Marineford.
The great maritime fortress, a symbol of "Absolute Justice" forged from pure white stone and steel, was shrouded in a heavy gloom. The usual sea breeze had died, leaving the air hot and thick. A tense silence pressed down on everyone's heart, heavy and suffocating. With the execution of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, just around the corner, no one could be certain that things would go as planned.
The crescent-shaped harbor wrapped around the colossal fortress, its buildings packed tightly together. Across the main plaza, countless Marine cloaks moved in perfect, orderly formations. Yet, beneath this veneer of order, the tension was impossible to miss.
"Hey, did you hear? It's not just us. A lot of the CP agents are here today, too."
"Shut up! Do you want to get thrown in the brig?"
The patrolling soldiers walked with hurried steps, their eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. The usual sounds of training shouts from the grounds were few and far between.
High above, perched on the spire of a distant clock tower, Kyle sat quietly. He was like a lone, proud falcon overlooking its domain. His eyes swept over the forest of warship masts in the harbor and the ant-like figures of Marine soldiers patrolling the walls below.
Should I just force my way in?
The thought appeared for a fleeting second before he dismissed it with a laugh. The idea of descending like a god of war and shaking Marineford to its core was satisfying, but it wasn't a rational plan. He was strong, but he wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could take on all of Marineford by himself. Even if he managed to fight his way through the ranks of Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals, he would eventually be overwhelmed by the combined might of Garp, Sengoku, and maybe even Kong, who would surely rush to the scene. The best he could hope for would be to make a scene and then slip away. That was just foolish.
He needed a teammate. A teammate who was conceited enough to draw the majority of the enemy's firepower. A perfect distraction.
Kyle swung his legs idly, his gaze fixed on the magnificent central building of the fortress, which bore the word "Marine."
You'll definitely come, won't you, Golden Lion?
...
As if in response to his thoughts, the sky darkened without any warning. It wasn't the gathering of storm clouds, but a purer, more absolute darkness. Giant shadows fell over Marineford, like massive curtains drawn across the sun.
Everyone on the island instinctively looked up. The patrolling Marines stopped in their tracks. The shouts on the training grounds died instantly. Even the soldiers loading supplies in the harbor froze, their mouths agape.
They all saw it.
The thick clouds were being violently torn apart as several behemoths slowly pushed through, revealing their terrifying forms.
They were islands. Several islands, floating in the sky.
The undersides of the islands were exposed rock and soil, with trees growing upside down, clinging tenaciously to the earth. Gravel and dust rained down from them, like a scene from a myth about the sky itself collapsing.
"No way..." a young Marine soldier whispered, his lips trembling as the rifle in his hands clattered onto the stone ground.
"What in the world is that...?"
"Islands... The islands are falling from the sky!"
Panic spread through the ranks like a plague.
Just then, a wild and unrestrained voice boomed from the sky, echoing like thunder across all of Marineford.
"Sengoku! Garp! I'm here! Hand over Roger!"
On the clock tower, Kyle finally allowed a satisfied smile to cross his face.
He's here.
The man best suited to be a target in the entire world: Golden Lion Shiki.
"Boom—!"
Shiki gave the Marines no time to recover. Before his words had even finished echoing, several mountain-sized rocks broke away from the floating islands. They tore through the atmosphere, igniting into raging flames and transforming into crimson meteors. Trailing long tails of fire, they smashed down toward the central plaza of the fortress.
Destruction had arrived.
"Wooo—!"
The fortress's piercing alarm finally cut through the stunned silence, its sharp cry ringing out across the island.
"Enemy attack!"
The shrill alarm finally broke the spell.
"There is only one enemy! The great pirate, Golden Lion Shiki! All personnel, assume maximum combat readiness!"
From within the fortress, several figures shot into the air.
"Soru!"
They kicked off the air itself, their bodies moving as fast as ghosts. They left afterimages behind them as they flew directly toward the falling boulders.
One burly Vice Admiral with a seagull-shaped hairstyle was the first to attack. His legs became a blur in the air as he kicked out relentlessly. Dozens of solid blue slashing waves flew from his feet, weaving together into a net that enveloped one of the colossal rocks.
On the other side, a lean Vice Admiral with bulging arm muscles took a deep breath. He held two fingers together, making them as hard as steel. His arms moved so fast they became afterimages, his fingertips striking continuously at one of the other rocks. The dense storm of shockwaves precisely hit the rock's weakest points.
Boom! Rumble!
The massive rocks were shattered in mid-air. One was cut into countless pieces by the net of slashes, while the other was riddled with holes from the finger strikes and exploded violently. Debris rained down, clattering against the sturdy fortress buildings and raising clouds of smoke and dust. Many new recruits who couldn't get out of the way were hit by the falling fragments, screaming as they fell to the ground.
But this was only the beginning.
"Too slow! You're all too slow, Marine brats! Show me what you've really got!"
Shiki's laughter was filled with mockery. The floating islands in the sky trembled slightly, and more than a dozen new "meteors" of different sizes whistled down, this time covering an even wider area. His targets were now the residential areas and the logistics port of the fortress.
Marineford was thrown into a sea of fire and chaos.
"Quick! Protect the civilian areas!"
"Medical teams, get ready!"
"Artillery, prepare to fire! Target the sky!"
On the fortress walls, dozens of massive cannons finally aimed toward the sky and let out a deafening roar. Cannonballs shot upwards, trailing fire as they soared toward the floating islands. But as they got close, an invisible force seemed to distort their paths, causing them to explode harmlessly in mid-air, blooming into useless fireworks.
"It's no use! That's the power of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi!" a bespectacled officer shouted. "Long-range artillery can't hit him!"
A light drizzle began to fall from the sky. It quickly turned into a torrential downpour, extinguishing the fires on the burning wreckage and raising plumes of white smoke. Blood and mud mixed on the ground, forming dirty streams that flowed through the cracks in the plaza's stones.
Golden Lion Shiki slowly descended from the sky, his feet hovering a few feet off the ground in the center of the chaos. The rain soaked his long, golden hair, and water droplets ran down his arrogant face, but nothing could cool the burning rage in his eyes. In his hands, he held his two famous swords, "Oto" and "Kogarashi."
"Stop him!" a Marine Captain roared, drawing his saber and leading a charge.
Shiki didn't even bother to look at him. He simply took a casual step forward. He swung his sword casually, and an invisible flying slash shot from the blade, sweeping across the ground. The Captain and the entire row of Marine soldiers behind him froze instantly. A moment later, a line of blood erupted from their waists as they screamed and collapsed into pools of their own blood.
"Monster..."
The surviving soldiers stared with eyes full of fear, instinctively taking a step back.
"Zehahaha! Scared already?" Shiki's laughter was especially harsh in the pouring rain. "Is the Marines' justice this pathetic?"
As he spoke, the Golden Lion's figure moved like a ghost, charging into the Marine ranks. Oto and Kogarashi became two whirlwinds of death. He used no flashy moves, only the purest, most basic cuts, stabs, and thrusts. Every swing of his swords took several lives. Every turn of his body created a storm of blood. The Marines' formation was like paper before him, instantly torn apart.
Sword light flashed, and blood splattered. The screams of dying men mixed with the sound of the rain until they were one and the same. In just a few moments, a small mountain of corpses and broken weapons had piled up at Shiki's feet. He stood on top of the pile, looking down at the hell he had created, but his expression wasn't one of victory. It was one of deep, profound anger.
The rain washed the blood from the bodies beneath him, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Roger..." he spoke softly, his voice somehow cutting through the sound of the wind and rain. "How could pathetic fools like you ever capture him!"
He suddenly lifted his head, his gaze sweeping like lightning over the Marine officers who stood ready but did not dare to advance. His voice rose to a thundering roar.
"He is the man I acknowledge!"
Just then, two powerful presences, distinct yet equally suffocating, swept over the plaza from the main fortress building.
One figure landed like a cannonball at the other end of the plaza, cracking the ground on impact. He wore a cloak of justice and had short, salt-and-pepper hair. It was the Marine Hero, Monkey D. Garp.
The other figure was much calmer. He wore round-rimmed glasses and walked with steady, confident steps. It was the future Fleet Admiral, Sengoku.
"Shiki!" Sengoku shouted sternly. "You've caused enough trouble! This is not a place for you to run wild!"
"Oh? Finally, two decent opponents have arrived," the Golden Lion grinned, his smile filled with cruelty and disdain. "Sengoku. Garp. Hand over Roger!"
"Roger is the Pirate King," Sengoku said, his voice cold and firm, each word an undeniable fact. "He has already defeated you, Shiki. Both in title and in reality."
The smile on the Golden Lion's face vanished, replaced by a mask of pure fury.
"'Pirate King'? So what!" he roared, so emotional that the ship's wheel embedded in his head trembled. "If he had just been willing to help me back then, we would already rule the entire world! He may have been my enemy, but we walked through an era together! If he's here, bring him to me immediately!"
Shiki seemed lost in a frenzied memory, his eyes bloodshot. He extended a finger, pointing it at Sengoku and Garp, his tone leaving no room for argument.
"If he's going to be killed, then I'll be the one to do it!"
"Roger's death will make all the pirates of the world bow their heads in fear," Garp finally spoke, casually tossing his justice cloak aside.
Sengoku continued, his gaze becoming incredibly solemn as a powerful aura rose from him. "Therefore, don't even think about interfering with this execution!"
"Zehahaha..." The Golden Lion let out a laugh of pure rage. It was so powerful that it shook the floating islands in the sky above, causing them to hum. "Then you two can just accompany Roger to his grave!"
"Lion's Threat: Earth Scroll!"
He fiercely plunged his two swords into the mountain of corpses at his feet, and an invisible force erupted from the ground. Centered on him, the entire stone plaza was lifted up as if it were a soft carpet. The stone and earth twisted and reformed, creating several roaring, giant stone lions that surged toward Garp and Sengoku.
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