Chapter 741: Demon Fox
Just as Gecko Moria transformed into a chatterbox, rambling on and on to Crocodile and the others about the situation with the Beast Pirates, in the capital of Wano Country, Ian was chasing the mysterious assassin's figure all the way to the outskirts of the capital.
Ian flew through the air. Although he had the high ground, the mysterious assassin was dressed entirely in black. Even with the bright moonlight, black clothing was very inconspicuous in the night. To avoid losing the target, Ian expanded his Psychic Field, tightly sensing the other's presence.
This assassin seemed to sense someone following from above. Earlier, he had been darting back and forth through the streets and alleys of the capital, apparently trying to use the blind spots of the buildings to shake off the pursuer in the sky.
But every time he hid in a shadowy corner, Ian would slash a sword aura directly at his position, forcing the assassin back out.
After a few exchanges, the assassin realized the pursuer likely possessed powerful Observation Haki and knew he couldn't hide. So, he simply leaped back onto the rooftops of the capital's buildings, chose a straight line, and kept jumping forward, planning to use speed to lose Ian.
Unfortunately, the assassin underestimated Ian's flight speed. He was chased all the way to the outskirts of the capital without managing to shake Ian off.
Once they reached the sparsely populated outskirts, Ian decided it was time. He accelerated, swooped down from above, and kicked straight at the back of the assassin's head!
Ian was actually quite curious now. Who was this assassin, daring enough to cause trouble in the capital's Tenshukaku? Although it was still unclear whether the assassin had gone to assassinate the Shogun of Wano, the explosion at Tenshukaku was certainly real.
Ian had no interest in whether the Shogun of Wano lived or died. He just wanted to find out who this assassin was, so he planned to capture them alive.
As his leg came down, just as it was about to hit the target, the assassin suddenly changed direction, rolling to the right to dodge.
The attack missed, and Ian naturally landed. Fortunately, after he landed, the assassin didn't continue fleeing but turned around to face Ian.
"Oh, a ninja, huh?" Ian looked at the assassin, who was dressed like a ninja with a face mask, and couldn't help but laugh, saying, "And a female ninja!?"
Although Ian noticed that the assassin's hip area was unusually wide and bulky, her overall figure was very slender, clearly only a woman's build.
"Why are you following me?"
Recognized, the female ninja didn't mind and directly asked Ian this. Her voice, how to describe it, was very pleasant. For some reason, when it fell on Ian's ears, it gave him a tingling, numb sensation, like when Reiju would whisper in Ian's ear while breathing.
With a voice like that, could she be a great beauty? Ian thought. But looking at her unusually wide and bulky hips, Ian was a bit stunned, worried it might be a case of extreme contrast...
"Who are you?" Ian shook off other thoughts, put away his smile, and asked seriously, "Did you sneak into the capital's Tenshukaku to assassinate the Shogun of Wano or something? Which faction are you from?"
"Ohohoho!" The female ninja put one hand on her hip, slightly cocked her pelvis, and let out a laugh, saying, "If I'm not mistaken, you're the Four Emperors' Black Dragon Ian, right? The Shogun of Wano imprisoned your First Mate and your friend Ace. Don't tell me you're not angry... So even if I was assassinating him, wouldn't that be getting back at him for you?"
Ian's face immediately turned cold. He spoke coldly, "I, Ian, haven't stooped to needing others to get back at me! And it seems you know a lot about me! That means you're probably not a surviving samurai of the Kozuki Family. Who are you? Take off that face mask!"
"What if I say no?" The female ninja chuckled lightly.
"Then I'll take it off myself!" Ian said coldly, and with a movement of his feet, he immediately charged at the female ninja!
Since she wasn't a surviving samurai of the Kozuki Family and knew so much about his identity, she was most likely someone from the outer seas. And currently, the only outsiders on Wano Island that Ian could think of were the Beast Pirates!
This woman had to be captured!
In an instant, Ian reached the female ninja. He reached out to grab her face mask, but the female ninja was agile, quickly dodging and backflipping away.
Ian's claw missed. He made a slight prediction of the female ninja's movements, then waved his hand. A bolt of lightning instantly illuminated the night sky, striking down at the female ninja's landing point!
The lightning bolt directly hit the female ninja, who had just regained her footing, with a crackling sound.
Ian controlled the power of this lightning strike. He only wanted to knock her unconscious, not kill her. But strangely, when the lightning faded, the female ninja was still standing perfectly fine!
Huh!? This situation stunned Ian. He could sense that it wasn't that she had withstood the lightning's energy, but that the lightning had no effect on her at all!
What was going on? Was she also a Devil Fruit User with some kind of lightning immunity?
Although his thoughts raced, Ian's actions didn't stop. As he charged at the female ninja again, his hands ignited with blazing black flames. When he got close, his right hand, trailing a tail of flame, clawed down at the female ninja!
The high temperature of the Demon Realm Fire made the female ninja sense it as soon as Ian approached. She didn't dare be careless and quickly drew a short blade from her waist, holding it in front of her.
Ian's right hand grabbed the blade of the short sword. Like cutting through tofu, the flames between his fingers instantly shattered the blade into five pieces, each piece melting into molten iron.
The female ninja immediately let go, dropping the melted short sword, and retreated rapidly. Sacrificing a weapon bought her a little time to dodge Ian's attack. However, the Demon Realm Fire passing so close still made her smell a burnt hair scent coming from her own body.
"Damn! My fur!" After retreating, the female ninja's voice sounded somewhat furious. She quickly tore off her face mask, which had been brittle from the high heat. As she pulled, it crumbled into pieces. But the female ninja ignored that, reaching up to touch her face.
Ian was stunned. When the female ninja tore off her mask, he realized she wasn't the human he had imagined. Instead, she had downy fur on her face... a Mink!
Her nose was somewhat pointed and long, with nostrils at the tip. She had long eyelashes, and her eyes were large and beautiful, but her pupils were very different from humans—elliptical!
Although the mask had been on, the high heat had still damaged the fur on her face. The female ninja felt her face for a moment, finding the downy fur slightly curled. The burnt smell in her nose infuriated her. So, she decided not to hide her identity anymore. She reached up and tore off her headband, revealing two upright ears.
At the same time, a fluffy tail popped out from behind her hips with a *poof*. With the tail out, the previous bulkiness at her hips disappeared. It turned out she had been hiding her tail before...
Upright ears, a fluffy tail, a pointed nose, and a distinctive face shape—Ian immediately recognized it. Wasn't this a fox!?
To be precise, this was a fox Mink...
Minks only came from one place: Dorry's homeland, Zou. Could it be that he had been mistaken? This fox Mink disguised as a female ninja was really a surviving retainer of the Kozuki Family, here to assassinate the Shogun of Wano for revenge?
After all, in Ian's impression, Zou and the Kozuki Family had an extraordinary relationship...
However, just as Ian was thinking this, a voice came from behind, saying, "Ian, grab her! Don't let her get away!"
Ian turned around and saw that it was Ace who had spoken. They hadn't been slow either. Although their Devil Fruit abilities were malfunctioning, their physical combat skills were still intact, and they had caught up closely.
"What do you mean? Is she an enemy?" Ian asked.
"That's right!" Ace nodded and said, "She's the Beast Pirates' Queen the Plague!"
"Ah!?" Ian was shocked by this news. He quickly looked at the female ninja across from him, only to find her staring at him angrily. He hurriedly asked Ace, "Hey, are you sure you're not mistaken? She's one of the Three Calamities, Queen the Plague!? Isn't she a Mink!?"
"She is a Mink, that's right!" Ace nodded, "But she's not a warrior from Zou. She's a traitor from Zou!"
Damn, that's a lot of information! Ian was a bit overwhelmed, but he knew this wasn't the time to ask for details. He immediately drew his Thousand Cherry Blossoms and Black Wing Great Demon.
"You will pay for what you just did!!"
At the same time, accompanied by an angry roar, Queen the Plague across from him began to transform. Her clothes started to burst. But what was exposed after the clothes burst wasn't a tantalizing body, but continuously lengthening fur. Not only that, her entire body kept expanding. In just a short while, a giant fox appeared before everyone.
This transformation startled Ian. The giant fox before him was over ten meters long, far exceeding his imagination of what a fox could be.
However, this wasn't the strangest part. Queen's transformation wasn't complete. In the gaze of Ian and the others who had just arrived, this giant fox slowly grew... two more heads!
Two identical fox heads! So, including her original one, the giant fox before them had become a three-headed beast!
A de... demon fox!
Ian stared dumbfounded at this three-headed fox. A flash of inspiration struck him, bringing back some memories, and he couldn't help blurting out, "Cerberus!? The Hellhound!?"
If Moria were here, he would probably point at Queen and jump up and down, shouting: That's her! That's her!
Among the zombies Moria had created, there was one such Hellhound zombie. But coincidentally, Moria's Hellhound was not only weak in combat, but one of its heads was also a fox!
Moria couldn't have created such a zombie out of thin air. He had actually seen Queen's Devil Fruit form when the Beast Pirates had crushed him, and then subconsciously created this Hellhound zombie when building his zombie army...
"That's right!" Fujitora said gravely from the side, "She is a fox Mink who ate the Cerberus Fruit. And Minks... seem to care a lot about their fur... Captain, did you just burn her fur?"
"I..." Ian didn't know what to say.
"And that's not the worst part!" Marco looked up at the bright moonlight in the sky and said, "The worst part is that tonight is a full moon..."