Rayleigh didn't resort to anything excessive.
He simply played the part of a confused drunk stumbling around at the worst possible time and place. But in such a tense atmosphere, even the smallest disturbance was enough to capture everyone's attention.
Some minds wandered from their posts.
After finally restraining the seemingly intoxicated old man, Vice Admiral Stires wore a thunderous expression as he ordered his soldiers to drag the "unconscious" Rayleigh back to the bar. The Vice Admiral then turned and stalked away, his irritation palpable.
Behind the counter of Shakky's Rip-off Bar, the proprietress took a slow drag from her cigarette, watching the scene unfold with obvious amusement. She observed Rayleigh's "bruised and battered" appearance, complete with theatrical swelling and disheveled hair, and exhaled a thin stream of smoke.
"They made it through, didn't they?" she asked with casual certainty.
Shakky knew Rayleigh far too well. This old man never caused scenes without purpose, and he certainly didn't waste energy on meaningless theatrics. Every stumble, every slurred word had been calculated for maximum effect.
"Indeed... they were close by, but they've moved far beyond this area now," Rayleigh replied, opening his eyes and removing his cracked glasses with practiced nonchalance. Despite his disheveled appearance, his voice carried its usual calm authority.
"That young man... he's quite remarkable," Shakky observed with genuine appreciation, raising one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
She was referring to Oboro, of course.
"His sensory abilities are extraordinary," Rayleigh continued, patting dust and bootprints from his clothes as he slowly rose to his feet. "At that distance, he could still detect my gaze... Such perception requires Observation Haki trained to particularly advanced levels. But he... clearly doesn't possess Haki at all, so I'm genuinely curious about how he managed it."
The old pirate's weathered features showed genuine intrigue as he pondered this mystery. In all his decades of experience, he'd rarely encountered someone who could match Haki-enhanced senses through pure natural ability.
"Using you like that, wasn't he afraid you might turn on him and drag him down with you?" Shakky smiled with predatory amusement. "It seems he was confident that given your identity and background, you'd never collaborate with the Marine... He calculated that if such an opportunity arose to strike back at the World Government, you'd definitely seize it. He understands you remarkably well, not just your identity, but your very nature."
"It's not that he knows my personality so intimately," Rayleigh corrected thoughtfully. "It's simply a matter of recognizing that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Even without my assistance, he should have been able to escape safely, though the difficulties would certainly have been greater."
The Dark King settled into his usual chair before the bar, his expression growing more contemplative.
"So tell me... how does it feel? This sensation of helping the next generation of troublemakers?" Shakky teased, her tone carrying fond mockery.
"His current predicament is only temporary," Rayleigh replied with the gravity of someone who had seen countless promising young pirates meet terrible ends. "The challenges ahead will be far greater than anything he faces now. Even if he manages to escape Sabaody Archipelago... as long as he remains on these seas, he'll forever be the World Government's primary target."
He paused, swirling imaginary wine in a glass that wasn't there.
"Moreover, there's a very real possibility he could die the moment he leaves this island... Everything remains uncertain. I simply developed a newfound respect for his courage. Even my captain never accomplished something like killing a Celestial Dragon so directly."
The weight of that statement hung in the air between them. Roger himself, the Pirate King who had conquered the Grand Line and discovered the truth of the world, had never dared, or perhaps never chosen, to cross that particular line.
"My small intervention holds little value for his ultimate fate," Rayleigh continued with characteristic humility. "I hope he survives what's coming, but honestly... the odds appear quite slim."
"However, since he was once enslaved by those same Celestial Dragons, I can understand his motivation for striking back."
The old pirate's expression darkened as he considered the broader implications.
"For too long, though we never speak of it openly, everyone has grown accustomed to submitting to them... The World Government and those so-called gods have become completely 'intoxicated' by their own arrogance. Tonight's death is the inevitable result of their centuries of self-deception."
"What fills me with hope is... the emergence of such courage suggests that people may be 'awakening' in places and corners we know nothing about."
Rayleigh's voice carried the weight of someone who had witnessed the rise and fall of ages.
"This is an excellent sign."
He fell silent for a moment, lost in contemplation of possibilities and consequences.
"It's unfortunate... I cannot save him with my abilities alone. This isn't something one person or even one organization can accomplish."
"But... his death could awaken many more people, and that might be the most important outcome of all."
"Haha," Shakky laughed softly after listening to his philosophical musings. She pushed a glass of premium sake across the bar toward him. "On the house."
"Thank you," Rayleigh accepted the drink with genuine gratitude.
"You're welcome. The money for this drink was, after all... already paid by that young man."
Less than an hour later, Oboro and Dom finally reached the district housing Sabaody's shipyards.
The moment they arrived in this area, tension drained from Oboro's shoulders like water from a broken dam. As far as his enhanced vision could perceive, reflected water gleamed from numerous ground-level openings, each one a potential gateway to the ocean depths below.
Oboro crouched beside one of the larger pools, dipping his hand into the surprisingly warm water to feel the current patterns beneath the surface. The flow would tell him everything he needed to know about depth, connectivity, and whether the passage led to true open ocean.
Meanwhile, Dom, still wearing the ill-fitting Marine uniform they'd acquired during their escape, had already rushed out to engage the Marine soldiers converging on their position. Since their mission required examining water sources, stealth was no longer an option. At this late hour, with the archipelago under total lockdown, any movement would instantly mark them as suspicious.
The battle erupted the moment they were spotted, and someone among the Marine forces immediately contacted their superiors through Den Den Mushi.
Wielding his Nichirin blade with devastating precision, Dom carved through the Marine formation like a scythe through wheat. His enhanced capabilities, courtesy of Oboro's transformation, allowed him to move between opponents with supernatural grace. Each strike was calculated, economical, designed to eliminate threats rather than prolong combat.
For ordinary Marine soldiers, a pirate of Dom's caliber, easily worth tens of millions of berries, represented an overwhelming challenge. His speed and strength exceeded anything their training had prepared them to face.
Dom was buying precious time for Oboro to locate their underwater escape route.
Fortunately, the Marine team leader here held only the rank of Warrant Officer, commanding a relatively small force. Dom could temporarily rely on his superior combat abilities to delay their advance, though the situation wouldn't remain manageable for long.
The relatively light Marine deployment in this area made tactical sense from their enemy's perspective. While numerous water sources dotted the shipyard district, none possessed sufficient depth or width to accommodate even the smallest vessels. Moreover, underwater travel required specialized coating techniques, without proper preparation, submersion was merely another form of suicide.
Individual humans could theoretically dive beneath the sea, but reaching depths beyond Sabaody's massive foundation would require extraordinary endurance. Even in this area, where the geological layers were thinnest, the journey would demand holding one's breath far longer than normal human limitations allowed.
Swimming through those crushing depths meant confronting countless dangerous aquatic predators, including Sea Kings whose smallest specimens could swallow islands whole. Any survivor would have to navigate through the archipelago's entire submerged foundation before returning to surface waters and breathable air.
Such an attempt was virtually indistinguishable from elaborate suicide.
"This one won't work," Oboro muttered, pulling his hand from another pool.
He moved with systematic efficiency between water sources, testing each to determine whether it connected to the deep ocean. Gentle currents indicated blocked passages at depth, while what he sought was a surface opening with strong downward flow and expanding space below.
"This one either..."
"There's an undercurrent here, but the underwater passage is too narrow," he observed grimly. "The deeper it goes, the more constricted it becomes. Two people couldn't possibly fit through, and the distance is far too great. Considering water pressure and the need to hold our breath..."
Dom couldn't completely block all approaching Marine soldiers, so some inevitably broke through to fire at Oboro or rush his position. Fortunately, their attacks didn't significantly interfere with his reconnaissance efforts.
But as precious minutes ticked away, even Oboro's forehead began showing beads of perspiration.
He was calculating time with desperate precision.
Given Kizaru's light-speed abilities, how long would it take the Admiral to arrive once he received word of their location? If the escape passage wasn't found within that narrow window, their situation would transition from dangerous to impossible.
"Found it!"
Relief flooded Oboro's voice as he finally discovered a water source with true deep-ocean connectivity.
This particular opening was relatively modest, perhaps five or six meters in radius, more pond than pool, but the undercurrent was unmistakably powerful. That flow pattern indicated that while the surface gap appeared small, the passage expanded significantly with depth, where thinner geological layers would dramatically reduce travel time to the ocean floor.
"Dom!" Oboro called out, rising to his feet and casually kicking away a Marine soldier who had been charging toward him with raised cutlass.
His transformed companion was still locked in combat with the Warrant Officer while dealing with increasing numbers of reinforcements. Dom had sustained several wounds, not because the officer possessed overwhelming strength, but because white-uniformed figures now surrounded them from every direction.
Continuous gunfire echoed across the shipyard district as dense volleys of bullets converged on Oboro's position. The overwhelming firepower was designed to pin them down, preventing movement until heavier reinforcements could arrive.
If they didn't leave immediately, these ordinary Marine soldiers would prove sufficient to trap them in place.
Dom abandoned his current engagement without hesitation, using his enhanced speed to break free from the melee and sprint toward Oboro's position. The Warrant Officer shouted orders for pursuit, but Dom's supernatural capabilities allowed him to outpace conventional soldiers with contemptuous ease.
"Time to go," Oboro declared, grasping Dom's shoulder with iron determination.
Together, they dove into the water with synchronized precision, the splash marking their transition from surface fugitives to deep-ocean travelers.
They immediately began swimming toward the depths with powerful strokes, leaving behind the chaos of surface combat.
Dom's expression showed obvious panic as the reality of their escape method finally struck him. He hadn't been informed in advance that their extraction would involve such an impossible route.
How could this possibly work? He wasn't a Fish-Man, his enhanced abilities included many improvements, but underwater breathing wasn't among them.
As they descended through the narrow passage, water pressure began building around them like a gradually tightening vise. The rocky walls grew closer together before suddenly opening into a vast underwater cavern that stretched beyond their vision into absolute darkness.
Dom's lungs already burned with the need for air, and they had barely begun their journey to the ocean floor. Above them, the sounds of Marine activity grew muffled and distant, while below stretched an abyss that seemed to go on forever.
The most dangerous part of their entire plan had officially begun, and survival would depend on abilities that had never been tested under such extreme conditions.
In the crushing depths beneath Sabaody Archipelago, two fugitives began a descent that would either carry them to freedom or become their tomb. The water around them grew colder and darker with each passing moment, while somewhere far above, Admiral-level threats prepared to discover that their quarry had chosen the one escape route no conventional pursuit could follow.
The game was entering its most perilous phase, and the margin for error had just disappeared entirely.