Akainu did not have much time to waste on meaningless probing. His mission was to launch a surprise attack, not fight a positional war against someone. Dragging things out would do him no good. At the very least, before more forces belonging to the Beasts Pirates gathered here, he needed to seize a suitable foothold.
Magma could not fly the way light could, but Akainu’s movement speed was hardly slow. After noticing Akainu’s movements, Kuzan also stopped and stood where he was, waiting for him. Both men knew that the person before them was their opponent.
The two faced each other in silence on the ice surface. Everything seemed exactly the same as it had more than a year ago.
“Kuzan, it looks like you’ve chosen an utterly misguided path. I never thought you would fall so far as to become a pirate.”
“Arara, you’re the last person I want to hear that from. We were never walking the same path to begin with, were we?”
Scratching his head, Kuzan began chatting with Sakazuki as though they were merely catching up. Faced with Sakazuki’s interrogation, Kuzan did not offer much of a rebuttal, but he still made it clear that he did not agree with Sakazuki.
“I thought you were lazy and indecisive, but at least you once walked the path of justice. Now, however, you’ve turned your back on it. Had I known this would happen, I would never have let you leave alive. I would have nipped you in the bud, you who would undermine justice.”
“So that’s how you saw me? That’s a little better than I expected. But your justice, is it truly your own, or is it the World Government’s justice?
I used to think you were merely an extremist, but from the day of Ohara onward, I began to realize certain things. Still, that no longer matters. People standing on different sides naturally have different understandings of justice, and when their position changes, their justice changes with it.
I won’t question another person’s justice, but your justice cannot obstruct mine. You’re trying to bind everyone to your standards. That simply isn’t realistic.”
Kuzan’s body began to change. In addition to the weapon that had released the Extreme Cold Storm earlier, red-and-white metal began covering his body.
After years as colleagues, Akainu knew very well that Kuzan had never possessed such an ability. Combined with the intelligence Drake had sent them, it was obvious where this power had come from.
“You all speak of your own justice, yet every last one of you betrays justice. Garp, Dragon, and now you—you’re all the same.
You abandoned justice for the sake of power. What right do you have to speak of justice anymore?!”
“You’ve misunderstood one thing. I have never betrayed my own justice. My justice simply isn’t the justice you recognize.
You’ve also gotten something backward. I didn’t abandon what I once upheld for the sake of power. Only after stepping outside the circle I had confined myself to was I able to see things I never could before. Perhaps what Dragon did back then was the right choice after all.
There’s no point saying more. You should have known a year ago that neither of us could convince the other. Since you’ve come here, there can only be one outcome.”
“You’re right. And this time, I won’t hold back. You weren’t my match a year ago, and you still aren’t now.”
“That’s not necessarily true, Sakazuki. I’ll return all that passion you showed me back then.”
Boom!
Their fists collided. The two men who had been “chatting amicably” moments before had simultaneously thrown punches at their enemy. Thick smoke billowed up behind Akainu as he unleashed his terrifying destructive power like an erupting volcanic crater.
Yet only a fist’s width away, snowflakes drifted through the air. The wind was bitterly cold, and snow filled the sky. With Akainu and Kuzan as the dividing line, the world had been split into two halves.
Extreme cold and extreme heat collided. Yet Akainu could sense something unusual. During their clash a year ago, Kuzan had been the one at a disadvantage. Although Kuzan’s ice possessed the power to freeze natural volcanoes, Akainu’s magma far surpassed that of any ordinary volcano.
This time, however, things were different. Kuzan’s ice was no longer merely resisting, nor was it evenly matched, it was beginning to overwhelm him!
At the same time, under Kuzan’s mental control, Iron Bundle’s bag floated into the air on its own. Rays capable of freezing all things scattered from within, enveloping both Kuzan and Sakazuki within the attack’s range.
Kuzan, whose body was ice to begin with, naturally had nothing to fear. Within the frozen world was where he fought best. Sakazuki, however, felt very differently. For an instant, he even had the sensation that he might truly be frozen.
“Great Eruption!!”
Magma surged within his body as Sakazuki unleashed a volcanic eruption. Under the intense heat, steam rose into the air, only to condense back into snowflakes under the freezing cold. The environment over the sea was gradually transforming into a battlefield better suited to Kuzan.
“Vice Admiral Onigumo, Fleet Admiral Sakazuki’s side…”
“Trust in the Fleet Admiral’s abilities. He can handle it. Our mission is to land. Don’t let your guard down, the enemy is definitely watching us.”
On both flanks of the battlefield where Akainu and Kuzan were fighting, the main Marine force had already bypassed their clash and was advancing toward the Kingdom of Daimonte. Kuzan made no attempt to stop them, as though Akainu had occupied all of his attention.
Beneath the ice, however, a group of massive creatures that Akainu had never anticipated was already on the move.
The Pacifistas had originally been following Akainu’s orders, methodically clearing away any potential threats. At this moment, however, they suddenly looked down beneath their feet.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Before the Pacifistas and the Marines behind them could react, the ice exploded apart. More than a dozen whales as large as small mountains smashed through from below.
“Island Whales?!”
The whales’ enormous size made the Marines immediately think of Island Whales. But upon closer inspection, the differences became clear.
They were not Island Whales.
They were Wailord.
Akainu’s guess was correct. With all the top-tier Fish-Men fighters already dispatched to other battlefields, ordinary Fish-Men truly could not break through Kuzan’s ice surface.
However, since this was a prearranged operation, Kuzan naturally would not trap his own forces by sealing off their route.
The Beasts Pirates might no longer be unfamiliar to the World Government, but the mysteries surrounding Arceus had yet to be fully uncovered. These Wailord were creatures they had never anticipated.
Akainu had also predicted that giant sea beasts might launch a surprise attack from underwater and had arranged defenses accordingly. Yet as the Wailord opened their enormous mouths, countless pirates came rushing out from within.
Using these “living submarines,” they had already found places to conceal themselves. They could have directly attacked the warships, but Akainu had still been aboard at that time, so Kuzan had ordered them to wait.
Kuzan knew very well that, given Akainu’s personality, he would not remain cautious forever. Once most of the risks had been ruled out, he would take action directly. War was not a game, and death was even more commonplace. It was impossible to avoid taking risks altogether.
And the Beasts Pirates had many cards to play. These cards, deliberately held back until now, were completely beyond the enemy’s expectations.
“Don’t panic! They’re only pirates! Their point of emergence is merely unusual! Engage the enemy!”
The Marines formed ranks and charged toward the pirates pouring out. The toppled Pacifistas staggered back to their feet, powerful lasers already gathering in their mouths. But before they could fire, even faster laser blasts rained down on their heads.
Amid the smoke, a crimson figure accompanied by several purple figures had already begun targeting the Pacifistas scattered across the battlefield.
As weapons developed using Kuma’s genes as their foundation, the Pacifistas had been conceived under the principle of suppressing pirates and maintaining peace. But in the New World, they had proven far less effective than expected.
The stronger pirates of the New World were all capable of fighting Pacifistas. Aside from Kuma himself, the mass-produced units had only limited usefulness and could not display the same overwhelming suppressive force they did in the Four Seas.
Even so, they remained powerful weapons combining the functions of self-propelled artillery, tanks, intelligence analyzers, and more. If they were not dealt with first during a war, they could still inflict enormous casualties on ordinary soldiers.
Different weapons required different methods of use. Developing tactics specifically aimed at countering them required time and effort, but there was one simplest solution: create an individual with the same functions, but superior quality, and use it against them.
Compared to the Pacifistas, Genesect were enhanced versions in every respect.
They possessed the same steel bodies and laser cannons, but Genesect could also erect Protect barriers to block attacks far beyond normal specifications, switch between attack types, fly, and think with greater intelligence.
As the pride of Bug- and Steel-types, they displayed far greater combat capability on the battlefield. Acting as breakthrough units, they ultimately shattered the Marine formation, turning the ice surface into a chaotic melee. Within that chaos, they became the most merciless mechanical killers, eliminating enemies across the battlefield.
War raged throughout the New World, and even the rear lines were far from secure. Metagross’s supercomputer-like brain rapidly processed the intelligence. The Marines might not have Pokémon, but they had numbers.
At Marine Headquarters, new reports arrived almost every minute, leaving Sengoku’s face filled with worry.
As a retired senior officer, Sengoku’s assignment was to remain behind and guard Marine Headquarters, yet he felt even more exhausted than when he had served as Fleet Admiral.
“What exactly is the World Government trying to do? Fighting like this… we can’t achieve any meaningful results.”
A stalemate, another stalemate, and nothing but stalemates. Although war was not rock-paper-scissors and victory could not be decided instantly, this style of fighting still left Sengoku deeply troubled.
Putting the other pirates aside for now, a starving camel was still larger than a horse. Even after the elites had been drawn away, the remaining forces were still more than capable of dealing with ordinary small fry.
But the Revolutionary Army had already begun large-scale operations. These people were not fools. They had finally waited until the day when “the wind began to rise.” If they still failed to act now, they truly would accomplish nothing.
By this point in the fighting, neither of the enemy’s supreme commanders had appeared, while nearly all of their own cards had already been played.
Sometimes, the more one feared something, the more likely it was to happen. Just as Sengoku was arranging the deployment of the follow-up forces, alarm bells suddenly rang throughout Marine Headquarters, and the door to Sengoku’s office was flung open in a panic.
“Not good, Inspector General Sengoku! Kaido—Kaido is attacking!!”
“What did you say?!”
Outside, high in the sky, Kaido’s massive body had already torn through the clouds and arrived directly above Marine Headquarters. A Blast Breath carved a line symbolizing death across the plaza.
“Worororo! Is there no one left at Marine Headquarters? Where is my opponent?!”
The Marines had deployed forces everywhere, but Kaido had not chosen to support any particular subordinate or ally. He disliked being led around by the nose by his enemies, unless that was what he had intended from the start.
He was only one man and could not be everywhere at once. Since he could not take care of every battlefield, he simply abandoned the idea of providing support and instead attacked a place the enemy was forced to defend—the location where their combat power could most easily be concentrated: Marine Headquarters.
He refused to believe that if he stormed Marine Headquarters itself, the Marine forces would still be able to continue advancing methodically and steadily.
You can read ahead upto 75 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon.
Become a Patron!