The New World.
Miracle Island.
The sky was a black, ink-soaked curtain. Thunder rolled; lightning tore ragged seams through the dark while a drowning rain blurred the world to smears of motion.
The Oro Jackson lay beached on the shore as ships with snarling skull flags rammed the sand and vomited men onto the island. Steel rang without end, thunder swallowing screams and war cries alike. Bodies piled; blood ran in sheets.
Splash.
A black riding boot crushed a puddle. A tall figure strode ashore, trident carried inverted, killing intent radiating like heat. A wide scarf masked half his face; a black coat snapped in the gale. In cold, detached eyes, an eerie red pulse beat.
"Lord Katakuri!"
Big Mom Pirates nearby cried out, awed.
Katakuri didn't so much as glance at them. His gaze was already fixed ahead—on the man with twin axes carving through the crowd like a living storm. Katakuri vanished.
The rain rippled as if something had knifed through it too fast to see.
Clang!
A trident wreathed in Armament Haki met a flashing blade, sparks tearing the rain apart. Shockwaves whipped hair and cloaks.
Gaban stilled, eyes narrowing at the youth whose arm had become white mochi. "Charlotte Katakuri," he said, low. "Big Mom's strongest offspring?"
"The Roger Pirates' third-in-command… Gaban."
A crimson glint flickered in Katakuri's eyes. He lunged low, body twisting as he recoiled the trident and coiled his mochi arm like a spring—then drove it forward in a brutal thrust.
"Today marks the end of the Roger Pirates!"
Mochi Thrust!
"Hahahaha! Not if I have anything to say about it!" Gaban roared, twin axes whirling into a hurricane.
They met in an instant—and a gale of force exploded outward.
---
Clang!!
A jet-black blade and a fiery edge hammered together mid-air, the ground spidering beneath their feet.
Locked at the bind, Kozuki Oden and King stared into each other's eyes.
"Tell me… what has become of Wano?!" Oden demanded, robes lashing in the wind, empty sleeve snapping like a flag. Crimson eyes bored into the armored figure with vast wings.
"That isn't your concern, traitor," King said coldly, mockery thin in his voice. "A wretch who abandoned duty for whim has no right to ask after Wano's state."
"—You're asking for death!!" Oden's roar cracked the rain. Shusui blazed; one cut hurled King back dozens of meters.
Black wings snapped wide and stopped his drift. Crimson flame gusted across the feathers, painting the sky blood red.
"There's no going back for you, Kozuki Oden."
"Wano now belongs to Lord Kaido."
His wings beat once. Dozens of massive fireballs launched, a meteor shower screaming down on Oden.
"Dual Emperor Blades!!" Oden took Shusui in both hands and charged headlong into the fire.
"I will return! I will take back what's mine!"
His sword danced like a living thing.
---
Deep within Miracle Island, three figures tore through the mountains, trailed by lightning, hurricanes, and shearing arcs of light. Every collision burst the rain to mist, every impact drove thunder and storm into the earth and buckled the land.
Swords flashed; a kanabo fell like thunder; fire howled. Peaks flattened beneath their path. The ground rose and broke in waves tens of meters high.
"Hahaha! It's been far too long since a fight felt like this!" Roger bellowed, crimson captain's coat flaring, black hair thrashing in the squall. Black-red lightning crackled around him, his Haki warping the air. Every stroke of Ace hammered with rolling thunder; an indomitable will flooded the field.
"I'll see how long you keep that up," Kaido snarled, Dragon-Human form bristling, kanabo wrapped in black-red lightning.
Big Mom had slid wholly into madness. Fire orbs streamed into her blazing hair as she gripped Thunder in one hand and Napoleon—now a colossal greatsword—in the other. She cleaved down in a savage arc.
"Roaring Thunder Eight Trigrams!"
"Emperor Sword: Shattering Edge!"
Feeling the crush of both attacks, Roger grinned wider, eyes alight. "Come on! Let's see how you've grown since God Valley!"
He let Conqueror's Haki roar unchecked, dragging Ace through the air until a black-and-crimson thunderstorm coalesced into a raging blade.
He swung.
"Divine Departure!"
BOOM!!
The three blows met mid-sky and the island reeled. The ground buckled and groaned as though a magnitude-ten quake ripped through its bones. Lightning webbed the heavens, clouds ripping and reforming into grotesque shapes. A purgatorial wind scoured the island end to end, blowing pirates off their feet kilometers away.
"Aaahhh!"
"What pressure!"
"Save me—"
...
Big Mom's and the Beasts' crews stared toward the island's heart, horror-struck.
Someone was facing Lord Kaido and Big Mom alone—holding them both.
One against two.
Then—
Boom!
A cannonball burst along the shore, geysering surf and smoke.
Artillery?
The pirates jolted. More rounds fell along the coastline, blossoms of fire punching through the storm. Men dove through the black smoke, skidding on flooded sand, and turned, faces draining, toward the sea.
"What is that—?"
"It's…"
"Battleships!"
"Marine battleships!"
Warships shouldered up out of the storm one after another, heavy guns spitting flame across raging water.
"Bwahahaha! Roger! This time you won't escape!"
On the lead Dog-Headed Battleship, a burly figure in a dog-head cap pinwheeled his arms as he fired and laughed like a madman.
The Marine Hero—"Fist" Garp!
To be continued...