Baltigo.
"Hey, hey, hey! Can you two at least try to focus?" Dragon grumbled, eyes glossy with misery as he looked down at the bandages mummifying his body.
Kuma scratched his head, sheepish. "I'm just… clumsy," he admitted. He wiped sweat from his brow and swayed, collapsing with a thud.
"Kuma-boy, are you alright?" Ivankov cried.
"I'm fine," Kuma said, shaking his head. "Just overdid it."
Dragon glanced at him and fell quiet.
Truth be told, not only Kuma—Dragon and Ivankov were both spent after Felsek Island. Only a monster like Darren could recover so fast—and already be headed back to Marine Headquarters.
Dragon knew why.
Darren's wife, Toki, was still in Marineford.
"Still… why didn't Darren-san just order the Flying Fleet to bring her out?" Kuma wondered aloud.
Dragon sighed. "Knowing Darren, if he didn't send the Flying Fleet for Toki, it means the fleet has another mission."
He folded his arms. "And Darren is brilliant—but brilliance breeds suspicion. Toki is everything to him. He wouldn't entrust her rescue to anyone, not even the fleet he trained himself."
"…Yet he chose to trust Zephyr," Ivankov murmured.
Dragon smiled faintly. "Yes. He chose Zephyr-sensei."
"In fact, I'd say Zephyr-sensei is the only person on this sea Darren trusts unconditionally."
He tilted his head back, watching snow fall from a white sky, a gentle smile touching his lips. "And the reason is simple."
"What reason?" Kuma and Ivankov asked at once.
"Black Arm Zephyr is a true hero—a towering man of justice," Dragon said slowly. "Even the worst scoundrel respects and trusts such a hero."
---
Black lightning and golden radiance tangled together as two titans collided, the shockwaves ripping the earth apart. Streets split in jagged fissures, buildings folded into the ground, the field bucking like a quake.
Around them, Marines stood rooted in horror, watching two legends abandon defense and trade savage blows.
"Zephyr! Move!" Sengoku roared, eyes bloodshot. The Golden Buddha thrust out a vast palm.
BOOM!!
The golden shockwave burst outward—only to meet the howling vortex Zephyr whipped up with a single sweep of his arm.
"If that's all you've got, I can handle you with one hand!" Zephyr bellowed, laughter riding the surge of his aura.
Sengoku ground his teeth and drove in, but his gut sank further with every exchange. He only awakened Conqueror's Haki just now, Sengoku thought, incredulous—yet Zephyr's ferocity kept climbing, pressing him back, blow by blow.
If Sengoku hadn't been living it, he wouldn't have believed a spirit could evolve this fast.
They crashed together again, elbows locking, the rain blown apart by the impact.
"Zephyr, you know this isn't the time for your stubbornness!" Sengoku snarled, urgency burning through his voice. "If you keep this up, I won't be able to protect you—even you!"
He snatched a glance across the battlefield. The Academy cadets led by Gion and Tokikake were clashing with Sengoku's own subordinates, steel flashing in the rain.
"The Government will never let Darren get away with this!" he shouted.
"On the contrary," Zephyr shot back, "I believe Darren won't let them get away with this!"
He lunged with another thunderous punch.
Stubborn old fool, Sengoku cursed, fury rising.
"Then don't blame me for what comes next!"
Black lightning crawled over Sengoku's fist. Two vast cloaks snapped in the gale as they swung.
Boom!
Boom!
Their fists slammed into each other's faces like hurled cannon shot. Both men were blasted backward, gouging two colossal craters into the broken ground. Blood traced from the corners of their mouths as they rose, battered and gasping.
Sengoku wiped his lips, eyes locked on Zephyr, and cut a brutal signal through the rain.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
A hundred rifles lifted as one, muzzles trained on Zephyr.
"So that's your choice, Zephyr… you'll stop me even if it kills you."
Blood dripped steadily from Zephyr's severed arm. He swayed, then smiled—a pale, heroic curve of the mouth.
"Once you choose, you see it through. That's what makes a man."
"And besides, Sengoku…"
He drew a deep breath, forcing his wounded body straight. His eyes burned crimson.
"I named that child."
Sengoku said nothing.
The rain swallowed the world.
They stood facing each other, silent in the downpour. Every Marine waited, frozen, for the Admiral's next word.
"…Then there's no choice, Zephyr."
Sengoku's voice turned stiff and hoarse. His clenched fist trembled.
"A soldier's highest duty is obedience."
He seemed to be convincing himself as much as those listening, whose faces were tight with pain.
"Unconditionally executing the Government's orders is the Marines' foremost responsibility."
At that, the soldiers and officers turned their faces aside, eyes bloodshot, jaws clenched.
"The former Admiral and current Chief Instructor of the Headquarters Academy, Zephyr," Sengoku said, voice colder than the rain. "For refusal to comply with Government orders—by my authority as Admiral of Marine Headquarters, I issue a provisional arrest warrant."
"Execute it. Now."
The words struck like lightning.
Gion stumbled back, ashen. "No…"
One second.
Two.
Three.
Marines moved.
Steel hissed from sheaths, blade after blade catching the cold light of the storm.
"I'm sorry, Zephyr-sensei."
"It's… an order."
"Please forgive us."
"I'm sorry."
Trembling, they advanced—step by step—toward the man they revered. Pain, reluctance, anger, confusion—all roiled and thinned, washed numb beneath the rain.
Years of discipline moved their bodies even as their hearts resisted. The habit of obedience ran too deep.
"Excellent."
Looking into the anguished faces of his students, Zephyr smiled—a hard, satisfied line.
He had chosen. He would not waver.
Even if the enemy before him was his old mentor.
"Come, then!"
He surged forward, fist clenching around the power in his one arm.
"Let this old man give you one last lesson!"
The Marines gritted their teeth and charged as one.
They were a breath from impact when—
BOOM!
A burning stroke of light plunged into the ground, shockwaves buckling the earth. Dust and shattered stone leapt skyward. Both sides halted, stunned.
As the haze thinned, eyes widened further.
A black longsword stood buried to the hilt, its blade wreathed in coiling purple fire, cleaving the battlefield in two.
"This is—"
"That sword—"
"Enma!!"
Gasps rippled through the ranks as every gaze snapped upward, searching for the one who had thrown it.
"My apologies," a faintly amused voice drifted down from the sky above Marineford. "Today isn't a good day for lessons. This final lesson will have to be rescheduled… Zephyr-sensei."
To be continued...