"Rain, why are you here?"
On the deck, Sakazuki's gaze locked onto the lone figure standing on the beach. His voice was low, but his expression was sharp with suspicion.
Even Sakazuki who demanded absolute justice had once held a sliver of respect for Rain.
After all, Rain had hunted down and killed countless notorious pirates.
Unlike the scum he slaughtered, Rain himself had never acted like a pirate. To Sakazuki, that kind of man could be someone worth recruiting.
But now? Standing here, interfering with Marine justice?
That demanded answers.
Rain's eyes were calm as he replied. "It's simple. I just can't stand it."
"…Can't stand it?"
Sakazuki froze for a moment, then realization twisted his features into fury.
"So that's it. You've chosen to stand against justice?"
Heat rolled off his body, magma bubbling and dripping from his clenched fists.
Rain shook his head lightly. "Sakazuki… you still can't represent justice."
The words struck harder than any blade. To Rain, for one man to claim he was justice—it was laughable arrogance.
"Enough talk."
Sakazuki's voice dropped like molten stone. "If you stand in the way of justice, you're the enemy. And the enemy…" His fist rose, glowing white-hot. "…dies here."
"Great Eruption!!!"
A colossal magma fist roared forward, scorching the air itself.
"Divine Departure!"
Rain drew Ace, his blade humming with Conqueror's Haki, and swung.
BOOM!!!
The sky split as blade met magma. The wave of fire was torn apart, sliced cleanly down the middle.
"…What?!"
For once, Sakazuki's composure cracked. He had expected resistance—but not for his magma to be cleaved apart so casually.
And then Rain moved.
His blade swept horizontally, and a massive shockwave of energy raced across the sea. The arc of power stretched wide enough to envelop the ten Marine warships.
If it landed, ten of the Navy's top battleships would be cut in half in an instant.
A loss even Sakazuki could not accept.
"Block it—now!!"
In perfect sync, three Vice Admirals leapt forward: Onigumo with his many blades, Doberman with his scarred grimace, and Stainless, his steel-gray aura flaring.
Together with Sakazuki, they combined their power, halting Rain's slash before it ripped through the fleet.
But Rain's voice echoed like thunder.
"Too slow."
The instant his slash was stopped, his figure vanished from the shore.
"W-what?!"
The Navy soldiers' eyes widened. By the time they registered his absence, Rain was already in front of the warship at the edge of the fleet.
The blade fell.
BOOM!!!
The massive ship shuddered, then split cleanly in two. The sea swallowed its wreckage as screams filled the air.
Rain's eyes never wavered.
Of course, Rain had pulled his strike. The sailors aboard were thrown into the water, panicked but alive.
Rain wasn't a butcher. He wouldn't kill Marines unless there was no other choice.
The world needed a Navy.
"You bastard!!!"
Vice Admiral Onigumo lunged, hair twisting into extra arms that each gripped a sword, descending like a spider's strike.
"Out of my way."
Rain's eyes narrowed. One slash was enough.
CRASH!!!
Onigumo's body was sent hurtling back, smashing into the deck of his own ship and crushing the main cannon beneath him.
"Onigumo!!!"
From another deck, Doberman and Stainless exchanged grim looks.
They knew Onigumo's strength. Ruthless, merciless, a seasoned Vice Admiral. Yet Rain had carved him down with one stroke.
If they rushed in alone, they'd be cut apart just the same.
"We'll go together!" Stainless barked.
But before either could leap, Sakazuki surged forward, magma erupting.
"I'll take him!"
"Hellhound!!!"
His arm morphed into a massive molten beast, jaws wide as it lunged for Rain's chest.
CLANG!!!
The blow halted. Sakazuki's pupils shrank.
His most vicious strike—stopped cold by one blackened sword.
Ace, wrapped in lightning-like Haki, held his magma fist in place.
"Kill him!!"
With a roar, Doberman and Stainless lunged at Rain's sides, blades thrusting for his ribs.
"...!"
Rain's eyes flashed.
BOOM!!!
Conqueror's Haki detonated at point-blank range.
Doberman and Stainless froze for a fraction of a second, their bodies rebelling in terror.
It was all Rain needed.
"Get out of my sight!!!"
SLASH!!!
Ace swept in a vicious arc.
The three Vice Admirals—Sakazuki, Doberman, and Stainless were blown back, blood flying from their mouths as their bodies smashed across the decks.
"Urghhh!!!"
Groans filled the air.
As for Sakazuki, his body was hurled like a blazing meteor, crashing into the coastline in a ball of magma.
Rain lowered his blade, expression calm.
"Sakazuki's strength… it's still too immature."
He hadn't chased the strike. There was no need.
Compared to the future Akainu, the Fleet Admiral who would one day clash with Whitebeard himself...even this furious Sakazuki was still too green.
Rain looked at his own hands, flexing his fingers. A strange realization struck him.
"...Has my power already reached this point?"
It hadn't been long since he'd walked this path, yet the gap between what he had been and what he was now felt like a chasm.
"Th-this guy… he's a monster."
Vice Admiral Stainless, coughing blood, pulled himself up from the ruined deck. He had fought alongside countless veterans of Marineford, had witnessed the fists of legends like Garp.
And the boy before him… gave him that same suffocating feeling.
No—it was worse. The boy barely looked seventeen.
For someone that young to wield strength like this… it was something that should not exist.
"The enemy must be erased here."
Sakazuki's voice rumbled like magma as he staggered back to his feet, eyes burning with Absolute Justice. "If we let him walk away… this man will become the Navy's greatest threat."
Doberman wiped the blood from his mouth, his scarred face twisted.
"What about Kuzan?" he growled. "If we summon him, the two of you together—Sakazuki and Kuzan you can crush this scum."
At the mention of the name, the air seemed to shift.
Kuzan. Another of the Navy's admiral candidates, one step away from the highest seat of power. Though his demeanor was calm, his power was said to rival Sakazuki's own.
Even Rain could not possibly stand against two admiral-class monsters at once.
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