Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
The atmosphere inside the Fleet Admiral's office was oppressive, as if even the air had stopped moving.
Admiral Akainu, Sakazuki, sat there with a terrifyingly gloomy expression.
The dark red suit he always wore made him look even more dangerous.
"So," Akainu said in a low voice, the words sounding as if they had been squeezed out from between his teeth, "that brat Zaraki stirred up a mess that big along the New World route, heavily injured Fire Fist Ace and then disappeared?"
The office door was suddenly slammed open, and a young messenger rushed in, stumbling so badly he did not even have time to salute.
His face had lost all color, and his lips trembled as if he had seen something utterly horrifying.
"Fleet Admiral! Admiral! Latest... latest intelligence!"
Akainu's eyes sharpened, and a frightening aura pressed down on the messenger. "What are you panicking for? Have some discipline! Speak!"
The messenger was struck by that pressure and almost fainted on the spot.
He shakily raised the document in his hand, his voice sharp and hoarse.
"War Demon Zaraki! He—he left the temporary base of the Whitebeard Pirates and is now heading toward the G-18 Branch!"
"What?!"
Akainu shot to his feet.
The chair beneath him was pushed far back by the force, scraping harshly across the floor.
Anger and contempt intertwined in his eyes.
"Coward! After causing trouble, he wants to run? He disgraced the Marines in front of the world's strongest pirate, and now he wants to act like a deserter?"
He grabbed the messenger by the collar, his scorching breath almost setting the man's eyebrows on fire.
"So this is the good soldier that bastard Garp trained? Marine scum!"
"N-No, Admiral Sakazuki!"
The messenger was so frightened his soul nearly left his body, and he almost cried as he explained.
"The intelligence... the intelligence was sent back personally by Vice Admiral Yamakaji! Zaraki didn't run! He..."
Akainu's movements suddenly froze.
Hearing the name "Vice Admiral Yamakaji," a trace of doubt flashed through his furious expression.
He snatched the intelligence report away and unfolded it roughly.
For a moment, the only sound in the office was the rustle of paper.
However, after only a few seconds, even that sound disappeared.
Akainu's expression froze.
The man who had been enraged a moment ago now stood like a statue, every emotion stiffening on his face. Only his pupils were rapidly contracting.
The other officers present, including Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who had been resting with his eyes closed, and Chief Staff Officer Tsuru, who had been leisurely sipping tea, all noticed the strange atmosphere.
What kind of intelligence could make Sakazuki show that sort of expression?
"Give it here."
Sengoku extended his hand. His tone was calm, but it carried unquestionable authority.
Akainu seemed not to hear him and continued staring fixedly at the document.
Sengoku frowned.
Without waiting to repeat himself, he stood up personally and pulled the report from Akainu's stiff hand.
He sat back down, put on his glasses, and lowered his gaze to the paper.
The next second—
Crack!
A crisp shattering sound rang out, especially sharp in the deathly silent office.
Everyone looked over in horror and saw that the celadon teacup in Sengoku's hand had been crushed into pieces.
Scalding tea mixed with shattered porcelain flowed between his fingers, but he seemed completely unaware of it.
"That... damn brat!"
A roar exploded from the mouth of the highest commander of the Marines, carrying incomparable shock.
Sengoku slammed the report onto the desk.
That face, usually so composed and strategic, was now twisted by extreme emotion.
He glared at the confused officers filling the room and almost roared out the contents of the intelligence.
"He didn't just heavily injure Fire Fist Ace! He also saved the half-dead Ace right in front of Whitebeard!"
"Whitebeard not only didn't get angry, he invited him... invited him to become his son!"
"He even said that if the divisions were full, he would make a place for Zaraki himself!"
Every word was like a heavy bomb, detonating inside everyone's mind.
The office instantly fell into dead silence.
Heavily injuring Ace and then saving him? Whitebeard invited him to become his son?
Even said he would make a place for him outside the existing divisions?
Every piece of that information overturned their understanding of how the world worked.
That was Whitebeard!
One of the Four Emperors who ruled over the sea!
He invited a Marine... to become his son?
"Then," Vice Admiral Tsuru said in the silence, her voice the only one that remained steady. She put down her teacup, her sharp gaze striking straight to the core of the issue.
"How did that brat answer?"
Sengoku's chest rose and fell violently. As if remembering something even more absurd, the veins at his temple began pulsing.
"His answer?"
He took a deep breath, his voice carrying a sense of helplessness.
"He refused."
"He said... whether it was being a Marine or being the son of a pirate, both were too much of a bother and would get in the way of him cutting people!"
"..."
In the office, everyone's expressions shifted from shock to blankness.
They felt as though their brains could no longer process such an enormous flow of information.
Sengoku seemed to have been drained of all strength.
He slumped back into his chair, pointed at the last part of the report, and read Yamakaji's original words in a dreamlike voice.
"At the end of the report, Yamakaji wrote..."
"We were all wrong. To that monster, the uniform of Marine Headquarters was never glory, nor was it belonging. It was only a chain binding him down."
The moment those words fell, an icy chill shot without warning from the base of every Marine leader's spine straight to the top of their skull.
A monster who could make even Whitebeard take notice, who treated rules as if they were nothing, and who acted only to "cut to his heart's content"...
If one day he broke free from the Marines, that final chain restraining him...
Just imagining that scene was enough to make these powerful figures standing near the top of the world shudder.
Just as that terrifying atmosphere reached its peak—
"Emergency report!"
The office door was slammed open again, and a communications officer from the relay room stumbled inside, his face bloodless and his uniform soaked with sweat.
In his hand was a freshly transcribed emergency report from one of G-18's surviving signal posts.
"The G-18 Branch... the G-18 Branch is under heavy attack from the Beasts Pirates! One of the outer relay posts sent the report before the line went dead!"
"Jack the Drought... is personally leading them!"
"Just now, the eastern gate defense line... was completely broken through!"
...
Flashback, before Jack's invasion.
The smoke-filled G-18 Branch.
The earth was trembling, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and iron.
The massive steel gate that had been the pride of the eastern entrance had already become a pile of twisted scrap metal, scattered across the scorched black ground.
Beyond the huge breach were the figures of the Beasts Pirates, charging forward with wild laughter like a pack of beasts.
"Vice Admiral Aus!"
An adjutant covered in blood and dust stumbled and crawled to the side of Branch Commander Aus.
His voice was distorted by fear and lack of breath.
"The eastern gate... the Third, Fifth, and Sixth squads on the eastern gate defense line have been wiped out! The heavy artillery position was destroyed by a... by a single blow! We... we can't hold much longer!"
Aus, a Marine Vice Admiral known for his steadiness, now had an iron-blue expression.
His right hand gripped the sword at his waist, veins bulging across the back of it.
His gaze passed over the adjutant's shoulder and locked onto the enormous breach, as well as the mountain-like flagship behind it.
The Mammoth.
He could clearly see the giant figure standing at the bow.
The metal jaw guard glinted coldly in the firelight, and the enormous shotel-like blades resting on his shoulder radiated a suffocating pressure.
Jack the Drought!
"What are you panicking for?!"
Aus suddenly let out a furious roar, his voice overpowering the explosions not far away.
"We are Marines! Behind us are countless civilians! Send in the reserves! Even if you die, block that breach for me!"
His roar carried a force that made the adjutant, who had been on the verge of collapse, tremble all over. Instinctively, the man straightened his back.
"Yes, sir!"
But the instant the adjutant turned to pass on the order, a sharp whistle descended from the sky.
Everyone's pupils shrank violently.
A huge black cannonball, dragging a long trail behind it, fell like a meteor, aimed precisely at their temporary command point.
All color drained from the adjutant's face. His body stiffened, unable to move, and his mind went blank.
However, Aus reacted faster than the sound.
Clang!
A clear sword cry rang out, and a snow-bright blade flashed through the dim smoke.
That slash, too fast to track, struck the incoming cannonball exactly at its center.
Time seemed to freeze in that instant.
In the next second, the huge cannonball split strangely into two halves in midair.
The pieces brushed past both sides of the command point and slammed heavily into the ground behind them, exploding with a thunderous blast.
Boom!
A violent shockwave mixed with earth and stone sent everything around them flying, yet Aus remained unmoving, standing firmly where he was.
He slowly sheathed his sword, his movements steady
. Only he knew that the slash just now had already numbed the webbing between his thumb and forefinger and shaken his internal organs.
He raised his head, his cold gaze piercing through layer after layer of smoke.
Across the distance, he met the eyes of the figure standing aboard the Mammoth.
As if sensing his gaze, Jack the Drought's deep, thunderous roar came riding over the sea wind, filled with unquestionable brutality and contempt.
"You're stubborn, Marines. But this ends here!"
"Boys!"
Jack raised the shotel-like blade in his hand and pointed toward the entire G-18 Branch fortress.
"Not a single one left alive! Flatten this place for me!"
"Oooooooooh!"
A response like a mountain roaring and the sea howling rose from every direction, the bloodthirsty cry of thousands of pirates.
Aus's heart sank to the bottom in an instant.
He knew that since Jack had personally led the attack, there was no way the enemy forces were limited to what stood before them.
The eastern gate assault was fierce, yes, but with G-18's fortifications, it should not have fallen this quickly...
There had to be something wrong.
His mind spun rapidly, and a powerful unease surged into his heart.
His gaze suddenly moved away from the eastern gate battlefield and turned toward the other side of the base—the inlet connected to the endless sea.
That single glance almost froze the blood in his entire body.
On the wide sea, at some unknown point, a row of savage black shadows had appeared.
They were silently sealing off the entire harbor in a massive fan-shaped formation.
It was not only the Mammoth.
Everywhere his eyes could see, there were at least a dozen more Beasts Pirates warships, completely choking off G-18 Branch's only route of retreat.
"Vice Admiral... look... the bay!"
The adjutant beside him had also discovered that despairing sight, his voice trembling so badly it barely held together.
"Those ships..."
Aus did not answer.
His lips pressed into a stiff line, and a bone-deep chill crawled from his spine to the top of his head.
The fierce assault at the eastern gate, Jack the Drought personally holding the line...
So that was how it was.
All of it had merely been bait to draw all their attention.
From the very beginning, their true objective had been to completely seal off the harbor, wipe out the entire G-18 Branch, and trap every last person alive on this isolated island.
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