"Hey… he really hit the muzzle this time…" Cold sweat slid down Silvers Rayleigh's temple as he watched the looming figure ahead.
"Whoa~ What a massive battleship!" Luffy shouted, gaping in awe from the deck of the Thousand Sunny. Compared to the monstrous warship bearing down on them, the Sunny looked like a dinghy.
"This is not the time to be amazed, you idiot!" Nami snapped, punching Luffy hard on the head with a rising vein on her forehead. "We need to focus on escaping! That ship is clearly nothing normal!"
Luffy blinked, then froze. His eyes narrowed at the silhouette standing calmly on the bow of the approaching ship. "That guy…"
Images from the hellish battlefield of Marineford, two years ago, flashed across his mind. That cold presence—he remembered it vividly.
At the prow of the Marine battleship "Oak Dragon", Vice Admiral Solomon Carl sat with his legs crossed, a cigar resting between his fingers, calm as ever. A soft red glow shimmered within his pupils as he muttered to himself, "Fate has a funny way of circling back… and you still managed to run into me."
He'd originally intended to let them slip by—after all, chaos was useful in the New World. Pirates tearing at each other only helped the balance. But now? The opportunity was right in front of him.
He sighed as his hand dropped to the Meito "Sakura Ten" sheathed at his side.
"Slash Wave."
Zheng! The sword unsheathed in a clean flash.
A titanic slash of black-gold color screamed across the ocean, parting the sea as if sliced by the hand of a god. The water surged in twin waves behind it.
"Come!" Zoro shouted, already on the Sunny's bow, his three swords drawn. Armament Haki coursed over the blades as a fierce battle intent radiated from him. "I'll show you how far I've come in these two years!"
"Three-Sword Style: 1080 Pound Phoenix!"
Three enormous blue slashes arced out, crashing against Carl's dark-gold slash in the center of the sea.
BOOM!
The impact of the attacks collided with explosive force, sending shockwaves that kicked up towering waves. The Thousand Sunny rocked violently, water pouring over the sides.
"I… I did it?!" Zoro held onto his blade, still biting the hilt of Wado Ichimonji, eyes locked on the figure standing across the sea. His gaze was complicated.
"Thanks… I guess," he muttered.
Two years ago, at Marineford, Carl had told Dracule Mihawk that Zoro, the swordsman with green hair, had promise. It was that brief statement that convinced Mihawk to accept the battered swordsman's desperate plea for training when he washed up on Kuraigana Island.
Mihawk's words still echoed in Zoro's mind: "Solomon Carl vouched for your potential. Prove to me he wasn't wrong."
From that moment, Zoro's relentless training under the world's greatest swordsman began. Without Carl's passing comment, he may never have gotten that chance.
Suddenly, a cacophony erupted behind the port.
"Enemy attack! There are pirates at the port!"
"Stop them—don't let the Straw Hats get away!"
From the Marine base at the rear of the island, soldiers began to pour out, rifles and swords in hand.
A lone figure blinked ahead of the rest, appearing instantly at the frontline.
Rayleigh's eyes narrowed. "This isn't good… That guy…"
There were lions ahead and wolves behind. The situation was rapidly deteriorating. After all, this island was under Marine jurisdiction—and they were now deep within enemy territory.
The figure on the shore, standing calmly, was Marine Major Coffey, known by the codename "Ghost".
He scanned the situation and immediately spotted the enormous Marine battleship offshore. His expression changed.
"Vice Admiral Carl…?"
Shff!
The sound of displacement cut through the air. Coffey's eyes snapped open as he teleported, vanishing and reappearing meters away.
Boom!
The spot he had just stood on exploded as Rayleigh's foot landed, cracking the stone below.
"Tch… so slippery," Rayleigh muttered, slightly winded.
"Dark King Rayleigh…" Coffey straightened, frowning. "Are you declaring war against the Marines?"
Rayleigh laughed and scratched his silver hair. "Hah… war? Me? An old man like me doesn't have the strength to start a war."
Truthfully, he had hoped to take Coffey out quickly—cripple the Marines' ability to respond, maybe gain a bargaining chip. But this Ghost Major had turned the Sabaody Archipelago into his personal web. His spatial markings were everywhere.
He could teleport at will across any marked location in the archipelago. Capturing him was impossible in a frontal clash.
Rayleigh exhaled and turned back toward the coast, eyes narrowing as he saw the massive warship getting closer.
That hulking behemoth cast its shadow across the sea, and seated calmly on its bow—like a ruler watching from his throne—was Solomon Carl.
And he hadn't even stood up yet.
Invisible oppression shrouded the hearts of everyone.
"Vice Admiral Oak-Dragon, allow me to take out this group of pirates!"
T. Penn, wiry and sharp-eyed with a strangely protruding belly, stood confidently on the deck of the Marine warship.
Clutching the oversized broadsword strapped across his back, he narrowed his eyes toward the Thousand Sunny in the harbor, locking onto the swordsman stationed at its prow—Roronoa Zoro. The bloodlust in his eyes was impossible to miss.
"Go ahead," Carl—Solomon Carl, the rising star of Marine Headquarters—waved a hand lazily from his chair.
Bass!
T. Penn's sword cleaved the air with mechanical precision. With a practiced motion, he spun the weapon to form a perfect angular arc in midair.
"Right-Angle Flash—Penn Aircut!"
The sky split with a radiant blue energy slash, shaped like a rectangular blade, roaring toward the Straw Hat ship like a slicing wall of death.
Zoro narrowed his gaze and began shifting into a blocking stance, hands subtly adjusting around his katana hilts.
But then—
A volley of pink-glowing arrows shot in from the sea's edge.
"Slave Arrow!"
The rectangular airslash was intercepted mid-flight by the charm-laced arrows, which exploded in a soft, floral burst. The technique was unmistakable.
From beyond the mist, a majestic ship carved in the shape of a serpent head pulled into view, dragged by two massive Kuja sea snakes.
Standing at its helm, arms folded and chin raised, was none other than Boa Hancock, Empress of Amazon Lily and former Shichibukai.
"Marine vessel," Hancock said in a regal tone, lips pursed. "Why do you dare block the path of a goddess?"
Her voice dripped with disdain and supremacy, but her confidence was unshakable.
"Hancock?! What do you think you're doing?!" T. Penn shouted, veins bulging. "Are you interfering on behalf of the Straw Hats?!"
With a flick of her hair, Hancock barely spared him a glance. "It's you who parked in the path of this royal ship. Anything the concubine does… is absolute."
"Hmm…" T. Penn faltered, eyes now filled with affection. "So willful…"
From his reclining chair, Carl leaned on one arm, unfazed as he stared back at the Snake Princess. "You Warlords think the system no longer applies to you just because it's been dissolved…"
He stood up.
"But if you keep interfering, I'll judge it as an official act of piracy."
HUM—
The air suddenly distorted.
[Killing Intent Domain] spread from Carl's position like a slow, tightening noose. The scarlet pressure washed over Hancock's ship. Every warrior of the Kuja tribe froze in place, some falling to one knee, others collapsing entirely.
"Urgh—!" Hancock grit her teeth, a bead of sweat slipping down her temple. The invisible weight pressed against her skin like hundreds of tiny daggers. Even her hair lifted slightly under the sheer killing intent.
On the shore, the Marine gunmen braced their rifles and took aim.
"Prepare to fire!" ordered Lieutenant Commander Bright, adjusting his glasses and narrowing his eyes at the Thousand Sunny docked in port.
"Yes, sir!"
The Marines scrambled into formation, adjusting artillery and reloading rifles.
But before the command could be issued—
patter—
Rain.
The skies darkened abruptly, and a torrential downpour drowned the entire area. Gunpowder fizzled. Matches snuffed. The cannons were drenched in seconds.
"What the hell?!" Bright looked upward, stunned. Only the area above them was shrouded in storm clouds—nowhere else in Sabaody Archipelago was experiencing this weather.
The artificial weather anomaly was unmistakable.
Visalia—the Sky Island of Weather Science, where Nami had once trained for two years—had apparently sent someone down.
"Someone's manipulating the climate," a low, even voice said behind him.
Bright turned sharply. "Nobita?! You're here too?!"
Behind the Marines loomed a tall, hulking figure in a black coat, wearing round sunglasses—Nobita, the mysterious shadow of Sabaody known for intervening in high-level conflicts.
Rayleigh, observing from afar, narrowed his eyes. "It's him…"
Nobita extended his palm toward the sky, his hand glowing with strange energy.
"Ursus Shock—Modified Type."
A sphere of compressed atmosphere exploded into the air like a cannon shot. A moment later, the dark clouds above split apart with a thunderous BOOM, scattering violently across the archipelago.
The storm ceased instantly.
Bright gritted his teeth. "Switch to sidearms! Use anything still dry!"
Before his men could comply—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thunderous stomps echoed from behind.
"Not on our watch~!" a flamboyant voice chimed.
Bright's eyes twitched. "Now what?!"
A gang of heavily perfumed, heavily muscled men stormed onto the scene. Their makeup was exaggerated. Their fishnet stockings shimmered in the light. And their legs—thick with leg hair—were proudly on display under heels and miniskirts.
The Newkama Army had arrived.
"Ooh~ Handsome Marine-san!"
"Would you like to go on a date~?"
"Let's fight with love!"
Di Barney, their elegant but equally terrifying leader, strutted forward with an over-the-top wink and blew a kiss toward the Marines.
The perfume scent hit like a brick wall.
"Urgh—!"
"Too strong!"
"I—I can't take it—!"
Marine after Marine fell to their knees, gagging.
Even Bright, known for his composure, clutched his throat and bent over with a cough. "Cough—What is this… psychological warfare?!"
"You…" he sputtered, eyes bloodshot, "you're helping the Straw Hat Crew too?!"
Di Barney raised his hand daintily, a perfectly painted nail shining in the sun. "Eeeh? Don't say mean things~ We're just here for love~"
"We don't know anything about straw hats or… whatever."
"But we do know you looked lonely, handsome."
Bright's pupils shrank.
"Vomit—!!"
Another chorus of retching Marines rang out behind him.
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