Chapter 197: Act Of Bravery
“S-Sister Aoxi!”
Buggy shouted with a face full of shock.
“Hmm? Now you know to call me sister?”
Aoxi grabbed Buggy by the back of his collar, lifted him up to her face, and shook him a bit, just like looking at a little cat that ran away from home and got beaten all over by the feral dogs outside.
“Sister Aoxi, Shanks, Shanks he…”
Seeing Aoxi’s familiar face, Buggy couldn’t hold back anymore and burst into tears.
Watching his little partner get punched to death right before his eyes, himself getting captured, and Mister Rayleigh now in peril to save him, Buggy’s heart was filled with fear and regret.
“Don’t worry, this red-haired brat is fine, he just has no heartbeat right now.”
Aoxi glanced at Shanks, whose soul was still nicely staying in his body, and said in a relaxed tone.
“Hmm… Ah, ah?”
As soon as these words came out, they directly interrupted Buggy’s sobbing.
Wh-what does it mean “just no heartbeat right now”?
Doesn’t that mean he’s dead!
“No heartbeat and being dead are two different things, okay~”
Finally catching an opportunity, little teacher Aoxi began vigorously injecting medical knowledge into Buggy.
“Generally speaking, if it’s just the heart stopping, even after a few minutes, the person won’t die.”
“And as long as you do this…”
Saying that, Aoxi placed her hand on the skin of Shanks’ chest right over his heart, and then…
Sizzle~
A faint electric current flashed in Aoxi’s palm, and immediately after, just like flipping the tripped circuit breaker back on, Shanks’ heart that had stopped for a few minutes began beating again.
Thump~
Thump~ thump~
Thump~ thump~ thump~
“Puhah!”
The unconscious Shanks suddenly opened his eyes, then clutched his chest and gasped for air.
“Hah~! Hah~!”
“Sh-Shanks! You’re alive again?!”
Seeing his little partner sit up again, Buggy no longer cared about anything and directly hugged Shanks’ neck, bursting into loud cries!
“You guy, you guy…”
“You really scared me to death… waaah~”
“Alright alright, I’m fine now, aren’t I, Buggy.”
Patting his little partner’s back, Shanks comforted him, while looking around.
“Speaking of which, this place is…”
Looking at the surrounding plaza in a mess, Shanks was a bit confused about the situation; his memory went blank after being punched into apparent death by Oven in the Treasure Vault.
“How is that possible?!”
“How are you still alive, you brat!”
Seeing Shanks bouncing around alive again, Oven not far away directly widened his eyes.
“My ‘Hot-Wind Fist’ should have melted all your internal organs; how could you possibly come back to life!”
As the Ability User of the Heat-Heat Fruit, his fist could easily melt a steel wall, theoretically Shanks should have been punched right through.
Even if he didn’t use the highest temperature because he didn’t want to dirty Big Mom’s castle floor, the other party absolutely couldn’t be completely unharmed.
He had used a technique to punch the high heat directly into Shanks’ body; the other party should now be like a lava cake with the inside already turned to liquid.
“Ah? Internal organs melted?”
Hearing Oven’s words, Shanks quickly pushed Buggy away, then felt around his chest.
But after feeling for a while, he found that not only was his chest not melted, there wasn’t even a trace of burn injury, much better than Buggy next to him who was covered in scalds.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, Shanks felt a smooth-textured object, and pulling it out, it was a somewhat familiar handkerchief.
“This is…”
This was the handkerchief Aoxi had thrown to Shanks earlier to wipe his mouth; at the time, he had hurriedly stuffed it into his pocket upon hearing the news about the Poneglyph and chasing after.
“This is Sister La’s handkerchief, I see~”
Aoxi nodded, understanding why Shanks hadn’t been burned to death.
This handkerchief was woven by La using divine power; though just casually made, it could still be considered a treasure impervious to water and fire.
It was precisely this handkerchief’s protection that completely blocked the heat from Oven’s fist, allowing Shanks to escape disaster.
Of course, while immune to the effect damage, the battle damage still had to be taken fully; Shanks was directly punched with broken ribs and cardiac arrest.
“You really have good luck, you brat, picking up your life like this~”
“No wonder Sister La looks at you differently.”
This must be the kind of protagonist-level strong luck~
Aoxi circled around Shanks with her hands behind her back, carefully sizing up this brat with hair color similar to hers, then nodded.
“Haha! If it’s about luck, Buggy is even stronger~ Every time we arrived on a strange island before, he was always the first to find treasure.”
“Right, Sister Aoxi, here’s your handkerchief back.”
Looking at the white handkerchief handed over, Aoxi shook her head and refused:
“No need, keep it. After all, this thing has already shared a life-and-death bond with you; keep it as a memento.”
……
Seeing that they seemed to have started chatting among themselves here, Oven, whose arm had slightly regained sensation, questioned in an angry tone:
“Beasts Pirates people, why are you interfering in our Big Mom Pirate Crew internal matters?”
“Ah?”
“Uh… this, this… act of bravery?”
“After all, I can’t just pretend not to see someone attacking children~”
Aoxi stammered a bit; after all, after a few days together, she quite liked these little ones, so she couldn’t just watch them get killed right in front of her, right?
“Act of bravery? Are you mocking me?!”
A pirate who engages in the business of ‘violating others’ will, forcibly conducting one-sided asset transfers’, and you call it an act of bravery?
You might as well go join the Navy.
“Cough~ Anyway, these two little guys are my subordinates; I can’t just let you bully them.”
“They were the ones who first violated Whole Cake Island’s laws, attempting to steal our Big Mom Pirate Crew’s treasure.”
“According to regulations, they should be executed!”
As the Whole Cake Island minister in charge of laws, Oven refused to yield an inch.
“Ah? Death penalty?”
“Just stealing stuff, at most hang them up and beat them, then educate them… no need to kill them directly, right?”
“What kind of internet-style sentencing criteria is this~”
“This has nothing to do with you, an outsider; get out of the way now!”
Oven walked straight toward the three as he spoke, apparently intending to take Shanks and the others back.
“Ah!”
Shanks and Buggy instinctively wanted to hide behind Aoxi upon seeing this, but in the end, they mustered their courage and stepped forward.
“Sister Aoxi, you don’t need to get involved in this.”
“We handle our own actions; leave this scalding guy to us.”
“R-right. Leave it to great grandpa Buggy.”
Buggy drew several small knives from his waist, saying with trembling legs.
Pfft~
“Alright alright, you Red Nose are shaking like a 3D pinball; stop trying to act tough.”
“Who are you calling Red Nose!”
Ignoring Buggy’s shout, Aoxi directly pulled the two little ones behind her, hands on hips, and said to the sullen-faced Oven in front of her:
“Anyway, I’m protecting these two brats today; even Jesus couldn’t take them from me, I say.”
Then she followed up with things like “Kids are still young and don’t know better~”, “Why get serious with kids as an adult~”, “You gotta be magnanimous~” that made blood pressure soar.
Having been annoyed by the Homies on the way through Whole Cake Island until now, Aoxi finally found a chance to annoy these people back.
At the same time, Kaido, that “task” she had thrown to the back of her mind, was finally remembered by her now.
