"Then... where exactly will Sabo... make landfall?" Koala blinked, asking in a hesitant whisper.
The gazes of everyone in the room converged onto Kuma.
The usually unflappable former king and revolutionary had cold sweat beading visibly along his forehead. For a prolonged moment, he stood entirely tongue-tied, an awkward silence that sent a chill straight to the bottom of everyone's hearts.
"Kuma, will Sabo... actually land in the East Blue?" Dragon finally spoke up.
Seeing Kuma standing there in dead silence, Dragon felt an uneasy premonition creeping into his own chest. There won't be a mishap... right...?
Kuma turned to face Dragon, offering a slow, uncertain nod. "He should... most likely..."
"Should..."
The room's mood plummeted straight into the abyss. That single word "should" was delivered with such precise uncertainty that everyone sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
Their eyes collectively drifted toward Dragon.
Just in case—strictly speaking of worst-case scenarios, of course—if Sabo completely missed the East Blue, shouldn't they be preparing contingency plans...?
"There is no need to worry. Sabo can handle himself," Dragon stated with absolute certainty.
Leaving those words behind, he strode straight back toward the inner command hall without lingering, and the senior staff filed in after him.
Since Dragon had declared it fine, it was no longer an issue for them to fret over. Each of them had their own critical assignments, and at a juncture like this, work could not grind to a halt for a single second.
Every single logistical task completed was a vital pillar propping up the fragile New World Government; slacking off was out of the question.
Koala lingered behind, casting a long, reluctant gaze toward the distant horizon where the East Blue lay, her heart twisted with conflicting emotions.
"Koala, let's head back inside," Hack said, stepping up behind her with a quiet sigh.
No one had anticipated this turn of events. Still, given Sabo's tier of combat strength, excessive worry was unwarranted; if an unexpected complication arose, he was more than capable of handling it himself.
Suddenly, Hack recalled what Sabo had said to him during the grand banquet days ago.
It had been a simple expression of gratitude.
Before the climactic battle had broken out, Sabo had pulled him aside and told him, "I leave Koala in your hands." Though it had sounded like a casual remark, neither had taken it lightly.
After all, Koala was their cherished comrade, and Hack naturally would have protected her with every ounce of his being regardless. Even so, Sabo had formally thanked him from the bottom of his heart.
Hack had indeed been grievously wounded in that clash, yet he had borne every injury with absolute pride and willingness.
"Yeah..." Koala murmured softly.
Meanwhile, high above the churning waters of the East Blue.
The Demon Warder cleaved through the clouds, surging skyward. The eyes of its Combat Mode flared with soul-piercing brilliance, slicing through layers of rolling darkness.
"You've finally shown yourself!"
A colossal expanse of dark mist coalesced violently, forming a gargantuan spectral face in the heavens. Eyes of pitch black rimmed in burning crimson glared down upon the Demon Warder—a horrific sight that sent icy terror creeping down the spines of the crew.
Across the entire East Blue, countless souls looked up and bore witness to those nightmarish celestial eyes.
A monster!
An absolute, unholy abomination!
That was the singular, instinctual thought that gripped every mind below. Suddenly, a colossal island tore through the dense blanket of darkness, hurling into plain view across the sky!
Im's gaze turned razor-sharp. Surging tides of dark fog cascaded downward in a violent torrent, coiling around the airborne island in an iron grip.
Bearing witness to this cataclysm, Kenshin and the others were struck dumb with shock. "What is that?!"
Why on earth is an entire island floating in the clouds?!
"Could it be Admiral Fujitora?!" They knew that the Marine Admiral possessed the terrifying power of gravitational manipulation; if he chose to levitate a landmass, pulling it off wouldn't be an impossible feat.
"No! That's not the Marine Admiral!" Bell's pupils contracted violently as he shouted out in sudden realization.
"What? How do you know that?"
"Look down there!" Bell pointed his trembling finger toward the sea surface far below.
Down beneath the tempest, the ocean was strewn with pulverized wreckage. By the look of the ruins, a populated island had once stood there, but it had now been obliterated into absolute nothingness.
All that remained visible to the naked eye were a few jagged, broken slabs of rock protruding pitifully above the waterline. The catastrophic destruction had clearly been wrought by an immense, apocalyptic force—a walking natural disaster.
And upon the largest protruding fragment of shattered bedrock lay a blood-soaked, motionless silhouette: Admiral Fujitora!
"Just what... happened down there?!" Ain's pupils dilated in horror as she clamped both hands over her lips, trembling from the sheer devastation.
Below them lay an absolute graveyard.
Even Kuzan was profoundly shaken by the sight. This was a living depiction of the end of days; with an island ground down to this degree of dust, surviving civilians were an impossibility.
And looking at the state of Fujitora, one could easily deduce the horrific slaughter that had transpired moments ago.
"If the man lying down there is Fujitora, then... what is with the island suspended above?!" Kenshin's brow knit into a deep furrow. The island in the clouds clearly wasn't being commanded by Fujitora.
Furthermore, judging by Im's aggressive response, the airborne landmass was undeniably hostile toward her.
Which meant... there was someone else fighting Im right now!
"We need to pull Fujitora up first!" Kuzan spoke up suddenly—a rare initiative from a man who almost never gave commands unprompted.
His gaze remained fixed with urgent intensity upon the fallen Admiral below.
The crew exchanged swift glances, nodding in unanimous agreement. Kenshin assumed operational command: "Take us down!"
Navigating the Demon Warder in this configuration required their wills to resonate as one, with a single leader issuing the commands.
For now, Kenshin acted as the sovereign captain.
The Demon Warder plunged out of the clouds, landing with heavy stability upon the ocean swells. To the panicked civilians watching from afar, the beam of radiant light in the sky suddenly descended and vanished from their line of sight.
The fragile embers of hope that had just ignited in people's chests crashed straight into despair once more.
The light had faded.
"It really is Admiral Fujitora!" Reaching the perimeter of the reef, they immediately verified the fallen man's identity. It was undeniably him.
However, Fujitora's physiological condition was dire in the extreme—his breathing was ragged and shallow, and not a single patch of his body remained uninjured.
Beneath his frame, pooled blood had completely soaked the stone, and his tattered Marine coat was drenched in dark crimson.
"I'll bring him aboard!" Kuzan said without a heartbeat's delay.
Before the words had finished echoing, he had already stepped out of the vessel and materialized beside Fujitora's broken body.
Purupurupuru...
Right at that moment, the miniature Transponder Snail nestled inside Kenshin's coat began ringing urgently.
The second Kenshin flipped the shell open, a grim voice poured through the receiver: "Priority intelligence update: All New World Government expeditionary personnel deployed to the central East Blue sector have been confirmed killed in action."
"This includes... Marine Admiral, Fujitora!"
A suffocating, tomb-like silence blanketed the interior of the Demon Warder. Looking out at the catastrophic ruins before them, the crew tasted a bitter cocktail of emotions. They were literally staring at the scene with their own eyes.
"Understood," Kenshin acknowledged quietly, his eyes hardening with grim resolve.
He understood Fujitora's formidable strength intimately. For an Admiral of his caliber to be beaten into this state, could Kenshin truly guarantee the survival of the Dragon Flag Pirates?
Even with the absolute defense of the Demon Warder, he held zero certainty deep down.
"In his final moments, to shield the innocent civilians of Yali Island, Admiral Fujitora unleashed everything in a desperate stand, ultimately perishing alongside Yali Island itself..."
"The East Blue Command has officially designated him Killed in Action!"
Hearing this, Kenshin shifted his gaze toward Ain, who had rushed over the moment Kuzan carried Fujitora inside.
After checking the Admiral's pulse, Ain looked up at Kenshin and declared firmly: "He's still breathing!"
"I need to initiate emergency triage immediately! Move him into the medical bay—hurry!"
"On it!" Locke and Bell responded simultaneously, carefully hoisting the unconscious Admiral and rushing him straight toward the infirmary.
Kuzan remained in the main hall.
"He's still alive," Kenshin said calmly into the Transponder Snail.
"What?!" A gasp of sheer shock exploded from the other end of the line.