CHAPTER 152 — OUTSIDE JUSTICE
The magma fist came fast.
From the air, it looked like a piece of the earth itself had been torn free and thrown upward. The heat rolled ahead of it, bending the air, turning the space around it hazy and red. Marines below shielded their faces. Even from a distance, the heat was hard to ignore.
Gaius felt it before it arrived. Not fear, calculation. His armor could tank the attack without issue. But he wasn't the problem.
It was the people with him.
Before he could move, Diana reacted.
She released the lasso tied around Tony's waist. The golden rope snapped free, and gravity took her immediately. Her body dropped straight down, aimed directly at the incoming magma fist.
Tony reached out instinctively. "Diana—!"
Too late.
Diana fell without hesitation. No fear showed on her face. Her body turned slightly in the air, and she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
The bracelets met.
A shockwave burst outward.
It was not loud in the way explosions were loud. There was no fireball, no flying debris. The air itself seemed to fold, pushed aside by raw force.
The magma fist did not explode.
It broke apart.
The molten mass scattered, its shape lost in an instant. Pieces cooled mid-air, crumbling into useless fragments that fell harmlessly toward the ground. The attack ceased to exist.
Diana continued falling.
She did not slow down. She did not fly. She simply dropped, straight and clean, from a height that would have killed most people before they even hit the ground.
Marines and pirates alike watched her descent.
She landed lightly.
Stone cracked beneath her boots, but she did not sink or stumble. She straightened and looked up toward the execution platform, her eyes locking onto the man who had attacked her.
Akainu.
"We are not pirates," Diana said calmly.
Her voice was calm. Not angry. Not proud.
In her mind, things still made sense. These men wore uniforms. They stood in formation. They looked like the good guys.
Across from them were pirates, rough, scarred, and wild, standing on the frozen sea with weapons drawn.
She believed she was speaking to the right side.
Akainu did not answer right away.
He stared at her, his expression unreadable. Magma rolled slowly along his arms, dripping and reforming as if his body itself was alive.
Pirate or not did not matter.
Unknown fighters appearing in Marineford during the execution of Gol D. Roger's son were unacceptable. This was not a place for explanations. This was not a moment for doubt.
Variables had no place here.
Akainu raised his arms.
"Great Eruption."
Magma surged forward again, hotter and faster than before. Multiple fists formed, each one burning brighter than the last.
Diana's eyes narrowed.
She unsheathed her sword.
Lightning danced along the blade, crawling from the hilt to the tip. She stepped forward once and swung.
The blade cut cleanly through the magma.
The attack split apart, the molten fists losing shape and falling uselessly to the ground, hissing as they cooled.
Diana straightened.
She slid the sword back into its sheath with a smooth motion.
"We are not the bad guys" she said.
She meant it.
If it had been Gaius, the answer would have been different, force meeting force, a counterstrike. She believed words could still matter.
Akainu felt the strength in that swing. He understood it clearly.
And he dismissed her words.
Whether they called themselves heroes, warriors, or saviors meant nothing. They were unregistered combatants, interfering with Marine justice at the most important moment in history.
Justice could not afford uncertainty.
The execution of the Pirate King's blood was no place for misunderstanding or mercy.
Any variable, any force capable of resisting an Admiral, was a threat to order itself.
If they were allowed to stand, doubt would spread. And doubt was poison.
If they were not pirates, then they were something worse.
"Justice does not require understanding," Akainu said coldly. "It requires certainty."
He attacked again.
This time, Marines followed his lead.
Cannons fired. Rifles cracked. Orders were shouted as gunfire streaked upward toward the figures in the sky.
The pirates did not move.
Whitebeard's forces watched silently.
If they were not on the side of the Marines… then they must be allies.
Gaius felt the shift instantly. This was no longer a misunderstanding. This was open hostility.
Mindy reacted first.
A small interface shimmered before her, invisible to anyone else. The parcel system activated, and a sniper rifle materialized in her hands. She caught it smoothly, settling its weight against her shoulder, eyes narrowing as she took position on Gaius' neck.
She did not fire yet.
Saeko drew her sword.
The blade gleamed a dull silver, smooth and heavy. Adamantium. A gift from Tony.
She adjusted her position in Gaius' arms, ready to strike at a moment's notice, her focus razor-sharp.
Tony's armor shifted.
Panels opened along his shoulders. Micro-missiles slid into position, their tips locking onto targets below.
From below, Naruto saw Diana battling Akainu. Without hesitation, he leapt from Gaius's arms, creating Shadow Clones to slow his descent. Marines and pirates alike gawked, convinced he had some kind of Devil Fruit power that could multiply him.
Gaius made his choice.
With one arm free, he reached into his parcel system and pulled out two Melta Bombs.
He judged the distance quickly. Diana and Naruto were already on the ground. He adjusted the angle and threw.
The bombs fell.
Marines below saw them coming.
Grenades.
That was the thought shared by every trained soldier there. They moved away from the impact point, spreading out as they had been trained to do.
Then the bombs detonated.
There was no boom.
No fireball.
Just a brief flash of white light.
A focused lance of heat punched into the ground.
Stone did not shatter.
It melted.
Everything at the core vanished. One Marine caught in the center didn't even have time to scream before his body was erased, reduced to nothing but heat and light.
Stone turned to glass. Steel flowed like water. This was absolute death.
Heat radiated outward, claiming everything in its path. Marines within range burned instantly. Flesh sizzled, weapons warped, and the ground cracked, glowing red-hot and smoking.
A crater formed, not massive like a conventional explosion, but all the more terrifying.
The ground itself shimmered with glassy slag, still glowing long after the blast.
To the Marines and pirates watching, it looked unreal. Like compressed sunlight punching into the earth.
The shockwave was weak.
The heat was not.
Sengoku saw it.
He watched Marines die instantly, their deaths clean and final in a way that left no room for heroics.
"Damn bastards!" he shouted.
Kizaru stood.
For once, his face was serious.
He pointed upward, light gathering at his fingertip. A laser shot out, moving faster than sound.
Gaius sensed it.
He could take it.
The others could not.
The Iron Halo activated.
A shimmering shield formed around them just as the laser struck. Light splashed across the barrier and dissipated harmlessly.
Gaius did not hesitate.
He descended, carrying Saeko, and Mindy with him.
They landed on the ground, encircled by Marines and pirates on all sides.
~~~
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