Immediately afterward, every Marine in Marine Headquarters began roaring the same words—
"Absolutely not!"
Even the Marines who had lost their will to fight and thrown down their weapons flushed red in the face, picked those weapons back up, and turned toward the enemy with killing intent surging through their bodies.
Yes.
They were Marines.
The greatest fist of justice in this world.
The fundamental guarantee that the current order could continue to exist.
They were not fighting for themselves, but to prevent an even worse future from coming to pass.
At that moment, the morale on the Marine side rapidly returned to a level where they could fight again.
'Sengoku, your blade hasn't dulled with age.'
Whitebeard watched coldly, neither making a move nor interfering.
Rather, the more things developed like this, the better.
Only when something was held high enough would its fall be miserable enough.
Those were words Ren had spoken while arranging his plans.
Even though the man himself was not present, his influence over the entire war was everywhere.
If not for one of Ren's objectives, Whitebeard would have chosen an even more explosive way to begin this war.
As for now, he would simply see just how lofty the "justice" Sengoku spoke of truly was!
Sengoku was still speaking. It seemed he had noticed that ninety percent of the Marines had entered a state of heightened morale.
His tone softened, yet remained firm, like a raised banner.
"We have not reached the final moment yet. A temporary setback cannot change the fact that justice will prevail.
"Whether we bleed or die, so long as we endure, victory will inevitably be ours.
"I will remain here with all of you until victory—or until we fall!"
When the Fleet Admiral himself declared that, at worst, they would all die here together, the morale of the Marine soldiers boiled over completely.
There were indeed still scattered Marines who had been frightened out of their wits and were trying to flee at all costs.
But ninety-nine percent of the Marines were roaring for justice, entering a state where they would pay any price to seize victory.
"This is the Marines! This is what the Marines are!"
Inside the broadcast center on Sabaody Archipelago, the reporters were incomparably excited, as if they had already thought of how they would publicize this magnificent scene afterward.
Within the bay of Marine Headquarters, the members of the Whitebeard Pirates, who had been cheering because of their old man's attack, could not help but turn solemn when they saw the Marines' cries and soaring morale.
From this moment onward, the ones they fought would be elite Marines who feared no death!
"Old man…"
Marco approached Whitebeard with some concern, as though he wanted to say something.
"Let them be. Right now, this is already very favorable for us. The Marines' morale has received a boost, but—"
The corner of Whitebeard's mouth curled upward, and his eyes turned somewhat cold.
"—the awl in that guy's hand, the goods we're expecting, were prepared precisely for this.
"Since things have reached this point, we should look forward to his return. However…"
He suddenly turned his head and looked toward the distant sea.
Sengoku, who had finally stirred morale back up, froze for a moment at the sight, as if he had never expected Whitebeard to dare lose focus in a situation like this.
But… why was he distracted?
Boom—!
A sharp scream exploded outside the enclosing wall. A line of blade-light tore through space, slicing off a section of the barrier.
Then, a pair of large hands reached out from the smoke, grabbed the severed barrier slab, and used it as a bridge.
A group of people who had abruptly arrived here passed into the battlefield under countless watching eyes.
At their head stood a domineering man holding a sword in one hand—the only hand he had.
He had red hair, three scars over his left eye, and from his appearance, he had lost his left arm.
Yet so long as one looked at him, no one could possibly ignore him.
"F-Four Emperor… Red-Haired Shanks!"
The voice trembled, broke apart, and finally turned into a shrill cry.
The Marine lookout transmitted his emotions in full through the Den Den Mushi broadcast.
What followed was a dead silence and an icy chill.
Why?
Why had another Yonko come here?!
Did Headquarters have a contingency plan for this?!
Some Marine officers instinctively looked toward Vice Admiral Tsuru below the execution platform, and from her expression, they saw a flash of pallor.
Good.
Headquarters had not prepared for this either!
One person influenced a hundred, a hundred influenced a thousand. Although Tsuru quickly restored her expression to normal, every Marine clearly realized the truth.
Red-Hair's arrival had exceeded the expectations of Headquarters' top command!
At the same time, the lookout was still confirming the identities of the others.
"Benn Beckman… Yasopp… Lucky Roux… The entire core crew of the Red-Haired Pirates is here! And…"
The shrill cry faltered slightly. Even so, it became like a heavy hammer smashing hard into the hearts of the Marines.
Facing a Whitebeard whose strength had already exceeded imagination was hard enough.
Did they have the confidence to deal with a second Yonko?
No one would ask the foolish question of whether Red-Hair might not be an enemy.
Marines who knew less understood that although the Four Emperors might struggle against one another, when dealing with Marine Headquarters, they belonged to the same side.
The Marines who knew more were different. They understood very clearly that what came next would inevitably be the assault of two emperors.
Because Ace's father was the Pirate King, Roger.
And before Shanks founded the Red-Haired Pirates, Roger had been the captain of the crew Shanks sailed with!
At that moment, the lookout's voice finally stopped stuttering, bringing a new name that made everyone's heartbeat seem to stop.
"Former vice-captain of the Roger Pirates, Rayleigh! And Gaban has appeared as well!"
What did he just say?!
Inside the broadcast center on Sabaody Archipelago, the reporters were all stunned.
They had never imagined that the Pirate King's crew still had surviving members, much less that they would come to this battlefield.
Shouldn't they have disappeared along with Roger's death?
And the ones who came were actually Dark King Rayleigh, as well as Gaban, whose fame had also resounded greatly decades ago.
'Sengoku…'
Tsuru could not help but lift her eyes toward the execution platform. On it, Sengoku also felt his scalp go numb.
The people from the World Government had told him that Red-Hair would not participate in this war.
Through certain arrangements, they had made Kaido attack Whitebeard's territory. This would create a chain reaction and restrain the Red-Haired Pirates, who did not want to see the New World undergo drastic changes.
Even if Red-Hair later learned Ace's true identity, he should not have been able to arrive in time.
And because that had been Red-Hair's own choice, no retaliatory accident should occur afterward.
As for the other Yonko—Big Mom—she would have loved nothing more than for Whitebeard to die suddenly, so she could seize a place like Fish-Man Island.
After learning Ace's lineage, she naturally would not want to see a major rival rise either.
Naturally, she would not participate in this war started by the Marines.
But beyond all expectation… Red-Hair had still arrived here!
And what was even more unexpected was Rayleigh and Gaban.
The number of unexpected factors had already far surpassed the margin allowed by the original plan.
The defecting Warlords.
Whitebeard, whose strength far exceeded estimates.
The Red-Haired Pirates and Roger's old crew, who had abruptly come here.
And Whitebeard's strategy before and after the enclosing wall rose, along with his word—"as expected."
Just why had things developed like this?!
Sengoku only felt anger boiling in his heart. He felt as if he had been targeted to the extreme. Nine parts out of ten felt wrong.
This was the judgment made by the ability and intuition forged by the "Resourceful General" and his wealth of experience.
However, no matter how he thought, he could not find the source of this wrongness. He could only watch, wide-eyed, as one surface-level event after another crashed toward him.
Something must have happened!
There had to be something!
That unknown "it," whose true identity remained unclear, had exceeded Headquarters' calculations and the intelligence network spread across the world.
It had acted from a range they could not understand, pushing the situation beyond even the worst-case contingency.
But no matter how he thought, he could not find the slightest clue.
Sengoku, known as the Resourceful General, felt a chill rush from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, as though a pair of eyes were watching him from the void.
At that moment, the Marines who had been informed of the situation by the lookout truly saw Shanks and the others entering the battlefield.
There was no mistake!
It was not an illusion!
This was the worst, most terrible situation, causing even the Marines whose morale had previously been high to turn pale.
Yet at that moment, an incomparably resolute voice rang out through the deathly silence.
"I won't retreat!"
Tashigi wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and stood at the very front of the battle line, raising her cherished sword, which now bore visible chips.
She was not very strong, so she had been injured in the fighting just now.
If Smoker had not remained at her side the entire time, she would probably already have been killed by a Whitebeard pirate.
Even so, she had walked before the gates of death several times.
Quite a few people had seen Tashigi's moments of life-and-death danger, as well as the enemies she had cut down.
No one nearby interrupted her, allowing this young, beautiful, yet incomparably resolute swordswoman to shout at the top of her lungs.
"Because I am a Marine! This is for justice!"
"What a boring way to put it. You're a Marine, so am I not one?"
The one who answered her was Smoker, who had turned into smoke and was drifting above. With a cigar clenched in his mouth, he exhaled a large cloud of white smoke.
His cold eyes looked toward the distant crisis of two emperors, and his icy voice echoed beside everyone's ears.
"We are all Marines. And all of us fight for—justice!"
There was no roar.
No answer.
There was only the unified sound of weapons.
The Marines stood in silence within the battle line, merely gripping the weapons in their hands even tighter.
If their first wavering had been restored by the Fleet Admiral's encouragement and the stance he expressed, then now—
They did not wait for the Fleet Admiral to raise morale.
Under the lead of those at the front, they strengthened their own wills.
This was a war of justice. They were Marines. Even if they died, they had to obtain victory.
For the sake of—The justice within their hearts!
At that instant, this understanding branded itself into the hearts of the elite Marines willing to fight, like an ideological seal stamped into their very minds.
Sengoku's tense face relaxed slightly. Even his eyes carried a trace of gratification.
And yet, for some reason—
Kuzan, standing to one side, could not feel happy.
The more things became like this, the more uneasy he felt about Ren, who had left.
Would Ren truly not interfere with what came next?
That baseless unease made Kuzan frown and step forward.
He transformed into frost that danced across the sky, then landed upon the ruined battle line formed from the enclosing wall.
Doing the same was Akainu, silent and equally frowning.
Clearly, no matter what, the current situation no longer allowed them to sit in the rear.
If anything went wrong, the front line would be torn open as easily as cloth.
"I would very much like to negotiate, but with that attitude of yours, you're really making things troublesome."
Red-Hair stepped onto the edge of the ice field, standing right below the whale-headed warship. He gazed into the distance at the Marines before him—morale not exactly high, yet incomparably tenacious—and at the two Admirals standing in front of them.
(End of Chapter)