"Why"
"Why did the Desert King step in"
Crocodile, coat billowing and golden hook gleaming with cold light, had suddenly appeared and blocked Mihawk's black blade.
Everyone's attention was dragged to this abrupt twist.
One of the lackeys could not hold it in. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Lord Crocodile, we want to know is that Ozz Lord Ozz really the real one"
The voice came from somewhere in the crowd, but when everyone turned to see who yelled, all they could see was a dense sea of people, eyes wide, all craning their necks in anticipation.
"Hiss exhale"
Crocodile's expression stayed gloomy as his gaze swept across the heavy hitters from every major force. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
Then the words that came out of his mouth made every heart jolt. Pupils shook wide open.
"Yeah"
"That guy is a fake."
For a heartbeat the world went silent.
Then countless pairs of eyes snapped toward "Ozz."
"Whaaaat"
"You are kidding"
"Lord Ozz is fake I could not tell at all"
"But both Hawkeye and the Desert King said so"
If even the two people Ozz trusted and favored most said it, then no matter how stubborn they were, everyone could not help turning a suspicious gaze on "Ozz."
Faced with all this doubt
Bon Clay had already accepted his fate.
If I die, I die
He slowly looked around and saw the reporters, their cameras already capturing the scene. By tomorrow, the news that Fishman Island had been half destroyed would be on the front page of every major paper.
The goal was accomplished.
He let his eyes close. He had resigned himself.
As long as this sea remembers that man's deterrence, it is enough.
"I never once thought of you as my subordinate, yet you are this loyal?"
A light chuckle sounded.
It exploded inside Bon Clay's head like thunder. That voice was so familiar.
This is
On the battlefield of Fishman Island
Many powerful figures saw "Ozz" close his eyes and sit there in silence, and immediately a hint of vicious intent flashed in their gazes.
This was their chance.
They had no idea why Crocodile had suddenly appeared and stopped Mihawk, or what she was really after.
But that made it the perfect opening for everyone else.
After all, with both Crocodile and Mihawk declaring him fake, those two proud monsters were not the type to lie.
On top of that, everyone's own judgment said this "Ozz" was one hundred percent an impostor. Their eyes sharpened as killing intent stirred.
Steel rang.
A CP0 agent in a white cloak picked his moment. The gloved index finger on his hand extended, wrapped in Armament Haki.
No nonsense. Shave plus hardened Finger Pistol right out of the gate.
Boom.
King's tall frame shot out as well, the full body black leather armor covering him from head to toe. Flames roared along the blade in his hand as he leaped and hacked straight down at "Ozz."
"Die"
On the other side, the strongest Sweet Commander, Charlotte Katakuri, who wielded the trident Mogura, was far more cautious. His eyes narrowed and a red glow flashed in his pupils.
"There it is. That flash of panic. Looks like we were right."
His low, magnetic voice came from under the wide scarf. He spun Mogura in his hand.
"Piercing Mochi."
In an instant, several overwhelming auras locked onto "Ozz." The sense of his life being directly threatened made panic flicker across Bon Clay's face against his will.
It was simply the instinctive reaction of a living creature facing death.
But right in that moment, time seemed to freeze. A lazy murmur brushed past his ear.
"Interesting."
Without anyone noticing when it happened, the panic on "Ozz's" face slowly faded.
Outwardly nothing had changed, but the man sitting there with his eyes closed suddenly seemed to straighten. His whole bearing sharpened.
On that handsome face, his slightly parted lips closed again, and a faint smile tugged up at the corner.
Everyone mid-attack felt a chill lance through them, a primal dread as if their lives had become fragile, as if they were teetering on the edge of the underworld.
"Ozz," who a heartbeat ago had looked shaken, now slowly raised one hand.
He sat there like an absolutely confident king, an emperor who ruled all. A smile played at his lips.
That deep, magnetic voice made every attacker's eyes go bloodshot as they realized too late that they could no longer stop themselves.
"Void - Shinra Tensei."
Silence.
After that brief stillness, a godlike power flowered from that raised palm. Ozz's teleportation power twisted everything around him, surging outward from his body as the center.
The small fry standing far away were lucky. The instant they felt something was wrong, they turned and ran.
Those who were already in close, right up in Ozz's face, felt their bodies warp as if space itself had been scooped out beneath them. No matter what they did, they could not resist that force.
Blood sprayed. Eyes rolled white as bodies were hurled back. Fishman Island began to shudder and split apart. The ground shattered. Everything within that zone was wiped out.
A long time later
From within the drifting dust, someone slowly pushed himself up from a pile of rubble. He shoved aside a fallen tree trunk and rubbed his head.
He opened his eyes and froze solid at the sight before him. His pupils shuddered wildly. His jaw dropped. His words tumbled over themselves.
"H-hey hey hey, what kind of joke is this. Destruction on this level"
Before him, a colossal crater a full kilometer across lay gouged into Fishman Island like some meteor had struck. The edges were disturbingly clean and neat.
It looked like a natural disaster made manifest.
In the distant depths of that pit, a few broken shapes lay scattered, lives unknown. Some seemed to breathe, some seemed not to.
High above, a lone figure sat in midair, one leg casually crossed over the other.
Shadow hid his face so they could not see his expression. All they could see were a pair of eyes blazing scarlet, looking down indifferently at the ruined island.
"Those eyes"
"Don't tell me"
Everyone who had survived and now stood at the crater's rim trembled and dropped to their knees.
Two figures stepped forward.
One had endured that shockwave at the very edge. The other reformed slowly out of sand. They walked to the front of the crowd.
"I knew you would go big," Crocodile said with a crooked smile, a fresh cigar between her lips. "But changing Fishman Island's topography is a bit much, even for you."
Mihawk still wore that same cool, distant face. But when he looked at Ozz, his voice softened.
"You vanish for two years, only to reappear like this. Sashiburi dana"
"Ozz."
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The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
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