Chapter 64: A Crow Quells the Sea
Levi's calm smile was a stark, jarring contrast to the apocalyptic terror crashing down on Marineford. Hundreds of meters of roaring, churning seawater blotted out the sky on both sides, a deafening testament to Whitebeard's world-shaking power. The shadow of death drowned the plaza, and the hope in the Marines' eyes as they looked to him was brittle, desperate.
He didn't leap into the air like Aokiji might have. He didn't conjure a massive counter-force. He simply took a single, deliberate step forward from the Admiral's platform, placing himself at the very forefront of the defense.
Then, he looked up.
His Reiatsu, which had been a subdued, almost imperceptible pressure, changed.
It did not explode outward in a wave. It condensed. It focused into two points, one aimed at each of the towering tsunamis. To the physical senses, nothing happened. There was no flash of light, no burst of energy. But to anyone with even a hint of spiritual sensitivity—the Admirals, the powerful Vice Admirals, the Warlords, Whitebeard himself—the air itself seemed to solidify with intent.
Levi extended a hand, palm open, toward the tsunami on the left. Then, slowly, he made a gentle, pushing motion.
Hadō #58. Tenran. Divine Return.
But this was no Kidō spell chanted by a Shinigami. It was the pure, undiluted application of Reiatsu as a force of absolute spiritual will, shaped by his understanding of pressure and negation.
The effect was not dramatic; it was eerily absolute.
Where his focused will touched the leading edge of the left tsunami, the cataclysmic motion simply… stopped.
It wasn't frozen into ice. It wasn't vaporized by heat. The billions of gallons of seawater, driven by enough kinetic force to shatter continents, lost all momentum as if they had forgotten how to move. The roar of the wave died into a sudden, profound silence. The water didn't collapse; it just… settled. It defied physics, sliding back down into the bay in a smooth, glassy sheet, as placid as a pond.
A collective, disbelieving gasp echoed across the plaza.
Before anyone could process the impossibility, Levi's gaze—and his will—snapped to the right. Another slight gesture, a flick of his wrist.
The right-side tsunami met the same fate. The mountain of water poised to smash Marineford into driftwood simply gentled, its furious energy annihilated by a spiritual pressure that commanded reality itself to be still. It subsided as quietly as a sigh.
In less than three seconds, the twin tsunamis—the attack that had signaled Whitebeard's apocalyptic entrance and plunged the world into despair—were gone. The bay was choppy, littered with the ice from Aokiji's earlier intervention, but calm. The sun shone again on the stupefied faces of a hundred thousand Marines.
The silence that followed was deeper, more profound than the one after Sengoku's revelation. This wasn't shock from information; it was awe from witnessing a miracle that defied all known logic. Conqueror's Haki could intimidate, could knock people unconscious. Devil Fruits could manipulate elements. But this… this was erasing natural force with a thought. It was calm, effortless, and utterly terrifying.
On the Moby Dick, Whitebeard's eyes narrowed, his grip tightening on his naginata. "Gurarara… so that's the new variable." He felt it. It wasn't Haki. It was something else, something that pressed against the world in a way he didn't understand. A cold, alien weight.
"What… what was that?" Jozu muttered, his diamond body feeling oddly vulnerable.
Marco's flaming wings flickered uneasily. "I didn't feel any Haki clash… it just… stopped."
On the execution platform, Sengoku's mind raced. He had categorized Levi's power as an advanced, unique form of Conqueror's Haki. This display shattered that theory. Conqueror's Haki affected living will. It didn't pacify tsunamis. What have we brought into our ranks?
Garp's brow was furrowed, his legendary intuition ringing alarm bells. This kid was on another level entirely.
Among the Admirals, Aokiji let out a low whistle. "Alala… so that's how you handle it. Not bad." The casual compliment hid deep-seated wariness. He hadn't sensed any elemental shift. The energy was just… negated.
Kizaru's glasses glinted. "Ohhhh… so scary~ That wasn't Haki at all, was it? Yikes."
Akainu scowled, magma dripping. He disliked mysteries. He disliked powers he couldn't categorize. This "Black Crow" was becoming more than just a rival; he was an enigma, and enigmas were dangerous to absolute order.
The Warlords were visibly shaken. Doflamingo, from his position further back, felt a fresh spike of phantom pain from his broken bones. Hancock stared, her hatred mixed with a reluctant, terrifying respect. Mihawk's keen eyes gleamed with unprecedented interest; here was a challenge utterly unrelated to the sword.
Levi lowered his hand. He hadn't even broken a sweat. He turned his head slightly, his voice carrying with calm clarity across the now-quiet battlefield. "Is that all, Whitebeard? An old man's tantrum throwing water around?"
The deliberate, disrespectful provocation hung in the air. He wasn't just stopping an attack; he was dismantling a legend's grandeur, reframing the strongest man's opening move as a mere nuisance.
Whitebeard's laughter boomed again, but it was colder now, edged with a lethal promise. "Cheeky brat! You have a strange power! But this war has only just begun! My sons! Show them the strength of our family!"
The spell of Levi's display broke, replaced by the renewed roar of the Whitebeard Pirates. The battle was back on, but the psychological landscape had irrevocably shifted. The Marines' despair had been replaced by a shaky, electrified hope. The pirates' confident charge now held a sliver of doubt.
Levi returned to his seat. His point was made. The world had seen it. The live feed had captured the inexplicable calm that followed his gesture. Let them wonder. Let them fear. Let the Five Elders watch their "anomaly" perform beyond their comprehension.
The real battle of flesh and steel was beginning in the bay. But Levi had already won the first, crucial clash of spirits. He had quelled the sea with a thought, and in doing so, had announced to the world that a new, unfathomable power now stood with the Marines.
And deep beneath Marineford, in the tunnels few knew about, a perfectly crafted afterimage of Reiatsu continued to sit in his chair, maintaining the illusion for any distant observer. Levi's true body was already a streak over the ocean, his mind already shifting to the dark halls of Impel Down. The stage was set here. Now, it was time to secure the pieces hidden backstage.
(End of Chapter)
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