Garp's dog-headed warship might look odd, but in terms of performance, it was among the best in the fleet. As standard Marine equipment, it excelled in every aspect—especially speed.
After receiving the support mission from Admiral Sengoku, Ortoren and the others had been pushing forward day and night. Nearly ten days later, they finally reached the waters near Ranki Island.
So far, according to the latest reports from Marine intelligence stationed on the island, nothing unusual had happened.
On deck, Ortoren flipped through the relevant intel files in his hand.
"This Ranki Island belongs to Lu Feld, right?" Ortoren asked, clicking his tongue.
"That's right," Kuzan replied from the side. "Lu Feld has a lot of influence in the underworld and incredible wealth. He's known as the 'Loan Shark King.'"
From his investment in the MADS research group alone, it was clear he had an eye for opportunity. But according to intel, he'd taken a major hit in his business ventures not long ago, leaving his cash flow tight for over a year. As a result, many of his projects had been scaled back.
Judging by the timing, Lu Feld's financial troubles were probably linked to Shiki's defeat in the Battle of Edd War—a loss that likely triggered a chain reaction in some of his ventures, leading to his current predicament.
Still, Ortoren remembered that more than twenty years later, the man was still going strong. He must have survived this storm.
The real victims were some of his projects. MADS' research work, for instance, had its funding heavily slashed. That was what sparked internal conflicts within the illegal civilian research group, with several scientists wanting to split up.
Because of that, the intelligence Borsalino had painstakingly gathered ended up being sold to the underworld by MADS insiders in an attempt to raise their own value—sparking the current mess and drawing the attention of both Kaidou and Charlotte Linlin.
"Report! Rear Admiral Borsalino has sent word—he's already reached Ranki Island and is preparing to go ashore. No unusual activity spotted so far," a Marine officer reported as he approached Kuzan and Ortoren.
Kuzan let out a small breath of relief and smiled. "Looks like we're still ahead of the pirates. If we can get the MADS team out before they arrive, we can probably avoid a fight altogether."
Ortoren's expression froze at those words. He immediately moved to clamp a hand over Kuzan's grinning mouth. Setting up a flag before the battle even began? That was like saying, "Once this fight's over, I'm going home to get married."
Sure enough, the moment Kuzan finished speaking, trouble erupted on Ranki Island—which was now visible on the horizon.
It was dusk, the sun already halfway below the horizon, casting a dim light over the sky. Suddenly, a golden pillar of light shot up from the island, followed by a blast of scorching flame spewing from the heavy clouds above. Under the glow of both light sources, the massive, coiling body of a dragon could be faintly seen writhing within the clouds.
"That's Borsalino's ability!" Kuzan said sharply.
At the same time, Garp shoved open the cabin door and bellowed, "Kaidou's already here!"
There was no mistaking it—the shadowy dragon in the clouds could only be Kaidou.
"Faster! Push the engines to full, start the auxiliary paddles too!" Kuzan barked urgently.
A sharp gleam flashed in Ortoren's eyes. "You get moving—I'll go on ahead."
Before the words had even faded, he hefted his war hammer onto his shoulder. Lightning danced over his body, his eyes blazing with a brilliant electric glow. With a sharp crack, he vanished from the ship in an instant.
...
On Ranki Island, Borsalino stood in a yellow pinstriped suit, the Marine cloak of justice draped over his shoulders. His expression was grim, golden energy gathering in his hands before bursting into streams of light that shot skyward.
When one of those beams pierced the clouds, his sharp observation caught a sudden change—the dragon's form hidden in the mist instantly shifted into the hulking figure of a man.
"So, here he comes?" Borsalino thought, his heart sinking. But he wasn't panicked. He had just been in contact with Vice Admiral Garp, and their warship was nearby. As long as he could stall for a little while, reinforcements would arrive.
That thought had barely formed when the clouds above seemed to be struck by an immense force. A shockwave rippled through the sky, blasting the cloud cover apart in an instant.
It was Kaidou. His massive frame plummeted from the sky like a meteor, a thick kanabō gripped in his hands, crackling with lightning as he dove straight for Borsalino.
"Raimei Hakke!" Kaidou roared.
Borsalino reacted instantly. He clasped his hands together, then pulled them apart, forming a long blade of condensed light. This was his technique, the Ama no Murakumo.
Before becoming a Devil Fruit user, Borsalino had been a skilled swordsman in his own right.
"How scary~" he muttered lazily, swinging the Ama no Murakumo in a smooth arc.
In the blink of an eye, Kaidou's kanabō came crashing down, slamming into Borsalino's light blade. Borsalino had seen Kaidou before—he'd been alongside Admiral Sengoku in past skirmishes against him. Back in his younger days, Kaidou had a habit of getting himself arrested by the Marines, so unless you were as new as Ortoren, most officers had crossed paths with this eccentric at least once.
But seeing him was one thing; trading blows with him in earnest was another.
Borsalino didn't dodge. He chose to meet Kaidou's strike head-on—a test of strength to see just how powerful this so-called "monster of the New World" truly was.
The answer came instantly. When Ama no Murakumo met Hassaikai, the sheer brute force almost shattered both his Haki and the light elements reinforcing the blade.
"What tremendous strength…" Borsalino's heart sank. He shifted his grip, easing off the struggle. He knew better than to try matching power—he was strong, but nowhere near Kaidou's level in raw force.
Kaidou sensed the change immediately. A glint of ferocity flashed in his eyes. "Is that all you've got?"
Even as he spoke, the overwhelming force in his arms surged again. Caught off guard, Borsalino's Ama no Murakumo shattered into countless motes of light.
Surprise flickered across his face—he hadn't expected Kaidou to drive even more power into the blow mid-clash. That kind of sudden burst in a deadlock took both technique and explosive strength. Kaidou clearly had both to spare.
Hassaikai, wrapped in crushing Haki, tore through the light blade. But Borsalino was no novice, and brute force wasn't his game. Kaidou's seemingly guaranteed strike whistled past harmlessly as a flash of gold carried Borsalino dozens of meters away in an instant.
Now standing thirty or forty meters distant, Borsalino crossed his arms, golden light gathering in huge amounts before him. His instantaneous repositioning alone was a testament to his blinding speed.
"You're as violent as ever, Kaidou~" he said with infuriating calm.
A storm of light bullets erupted from him like a torrential downpour, engulfing Kaidou's massive form and triggering a chain of thunderous explosions.
But from within the blasts came a sharp, cutting wind pressure that tore through the air like a blade, surging straight toward Borsalino.
Kaifu—laced with crushing Haki.
Borsalino had no steel-hard body to tank a hit like that. In a flash of gold, light refracted from his hands and his figure flickered away.
But Kaidou had read him. Before Borsalino's reformed body could fully take shape, Kaidou burst from the smoke like a loosed arrow, swinging Hassaikai down in another devastating strike.
Borsalino sighed inwardly, forced to shift position yet again.
Then it came—a rolling thunderclap that reached both their ears.
A faint smile curved Borsalino's lips. "Here already?" he thought.
Kaidou's brow furrowed. Thunder? I haven't even used Raimei Hakke yet…
He looked up—and froze. A figure just as massive and horned as himself was plummeting from above. If not for the Marine cloak of justice billowing from his shoulders and the colossal hammer in his grip, Kaidou might have thought he was looking at his younger self.
"Who are you?!" Kaidou barked, hefting Hassaikai to block.
"Raijin's Wrath!" Ortoren roared.
A heartbeat later, Kaidou's towering frame was sent hurtling through the air from the force of the blow.