Akainu slowly turned his head toward the Heavenly Celestial Dragons, the brim of his cap pressing down over his eyes so no one could see his expression. He didn't bother answering those people and instead kept his gaze on Kuma.
"You should've lost consciousness by now... Since you already left, why did you come back? The wall is this high, your ability can't reach that height, so did you just slam into it?"
The magma on his fist grew denser and fiercer.
"But you, who are no different from a corpse now, where exactly are you trying to go, huh! Meigo!!"
Akainu suddenly leapt, magma forming into a claw as it shot straight for Kuma's face.
Whether he had consciousness or not, in that instant Kuma tilted his head aside, letting that magma claw graze past the edge of his skull. Even so, as the most destructive force on the seas, it still burned open the left side of his head, drawing fresh blood.
And just then, Kuma's figure flickered, slipping past the airborne Akainu and bolting straight forward.
"Stop right there! Kuma!"
Akainu whipped around, firing off another Meigo that blasted into Kuma's ankle, but at the exact moment of impact, Kuma's running figure vanished.
"Akainu! How could you let him get away! You're the dignified Navy Fleet Admiral!"
"Your budget's getting cut! The Navy actually let someone storm Mary Geoise, and not just once! And those damned Revolutionary Army bastards, this is all because you lot are incompetent! Unforgivable!"
"You'll be held accountable for this! Akainu!"
The Heavenly Celestial Dragons shouted one after another.
Akainu ignored the voices around him, clenching his cigar between his teeth as he stared ahead at the empty space where only magma was eating away at the ground. He lowered his head slightly and said in a low voice:
"Your body, your mind, your will, all turned into a puppet..."
He blew out a puff of smoke, lifted his head again, and looked up at the sky. The words he murmured—no one knew whether he was talking about Kuma or himself.
"Where can you even run off to now..."
...
Inside the mist of Egghead, the falling spear-like spider leg was blocked by a massive body, driving the tip deep into its back.
The young Bonney was scooped up into a broad, encompassing embrace.
She opened her eyes and stared in disbelief at the one holding her. Her tears could no longer be held back.
"Dad..."
Before that single word could fully leave her mouth, a sphere of air swelled in Kuma's hand, wrapping around Bonney and making her vanish from the spot, reappearing almost instantly aboard the Sunny outside the island.
"Mm!!"
The instant Bonney disappeared, he pushed himself up and twisted his body, the shockwave he generated shattering the spider leg behind him. He drove his fist forward, slamming it square into Saturn's face; his knuckles sank into the man's features and even paused there for a second.
Boom!!
Under that punch, Saturn was blasted away, and the colossal burst of force completely blew the fog off the island, revealing at its center a place that had turned into a seawater lake—and on the surface of that water, only a single head remained of Sage.
"Oh? Kuma, huh?"
Sage turned his head to look, smiling as he said, "I was thinking of waiting a bit longer, but you, even with your consciousness gone, still had to steal my thunder? Whatever, this works too..."
He looked at Saturn, who had crashed just in front of him at the edge of the seawater lake, and was about to say something when he suddenly froze, because right then two people appeared there in a flash.
"Oh? Isn't this Governor Sage?"
Devon let out a coquettish laugh and didn't waste time. She tapped one of Saturn's spider legs and said, "Need some backup?"
Van Augur said blandly, "Running into you here... is this a fated encounter?"
"You two getting a little too full of yourselves?"
Sage let out a cold chuckle. "This counts as shallow sea, right? At most, what, two hundred meters..."
His true body could plunge straight into the ocean!