruit the masked man into the Whitebeard Pirates was Teach himself. He had been the one pushing for it.
Although Teach had been with the Whitebeard Pirates for a long time, he had no real feelings for Whitebeard. He always looked down on Whitebeard's way of treating people as sons.
Teach had his own ambitions and dreams. He stayed with the Whitebeard Pirates only because their power was vast enough to give him a better chance of obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit he sought. He knew that one day, he would leave the Whitebeard Pirates.
He wanted to become a Warlord, an Emperor, and even the Pirate King. To achieve these dreams, the Whitebeard Pirates were an obstacle that needed to be eliminated.
Whitebeard was old. His era would eventually pass. Teach didn't mind secretly pushing things along to speed up the process.
When he first saw the fake Flodess, he had taken note of him. He had suspected the guy might be a fake, but that didn't matter to him. He roughly knew the truth behind the Mary Geigo incident. If he could bring this black-clad masked man, whom the Marines were hunting, into the Whitebeard Pirates, it would plant a wedge between the Marines and Whitebeard!
When that wedge could be used, Teach couldn't say, but one day, it would serve its purpose.
That was why Teach was so furious. This coward had been scared so easily that he had exposed himself!
Damn it! Even if you were a fake, if you kept up the act, couldn't you have been treated as the real thing?
Teach pummeled Flodess, looking like he had been deceived too. But who could know his true thoughts?
Ian watched from the side, shaking his head. He hadn't expected the fake to be so easily frightened. He had hoped the guy would keep up the act and divert the Marines' attention.
Kuma had taken the Celestial Dragon's identity chip. They needed time to study it. Ian wanted to stall for as long as possible. He wouldn't willingly reveal his identity to the Marines. If they eventually found out, that was their business.
This fake was a perfect scapegoat. That was why Ian had cooperated with Boa Hancock to block Fighting Dog's attack. He didn't want the fake to be captured by the Marines.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Flodess was too cowardly and had directly admitted he was a fake.
The only one who breathed a sigh of relief was probably Boa Hancock.
Since this guy was a fake, her goal had been achieved. The Marines hadn't found the real mastermind behind the Mary Geoise incident.
"So... what do we do now?" Momonga said, his head aching as he looked at Flodess, who was kneeling and begging for mercy.
Even he hadn't expected that impostors would appear so quickly. It had only been a week since the Mary Geoise incident! Damn it! Were these people crazy for fame?
Momonga immediately realized that Flodess might not be an isolated case. In the coming days, more people pretending to be the black-clad masked man would likely appear. This would undoubtedly create huge obstacles for the Marines' investigation.
"What do we do?" Momonga asked Fighting Dog.
"Regardless, arrest him!" Fighting Dog gritted his teeth and said, "Even if it's to make an example of him, we have to punish this kind of person severely! Otherwise, we'll be overwhelmed."
In an instant, they decided Flodess's fate. It was easy to imagine that this con artist's days ahead would not be pleasant.
A group of Marines surrounded Flodess and arrested him. No one interfered this time.
But the remaining person in the field, Blackbeard, left Momonga and Fighting Dog scratching their heads...