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Chapter 234: The Peak Reappears, Sword Points to Marineford!
Floating Island, Merveille.
The alarm sounded—not the shrill cry of an enemy attack, but the deep, heavy horn of assembly.
The horn blasted through the perennial white clouds, echoing between dozens of suspended islands.
Thousands of pirates poured out of various camps, bars, and casinos.
They were the remnants of the Flying Pirates, the fangs that Golden Lion Shiki had kept hidden in the snow for twenty years.
"What's going on? Didn't they say three more years?"
"The IQ cultivation isn't finished yet, right?"
"Did the Marines attack?"
Noise filled the central plaza.
Dozens of captains, draped in coats and looking fierce, stood at the very front, their expressions a mix of shock and uncertainty.
They were all vicious criminals who couldn't survive in the New World or had been chased to a dead end by the Marines, eventually seeking refuge under the Golden Lion.
Everyone was waiting for that man to appear.
The legend who once stood equal to Roger and Whitebeard.
Indigo hugged a stack of documents, his squeaky shoes making strange noises as he hurriedly ran up to the high platform.
He waved his arms, signaling for the crowd to be quiet.
"Shut up, all of you!"
Indigo's shrill voice spread across the venue through a Transponder Snail.
"Admiral Shiki has an important order to announce!"
The pirates below gradually quieted down, but the restlessness in their eyes did not subside.
A one-eyed captain spat on the ground and shouted loudly.
"Indigo, stop keeping us in suspense! Are we going to the East Blue? My blade is getting rusty!"
"Exactly! That Weakest Sea... I could flatten it on my own!"
"We want treasure! We want women!"
Just as the crowd was about to boil over again.
Thud.
A muffled footstep echoed from the shadows behind the high platform.
The sound wasn't loud, yet it seemed to step on everyone's heart.
Thud.
Thud.
Everyone's breath hitched inexplicably.
These footsteps... something was wrong.
The old captains who had followed the Golden Lion for years looked at each other.
For twenty years, they had heard the Clack, Clack sound—the crisp noise of the famous swords "Oto" and "Kogarashi" striking the ground.
That was the unique walking rhythm of the Golden Lion after losing his legs.
But this muffled, elastic sound was clearly the noise of bare feet treading on the ground.
The curtain of the high platform was suddenly thrown open by a large hand.
Sunlight poured down.
Golden long hair danced wildly like an angry lion, and the black kimono coat flapped in the wind.
Shiki had a cigar in his mouth, arms crossed over his chest, standing steadily barefoot at the edge of the high platform.
Dead silence.
In a plaza of thousands, one could hear a pin drop.
The captains in the front row nearly had their eyes pop out, their jaws dropping as if dislocated.
The one-eyed captain raised a trembling hand, pointing at Shiki's legs, stammering.
"Legs... Legs..."
They were no longer cold blades.
They were a pair of intact legs, knotted with muscle and filled with explosive power!
Looking up further.
The half-steering wheel that had been stuck in Shiki's head for twenty years, regarded as the symbol of the Golden Lion's madness and shame...
Was gone.
In its place was a smooth, full forehead, without a single scar.
"What?"
Shiki took the cigar out of his mouth and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, scanning the audience with a disdainful gaze.
"Don't recognize me anymore?"
The familiar, domineering voice finally snapped everyone back to reality.
"Admiral Shiki!!"
"Your body... is this a miracle?!"
"Oh my god! Lord Golden Lion's legs grew back!"
Fanatical cheers instantly detonated the entire plaza.
For pirates, the strength of their leader was their greatest guarantee.
A crippled legend and a legend returned to peak form were two completely different concepts.
Shiki basked in the overwhelming cheers, the curve of his mouth growing wider until it turned into his signature maniacal laugh.
"Jihahahaha!"
"Brats! Take all those mutated beasts still sleeping in the labs and throw them down!"
The laughter stopped abruptly.
A glint of red flashed in Shiki's eyes, his voice turning cold.
"Those animals that rely on drugs to grow up are no longer worthy of the current Flying Pirates."
The pirates below were stunned.
Indigo jumped anxiously beside him, gesturing with exaggerated motions, seemingly trying to say that was twenty years of blood and sweat.
Shiki didn't even look at him. He waved his hand.
"Where we are going, we don't need such dead weight."
"Where are we going, Admiral?" someone asked boldly. "Isn't it the East Blue?"
Shiki narrowed his eyes, casting his gaze toward the distant South.
In that direction lay the Gates of Justice, Marineford, the center of world power.
He had suffered enough humiliation in the Dungeon.
Smashing his face into Garp's lightning-clad fist. Getting shot by lasers from that wretched monkey Kizaru.
He even had to endure lectures from that brat Dragon.
He couldn't swallow this anger.
Since his body in reality had recovered, and since he had obtained the power called "Mangekyo"...
Then he would make this world remember the fear of being dominated by the Golden Lion.
"East Blue?"
Shiki scoffed, his aura exploding outward.
Conqueror's Haki swept across the venue like tangible black lightning.
The weaker pirates instantly rolled their eyes and fainted, while the captains broke into cold sweats, their knees going weak.
"That is a playground for the weak."
Shiki spread his arms as if embracing the entire sky.
"Where I am going is the center of hell!"
"Target—Marine Headquarters, Marineford!"
Boom!
This sentence was like a heavy bomb, shattering everyone's reason into dust.
Attacking Marine Headquarters?!
What a mad order!
Even the Rocks Pirates of the past hadn't declared war so bluntly.
But looking at the man on stage—momentum like a rainbow, returned to his peak—the fear was overtaken by surging madness and ambition.
This was what it meant to be a pirate.
This was the way of the desperado.
Following a monster like this, even death would be a glorious feast.
"ROAR!!!"
"Kill our way to Marineford!"
"Sink those hypocrites of the Navy into the sea!"
Shiki nodded in satisfaction.
He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing the sky, and clenched his five fingers.
Float-Float Fruit ability, activate.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
The entire Merveille archipelago began to tremble violently.
Not just the islands.
The dozens of pirate ships docked around them, along with the seawater beneath them, all lost the shackles of gravity in this instant.
"Set sail!"
Shiki roared.
The massive fleet, along with several floating islands, rose thousands of meters into the air, piercing through the clouds.
Like a shadow blotting out the sky, they pressed forward majestically toward the Red Line.
...
Ten thousand meters in the sky.
The wind was biting, the temperature low enough to freeze steel.
A slightly chubby seagull, carrying a camera bag around its neck and wearing a mini newsboy cap, was flapping its wings desperately.
It was not an ordinary News Coo.
It was an ace reporter bird aspiring to become the next "King of News."
Previously in Foosha Village, the big scoop it captured had successfully won the favor of President Morgans.
"Coo... Coo..." (Freezing bird here...)
The seagull shivering raised the special camera hanging from its chest.
Lens zoom.
On the bow of the largest flagship, the "Island Ship."
The man with wild golden hair was laughing into the gale.
Most importantly—
The seagull's eyes went wide.
Legs!
Those legs!
And that missing steering wheel!
This was absolutely a super scoop that would shock the world!
Enough to drive President Morgans mad with joy.
The seagull was so excited its heart felt like it would explode.
It held its breath, found the perfect angle, and pressed the shutter.
Click.
In the frame, the Golden Lion looked high-spirited, as if he had returned to thirty years ago, to the days of reckless abandon on Rocks' ship.
Marineford, Marine Headquarters.
As the highest symbol of justice on the sea, this island was perennially shrouded in a solemn and oppressive atmosphere.
The giant word "JUSTICE" painted on the front of the fortress overlooked the entire crescent-shaped bay.
Seagulls circled among the masts, letting out crisp cries.
Even the most vicious pirates of the New World would feel a chill when mentioning this place.
But today, the atmosphere at the port was a bit strange.
The Navy Captain in charge of tower control lowered his binoculars, a layer of fine cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
He grabbed the Transponder Snail, his voice trembling slightly.
"Report to Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Vice Admiral Garp's warship... has returned!"
Fleet Admiral's Office.
Sengoku was reviewing documents regarding Warlord Doflamingo's unauthorized departure from Dressrosa. Hearing the report, he frowned.
"So he's back. Why the panic?"
"That old bastard went for a stroll in the East Blue. He probably ate and drank his fill in Foosha Village again."
Sengoku rubbed his brow, looking disgusted.
"Tell him to send the rice crackers up. He doesn't need to come; looking at him annoys me."
The voice on the other end of the Transponder Snail grew more anxious, even sounding tearful.
"No... No, Fleet Admiral!"
"The warship... the warship is shaking!"
"And Admiral Kizaru is on the ship too, but... but..."
Sengoku's pen paused.
Borsalino was there too?
Wasn't that guy on a classified mission? Why was he hanging out with that old lunatic Garp?
"Speak clearly! But what!"
"But Admiral Kizaru... seems to be shouting for help!"
...
Warship Deck.
This place could hardly be called a deck anymore.
The originally smooth hardwood floor was covered in spiderweb cracks, and the guardrails were twisted like pretzels.
All the Marine soldiers were hiding in the deepest parts of the cabin, shivering, not daring to show their heads.
"Old man! That's really enough!"
"If we keep fighting, the ship is going to sink~"
Borsalino currently had none of an Admiral's dignity.
His signature yellow striped suit was tattered, a section of his sleeve was missing, and there was a distinct bruise on his face.
For Kizaru, who was famous for his speed and for being the one kicking others rather than getting kicked, this was an unprecedented humiliation.
And opposite him.
Garp was shirtless, revealing a physique of muscles so lean and tough they were terrifying.
If one looked closely, they would realize:
Although the scars on Garp's body remained, his skin glowed with a strange red light. With every breath, visible ripples formed in the surrounding air.
That was Life Force.
Life force so massive it was almost spilling out!
The "Sage Body" obtained in the Dungeon hadn't given Garp limb regeneration like Shiki.
But it had forcibly dragged his body, which had begun to decline due to age, back to its peak.
No.
It had surpassed his peak!
That endless stamina, that sensation of power where every punch felt like it could shatter a mountain, kept Garp in a state of extreme excitement.
"Borsalino! Why are you running!"
Garp grinned widely, a smile that looked more ferocious to Kizaru than an evil demon.
"I'm helping you with special training!"
"Weren't you very arrogant in the Dungeon? Huh?"