Sengoku was just about to open his mouth to scold Garp again when the atmosphere suddenly shifted.
Garp's laughter stopped. His broad smile was replaced by a fighter's signature grimace. Without warning, without a signal, and without any detectable intent to kill, Garp's right hand turned pitch black. Flashes of red and black lightning erupted from his clenched fist.
Garp's fist shot straight toward Seven's face at a speed that tore through the air.
In that split second, the world seemed to slow down in Seven's eyes. His pupils changed rapidly. From black, they turned blood-red with three tomoe spinning wildly, then merged to form a complex star-shaped pattern.
Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Susanoo!" Seven thought.
Purple energy erupted from his body. Giant rib bones formed instantly, followed by four skeletal arms crossing in an 'X' shape in front of Seven's body. Pitch-black Weapon Haki surged forth, coating the purple bones like a suit of armor.
BAMMMM!!!
Garp's fist struck Susanoo's cross-guard defense.
The resulting shockwave flattened the harbor ground within a radius of hundreds of meters. Cracks spread like a giant spiderweb.
Although Susanoo's defense was coated in Haki, the raw power of "Garp the Fist" was overwhelming. Susanoo's skeletal arm cracked violently, and Seven's body was hurled like a cannonball.
He soared across the main square, crashing into one of the four towering cliffs surrounding Marineford's headquarters at the four cardinal points.
BOOM!
The massive cliff rocks collapsed, burying his body. A thick cloud of dust engulfed the area.
At the harbor, Sakazuki and Borsalino immediately assumed fighting stances, but Admiral Kong raised his hand, signaling them to stay still. Kong, Sengoku, and Tsuru simply stared at the rubble with narrowed eyes.
From behind the cloud of dust, heavy breathing could be heard.
Seven was gasping for air, his uniform shirt torn in several places. He looked up, his eyes gleaming through the dust.
A vortex of space instantly swirled in his eyes. Kamui.
Wush!
Seven's body vanished, swallowed by the vortex, and a split second later, the air behind Garp's neck warped. Seven materialized out of thin air, his upper body already enveloped by Susanoo, which gripped a colossal chakra sword. The blade swung through the air, aiming for Garp's back.
TRANGGG!
Without turning his head, Garp simply raised one arm, thickly coated in Weapon Haki, behind his back. That arm blocked the blade of the giant Susanoo, creating sparks of fire.
"BWAHAHAHA! Nice speed, Kid!" Garp laughed with delight. His eyes burned with excitement. "Again!"
Garp turned and unleashed a barrage of relentless punches. The air around them exploded every time Garp's fist swung.
Seven kept dodging backward. Every time his Susanoo was shattered by Garp's strikes, the purple bones immediately regenerated rapidly. Thanks to Isobu's awakening in his mental space, Seven's chakra reserves and physical endurance had increased drastically, allowing him to maintain Susanoo for longer.
"Katon Goukakyu no Jutsu!"
Seven took a deep breath and spewed a massive sea of fire from his mouth. The extremely high-temperature flames consumed everything in their path, melting the stones of the plaza.
However, a black shadow pierced through the sea of fire without hesitation. Garp charged through the flames with nothing but his arms crossed in front of his face, as if the deadly fire were merely a warm breeze. Though his skin was scorched.
Seeing Garp continue to advance, Seven deactivated his Susanoo.
His body was once again sucked into the Kamui vortex. In an instant, he appeared before Garp. This time, his hand gripped a long sword made of blue fire.
Seven swung the blue fire sword, imbued with Conqueror's Haki, toward Garp's fist, also imbued with Conqueror's Haki.
CRASH!
The sky above Marineford instantly split apart. Flashes of red and black lightning erupted from the point of impact, spreading across the entire island. A terrifying wave of Conqueror's Haki swept across the plaza.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Tens of thousands of low-ranking Navy soldiers training in the distance went pale and collapsed instantly, foam forming at their mouths as they couldn't withstand the pressure of the clash between the two King Haki.
Elsewhere, Sengoku's eyes widened. Kong leaned forward.
"That kid… is holding his own against Garp?" Sengoku muttered in disbelief.
"No, he's being overwhelmed," Tsuru replied calmly, her eyes sharpening as she analyzed the battle. "But look at his eyes. Every time his ability shifts—from summoning the purple skeleton to teleporting—the pattern in his eyes changes. If the report says he ate a Mythical Zoan... then this must be a legendary Zoan Devil Fruit centered on the power of the 'Eyes'."
In the midst of the battlefield, cold sweat drenched Seven's temples.
His blue flame sword trembled violently as it blocked Garp's fist. Seven was forced to change his strategy. He deactivated his thick defense and focused on his right eye.
As Garp launched a follow-up punch aimed fatally at his chest, Seven didn't dodge.
Whoosh!
Garp's fist pierced through Seven's chest as if the young man were a ghost. Kamui's ability to pass through objects.
Garp was slightly startled that his attack had struck empty air. In that split second, their gazes locked. Seven's star-patterned red eyes stared directly into Garp's.
"Tsukuyomi."
Garp's body suddenly froze rigid in place. His fist halted mid-air. His eyes widened in a blank stare.
Seven didn't waste that opportunity. He spun his body, channeling all his physical strength, Haki, and chakra into the blue flame sword in his hand, then slashed at Garp's chest with a full swing.
BOOOM!
Garp's body was hurled into the air like a cannonball, flying across half of Marineford Island, before finally crashing into a mountain cliff on the opposite side, shattering its peak. Thick smoke billowed high into the sky.
In the plaza, Seven deactivated his flame sword. He fell to his knees, his breathing weak. His lungs felt like they were on fire. Fortunately, thanks to his physical strength combined with the chakra supply from the Bijuu, no blood flowed from his eyes this time.
"You caught him with an illusion," Shukaku chuckled in his mind. "A sneaky move—I like it!"
Suddenly, the debris on the distant cliff exploded.
"YOU DAMN BRAT!!!"
Garp's furious roar echoed across the entire island. His speed was far more insane than before. He charged straight toward Seven, who was kneeling, his fist raised high with a murderous intent that was strangely mixed with deep frustration.
The fist struck Seven's head.
POOF!
Seven's body exploded into a cloud of white smoke.
Garp slammed into the empty ground, creating a massive crater. At the same moment, Seven's true body slowly emerged from a whirlwind near where Admiral Kong stood.
"Garp! Enough!" Admiral Kong barked in a deep voice that shook the air. "Do you want to destroy Marineford?!"
Garp stopped. He stood in the middle of the crater, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his face looking utterly devastated and deathly pale. He didn't respond to Kong's shout, just stood frozen in silence.
Sakazuki and Borsalino immediately approached Seven. Sakazuki grabbed his brother's arm to help him stand upright, while Borsalino gave a wry smile.
"You really hit Vice Admiral Garp, Brother. That's terrifying," Borsalino muttered casually.
Seven simply caught his breath with a faint smile. "He's a real monster."
The brief battle was officially over. Kong ordered the medical team to tend to the unconscious soldier, while he told the three of them to head straight to Fleet Admiral Gin's office.
As they walked down the main corridor of headquarters, Sengoku walked side by side with Garp, who looked deeply dejected and traumatized. Curious, Sengoku finally whispered.
"Garp. What happened to you when you froze like that just now? What did that kid show you that made you go berserk like a madman?" Sengoku asked, adjusting his frog-shaped glasses.
Garp's face grew even paler. He turned to look at Seven's back ahead of him with a look of sheer horror.
"That bastard…" Garp gritted his teeth, his voice trembling as he held back overwhelming emotion and disgust. "Inside that damn illusion… he forced me to marry Roger!"
Sengoku choked on his own spit. His steps halted. He stared at his old friend with his mouth half-open, then looked at the back of the black-haired Rear Admiral up ahead.
For the first time in his life, Sengoku felt a chill run down his spine at the sight of someone.