"ROAR!!"
A half-beast leopard figure, smoke rising from his body, burst out of a crater of lightning. His eyes burned with fury.
But before he could recover, a golden staff came crashing down toward his skull.
"Rokushiki: Paper Art!"
Sensing mortal danger, Rob Lucci's fur bristled as instinct sharpened to the extreme. His body bent like paper, flowing along the currents of air to narrowly evade the crushing strike.
"Too slow!"
"Lightning Metallurgy!"
Enel had predicted the dodge. The golden staff melted into a spear mid-swing, slicing across Lucci's shoulder with deadly precision.
"Tekkai!!"
With no room to escape, Lucci reinforced his body with iron-hard muscle. The spear slashed across him, splitting flesh in a gaping wound that sprayed blood.
"Lucci!"
Kaku rushed in, blade drawn, trying to force Enel to defend. His slash cleaved into Enel's waist—
"Fool. Without Armament Haki, you can't hurt me."
Enel's expression was cold. His severed body dissolved into lightning, reappearing above Kaku in a flash.
"Thirty Million Volts: Thunderbird!"
A radiant thunderbird screeched through the air, piercing straight through Kaku. Electricity coursed violently across his body, his eyes rolling white as he collapsed. His sword glowed red-hot, burning his own hands with the stench of seared flesh.
"Ka…ku!"
"Rankyaku: Leopard Tail!"
Lucci roared, his tail whipping into a spiral barrage of razor wind blades that tore across the shipyard.
"Still too slow!"
Enel's body snapped into pure lightning, vanishing before the strikes landed. The deadly wind blades instead split a nearby pirate ship clean in half, shocking the shipwrights and foremen watching in horror.
Their disbelief only deepened as Enel appeared upside down in midair, dead fish eyes meeting Lucci's enraged leopard gaze.
"A so-called genius… still nothing compared to a god."
"Thirty Million Volts: Vajra Thunder!"
Enel's palm pressed against Lucci's forehead. A blast of explosive lightning thundered down, flooding through Lucci's body.
"AAAHHHH!!"
Lucci convulsed violently, smoke pouring from his fur. He staggered, kneeling on one leg, his willpower alone keeping him from collapsing completely.
"You truly do have potential, as my captain said."
For the first time, Enel's gaze held a glimmer of respect.
But Kaku, still without his Devil Fruit, had already been reduced to a charred mess, unable to even stand.
"But now… fall before your god."
"Sixty Million Volts: Thunder Dragon!"
Enel's golden spear lashed out, unleashing a dragon of lightning that tore through Lucci's body. The CP9 prodigy finally collapsed unconscious, reverting to human form.
"…Boring."
Enel stepped forward, lifted Lucci like a trophy, and left without sparing Kaku a glance.
The foremen of Galley-La—Barry, Tilestone, and Peepley Lulu—stood frozen in terror. None dared interfere as the godlike figure carried Lucci away.
"Lucci… Kaku… they were really government agents?" Barry muttered, lighting another cigar with trembling fingers. His last one had already fallen from his lips.
"Quick, report to Iceberg! Only the mayor can handle this!" Peepley Lulu sprinted toward headquarters.
Elsewhere, Souta Kiryuu—towering in his crimson dragon form—carried the unconscious Bruno toward the Franky Family's dismantling yard.
Inside, Franky's gang had been busy tearing apart old pirate ships. But the sight of the massive dragon barreling toward them froze them in place.
"Boss Franky! That dragon's coming right for us!" the Square Sisters screamed. Zambai, Kiwi, and Mozu all dropped their tools, panicked eyes flicking to their leader.
"H-He's probably just passing through!" Franky stammered, adjusting his speedo nervously. He was a man who had seen Gol D. Roger with his own eyes—how could he cower before a dragon?
"Boss, he's not passing us—he's aiming straight here!"
"Then what are we waiting for—RUN!!"
Burdened with his great secret, Franky bolted deeper into the dismantling yard. His men scrambled behind him, tripping over themselves in terror.
But suddenly—
"BOOM!!"
A crushing wave of Conqueror's Haki swept over them. The Square Sisters collapsed instantly, their eyes rolling back. One by one, Franky's followers fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Kiwi! Mozu! Zambai! …Dammit!!"
Franky spun back, shouting in anguish. Loyalty and brotherhood burned in his heart—he could never abandon his family. He rushed back, ready to fight for them.
CRACK!!
A bolt of lightning slammed into him, sending sparks ripping across his cyborg frame. His mechanical body sputtered and smoked under the impact.
"You can't protect what you don't understand."
Souta Kiryuu descended in human form, landing calmly before the fallen cyborg. His voice was cold. "The Pluton blueprints are written in the ancient language. You could never comprehend them. Even your Sunny ship carries only scraps of its design."
He knelt, prying open Franky's cyborg chest with ease. Within, he found the fragile, weathered pages he sought—the ancient blueprints themselves. Souta flipped through a few sheets, smirked, and tucked them away.
"Better in my hands than wasted in yours."
Without another glance at the unconscious shipwright, he hoisted Bruno and soared back into the sky as a crimson dragon.
Meanwhile, chaos erupted on Water 7's bustling streets.
Capone Bege and his mafia crew stormed the government-run Water 7 Bank, guns blazing. Marines stationed there were swatted aside by Bartholomew Kuma, each strike of his massive paw sending them flying out of sight.
Jewelry Bonney reveled in the havoc, defeating a Marine commander and gleefully transforming soldiers into children and elders. Her laughter echoed through the city as her infamy spread.
The age of Souta Kiryuu's crew had only just begun.