With the Shichibukai finally backing down, Marines let out the breath they'd been holding.
"Vice Admiral Darren still has them in check…"
"He stopped the free-for-all the instant he showed up…"
"He really is Headquarters' pillar."
"Shhh… keep it down. Admiral Sengoku looks ready to explode."
Their whispers weren't nearly as quiet as they thought; Sengoku and the other top brass could hear every word.
"Ahem… Sengoku, it isn't that bad," Tsuru offered, lip twitching at the sight of his face gone the color of pig's liver.
"Tsuru," Sengoku rasped, "do me a favor."
"Name it."
"Cut out the part where I spoke earlier."
"…All right."
He nodded, drew a long breath, and visibly fought to compose himself.
Tsuru watched him, a wry smile tugging at her mouth.
Then—
Thump… thump…
Thump… thump…
The surface of the port began to move.
Bubbles rose in clusters from the seabed, ripples multiplying until the water seemed to boil.
"What's happening?"
"Something's coming up from below!"
"Alert! Alert!"
Marines nearest the disturbance snapped up their rifles, eyes cutting across the roiling water, suspicion and unease sharpening their faces.
Crocodile and the others narrowed their eyes.
Through Observation Haki, a dark, bloody, terrifying presence rushed up from beneath the Oval Military Port… closing fast.
"The most troublesome one finally shows," Borsalino chuckled, stroking his stubble as the sea thrashed in violent fits.
On the walls, Gion and the Golden Generation officers felt it too. Muscles tightened; the smallest shadow of dread flickered in their eyes.
"Such pressure…"
"This presence…"
"It's… incomprehensible."
Silence fell again, heavy and expectant. Everyone held their breath.
BOOM!!
A thundercrack from the depths—then a pillar of seawater punched into the sky.
A strange, metallic submarine burst from the whitecaps like an icebreaker, plowing arrogantly through the heaving crests and tearing a long wake behind it.
"Kahahaha!!"
The laugh hit like a shockwave as a towering figure kicked the hatch open and sprang out.
Golden hair whipped in the wind above a crisp black military uniform. Cold, domineering features radiated raw, unchained power.
"He's here!!"
"The Shichibukai with the highest bounty!"
"A former core member of the Roger Pirates!"
"The 'Demon Heir'!"
"Douglas Bullet—original bounty, 2,174,000,000 berries!"
Stares locked on the submarine and the golden-haired youth standing atop it, awe and dread colliding in the gut.
Bullet didn't spare them a glance. His boots slammed the metal hatch with a thunderous thud.
Bent forward like a tiger set to spring, hair whipping, eyes burning, he leveled his only arm across the distance and roared, laughing:
"Kahahaha! Darren! At last!"
"Let's settle it! Show me how much you've grown since last time!"
His eyes flew wide.
Boom!
A hell-born aura erupted from him and raced across Marineford.
A visible vortex of force rose, and the world seemed to drain of color.
A black-purple storm raked the heavens, lightning veining the sky. Clouds split; the stone of the port cracked like old bone.
Thump… thump… thump…
Marines dropped to their knees, faces drained under the crush of Conqueror's Haki.
Even Golden Generation elites like Onigumo slid a half step back, shock stripped bare.
"This… this is high-level Conqueror's Haki," Mihawk breathed, eyes blazing. He had felt this magnitude only once before—from Darren-san.
Doflamingo's grin split wider, manic. "Heh heh heh! That demon's presence… like Shura himself come down to earth!"
Crocodile and Moria stood grim and tight. Moria's own awakened Conqueror's buckled under the weight, crushing him with an old, unwelcome memory—North Blue, and that damned Marine officer.
On the rampart, all eyes fixed on the golden-haired man with hellfire in his stare.
Then, through the twining haze, a single footstep sounded.
A Marine Vice Admiral stepped forward.
BOOM!!
A black-red torrent of Conqueror's Haki roared into the sky and slammed into the oncoming tide, the collision shaking the world's bones.
Crimson-black and violet-black lightning chewed through each other. Shockwaves warped the air until the seams of reality seemed to show.
Above, the sea of cloud tore open, a colossal rift unspooling across the heavens.
"KAHAHAHA!!"
Bullet's grin turned savage with delight.
"Just as I thought! Marine Admiral, Great Pirates—it's all noise! Only you, Darren!!"
"Only you put this weight on me!"
His knees bent. A beast's coil wound into his frame.
Metal screamed as the submarine's hull crumpled beneath his feet.
"Come on… Darren!"
Eyes gone blood-red, locked on the Vice Admiral, he laughed like a madman.
"Let's tear each other apart today—huh?"
A colossal golden light flared behind him.
Bullet froze and wheeled.
A towering Golden Buddha loomed, crackling with black-red lightning, a thunderous palm already arcing down.
"You little brat! You think this is a playground?!"
Sengoku had finally found a target for his fury. His roar scorched his throat as he unleashed everything without reserve.
"This is my—no, this is the Marine Headquarters!!!"
The light blazed hotter, like a second sun.
"Great Buddha Impact!!"
BOOM!!
"You… ambushed me…"
Golden force crashed down. Bullet's face twisted; blood slicked his mouth and nose.
He fell like a meteor. Land bucked like a storm-tossed sea. Shockwaves ripped the port apart in jagged, heaving slabs.
Stone split in deafening cracks. Sengoku's wrath nearly erased the sprawling harbor, spiderweb fissures racing to the horizon.
Dust rose in a writhing dragon. Darren's eyelids twitched.
A mild-mannered man's fury… it's absolutely terrifying.
To be continued...