"Are you going senile? Do you not understand plain words?" Rakuya drawled. His body reformed from water in midair as he looked down on Steel Bone Kong with open contempt.
"Not a Logia? That is not a natural fluid." Kong's thrust had pierced straight through without doing a thing, and he looked more rattled than Rakuya did.
"Fluid? Who told you I was a Logia user?" Rakuya smiled, smug and unhurried.
Marines closed in from every side. Admirals, vice admirals, even the fleet admiral himself ringed him with murderous glares.
"Rakuya. Where is Tsuru? Release her." Vice Admiral Tsuru's face was tight, voice cold.
"Tsuru?" Rakuya shrugged. "Sorry. She has switched sides. She wants nothing to do with you Marines and now serves under me."
"Nonsense. Tsuru would never join pirates. Did you torture her?" Tsuru's hands trembled. There was exhaustion in her eyes.
"Torture? You think everyone stoops to the Marines' tricks to get what they want?" Rakuya's laugh was knife-sharp.
"Impudent."
Steel Bone's veins stood out. Rage boiled off him. Power surged from his body, Armament Haki blackening him from head to toe. He lunged and threw a full-force punch, the air shrieking around his fist.
Boom.
Spray exploded. Then the scattered water gathered again and rose back into Rakuya's easy, unimpressed silhouette.
"Steel Bone Kong. Your men and those Celestial Dragons are in my custody. You broke our five-day appointment. There is a price for that."
"What price?" Kong's face had gone iron-blue.
"Five days. Twenty-five percent interest. Your men and the Celestial Dragons have been eating and sleeping on my dime. You owe me an additional twenty billion berries in damages."
He named the figure without blinking, ignoring the way Kong's and Garp's faces darkened.
"In your dreams." Kong ground the words out between his teeth.
Five days and twenty billion? Did Rakuya think the Government was a fat sheep to shear at will?
Kong roared, a thunderclap in human form. He sprang, palms cleaving the air, a hawk stooping for the kill, his shadow swallowing Rakuya whole.
"Noisy."
Rakuya did not bother to move. Letting Kong swing on him again and again was getting tiresome. Did the old man think he was easy prey?
"Repulsion. One thousandfold."
Power detonated from Rakuya's right hand. The air buckled and boomed. Kong's punch met Rakuya's.
The shock cracked the sky. Repulsion hurled Kong backward. His whole body spasmed. Agony like lightning tore through him, twisting his face.
Bang.
The backlash rampaged up his arm. Before a hundred stunned eyes, the fleet admiral's Armament-hardened right arm burst into fragments.
One punch. Gone.
"I warned you," Rakuya said. "You would not listen. Consider that arm a lesson."
Steel Bone Kong, fleet admiral of Marine Headquarters, commander of the three services, a true top-tier fighter, had just had his arm pulped by a single blow. No one wanted to believe what they had seen.
"Aaah—"
Kong's body shook. Cold sweat poured. Pain like knives tore at him. His will was iron, and within seconds he forced the howl back down, but the torment still etched his face.
Rakuya reached into the air and yanked out a man trussed like cargo.
The figure was a wreck. Blood matted his face. Hair hung in filthy ropes. He was all but unrecognizable.
"A Ce… Celestial Dragon?"
"Saint Charmaco."
"Let him go. Release Saint Charmaco at once."
Vice admirals howled themselves hoarse.
Kong lifted his head. He stared at the prisoner in Rakuya's hand, eyes dark. "You would not dare kill a Celestial Dragon. Name your price. How many berries?"
"I would not dare?" Rakuya's smile thinned. It was the funniest thing he had heard all day.
Sensing the chill in his voice, Kong backpedaled fast. "Put him down. State your terms. Twenty billion. Thirty. Whatever it takes, the Marines will pay."
"Oh? Will you now?" Rakuya's eyes gleamed. "If you had spoken like that the instant I arrived, I might have considered it. But now it is too late."
Cold light flashed across his gaze. His right hand tightened.
"No."
"Do not kill him."
"Stop."
Kong, Garp, Tsuru, Onigumo, and a dozen vice admirals exploded into Soru, streaking toward Rakuya to snatch the Celestial Dragon out of his grip.
They were fast. Not faster than Rakuya.
He gave a small, mirthless laugh. His palm lifted. Repulsion hammered down.
Thud.
Power punched through Saint Charmaco. In front of every pair of watching eyes—
Rakuya crushed him. Blood fountained. The Celestial Dragon died on the spot.
Garp's jaw clenched. Tsuru's face went ashen. Onigumo and a ring of vice admirals bared their teeth, eyes burning.
"Damn you." Kong surged in again with his left, and the ring of Marines attacked as one from every angle.
"Armament Hardening. Iron Fist."
"Wash-Wash Fruit."
"Rankyaku."
"Shigan."
A storm of blows converged to erase Rakuya where he stood.
"Repulsion. Shinra Tensei."
Rakuya let his arm fall to his side. As the attacks came in, space warped around him. Every Marine froze midcharge, pinned as if the air had turned to iron.
"Within one step of me, slaughtering the lot of you is like killing chickens. Now get lost."
His voice cracked like thunder through their skulls. Repulsion spiked. Vice admirals flew like leaves in a gale. Rushes were cut short. Bodies ricocheted into rubble.
Not one of them could get close to Rakuya.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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