Chapter 73: Exposing the Lies!
The massive, crudely built raft slammed into the dock, shattering the stone pier like glass. The impact sent a tremor through the island that could be felt even in the Tower of Justice.
"GEGYAGYAGYAGYA!"
Dorry, the Blue Ogre, didn't wait for a ramp. He leaped from the deck of the raft.
His colossal body, clad in traditional Elbaf viking armor and a flowing blue cape, blocked out the sun for the Marines stationed below. His massive greatsword, Terry Sword, descended with the force of a falling meteor.
BOOM!
The first gate of Enies Lobby—a structure of reinforced steel and stone that had stood for centuries as a symbol of absolute justice—collapsed like wet paper.
The sound was deafening, a thunderclap that shook the marrow of every soldier on the island. Rubble, dust, and twisted metal flew everywhere, signaling the official start of the invasion.
Almost simultaneously with the rising dust cloud, Oimo and Kashi, who were dutifully guarding the second gate further in, squinted their eyes against the debris.
Through the smoke, they saw them.
That familiar, mountain-like silhouette. The helmet with the long beard. The helmet with the horns. The sheer, overwhelming pressure of warriors who had conquered the Grand Line a century ago.
"Captain..." Kashi's voice trembled, his massive club slipping from his grip and hitting the ground with a heavy thud. "Captain?!"
Oimo's eyes widened until they threatened to pop out of his skull. He rubbed them with his fist, daring not to believe the miracle before him.
"It... it can't be! Are we dreaming?"
Not only was it their Captain Dorry, alive and roaring, but the one behind him—wielding a giant axe and clearing away the obstructing Marines like a god of war swatting flies—wasn't that Captain Brogy?!
"GABABABABA!"
Brogy swung his axe, Bruiser Axe, in a wide arc. A dozen Marines screamed as they were sent flying into the ocean, their bodies looking like dolls against the Giant's might.
"Kashi! Oimo!" Brogy shouted, his booming laughter making the air vibrate. "It's been fifty years! Why have you gotten so thin, lads? You look like twigs!"
He pointed at Oimo with his axe. "Look at Oimo next to you! Now that's sturdy! Kashi, you need to eat more Sea King meat like your Captain to grow strong!"
"Gegyagyagyagya! Brogy, stop spouting nonsense!" Dorry's voice boomed like thunder from the left flank, crushing a guard tower with his bare shoulder as if it were made of cardboard.
"Yours is clearly fat! Look at his belly! Like me—that's true muscle! That's true strength!"
"Who are you calling fat, you elongated beanpole?!"
"I'm calling you fat, you red tomato!"
This familiar bickering. This tone. This atmosphere that remained unchanged despite spanning a hundred years of separation.
It was the sound of home. It was the sound of Elbaf.
It was like a key, instantly unlocking the floodgates of Kashi and Oimo's emotions. The stoic masks they had worn for fifty years, the dull obedience they had forced upon themselves, crumbled in an instant.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Hot, massive tears streamed uncontrollably from their eyes, tracing paths down their rugged faces like waterfalls.
"Captains!" Kashi wept openly, his voice shaking the ground. "It really is you! It's been so long!"
"We thought... we thought you were in prison..." Oimo choked on his words, filled with an indescribable ecstasy mixed with confusion.
Just then, reality intruded on the reunion.
"Fire! Fire at the Giants!"
The Marine Captains on the ground, recovering from the initial shock, seized the opportunity. They saw the gatekeepers distracted.
"They are distracted! Aim for the intruders! Don't let them breach the Second Gate! Heavy artillery, fire!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hundreds of muskets and shore cannons fired at once. A hail of lead and iron balls flew toward the laughing Dorry and Brogy, who were too busy arguing to notice the mosquito bites.
"You..."
Kashi's eyes snapped open. The joy vanished, replaced by a protective fury that burned hotter than magma.
"YOU WON'T HARM OUR CAPTAINS!"
Loyalty transcended thought.
THUD! THUD!
Kashi and Oimo moved with a speed that defied their size. Like the most solid bulwarks, they strode forward abruptly, stepping in front of Dorry and Brogy.
They turned their broad backs to the enemy, creating a wall of flesh and armor.
Tink! Clang! Thud!
Sparks flew. Bullets bounced off their helmets. Cannonballs exploded against their thick Giant skin and armor. They took the volley without flinching, using their own bodies as shields for the men they revered.
Dorry and Brogy stopped arguing instantly. They looked at their subordinates—their friends—taking fire for them. They saw the scars on Oimo's back, the weariness in Kashi's stance.
The smile dropped from Dorry's face. The air temperature seemed to drop with it.
"How dare you..." Dorry whispered, his voice low and dangerous, vibrating through the pavement.
The veins on his muscled arms bulged as he gripped his sword tight enough to crack the hilt.
"HOW DARE YOU LAY HANDS ON MY CREW?!"
He let out a deafening roar that shattered windows in the nearby buildings. His colossal body erupted with an astonishing speed. He leaped over Kashi and Oimo, landing right in front of the Second Gate where the Marine firing squad was positioned.
"ELBAF..."
He swung the greatsword high. The blade that had slain Sea Kings and weathered a century of duels gleamed in the sun with a terrifying light.
"...YARI (SPEAR)!"
He slashed down fiercely.
BOOM—!!!
Accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, the shockwave from the sword strike didn't just cut; it obliterated.
The Second Gate—a massive steel structure symbolizing the impregnable authority of the World Government—was utterly cleaved in half. The ground split open, creating a canyon in the concrete.
Huge fragments of steel shot inward like meteorites, smashing into the Marine reinforcements who had just rushed to support.
"ARGH!"
"RUN!"
Soldiers were sent sprawling in a bloody mess. Tanks were crushed flat like soda cans. The formation was broken in a single blow.
"Mon... monsters!"
"Such power... how can we possibly stop them?"
Some Marine soldiers who miraculously escaped the impact looked up at the Giants standing like demons in the dust. Their minds shattered. This wasn't a battle; it was a natural disaster.
Meanwhile, on the wreckage of the First Gate, a figure stood calmly amidst the chaos.
Ulquiorra Cifer.
The Fourth Espada stood with his hands in his pockets, his white uniform pristine against the backdrop of destruction. His emerald eyes were cold, analytical. He hadn't drawn his sword. He simply watched as the Giants ravaged the island, his presence like a void in the storm.
"Effective," Ulquiorra noted emotionlessly. "The path is clear."
Dorry and Brogy stepped over the broken defenses. They walked through the swirling dust and stood face-to-face with Kashi and Oimo.
Four Giants. Reunited on the battlefield after a century.
[Tower of Law - Chief's Office]
Even as the Giants shook the foundations of Enies Lobby, a different scene unfolded in the commander's office on the top floor of the Tower of Justice.
Spandam, the Chief of CP5, was pacing frantically back and forth on his luxurious red carpet.
He looked like an ant trapped on a hot griddle. His already unsightly face, covered in a leather mask, was twisted hideously by anxiety and fear.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
He irritably clutched at his purple hair, pulling until it hurt.
"Why are they here?! Why now?!"
He slammed his fist onto his desk, knocking over a stack of papers and his expensive coffee.
"Didn't those good-for-nothing intelligence officers say they were still dueling? They said Dorry and Brogy would fight for eternity in that godforsaken Little Garden! How did they leave?!"
As one of the few high-ranking officials who knew the truth, Spandam was terrified.
He knew the lie. The World Government had exploited the Giants' simplicity and honor. They had told Oimo and Kashi that their Captains were captured, forcing them into fifty years of servitude to 'earn' their release.
It was a brilliant, cost-effective lie. Until today.
"It's over... it's over..." Spandam muttered, cold sweat beading on his forehead and soaking his collar.
"At the second gate... if those two idiots, Kashi and Oimo, see their Captains alive... the lie collapses! They will defect instantly! Then we won't have two Giants defending us... we'll have FOUR GIANTS ATTACKING US!"
His mind conjured the terrifying image. Four Elbaf warriors, wielding weapons the size of buildings, marching toward his tower. They would cleave the Tower of Justice in half. They would crush him like a bug.
Overwhelming fear struck him. His legs gave out, and he slumped into his chair.
"No!"
Panic flashed in his eyes. Self-preservation kicked in.
"I absolutely cannot sit here and wait for death! I have a future! I'm going to be the Chief of CP9! I have the blueprints for Pluton to find!"
He rushed to the desk, almost pouncing on the golden Den Den Mushi—the one that connected directly to Marine Headquarters.
"I must request support! Immediately! At once!"
He dialed the number with trembling, clumsy fingers.
"Only the highest fighting force... only an Admiral can stop these monsters! Or a Buster Call! Anything!"
Click.
"This is Spandam from Enies Lobby!" he screamed into the receiver, his voice cracking. "Emergency! Highest level! Requesting immediate support from Marineford!"
"The enemies are... are 'Blue Ogre' Dorry and 'Red Ogre' Brogy! The gate is breached! Enies Lobby... IS ABOUT TO FALL!"
[The Courtyard - Past the Second Gate]
The second gate had been reduced to scattered ruins. The dust was settling, revealing the carnage.
Dorry and Brogy's mountain-like figures, with thunderous steps, forcefully crossed the threshold into the main courtyard of the island.
Kashi and Oimo followed without hesitation. They swung their massive maces and axes, clearing away the tide of Marine soldiers surging around them like water.
"Captains!"
Kashi's voice was exceptionally loud amidst the clash of weapons. He needed to know. He needed to understand the last fifty years of his life. The doubt had been gnawing at him.
"The World Government... the agents told us back then!" Kashi shouted, tears mixing with sweat. "They said you were captured by the Marines! They said you were in prison! They said if we guarded this gate for a hundred years, they would set you free!"
"That's why we stayed!" Oimo added, smashing a tank into scrap metal. "We did it for you! But... why are you here? Were you not captured?"
Upon hearing this, the boisterous smile on Dorry's face froze.
It was instantly replaced by a grim, volcanic fury. The kind of rage that only a warrior of honor can feel when that honor is stained by treachery.
"CAPTURED?!"
Dorry roared. He swung his greatsword horizontally. The resulting shockwave wasn't just wind; it was a blade of air that overturned a row of cannons and sent fifty men flying into the abyss.
"IDIOTS!"
His roar was like thunder, carrying a tone of exasperated disappointment but mostly directed at the unseen manipulators.
"We are the proudest warriors of Elbaf! Does the World Government truly think it can capture Brogy and me alive?!"
Brogy stepped up, his face equally dark. His grip on his axe tightened until the metal groaned.
"This was a despicable trick from beginning to end! A lie to enslave you!"
"For these past decades," Dorry bellowed, pointing his sword at the Tower of Justice in the distance, "we have been in Little Garden! We have been fighting our sacred duel! We were never captured! Not for a single day!"
"They lied to you, Oimo! Kashi!" Brogy screamed. "They stole fifty years of your lives with a dirty, dishonorable lie!"
The revelation hit the two gatekeepers harder than any cannonball.
Fifty years.
Fifty years of rain. Fifty years of humiliation. Fifty years of guarding the gates of their enemy, believing they were saving their heroes. Fifty years of their lives, wasted on a falsehood.
It was all a lie.
Oimo's hands trembled. Kashi's face twisted from sorrow into a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred.
"They... lied?" Oimo whispered.
"THEY LIED!" Kashi roared, turning his massive body toward the main island. His eyes burned with red veins.
"WORLD GOVERNMENT!"
The scream of the betrayed Giant shook the very foundations of Enies Lobby.
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"
Kashi charged. He didn't wait for orders. He ran toward the main plaza, swinging his club wildly, smashing buildings, crushing Marines, venting half a century of rage.
"Gegyagyagyagya!"
Dorry grinned, a savage, predatory grin.
"That's the spirit! Let's go, lads! Let's show them what happens when you trick a Giant!"
"Kababababa! Let's turn this island upside down!"
The four Giants charged together. It was an unstoppable avalanche of muscle and steel. The Marines broke ranks, fleeing in terror.
High above on the floating raft wreckage, Ulquiorra watched the morale shift. He tapped the side of his headset.
"Lord Suzaku," Ulquiorra said calmly into the transmitter. "The Giants have turned. The gate is open. The chaos has begun."
[Tower of Law]
Spandam, still holding the receiver, heard the roar of the Giants through the window. He heard the screams of his men. He heard the crash of the Main Plaza being breached.
The Den Den Mushi slipped from his sweaty hand.
"It's over..." Spandam whispered, staring at the door. "They're coming."
[Akarin Note:
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