"Kehahaha! Do I need a brat to teach me how to fight?"
Bryndy World laughed, a sound like grinding gears, but his eyes held zero mirth.
He raised a massive, Haki-coated fist, aiming directly at Raleigh, who had just barely steadied himself on the shifting rubble.
The More-More Fruit wasn't a cheap parlor trick for making big guns bigger.
It was a reality-warping engine, and World was the pilot.
"More-More — Fifty Times Speed!"
CRACK!
The ground beneath World didn't just break; it atomized.
Dense, spiderweb-like cracks exploded outward as he vanished from sight.
Although Bryndy World didn't know the Marine's Soru technique, he didn't need to.
By amplifying his own physical velocity fifty-fold, he achieved a speed that made Soru look like a leisurely stroll.
He was a living cannonball.
"A small place like the North Blue can't cultivate true powerhouses!" World's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, echoing off the canyon walls.
"Someone like you, who hasn't even made a name in the Grand Line... how could you possibly know how terrifying I am?!"
He reappeared instantly in front of Raleigh, the air pressure alone enough to crack stone.
He sneered, channeling every ounce of his frustration into this single, devastating iron fist.
Raleigh didn't flinch. He didn't dodge. He just coldly watched Bryndy World spout his arrogant villain monologue.
"You talk too much," Raleigh muttered.
He clenched his right fist, pulling it back.
The air around his arm began to distort, shimmering with intense heat.
"Meteor Shower!"
His arm, coated in Armament Haki, moved so fast it ignited the oxygen around it.
Friction turned the air into plasma.
This was a physical technique Raleigh had painstakingly developed, mimicking the legendary Monkey D. Garp.
It wasn't about fancy Devil Fruit tricks; it was about raw, kinetic violence.
It mimicked a meteor entering the atmosphere—burning, unstoppable, and carrying the weight of a mountain.
BOOM!!!
Two fists collided with apocalyptic force.
The sound wasn't a thud; it was a thunderclap that instantly echoed beyond the small island, shattering windows in the distant town.
The violent shockwave flattened the terrain.
Dust, debris, and loose rocks were blasted away in a perfect ring, clearing a circle of destruction around the two combatants.
"RRRRAAAAGH!"
"HAAAH!"
Raleigh and Bryndy World both roared fiercely, their muscles straining, veins bulging against their skin.
They stomped the ground for leverage, and the earth groaned in protest, emitting crisp, agonizing cracking sounds as fissures raced away from their boots like terrified snakes.
They were deadlocked.
Raleigh stared into Bryndy World's eyes, his expression utterly cold, devoid of the fear World usually saw in his opponents.
"If this is all you're capable of," Raleigh said through gritted teeth, a small, mocking smile playing on his lips, "then unfortunately, Bryndy World... you'll be leaving your life on this island today."
Seeing the hated Marine officer's confident smile, alarm bells rang frantically in Bryndy World's mind.
An extremely uneasy sense of crisis enveloped him.
'Why is he smiling? What does he know?'
With a roar, World released an explosive burst of aura, forcing a stalemate break that sent Raleigh sliding backward.
World didn't chase.
Instead, he immediately activated his Observation Haki, sweeping the entire island in a split second.
He was looking for the trap, looking for the ambush.
However, the scan came back empty.
He found no ambushing Marine soldiers on the island.
Just the unconscious Doflamingo, the ruined base, and this one Marine.
'You damn brat,' World thought, his confidence returning. 'Are you messing with me? A bluff?'
He let out a mocking laugh. "Is that it? Empty threats?"
THOOM-THOOM-THOOM!
The sound cut him off.
Deep, rhythmic, heavy.
It was the sound of heavy artillery firing in unison. And it was coming from the sea.
Bryndy World's eyes widened.
He looked past Raleigh, toward the horizon.
Although one of his ships had already been destroyed earlier, he hadn't panicked.
He still had three massive ships filled with his elite crew.
But now, the horizon was filled with white sails.
Justice sails.
....
At Sea, Aboard the Marine Flagship.
"Admiral Sengoku," Borsalino drawled, lowering his binoculars. "Raleigh has already engaged Bryndy World. They're making quite a mess. Should we make our move now?"
Admiral Sengoku, the Golden Buddha himself, stood on the deck, his coat flapping in the rising wind.
He watched the two specks combatants on the island with complex emotions.
He saw Raleigh holding his own against a legend.
It was impressive.
It was also annoying, because Raleigh was clearly doing things his own way.
But personal feelings didn't affect his command.
"All units!" Sengoku's voice boomed, amplified by a loudspeaker. "Prioritize destroying the pirate ships immediately! Cut off their retreat! We are going to trap them on that island like catching turtles in a jar!"
He raised his fist and shouted with grave determination.
"Total Annihilation!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Gion and Tokikake, standing nearby, couldn't help but get swept up in the moment.
They loudly chanted the slogan along with the crew.
"Justice will prevail!"
The remaining Marine forces—a massive fleet hidden in the fog banks—quickly mobilized upon hearing Sengoku's orders.
Engines roared to maximum capacity, and hundreds of cannons turned toward the unsuspecting World Pirates.
"Admiral Sengoku," Borsalino said leisurely, standing up and adjusting his yellow striped suit. "If there's nothing else... I'll go support my foolish younger brother. He tends to get lonely."
Hearing this, Sengoku remembered Raleigh was still entangled with the monster alone.
He couldn't help but grow anxious.
"Hurry up and go," Sengoku grumbled. "Although that kid Raleigh has the same lazy personality as you, the Marines still need talented recruits. What if he dies? Or worse... what if he actually becomes hardworking and I have to deal with two of you?"
Regarding his opinion of Raleigh, Sengoku found it quite frustrating.
It wasn't that Raleigh was incompetent—far from it.
It was that he disliked how Raleigh, much like Borsalino, tended to do the bare minimum required to exist.
Furthermore, according to Marine intelligence, Raleigh was particularly skilled at forming cliques.
Wherever he went, loyal small groups would emerge around him.
The Marines didn't prohibit factions—Hawks, Doves, Centrists—it was natural.
But Sengoku disliked Raleigh forming cliques for one reason: Raleigh wasn't part of Sengoku's circle.
Within Sengoku's circle, the legitimate successors were Gion and Tokikake.
If those two formed a team, Sengoku would endorse it.
But Raleigh? He was a wild card.
Borsalino ignored the lecture.
He walked to the nearest cannon on the deck.
"Excuse me," he said to the gunner. "Mind if I borrow this?"
He aimed the cannon skyward, calculating the trajectory with a lazy eye. He casually lit the fuse with a fingertip beam of light.
Then, calmly, elegantly, he stepped onto the cannonball just as it was sitting in the barrel.
BANG!
The cannon roared.
The projectile soared toward the island, tearing through the sky.
And standing atop it, hands in his pockets, coat fluttering wildly but his expression bored, was Borsalino.
He rode the shell like a surfboard, flying toward the battlefield.
"Whoooooaaaa!" Tokikake grabbed the railing, staring with starry-eyed admiration.
"Vice Admiral Borsalino's move is absolutely beautiful! So cool! Gion, look! Do you think I could learn that?"
In Tokikake's fantasy, Borsalino's figure was automatically replaced by his own.
'The scene: Pirates invading an island. Civilians praying for salvation. Suddenly, a cannon fires! And there is Tokikake, riding the shell!'
'Amidst the explosions, his tall, rugged figure emerges from the smoke. He dispatches the pirates with a rose in his teeth.'
'Then, under the worshipful gazes of the people, he'd casually remark, "Good, I wasn't too late this time," while legions of curvaceous young women cheered, "Lord Tokikake! Please marry me!"'
"Gion! Imagine it!" Tokikake drooled.
Gion paid absolutely no attention to Tokikake's infatuated expression or his delusions.
Her knuckles were white as she gripped her sword, Konpira.
Her concern was fixed solely on the island.
On Raleigh.
'Raleigh...' He was facing Byrnndi World—the World Destroyer.
A man who had battled Roger and Whitebeard.
Gion knew Raleigh was strong.
She knew he was hiding his true power.
But this was different.
This was a war against a demon.
"Don't die, you idiot," she whispered. "You promised."
But currently, Gion couldn't afford to just worry.
She had her own mission to fulfill. The pirate fleet was fighting back.
CRASH!
Another thunderous clash of combat echoed from the island, shaking the air.
The dark clouds that had been gathering all morning finally broke.
The sky tore open.
Torrential rain, heavy and cold, began to hammer down, mixed with serpentine bolts of lightning that lashed across the sky.
The warship carrying Gion and the others teetered perilously in the raging swells, the waves rising to meet the rain. The storm had begun.
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