BOOM!
A thunderous explosion echoed across the entire floor of Infinite Hell.
Avalo Pizarro's eyes widened, his body still surging forward, arms raised and ready to smash—
But before he could even get close to Rosen, a Shinsō—like a bolt of lightning—pierced through his abdomen.
Before he could even glance downward—
Before he could react in the slightest—
He felt as if his abdomen had been ripped open by force.
Then—
He couldn't do anything but watch—
As a violent shockwave detonated around his body, the air trembled from the force.
In the next moment—
His feet left the ground.
His massive frame was blown backwards like a cannonball.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The speed at which the Zanpakutō extended, the power of its thrust—
It was simply too terrifying.
As Avalo Pizarro's massive body was sent flying, a visible wave of pressure burst out with each few meters he flew—
Three times in a row.
Shockwaves exploding outward with each air-tearing ripple.
Finally—
His head slammed into the seastone prison bars.
Only because those bars were forged from pure seastone did they not snap in half.
"I told you already."
"If you charge him recklessly—it's over."
"Even if it's three-on-one."
Catarina Devon scowled as she stared at Avalo Pizarro's body, now crumpled against the bars. Her tone was filled with irritation.
In any other situation—
Even if the Corrupt King had been torn limb from limb before her eyes—
She would have smiled and asked for one of his legs to enjoy with a glass of wine.
But not now.
Yesterday's crushing defeat had made one thing perfectly clear:
Even if she teamed up with Vasco Shot, it wasn't enough.
Not enough to shake Rosen.
If they wanted any chance of surviving this round—
They needed Avalo Pizarro.
"You sure don't sound like someone from Infinite Hell, Catarina Devon."
"But I suppose it's not wrong."
"Charging recklessly, charging carefully, or not charging at all…"
"The result doesn't change."
Rosen laughed softly as he watched the Crescent Moon Hunter , who yesterday had acted with all the arrogance of a mythic beast—
Now tread cautiously like a common beast in the dark.
"I'm not talking about possibilities."
"I'm talking about fate."
"From the moment I entered Infinite Hell—your endings were already sealed."
"Just like yesterday… Right, Vasco Shot?"
He turned to the man known as the Heavy Drinker, who now stood a dozen paces away, grinning strangely, sticking out his tongue, a thick, choking cloud of alcohol vapor gushing from his mouth.
"Rosen…!"
Vasco Shot's smile froze.
He suddenly recalled the bottle of wine Rosen had personally handed to him yesterday through Shiryu.
A man who lived and died for wine—
That bottle tasted like rot.
Even though it had healed his wounds overnight, he hadn't felt joy.
Only a deep, corrosive shame.
"Don't get provoked!"
Catarina Devon's voice barked out instantly.
"Dragonfire Brew!"
Vasco Shot didn't advance—he obeyed the warning.
But that didn't mean he would take it.
He snapped the fingers of his right hand—snap!
And then—
BOOM!
The high-concentration alcohol he'd exhaled ignited instantly, and two colossal fire dragons, vivid and blazing, leapt out from the vapor with roaring fangs.
Their heat was so intense, even stone would melt into magma.
"Scatter — Senbonzakura."
Facing the incoming dragonfire—
Rosen didn't even lift his hand.
Instead, he breathed out—
And a blade without a scabbard appeared in front of him, tilted, half-embedded in the ground.
At the same moment—
SHIIING!
A soft pink glow shimmered across the blade.
Rosen's voice rang out calmly, and starting from the tip of the Zanpakutō, the entire blade shattered into cherry blossom fragments.
Tens of thousands of them.
Yes.
In the beginning, when he had first crafted Senbonzakura by hand, Rosen could only produce one thousand petals.
But now?
With the evolution of his Arms-Arms Fruit—
Even without Bankai—
Just in Shikai, Senbonzakura wielded tens of thousands of blades.
SSSSHHHH!
The swarm of petals surged upward—
Two massive cherry blossom blade-dragons took shape in midair.
They spiraled through the sky, clashing with Vasco Shot's dragonfire constructs, snapping jaws colliding mid-flight.
Then—
With a sweep of their tails, the cherry blossom dragons shattered the dragonfire—
Tearing it to molten ribbons of flame, scattering them across the air in glowing arcs.
At the same moment—
SWOOSH!
Catarina Devon made her move.
Her form shifted—once more taking on the shape of Vice Admiral Garp.
Activating Shave, she streaked through the air like a bullet tearing through space, making use of the opportunity while Rosen was distracted parrying Vasco Shot and blasting away Pizarro.
She appeared behind him instantly.
Her right hand—fingers reinforced with Armament Haki, her body already in her hybrid Nine-Tailed Fox form—clawed at Rosen's shoulder like a demonic beast.
But the moment she gripped—
Her expression froze.
"What the hell?!"
It didn't feel like she had grabbed flesh.
It felt like she had gripped a solid seastone.
"How is his body this hard…?!"
Her mind spun.
Was it Armament Haki? Just the shoulder hardened?
Or had he used Tekkai, the Rokushiki technique?
Whatever the case—
She tightened her grip and stomped her foot.
She shot into the air using Geppo, soaring high into the prison's upper dome.
Like a roc catching its prey, she dragged Rosen skyward with her claws locked onto his shoulder.
Her silhouette cut through the sky—
Like an eagle clutching its kill.
"Fall to the bottom of the Sea!"
She reached the apex of Infinite Hell's vast vertical prison dome.
Then—a roar.
Her body twisted midair, her fingers releasing Rosen in a powerful, whiplike hurl.
Her palm exploded with a fresh burst of Armament Haki, and with a thunderous release—
She Threw Him.
Like a meteor.
Like a boulder launched from the heavens.
BOOM!
Rosen's body—bathed in swirling purple light—was driven downward, descending from the skies like a comet.
A solitary figure hurled by force and fury toward the earth.
His body slammed into the ground like thunder.
CRACK!
The sixth floor of Infinite Hell shuddered.
Purple light exploded like a volcanic eruption.
The ground—reinforced with layered rock strata—splintered outward in a spiderweb crack beneath him.
The cracks filled with Armament Haki like molten rivers—
Then exploded upward like magma gushing to the sky.
Though it was only a simulation—
A poor man's imitation of Garp's legendary "Bottom of the Sea" technique—
Devon had given everything she had.
She wasn't Garp.
She didn't have his strength, his indomitable spirit, his mastery of Armament Haki and martial arts.
But in that moment—
Transformed, possessed, driven—
She'd touched that same terrifying majesty—
The will of a true naval hero.
...
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