The hurried footsteps came to a halt in front of the ruined weapons shop.
Dozens of standard-issue flintlock muzzles should have been aimed directly at the troublemakers, but when the leading sergeant saw the wrecked storefront, the dead giant ape in the flooded street, and Lieutenant Isuka standing amidst the debris, his entire squad froze in confusion.
Raindrops dripped from the brim of the sergeant's cap.
His Adam's apple bobbed.
The order "Take them all down!" sat on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it back and barked instead.
"Lieutenant Isuka! Report! What in the world happened here?!"
Zoro's hand had already settled on the hilt at his waist.
Sanji shifted half a step, positioning himself between the Marines and the two women behind him almost on instinct.
Nami frowned, gripping her metal staff tighter, while Carina quietly raised the modified Kar98k a fraction, her finger nowhere near the trigger but her eyes sharp.
The street was one spark away from exploding again.
Isuka's fingers, which had been gripping Zaraki's arm, went stiff.
Her knuckles were white from her excessive grip, but now, a heavy sense of powerlessness rapidly spread from her fingertips throughout her entire body.
That monstrous strength.
That unnervingly calm face.
The crew that gathered around him as if everything naturally revolved around him...
The name she had nearly blurted out a moment ago felt even heavier now.
However, before anyone could speak, a heavy unusual sense of oppression descended on the street.
This pressure didn't come from the Marines before them, but from above!
The drizzling rain abruptly stopped.
Something enormous had blotted out the sky, completely cutting off the curtain of rain.
"Go… gods! What is that?!"
A soldier pointed a trembling finger toward the sky, his voice choked with raw terror.
Zaraki jerked his head up.
Above Loguetown, the dark clouds had been violently torn apart.
A massive island, complete with visible rocks and dense vegetation, hung silently in the air above the town, defying the very laws of gravity!
A colossal shadow cast down, swallowing the already dim street into utter darkness.
The suffocating sense of oppression felt even heavier than anything Isuka had felt from Zaraki before.
It was an aura belonging to one of the world's top-tier powerhouses!
A wild figure appeared in mid-air just like that.
The man had long, unruly golden hair, a half-rudder-like ornament stuck directly into his skull, wore a yellow-and-black striped haori, and held a thick cigar in his mouth.
He stood on thin air exactly as if it were solid ground, looking down at the people below from his lofty position.
"That symbol... that appearance..."
Isuka's face instantly turned deathly pale, her body trembling uncontrollably.
It was the nightmare every person making a living on the sea had heard about since childhood.
"F-Flying Pirate... Shiki the Golden Lion?!"
The moment that name was uttered, nearly all the Marine soldiers present dropped their guns.
This was a terrifying legend from the old era who had once rivaled the Pirate King Roger and even single-handedly stormed Marine Headquarters!
"Jihahahaha!"
A maniacal laugh descended from the sky, shattering the glass windows lining both sides of the street.
"What a bunch of noisy insects. But never mind—since this is Loguetown, it holds even greater value for destruction."
Shiki the Golden Lion exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, his wild eyes sweeping over the town below as if appraising a sacrificial offering.
"That bastard Roger may be dead, but the era he started is far too weak! The East Blue, the weakest of all seas, is the breeding ground for this pathetic weakness!"
The Golden Lion spread his arms wide, the sky behind him seeming to tremble with his grand movements.
"Let me use the destruction of this 'Town of Beginnings and Endings' to send Roger a grand gift! I'll show this sea who the true Pirate Admiral is!"
Madman.
He was a complete and utter madman.
"Stop spouting nonsense, Golden Lion!"
A furious roar suddenly erupted.
From the rooftop on the other side of the street, a thick plume of white smoke shot into the sky.
Smoker had completely shed his usual laziness.
The two cigars in his mouth were bitten to shreds, and his Jitte was enveloped in thick white smoke.
Transforming into a white arrow, he fearlessly charged straight toward the legend floating in the air.
"This is a town under Marine jurisdiction! Whether you're a remnant of the old era or some grand legend, if you dare cause trouble here, I won't let you get away with it!"
"That's... Captain Smoker!" Isuka exclaimed, a faint glimmer of hope reigniting in her eyes.
Zaraki, however, let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
His courage was commendable, but the massive gap in power between them couldn't be bridged by anger alone.
The Golden Lion hovering in mid-air didn't even bother to look directly at the white smoke charging toward him.
He merely curled his lips into a contemptuous smirk and raised his right leg.
"Too slow."
Those two words seemed to echo directly in Smoker's mind, dripping with undisguised mockery.
The Golden Lion didn't even bother to free his hands from the wide-striped haori he wore.
He simply raised his right leg with an air of pure boredom—the prosthetic limb that replaced his foot with the famous sword "Oto"—and casually traced a golden arc through the air.
There was zero flashy technique, just a simple, casual slash.
Yet this slash effortlessly cleaved right through the white smoke.
Smoker's proud Logia elementalization proved utterly useless against this monster from a bygone era!
Boom—!
A dull, thunderous crash echoed, sounding exactly like a cement truck slamming into the ground.
As the white smoke dissipated, Smoker's figure was sent flying backward, crashing violently onto the stone pavement of Loguetown's central square.
The hard granite tiles cracked instantly, deep spiderweb fissures spreading in all directions and kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
"Cough... cough!"
Smoker struggled to prop himself up on his elbows, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs that splattered across his pristine "Justice" coat.
He felt at least three ribs in his chest had shattered, the intense pain blurring his vision.
Was this the man who once vied with Roger for supremacy over these seas?
Just a casual lift of his leg...
"Captain!" Isuka screamed, instinctively trying to rush forward.
"Don't come over here!"
Smoker gritted his teeth, roaring through a mouthful of blood.
The cigars he always kept clenched between his teeth were long gone, flung who-knows-where.
He glared fixedly at the figure hovering in the air, his eyes brimming with heavy frustration, but he forced himself to stay clear-headed.
"Isuka! Take everyone... retreat immediately! Contact Headquarters! This is way beyond what a branch can handle! Get the hell out of here!"
Though he usually acted like a ruffian, in this life-or-death moment, this crude man embodied the spirit of the Marines more than anyone else.
"What a touching scene."
Shiki the Golden Lion curled his lip in disdain, snapping his fingers impatiently.
"Since the Marines are so weak, let's add some entertainment. Boys, enjoy this buffet!"
No sooner had he spoken than several gaps suddenly crumbled open along the edges of the floating island above.
Immediately afterward, spine-chilling roars descended from the sky.
Hundreds of bizarre, monstrous beasts emerged!
Some resembled upright crocodiles, others were gorillas with mantis-like scythes, and there were even mutated dinosaurs covered in hardened armor.
Their eyes glowed a hungry crimson, drooling foul-smelling saliva as they plummeted from the sky one after another, crashing heavily onto the streets below.
Roar—!!
Bloodthirsty roars instantly drowned out the sound of the rain.
The stunned Marine soldiers and civilians who hadn't yet fled far enough stared at these monsters.
Each beast was larger than a house, and the onlookers found their legs frozen in place, too heavy to move.
Fear paralyzed them completely.
A two-headed giant wolf bared its fangs less than five meters away from the nearest soldier, its foul, blood-tinged breath already washing over the man's face.
'It's over.'
That was the only thought echoing in everyone's mind.
Isuka's hand gripping her longsword trembled violently.
Faced with such a massive horde of monsters, the blade in her hand felt no better than a useless fire poker.
A crushing sense of despair nearly suffocated her.
Nami's face had gone pale, but she still dragged two terrified civilians behind the broken shop wall.
Carina clicked her tongue and raised the rifle, but even she knew she couldn't snipe down an entire swarm of monsters flooding the street from the sky.
Zoro planted one foot forward, blades half-drawn, eyes sharp as a wolf's despite the obvious difference in numbers.
Sanji moved in front of Nami and Carina without saying a word, his cigarette burning crookedly in the rain.
Just then, Isuka's peripheral vision caught the black-haired youth beside her, who still had one hand resting on his sword and the other shoved deep into his pocket.
Isuka whipped her head around, her voice trembling and almost breaking.
"Zar... Zaraki! Please... save everyone..."
Zaraki glanced at Isuka, her face streaked with heavy tears.
Then he looked at Smoker struggling to stand up not far away, before finally settling his dark gaze on the horde of mutated beasts closing in fast.
"I just wanted to buy a sword and take a little vacation."
Zaraki sighed, scratching his head with clear annoyance, inwardly cursing this damn protagonist magnet constitution that caused trouble wherever he went.
He slowly took a single step forward.
The step felt light, not even shattering the puddle on the ground.
But the exact moment his boot landed, an invisible shockwave erupted from him as the center, spreading outward in a heavy, crushing ring!
Hum—!
The air turned viscous in an instant.
The world felt stripped of color, leaving only the oppressive shades of black and white.
Haoshoku Haki!
The hundreds of mutated beasts poised to pounce on the screaming crowd froze in that exact same second.
Their eyes were instantly flooded with pure terror, as if they had just glimpsed the most terrifying existence at the absolute top of the food chain.
Thud, thud, thud, thud...
Without even having the time to scream, the hundreds of giant beasts rolled their eyes back, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed to the ground in unison!
The street, which just seconds ago had been as noisy as hell itself, fell into a dead silence in an instant.
Only the dust kicked up by the fallen beasts still drifted slowly in the rain.
"Is this... the power of a monster?" Isuka stared blankly at the scene, her mind completely blank.
Nami's grip on her staff loosened.
Carina slowly lowered her rifle.
Even Zoro and Sanji, who were used to Zaraki's absurdity by now, went quiet for a moment as they stared at the street full of toppled monsters.
High up in mid-air, Shiki the Golden Lion, who had worn a mocking expression moments ago, suddenly jerked.
The cigar in his mouth dropped, sending hot sparks scattering onto his haori.
His sharp eyes narrowed fiercely, locking straight onto the black-haired youth below.
For the very first time, an expression of clear disbelief appeared on his face.
"Haoshoku Haki..."
In the weakest of seas, the East Blue, there was actually a brat wielding such a rare power?