[ MARINE HEADQUARTERS — MARINEFORD ]
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Vice Admiral Garp's booming laughter shook the glass panes of the Fleet Admiral's office. He slapped his knee, throwing his head back as tears of mirth gathered in the corners of his eyes. "He actually did it! That crazy South Blue brat actually turned Saint Valerius into a meat pancake! Ahahaha! I always knew that kid had a spine!"
CRASH!
Fleet Admiral Sengoku violently slammed both of his fists onto his mahogany desk, instantly splitting the thick wood right down the middle.
"GARP! THIS IS NOT A JOKE!" Sengoku roared, the veins on his forehead throbbing dangerously. "A World Noble was butchered in the streets! Admiral Sakazuki is currently in the intensive care ward missing half his face! The boy humiliated the absolute justice of the Navy and vanished into thin air!"
Garp's laughter slowly died down. He picked up a rice cracker from the broken desk and tossed it into his mouth, chewing slowly.
Vice Admiral Tsuru stood near the window, her face pale as she read the direct medical report from the Sabaody rescue fleet. "Sakazuki's report is... disturbing, Sengoku. He claims the boy possesses the Supreme King's Haki. He says the sudden, overwhelming arrogance of the kid's aura actually stunned him for a microsecond. That's how Yagami landed the blow."
Sengoku collapsed into his chair, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. A migraine of epic proportions was splitting his skull. The paperwork, the press, the screaming calls from Mary Geoise—it was a bureaucratic nightmare.
"Conqueror's Haki in our own ranks," Sengoku muttered, his voice hollow. "How did we miss it? How did he hide that kind of ambition?"
Garp swallowed his cracker. When he spoke again, all trace of the laughing, carefree grandfather was gone. His eyes were hard, sharp, and completely unreadable.
"Because his ambition isn't like a pirate's, Sengoku," Garp said, his voice unusually low. "A pirate with Conqueror's Haki just wants to sail the seas, hoard treasure, and be free. We understand that kind of ambition. We can track it."
Garp leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
"But a kid who willingly wears our uniform? A prodigy who smiles at the cameras, plays the perfect, polite soldier for years, and meticulously purges an entire sea just to build a flawless record? He doesn't want to be Pirate King." Garp looked his old friend dead in the eye. "He thinks he's a god. He wants to tear down this entire world order and build a new one. And he just fired the first shot."
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
[ MARY GEOISE — THE ROOM OF AUTHORITY ]
High above the clouds, in the opulent center of the world, the Five Elders stood in a loose circle around a visual dial projector.
The grainy image on the far wall looped silently. It showed a pristine Marine boot pinning a Celestial Dragon to the filthy cobblestone. A black blur of a blade. And finally, a clean, effortless decapitation.
"Foul," Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro spat, his grip tightening in disgust on the hilt of his katana. "A mere soldier, a commoner, laying hands on a descendant of the creators. He treated him like a pest."
"He possesses the Haki of the Supreme King," Saint Jaygarcia Saturn noted, his eyes narrowing at the footage. "Yet, he lacks the accursed 'D' initial. He does not carry the Will of our ancient enemy. He is a complete anomaly."
"A dangerous one," Saint Marcus Mars added smoothly. "He called himself a Reaper in the South Blue. But Reapers are a part of nature's cycle. This boy's rhetoric... he genuinely believes he stands above the natural order."
"Then we remind the world of reality," Saint Topman Warcury decreed, his voice cold and uncompromising. "Issue a bounty that makes the very oceans hunt him. Strip him of this righteous image he cultivated."
"Agreed," Saint Shepherd Ju Peter nodded. "Brand him a heretic. Let the world know him as the 'False Deity'."
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
[ THE NEW WORLD — THE MOBY DICK ]
The massive flagship of the Whitebeard Pirates rode the turbulent waves of the New World.
Edward Newgate—Whitebeard—sat on his massive throne, hooked up to his medical machinery. The deck was tense, the crew waiting anxiously for word on their captured brother, Portgas D. Ace.
Marco the Phoenix landed on the railing, a rolled-up newspaper clutched in his hand. He walked over, his face a mixture of shock and dark amusement.
"You're going to want to see this, Pops," Marco said. "The Marines are eating their own."
Whitebeard took the paper. His massive, golden eyes scanned the bold, blaring headlines.
THE ULTIMATE TABOO!
CELESTIAL DRAGON DECAPITATED IN SABAODY!
ADMIRAL AKAINU CRITICALLY INJURED!
LIGHT YAGAMI BETRAYS THE WORLD!
ADVENT OF THE FALSE DEITY!
Whitebeard looked at the massive bounty poster dominating the front page. It was a picture of Light from his days in the South Blue. The boy was smiling pleasantly, looking immaculate in his white coat. But beneath that smile, the World Government had printed a staggering, impossible number.
DEAD ONLY.1,500,000,000 BELI.
"Gurararara!" Whitebeard threw his head back and laughed, the sound vibrating the very timbers of the Moby Dick. "A billion and a half for a rookie! He took off a Dragon's head and carved up the Red Dog in a single afternoon!"
"It's crazy, Pops," Marco muttered, looking at the smiling face on the poster. "They say he has Conqueror's Haki. Flattened an entire grove and just vanished."
Whitebeard's laughter slowly subsided. He looked closer at the photograph of Light Yagami. The old Emperor's eyes narrowed, his legendary instincts flaring.
"Do not underestimate this boy, Marco," Whitebeard warned, his voice turning deadly serious. "A man who kills a god with a polite smile on his face... he possesses a darkness that even Teach doesn't have. If we cross his path, treat him with respect."
"Oyaji!", needless to say Marco was stunned.
A/N: Annnnd we're back. Dear Readers, support the me more onegaiiii >.