At the harbor's pier, a massive evacuation ship was untying its mooring ropes.
The sounds of cannon fire rose and fell in the distance. Under the loud directions of Professor Clover, the scholars moved quickly.
"Hurry! Raise the sails! Tighten the ropes!"
Smoker was standing at the stern. He had turned both his arms into thick white smoke, acting like an auxiliary thruster.
He pushed against the back of the ship with all his might, helping it slowly pull away from the pier.
Olvia lay on a temporary stretcher on the deck, her wounds already having received emergency treatment.
Robin crouched beside Professor Clover, clutching the corner of his coat tightly as she looked worriedly at the injured woman.
Thud!
With a heavy sound, Aiden descended from the sky using Moonwalk and landed on the deck.
"You're finally here!" Smoker deactivated his smoke and wiped away sweat, speaking in an annoyed tone.
"If you hadn't shown up, I wouldn't have the skill to get them all out of here safely!"
Professor Clover stepped forward excitedly to greet him. "You're unhurt! That's wonderful!"
Aiden smiled and nodded to Professor Clover.
"Gahaha... so you are Aiden?"
A simple, voice came from the shadows of the cabin. Aiden snapped his head around and saw a giant, looking somewhat disheveled, walking out of the darkness.
It was the former Marine Vice Admiral, Jaguar D. Saul.
"Gahaha..." Saul scratched his messy orange hair and laughed sheepishly.
"Sorry I'm late! I was helping the civilians block cannonballs on the other side. I got tangled up with a group of Marines and barely managed to shake them off..."
He clearly had no idea that Kuzan had even been there.
Aiden stood rooted to the spot, completely frozen.
"I..." He looked at Saul's "I just helped out" grinning face, and a thousand insults flashed through his mind.
Wait a minute! According to the original plot, YOU were supposed to be the one to stop Kuzan, you giant!!
Because of you, I had to fight a brutal battle myself! If it weren't for my silver tongue passing that negotiation check, I might have been left back there as an ice sculpture!!
"You... hello." In the end, Aiden just waved his hand with a look of pure exhaustion.
"Anyway, let's leave this sea first."
He looked around and his gaze fell on Rocinante, who was watching him with concern.
Aiden pulled him to the stern, away from the crowd.
"You can't come with us."
"Why?!" Rosinante was shocked and hurried to lower his voice.
"Aren't we partners?!"
"It's because we're partners that you can't go." Aiden's expression was incredibly serious.
"You are Sengoku's foster son. If you go missing, the impact will be too big."
He paused and lowered his voice even more.
"Don't worry, Smoker and I are more than enough to get these professors out safely. If you're mixed in with us now, it'll be hard to explain later."
Rosinante seemed like he wanted to argue, but Aiden cut him off.
"Besides, I need you to go back and do something for me." Aiden stared into his eyes, saying every word clearly.
"After you go back, you need to tell a lie. Tell Vice Admiral Sakazuki that we ran into some unknown powerhouse on the island."
"Tell him that both Smoker and I were knocked unconscious by that man, and that our whereabouts are unknown.
As for you, say you barely managed to escape using the power of the Calm-Calm Fruit."
Rosinante instantly understood Aiden's intention.
Only this way could they cleanly explain the disappearance of Aiden and Smoker, while putting all the blame on a nonexistent powerhouse.
"I understand..." Rosinante gritted his teeth and nodded firmly.
"Go now." Aiden patted his shoulder.
"Find a place to hide. Once things settle down, just rejoin your unit."
Rosinante knew Aiden was right. He gave Aiden and Smoker a tight hug, took one last look at the professors, and then, taking advantage of the chaos, used Moonwalk to jump toward the ruins of Ohara without another word.
With Smoker's push, the ship finally sailed out of the inner bay and entered the open sea.
They hadn't even been sailing for a minute when—
"A warship!! It's... it's a Marine warship!!"
The professors on deck suddenly cried out in despair.
They recognized the ship that had just sunk the civilian evacuation vessel.
Across the distant sea, Sakazuki's fleet had already turned around. He had spotted this evacuation ship escaping from Ohara.
On the warship, Sakazuki watched the vessel from afar. Having already received news of Aokiji's "defeat," he confirmed that this was the ship carrying the professors.
"Hmph. So these are the demons of Ohara? Unforgivable." Sakazuki's voice was cold.
"Turn the cannons! Target the escaping ship ahead! Sink it completely!!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Dozens of cannonballs streaked through the air like a meteor shower, crashing toward the evacuation ship that had just left port.
"It's over!!" The professors crouched down and covered their heads in fear.
Saul roared in anger, ready to block the shells with his body. Smoker also tensed up, prepared to act.
"Nobody move!"
Aiden stepped to the bow. Facing the sky full of fire, he drew the sword at his waist.
He slashed at the incoming cannonballs.
This attack wasn't as outrageous as his earlier "One Sword Style: Sea Splitter," but it was still packed with an enormous amount of Armament Haki.
He swung upward from below, releasing a massive half-moon-shaped slash!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
Every single cannonball was destroyed in midair by that slash.
Brilliant bursts of fire lit up the sky.
On Sakazuki's warship, he watched that terrifying slash.
For the first time, his expression turned grave.
"So the real threat has finally shown itself... Full speed ahead! Turn the ship! Crush them!!"
"They're catching up!!" the professors cried out again as they watched Sakazuki's warship advance.
"They just don't let up!" Aiden clicked his tongue.
From his storage ring, he pulled out the [Wind Flask] he had bought earlier from the Rare Goods Shop.
It was a flask small enough to fit in one hand.
Its surface, carved with strange wind patterns.
"Looks like it's time to try this."
It could control the wind within a one-kilometer radius.
As long as he could create a steady east wind around their ship, they could quickly shake off the Marine fleet.
Aiden opened the lid. A strong green cyclone rose from the mouth of the flask.
WHOOSH!!
A powerful, steady east wind suddenly burst out, forcefully filling every sail on the ship.
"Now! Move—"
Aiden was about to shout the order, but suddenly froze when he saw what was happening farther out at sea.
RUMBLE!!!!!
At the exact same moment their ship accelerated, the entire stretch of sea behind them, where the Marine fleet was located, suddenly went dark.
A completely unnatural superstorm, filled with purple-black lightning and tornadoes, dropped from the sky without warning.
It was so vast that it covered the entire Marine fleet surrounding the island. Only the area around Aiden's ship remained perfectly calm, without a trace of the storm.
Aiden: Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)
He snapped his head down to look at the palm-sized flask in his hand... then looked back at the apocalyptic storm in the distance.
Aiden's brain stopped working for three full seconds.
"What... what is going on?!"
"Didn't the description say it only controlled the wind within a one-kilometer radius?! Did this thing really make that storm?!"
Aiden didn't have time to think about it any further, because the sudden storm had completely cut off any chance of Sakazuki chasing them.
"Doesn't matter right now!" Aiden's excitement overwhelmed his shock.
"While we have the chance, get out of here!!"
Meanwhile, at the edge of Ohara's burning cliffs.
A man in a green hood, with tattoos on his face, stood against the wind.
He frowned as he watched the fading shadow of Aiden's ship.
"Strange..."
Dragon's voice was low and puzzled.
He had just used his Devil Fruit power to create a storm over the entire sea, trying to block the pursuing Marine ships.
"...Why did my storm fail to affect that ship alone?"
He had clearly seen that vessel glide along the edge of the storm as if it were protected by some kind of barrier, sailing with perfect stability.
"Is this the latest result of the Ohara professors' research?" Dragon's gaze sharpened.
"Something that can interfere with Devil Fruit powers? Or some kind of barrier technology?"
"That really is an impressive invention." Dragon looked away.
"If technology like that can be mass-produced, the world... may be about to change."