"Understood!"
Soifon bowed slightly, then vanished from the Desert Rose in a single flash step.
"Move! Close in and prepare for boarding combat!"
Onigumo shouted his order, his men surging forward under the cover of cannon fire.
"So, you're the one in charge, huh?"
A clear, crisp voice suddenly rang out from above Onigumo's head.
When he looked up, a petite woman was standing atop the ship's mast—no one had even seen her arrive.
Her sharp, beautiful eyes were cold and proud, looking down on him like a tiger sizing up its prey.
"That outfit... you're one of that thief Oguro's people, aren't you?"
Even though she wore the haori reserved for captains, her overall look was distinctive enough to make it clear who she was aligned with.
At those words, a faint, icy gleam flickered through Soifon's eyes.
She gave a light, almost mocking smile, her tone carrying a trace of concealed killing intent.
"You've got some nerve... calling the Soul King a thief right in front of me."
As the Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukidō, Soifon could easily mask every trace of hostility.
But this time, her fury leaked through—her rage was so great it cracked her usual composure.
Onigumo, ever bullheaded, mocked her back.
"Just a bunch of pirates, daring to claim kingship? Don't make me laugh."
"When I'm done capturing you, you can spend the rest of your miserable life repenting in Impel Down."
Boom!
Before he could finish his sentence, Soifon's figure vanished from the mast.
An instant later, she reappeared before Onigumo like a ghost—her right leg flashing down like a bolt of lightning.
Crash!
Onigumo's body shot across the deck like a fired cannonball, slamming straight through the bulkhead and into the ship's interior.
The entire warship shuddered, sinking slightly into the sea for several seconds.
"S-she's... too strong...!"
The surrounding marines swallowed hard, eyes wide in disbelief.
That was Vice Admiral Onigumo—one of the Navy's veterans!
And yet he hadn't even had time to react before being sent flying... what kind of power was that?
"Men! For justice—never bow to evil! Fire!"
Onigumo's adjutant was the first to recover, immediately taking command.
At his order, the marines raised their rifles and took aim at Soifon.
Soifon only smirked, a hint of disdain in her expression.
"Impressive discipline... but with your level of strength, what exactly do you think you can do?"
As her words fell, her figure seemed to dissolve like mist.
Bang! Bang!
In the next moment, cries of pain rang out across the deck.
Nearly a hundred marines were sent flying at once, collapsing unconscious on the floor.
"Raaagh!"
Just as Soifon was about to finish off the last few soldiers, a furious roar erupted from deep within the ship.
"Damn it! That's enough!"
A blur shot out from below deck, and eight silver flashes sliced through the air toward her.
Each flash was a blade.
Soifon bent her back gracefully, her upper body leaning back just enough for all eight blades to slice past her harmlessly.
But they didn't stop—each one twisted midair and came slashing back toward her.
Soifon lightly tapped the deck with her toes and leapt backward, widening the distance.
"You damned pirate... daring to cause havoc on my ship!"
Onigumo emerged from the wreckage, his hair whipping around like living tentacles—each strand gripping a blade.
Through his mastery of Life Return, he could manipulate every part of his body freely, allowing him to wield eight swords at once.
His uniform was soaked in blood, clear proof of serious injury.
After all, even though Soifon's earlier kick wasn't at full strength, she hadn't held back either.
That single blow had nearly caved in his skull, and when his body crashed through the decks, he'd broken at least six or seven bones.
If not for Life Return holding his body together—resetting bones, sealing wounds—he wouldn't even be standing right now.
That was why he hadn't moved for so long after being struck.
"For justice... I must destroy evildoers like you!"
Even now, Onigumo clung to his convictions.
Someone else might've praised his resolve... but Soifon came from another world entirely.
Her values were nothing like his.
She looked at him—bleeding, trembling—and let out a cold, scornful laugh.
"How tiresome. Since when did ants think they could judge a God's morality?"
"What you should be doing is living quietly in your little world... and when a God passes overhead, bow your head and show respect."
"Arrogant witch!"
Onigumo felt humiliated beyond belief.
The Navy was the mightiest power on the seas!
Even the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, had been hunted to the ends of the earth.
The Four Emperors of the New World ruled their own territories, but none dared defy the Navy directly.
And now this woman dared to speak of "Gods" before him?
"Challenge the Navy's authority... and die!"
Onigumo's feet blurred—he stomped the deck dozens of times in a second, building explosive momentum.
Shave!
He shot forward like a bullet, attacking Soifon in a ferocious burst.
His wounds were deep, and Life Return could only suppress, not heal.
He had to end this quickly!
"Heh. Using recoil to get a burst of speed? A clever trick... but still too crude for someone like me."
Soifon's eyes glimmered with amusement.
She twisted lightly on her heel—then disappeared again.
Her flash step carried her behind him before he could even blink.
Onigumo's movement halted for the briefest instant as he landed.
"That's the problem with brute-force movement like that... zero flexibility."
Compared to flash step, Shave was painfully primitive.
"Windmill!"
Using her falling momentum, Soifon flipped midair and brought her heel down onto the back of Onigumo's head.
Thud!
The blow drove him to his knees.
The deck split open beneath him.
"Damn it...!"
Onigumo tried to rise, but a crushing pressure slammed down on him—an overwhelming weight like a mountain pressing from above.
"Wha—what is this power? Conqueror's Haki? No... it's different!"
It had the same suffocating presence, but lacked that spiritual shock meant to crush one's will.
As he struggled to make sense of it, Soifon's icy voice cut through the air.
"The Soul King ordered me to end this quickly. I've wasted enough time already."
In that instant, her aura exploded upward—her spiritual pressure surging to its absolute peak.
The overwhelming presence of a Captain-class Shinigami poured out without restraint.
"Wh-what... is this...?"
Onigumo felt every bone in his body screaming, as if they were about to shatter under the pressure.
"She... she wasn't even using her full strength before...!"
Only now did Onigumo realize the truth—
She'd been toying with him from the start.
Drawing Suzumebachi from her waist, Soifon gathered her raging spiritual energy into the tiny blade.
The small, slender weapon became the still center of a raging storm.