The sea fell silent as every eye fixed on the old man. His robe snapped once in the wind, then he shot skyward under a hundred gazes.
"Moonwalk."
Whoosh.
It was the Navy's Rokushiki, yet his speed was lightning itself. He left Garp and Steel Bone Kong a dozen streets behind, and even Rakuya only heard the whisper of his voice before the figure vanished.
"So fast."
Rakuya's surprise lasted a heartbeat. An invisible repulsive force rippled out from him. Space trembled. Rings of distortion spread like waves across a still lake.
"Here, then?"
Feeling the anomaly ping back through the field, Rakuya opened his eyes and smiled with easy confidence.
"Finger Pistol."
The Elder arrived in an instant, a blur in the air. His index strike was like tempered steel, driving straight for Rakuya.
"Heh. Quick hands for an old man."
Rakuya smiled and drove a fist forward.
Danger flared in the Elder's mind. With a startled grunt, his body blurred into a pitch black phantom. Rakuya's iron punch hammered empty air, and the phantom slowly regained substance, resolving back into the Elder's lean frame.
"So that is your trick?"
Rakuya frowned slightly. This was his first time crossing fists with a Five Elder. He had never been certain what changes their bodies had suffered.
Fortunate or cursed, they had each consumed a fifth of a strange Devil Fruit. The power it granted was absurd, no weaker than Rakuya's water assimilation.
The Elder's head shone baldly, reflecting a cold white gleam in the dark sky.
"Not bad, kid. Your power actually made me feel danger. You are worth a billion in bounty."
The Elder chuckled, eyes weighing him.
"A billion is only a number. I have no interest in posters. Trade me Devil Fruits worth that much and I might hit you a little less."
Rakuya lifted his lids, voice calm and sure.
"Arrogant."
The Elder's gaze turned to winter. A chilling black vapor surged out, coiling tight around Rakuya.
"Art of Strangulation."
At his low command, the darkness swelled. In a blink it shaped into a colossal black dragon. Its iron-hard scales layered over Rakuya like plates, the vast body twisting to crush him outright.
"Not bad, old man."
Wrapped tight, Rakuya felt only heat. There was no pain.
"Hmph. Even Whitebeard would not meet this head on. You think that flesh of yours can endure it?"
Confidence rang in the Elder's voice. He was certain he had his man.
"Strangle."
The dragon's maw yawned wide, fangs glinting with a chill light. Under a hundred breathless stares it bit down.
A dragon's roar split the sky. Power surged outward.
Its jaws swallowed Rakuya's head whole. The scales along its body turned to long blades, slicing again and again as the coils constricted.
This technique ignored Logia bodies entirely. Fluid or not, there was no slipping free.
It was the Elder's most trusted kill. He wasted no motions. He had come to end this quickly.
"Die, brat. Next life, do not make an enemy of the World Government."
His eyes were deep and cold, his voice without feeling.
Below, Marine Headquarters watched in shock.
They had thrown everything at this one man, three or five to one, and still been driven into a corner. Yet a Five Elder had arrived and, in a single exchange, strangled him where he floated.
"So strong. My lord's power is terrifying."
"If one of the Five Elders is like this, how dreadful are the five together?"
"Hmph. Kid, fight the Marines and the Government and see where it gets you. Next life, learn to read the field."
Sakazuki's eyes were hard as coal. Seeing the Elder crush Rakuya, he allowed himself a cold smile.
"Is he dead?" Kong murmured. He never took his eyes off the sky. It felt too neat.
Dead?
That question burned in every mind. Then, within the dragon's tearing maw, Rakuya's body unraveled into a storm of black crows. They burst out cawing, wheeled, and in midair knit together like pieces of a puzzle, recombining into a single figure.
"What? You lived? You slipped my Strangulation?"
For the first time the Elder's heart jolted. This technique had never failed him and was tailor-made to counter Logias. Yet against Rakuya it had broken on contact.
"Brat, what power is that?"
Exclamations erupted below.
"He is alive. He actually survived."
"He slipped my lord's Strangulation. This one is a handful."
Kong had been right. Thinking to take Rakuya with one move had been wishful.
"Damn it. Even before a Five Elder he can move like that?"
Sakazuki's earlier sneer died on his lips as Rakuya reappeared unscathed.
The sea itself answered the tension. Hundreds of Sea Kings heaved up again, ramming forward as if they had chosen death. The ocean roared. A new wall of water, hundreds of meters high, reared and thundered toward the fleet.
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