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Chapter 306: The Marine Headquarters Relocation!
Foosha Village, East Blue.
The once-clear sky had darkened. It wasn't because of clouds, but because a forest of steel was blotting out the sun, filling everyone's vision.
In the marketplace, the noisy shouting of vendors came to a sudden halt. Pirates who had been haggling froze. A passerby holding a skewer of grilled meat stood with his mouth agape. Even the stray dogs on the street seemed to feel the suffocating heaviness in the air, tucking their tails and ducking into alleys.
"Hey... you've got to be joking..."
A pirate captain with a thirty-million-Beri bounty dropped his rum glass. It shattered on the ground, but he didn't even notice. His legs were shaking violently, his teeth clattering together.
"Is that... is that a [Buster Call]?" his subordinate asked with a sob.
"Idiot! What kind of [Buster Call] is that big?!" the captain yelled, clutching his head, his voice trembling. "That's the entire Marine Headquarters!!"
On the horizon, the warships were packed as tightly as a swarm of locusts. The pressure was more than a human could bear. This wasn't a fleet; this was an entire continent of iron coming to sink the island.
At that moment, on a massive pirate ship with a red dragon figurehead docked in the harbor, Red-Haired Shanks stood holding his wine bowl, looking like he'd been turned to stone.
"Boss..." Yasopp stood on the lookout tower, lowering his telescope. His face was grim.
"No need to look," Benn Beckman said, taking a deep drag of his cigarette. But the fingers holding the smoke were uncontrollably trembling. As the First Mate of the Red-Haired Pirates and the man rumored to have the highest IQ on the sea, his brain had momentarily crashed.
"That's Sengoku's flagship. Beside it is Garp's dog-headed ship. And that golden one in the back... if I'm not mistaken, that's a government vessel only the Five Elders and Celestial Dragons can board."
Beckman exhaled a cloud of smoke, his voice dry as sand. "The World Government... did they move their entire home base here?"
Shanks took a massive gulp of wine, trying to suppress the waves of shock in his heart. "This is going to be a huge problem." He massaged his temples with a bitter smile.
He had thought the Four Emperors gathering in the East Blue was ridiculous enough. Who would have guessed the Marines would go even further? They had literally uprooted their entire organization!
What were they planning? To fight a final battle a hundred times more terrifying than any war here in this tiny village?
"Gurararara... how interesting."
Not far away, on the deck of the Moby Dick, Whitebeard let out his signature laugh despite the IV tubes connected to him. Though he was laughing, his tiger-like eyes were locked onto the approaching Marine flagship.
"Pop!" Marco tensed, blue flames flickering on his arms. "Everyone, stay alert!!"
Jozu, Vista, and the other division commanders instantly entered battle states. The killing intent of the entire Whitebeard Pirates surged into the sky.
Pirates and Marines. They were natural enemies. A blood feud that could never be settled. When the two strongest forces in the world encountered each other in a small harbor, theoretically, only one thing could happen.
War!
BOOM—!!
With a dull, heavy thud, the Marine flagship ignored the hostile glares of the surrounding pirate ships and arrogantly squeezed into the port. The hull scraped against the pier with a tooth-aching screech, stopping right next to the Moby Dick in a display of pure defiance.
The two massive ships—representing the absolute peaks of good and evil on the sea—were less than twenty meters apart. The air solidified. The wind in the harbor died. Everyone held their breath, their hearts leaping into their throats.
Was it starting? Was the world about to end?
At the bow of the flagship, a tall figure in a crimson suit slowly walked out. Admiral Akainu. His hat was low, but the scent of sulfur—strong enough to ignite the air—spread without reservation. Magma dripped from his arms, burning charred holes into the deck.
Opposite him, Whitebeard gripped his naginata, Murakumogiri, his white coat fluttering despite the lack of wind. This was the pressure of the World's Strongest Man. Their gazes collided in mid-air, and invisible sparks seemed to crackle between them.
"They're going to fight... they're really going to fight..."
"A battle of this level... the island will be gone in an instant!"
"Run! They're all monsters!"
The crowds in the market began to panic. Fear spread like a plague, and it looked like a desperate exodus was about to erupt.
However, at that critical moment—the second when everyone thought the end was nigh—a voice of utter disdain and mockery rang out from the crowd.
"Run? Where do you think you're going?"
The speaker was an old man sitting at a roadside stall eating takoyaki. He wore a floral shirt and flip-flops, looking like any other retired geezer. But sharp eyes would notice the string of priceless South Sea black pearls around his neck—spoils that only a Great Pirate who had survived years in the New World would possess.
The old man calmly swallowed his takoyaki and looked at the panicked crowd as if they were fools.
"I say, are you new arrivals? Has the sea air rotted your brains?"
"What are you panicking for? Open your eyes and look where you are!"
Hearing this, the people about to flee paused. Where were they? This was Foosha Village! A village currently surrounded by the Four Emperors and the Marines!
"Hmph. A bunch of country bumpkins who haven't seen the world," the old man sneered. He pointed a sauce-covered finger arrogantly toward the center of the island—at that small, ordinary-looking tavern that served as the absolute heart of Foosha Village.
"Everyone, look over there!"
"As long as that man is inside drinking his coffee, I don't care if God Himself shows up—He'd have to sit down and behave!"
"You think they'd dare start a fight here?" The old man grinned so wide his mouth reached his ears, as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world. "Don't forget the two 'warnings' hanging right there!"
Hanging? What warnings?
Following the old man's finger, countless gazes turned in unison. They looked past the busy streets and through the crowds, finally locking onto the entrance of Makino's Party's Bar.
There, hanging from the old, crooked tree that provided shade for the tavern, were two... well, two human-shaped objects.
On the left: A hulking, muscular man with a pair of prominent horns and a mess of black hair swaying in the breeze. He was bound head-to-toe in strange, wooden vines like a chimaki, tied in an incredibly shameful position. The artistry of the binding was so unique it was hard to look at. To top it off, his mouth was stuffed with a rag, allowing only muffled groans of "Mmph! Mmph!"
Hundred Beasts Kaido! The "Strongest Creature in the World," a monster who was invincible in a duel and couldn't even kill himself! Currently, he was swaying in the wind like a piece of sun-dried jerky!
On the right: He looked even worse. Golden hair was a mess like a bird's nest, and the legs that once made the seas tremble were currently empty. He was also hung upside down by those wooden vines, his face swollen like a pig's head. No one could recognize his original features, but anyone with experience knew those signature clothes—and that arrogant aura that remained even with a pig-head face.
Golden Lion Shiki! The legend who nearly ruled the world and dared to storm Marineford alone!
Currently, this pair of "Brothers in Misery" were hanging side-by-side from the branches like two freshly salted fish.
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