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Men of unshakable conviction always look like madmen to the rest of the world. In that, Arthur and Dragon were two sides of the same coin.
A revolutionary is a man willing to burn down the present to build a new future. For that dream, they will sacrifice everything—family, love, hatred—all of it, fuel for the fire.
'Crazy...'
Arthur thought, taking a deep breath. He looked up, his gaze unfocused, lost in the storm clouds he commanded.
"Jessica," he asked, his voice quiet. "Are you afraid to die?"
Her lips pressed into a thin, stubborn line, the same one he'd seen years ago. But she was smiling. "If I was afraid of dying, I never would have left the Navy. I never would have followed you. A cage is worse than death. I'd rather die free."
"Vegapunk. You?"
"Hah! Arthur, what an ugly, sentimental question," the scientist scoffed, shrugging. "Of course I'm afraid of death. I'm terrified I'll run out of time before I run out of knowledge. But I am more afraid of being imprisoned. With you, I have freedom. I can research whatever I please. With the Revolutionary Army? I doubt I'd get the same luxury."
"We would not force you," Dragon interjected from the ship.
"Perhaps," Vegapunk shot back. "But you wouldn't be here, risking a war with him, if you weren't absolutely desperate to have me."
Dragon was silent. He couldn't refute it.
Vegapunk was the ultimate prize. His mind could change the world for a thousand years. The Revolutionaries' dream of a truly equal, free world was just that—a dream.
Technology, however, could make it a reality.
"It's been a long time since I've truly cut loose," Arthur mused, his eyes still on the sky. A flicker of lightning danced in his pupils. "Not since old man Garp."
He would not be threatened. Not here. Not by them.
This would be a scorched-earth fight. If they were caught in the crossfire, he'd just have to hope the Heal-Heal Fruit could put them back together. And if they truly died… he would hunt down every last person Dragon had ever known and send them all to hell to keep his crew company.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzt!"
The sound tore the air. The violent, crackling lightning that wreathed his body didn't just disappear; it sank. It burrowed into his skin, reappearing as jagged, deep-purple lines, like tattoos, running from his eyes down his cheeks like tears of pure energy.
His exposed skin was a map of these bizarre, straight-lined markings, all of them pulsing with a contained, world-ending power.
He looked like a demon.
"DIE!"
His roar was a low-frequency tremor. He didn't fly; he teleported. A flash of light from the sky to the deck of the Revolutionary ship.
He was moving so fast, Observation Haki was useless. Inazuma, acting on primal instinct, threw up his scissor-hands to block.
The supposedly unbreakable blades disintegrated.
The force of the blow tore through Inazuma's body, atomizing the Revolutionary ship and every crew member on it in a single, silent explosion of purple light.
In the blinding chaos, Arthur's hand shot out, grabbing Jessica's waist. In another flash, he was gone, reappearing on the cliffside, setting her down.
That was the power of his speed. A close-range ambush, a rescue, an execution—it was unstoppable.
Unless, of course, the enemy was on high alert, their Haki strained to the breaking point, predicting his every move.
He turned, his eyes cold, ready to unleash his full power to retrieve Vegapunk.
"Impressive, Thunder Emperor," Dragon's voice called out. He was standing on a floating piece of wreckage, holding the gravely wounded Inazuma. He looked completely unbothered.
"Kuma. Send them away."
"Bwoop."
Kuma, ever silent, clapped his hands. A massive, paw-shaped bubble of air formed, enveloping Vegapunk, Ivankov, and the injured Inazuma. The air shoved them, and the bubble shot into the sky like a cannonball, vanishing over the horizon.
The Paw-Paw Fruit. It could send any target anywhere in the world, at an impossible speed.
"You think you can just leave?!" Arthur roared. He kicked off the air, dissolving into lightning to give chase. The bubble was fast, but he was lightning.
"Watch your friend, Thunder Emperor!"
Dragon had anticipated it. As Arthur launched himself into the sky, Dragon's own attack shot out—not at him, but at Jessica, who was still on the cliff.
Arthur was trapped.
Go for Vegapunk, and Jessica dies.
Dragon had calculated every variable. The only way to have won this was to have killed them all in the first, impossible instant.
"Zzzzzzzzt!"
Arthur's lightning-form U-turned in mid-air, his body reforming in a flash, his elbow crackling with a godlike, condensed power as he slammed it into Dragon's descending claw.
"BOOM!!"
Dragon's body buckled, a flush of red coloring his cheeks. He had felt that.
"THUNDER EMPEROR!!!"
A deafening roar came from the beach. Kaido. Finally. He charged, a mountain of muscle and rage, kicking up a cloud of dust and rock.
His massive hand shot out, ignoring the electrical field around Arthur, and grabbed his arms while he was still locked with Dragon.
"AAAAHHH!" Kaido roared, his muscles bulging, his one goal was to rip Arthur in half.
"Kuma!" Dragon shouted, seeing his opportunity.
"Understood." Kuma slapped himself, then slapped Dragon.
"Bwoop!"
The two of them were encased in a bubble and shot into the sky, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Arthur was left alone, in the crushing grip of the one mad dog he couldn't seem to shake, his killing intent reaching a level he had never known before.
He had been outplayed. Not by Dragon's power, but by his strategy. And Kaido… the goddamn pawn… had been the lynchpin of the entire thing.
Instant karma.
He had failed to kill the Beast when he had the chance, and now it was back to ruin everything. He knew, in that moment, that all his old enemies, all the strings he'd left untied, would one day rise up and block his path.
There was only one answer.
Power.
Absolute, overwhelming, undeniable power.
His desire for the second Devil Fruit became an all-consuming need.
"Zzzzzzzzzzt—"
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