The colossal deck of the Moby Dick became the center of the universe as the rookie in the straw hat stood eye-to-eye with the strongest man in the world.
Edward Newgate towered over the boy like a mountain of pure muscle and scars, his massive bisento resting easily in his grip as he looked down at the intruder who had literally dropped from the heavens.
"So you're Ace's little brother," Whitebeard rumbled, his voice a low, heavy vibration that rattled the remaining glass panes of the ship. He looked the boy up and down with an unreadable expression. "I've heard about you. You've got a lot of nerve coming here, squirt. A battlefield like this isn't a playground for a rookie. Don't get in my way, or I'll blow you away myself."
Luffy didn't even flinch. He planted his feet firmly on the deck, threw his head back, and stared straight into the Emperor's eyes, puffing his chest out.
"Shut up! I don't care how big you are!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing across the frozen bay. "I'm the one who's going to be the Pirate King! I don't care if you're a Whitebeard or a Blackbeard, I'm not letting you get ahead of me!"
A suffocating, horrified silence instantly gripped the entire battlefield.
Across the ice, New World pirate captains dropped their jaws, their eyes nearly popping out of their skulls.
'Is he insane?!'
'He just picked a fight with the old man!'
Even the Marines in the plaza froze mid-charge, staring in absolute disbelief at the audacity of the rookie. Nobody spoke to Whitebeard like that and lived to tell the tale.
Before anyone could recover from the shock, Luffy pointed a dramatic finger up at the sky, his expression turning deadly serious. "And another thing, old man! I heard it on the navy ship! They're moving up the time for Ace's execution! They're going to kill him sooner than they said!"
Whitebeard's eyes narrowed, a sharp spark of fury igniting in his gaze as he took in the information. He looked toward the execution platform, where Sengoku stood with a tense, rigid posture.
Down on the ice below, resting against a shattered piece of a Marine fortification, Tenjin watched the exchange with a massive, teeth-baring grin. He shook off the last remnants of his clash with Doflamingo, the green leaves on his shoulders rustling with excitement as he pushed himself up.
"Hey! Luffy!" Tenjin shouted across the frozen expanse, his voice bursting with hyperactive energy. He pointed a bark-covered finger straight at Luffy. "Don't go getting ahead of yourself! You think you're just going to stroll up to the platform? I told you before, I'm the one who's capturing you today! I'm not letting you take another step!"
Luffy snapped his head around, recognizing the green-haired Marine instantly. He bared his teeth, his fists clenching as smoke faintly drifted from his skin. "You again Tenjin! I told you, if you get in my way of saving Ace, I'm gonna beat you up!"
Up on the high scaffolding of the execution platform, Fleet Admiral Sengoku's face went from purple to an entirely new shade of furious red. He grabbed his broadcasting Transponder Snail, his voice booming over the speakers with the force of a thunderclap.
"Captain Tenjin! Stand down and fall back immediately!" Sengoku roared, the veins on his temple bulging. "Stop wasting time with personal rivalries! Use your Logia abilities to support the main vanguard and secure the western defensive line! That is an explicit order!"
Tenjin didn't even bother to look back at the platform. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted straight back up at the Fleet Admiral.
"Don't tell me what to do, old man!" Tenjin yelled, his tone completely dismissive of the highest authority in the navy. "I only came to this boring, stiff war because I thought it would be fun! If you're gonna make it a drag, at least let me fight the guys I actually want to fight!"
For the second time in less than five minutes, the entire battlefield went utterly, painfully silent.
Marines dropped their rifles in sheer terror. Vice Admirals gasped, clutching their swords in disbelief.
'Did a Captain just tell the Fleet Admiral to shut up?!'
'What is wrong with the rookies in this war?!'
Sengoku looked like he was about to physically descend from the platform and execute Tenjin himself, while Garp simply let out a loud, booming laugh next to him, clutching his stomach. "Bwahaha! That brat has some serious issues with authority, Sengoku!"
"Shut up, Garp!" Sengoku snarled.
With the pleasantries thoroughly out of the way, both Luffy and Tenjin didn't waste another second. They launched themselves forward simultaneously, a pair of reckless, unstoppable meteors tearing a path directly toward each other through the thick of the crowd.
"Get out of my way!" Luffy screamed. He pulled his fist back, his arm stretching wildly into the distance before snapping back with explosive momentum. "Gum-Gum... Gatling!"
A barrage of invisible, high-velocity punches slammed into a dense wall of Marine soldiers, sending dozens of them flying through the air like bowling pins. Luffy sprinted over their falling bodies, his eyes locked entirely on the green hair in the distance.
On the other side of the plaza, Tenjin was tearing through the pirate ranks with equal, joyous savagery. His limbs expanded into massive, twisted tree trunks layered with heavy, black bark.
"Move it, move it, move it!" Tenjin laughed, swinging a colossal wooden arm like a giant broom. "Mori Mori; Wood Lariat!"
A dozen New World pirates were swept off their feet by the sheer physical mass of the spinning timber, crashing heavily into the frozen ground. Tenjin leaped into the air, using the spinning flower on his back to propel himself forward like a rocket, smashing down into the next group of enemies with a loud explosion of shattered ice.
Watching this twin trail of absolute destruction from a distance was Boa Hancock. The Pirate Empress stood frozen, her hands clutching her cheeks as her face flushed with an overwhelming, chaotic state of emotional upheaval. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would burst from her chest.
'Oh, heavens...' Hancock thought, her mind spinning into complete delirium as she looked back and forth between the two charging figures. 'On one hand, there is Luffy, my incredibly dear, close friend who is bravely fighting to save his brother! And on the other hand... there is my beautiful, magnificent Tenjin, my ultimate beloved, looking so fierce and powerful as he commands the battlefield! How can a woman's heart bear the sight of the two men she cares about most fighting with such passion?!'
She let out a soft, dramatic gasp, swaying slightly on her feet.
The distance between Luffy and Tenjin rapidly closed from a hundred yards to fifty, the ice between them vaporizing under the pressure of their advance. But just as Luffy was about to make his final leap, the ambient light in the plaza distorted violently.
A blinding, piercing beam of pure yellow light manifested directly in the air in front of Luffy, coalescing into the tall, slouching figure of Admiral Kizaru. The light faded, revealing his relaxed expression and tilted sunglasses.
"Oh, my..." Kizaru drawled, his voice agonizingly slow as he raised a glowing, light-infused leg. "To think we would meet again so soon after Sabaody, Straw Hat Luffy... You really are a frightening little boy..."
The air hissed as the light on his foot condensed into a localized laser explosion, aimed straight at Luffy's chest. Luffy's eyes widened, his body freezing up under the overwhelming pressure of an Admiral's presence.
Before the beam could fire, a massive, blue-skinned shadow intercepted the trajectory. Jinbe appeared out of the mist, his hands coated in high-pressure seawater. He grabbed Luffy by the collar of his vest and threw his massive weight backward, dragging the boy out of the direct line of fire just as Kizaru's foot snapped forward.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A massive beam of light pierced the ice where Luffy had stood a microsecond prior, creating a violent, towering explosion that shattered the frozen sea for hundreds of feet around them.
Tenjin landed heavily in the crater of the explosion, the green steam around his body flaring up as he stepped between Kizaru and the retreating Straw Hat. He looked up at the Admiral, his eyes narrowing with a sharp, defensive glare.
"Hey, Admiral Kizaru!" Tenjin shouted, crossing his arms over his chest. "I told you earlier, leave the Straw Hat to me! He's my target today!"
Kizaru tilted his head down, looking at the rookie Captain with a thoroughly mocking, slow smile. "Oh? Is that an order... Lord Celestial Dragon?"
The atmosphere around Tenjin instantly plummeted by twenty degrees. The hyperactive, cheerful expression on his face completely vanished, replaced by a cold, hollow mask.
The wood on his shoulders creaked under immense internal pressure as he stared at the Admiral.
"What did you just say?" Tenjin asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous, quiet whisper.
Kizaru merely raised his hands in a mock gesture of surrender, his smile never wavering. "Oooh... So scary..."
Before the tension between the two Marines could fracture into an actual civil war, a massive shadow loomed over the scene. Emporio Ivankov surged forward, his face enormous as he executed a massive, high-speed wink that generated a localized hurricane.
"Death Wink!" Ivankov roared.
The sheer atmospheric pressure of the explosive wink slammed into Kizaru, scattering his light-based body into a thousand glowing particles that drifted away across the plaza to reform elsewhere. Ivankov landed heavily, his massive purple wig swaying as he turned his fierce gaze toward Tenjin, his hands raised in a martial arts stance.
"Now then, you strange little green Marine! Let's see how you deal with—"
"Iva! Wait!" Luffy shouted, scrambling back to his feet, wiping a trail of sweat from his forehead. He stepped in front of the Okama King, his eyes locked onto Tenjin. "Leave him to me. I've gotta handle this guy myself."
Ivankov blinked his massive eyelashes, looking between the two boys with a cautious, uncertain expression. He could see the intense, stubborn history burning in both of their gazes. 'These two... they definitely have a past together. Fine, Straw Hat boy!'
"Don't lose your life here, Luffy!" Ivankov warned, stepping back into the fray to block a group of advancing Marine officers.
The plaza seemed to fade away as Luffy and Tenjin finally stood face-to-face, less than five feet apart. The ambient noise of the war. The cannon fire, the screams, the clashing of swords became nothing more than background static.
"Move out of my way, Tenjin," Luffy growled, pulling his brim down over his eyes.
"Make me," Tenjin replied, a small, arrogant smirk returning to his face. "With your fists."
Without another word, both boys drew their right arms back. Luffy's arm stretched backward by several yards, while Tenjin's arm expanded into a dense, heavy log of hardened wood.
"Gum-Gum... Bullet!"
"Mori-Mori… Wood Impact!"
BOOM!
Both punches landed simultaneously. Luffy's rubber fist slammed directly into the center of Tenjin's wooden cheek, while Tenjin's massive wooden fist collided squarely with Luffy's jaw. The physical impact sent a brief shockwave through the air between them.
For a second, they remained frozen in the double-strike posture. Then, slowly, both of their smirks widened into identical, stubborn grins.
"Idiot!" Tenjin laughed, his voice ringing with pure confidence. "Your punches aren't gonna do anything to me! I'm a Logia! Physical attacks just pass right through my wood form!"
"Idiot!" Luffy shouted back at the exact same time, his teeth bared in a fierce grin. "I'm made of rubber! A blunt wooden fist like that isn't gonna hurt me at all!"
The two boys broke apart, jumping back a few feet into their respective fighting stances, their eyes shining with a competitive fire that defied the gravity of the war around them.
"Well then," Tenjin said, the spinning flower on his back accelerating to a high-pitched hum as green steam swirled around his limbs. "Let's see who goes down first!"
"I'm not losing to a Marine!" Luffy yelled, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
A few yards away, Jinbe and Ivankov stood entirely motionless, their expressions a perfect match of absolute, unadulterated confusion. They looked at Luffy, then at Tenjin, then back at each other, their minds completely failing to grasp the logic of the situation.
'What is the point of this fight?' Jinbe thought, a giant sweatdrop forming on the back of his blue neck. 'Neither of them can use Haki yet, and they both have fruits that negate the other's specific type of physical damage... They're literally just going to punch each other for hours without doing a single point of harm.'
'Rookies...' Ivankov thought, rubbing his temples in utter exhaustion. 'They truly are a completely different species.'
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