Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
The night pressed low and heavy, the sky warped and suffocating. Air sat thick in the lungs.
Drizzle turned to sheets of rain.
Lightning split the black, thunder rattled the ribs, and for a heartbeat the strike lit the figure standing before a lavish, Japanese-style mansion.
"Who's there?"
The highest authority of the World Government crackled through the Military Den Den Mushi clutched in a CP0 agent's hand—cold, furious, a death god whispering in the storm.
But the agent only stared past the receiver, throat working, at the man planted in the rain like a wall.
Short purple hair. A cigar glowing stubbornly against the downpour. Broad shoulders squared, unmoving. One by one, more figures dropped from the dark and fell in behind him—cadets white-faced with tension, hands tight on Marine sabers.
Water drummed. Breath misted.
The CP0 leader narrowed his eyes and spoke into the line. "…Former Marine Headquarters Admiral 'Black Arm' Zephyr, and his students."
A curt order hissed back. He snapped the line shut.
What weighed on him wasn't fear of the legend in front of him, but a knot of confusion he couldn't cut through. Why were Marines barring the way? On what authority?
The figures in the rain didn't move.
Then Zephyr's voice rolled out, low and steady.
"At first, I refused to believe it."
"That a high-ranking Marine—a hero who's earned merit upon merit for Marine Justice and even your precious World Government—would have his wife and child threatened, marked for assassination, by the Government itself."
"Whatever you claim he's done, his family is innocent."
A spark caught in the old Admiral's chest and spread, slow and unstoppable.
The CP0 leader chuckled, disdain sliding back into his tone like a mask. "The World Government tolerates no challenge to its authority. No matter how powerful, talented, or celebrated—no one like that will be allowed to exist."
He tipped his head, voice turning almost playful. "I thought you, of all people, understood that, Zephyr."
Zephyr's frame shuddered. Bitter memories surged up like poison. The cadets behind him went still, eyes reddening.
"Yes," he said, voice gravel-rough. Rain streaked his lined face; a crooked smile pulled at his mouth. "This old man understands it better than anyone."
"I just never imagined you'd sink this low."
He bit the cigar in two. His knees dipped.
The ground for ten meters around his boots exploded into fractures, stone shattering into grit under the weight of his Haki. His white coat snapped like a banner in the gale, the word "Justice" writhing as if it hurt.
He lifted his head, cigar ash clinging to his lips, eyes blazing. "What I mean is—how many times are you trash going to run the same damned trick?"
BOOM.
The gentle instructor was gone. A caged tiger launched.
He hit his limit speed in an eyeblink; the rain seemed to lag behind him.
The CP0 leader's pupils knotted to pinpricks. So fast. Is that still Soru?
"You want to take Toki? Sure—no problem," Zephyr said, voice gone red with fury, a murder-cold glint buried deep.
Armament Haki poured over his fists like oil-black steel.
"As long as you can kill me first."
His fist arrived before the thought. The CP0 leader barely got his arms up—
Crack.
Bone went to powder. Blood burst and vanished into the rain.
The second blow sank into his chest. Haki tore through his guard like wet paper. The ribcage folded with a hideous crunch.
The masked body flew like a cannon shot, smashed through walls, and punched into the earth, carving a furrow that filled with muddy water as the ground shook and split.
Zephyr landed hard, lungs working, eyes fixed on the hole.
"Tsk, tsk…" The CP0 agent rose from the rubble, laughter muffled and chilling. "Worthy of a former Admiral. Monstrous strength."
Before the cadets' stunned eyes, the stump writhed and flowered with meat; a new arm knitted itself out of pulsing red. His caved chest bulged and sealed, the skin crawling as it set.
"In that case, I'll just have to kill you first," he murmured, delight curling under the words. "I've always regretted not crossing fists with you that night at Marineford, Zephyr-san."
Lightning speared the clouds again. Zephyr's iron arms trembled.
"Zephyr is mine," the CP0 leader snapped, smile sharpening. "The rest of you—scatter. Take your targets."
Shadows broke into motion, flitting away like ghosts.
The cadets bared their teeth and bolted after them. Steel rang. Shouts and impact thudded through the storm.
Only the purple-haired giant stayed where he was. The old straight back bent, just a little.
Thunder tore the sky open, painting the worn face in stark light.
Tears cut clean lines through the rain.
To be continued...