"Sengoku?"
The moment Sengoku saw Tsuru, she also caught sight of him in the distance.
Old memories began to rise.
But that half year at the Marine Academy had long since been blurred and compressed by the six years she spent with the White Wolf Pirates.
The fact that she still remembered this afro-headed man wearing a Marine vice admiral's coat at all was already proof of her good memory. They had only been in the same class, buried every day under heavy coursework. Even with familiar faces, most of the time they only exchanged a few words after training.
The gap between female recruits and male recruits had always been huge.
So Tsuru only glanced at Sengoku once, then looked away.
Once, they had at least shared the same goal.
But now everything was different. She had made her choice and she was not going to hesitate.
Besides.
Was this not exactly what Admiral Kong had forced her to choose?
Tsuru's attention remained on the battlefield where Kong and Rona were crossing blades. Battles at that level were far above anything she could reach. Among her peers, her growth had not been especially fast. Even now she was still stuck at the stage of mastering the advanced use of Armament Haki and Observation Haki.
After all, as time went on she had spent more and more of her days managing the daily affairs of the White Wolf Alliance rather than training.
Even so, Magnus's promise had not changed.
He had found her a very good fruit.
The Logia-type Wind-Wind Fruit.
At first she could only turn into a breeze, then a gale, and finally she could conjure tornadoes hundreds of meters high out of thin air.
Even for Magnus, finding a Logia on the sea was not easy. Without some manipulation from the system, it would have been pure luck.
The Wind-Wind Fruit was one of the top Logia fruits, recorded in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. Just its appearance would trigger a bloody scramble.
Provided someone recognized it.
Devil Fruit Encyclopedias did exist in this world, but not every pirate was qualified to even glance at one.
Most pirates would never see a Devil Fruit their entire lives, let alone the encyclopedia.
Magnus, naturally, was not "most pirates".
Finding the Wind-Wind Fruit had been a fluke. Most of the top grade fruits he had held before had come from the system's rewards. This one, he discovered by chance while cleaning out the hideout of a pirate crew during his unification of the New World.
The captain of that crew probably had no idea whether he should eat it.
A Devil Fruit was a massive upgrade to an ordinary person.
But for a strong pirate who already had power, very few were willing to gamble their future on some unknown fruit. If the ability turned out to be mediocre, the boost would be too small, and they would have traded away their ability to swim, gaining a fatal weakness in return.
Not worth it at all.
So over the years, the White Wolf Alliance had collected quite a few Devil Fruits, but the Wind-Wind Fruit was a complete surprise.
Because Magnus also knew the World Government was collecting powerful Devil Fruits.
Even if they did not eat them, they hoarded them.
Now the entire battlefield howled with wind. For the White Wolf Alliance, it was a tailwind. For the World Government…
It was a brutal headwind.
"Damn it, where did this freak wind come from?"
"The cannon shells can't even fly straight!"
"Crap, those are enemy shells, take cover!"
The two fleets had closed to within two kilometers. At that range, even the primitive cannons of this era could at least try firing.
With so many ships clustered together, blind shots still had a decent chance of hitting something.
"Damn…"
Seeing Tsuru ignore him, Sengoku felt a stab of agitation. But the first thing he had to deal with was the artillery barrage from the White Wolf Alliance.
He had no choice but to use his fruit.
"Great Buddha."
A golden Buddha manifested on Sengoku's personal warship. The massive Buddha raised a hand and slapped. A violent shockwave burst out, knocking every incoming cannonball away.
After that strike, Sengoku calmed down.
This was a battlefield, not a place to dwell on matters of the heart. Tsuru's identity was that of their undercover agent in the White Wolf Alliance. If he rushed to meet her now, he would only blow her cover.
Tsuru must be waiting for her own chance.
Thinking that, Sengoku stopped worrying about her and focused entirely on the enemy fleet. Though he lagged slightly behind Garp in the realm of Haki, his fruit had awakened, and his overall strength was not much lower.
To stop him, ordinary top class pirates were not enough.
Only members of the White Wolf Pirates could do that.
"Buddha Sengoku, huh? I have heard of you."
A voice rang out from a distant warship. Sengoku turned and saw a purple haired young man standing on the bow.
His expression hardened.
"Second generation trainee of the White Wolf Pirates."
Based on the time they had joined, the Marines had divided the White Wolf crews into veteran members and first and second generation "trainees."
The first generation of trainees, such as Rocks and Newgate, were already legendary pirates whose names shook the sea. Their power rivaled or exceeded naval admirals, second only to White King Magnus himself.
Among the second generation, the most famous was the Golden Lion, Shiki. The Marines had always been wary of his Float-Float Fruit.
Compared to those monsters, the purple haired youth in front of Sengoku was almost obscure.
His reputation, in fact, came more from his role in Rona's "new Marines" than from the White Wolf crew.
Black Arm Zephyr.
Just from the name alone, you would know this man was a top level martial artist, a master of Haki, not someone to underestimate.
As Sengoku and Zephyr squared off, several of the World Government's and White Wolf Alliance's ships crashed together.
On this sea, cannons could only smash hulls. If you wanted real casualties, you needed boarding battles between ships.
Close the distance, hook the rails together, lay down planks, and jump.
As the boarding actions exploded all across the line, the battlefield instantly dissolved into chaos.
The Millennium Falcon slammed straight into Imu's flagship. But long before the hulls connected, Magnus and Imu had already begun their duel.
Their fight had nothing to do with ships.
Meaty wings spread wide behind her, Imu hovered in the air like a demon, radiating terrifying Conqueror's Haki.
Magnus was no weaker.
He could not fly, but at their level, long term use of Moonwalk to stay airborne did not tire him at all.
So neither even glanced at their fleets.
They went straight into the sky above the clouds.
Then came Rocks and Newgate.
Their ships also struck the side of Imu's flagship. Four massive vessels locked together into a sprawling platform, and the two versus six battle erupted in an instant.
"How strange. Lipley, why won't they let me help?"
Linlin had been standing on the Millennium Falcon the whole time. The moment the ships locked and planks hit the rails, she wanted to charge forward, but was stopped by both men.
"This is our fight. We do not need you jumping in."
So she grumbled and turned to ask Ripley at her side.
"Probably… manly pride?"
Ripley scratched her cheek, equally confused about why they were going so hard.
In terms of top tier combat power, their side did not actually lose to the World Government. Even if Linlin went to help, the rest of the enemies were still manageable.
"They are here."
The fifth ship was a Marine warship. Seeing Imu's flagship under direct assault, Fleet Admiral Ortega had rushed over first.
The second Linlin saw Ortega, her eyes lit up.
"Lipley, leave that one to me."
"Alright, be careful."
"He might be stronger than most, but he is still not my match."
Compared to her control of Armament Haki, Linlin's Observation Haki lagged far behind. She had only barely reached the level where she could glimpse the future.
Ortega, on the other hand, had no Conqueror's Haki, but he was a master of both Armament and Observation. In terms of dual Haki mastery, only Magnus surpassed him.
But no matter how sharp your Observation was…
"Eat my Observation Killer."
Linlin hefted her huge cleaver and brought it down toward Ortega. What nearly made the Fleet Admiral's face turn green was that the Haki she sensed wrapped around the blade was not Linlin's, but Magnus's Conqueror's Haki.
Even stored in a weapon, when released it crushed his Haki in an instant. For a moment his mind went completely blank and he could not sense Linlin's movement at all.
By the time he snapped out of it, her blade was already about to hit him.
"Iron Body: Extreme."
Ortega did not want to use Iron Body, but he had no choice.
And Linlin never played by the book.
She knew that stored Haki was one-time only. Once used, it vanished. Though her raw strength was greater than Ortega's, Observation had always been her weak point.
She could tangle with Magnus for a whole day and night only because Magnus allowed it.
If Magnus ever stopped humoring her, she might not land a single hit from beginning to end.
So before the battle, Magnus had specially sealed a charge of his Conqueror's Haki into her cleaver just for this one ambush.
Staring at the Fleet Admiral bracing himself for the strike, a wicked glint flashed in Linlin's eyes.
Her slash was a feint.
Despite being nearly three times Ortega's height, her movements were brutally agile. The Haki on her cleaver belonged to Magnus, but her real attack was elsewhere.
Linlin had her own Conqueror's Haki and could use it for infusion.
Magnus's Haki, in the end, was Magnus's Haki. She could only release it briefly to disrupt Ortega's Observation. It was not her real killing move.
Her true strike was…
"Take this."
After the feint, Linlin's leg suddenly wrapped in Conqueror's Haki and she kicked out through empty air.
The kick landed squarely on Ortega.
Conqueror's Haki infusion plus Linlin's monstrous strength, even against Iron Body, nearly knocked Ortega unconscious.
And it was not over.
Because the instant her kick connected, Linlin's cleaver was already swinging again, body twisting into a baseball batter's stance.
Air compressed around her.
"Nation's Strike."
Boom.
After that combo, Ortega was inches away from being the first admiral level fighter to die in this war.
"Close enough."
A gryphon swooped down, catching him just before he splashed into the sea. Held between its beak and talons, his arms gone and half his torso missing, Ortega managed a strained laugh as the beast set him back on deck.
"Who knows how White Wolf Magnus managed to raise so many top class monsters?"
Conqueror's Haki had interfered with his body's regeneration, but Ortega was still a top Haki master. When Linlin hesitated at the gryphon's appearance for just a few breaths, he used his own Haki to forcefully purge hers.
At the same time, his mangled body began regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Yes.
After CP chiefs Stephens and Grindeven, Imu had also signed contracts with a portion of the Marine upper brass.
Not only Ortega, but the last two active admirals, Kong and Hines Oran, had also bound themselves to Imu.
In his duel with Rona, Kong took a deep cut to the bone, but his face did not change.
Because the wound closed almost immediately.
Seeing that, Rona's gaze darkened.
"Kong, so this is your choice?"
In Rona's eyes, Kong had always been a somewhat clumsy junior. But his stubborn commitment to "justice" was something she had once admired.
After Sebas died, though, Kong had grown more and more extreme.
And now.
He had thrown away his pride and accepted another's charity.
"For justice, it is worth it."
Kong's eyes were firm. When he looked at Rona now, it was no longer as a former colleague or someone he had once looked up to.
She was an enemy.
"I see."
Rona said nothing more. The warmth in her eyes faded to cold steel.
"Then go die."
If he had been the Kong of the past, Rona might have tried to pull him into the new Marines. But now that he had walked so far down this extreme path, there was only one road left.
A fight to the death.
Elsewhere, the great swordsman Tokikazu Amatsuki of Wano crossed blades again with Admiral Hines Oran. They had faced each other at the Battle of Acropolis Port.
Now they were enemies once more.
Behind Tokikazu stood five thousand newly trained samurai of Wano.
Their individual strength was not that impressive.
But on this battlefield, they were far from mere cannon fodder.
Wano's reason for joining the war was simple.
They had come to free their fathers.
After the Knights of God attacked Wano and took away countless warriors, those men had not appeared at Acropolis Port.
But they had not missed this battlefield.
Twisted by Imu's demonic power, the Wano warriors who stepped onto the sea today began a massacre the moment they arrived.
Their opponents were…
The giants of Elbaf.
(End of Chapter)
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