The inner plaza of Marineford was an apocalyptic theater of dust, blood, and fractured stone. The boiling sea of the outer bay was now sealed behind the massive steel Encircling Walls, leaving a hyper-concentrated battlefield where the surviving elite forces of both sides were locked in an unhinged melee.
Suddenly, a massive shadow cut through the rising steam. Utilizing the raw kinetic thrust of his Fish-Man Karate, Jinbe had physically hurled Monkey D. Luffy over the towering steel barricade.
CRASH!
Luffy hit the stone tiles of the plaza hard, rolling to his feet, a massive wooden mast clutching in his hands as he skidded to a halt. He gasped for air, his eyes wide, his Straw Hat dangling securely against his back. But as the dust cleared, the boy's breath hitched in his throat.
Standing directly in front of him, lined up in three beneath the execution platform, were the three absolute pillars of Marine military might.
Admiral Aokiji stood lazily, a faint trail of frost leaking from his shoulders. Admiral Kizaru leaned back, a mocking, slow-witted smirk playing on his lips as light glinted off his amber sunglasses. And in the center stood Admiral Akainu, his face a terrifying mask of absolute, unyielding hatred, his right arm already bubbling with a thick, viscous layer of liquid magma.
"You're finally on the grand stage, son of Dragon," Akainu rumbled, his voice dripping with lethal intent. "Your lineage ends here."
"Ace!!!" Luffy screamed, completely ignoring the terrifying, god-like presence of the three logia users as he prepared to lunge forward with his rubber limbs.
Kizaru slowly lifted a finger, a brilliant, blinding cross-point of golden light condensing at the tip, ready to pierce through Luffy's skull at the speed of light. "Oh... so scary. Let's put a flash through those dreams..."
Before the light beam could erupt, the very foundation of Marineford groaned in absolute agony.
BOOM!!!
High out on the bay, Edward Newgate braced his legs and drove his massive fists sideways into the empty air, shattering the atmosphere like a pane of glass. A cataclysmic, localized tremor blast ripped through the subterranean faults of the plaza. The stone floor split violently down the center, creating a massive, yawning chasm that physically separated the three Admirals from Luffy, throwing their defensive alignment into total, chaotic disarray.
"Go, Straw Hat!" a majestic, azure flame roared from the heavens. First Division Commander Marco flew overhead in his sweeping, half-phoenix form, his legendary blue fire expanding outward to intercept a sudden volley of golden light beads that Kizaru had loosed toward the ground. "Don't let them halt your steps!"
Meanwhile, high upon the execution platform, Fleet Admiral Sengoku looked down at the encroaching chaos, his patience completely bottoming out. The tactical calculations were failing; the pirate morale was refusing to shatter.
"Executioners!" Sengoku's voice boomed over the plaza, a cold, majestic command that brooked no delay. "We are done waiting for the scheduled hour! Cut off Portgas D. Ace's head immediately! Show the world the price of pirate blood!"
The two masked executioners stepped forward, their long, broad-bladed poleaxes reflecting the pale sun as they raised them high over Ace's neck. Ace closed his eyes, his teeth clenched as he waited for the cold steel to bite.
At that exact same microsecond, down in the eastern sector of the plaza, a brutal New World pirate captain. A massive, scarred giant wielding a heavy, jagged-edged scimitar burst through the smoke screen.
Hibari, who had just dropped from her shattered tower to reload her specialized sniper rifle, was caught completely off-guard by the sudden, close-range assault. Her wide eyes dilated as she looked up, her fingers scrambling to cycle the bolt, but the massive scimitar was already descending in a lethal, high-velocity arc designed to cut her cleanly in two.
"Die, Marine brat!" the pirate screamed.
"Hibari!!!"
Tenjin, who was being supported by Koby and Helmeppo a few meters away, saw the blade falling. His horrific, weeping magma burns flared with white-hot agony as he tried to lunge forward, but his physical stamina was entirely spent. His boots slipped on the stone. He couldn't reach her. He was too slow.
In that single, agonizing fragment of a second, the entire universe seemed to grind to a complete halt for two boys on opposite sides of the plaza.
Luffy stared up at the executioners' raised blades. Tenjin stared across the stone at the scimitar falling toward Hibari.
Their minds didn't calculate a strategy. Their spirits didn't query a protocol. Both boys reached their absolute, unhinged emotional breaking points at the exact same microsecond. A raw, primitive, and fiercely protective instinct tore through their souls, and neither understood what they were doing, but they both opened their throats and let out a monstrous, reality-shattering roar.
"STOP IT!!!" Luffy screamed.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!!!" Tenjin roared.
CRACK!!!
An absolute, cataclysmic explosion of spiritual pressure erupted from both boys simultaneously. It wasn't a standard wave of energy; it was a dual, uncontrolled surge of Conqueror's Haki clashing and multiplying in the center of the bay.
A colossal, dual shockwave of crimson and brilliant, emerald-tinted lightning rippled outward from Luffy and Tenjin, tearing across the plaza with supersonic velocity. The sheer, suffocating gravity of the spiritual pressure was so immense that the air itself turned thick and heavy, dropping the temperature of the battlefield instantly.
Thud. Thud.
High on the platform, the two masked executioners' eyes rolled back into their heads. Their poleaxes slipped from their fingers, clattering uselessly against the wood as both men collapsed into a dead faint, completely unconscious before their blades could touch Ace.
Down in the plaza, the massive pirate captain threatening Hibari froze mid-swing. The jagged scimitar slipped from his trembling grip, shattering against the stone. His eyes went entirely white, thick white foam escaping his lips as his nervous system completely shut down under the weight of Tenjin's raw, dominant pressure. He crashed face-first onto the tiles, totally neutralized.
Across the entire island, thousands of weaker Marine infantrymen and New World pirate subordinates dropped like flies, their bodies hitting the ground in a synchronized wave of unconsciousness until the plaza was littered with thousands of sleeping soldiers.
Silence. Absolute, stunned silence fell over the battlefield.
High on the Moby Dick, Whitebeard stood motionless, a wide, deeply proud grin breaking through the blood on his face. He let out a low, rumbling chuckle, his eyes fixed on the rubber boy. "Well, well... so you carry it too, brat. You really are a true inheritor of the D."
But upon the high ramparts, Fleet Admiral Sengoku was not smiling. His golden transponder snail shook slightly in his grip, his eyes darting from Luffy straight down to the smoking, burned form of Tenjin. A cold sweat broke out across the old Marine's brow.
"The Straw Hat boy... and Tenjin too?" Sengoku whispered, his voice laced with a profound, terrifying realization. "The Supreme King's Haki... unleashed by two rookies at the exact same moment. Luffy is the son of the Revolutionary, but Tenjin... the Marines are harboring a terrifying, uncontrollable anomaly within our own ranks. If that boy's roots turn against the Government..."
Admiral Akainu's face darkened completely. The brim of his cap cast an pitch-black shadow over his eyes as his entire body began to churn into a violent, hyper-pressurized volcano of liquid magma. The smoke rising from his shoulders turned dark and toxic as he stared at the two boys with an unhinged, absolute hatred.
"The son of Dragon... and a Marine captain who openly insults his superiors and unleashes the color of a king," Akainu whispered, his teeth grinding with a lethal, terrifying finality. "Both of those boys are a biological threat to global justice. They possess the seed of revolution. They must be snuffed out immediately... down to the last cell."
Amidst the grand reactions of the world's powerhouses, Boa Hancock stood on a shattered stone ridge a few dozen meters away. The legendary Pirate Empress, who had been maintaining a cold, arrogant demeanor throughout the war, suddenly felt her knees go completely weak.
Her breath hitched, a deep, rosy crimson blush instantly consuming her flawless cheeks as her eyes locked onto the green-haired boy who was still panting heavily amidst the smoke. The raw, dominant, and fiercely protective nature of Tenjin's Haki had completely bypassed her defenses, striking her straight in the heart.
"Ah..." Hancock swooned comically, her hands pressing against her burning cheeks as her body swayed dangerously in the wind. "What... what was that magnificent, unyielding pressure? To stand so fiercely for his comrades... to possess the spirit of a true king... Oh, Tenjin... you are a truly terrifying, beautiful man..."
Tenjin, completely oblivious to the Emperor Empress's reaction and the grand shockwaves he had just sent through the Marine hierarchy, simply fell forward onto his hands and knees. The green steam faded from his skin, his matted green hair falling over his face as he gasped for air, his consciousness barely hanging on by a thread. But as he looked across the clearing at a completely safe, wide-eyed Hibari, a small, exhausted smirk played on his bleeding lips.
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