We've won.
Hancock, who had been watching the battle closely, was sure of it. With those reinforcements, the Black Cats were certain to win.
And that's exactly the problem…!
Once she knew victory was guaranteed, she realized something else:
At this rate, we'll win too hard…! If this keeps going, we might wipe them out completely!!
This fight still required the final act—the finishing move led by Gild Tesoro's separate team.
Even if they defeated all enemy soldiers here, the World Government's power would remain enormous.
Even if they defeated two Admiral-class fighters—took their heads, even—they could shake the Government, but not break it.
That's why they needed to crush morale completely—to make everyone understand that fighting the Black Cats brought nothing but loss. And the best ones to spread that message were the surviving soldiers on the Government's side.
If Tesoro and Galdino are right, the Government and the Marine should be treated as different groups… Fear is fine, but stirring up their anger or revenge too much would be a mistake later…
So the goal was to deal the least deaths while breaking morale entirely.
If she was honest, Hancock wanted the enemy to retreat soon. But Zephyr was already defeated by the Vice Captain, and the last remaining Admiral-class, Akainu, was stuck fighting her here.
What should I do…? Should we pull back for now?
Hancock glanced at Mihawk.
He looked for a moment at the ship behind them, then shook his head.
I see… No, he's right. If we pull back now, Akainu will launch a magma bombardment. Even if we could handle it, it's still dangerous.
If one of the First Fleet's ships sank here, it might push the enemy to keep fighting instead of breaking.
That was why Hancock and the others had wanted Devil Fruits to begin with.
A Devil Fruit user had many weaknesses, but they could flip the battlefield in an instant.
"…The fight has turned in our favor. If we defeat you, this force will fall apart," Hancock said, turning her attention back to the Admiral.
So in the end, I must cut him down myself.
If they defeated Akainu and forced command onto someone else, the next person would be obliged to order a retreat.
Hancock focused every bit of her attention on Akainu.
"Then all the more reason I must crush you and boost morale!!!!" Akainu bellowed.
Akainu knew he was the last line of defense.
Smaller than the earlier magma bombs he fired at the Black Cat fleet, but wider—he tried to burn the two pirates with a sweeping blast.
"You are finally serious, Akainu!" Hancock said, her eyes flashing.
What would kill most pirates easily did nothing to Hancock.
She had mastered the force that some faraway island called Flowing Sakura. She could interact with dangerous objects without touching them.
Using that power in her legs, she stepped on the magma bombs as footholds and closed the distance fast, aiming a sharp kick at Akainu.
Akainu did not dodge.
"—Ghh… grraaah!!!"
No—he couldn't dodge.
Hancock had not only sharpened her natural Haki talent, she learned Kuro's Silent Step—the fast, soundless footwork.
Only other users of the same technique could deal with it—mainly Captain Kuro.
Maybe Mihawk, Chris, or that old man on Carrot Island. (Note: The Old Man they keep talking about is Rayleigh)
Akainu's instincts saved him from a direct hit to the throat, but her black Haki-covered heel still drove deep into his shoulder.
She did not use her devil fruit—she put everything into pure Haki. The strike was heavy, and even Akainu almost dropped to a knee—
"Don't look down on an Admiral, little girl!!!!" Akainu roared, his eyes bloodshot.
A Marine Admiral.
One of the Marine's true strongest.
He still rose.
"Unforgivable!! You evil ones!! The Marine cannot fall here!!"
His magma fist slammed into the deck.
The wood flash-heated and turned bright red, bubbling and swelling around him.
"Tch, this one!" Hancock leapt back at once, then up into the air.
"Blow away, girl!!" Akainu yelled.
At the same time, the red-glowing deck erupted.
Large and small magma blasts shot upward, burning everything around them.
"Ggh…!" Hancock grunted.
The dense attack trapped Hancock in midair, magma bursts and heat pressing in on her.
If she hesitated even for a second, the next strike would hit her—maybe even kill her.
She widened her eyes, checking everything fast.
The Guards… safe! They're herding the remaining enemy soldiers and getting out of the attack range! Then—!
""Mihawwwwk!!" she screamed.
"—Understood," At her shout, the Marine Hunter moved.
He swung his sword and sent out a sharp flying slash.
Directed straight toward Hancock.
"Take this—my return gift!!" Hancock shouted.
It wasn't betrayal.
It was the joint technique Kuro and Mihawk once used in the fight against Germa—shatter-slash. A sharp slash meets an even sharper one, breaking apart into cutting scatter-shots.
This time it wasn't improvised.
After hearing the story, Hancock had trained this move with Mihawk and Kuro many times.
Now the technique was far beyond what it had been then.
The scatter-slashes, sharper and denser than the ones that shredded the Germa clone soldiers, rained down over Akainu.
"Guh… g-gaaaahhhhh!!!" Akainu roared.
A Logia user couldn't dodge them all with partial transformation. He had to escape the area—but Hancock and Mihawk gave him no chance.
Right after the scatter effect triggered, Mihawk also sent a full-power slash aimed to cut him down.
Mihawk knew it wouldn't reach—but it forced Akainu to respond, delaying his next move.
"Hancock—!"
"I know!!"
The Farmer called to the Pirate Princess, and she answered.
The pirate knew.
The attack was coming.
A killing blow aimed to burn her out of the sky.
The Marine knew.
If he didn't fire that attack, they would lose.
That was why Akainu prepared a massive, unavoidable blast—big enough to swallow every inch of air Hancock could move through.
Even if Mihawk's slash hit him… even if it tore into his flesh… he had to fire it.
He wasn't wrong.
Akainu's decision was perfect.
But—
Against the Black Cats… he was far too slow.
All the motions around Hancock seemed to slow down.
She could feel everything—air currents, the shift of heat, even the flow of wind—as if the world had fallen behind her speed.
—Take this, Akainu!
Her acceleration was so great it couldn't even form words. She held it under perfect control.
Silent Step—the fast, soundless walk that even the eye struggled to catch.
Hancock had mastered the style once belonging to Kuro.
She could go faster.
And faster.
"Perfume Femur—!"
Akainu's shocked face was right in front of her.
He had been ready to fire a huge wave of lava, leaving his torso wide open.
Her black-coated heel slammed straight into him.
Straight, straight—utterly straight.
A perfect hit driven with all she had.
"MAGNAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Akainu screamed in agony.
A Marine Admiral must not fall.
But one Admiral had already gone down today.
Another loss would stain the Marine's honor beyond repair.
"Move aside, Akainu!!" Hancock shouted.
But the same was true for the pirates.
Just as an Admiral carried the weight of Marines and citizens—
"We must move forward—further and further!!"
So too did the pirates carry their people on their backs.
Stone spread from the point where her heel struck him.
His magma form held it back for now—but that meant he couldn't withstand the force of her accelerating strike.
"Our Captain is waiting for us!"
"…tch…" Akainu groaned, struggling against the petrification.
"Do not stand in our way!!!"
"Ghhhhaaahhhh!!"
For a moment—Akainu's Haki weakened.
Hancock's full-power kick finally broke through it.
–
"All hands, withdraw from starboard!!" Flare was the first to notice the shift in the battle.
From the burning enemy flagship, something was flying toward them.
Possibly a cannonball.
"Hurry! Move!!" Under Commodore Taki's repeated command, the soldiers pulled away from the starboard side.
A thunderous crash hit at that exact moment.
The shockwave ripped through the ship like a cannon blast.
Dust and splinters filled the air, then slowly cleared—And what they saw made both pirates and Marines widen their eyes.
"No… no way!!"
"Admiral Akainu… he…"
It was Akainu.
Half of his body turned to stone, the Admiral lay collapsed.
No—he started standing.
He melted the stone with magma and slowly regenerated his body.
The Guards stood before him—Chris, Miakis, and another girl wearing a pink-patterned bandana, blades drawn, blocking the path to the other soldiers.
Behind them, Flare stood beside Taki, arrow notched, Haki glowing.
"Y-you… brats…" Akainu glared at those blocking him—at the pirates standing firm—and fell to his knees.
"Momonga…" he whispered hoarsely.
"Sir!" Momonga rushed in, kneeling to hear the Admiral's rough whisper.
"…Pull the… troops back…" Akainu wheezed. "…We… have lost…"
And with the last of his strength, after fully undoing the stone—
Akainu finally collapsed.
"Grandpa!! Admiral Hancock did it!!" Miakis' shout snapped the stunned old soldier back to awareness.
"Admiral Hancock has defeated Akainu! The enemy force is now like wet paper—one push and they will fall apart!!" Taki cried out.
At his cry, Miakis signaled the troops behind them. "Clear out the remaining enemy soldiers! Drive the Marines out of these waters!!"
A soldier raised the flag on the ship.
The flag of the Black Cats—shining under the sun.
"Crush them!!!!"
Beside it, the flag of the serpent devouring itself billowed proudly in the sea wind.
At Vice Admiral Momonga's command, the Marines jumped into the sea toward the surviving ships.
The soldiers carrying the unconscious Akainu rushed onto an escape boat and paddled away.
Thus ending the sudden great conflict of the West Blue—
the Great West Blue Battle, the moment the Black Cats won a perfect victory.