On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Vice Admiral Aus hesitated for an instant.
It was a pause filled with uncertainty, terror, and a faint trace of fanatic excitement.
Sengoku's heart sank, and a feeling even more ominous than when he had heard about Jack's death surged up inside him.
"Aus?" Sengoku's voice already carried an almost imperceptible tremor. "Answer me. Where is he?"
"Reporting, Fleet Admiral!" Aus's voice rang out again, and this time, his excitement overwhelmed his fear.
"War Demon Zaraki ordered us to hold the base and treat the wounded. Then he went off alone to pursue the ships that escaped the harbor."
Pursue the remnants?
Sengoku's tightly stretched nerves loosened slightly.
Good. He had only gone to clean up the remaining enemy forces. With that brat's strength, he should be—
"He also left a message!"
Aus's voice suddenly rose, carrying an excitement even he himself could not fully understand.
"He said that since Jack is dead, Kaido will definitely come. He said he would take the initiative and act as bait, drawing all of Kaido's attention onto himself to buy Marine Headquarters time to react and gather its forces!"
Bait?
That single word stabbed into Sengoku's ears like a red-hot iron spike, burning so fiercely that even his brain seemed to boil.
The Den Den Mushi shell in Sengoku's hand seemed to turn cold and slippery in an instant, almost slipping from his trembling fingers.
Inside the office, the air that had only just begun moving again solidified once more, heavier than before, like a massive block of lead pressing down on everyone's chest.
If killing Jack meant tearing a hole through the balance of the sea, then voluntarily acting as bait for Kaido was the same as trying to swallow the storm that rushed in afterward.
"Oh my~"
Kizaru's familiar lazy drawl rang out, but this time, anyone could hear the astonishment he could no longer hide.
"What an extraordinary young man. Is that admirable courage, or is something wrong with his head?"
"He's insane! Completely out of his mind!"
Sakazuki could no longer suppress his fury. His low roar rumbled like muffled thunder from deep within a volcano.
"A Headquarters special envoy actually thinks he can challenge an Emperor of the Sea alone? Who does he think he is?"
Even the usually composed Tsuru could not help but frown.
For the first time, a deep worry appeared on that face lined with wisdom.
Sengoku paid no attention to his colleagues' reactions. He felt blood rushing straight to his head, and his vision even darkened for a moment.
Then, facing the Den Den Mushi, Sengoku released the fiercest, most deafening roar he had let out since taking command of the Marines.
"Nonsense! Absolute nonsense! That's Kaido of the Beasts! The strongest creature! He's going there to die!"
He roared into the receiver, "Give him the Den Den Mushi! Immediately! Right now! I'm going to speak to him myself!"
"Fleet Admiral... but... War Demon Zaraki already left some time ago. We... we can't contact him!" Aus's voice was full of helplessness.
"Useless!"
Sengoku slammed the Den Den Mushi onto the desk with such force that the heavy redwood surface was dented.
His chest rose and fell violently, veins bulging one by one at his temples.
"Tsuru!"
Sengoku whipped his head toward his old partner, his voice hoarse and urgent.
"Use the highest authority and contact that bastard Garp for me! Also, do everything possible to locate Zaraki's position! Order both of them to return to Marineford immediately and unconditionally!"
Putting those two lawless bastards together had already been bad enough. Now something like this had happened...
If that old bastard Garp heard the news, got hot-headed, and rushed off with Zaraki to fight Kaido...
Sengoku did not even dare imagine that scene.
"Understood."
Tsuru's expression was extremely grave, and she immediately turned to make arrangements.
But after taking two steps, she stopped again and looked back.
"Sengoku, the Five Elders will be difficult to explain this to. A Marine special envoy killing one of an Emperor's highest officers without permission... they probably won't—"
Tsuru did not finish, but her meaning was already obvious.
In the eyes of those supreme authorities who regarded balance as everything, Zaraki's act of breaking that balance might not be considered a merit at all.
It might be treated as a crime.
Sengoku took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his anger.
"The Marines can afford to lose a powerful combatant, but we cannot afford to lose a hero who risks his life for justice! If we can't protect our own people at a time like this, then who will still be willing to fight for us in the future? That would chill the hearts of Marines all over the world!"
Sengoku grabbed the Fleet Admiral's cloak hanging over the back of his chair, draped it over his shoulders, and strode toward the door.
"As for the Five Elders, I will personally go to the World Government and meet Commander-in-Chief Kong. The Marines' dignity is something we earn ourselves, and something we protect ourselves!"
At the doorway, he paused, then issued his final order without looking back, his voice hard as steel.
"Remember this. Until I return, your top priority is to bring Zaraki and Garp back. No matter the cost, those two must not be allowed to clash with Kaido."
With that, Sengoku did not linger. His heavy footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor.
The office fell into dead silence once more.
Kizaru withdrew his lazy expression and, rarely, fell silent.
Tsuru had already begun mobilizing the intelligence department through encrypted lines.
Only Sakazuki remained standing in place, motionless.
His volcanic-rock-like face was so gloomy it seemed water could drip from it. The furious flames from earlier had seemingly been replaced by something deeper and colder.
Tsuru noticed from the corner of her eye that Sakazuki's black-gloved fists were slowly clenching at his sides, the joints giving off an unpleasant creaking sound, as if he were about to crush something in his hands.
But with the encrypted lines exploding one after another, she had no time to stop him.
'Zaraki.'
That name was like an unmeltable thorn lodged in Sakazuki heart.
That brat's actions had completely exceeded Sakazuki's definition of the word "Marine."
He had gone beyond the boundaries of logic that Sakazuki could understand.
He was unpredictable, uncontrollable, and therefore an intolerable kind of chaos.
Sakazuki turned in silence.
Without saying a word to anyone, he left the Fleet Admiral's office like a moving shadow, carrying a pressure so low it seemed capable of freezing the air.
No one had the room to ask where he was going.
And even if they had, no one would have received an answer.
...
At the same time, in the New World, off the coast of Wano Country.
After Kaido's kill order spread, Garp had moved from G-1 toward the Wano sea route to keep watch on the Beasts Pirates' main force.
G-18, Pelo Island, and the Arlans Sea all sat along the outer Wano route, which was why he had moved this way so quickly.
Sengoku's latest emergency order had not reached him yet.
The sea here had a strange blue-green color.
The currents moved without order, and a massive whirlpool turned slowly not far away, like an entrance leading straight to hell.
The air was damp and oppressive, and even the cries of the seagulls sounded especially shrill.
A huge dog-headed Marine warship was carefully sailing through this devilish stretch of sea.
On the deck, the Marine soldiers all had pale faces. They gripped their rifles tightly, their eyes filled with tension.
Their gazes passed over the rail and turned toward the distant outline of a massive island shrouded in thick mist.
Waterfalls flowed upward from the island's edge, overturning everything they understood about nature.
What made them even more terrified were the flags that occasionally appeared through the mist, fluttering over the mountain peaks—the savage beast head and crossed clubs belonging to the sole ruler of this sea.
The Beasts Pirates.
"So this is Wano Country..." a young Marine swallowed, his voice dry. "It's like a monster's nest from a legend."
"Shut up and stay sharp!" an older soldier beside him hissed. "Have you forgotten who's on our ship?"
The young Marine stiffened and instinctively looked toward the bow.
There, an old man wearing a Justice cloak, with silver hair yet a vigorous spirit, sat cross-legged atop a pile of cannonballs, casually stuffing rice crackers into his mouth and crunching them loudly.
Marine Hero, Monkey D. Garp.
His adjutant, the swordsman Bogard, stood silently behind him like a drawn blade, alertly scanning everything around them.
Suddenly, the sky darkened.
It was not because clouds had covered the sun.
A massive shadow had fallen from high above, covering the entire warship.
"What is that?!"
The lookout's scream went shrill.
Everyone abruptly raised their heads.
A blue dragon was coiled within the clouds.
Its golden eyes, huge as lanterns, looked down indifferently, as if staring at a swarm of tiny ants.
An unparalleled pressure descended like a mountain crashing down.
"It's Kaido of the Beasts."
Fear spread among the Marines like a plague.
In the next second, the dragon's body rapidly shrank and transformed into a burly figure, landing heavily on the bow of a massive Beasts Pirates flagship not far away.
Behind him, a towering figure covered in black leather, with wings on his back and flames burning from his body, appeared silently.
It was King the Wildfire.
"Wororororo..."
Kaido's distinctive laughter rang out, thick with the smell of alcohol and violence.
"I was wondering who had the guts to wander around my territory. So it's you, Garp!"
Kaido carried his massive kanabo and pointed it across the distance at the dog-headed warship, his eyes full of provocation.
"What, getting old made you like wandering around? Or has the World Government run out of people, so they sent an old bag of bones like you to die?"
Crack.
Garp crushed the last rice cracker in his hand, then slowly stood up.
He brushed the crumbs from his hands, and the lazy expression on his face vanished completely, replaced by the heavy anger of a storm about to break.
"Kaido."
Garp's voice was not loud, but it clearly spread across the entire sea, overpowering the howling wind.
"I'm in a very bad mood today. If you know what's good for you, take your pets and get out of my sight."
Garp's gaze was cold enough to pierce bone.
Before Sengoku's emergency order could reach him, Garp had already run into Kaido's main force.
He still did not know what had happened on Zaraki's side, but the instinctive unease rising from the bottom of his heart had made him irritable to the extreme.
And Kaido appearing here at this exact moment could not possibly be a coincidence.
Garp stared at Kaido's arrogant face, then at the island behind him that was guarded like an iron fortress, and a wild thought quietly began taking root in his mind.
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