Boom!
A dull, heavy crash finally woke the deathly silent harbor.
It was not the sound of Jack's enormous body hitting the ground, but the sound of the blood surging inside him, freed from the restraint of his upper body, erupting into the sky like a fountain before crashing heavily back onto the earth.
Warm blood rained down with a thick, choking stench.
Zaraki did not dodge.
He let the blood rain that marked the end of one of Kaido's All-Stars soak through his black hair and slide down his cheeks.
The edge of his vision was stained scarlet, and the world before him seemed to be covered in a blood-red filter.
The air filled with a nauseating mix of iron and spilled organs.
He quietly looked at the corpse that had been split in two. The massive lower half remained standing, while the upper half had fallen face-first to the ground.
Torn organs and intestines spilled everywhere, spreading across the broken ruins in a bloody, grotesque painting.
Around him, everything went completely still.
Whether it was the Marines aboard the distant warship or the surviving members of the Beasts Pirates in the harbor, everyone seemed frozen in place.
Their minds had gone blank, and they could only stare numbly at the scene that had overturned everything they knew.
A man with a bounty of one billion berries, one of the Three Calamities of the Beasts Pirates, Jack the Drought, famed for his undying body and endless endurance...was dead?
Cut in two by a Marine?
"AAAAAAH!!"
A shrill scream, twisted completely out of shape, finally tore through the suffocating silence.
One of the Beasts Pirates' crewmen went weak in the legs and collapsed to the ground, the crotch of his pants quickly darkening.
The way he looked at Zaraki no longer carried the ferocity of facing an enemy. It was fear carved deep into the marrow.
That scream was like an order.
"Run!!"
"Jack-sama... is dead!!"
"Back to the ships! Get out of here! That monster isn't human!!"
Panic swept through the entire pirate crew like a plague.
They had completely broken.
Even the disaster-like, seemingly invincible Jack-sama had been killed with one slash. What meaning was there in staying?
To die?
In an instant, hundreds of pirates descended into chaos.
They rushed madly toward the remaining pirate ships docked at the edge of the harbor, even shoving and trampling each other just to get ahead of their companions.
Zaraki's cold gaze swept over those fleeing backs, but he did not immediately pursue them.
He could feel waves of hollow weakness moving through his body.
The slash he had just unleashed, releasing Nozarashi for the first time, had consumed far more than he had imagined.
But just because he did not move did not mean no one else would.
His gaze passed over the chaotic crowd and landed on the deck of his own warship in the distance.
A slender figure was kneeling beside the rail, half-crouched as she aimed a uniquely shaped metal rifle.
It was Carina.
Zaraki's gaze locked onto the pirate ship fleeing at the very front.
Standing at its bow was an especially eye-catching burly man, his right hand replaced by a savage iron hook as he roared at his men to raise the sails.
Zaraki had seen that face on a bounty poster before.
A bounty of one hundred and thirty million berries.
He was not small fry.
At that moment, the experimental light-pressure rifle in Carina's hands hummed, its barrel lighting with a thin pink glow.
Immediately after, a pink laser beam almost impossible to follow with the naked eye arrived in an instant, dragging a thin trail behind it.
There was no earth-shaking roar, only a faint pfft.
The hull of that pirate ship, the iron-hook captain's chest, and the enormous mainmast behind him were pierced at the same instant, each left with a bowl-sized charred hole with smooth edges.
The smile on the iron-hook captain's face had not even faded when he collapsed with a crash, wisps of blue smoke rising from the hollow in his chest.
In the next second, the ship, its structural balance destroyed, let out a tooth-grinding groan and split apart from the middle.
Amid the pirates' despairing screams, it slowly sank into the sea.
One shot killed the man and destroyed the ship!
The corner of Zaraki's mouth lifted slightly.
Before he could withdraw his gaze, two figures suddenly leapt down from the warship, crossing several hundred meters and landing accurately on two other pirate ships that had already begun moving.
One of them wore a striking green bandana, and the blades of his three swords reflected a cold gleam beneath the sun.
"Three-Sword Style: Yakkodori!"
Zoro's figure spun like a top, and three piercing spiral slashes tore through the officers and the pirate ship's rigging, splitting the deck and leaving the vessel crippled in the water.
On the other side, a figure in a black suit landed steadily.
At some point, the pant leg around his right leg had ignited with orange-red flames.
"Diable Jambe: Flambage Shot!"
Sanji moved so fast only an afterimage remained.
The tip of his foot, wrapped in scorching flames, slammed hard into the pirate ship's rudder and keel.
Boom—!!!
The ship lurched violently, its steering shattered and its cannons thrown out of alignment.
Pirates screamed as the vessel spun helplessly in place, no longer able to flee.
Zaraki looked at the two crippled ships and the wreckage spreading across the harbor, and the smile on his face deepened.
And the true "natural disaster" had only just begun.
He noticed that, at some point, the sky had darkened.
Huge layers of black clouds gathered above the harbor at an unnatural speed.
Deep, muffled thunder rolled within the clouds.
On the warship, Nami raised a compact weather launcher loaded by the Marine Science Unit.
Her hair flew wildly in the gale, and the slyness that usually filled her eyes had sharpened into calm precision.
"The thunderclouds aren't big enough for a real storm, but they're more than enough to ruin your escape route."
She fired the weather shell into the clouds.
Crack—boom!!!
Dozens of lightning bolts poured down over the nearest three pirate ships, striking masts, rudders, and powder stores with ruthless accuracy.
The ships blackened, burned, and spun helplessly in the churning water, their crews screaming as Marines moved to capture whoever still had the sense to surrender.
In barely more than a dozen seconds, the nearest fleeing ships had been disabled or destroyed, while several outer vessels escaped into the smoke and scattered toward the open sea.
The harbor returned to silence once more, leaving only the wail of the sea wind passing through the wreckage and the thick, suffocating stench of blood and burnt flesh in the air.
"Vice Admiral Aus..."
A young adjutant stood beside Aus, his voice dry and his body trembling from extreme shock.
"Those people... what kind of monsters are they?"
Aus opened his mouth, only to find that no words would come out.
What could he say?
That Zaraki, who had killed Jack the Drought with one slash, was only a Headquarters special envoy under observation?
Then what about the others?
What were people who could destroy an entire ship alone, or even three ships at once?
Zaraki's personal detachment?
Since when did the Marines have a unit like that?
Their combat strength, even separated individually, was enough to rival an elite Marine branch fleet!
He could only remain silent, the shock and confusion on his face even heavier than that of the adjutant beside him.
Zaraki withdrew his gaze and took a deep breath.
The intense pain in his chest and the weakness across his whole body reminded him how dangerous that battle had been.
He reached out, intending to pick up the lonely hilt from the ground.
Just then, a rapid Den Den Mushi ring suddenly cut through the post-battle silence without warning.
Purupurupuru... purupurupuru... kacha!
Aus's body shook.
He snatched the anxious-looking Den Den Mushi from his adjutant's hand, and his face instantly became incomparably grave.
'The Fleet Admiral!'
Almost by reflex, he was about to report everything that had happened here to Headquarters.
Jack the Drought had been...
'Wait!'
His finger froze in midair, and cold sweat soaked his back in an instant.
'Report?'
How was he supposed to report this?
Say that Jack the Drought had been killed on the spot by War Demon Zaraki?
On paper, this sounded like an enormous achievement, but what appeared in Aus's mind was not the Fleet Admiral's praise.
It was Kaido of the Beasts, one of the Four Emperors who occupied the New World, a name powerful enough to make the sea itself tremble.
Kaido of the Beasts!
Killing one of his All-Stars—how was that different from directly declaring war on an Emperor of the Sea?
Would the fragile balance that had been maintained between the Marines and the Four Emperors for years be shattered today?
Just thinking about the war that might sweep across the world made Aus dizzy, and the Den Den Mushi in his hand felt unbearably heavy.
"Vice Admiral...?" the adjutant reminded him carefully.
Aus suddenly snapped back to himself.
They could not hide it.
This matter was too big. There was no way to hide it!
He gritted his teeth and was just about to connect the call.
...
Marineford, Marine Headquarters.
Inside the Fleet Admiral's office, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the sea before a storm.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku sat at the head seat with his brows tightly furrowed, his fingers tapping the desk every now and then, while his goat-like beard trembled slightly with each breath.
"Still no report? That bastard Jack has already turned the G-18 Branch on Pelo Island upside down!"
Below him, the three Admirals and several core Vice Admirals sat in separate rows.
"What a troublesome fellow," Admiral Kizaru, Borsalino, said lazily, dragging out his words as usual.
"Why don't you let me take a trip? We can settle it quickly, you know~"
"Shut up, Borsalino!"
Akainu, Sakazuki, gave a cold snort, his face filled with undisguised violence and killing intent.
"Against a thick-skinned bull like that, your light won't be of much use! My magma should burn him and the entire island to ash!"
"Ooh, how scary," Kizaru murmured.
No one else dared interrupt.
A matter of this level was no longer something they could casually comment on.
Sengoku ignored the argument between the two Admirals. His gaze swept over everyone present, eventually turning into a heavy sigh.
Every decision involved countless lives and the state of the entire world.
Kaido's madness was famous.
Touching Jack would likely draw the full, insane retaliation of the entire Beasts Pirates.
They had to kill him in one strike and keep the impact to the smallest possible scope.
Just as he weighed the gains and losses, preparing to make a decision—
Purupurupuru! Purupurupuru!
A ring more urgent than any ordinary communication suddenly echoed through the entire office.
Everyone's gaze was drawn over at once.
That was the encrypted line reserved for the highest-level emergencies.
A communications soldier rushed in with a pale face, forgetting even to salute.
His voice was twisted sharp by fear and excitement.
"Fleet Admiral! its from the G-18 Branch on Pelo Island!"
"Connect it!"
Sengoku shot to his feet, an ominous feeling covering his heart.
"Yes, sir!"
Kacha!
The Den Den Mushi connected, and the expression it imitated was a twisted mixture of terror, confusion, and near-madness.
Then a hoarse, trembling voice, nearly distorted beyond recognition, roared from it.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Something huge happened!"
"War Demon Zaraki... he poked a hole through the sky!"
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