This was the perfect chance to crush the Whitebeard Pirates.
Miss it now and who knew how long before such conditions aligned again.
Time, place, people.
All in the Marines' favor.
On the flagship's deck, Fleet Admiral Kong stood with a storm behind his eyes. He wanted Whitebeard annihilated as much as anyone, but the price would be staggering. More than half their force would bleed for it.
And if both sides ended up crippled, what would happen when Rakuya slipped in to pick their bones clean?
After a long, hard breath, Kong chose restraint. "Our mission is to retrieve Headquarters personnel, not arrest Whitebeard. This time he lives."
He tamped down the surge of battle lust and cooled his head.
"But, Fleet Admiral, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"
"Sir, give the order. Whitebeard will not escape!"
Voices rose up and down the line. Even seasoned officers felt the pull of glory.
Kong's jaw worked. For a moment, he said nothing.
At the same time, Rakuya had shed the black cloak of Flowing Cloud and returned to his own face. He stepped onto Fruit Island, brought Momousagi out of the barrier, and looked to sea. His gaze seemed to pierce miles of mist as a grand armada slid across the horizon.
"So, you are here," he murmured, then stepped onto the water, afterimages flickering over the waves.
Far astern, Whitebeard glared at the empty sea, his expression dark as a thunderhead.
"Flowing Cloud, I will repay today twice over."
"Jozu."
"Pops!"
"Dig up everything on this Flowing Cloud punk. I want his life's story on my desk." Whitebeard's voice rumbled like an earthquake. He had been stripped to the bone today, and there was not a thing he could do about it.
Those two chests had been full when he opened them. Seconds later, empty. He did not know what trick Flowing Cloud had used, but who else could it be?
He swallowed the bile anyway.
The Marine armada was rolling in. If he locked horns with Rakuya now, the Whitebeard Pirates would be ground to dust between two millstones.
He knew the thief. He could not lay a hand on him.
Worse, he had smiled through his teeth and signed a humiliating note for the debt.
For Whitebeard, it was an unforgivable disgrace.
He had been fleeced, and badly.
…
Elsewhere, Rakuya stood with Momousagi in pure white robes, the two of them poised over the roaring sea as they waited for the Marine fleet.
Soon enough, row on row of warships drove in, decks packed shoulder to shoulder with sailors. Faces were grave all around.
Seeing Headquarters at last, Rakuya's handsome features tilted into a small smile. An invisible pressure rolled out and hushed the waves.
This stretch of New World sea had capricious winds and treacherous currents that could strand ordinary vessels, but Marine hulls were different. Mechanical propulsion churned beneath the keels. They could sail without wind, ignore the Calm Belt, and plow through chaotic flows.
In just days they had crossed from the Holy Land and punched into the New World. Steel-plated hulls, twin decks, twin gunlines. From afar, a wall of iron.
On the flagship's prow, a knot of senior officers stared toward the two figures standing on water.
"Rakuya…"
"Rakuya!"
"Walking the sea? He really does not fear seawater? What kind of ability is that?"
"He is standing there with no support. Another Float-Float Fruit like the Golden Lion?"
"Damn it. One Golden Lion is headache enough. Now there is another freak like him."
The deck buzzed. Even veterans squinted through scopes at the impossible sight.
Kong's eyes went flat and cold. This was the brat who had snapped his arm at the old Holy Land. That power still throbbed in his memory.
"Rakuya!"
As the flagship eased close, Kong barked his name.
"Fleet Admiral Kong, how are the Devil Fruits coming?"
Rakuya stood on the waterline facing the entire Headquarters armada, voice mild.
"Vice Admiral Tsuru. Bring it out."
Kong did not look away as his moustache trembled.
"Yes, Fleet Admiral."
Tsuru gestured. Two heavy chests thumped forward.
"Fleet Admiral, twenty-five Fruits inside."
A ripple of whispers ran along the line. Twenty-five Devil Fruits. The minds behind those uniforms could not help calculating how many new powers could be made from that.
"Twenty-five Devil Fruits, as promised. Rakuya, where are my people?" Kong's cape snapped in the wind, his face set in stone.
"Just a moment."
Rakuya smiled, raised a hand, and a black vortex irised open beside him. Five figures spilled out onto the air.
Zephyr. Sengoku. Borsalino. Sakazuki. Saint Charlos.
They were pale, rumpled, hair a mess, but largely uninjured.
"Rakuya!"
Sakazuki's eyes flew open. The moment he saw that face he swung.
"Great Eruption!"
A mountain of molten fist detonated across the sky. Air buckled, sea flashed to steam, heat spiked like a forge.
"Get lost."
Rakuya breathed the word and lifted his right leg. His heel scythed through magma, punched through the blaze, and slammed into Akainu's chest.
Blood sprayed.
"Sakazuki!"
"Admiral!"
"Damn it!"
Kong's face darkened. He vanished with a shave-step, reappeared behind Sakazuki, and caught him out of the air.
A blink later they were back on the flagship. "Doctor. Now."
"Sir!"
The deck erupted in motion.
Rakuya drew his foot back and returned to his place on the waves, calm as still water. His flesh had already been honed to its peak. Lava meant nothing to him.
One kick.
Against Rakuya, Sakazuki had not even had a chance to raise his guard.
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