[One Piece] Isano's Rebel

Ace did let her protect his back—if having her behind his back allowed her to protect him.

The two carefully groped for the road, and Ace even extinguished the flame to prevent the location from being exposed.Without saying a word, the two of them held their breath and concentrated on moving forward bit by bit.

Only the hand he clasped her wrist tightly could let her know his approximate location.

Her ears suddenly caught the slight trembling sound of falling gravel, and a bad premonition suddenly appeared in Adelina's heart.She bit her lower lip, stepped forward and hugged Ace's waist, and with a swing, the two spun around a few times and then slammed into the wall.

Sure enough, there was a loud noise from where they were standing just now.Adelina felt the ground tremble under her feet.Ace, who was hugged tightly by her, let out a muffled grunt, and there was a burning pain where his back hit the wall.

She was a little worried, but still bit her lower lip tightly and kept silent.He could only pat him on the shoulder without saying a word to show comfort.At the same time, the panting of the beast sounded again in the silent space, and she thought that the monster was probably already around them.She felt the muscles on Ace's body tense up, and the nerves of the two of them immediately entered a tense state.

If I didn't guess wrong, this monster stayed in the dark environment for too long, and it could see more clearly than the two of them in the dark.It's just that it didn't seem to have any intention of attacking - therefore, Adelina and Ace didn't act rashly.

The monster's heavy footsteps sounded in the quiet and stuffy space, surrounding the empty stone cave.The sound was getting closer and closer, and Adelina vaguely caught a glimpse of the light flashing past Ace's fingertips——

In the next second, she lowered her waist, and quickly pulled out an ordinary dagger from her waist, and while throwing herself sideways towards an open space, she used her strength to throw out the short, sharp weapon.

While the cold light of the cold weapon flashed across the air, two beams of fiery flames shot out——

"Crossfire!"

The careful exploration before gave Adelena and Ace enough time to adapt to the darkness.The scorching flames precisely rushed towards the monster in the darkness.Adelina could almost see the cold light sinking into the blurred outline of the monster's torso.She smelled the acrid smell of burning and the familiar smell of blood gushing.

A hoarse whine sounded, as if something heavy fell to the ground.

Only then did Ace dare to illuminate the cave with fire again.To the surprise of the two, the robust rhinoceros that was laid down on the ground, bleeding from its legs, and part of its fur was burnt black, transformed into a human form at an extremely slow speed.

The orange-yellow flames covered the stone wall, and the huge projection originally reflected on the stone wall shrank little by little into a human silhouette.

I heard that the monster in Slum No. [-] was a rhino — if I had known it was a human, maybe Adelina would not have thrown the dagger three times as hard as usual.

It's a pity that the dagger is not long enough.

It was lucky that the man's leg was not broken.

Adelina was about to step forward, but she hadn't taken a step yet.The person twitching in pain on the ground suddenly pointed at the sapphire dagger at her waist, with surprise in his eyes.

The noble sapphire quietly emits pure light in the turbid air.

Due to being in the dark for a long time, the man opened his eyes slowly, his eyes were a little loose, and he couldn't focus accurately.

"Adeline...is that Adeline?"

The man used both hands and feet, and crawled towards her in some embarrassment.Adelina looked at the man's face covered in dirt and dust, and frowned, as if she didn't recognize him.Ace looked at her suspiciously, but she just shook her head, folded her arms around her chest, and looked him up and down.

"I'm Doug...used to be at E6...we were a training camp—"

When she heard E6's name, her eyes darkened, and her five fingers holding her arm were slightly clenched.After thinking for a while, Adelina finally remembered a little bit, and said hesitantly, "Doug's words... the one who quit first?"

"Accidental blindness during missions on the east coast of Candy City." The man tremblingly raised his hand and put on the black eyepatch covering his left eye, "This is the reason I quit, Adelina. I'm not as strong as you guys." Terrible, life at E6 is not for me..."

Adelina walked to Ace in silence, her gaze stayed on Doug who was groping and standing up from the stone floor.

The man paid no attention to the wound on his leg.

A person who came out of E6——will not scream because of this injury, even if he is a student who quit halfway.

"As you can see, I am now a rhinoceros-shaped oxen fruit capable person, and I am a colonel under Lieutenant General Jack..."

"Doug, what the hell are you trying to say? Also, tell me how Chichila got caught?"

Adelina interrupted him suddenly with a high-pitched voice. She didn't want to listen to Doug talking about those so-called old things, and she was not interested in his current situation—or, if Doug didn't mention her grandfather's name, she You may also have the patience to spend a while with him.

Standing beside her, Ace clearly felt the change in Adelina's momentum.He immediately grabbed her shoulders.The reassuring temperature came from the skin of her shoulders, and she realized that she had lost her composure, so she restrained herself a little, and her aura was not as fierce as before.

"Kikila?" Doug woke up like a dream, staring at Ace beside her with his right eye that still has vision but has not yet adapted to the brightness of the flames, "Fire Fist Ace... yes, you now He's a member of the Whitebeard Pirates... Chichira is a good boy, I'll tell you little by little about him..."

"You'd better make a long story short."

Adeline felt that this person was already verbose enough—or maybe because he hadn't spoken to anyone for too long, Doug's ability to organize his language had obviously deteriorated, although his original speech was very clear.

"About half a year ago... Oh, I don't remember how long ago—I was sent by Lieutenant General Jack to Minos Island to investigate the root cause of the No. 6 reagent explosion—you know, after all, compared to fighting Kill kill, academic research is my old profession, otherwise I wouldn't be injured in the first mission because I didn't adapt to E[-]."

Adeline had always been calm, but she couldn't completely sink her heart into listening to this guy's nonsense right now—the topic Doug was talking about almost touched the most sensitive part of her heart.If it wasn't for Ace guarding her side, she might have really drawn out her knife and slashed the chatterbox.

"Minos Island is the raw material base of No. [-] Reagent... The most important raw material of No. [-] Reagent is Cordyceps sinensis—a special herb that can only be cultivated by the special soil in the central area of ​​Minos Island." When it comes to the field of study that he thinks he is good at, Doug’s language is obviously much clearer, “The two accidental explosions in the No. [-] reagent laboratory were due to the shortcoming of the No. But you know, Dr. Beccapunk has always been cautious in doing things, and if there is such a big loophole in the reagent, the problem is certainly not on him."

Hearing the name of Dr. Beccapunk, Ace felt that what Doug wanted to tell Adelina was by no means a trivial matter.

"The government has long since found out—the herb dealers on Minos Island conducted underground transactions with the outside world in order to make huge profits. They bought people in the navy, and cooperated with a number of reputable pirates to sell reagent No. [-] at a high price—— Later, these people were silenced one by one..."

"I know that." Adelina said out loud.

Only then did Ace understand that the first time she saw Adelina, the pirate she killed was the pirate who had conducted an underground transaction in Doug's narrative, and the reagent she snatched was the so-called No. [-] reagent.

"Actually, those herb merchants have been prepared to grow Cordyceps sinensis in order to make huge profits from the very beginning. When they first planted Cordyceps sinensis, half of the soil they used was middle-zone special soil and half was ordinary soil. That is to say, the government was What a joke, the raw materials they got at the beginning were not of high quality, that’s why the No. [-] reagent was permanently defective.” Doug sighed, “This is what I found after I came to Minos Island, In order to prevent me from bringing information to the government, the Minoan merchants who made their fortunes through dirty transactions built a labyrinth on the soil in the middle zone, locked me here, and used the labyrinth to hide evidence. At the same time, they are closed to themselves, probably because they are afraid of the government I'm so scared that I'm crazy. After all, if the whole story of their betrayal of the government is leaked, the whole island will probably be ruined. If there is no mistake, all the fake and inferior No. Agents erased traces."

Doug rattled and rattled the heavy, rough chain around his ankle—there was no way he could get out of this damn place.

"The reason I say this is that if you go to Lieutenant General Jack, I want you to bring him the above information."

Adelina laughed as if hearing some funny joke, "Will he believe in a 'rebel'?"

"But you're his granddaughter, too!" Doug exclaimed.

"It's not anymore. The old man won't even recognize me, and I'm too lazy to compete with him."

Doug is still too naive.

She lowered her head, curled her lips and shook her head—from that moment on——

and many more……

Adelina suddenly realized that she still didn't know who accepted the task of destroying the fake No. [-] reagent after her and her partner.

With the old and stubborn style of the government, it will certainly not be too complicated to let people who don't know about the secret research on reagent No. 6 do this thing.So far, the matter of reagent No. [-] has only been disclosed within E[-].

The accidental explosion happened in the middle of the night, and most of the trainees in E6 returned to the base after performing heavy tasks on the eve of the explosion. Therefore, most of the trainees should have died in that accident.

I thought she was the only one who survived.

Now it seems that may not be the case.

"As for Chichira—he came here out of curiosity, and it took him a long time to walk this way in the maze and meet me. He was a good fellow, and tried to help me in every way. But this chain, I'm afraid it's not that easy to break."

The rich businessman of Minos tried his best to keep Doug from leaking the news, how could he give him an ordinary chain that could be broken at once.

The chain is made of a special material that stretches or compresses according to his devil fruit form.In other words, no matter what, he couldn't break free.

There are so many strange raw materials, this is one of the advantages of Minos Island, and it is also the advantage that traders use to make a living.

"If he hadn't sneaked in to find me again and again, he wouldn't have been targeted by that guy."

"Who?"

"Navy men."

Doug didn't mention his name - Adelina knew it well, and she was afraid that they were some people who couldn't be named.

"Adeline, you've always been confident in yourself. But this time, you can't deal with the person who captured Qiqila." Doug sighed, "...Even if I and that person are both in the Navy , but when I tried to protect Chichira, that man nearly killed me."

Doug's slightly profound tone made Adelina suspicious.

"If it's head-to-head, in terms of strength, you may include yourself in it. Adelina."

"You mean, tell me not to go to Qiqila?" She frowned.

"That's right."

"Go dream."

She almost gritted her teeth and uttered the harsh words.

The air suddenly became dead silent.

Adelina glanced at her former teammates who turned their heads away with an almost cold look.

Time passed by, and the blood on Doug's leg almost scabbed over.

The suffocating and dull atmosphere was finally broken by Ace's light cough.

He put his hand on Adeline's shoulder and shook her.The moment she turned her head back, he saw the tough and slightly forbearing emotions in her blue pupils, clearly.

Ace knew that things were getting more and more complicated.But he didn't put his inner considerations on his face, he just pretended to be relaxed, and as usual, he patted her with a smile——

"It's not me."

After saying this, he turned his head, found a roll of bandages and a brand new potion from his backpack, and threw them to Doug who didn't say a word.

"You give us so much information, after all, you have to be fair."

Doug picked up the unopened medicine from the ground with a complicated expression, the pain in his leg almost paralyzed his nerves.

But when he met Adelina, who was also in E6 in the past, he forced the painful cry to his throat.

The person's delicate and indifferent profile seemed to be a little softer than before.It seemed to Doug that Adeline had changed a little—something that couldn't be described.The appearance of Adeline still reminded Doug of that short but thrilling, desperate day.Although not particularly familiar, he can still remember some of the time we spent together in E6.

In the past, except for that person's life, she probably didn't care about anything else.

But now, there are more people she cares about, which is a good change for Doug.

He sighed, "Then, if you want further information. I can tell you that there was another person present."

"As you can see, all the treasure chests in the labyrinth have been looted. The one who caused it is that guy..."

"Phantom Thief Bradley. He..."

Before Doug could finish his sentence, a burst of bluish-purple smoke suddenly emerged from the gaps around the cave.

Before her mind turned, Adelina's body reacted subconsciously.Instinctively, she immediately covered her and Ace's mouth and nose.

Doug also seemed to realize something, he looked at Adelina with an extremely calm gaze, "Leave quickly. This is a regular spraying..."

Before Adeline could ask, Ace dragged her towards the hole beside Doug.

As soon as she stepped into the hole with her back foot, the roar of a beast came from behind her.

Adelina watched the figure grow from thin to tall, and the projection of the rhinoceros horn was reflected on the stone wall, which was a bit frightening.

The ground beneath his feet shook violently.

Doug turned into a monster again, his eyes were red, and he rushed towards the hole where Ace and Adelina escaped.

But the hole was very narrow, and Doug in monster form could only hit the stone wall above the hole.

With this impact, the stone wall shattered.

The gravel fell, sealing the narrow opening.

Adelina stared blankly at Doug's figure disappearing from sight.

The hole where the monster's limbs could be seen, now only remains of stones piled up tightly.

"It may be a drug similar to a stimulant." Ace said.

"probably……"

Before the two of them had much time to chat, the stone wall above their heads trembled violently again.

This time, the broken stones falling from the stone wall above were getting closer and closer to them.

The author has something to say:

How's the rhythm of this plot [cover your face]

If readers have any good suggestions, I hope to put them in the comments