Dorry and Brogy stopped several hundred meters apart, their attention shifting from the Polar Tang to the strange human standing on the beach with an oversized cleaver resting against his shoulder.
The two giants had spent a century measuring one another.
They knew the sound of each other's footsteps, the weight of each other's weapons, and the smallest change in posture that came before an attack. Zaraki was different.
The pressure surrounding him resembled Haki at first glance, yet it did not behave like any Haki they remembered.
It clung to the blade, rolled across the sand, and carried an edge that made the ancient scars on their bodies tighten.
Brogy lowered his axe.
"You're a long way from any Marine base, little man, and you arrived aboard a pirate ship. Either the Marines have become very strange over the last hundred years, or you're doing something you don't want your superiors to see."
Law stepped onto the beach behind Zaraki.
"We are not part of the same crew."
Bepo climbed through the hatch and raised one paw.
"We're only giving him a ride."
Dorry and Brogy stared at the yellow submarine, then at Law, and finally back at Zaraki.
Brogy scratched his beard.
"That explanation somehow made the whole thing more suspicious."
Zaraki ignored the comment and looked between the giants.
"Dorry the Blue Ogre. Brogy the Red Ogre."
Both men became more serious.
"It has been a long time since anyone recognized those names," Dorry said.
"Marine records don't forget easily," Zaraki replied. "They just stop looking when the search gets inconvenient."
Brogy tightened his grip around the axe.
"So you came to drag us back in chains?"
"No. If that were the plan, I wouldn't have bothered talking first."
The answer surprised them.
Zaraki shifted Nozarashi from one shoulder to the other.
"I came because there's an empty seat among the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and someone needs to find out whether either of you is still worth remembering."
For several seconds, the only sound was the distant volcano.
Then both giants burst into laughter.
"Gegyagyagyagya!"
"Gababababa!"
The force shook leaves from the trees.
"A government pirate?" Brogy roared. "After a hundred years on this island?"
Dorry wiped at one eye.
"And you think one of us would accept because a tiny Marine walked onto our beach and said the word 'Warlord'?"
Zaraki's grin sharpened.
"I didn't ask you to accept anything. I said I came to see whether you were worth recommending. At the moment, all I've seen is two old men laughing from opposite ends of a jungle."
The laughter stopped.
Pride hardened both enormous faces.
Dorry slowly raised his sword.
"And how do you plan to decide whether we're worth remembering?"
Zaraki lowered Nozarashi from his shoulder.
"The obvious way. You two attack me, I cut you down, and if you're still interesting afterward, we keep talking."
Law closed his eyes.
Bepo whispered, "Captain, did he travel twelve days just to insult them into fighting?"
"Yes."
"Couldn't he have sent a letter?"
"No letter has ever survived being Zaraki."
The giants moved almost together.
Dorry attacked first, his ancient sword descending in a broad arc that sent a wall of wind across the beach.
Brogy came from the opposite side, axe sweeping low enough to uproot trees.
Zaraki stepped into the narrowing space between them.
Nozarashi met Dorry's sword with a tremendous crack.
The beach sank beneath Zaraki's boots, sand bursting outward in a ring, but the Polar Tang remained beyond the direct line of force.
Zaraki did not try to stop the giant weapon with his bare hands or let the submarine absorb the impact.
He caught it with the released blade, braced his stance, and drove part of the force into the ground beneath him.
Brogy's axe arrived a heartbeat later.
Future Sight flashed.
Zaraki saw the axe cutting through his side if he stayed where he was.
He released Dorry's sword, stepped onto the flat of the giant blade, and launched himself upward. Brogy's axe tore through the space he had occupied and buried itself deep in the beach.
Zaraki landed on the handle, ran three steps along the wood, and swung Nozarashi toward Brogy's face.
The Red Ogre leaned back.
The chipped blade missed his nose by less than a meter and sliced through the crest of his helmet instead.
Brogy stared at the broken metal falling past his eyes, then threw his head back and laughed.
"Gababababa! Fast for someone carrying a sword that ugly!"
Nozarashi vibrated with outrage.
'Cut him.'
Zaraki's grin widened.
"He called you ugly."
'Cut him twice.'
Dorry's sword swept in from behind.
Zaraki jumped, but the broad side clipped his legs and hurled him across the beach.
He struck the ground, bounced once, and plowed through several trees before stopping inside a mound of broken earth.
Law raised ROOM instinctively.
The fallen trees shifted.
Zaraki stepped out from beneath them, blood running from the corner of his mouth and excitement burning in his golden eyes.
"That was better than I expected," he called across the beach. "Still too slow, but at least I felt it."
Dorry adjusted his grip.
"You have an unpleasant way of praising people."
"It keeps the weak from getting confused."
Brogy barked another laugh.
"I like him."
"You would," Dorry replied. "He thinks with the same part of his head you do."
The next exchange became faster.
The giants attacked from opposite sides, using coordination built from a century of fighting one another.
They did not need signals.
Dorry knew where Brogy's axe would fall before it moved, while Brogy understood exactly how far Dorry's sword would force Zaraki to retreat.
For several minutes, the beach shook beneath repeated collisions.
Zaraki blocked what he could, avoided what Future Sight showed would kill him, and answered whenever their timing left the smallest opening.
Nozarashi's released blade carved cuts across Dorry's armor and opened a long wound along Brogy's shoulder, but neither giant fell.
They were slower than Kaido.
Less durable than Jack.
Yet their combined rhythm made them far more troublesome than either would have been alone.
Zaraki loved it!
Dorry's sword came down again.
Zaraki met it with Nozarashi and was driven knee-deep into the sand.
Brogy charged from the side.
Instead of retreating, Zaraki narrowed the power flowing into the blade and released it in a short, controlled burst.
The impact forced Dorry's sword upward just enough for him to twist beneath it and bring Nozarashi across Brogy's axe.
Metal screamed.
A deep crack opened through the ancient weapon's edge.
Brogy stumbled.
Dorry recovered and struck Zaraki with the flat of his sword, sending him through another line of trees.
This time, Zaraki remained down for several seconds.
Nozarashi pulled at him.
'More.'
'Not everything.'
'They are still standing.'
'So are we. That's why this is finally getting good!'
He rose again.
Blood covered one side of his face, and Law's earlier treatment was beginning to fail beneath the punishment, but his grip on Nozarashi remained firm.
Dorry and Brogy were breathing heavily now.
Their old weapons showed fresh cracks among the countless marks left by their century-long duel.
Dorry planted his sword into the ground.
Brogy rested his damaged axe beside it.
The two captains looked at one another.
Zaraki felt the atmosphere change.
Law did too.
He immediately turned toward the crew.
"Everyone back inside. They're preparing something large enough that I'd rather not learn the exact radius by standing here."
Bepo hesitated.
"What about Zaraki?"
Law looked toward the Marine, who was grinning at the giants like a starving man watching a feast arrive.
"He would refuse even if we dragged him."
ROOM expanded across the beach, and Law exchanged his crew with objects aboard the Polar Tang.
The submarine immediately backed away through the shallows, positioning itself beyond the line extending from the giants toward Zaraki.
Dorry raised his sword.
Brogy lifted his axe.
The will behind their movements joined before the weapons did, creating a pressure that rolled across Little Garden and silenced the creatures in the jungle.
"This is the pride of Elbaf!" Dorry roared.
"The attack that pierces the demon seas!" Brogy answered.
They swung together.
"HAKOKU SOVEREIGNTY!"
A massive white shockwave erupted from their weapons.
The beach split beneath it.
Air screamed along its edges as it tore toward Zaraki, carrying the combined strength and warrior spirit of two legendary captains.
Zaraki's grin widened until it hurt.
"This," he said, tightening both hands around Nozarashi, "is what I crossed the sea for."
The sword's hunger surged.
'Everything.'
'Not this time.'
'Coward!'
'No. I just don't want to waste the rest of the fight.'
He narrowed the flow, compressing the dark-gold pressure along the chipped edge, and raised the released weapon with both hands.
Mihawk's words returned at the worst possible time, irritatingly clear.
Decide what the cut is supposed to accomplish before you swing.
Not kill.
Not yet.
Break the attack.
Defeat the warriors.
Leave them alive.
Zaraki swung.
Nozarashi's slash met Hakoku Sovereignty in the center of the ruined beach.
The collision drove him backward.
His boots tore trenches through the sand, his arms shook, and fresh blood ran beneath his bandages as the giants' combined attack forced Nozarashi toward his chest.
The sword demanded more.
Zaraki gave it enough.
No more.
The dark-gold line along the edge sharpened.
With a roar, he drove the blade through the center of Hakoku Sovereignty.
The white shockwave split.
Its two halves screamed past either side of him and continued into the open sea, raising towering curtains of spray far beyond the Polar Tang.
Zaraki's slash continued forward.
Dorry and Brogy crossed their ancient weapons before them.
The blades had survived a hundred years, but they had not survived unchanged.
The accumulated damage from endless duels, the strain of Hakoku Sovereignty, and the cracks Nozarashi had opened during the battle all reached their limit at once.
Dorry's sword broke.
Brogy's axe shattered.
The remaining force of Zaraki's cut passed through the ruined weapons and severed the arms supporting them below the elbow.
Blood burst across the beach.
Both giants staggered, then fell hard enough to shake the island.
Zaraki lowered Nozarashi.
The released blade pulled at him, eager to finish the battle.
'They still breathe.'
'That was the point.'
'Then why stop now?'
"Because they're finally useful."
Nozarashi's irritation pressed against him, but Zaraki held the boundary until the hunger receded.
The cleaver slowly contracted into its sealed form.
Only then did he walk toward the fallen giants.