Time flies.
Half a month has passed.
At this time, the sea was calm.
The Marines no longer attacked recklessly, having gathered almost all their combat forces at Marineford.
The Four Emperors had also vanished from the seas, seemingly accumulating their strength.
The entire world, from the pirates to the civilians, held its breath, waiting for the war to come.
It was to be a battle several times larger than the Summit War, one that could directly change the future of the world.
There was only half a month left.
****
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
"Assembly! Quickly! All members assemble!"
At the roar of the command, all Marine soldiers gathered in the main plaza, their eyes full of awe, the atmosphere calm but tense.
They were all looking at the high platform, waiting for the arrival of their top leaders.
The next moment, a pink door appeared out of nowhere.
With the sound of clanking chains, Sengoku stepped out, personally escorting the prisoners, Luffy and Ace.
"Damn Marines, let me go!" Luffy couldn't help but shout.
Ace remained silent.
Sengoku gave Luffy a cold look but ignored him, turning his gaze to the countless Marines below.
Thanks to the last World Conscription, the number of soldiers assembled at Marineford had not only been replenished to 100,000 but had swelled to a terrifying 500,000.
In the past, half a million elite Marine soldiers would have been a force capable of sweeping across the entire sea.
But now, it felt like it might not be enough.
Sengoku had gathered them all to give a speech, to boost their morale for the coming battle.
"Everyone!" he began, his voice booming across the plaza.
"I'm sure you all know that in half a month, we will have a decisive battle with the Whitebeard and Red Hair alliance! And it is likely that Kaido and Big Mom will be involved as well! However, since ancient times, evil has never prevailed over good! Can the evil pirates truly defeat our righteous Marines?" Sengoku shouted, his expression full of passion.
But the countless soldiers below remained silent.
There was no roar of pride as he had imagined.
For a while, only Sengoku's voice echoed across the plaza.
He looked down, his eyes sweeping over the soldiers, and his heart sank.
What he saw was a force completely demoralized, not inspired by his words in the slightest.
Some had even bowed their heads in anger and despair.
'This...' Sengoku thought, his heart aching with frustration.
'To be timid before the fight has even begun! This is a disgrace to the Marines!'
But the angry reprimand that came to his lips was swallowed back down.
He couldn't blame them.
This time, the enemy was the combined might of Whitebeard and Shanks, backed by the latest technology and the shadow of the Revolutionary Army.
And beyond that, the alliance of Kaido and Big Mom was waiting to intervene.
This was equivalent to the Marines facing all Four Emperors, plus the Revolutionary Army, plus legendary powerhouses like the Golden Lion, Bullet, and Redfield.
When he thought of it himself, even he couldn't help but tremble with fear.
He shook his head and continued speaking, trying to forcefully motivate them, but after another impassioned speech, the morale remained extremely low.
It had no effect at all.
'It doesn't seem to work,' Sengoku thought, his face grim.
'Everyone thinks this battle is already lost. How can we fight like this? Then... we'll just have to show them.'
"Sakazuki, all of you, get on stage," he commanded.
"Good!"
Hearing the order, the three Admirals—Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru—walked onto the stage, followed by the top Vice Admirals.
"It's the three Admirals, and the top officers from headquarters..." the soldiers recognized them.
The majestic momentum emanating from the five Admirals, Fujitora and Ryokugyu included, made the soldiers palpitate with fear.
"Everyone, this is the top strength of our Marines today," Sengoku declared.
"First, let me show you their power! Vice Admirals!"
At his command, all the Vice Admirals from Marineford—Momousagi, Chaton, Momonga, Onigumo, Yamakaji, and the others—stood up together.
They all exploded their aura at once, and a terrifyingly powerful force burst forth.
"Now!" Sengoku spoke in a low voice.
Momousagi was the first to act.
She drew her famed sword, Konpira, and slashed!
WHOOSH!
BOOM!
A terrifying wave of sword energy shot across the open space behind the platform, carving a massive, ferocious gully into the ground.
"Hiss... how is this possible?!" At that moment, the pupils of all the Marine soldiers shrank sharply, and the sound of gasping breath came and went.
"That... that's an attack on the level of an Admiral!"
But before they could recover from their shock, Chaton attacked.
He simply lifted his right foot and kicked it through the air.
A slicing blade of wind, like a sickle, fiercely cut across the ground, its power no weaker than Momousagi's.
For a moment, the soldiers were shocked again.
"Could it be... have Vice Admirals Chaton and Momousagi broken through to the Admiral level?"
"It's possible! They were originally Admiral candidates, after all!"
But even as they thought this, their spirits dimmed again.
'So what if there are two more Admiral-level fighters? The current enemy is beyond that.'
But soon, they discovered they were wrong.
Because Momonga, Onigumo, Yamakaji... one after another, all the Vice Admirals from headquarters demonstrated their power.
And everyone understood: almost all of them now possessed the strength of an Admiral.
"This... what's going on?!"
"Have they all become as strong as Admirals?!" The Marine soldiers looked on in horror, their faces filled with utter disbelief.
"Why has their overall strength improved so much?!"
"This is unscientific!"
The Marine soldiers were all dumbfounded.
However, this was exactly the reaction Sengoku wanted to see.
He didn't explain, but instead continued.
"Admirals!"
Suddenly, Akainu, Aokiji, Kizaru, Fujitora, and Ryokugyu stood up together.
With a thump, the right feet of all five men landed at the same time, and the entire ground trembled as a majestic aura surged out, seeming to change the very color of the sky.
"Huh? Admirals? Those two are Admirals, too?"
The Marines below were surprised to see the two new faces, especially the blind swordsman, Fujitora.
'Can a blind man really serve as a Marine Admiral?'
"These two are our new provisional Admirals!" Sengoku introduced, ignoring their thoughts.
"Fujitora controls an extremely powerful gravitational force, and Ryokugyu possesses the terrifying ability of the Logia-type Forest-Forest Fruit! Now, show everyone your current strength."
As his voice fell, the five of them acted one after another.
Akainu took the lead.
Without using Haki or any Devil Fruit power, he threw a simple punch.
The wind from his fist whistled like a thunderbolt and exploded in the air, making countless Marine soldiers tremble.
But before the shock could fade, Kizaru, Aokiji, Fujitora, and Ryokugyu all made their moves.
The strength of the five Admirals had clearly surpassed what it had been before; their pure physical power was now enough to rival a former Emperor.
"What's going on? How have the Admirals' strengths increased so much?"
The soldiers were shocked, but their shock quickly turned into ecstatic joy.
If the Admirals and Vice Admirals had all become so much stronger, did that mean their Marine forces at least had the power to contend with the pirates in the coming war?
"Everyone..." Sengoku spoke in a low voice.
"Do you want to know why their physical strength has become so amazing? It's because, thanks to our own Dr. Leon, he invented something called 'the Monster Cells', which can fully stimulate the latent potential within a person's body! And that's not all..."
Sengoku paused and turned to look at Akainu.
"Show them your newfound power."
As his voice fell, a tyrannical wave of Conqueror's Haki erupted from Akainu's body, shocking everyone into disbelief.
"This... how could this be?!" some of the veterans looked on in horror.
"Admiral Akainu never had Conqueror's Haki before! Can this 'Monster Cell' even awaken that?!"
It was well known that Conqueror's Haki was an innate ability that couldn't be acquired through training.
However, the Monster Cell invented by Leon had just completely broken that iron law.
'Does that mean I can have it, too?' The thought ignited a glimmer of hope in the hearts of countless soldiers.
Seeing the look in their eyes, Sengoku grinned.
"The Monster Cells can be produced in large quantities. In the near future, everyone here will have the opportunity to take one. Soon, every soldier in our Marines will be as powerful as a dragon!"
Sengoku's shout made the eyes of the countless soldiers shine, a fire surging in their hearts as their fighting spirit was finally ignited.
"JUSTICE!" Sengoku clenched his fists and roared.
"JUSTICE!!!"
Below, the roar of the soldiers was overwhelming, their blood boiling.
However, the Admirals who saw this scene couldn't bring themselves to smile.
Their hearts were heavy.
They knew that the Monster Cells were not 100% successful.
The handful of them who had powered up were the result of consuming all fifty of the recently produced cells.
All the others had failed, their strength not increasing in the slightest.
The failure rate was incredibly high.
But they couldn't bear to tell the truth and extinguish this newfound glimmer of hope.
"Sigh..."
Watching this scene, Tsuru sighed vaguely.
"If only Leon could develop a new weapon of war... If he developed it now, even if the pirates found out about it, they probably wouldn't have time to replicate it, right?"
Just as she was smiling bitterly at her own wishful thinking, a pink door appeared out of nowhere on the platform.
A small figure appeared.
It was the Marines' genius scientist, Leon.
"Leon?" Sengoku was taken aback.
"Why did you come here?"
"Hehehe of course, to deliver some good news!" Leon chuckled.
"Hm?!" Sengoku was stunned, and then joy appeared on his face.
"Could it be... you've invented a new technological product?"
"That's right!" As he spoke, Leon turned his head.
"Everyone, this is my latest invention! Memory Bread!" He raised the object in his hands high.
"Bread?"
"No way, only bread? Is this also considered a technological product?"
"Shut up! This was developed by Dr. Leon! There must be something unusual about it!" Some people were doubtful, but many others firmly believed in him.
"Leon, what is this Memory Bread? What does it do?" Sengoku hurriedly asked, an eager look on his face.
He knew that Leon would never develop something useless.
"Hehe..." Leon didn't answer directly, just chuckled and looked at Akainu.
"Admiral Sakazuki, please cooperate with me."
"Well, how?"
"Squat down."
Following Leon's instructions, Akainu crouched in front of him.
Leon took a piece of the bread and gently pressed it against Akainu's forehead.
Muttering something under his breath, he stood up with a smile and looked down at the crowd.
"Is there any recruit who is willing to come up and help with the demonstration?"
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