Little Oars Jr.'s death also marked the end of the opening probing phase of the Summit War. The battle had now entered its true white-hot stage.
Whitebeard showed no mercy as he cut down a Marine Vice Admiral named Lonz, striking back against the Marines before issuing a direct order.
"Advance over Oars's corpse!"
Inspired by Oars's sacrifice and Whitebeard's overwhelming might, the pirates surged into the Marine lines one after another. At the same time, the Seven Warlords of the Sea officially began taking action as well.
Donquixote Doflamingo casually took control of one of Whitebeard's division commanders, forcing Whitebeard's side into mutual slaughter.
Boa Hancock easily petrified large numbers of pirates with Mero Mero Mellow, then shattered them one by one with effortless kicks.
Makoto watched all of this from afar, but had no intention of joining that part of the battle.
His most important task right now was still finding Yuuki Asuna.
Before that, however, he first reunited with Togawa Sakiko.
By now, a faint golden glow had begun to shine in Sakiko's eyes. Every time she attacked, a pirate died. Quite a few Marines had even started gathering around her, fighting with her as the center of their formation.
Fortunately, she still remembered Makoto's warning and had not attacked any division commanders. That was the only reason she had not drawn retaliation from Whitebeard or the others.
Even so, she had already earned several hundred Contribution Points in this short time.
"Makoto-kun, you're back!"
The moment Makoto revealed himself, Sakiko moved up to him with open affection. The way the two of them exchanged looks made the Marines, who had still been fighting a moment ago, feel as though they had somehow stepped into the wrong scene.
Some pirates thought this was a chance to strike, since Makoto and Sakiko seemed distracted.
But when they rushed over with their men, they were greeted by Makoto and Sakiko's combined Armament Haki fists.
Amid the Marines' cheers, the two drove back another pirate squad of about twenty men, then temporarily pulled back to rest for a moment.
Makoto used his Stand ability to block out all sound around them.
Only then did he speak.
"I ran into Spink just now."
He gave Sakiko a brief explanation of who Spink was, how strong he was, and what suspicious points he carried.
Sakiko frowned.
"That man seems to be planning something huge."
"So be careful from here on," Makoto said. "We showed up too early. There are probably no fewer than seven or eight players hidden on this battlefield."
Sakiko's eyes immediately became much clearer.
Makoto had already told her a great deal about the important characters in the One Piece world. Compared with those enemies, whose personalities and abilities were already known, these hidden players lurking in the dark were far more dangerous.
"I understand," Sakiko said, then changed the direction of the conversation. "But this is also our chance."
"From here on, we'll just do the mission normally and treat this like an ordinary battlefield."
"That way, they'll most likely see us as ordinary players and won't deliberately target us. What we need to do is watch what they do after they make their move against the characters, then judge their true objective."
Makoto nodded. It was indeed a workable plan.
But it also meant Sakiko would remain in danger the entire time.
Sakiko saw right through his thoughts and gave him a dazzling smile.
"I've already mastered Reverse Cursed Technique now. I'm not someone who can be killed that easily."
"Besides, even if I do die, Makoto-kun can revive me, right?"
She had clearly remembered what he had done for Nanami Kento.
Now that Sakiko had brought that up herself, Makoto had nothing more to say.
He summoned a Shadow Clone and had it pretend to be him fighting on the battlefield. As for Makoto himself, he hid his presence and continuously used Observation Haki to monitor the surrounding battle, trying to determine exactly which people were players hidden among the Marines and pirates.
Unfortunately, he soon discovered that directly finding the players was nearly impossible.
Even setting aside the possibility that they might be using methods to hide their identities, the total number of people on both sides of the battlefield was close to 150,000. That alone was already beyond what Makoto's Observation Haki could currently sort through in detail.
'As expected, my Haki is still too weak... I need to find a way to pull off a major Making Fake Become Real in front of everyone's eyes.'
Just as Makoto was thinking that, loud cries of alarm suddenly broke out around the battlefield.
Everyone looked up into the sky.
A ship was falling from above.
Large numbers of pirates and Impel Down prisoners were dropping through the air, and while everyone else's attention was drawn there, Makoto used the chance to sweep the area again with his Observation Haki.
This time, he finally got a reaction.
Focusing his gaze, he saw her.
At the very top of the ship's mast, clinging to the railing and screaming, was Yuuki Asuna.
So that was it.
Asuna had been assigned to Luffy's ship.
Was this also a reflection of her high Fate Value?
Although Luffy's group had been struck by the tsunami Whitebeard created, launched hundreds of meters into the sky, and then frozen in place by Aokiji's ice, the entire ship had remained perched at the very top of the frozen wave.
But throughout that whole process, they had also been separated from the main battlefield between the Marines and pirates. That meant they had avoided being caught in artillery fire or the crossfire of powerful combatants.
The only real problem was probably that seeing an entire ship full of prisoners had scared Asuna half to death.
The moment he saw her, Makoto kicked off the air without hesitation and rushed upward.
Then, just as Asuna finally lost her grip and slipped from the mast she had been desperately holding with both hands, Makoto caught her in a princess carry.
Makoto was still in his optical camouflage state, so Asuna could not see him. Because of that, she showed the most genuine possible reaction.
Fear, despair, trembling, screaming...
Yuuki Asuna displayed every reaction an ordinary girl should have in that situation. In Makoto's arms, she struggled desperately, flailing her hands and feet as she tried to grab onto anything at all.
In the end, her hand caught his shoulder.
That strange but solid sensation restored a little life to her eyes.
Before she could say anything, however, Makoto had already brought her back into his cursed space.
If someone skilled in Observation Haki had been watching closely, they would definitely have noticed that Yuuki Asuna had suddenly disappeared.
But almost everyone's attention had been captured by Luffy's group instead.
After all, an entire ship full of prisoners, along with the ship itself, had happened to fall perfectly into an opening in the ice without a single casualty. That kind of absurd luck was more than enough to overshadow the slaughter on the battlefield and become the center of attention for audiences all over the world.
At this point, none of that had anything to do with Makoto.
He did not rush to send Asuna to join the other newcomers.
In her current state, Yuuki Asuna clearly needed some time to adjust first.
Only after seeing the familiar black surroundings did she finally realize that Makoto had saved her.
Makoto revealed himself in front of her.
He had just been about to say something when the girl suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face against his shoulder, and broke down crying.
Seeing how emotional she was, Makoto temporarily gave up on the idea of leaving immediately.
He gently patted Asuna's back and softly told her, "It's all right now."
At the same time, he opened a small air vent and continued observing the outside world.
Luffy had fortunately fallen onto the ship. After briefly losing consciousness, he woke up and immediately rushed toward the execution platform.
With his current strength, how could he possibly reach Ace while the Seven Warlords, the Admirals, Garp, and Sengoku were all in the way?
Well...
Theoretically, it should have been impossible.
But what came next was going to prove, in the most literal sense, that it would still happen.
Then again, that was Luffy for you, the grandson of the legendary Marine Vice Admiral Garp.
Joking aside, when Makoto saw the scene of Luffy and Ace shouting each other's names across the entire battlefield, the numbness that had built up in his heart from all the killing began to waver.
After all, the Luffy of this time was not yet the future Nika who could grin and laugh even in the middle of life-and-death battlefields.
Makoto still retained some goodwill toward the current Luffy.
He then shifted his attention to the other parts of the battlefield.
Because of Luffy and the others' sudden arrival, the pirate side had gained major reinforcements.
Powerhouses like Crocodile, Ivankov, and Jinbe might not all be helping Luffy rescue Ace out of shared ideals, but as escapees from Impel Down, they only had one option on this battlefield while facing Marine pursuit and interception.
They had to fight their way through with everything they had.
When Makoto looked at those prisoners in their convict uniforms, his eyes turned much colder.
Compared with the Marines and Whitebeard's forces, these people were almost all criminals guilty of serious evil, with only the revolutionaries standing apart from that group.
Once he entered the battle again, he could make a huge profit in points by killing this bunch.
Luffy's arrival caused a chain reaction across the battlefield.
In such a short time, Luffy had already made too many connections with too many people. He himself had become the battlefield's focal point, and that in turn caused the key figures to start moving as well.
Akainu recognized Luffy as Dragon's son and immediately wanted him dead.
Crocodile, who had a grudge against Whitebeard, charged at him without hesitation.
And when Luffy saw Whitebeard being attacked, he immediately stepped in and started fighting Crocodile.
At that moment, there was also a change in the girl inside Makoto's arms.
She slowly raised her head and gently pushed against Makoto's shoulder, trying to stand up.
Makoto followed her intent and helped her to her feet.
But the moment both her feet touched the ground, she fell right back into Makoto's arms again.
"Are you hurt?" Makoto asked at once as he caught her by the wrist. "Did you get injured on the way here, or did those prisoners do something to you?"
As he spoke, he activated Reverse Cursed Technique.
Yuuki Asuna hurriedly shook her head. Raising her pale face, already soaked with tears yet still trying to force out a smile, she answered him.
"I'm fine."
She tried standing up several more times, but every attempt ended in failure.
Seeing that, Makoto formed a chair behind her with a spatial barrier and helped her sit down.
Only then did Yuuki Asuna finally relax completely.
Even so, she still held onto Makoto's wrist on her own and showed no intention of letting go.
At this moment, Makoto had clearly become the only person she could rely on.
"When I first appeared on that pirate ship, a few pirates really did try to hurt me," Asuna said softly.
"But two people named Luffy and Jinbe stopped them. Luffy even placed me on the lookout platform to protect me."
Makoto nodded.
So that was why she had ended up clinging to the mast.
"Kitano-kun... does that mean I'm safe now?"
Asuna looked up at him. In the confusion in her eyes, there was now a faint light of hope.
Makoto opened his storage space, took out a handkerchief, and gently wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes.
"With me, you're 100% safe now, so don't worry."
"From here on, just stay here and rest. I still need to go out and continue the mission."
Makoto lightly pressed the back of her hand.
To his surprise, however, the resistance he felt only grew stronger.
Could it be that Asuna did not want him to leave, and wanted him to stay here with her?
That did not seem quite like Yuuki Asuna, even if she was still only an ordinary girl who had just been dragged into the SAO death game.
But what she said next made Makoto look at her in a new light.
"Kitano-kun, I... can I borrow some power from you?"
"I want to fight too. I don't want to face death without any way to resist ever again."
"I know I'm still weak right now, and we're even on different sides of the battlefield. I also don't need any rewards. I just want you to teach me how to fight."
"If I leave this world having done nothing at all, then what am I supposed to do when I have to face the next world alone?"
Makoto's eyes lit up completely.
Just a moment ago, he had been thinking about how to use Making Fake Become Real on a grand scale through Asuna.
Her Fate Value was a full 60 points.
Even if her trust in Makoto could only rise to 50% because they belonged to opposing camps, that would still give him 30 Manifestation Points.
And most importantly, Makoto now possessed the Memory Fruit.
In the past, his greatest difficulty had been figuring out how to make a completely ignorant Yuuki Asuna understand what the concepts he was talking about even were.
But now, he could directly use the Memory Fruit to transfer the necessary knowledge into her mind.
That meant he could complete a Making Fake Become Real much faster.
Thinking of that, Makoto looked at her seriously.
"Are you truly prepared for this?"
"Fighting isn't a game. You'll have to risk your life against real enemies. Injuries are the least of it. One mistake, and you could lose your life."
Yuuki Asuna's shoulders trembled slightly, and her gaze wavered.
Makoto did not rush her.
He knew very well that the girl in front of him would definitely become strong, stronger than the overwhelming majority of players.
What she needed now was only a little trust and a little time.
And sure enough, a few seconds later, Yuuki Asuna slowly rose to her feet.
Her legs were still weak from the overwhelming fright she had gone through, but the earnest, determined expression on her face had already proven her choice.
"I want to fight. Please teach me how to fight."
"Good," Makoto said.
"Then let's start by helping you master Haki and swordsmanship from the One Piece world."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and placed it on Asuna's forehead.
Asuna was slightly startled, since the gesture looked somewhat intimate, but she still looked straight at Makoto without moving.
Very soon, she realized that the trust she had placed in him was being repaid in full.
Memories related to the training of Haki began flowing from Makoto into her mind without end.
At the same time, Makoto took the opportunity to speak.
"My Observation Haki, Armament Haki, Conqueror's Haki, swordsmanship, and Six Powers have all already reached the maximum level. How much you can comprehend will depend on you."
[Ding, Making Fake Become Real triggered...]
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