165 Strings in the dark

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Whit Yuki's gun pointed at her head, Robin started sweating and she used all her strength to change the direction the eerie gun barrel was pointing at, yet she couldn't do it no matter how much effort she put into it

"Impossible!" Fear covered Robin's eyes which then turned into shock as a gunshot sounded and she froze in horror as her whole life passed before her in an instant while her devil fruit ability that was holding Yuki disappeared on its own

"Yuki!" Yelled Vivi in shock but she suddenly realized what was happening and stared at his back silently...

A few seconds later, Robin realized that she wasn't injured at all and she couldn't help but fall to her knees and stare at Yuki with a puzzled look in her eyes while he simply said with a weird smile "You see, where I'm from, I have a reputation of my hands slipping when someone threatens my life… Next time that you attack me, that bullet won't miss your head... I promise"

Robin understood immediately that Yuki wasn't joking around so she instinctively nodded her head fearfully while Yuki calmly put away his gun before he stared at the sky and said "Oh, we got a visitor…" Before he turned his attention to Robin and said "Just know that I have no interest in harming you, okay?"

Robin nodded silently before an injured falcon landed from the sky and rushed toward Vivi "Vivi-sama, you are alive! thank god…"

This was one of the guardians of Alabasta, a Falcon devil fruit user called Pell, and he was injured by none other than Robin…

…

After everything was settled with Vivi bandaging Luffy like a mummy. They all jumped on Robin's giant transport which was a giant crocodile with a saddle on top of it... quite the unique transport, and they started making their way to Alubarna…

Luffy was fast asleep after eating some food Yuki stole for him before he came to his rescue and it was then that Robin spoke "Are you sure your information isn't wrong? why would someone like that man be here in Alabasta of all places?"

Yuki nodded at her and responded "Yes, we found out that he was funding the rebels and giving them weapons, but we still don't know what his true goal is, maybe he's after you as I said before, maybe he's just enjoying ruining this country, who knows..."

Robin and Vivi's faces instantly darkened and they ended up remaining silent while contemplating Yuki's words.

"Vivi-sama, we can't trust her" Spoke Pell suddenly and Robin didn't seem to mind his attitude as she was used to people treating her as a devil… However, Vivi simply turned to Yuki to seek his opinion and he simply smiled at her and said "It's fine, she's not an enemy… plus she helped Luffy"

"Okay" Replied Vivi having full trust in his judgment to Pell's surprise and it left Robin confused 'Just who's this guy?'

The way to Alubarna was pretty peaceful, however, the moment they neared the city, Yuki calmly stood up and said "Vivi, I will leave the rest to you guys… I will go search for that sneaky manipulator hiding in the dark and make a few preparations to fight him…"

"Okay, be careful…" Spoke Vivi with a worried look on her face as she watched him running away while Robin remained silent as Pell eyed her warily

"What a strange person…" She couldn't help but stare at Luffy who was sleeping soundly as if he didn't almost lose his life 'I guess this whole crew is weird…' Thought Robin and she didn't do anything to Pell's relief and simply took her leave…

….

The morning sun didn't take long to start shining its light again on Alabasta, and the moment it did, many plans and agendas were set to motion… the main one being Crocodile's operation Utopia.

Unsurprisingly, he had already taken the palace of the king under his control and was preparing Mr 2 who can shapeshift into anyone he touches to send him to create chaos and confusion in the country by further ruining the reputation of the king to cause a rebellion...

Yet surprisingly, Vivi didn't go warn her father, for this was all in Yuki's plans to catch the big fish hiding in the dark…

As the fake king gathered the crowd and made a public announcement that he was the one responsible for the lack of rain in Alabasta, the crowd of citizens instantly burst into chaos. However, among that chaos hid something else…

The rebels led by Koza were instructing everyone to leave as fast as possible to avoid the incoming battle while pretending that they were feeling chaos from the king's actions… This was using the enemy's plan against them, so their running away didn't raise a lot of suspicions!

At first, the people were full of doubts, but soon the giant army of rebels was spotted not far outside the gates of Alubarna making their way fully armed!

"It seems like the rumors are true, I better run away while I still have the chance" Muttered a citizen who was holding his little daughter's hand… And this was the shared sentiment among all of the citizens.

Meanwhile, the royal guards led by Chaka were shocked by the approaching army, but he didn't know what to do as the king was acting strangely and he couldn't find Pell…

However, the Strawhats soon made their move as they came out of their hiding, and each attacked one of the baroque work agents!

Meanwhile, Luffy made his way to the royal palace where crocodile and Robin were currently located with the king of Alabasta… and they were currently in the location of the Poneglyph that explained the existence of the ancient weapon Pluton and where it was hidden…

"Useless! All this work for nothing?" Crocodile was full of rage as Robin lied to him and told him that the Poneglyph only told the history of Alabasta, and he instantly slashed her with his hook to vent his anger creating a long wound across her stomach...

'Is this the end?' Wondered Robin as she watched Crocodile approaching her with pure killing intent emanating from his body, however at this point, A rubbery boy suddenly yelled from the distance "Gomu Gomu no… Bazooka!"

Before Croco could react, Luffy's hands that were covered in water instantly connected with his stomach and sent him flying before he smashed into the multiple walls…

Robin stared at this scene in shock and she couldn't help but ask "How did you find this place? Only the king should know it!"

"Eh? Vivi brought me" Replied Luffy casually before he started walking to Crocodile that was already standing up and yelled "CROCO, I WILL DEFINITELY BEAT YOU THIS TIME!"

….

Meanwhile, Vivi on the other hand went with Pell toward Chaka and told him about their plan to evacuate the citizens.

"I don't know how you guys did it but I'm glad you convinced the rebels to stop" Replied Chaka with a sigh before they started doing their part as well in evacuating the citizens…

Despite Yuki's effort, the situation was still chaotic as the Strawhats were fighting to the death while he himself was sitting in an empty house with Yurei floating behind him like a ghost and watching everything that was happening with his observation Haki…

"How did it go with the marines?" Asked Yuki calmly and Yurei eerily twirled his hair and said "I convinced them to send a vice marine admiral over"

Yuki felt a chill on his back and didn't even question what Yurei did to convince them, although it could be calculated in the number of heart attacks the marines in Alabasta received…

"Ah, that's right, did you deliver my message to Smoker?" Yuki asked suddenly and Yurei nodded and responded "Yes, that guy is quite annoying as he tried to attack me the moment he saw me but it seems like he takes his job seriously and values the lives of the people here and he's currently helping out in evacuating the people with his men…"

"That's good, you did well…" Spoke Yuki and Yurei instantly said "Can I leave now? The heat is killing me"

"Tch, stop complaining, I still have one last mission for you and you can leave for as long as you want after that" Spoke Yuki in annoyance but Yurei was even more annoyed than him, especially when he saw how relaxed he was while sitting on a mat in this chaotic situation…

"What is it now?" Spoke Yurei through gritted teeth and Yuki felt bad slightly for working him this hard so he spoke gently "I will reward you after this, plus this mission is much more simple, collect the Strawhats when they finish their fights and take them back to their ship"

Yurei narrowed his eyes slightly and he couldn't help but ask "I'm really curious about this guy you are going to fight"

"That's good to know, want to fight him in my place?" Spoke Yuki while staring at Yurei expectantly but the unreliable ghost simply fled away while yelling "You took the shit, you clean your ass…"

"Tch, this bastard… But I guess he's right" Muttered Yuki before he turned his attention to Zoro's fight against Daz Bonez!

Crocodile's strongest subordinate and a wielder of the Dice Dice fruit, a Paramecia devil fruit that granted him the ability to turn any part of his body into a sharp surface made of steel!

Zoro tried his best during this fight, yet he simply couldn't cut a man made of steel… Yuki watched all of this silently as he waited for the final moment for it was what mattered to him.

His way of the sword already reached level 100 yet he wasn't able to surpass this bottleneck through training alone… Of course, it must be understood that he achieved more than 20 years of Zoro's mastery of the sword in about 15 days showing just what kind of a monster his abilities were making him and he could have even figured it out on his own. but why work hard when you can see a clear demonstration is Yuki's never changing motto…

Yuki marveled as the cut and beaten Zoro suddenly picked up a single sword, his Wado Ichimonji and said "This is going to be my final attack"

Daz Bonez smirked at Zoro and mocked him "Don't you understand? I'm made of steel! You can't cut me"

Zoro didn't waver at all and simply entered into a trance-like state as he started hearing it… The unique 'breath' of Daz Bonez while the latter simply rushed at him and yelled "Atomic Spurt!"

Zoro on the other hand calmly entered a Iai stance and said "Lion's song!"

The two flashed against each other and Yuki watched in awe as the steel man gained a giant wound on his body…

"I thank you… I can still become stronger" Muttered Zoro but before he knew it Yurei appeared near him and flew him somewhere safe where he was gathering the rest of the crew…

"Amazing" Muttered Yuki who was in his most focused state as he observed everything Zoro did, then he calmly took out a normal sword and put all of his focus and understanding of what Zoro just did before he casually swung the normal sword at the stone wall… and it cut it like butter, then he did the same thing with a napkin on the table and it simply knocked it away!

"Finally, I surpassed this bottleneck" Muttered Yuki with a wide smile as a notification appeared in front of him

[Congratulations host, your mastery of the Way of the sword level 100 has advanced into Master of the way of sword Level 1/100]

'Finally, I understood the first principles of controlling the sharpness of the sword!' thought Yuki before he wondered 'Just what kind of level is Mihawk at … He's surely not renowned as the world's greatest swordsman for nothing'

As Yuki sank into his own thoughts, he suddenly noticed an unwanted change... Some strings started manipulating the events from the dark in an unfavorable way, and the rebels and the royal guards suddenly started attacking each other!

"This is bad!" Yelled Yuki as he rushed out...