Chapter 61: The Five Elders' Gaze
Levi followed Sengoku through the stark, fortified corridors of Marineford's highest command levels. The Fleet Admiral's silence was heavier than usual, the weight of unspoken warnings hanging in the air. Levi understood. The meeting ahead wasn't about strategy or the coming war; it was an assessment from the true powers of the world.
They stopped before an unremarkable steel door, indistinguishable from a dozen others. Sengoku gave him one last, complex look—a mix of caution, resignation, and a faint thread of concern. Levi offered no reassurance. He simply pushed the door open and stepped inside, leaving Sengoku outside.
The room within was a spartan conference chamber. A single rectangular table, five high-backed chairs. And in those chairs sat the Five Elders.
Levi's Reiatsu Perception, always active at a subtle level, immediately registered them. They were not fighters in the conventional sense; their physical presence did not radiate the monstrous Haki of an Emperor or the trained power of an Admiral. Instead, they exuded an aura of absolute, entrenched authority. It was a different kind of weight, the weight of centuries of rule, of decisions that shaped history and erased islands from maps. It pressed against his spiritual senses not with force, but with a cold, impersonal gravity.
He stood just inside the doorway, meeting their collective gaze. There was no deference in his posture, no salute. He simply waited.
The elder with a long, straight beard and a map of the world before him spoke first, his voice dry and measured. "Admiral Black Crow. Levi. Your actions at Sabaody Archipelago and Impel Down have been… efficiently disruptive."
The swordsman among them, polishing his named blade, did not look up. "Capturing eleven rising stars and the Dark King in a single operation. A message was sent. The balance has been tilted."
"The method with which you subdued the Warlord Doflamingo was unnecessarily brutal in a public forum," said the bald elder with a sharp beard, his tone critical. "He is a useful tool, with connections to Mary Geoise. His utility outweighs his irritations."
Levi remained silent. He was not here to justify himself to them.
The elder with curly hair and a scar leaned forward slightly. "Your power. This 'advanced Conqueror's Haki,' as Sengoku's report categorizes it. It is an anomaly. It does not behave like any Haki we have seen in eight centuries of records."
Here it was. The true point of the meeting.
The final elder, with a dignified air and long hair, steepled his fingers. "Anomalies can be assets. Or they can be threats. Your service to the Marines, thus far, has been marked by overwhelming effectiveness and a distinct… transactional loyalty. This is acceptable. Ambition aligned with our order is preferable to blind, foolish idealism."
The map-user continued. "The war with Whitebeard is upon us. You will be a key piece on the board. Your role is not merely to fight, but to act as a deterrent against further… external interventions." His meaning was clear: after Shanks's stunt, Levi was to be the wall that kept other Emperors from seeing Marineford as vulnerable.
The bald elder fixed Levi with a hard stare. "You will follow Sengoku's strategic commands. But within that framework, you are authorized to utilize your full capabilities to ensure absolute victory. The name 'Whitebeard' must be erased, and the era he represents must end in the sight of the entire world. His defeat must be unquestionable, total, and attributable to the might of the World Government."
It was not a request. It was a decree wrapped in the language of authorization.
Levi finally spoke, his voice flat and devoid of inflection. "My objective is the stabilization of the Marines' authority and the elimination of significant threats. Whitebeard qualifies. The method of his defeat will serve that purpose."
His answer was carefully crafted. It acknowledged their goal without submitting to their ideology. It framed his actions within his own pragmatic logic.
The five elders exchanged a glance, a silent conversation passing between them in an instant. The swordsman sheathed his blade with a soft click. "See that it does. You are dismissed, Admiral."
The dismissal was abrupt, a reminder of where the true hierarchy stood. Levi turned without another word and exited the chamber.
Sengoku was waiting, a question in his eyes. Levi walked past him. "They want a show. They'll get one."
Back in his temporary quarters, Levi stood by the window, looking out at the frantic preparations transforming Marineford into a fortress. The meeting had confirmed his suspicions. The Five Elders saw him as a powerful, sharp, but ultimately manageable weapon. A useful anomaly. Their concern was control, not understanding. They did not know about Reiatsu. They did not know about the soul fragment he'd taken from Kosas. They did not know about the seeds of rebellion he was planting in the depths of Impel Down.
Their ignorance was his advantage.
His thoughts were interrupted by a commotion outside. He extended his Perception. Boa Hancock had emerged from the infirmary and was now on a lower plaza, surrounded by a circle of stone-faced Marines who looked utterly terrified but held their ground on strict orders. Her beauty was a weapon, but here, under the shadow of the coming war and the recent memory of Levi's display, fear was a stronger counteragent.
"You dare to impede a Warlord of the Sea?!" Hancock's voice was icy, her hand raised to strike.
Before she could, Levi's voice, amplified by a thread of Reiatsu, cut across the plaza, cold and clear. "Warlord Hancock. Your role here is to follow orders, not give them. Return to your assigned quarters. The next time you disrupt Marine operations, your participation in this war will be from a cell."
Hancock spun, fury and humiliation warring on her flawless face. She saw him at the high window, looking down with an expression of detached indifference. The memory of being effortlessly subdued, carried unconscious over his shoulder, flashed in her mind. The fear of her secret being exposed clawed at her. The words died in her throat. With a final, seething glare, she turned and stalked away, the Marines parting before her like a wave.
Levi watched her go. Emotion was a liability. Attachment was a weakness. The Warlords, the Marines, the Five Elders—they were all pieces on a board, variables in an equation of survival and power. The revelation from Kosas's soul fragment had burned away any last illusion. This world was built on a foundation of horrific sin. To navigate it, to eventually rise above it, required not justice, but ruthless, calculated strength.
He turned from the window. Three days until the execution. Three days until the world's greatest power gathered to shatter a legend. And in the chaos, Levi would take what he needed: the title, the fear, and another step toward a position where no one, not even the architects of genocide hidden in Mary Geoise, could ever threaten him.
The Black Crow would not just fight in the war. He would use it.
(End of Chapter)
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