Chapter 84: Skimming Over Water

"That's good..." Miss Two Fingers placed a hand on Vivi's shoulder. "Take me to the money!"

"Yes!" Vivi replied crisply, squeezing an expression of fierce loyalty as if ready to offer her heart to the organization.

Then Vivi led Miss Two Fingers out of the office, weaving through the luxurious mansion that had once been Krieg's estate.

"Don't try anything clever!" Miss Two Fingers warned, keeping close behind Vivi, always maintaining the perfect attack distance. "And you'd better not let me see that so-called knight of justice."

"N-no, I won't!" Vivi replied nervously, quickly explaining, "That sanctimonious guy is actually bloodthirsty—he needs to kill every day to keep calm!"

"Normally, at this hour, he's at the barracks executing pirates."

This wasn't a lie: Garen's greatest achievement after forming Demacia was no longer having to hunt pirates himself. Instead, he could sit at home while his subordinates captured pirates—experience fodder—for him.

Under Garen's guidance, the troops trained by Dashki soon entered live combat drills. The first to suffer were the pirate dens around Demacia's territory.

For the first time in the East Sea, including the navy, an organization actively purged pirates on a large scale.

The early results of this campaign against crime were apparent; every voyage by Dashki and her soldiers brought back a haul of weak, petty pirates.

For the experience points, Garen insisted on personally judging the pirates with his greatsword, executing those deemed truly evil.

Over time, he earned a somewhat bloodthirsty nickname among his subordinates—

The Executioner of Honor.

Vivi led Miss Two Fingers through the winding corridors of Krieg's mansion, finally arriving at an inconspicuous little door.

"This is the vault?" Miss Two Fingers placed her hand on Vivi's shoulder again, threatening, "If you're lying to me..."

"Open this door, walk a bit further, and you'll reach the vault!" Vivi nodded vigorously, swearing, "I stake my life on it!"

Just as she finished speaking, the sound of rushing water came from the other side of the door.

The noise was so intense it seemed as though some aquatic beast was stirring up havoc.

Hearing this, the worry hidden in Vivi's eyes vanished completely.

"Why is there water?" Miss Two Fingers asked suspiciously.

Vivi kept a straight face, calmly inventing, "That man treasures his wealth above all else!"

"He set up a room outside the vault, where he keeps man-eating crocodiles as guards."

"Nonsense!"

"Who keeps crocodiles as guards...?" Miss Two Fingers instinctively wanted to argue, but stopped short.

Because she really did know someone who loves raising crocodiles.

"You'd better not be lying to me!"

Miss Two Fingers gritted her teeth. "Or you'll be dead!"

She pushed Vivi forward, hissing, "You go first!"

Vivi nodded, then swung the door open.

Inside, the space opened up.

There were no crocodiles, no vault, and not even a room.

Because of the nouveau riche Krieg's tacky taste and shoddy designs, this supposedly luxurious mansion was riddled with absurdities.

For instance, the rear door connecting mansion and courtyard was built so cheaply it resembled a dog hole: simply a tiny door cut into an airtight wall, looking like an afterthought by amateur designers who realized too late they'd forgotten the back entrance.

Still, for all its vulgarity, the mansion wasn't lacking in scale.

Instead of a typical pool, as the door opened, Vivi and Miss Two Fingers found themselves facing—

A small lake.

A lake in the backyard didn't shock Miss Two Fingers; what amazed her was the anomaly on its surface—

A young man clad in heavy armor, wielding a greatsword, was running across the water as if it were solid ground.

It was Garen.

Only recently had he conceived the idea of training to "walk on water."

And he had succeeded.

It wasn't that Garen had suddenly mastered mystical footwork or discovered chakra.

It required no special technique.

As long as Garen's body was strong enough, he could apply sufficient force through his feet to accelerate the water, changing its momentum so that his sole received an equal and opposite impulse.

If he could do this, running on water was not miraculous.

This wasn't nonsense—it was scientifically proven: researchers had demonstrated that, with special shoes mimicking a small lizard's webbed feet, a human could avoid sinking at a running speed of 30 meters per second, requiring fifteen times the muscle strength of an average person.

Garen's strength far surpassed that, so he needed no special footwear to run on water.

More importantly, ordinary people could not sustain such exertion for long.

But Garen's body, enhanced by data, was a perpetual motion machine—tireless and inexhaustible.

After two days' practice, he truly mastered this extraordinary ability; if he wished, Garen could run the entire Grand Line on his own two feet.

Such a spectacle left Miss Two Fingers stunned, momentarily dazed.

Miss Two Fingers might freeze, but Vivi, whose life was still on the line, would not.

"Garen! Save me!"

Garen, busy running on the lake, immediately turned to Vivi.

"You!"

Miss Two Fingers snapped back to herself, conjuring a mass of sharp thorns from her hand.

Her expression changed drastically as she shouted, "You dared to deceive me!"

"Let's see if that knight can save you!"

With that, Miss Two Fingers aimed her thorny branches straight at Vivi's chest, intent on taking the traitor's life.

Vivi, confident, neither dodged nor flinched, a sly smile playing on her lips.

As expected, before Miss Two Fingers' thorns could reach Vivi, her attack involuntarily shifted direction.

She forsook the near for the far, charging straight at Garen in the distance.

Garen leapt from the lake to the shore, watching Miss Two Fingers rush him with an air of casual appraisal.

"These thorny vines... Are you a Paramecia Devil Fruit user?"

Miss Two Fingers, once dismissive of the knight as all show and no substance, now felt only terror.

First, the fact that he could freely run on water proved his physical prowess was far beyond hers.

Second, he possessed some strange ability to control others' actions.

She couldn't defeat him or escape—she was as good as dead.

But things had come to this; Miss Two Fingers could only rely on her fruit powers and face him head-on.

Without hesitation, she reinforced the layers of sharp thorns winding around her arms, making them tougher and deadlier.

The vicious thorns stabbed at Garen's chest, but he blocked them easily with his greatsword.

Garen, guarding against her steel-like thorns, looked utterly relaxed.

"You must be a senior agent of Baroque Works, the Thorn Fruit user?"

"Excellent!" Garen smiled lightly. "I've been executing petty pirates day after day—finally, a big fish."

His easy confidence and effortless defense unsettled Miss Two Fingers even more.

She silently cursed the intelligence officers of Baroque Works: if he could fend off her full-strength strike so easily, how could he have been 'completely suppressed by a third-rate Marine major in Loguetown'? False information was deadly!

But it was too late for regrets. Garen's greatsword flashed, swinging down in a heavy arc.

Miss Two Fingers hastily summoned more thorns from her body, desperate to block the incoming blade.

But in the instant they touched, she felt her powers vanish utterly.

The thorns she spawned, being extensions of her body, triggered a silencing effect upon contact with Garen's 'Deadly Strike'.

She could no longer control her thorns or create more, helpless as the greatsword cleaved toward her.

Blood sprayed.

Those who relied too much on Devil Fruit abilities were far less resilient than martial artists.

In a single exchange, Miss Two Fingers was felled by Garen's blade.

Garen looked down at the collapsed, half-dead Miss Two Fingers and said, "You dared to invade my territory alone?"

"Who gave you the courage!"

"You..." Miss Two Fingers, blood trickling from her lips, used her last strength to shift her gaze from Garen to Vivi.

"You pair of shameless lovers!"

"Huh?" Garen was dumbfounded, turning to Vivi. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Uh..." Vivi blushed, quickly sidestepping the issue. "She's injured—her mind's not clear."