The world shifted.
Ain heard the bisento cutting through the air above her, then found herself staring at the ceiling of the Polar Tang's infirmary instead of the shattered deck.
Three wounded recruits appeared beside her at the same instant, exchanged with crates, broken planks, and loose pieces of metal Law had marked inside ROOM.
The attack meant to kill them struck empty wreckage.
On Z-1, a tall figure appeared where Ain had been.
Zaraki arrived with Nozarashi already in his hand.
He did not fall from the clouds, become lightning, or cross the sea under his own power.
Law's Shambles placed him precisely between Weevil and the surviving Marines, close enough that the descending bisento was already inside striking distance.
Zaraki drew the rough sword from its sheath.
"Drink, Nozarashi."
Steel widened with a heavy metallic groan. The sealed blade became an enormous chipped cleaver, and dark-gold arcs crawled through the pressure gathering around its edge.
They resembled lightning in the smoke, but no thunder answered them and no electricity filled the deck.
Nozarashi met the bisento.
The collision drove Zaraki's boots through the damaged planks and down into the support beams beneath them.
The remains of the ship groaned, but the blow did not pass him.
He angled the cleaver away from the wounded Marines and forced the weight of Weevil's strike toward the already ruined bow rather than through the center of the vessel.
The forward railing exploded into splinters.
Weevil's eyes widened.
He had expected another body to break beneath his weapon. Instead, the strange chipped blade stopped the bisento and held it there.
Zaraki's injuries answered the impact with a deep pull beneath his bandages.
Law had treated him during the journey, but the damage from Kaido, Mihawk, and the fight with the giants had not vanished.
He felt the old wounds tighten as Nozarashi drank from the measured flow he allowed it.
The pain only made his grin wider.
"So you're the bastard who kept shaking the sea," he said, studying Weevil over the crossed weapons. "I was starting to think Zephyr had found someone interesting without me. You've got plenty of strength, I'll give you that, but the way you throw it around is ugly enough to make those two giants look graceful."
Weevil pushed down harder.
The deck beneath Zaraki cracked again, yet Nozarashi did not move.
"Mama says I'm the strongest."
"Then your mother has been lying to you for years."
The answer reached Buckin on the small boat beside the harbor.
She had recognized Zaraki the moment he appeared.
The face on Morgans's front pages, the Marine who had captured Crocodile, killed Doflamingo, brought down Jack, and survived long enough against Kaido to leave the Emperor bleeding—there was no mistaking him.
For one brief instant, fear passed through her expression.
Then greed overwhelmed it.
"War Demon Zaraki!" Buckin shrieked. "So the rumors were wrong. You're alive!"
Her eyes gleamed as she leaned over the edge of the boat.
"Weevil, forget the old man. Kill Zaraki! If you bring down the Marine who fought Kaido, the Government won't merely offer you a Warlord seat. They'll have to acknowledge you as the strongest man alive!"
Weevil's face brightened with immediate obedience.
"Mama wants his head."
Zaraki's golden eyes shifted toward Buckin.
"You've trained him well. Point at something, promise him a title, and he swings until the ground breaks. Shame you never taught him what to do when the thing in front of him swings back."
Nozarashi pulled hungrily through his grip.
'He is strong.'
Zaraki increased the flow by a measured degree.
The pressure along Nozarashi's chipped edge thickened. He twisted his wrists, knocked the bisento aside, and stepped into Weevil's reach before the giant could recover.
The flat of the cleaver slammed into Weevil's ribs.
The impact launched him across the deck.
Weevil tore through the remaining railing with his bisento still clutched in both hands, crossed the narrow stretch of water, and crashed into the harbor pier hard enough to split it.
He continued into the first row of warehouses, burying himself beneath stone and timber.
The survivors on Z-1 stared after him.
No one cheered.
Too many bodies lay across the deck, and too much blood had already been spilled for relief to become celebration.
Zephyr remained on one knee near the ruined bow, his severed prosthetic lying several meters away and blood pouring from the torn flesh at his shoulder.
He stared at Zaraki as though the sight required more strength to believe than the battle itself.
"You really are alive."
Zaraki looked over his shoulder.
"You sound disappointed, old man."
A broken laugh escaped Zephyr and immediately turned into a cough.
"After everything in Dressrosa, I thought Garp was tearing apart the sea because he refused to accept the obvious." His gaze moved toward the dead students. "I should have known you were too stubborn to make any of this easier."
Zaraki's expression changed by the smallest amount as he followed Zephyr's eyes across the deck.
"Law is already moving the wounded. Ain and the worst of them are inside the submarine."
Zephyr's remaining hand tightened against the planks.
"Forget me. Save the students who are still breathing, and don't let that monster reach the boats carrying the others."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Zaraki rested Nozarashi against one shoulder. "I came because the signal promised a strong opponent, but I'm not letting him crush everyone before I get a proper fight."
Zephyr looked toward the ruined harbor where Weevil had landed.
"He slaughtered another class in front of me."
"Then stay alive long enough to watch this one end differently."
A blue shimmer passed across the deck.
Law appeared beside Zephyr in an exchange with a broken cannon wheel, Kikoku resting over one shoulder and irritation written across his face.
"I leave you unsupervised for less than a minute and you drive your feet through another ship."
Zaraki glanced toward him.
"It was already broken."
"That is not a defense."
Law crouched beside Zephyr and expanded a smaller ROOM around the wounded shoulder.
Zephyr's eye sharpened.
"Trafalgar Law."
"Save the lecture. I am here because the idiot with the sword made my destination everyone's problem." Law examined the torn mounting and blood vessels. "You will bleed out if I do not close this now."
"The recruits—"
"My crew is moving them into the Polar Tang. Ain is conscious and already ordering my people around as though she owns the infirmary."
Despite everything, Zephyr's mouth moved faintly.
"That sounds like her."
Law raised two fingers.
"Shambles."
Zephyr vanished from the deck and reappeared inside the Polar Tang's medical bay.
Law remained behind long enough to scan the survivors.
"Everyone who can move, get to the seaward side. My ROOM does not make you invincible, and I cannot keep exchanging half a ship forever."
Binz leaned against the railing, one hand pressed over the cut across his chest.
"What about the civilians on the pirate ships?"
Law looked toward the two vessels outside the harbor.
"My crew heard the confession. We'll disable them after the wounded are secured."
From the ruins came a roar.
The remains of the warehouses erupted outward as Weevil charged back toward the pier. Blood ran from his mouth and one side of his body, yet his grip on the bisento remained firm.
The weapon had been battered but not lost.
Buckin pointed her pipe toward Zaraki.
"That's him, Weevil! Don't give him time to breathe. He's injured already—look at those bandages! Crush him before he can use whatever trick saved him from Kaido!"
Zaraki stepped from Z-1 onto the broken pier before Weevil could reach the ship again.
He did not release a wave of pressure across the entire harbor.
The force surrounding Nozarashi narrowed toward the charging giant, leaving the wounded Marines and the Polar Tang outside its direct weight.
Weevil crossed the final distance and swung.
Zaraki met him in the middle of the pier.
Bisento and cleaver collided, and the stone beneath them sank in a broad circle.
Dark-gold arcs snapped through the spray while black Armament Haki hardened the edge of Weevil's weapon.
This time, Zaraki did not stop him casually.
Weevil's raw strength drove him back several steps. Every footfall shattered another section of pier, and the old wound beneath Zaraki's ribs pulled hard enough to send warmth beneath his bandages.
His grin returned.
"There it is," he said. "That strength of yours isn't the problem. The problem is that you swing like the weapon is doing all the thinking for you."
Weevil roared and pressed harder.
"Mama says thinking is her job!"
Zaraki laughed.
"That explains a lot."
He turned Nozarashi, slipped the bisento past his shoulder, and cut upward.
Weevil twisted away on instinct.
The cleaver missed his chest but opened a long wound across his upper arm, deep enough to expose muscle beneath the Haki.
The giant bellowed.
Zaraki followed him into the ruined town, drawing the battle away from Z-1 and everyone Law was trying to save.
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator