"Move out of my way!"
Boom!
Rayleigh vanished.
He moved with the efficiency of a desperate legend of the bygone era.
Slash!
He reappeared directly in front of the real Kizaru, swinging his Haki-drenched blade in an overhead cleave designed to bisect the Admiral.
Kizaru's yellow-tinted glasses slid slightly down his nose. The Admiral's unmasked expression turned entirely serious. He understood the shifting complexity of the war better than anyone. Rayleigh's looked hurried, which meant the Dark King believed the warning. And if it were true, Kizaru couldn't let Rayleigh interfere.
Kizaru violently canceled his light-mirror. He drew his own Ama no Murakumo sword, catching Rayleigh's devastating blade on the flat of his light-steel.
CLANG!
The collision sent a spherical shockwave that vaporized the surrounding ice for hundreds of yards. Kizaru pushed back, his usual mocking drawl completely absent.
"This is becoming a little too complicated, Rayleigh-san," Kizaru drawled, his voice couldn't maintain the sarcasm anymore. "Why don't you stay out of it ne?"
"I'm not being paid enough ne~"
GLOW!!
Kizaru's body began to glow blindingly bright. The Admiral dropped his center of gravity into a serious, two-handed fighting stance with his light-sword.
The Kizaru/Rayleigh fight had been accelerating its intensity from a containment operation to a result unknown. Kizaru was determined to keep the Dark King occupied, knowing that every minute they fought, the chances of the execution succeeding increased.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
Meanwhile.
High on the execution scaffold, the mood was equally grim. Fleet Admiral Sengoku stood at the railing, his knuckles white as he gripped the wood. Beside him, Vice Admiral Garp sat cross-legged, his face buried in heavy shadows.
Tsuru, the legendary Great Staff Officer, stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Her aged, sharp eyes were locked intensely onto the False Deity standing in the plaza.
Unlike the pirates, Tsuru knew Light Yagami's history.
"Sengoku," Tsuru stated, her voice calm but carrying the heavy weight of an inevitable disaster.
"You were thinking about it, weren't you?"
"And he already knew?"
"That boy's Observation Haki... it is more unusual than we thought."
"Future Sight?"
"No, maybe like..."
"The Count's?"
'Impossible' Sengoku thought, a cold dread settling in his gut.
Light had always been unusual with that unrecorded Devil Fruit of his and his claim to sense the evil in people.
'And now... the Haki of legends?'
Sengoku ground his teeth together, the sound audible over the roaring cannons below. His brilliant mind, renowned for its foresight, was struggling to adapt to an opponent who could literally sense his calculations before they were finalized.
Sengoku turned to his communications officer, making the hardest calculation of his career.
The flying warships had caused catastropic damage to the battlefield already.
One was even embedded into the Headquarters building right now.
The war was in full swing.
He had only just arrived at the conclusion.
He really couldn't find the opportunity to turn every camera off.
Light knew already.
'In that case.'
'Only Justice matters!'
"The intruders are breaching the inner perimeter. We cannot wait! Executioners, prepare!"
Then.
He looked past the advance pirate vanguard and glared at the black coat of Light Yagami.
He silently muttered "Troublesome brat!"
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
RUN. RUN. RUN.
"HA... HA... HA..."
"Take this!"
"Gomu gomu no... Pistol!"
Boom!
A hundred yards ahead, pushing through the Marine vanguard, Monkey D. Luffy, along with a blonde-haired cook and a green-haired swordsman, was running on his last of stamina.
At the sound of the False Deity's voice, Luffy snapped his head upward.
He instantly believed Light.
He looked at the towering scaffold.
His dark eyes widened to the size of saucers.
A sudden despair seized his heart.
He saw them. Two Marine executioners, their faces grim, stepping up to the platform. They were picking up the massive, curved halberds.
"WHAT?!" Luffy choked out, his voice cracking violently.
Unlike others, he completely believed Light.
"ACE!"
The Monster Trio was completely stalled. To Luffy's left, Zoro was bleeding heavily from a massive head wound.
To his right, Sanji's right leg was heavily bruised and scorched. They had been fighting the marines, utilizing the basic Armament Haki manuals Light had tossed them at Alabasta just to survive, but the sheer, crushing mass of the hundred-thousand-strong Marine vanguard formed an impenetrable wall.
Basic Haki was not enough to pierce the shield of giants and advanced Haki masters quickly.
They were still a hundred yards away.
And the halberds were rising.
"OYE! STOP!"
Despair, pure and absolute, seized Monkey D. Luffy's soul. He extended a trembling, bloody hand toward the scaffold. He looked at the descending halberds, preparing to cleave his brother's neck. He looked at the despair in Ace's hollowed eyes.
"DON'T DO IT!"
Luffy's throat was raw, but he forced his mouth open, screaming with the heart-breaking desperation.
The desperation gave birth to fury.
His eyes turned fearsome.
And something magical happened.
"MY BROTHER..."
It was the manifestation of the boy's unbreakable will.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
A colossal, untamed invisible shockwave erupted from Luffy. The raw pressure exploded outward in a massive dome, washing over the entire plaza of Marineford in a second.
The effect was cataclysmic.
"AAH-"
Crash!
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The Marine Commodore standing in front of Luffy suddenly rolled his eyes back into his head, his massive iron club slipping from his hand as he collapsed face-first into the ice with a thunderous crash. The elite officers forming the shield wall dropped their weapons, foaming at the mouth as they fell unconscious by the hundreds.
Then. The invisible wave slammed into the execution scaffold.
BOOM!
"Aaa-!"
The two executioners on the platform, their halberds mere inches from Ace's neck, suddenly froze. Their eyes rolled back.
CLANK!
The heavy halberds slipped from their nerveless fingers, clattering harmlessly onto the wooden planks. Both men collapsed backward, completely fainted, their wills entirely erased by the weight of the rookie's spirit.
Thousands fainted.
A kilometer away, Edward Newgate paused his clash with Admiral Akainu. The Emperor's golden eyes widened in profound, physical shock as he analyzed the terrifying spiritual pressure washing over the bay.
"Tch! Pops! That bastard wasn't lying after all!" Marco grumbled, secretly thankful and with mixed emotions.
"It's nobody's fault, Marco."
"But..."
"...The Supreme King's Haki," Whitebeard rumbled, a fierce, proud smile slowly breaking across his scarred face, the realization of Luffy and the things around him finally clicking into place.
"...So that is the Will you carry, Straw Hat Luffy."
Admiral Akainu ground his teeth together.
"Dragon's son... to possess that power... he must be eliminated today! He is a greater threat than Ace!"
On the execution scaffold, Sengoku stared in stunned silence.
Nothing was going well today!
'Damn Garp's family again!'
He took the Den Den Mushi, his voice carrying effortlessly over the fainted army, announcing another revelation!
Senoku announced his identity.
"MONKEY D. LUFFY!"
"SON OF THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS CRIMINAL- DRAGON!"
He held the Den-Den Mushi closer and continued, labelling his best friend's grandson as a target of the Summit War.
"He grew up together with Portgas D. Ace and is his sworn brother!"
"Apprehend him!!"
Garp? Garp couldn't handle his own damn family!
What else could he, as The Fleet Admiral do right now!
...
A mile away, in the very center of the plaza, stood the False Deity. Surrounded by fainted Marines, Light Yagami remained entirely still.
He was standing with his hands casually resting in his coat pockets. He looked at the fainted army. He looked at the panicked Marines.
And he looked at the rubber boy.
"Hunhunhun..."
A slow, genuine smile full of amusement had spread across his face, widening with every passing second of the catastrophic reveal.
'Not bad... '
'Of course.'
'Nothing less is acceptable... Luffy.'
.
.
.
A/N: Well well well, I guess you all must've already expected this. This chapter was necessary to facilitate plot ahead. Bite me. Also, i like writing about Luffy so *guilty *