The "war" had already begun before Luffy and the others arrived.
"Your father is... the Pirate King, Gold Roger!!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku the Buddha of Marine Headquarters revealed that Ace was the biological son of the Pirate King, Gold Roger. At the same time, the Marines declared their cause: to sever the Pirate King's bloodline, even if it meant all-out war with Whitebeard.
"My beloved son... he's safe, isn't he...!?"
As if answering with a resounding "bring it on," the Grand Fleet of the Whitebeard Pirates and their subordinate pirate crews appeared. Together with their Supreme Commander, "Whitebeard" Edward Newgate, they advanced on Marineford to rescue Ace, clashing head-on with the combined forces of Marine Headquarters and the Shichibukai.
Big names known even in the New World leapt one after another onto the battlefield that Admiral Aokiji had created by freezing the sea, waging a battle truly worthy of being called "all-out war."
Little Oars Jr., fighting under the Whitebeard Pirates' banner, forced his way through the front lines by sheer power and carved open a route toward the plaza. But under a relentless barrage of devastating attacks from the Shichibukai, his hand never reached Ace. His strength gave out, and he collapsed where he stood.
Next, another allied pirate, Whitey Bay the Ice Witch, smashed through the Marines' defensive wall along with the ice using her icebreaker ship, creating a second breach on the opposite side from the one Oars had opened.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku watched the ever-shifting battlefield closely, issuing precise orders as the situation evolved.
When he judged the time was right, a transmission announcing "commence the operation" was sent to all units. Laced with code, the message was mostly incomprehensible to the handful of pirates who happened to overhear it. But even the single point they did understand, that Ace's execution was being moved up, was something they absolutely could not let slide.
And yet, the ones who panicked and sprang into action upon hearing it were not just the Whitebeard Pirates.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!
With that utterly anticlimactic scream, two warships came plummeting from the sky.
"...Huh?"
From the execution platform, Ace had a clear view of the entire battlefield. Naturally, this spectacle did not escape his eyes either.
Two warships falling, then gently landing, or rather splashing down, in the bay. In that instant, the faces on those decks were strangely, vividly clear to him. Faces he knew well.
***
[Sue's Perspective]
I knew this was going to happen, more or less, but actually getting caught up in it is terrifying.
A wave of unbelievable size suddenly erupted, and we got swept up by it at just the right angle, carried dozens of meters, no, hundreds of meters into the air, warships and all. Then, before the wave could collapse, there was a sharp crack, and the entire wave froze solid.
Looking down, the "war" was already underway. Marine Headquarters and the Shichibukai were colliding with the massive army of the Whitebeard Pirates. Right after that, a Marine transmission came through with the information that Ace's execution was being moved up, so it was "Let's hurry!" and Iva-san destroyed the ice gripping the hulls with a "Wink."
However, instead of sliding down the sloped side as intended, both ships accidentally fell off the opposite side, the one that was a sheer wall. In the Original Work, they happened to fall right where Akainu's volcanic bombs had melted the ice, and that's how they barely survived. But now there were two ships, so there was a real risk of one of them slamming into the ice and going CRASH-BANG-SPLAT! That would not be good.
So,
"Can't be helped... Amatsuhagoromo!"
I sent out a massive quantity of enormous Paper, wrapping it around both hulls to catch the wind and drastically slow them down through air resistance. Like an improvised parachute. Two warships are an absurd amount of mass, but compared to Merveille? Light as a feather. Piece of cake.
And I only needed to slow them down, not move them, so it was easy.
Right before impact, the two ships had decelerated to a safe speed. One hit the water with a splash, the other settled onto the ice with a heavy thud. Both landed safely.
Naturally, the entire battlefield stared in astonishment at the bizarre phenomenon of two warships, two of them, suddenly falling from the sky. And a moment later, they'd all be astonished again, for an entirely different reason.
"Th-thank goodness... I thought we were going to be smashed against the ice..."
"Nice one, Lady Literary Master!"
"All worked out in the end, didn't it? Saved us the trouble of crossing the sea to get there!"
"Ace!! I finally get to see you!! I've come to save you!!"
"Luffy!?"
"Hey, what's with that warship... what is that lineup!?"
"Jinbe and Crocodile... even Ivankov from the Revolutionary Army!"
"And what's with those two beauties, and... a kid!? A maid!?"
"No wait, there's also a whole bunch of weirdos on board too... what kind of group is this!?"
"They're escapees from Impel Down! Dangerous pirates who made names for themselves in the past... how many hundreds of them are there!?"
"Prisoners... so that explains it... wait, the weirdos too!?"
"Don't ask me!"
Their reactions were all over the place, and honestly pretty entertaining. The prisoners were one thing, but the sight of Newkama swarming in en masse was apparently baffling enough to leave even the fine Marines completely dumbfounded.
Also, not to be conceited, but I'm pretty sure the "two beauties" someone mentioned just now referred to us. Two, though. Me and, probably... Beauty. Which means Blume got lumped into the "kid" category. Even though she's the oldest.
Despite all those eyes on us, we obviously weren't the least bit intimidated.
"As expected of the total force! This is no joke-buru!"
"Glad we made it in time... I won't let Ace-san or Pops die, no matter what!"
"Now then, where's Whitebeard... there he is. Nice of him to be somewhere easy to spot."
"Gyahahaha!! World, prepare yourself!"
"I got swept along in the flow of things, but... this really is a hellish battlefield-gane. I can't see any future where we charge in there and don't die..."
"Don't go getting cold feet now! We've come this far, so we gotta show some guts, whether you're a man, a woman, or an Okama, there's nothing for it-nasshin! Steel yourself, Mr. 3!"
"I can see Fire Fist Ace from here, but... that's one hell of a distance. And that many Marines..."
"Vice Admirals, Admirals, the Fleet Admiral... and every other high-ranking officer all assembled. The distance isn't just what it looks like. This is something else entirely... so, how do we approach this?"
"Charging in without a plan is 100% a dog's death. Leona, don't ye dare move recklessly. This battlefield... 'tis a stage far too early for the likes of us."
"I know, I know... the air's crackling. I've never been anywhere this dangerous... it's hundreds of times worse than Skypiea, and so much bigger... I can't even find the words."
"That said, we didn't come all this way just to huddle in the back and tremble. That'd defeat the whole purpose. But yeah, first things first, we need to figure out how we're going to move... Mom, what do you want to do?"
"Let's see... charging blindly into the melee would limit what we can do, and we'd just get in the Whitebeard Pirates' way. Besides... this terrain... the placement of the warships..."
From what I could see, the Marine side's strategy was probably the same as in the Original Work.
If so, just sitting back and watching events unfold as they had before wouldn't be very interesting.
Time to do a little reconnaissance, and maybe pull some strings from the shadows while I'm at it.
"Suzu, Leona, Alice... Beauty and Blume too. Everyone, listen up. First..."
***
[Third-person perspective]
The battlefield had seemed to have its full cast assembled with the Whitebeard Pirates and their allied crews. But what appeared next was a completely unexpected third force: escapees from the Great Prison, Impel Down.
While they boasted some formidable individuals among their ranks, their coordination was, to put it generously, lacking. Exactly as Vice Admiral Garp had assessed when he said they "couldn't possibly share a unified purpose."
There were those, led by Straw Hat Luffy, who sought to rescue the soon-to-be-executed Fire Fist Ace.
There were those, led by Crocodile, who schemed to use this war as an opportunity to take Whitebeard's head.
There were those whose purpose wasn't so much their own, but rather to aid someone else who did have one.
And there were those who technically had a purpose, but had mostly just shown up on momentum and vibes.
As a result, some attacked Whitebeard while others rushed to rescue Ace, all moving independently, forcing both the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates to deal with them as well. The battlefield descended into even greater chaos.
In the midst of all this, Luffy made a beeline for the execution platform, aiming to rescue Ace.
Naturally, Marines swarmed to block his path and take down the ringleader of the prison break, but with the help of allies like Ivankov, Luffy pressed forward undeterred.
"Don't come, Luffy!!"
Even a scream from Ace himself, telling Luffy not to come save him, could not
"I'm!! Your brother!!"
shake Luffy's resolve in the slightest.
Whether prompted by this or not, Fleet Admiral Sengoku then revealed another fact that stunned everyone present. Ace's mother had died shortly after giving birth to him, meaning both parents were deceased. Including the meaning behind the word "brother," when no sibling should exist.
"That man is also a 'harmful element' for the future! Raised together with Ace as sworn brothers since childhood, his bloodline is..."
"He is the biological son of Dragon the Revolutionary!!"
Amid the shock, the next person to step forward and block Luffy's path was someone who had been his nemesis since the East Blue.
"With your powers... you can't beat me!!"
The user of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, who could transform his body into smoke: Smoker the White Hunter, now a Headquarters Commodore. Luffy's own strikes were useless, and the Seastone-tipped jutte could seal away his rubber powers. It was a tough fight, but in the middle of it, while deflecting and dodging attacks, Luffy suddenly reached into his pants pocket.
"That's right... this!"
"...?"
What he pulled out were several sheets of paper. Knowing full well his punches were useless, Luffy threw one anyway to scatter Smoker's smoky body and force an opening, then hurled the papers at him as he was reforming.
Smoker scowled at the papers fluttering in front of him, wondering what the point was. But the next instant, those ordinary-looking sheets of paper, which appeared to have some kind of pattern drawn on them, suddenly transformed into monsters he had never seen before. Two sheets of paper, two monsters. The things called Kirigami positioned themselves between Smoker and Luffy, shielding the boy.
Confused but pressing forward to knock them aside and capture Luffy, Smoker found his thrusting fists and jutte easily parried and deflected. And the moment one of those blade-like arms shot toward him, a chill ran down his spine. He twisted his body instinctively to dodge, but the blade nicked his side where he couldn't fully evade. He felt the impact. A thin cut, and blood flowed.
"...!? They can hit me through my Smoke... what are these things!?"
"Whoa, they can actually hit Smokey... awesome! Sorry about this! I'll leave the rest to you!"
"!? Wait, Straw Hat... damn it!? Get out of my..."
Smoker tried to give chase, but the two Kirigami refused to let him pass, slashing at him with the blades on both hands. Their movements were so fast and sharp that without full concentration, neither defense nor evasion was easy. Knowing full well that a clean hit would not end well, he had no choice but to devote his attention to them. In the meantime, Luffy vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.
"Hah... hah... Sue saved me again. Gotta hurry...!"
Before arriving here, on the ship, Sue had told him, "Use these if things get bad. They can hit Logia users and serve as shields too," and handed him several Kirigami. Powerful trump cards for this war. Feeling the remaining sheets still in his pocket, Luffy ran.
Meanwhile, as Smoker struggled with the Kirigami, a slender shadow seized a momentary opening and leapt at them from behind. It was a woman Smoker knew well. Hina swept her arm through in a lariat motion, "passing" it through the Kirigami, and used her Cage-Cage Fruit powers to restrain it. The iron shackles that formed locked its movements in place, but...
With a creak and a crack!
In mere seconds, the Kirigami shattered the iron shackles through brute strength and glared at them once more.
"...!? It broke my Lock... Smoker-kun, what are these things!?"
"Hell if I know! Straw Hat threw some weird paper at me and it turned into these things... might be some kind of ability, but I've never seen anything like..."
"...Paper...!? I see... then I think I know who's behind this. Honestly, looks like she's gone and done something troublesome again, that Pirate Literary Master...!!"
In a sense, just as Luffy was a fated adversary for Smoker, this was someone who could be called a fated adversary for Hina as well. Hearing that name, one Smoker was also familiar with, he stiffened.
"That woman... come to think of it, she came in on that warship with Straw Hat earlier..."
But mid-sentence, a question occurred to him.
"Speaking of which, where did this 'Pirate Literary Master' go? I haven't seen her anywhere since then..."
"...I've been looking for her while fighting, but... she's nowhere to be found. And I can't imagine she'd be sitting quietly at a time like this... I have a bad feeling. Hina uneasy...!"
Having shown up here like that, she was definitely scheming something. She was definitely going to pull something. Hina's suspicion on that count was, as it happened, entirely correct. But the moment she and the Marines would witness the results of that scheming was still a little ways off.
...Incidentally,
"It's Captain Smoker and Captain Hina!"
"No, that's wrong. It's Commodore Smoker now. You know, he got promoted after that whole Arabasta thing..."
"Oh right, that's true... but still, those two standing side by side really makes for a picture, doesn't it?"
"Yeah... reminds me of the latest volume of 'that thing' that just came out."
"Me too. The scene where they can't beat the powerful enemy alone, so they team up while bickering the whole time? So good."
"Totally. ...Think I'd get yelled at if I took a photo?"
"Idiot, we're in the middle of a war, knock it off!"
"But when are we ever gonna see a composition like this again... Captain Hina's been going out of her way to avoid Commodore Smoker lately."
"She's probably just embarrassed... you think maybe the rumors are true and those two are actually..."
"I-I need to know..."
"...Should we just ask them after this?"
"Don't. Want me to tell you about my buddy from the same class who tried that, got kicked for real, and went flying out a second-story window at the base?"
"Whatever the truth is, it's their private business. Let's just watch quietly and say nothing."
"...Hina uneasy!"
"Whoa, what's that about all of a sudden?"
She had no idea that part of the "bad feeling" she'd been having was coming from this. Ignorance truly was bliss. Or perhaps it was better that way.
To be continued...