C32 : War of the Best |Part 5|

• [Marineford, near Red Line] {Year : 20.5} •

"Ugh!" Several Elite Officers of Marine grunted as they flew backwards from Luffy, who was striking them away.

He glanced at the top of scaffold and frowned slightly. They were too strong for him to fight against... Luffy was still determined to rescue his sworn brother from the Marine.

As Luffy neared the scaffold, Whitebeard fought off the sentient sword. He kept giving glances at his cuffed son, Ace, on the execution stand. He was unsure whether the man would still live after using such forbidden technique... if he did though, Whitebeard was sure to tear him up another for doing it.

With a deep voice, Whitebeard pulled his left fist and gave it immediate tremors. As he pushed forward the fist, air tensed around him and caused the sentient sword to tremble. "CRUSH!"

*BOOOM!!!*

Striking his left fist onto the ground below him, several tens of feet around Whitebeard crushed into pieces. He stood before stepping backwards, dodging Mihawk's Yoru and the sentient sword floating about. Both of them kept on attacking him, ignoring anything else. Whitebeard parried against them, his Observation Haki sensing their paths.

As soon as he swung another attack of his Murakumogiri, a blaring light interrupted his eyes. Whitebeard still managed to block Mihawk's attacks while Admiral Kizaru's two small light orbs floated above his shoulders.

"Tch~ Looks like you'r-"

Just as Admiral Kizaru was about to finish his sentence in a fast speed, Mihawk's hawk eyes glared at him. It frightened him, as if a true predator was looking straight at his very soul. His spine chilled.

"Don't interrupt my battles!" Mihawk disliked any interferences in his battles. He was like a real hawk, focusing and ensuring that his opponent was his prey only. "I won't hesitate leaving the field if you continue to interrupt."

With that threat, Admiral Kizaru frowned slightly but could only stop and leave them be. He did not want to be the cause of a strong Shichibukai becoming a former one. He and the two other admirals knew of his newfound power due to the recent casual duel of Ryu and him, so they didn't want to risk him becoming their enemy. Even Admiral Akainu would admit so, though inwardly.

As Mihawk and Whitebeard resumed, the three Admirals went off to their respective chosen opponents. They fought and continued to wreck havoc around them, few casualties following them.

"You two! Get prepared." Fleet Admiral Sengoku ordered the two executioners, who in turn obeyed and readied their long swords. Hearing his order, most of the pirates was momentarily distracted and was paid in injuries.

With this, Sengoku could only be pleased with such event but was still inwardly annoyed at the Five Elders. Truthfully, they were the reason why such big war was occurring. After a visit of the pale-skinned man with tophat and cane, they had suddenly ordered to use the man as a starter to wipe out the most of pirates of Whitebeard Pirates' large fleet and alliances.

"Fortunately, that Teach didn't get the Shichibukai position..." That was probably the other thing that the Fleet Admiral felt relieved at. Marshall D. Teach had tried to obtain the empty position of Shichibukai but failed due to his incompetence. His combat prowess at that time, after the battle of him and Ace, had been greatly diminished that the Five Elders disdained at such weakling holding the title.

At that thought, Fleet Admiral Sengoku turned and looked at the giant man who controlled shadows as his devil fruit's power. How he obtained the position was baffling to even him. He mused to himself while assumptions of how Gecko Moria obtained it, appeared in his mind.

Gecko Moria, as if having sensed someone thinking about him in a wrongful way, shivered and quickly looked around for the reason. He couldn't find it and in the end, he decided that it must be someone admiring him in a great way. He nodded in satisfaction as he thought so. The shadows in the large man's own moved strangely and looked as if they were staring at Gecko Moria in contempt.

"Lava's Hunger!" Admiral Akainu's heated voice rang and after that, overbearing heat spread out. Lava appeared from Akainu's body and looked as if it was searching in hunger for blood. Even Marine Officers were involved as few pirates melted to their death.

However, a large portion of the Marine's Elite Officers did not even scorn the admiral for it. For it was Absolute Justice that they died for. Very few had their own opinions of this but did not dare to spout them out. That wasn't the case for Admiral Kuzan.

His body half-way enclosed in ice, his icy cold eyes glared at Admiral Akainu.

"You bastard!" He shouted at him from a distance as he blocked some pirates' attacks. While he was blocking them, Kuzan roared out at Admiral Akainu. "They're your underlings and yet you're willing to sacrifice them just to kill few pirates?!"

"Hmph! Your justice is weak." Admiral Akainu snorted. His Absolute Justice was better and stronger than anyone's! As long as he was the one to enforce or ordered it, the Marines and others should obey willingly! "Why would they hesitate dying for my ideals?"

"Because you didn't even give them a choice or even warn them!" Admiral Kuzan was exasperated with this boiling man. He only hoped that the man didn't become the next Fleet Admiral, otherwise he would leave the Marines. Seeing that Admiral Akainu did not even answer and focused on killing instead, the ice man could only scorn him inwardly. 'To think they actually would follow him in his ideals... what is the Marines becoming..?'

He idly noticed that several pirates who made a big bounty for themselves beginning to group up on him so he snapped out of it and brought his hands down.

As Admiral Kuzan slammed his hands down, he shouted. "Ice Age!"

Ice immediately spread out by a foot per a second from his hands. When it neared the Marines though, it circled them and continued for the pirates. This showed Kuzan's expertise in controlling his devil fruit. Pirates were either slowly being fully encased in ice or lost their limbs in order to stop its erosion on their bodies. Those who were frozen had their face stuck as terror or suicidal looks.

"Dazzling Light!"

Bright light suddenly shined upon them and explosions blasted. It was so bright and instantaneous that the pirates within the range couldn't react. They died in the explosions, their corpses showing complete blackness and black smoke emitting out of them. Admiral Kizaru merely gave them a glance to see whether any survived before disappearing in a light to another spot to send more explosions.

The three admirals were wrecking havoc left and right—wherever they went. As they continued to do so, the Shichibukai, with the exception of Dracule Mihawk, were in middle of their own battles with the Whitebeard Pirates' commanders.

"Kingdom's Knights!" Doflamingo roared out, manifesting tens of strings before they combined into five knight-shaped humanoids. They then moved out and fought against the three commanders of Whitebeard Pirates. Their prowess was unexpected of clones but they were capable of holding their grounds against them.

He smirked at the three commanders' faces, looks of confusion and curiosity. Normally, Doflamingo would've told them about the new skill if he was still the same as before but after his near-death and fear-inducing encounter with the Solitary Pirate, he did not bother to.

Kingdom's Knights were one of forbidden techniques he created after his defeat, involving life force. However, it wasn't his life force that Doflamingo was using. His smirk grew colder as he glanced at the knights made out of life force strings. Yes, they were others' life force. Ones that he killed and absorbed into the strings, thereafter saving them within his body in a very thin and small string with the purpose of using them when wanted. The two downfalls of this was that the victims had to be greatly angered or had great grudges, and that they could only be used once. But who cared about that?

Doflamingo gazed through his body, then his heart. Within the heart was a extremely small box made out of strings. They glistened with malevolent black color. The box of strings was made out of the many life forces Doflamingo took from his victims, showing just how many he killed. Hundreds. Thousands.

"Haha!" He laughed out loud, thinking that it was ironic. Doflamingo originally disdained such disgusting strings being kept within his body, moreover his heart, but finding out such method, he was now in glee and malicious with thirst for more. Perhaps it was fated that the Solitary Pirate ruthlessly destroyed him but left him alive. It was fate that declared he was to grow strong through that and then... become a god.

At this point of thoughts, Doflamingo suddenly donned a deranged look before turning neutral as if it was an illusion.

While Doflamingo was becoming more deranged, Gecko Moria looked around him. He was away from the most crowded pirates area but he still obtained a lot of shadows from there. Even the dead pirates had their shadows stolen, making their bodies to rot away into ashes due to the sun coincidentally hovering above them. Normally, one would have thought that if there was no body, there wouldn't be a shadow. But Moria's Shadow Shadow Fruit controlled the shadows within his range, which was quite large now. Due to absorbing a lot of shadows, his body and power grew larger but no one knew how long he could contain them.

Even the shadows had their consciences.

Gecko Moria cared for no such thing, thinking that they would bow and obey the command of the bearer of Shadow Shadow Fruit. He would often summon the shadows from within his to turn them into shapes of shadows before throwing them at the pirates. Though with decent results including several deaths of pirates, he couldn't recall the shadows when they left him thereby disappearing and completely leaving the world.

As Gecko Moria played passively, Bartholomew Kuma's right side crackled with lightning and blood. It revealed that he was partially mechanical, but anyone with the knowledge of his design would know that it was Vegapunk who did this. After all, Vegapunk loved putting his initials into his 'projects' and 'experiments' one way or another.

While Kuma was trying to regain his self control, several pirates took the chance and tried to attack his still-large figure.

"Get him!" One of them shouted, prompting them into attacking the paw-man. They charged...

*SQUISH* x6

...and instantly died the moment they neared him, becoming blood puddles. A slightly glowing white and paw-shaped bubble condensed with Kuma inside it.

Bartholomew Kuma gazed through his dark shades and looked at his right side, seeing that it was nearly completely gone. He also found something that he would have never thought such thing was the reason why he was so willing to sacrifice himself for his people.

It was so small and yet so clearly eye-catching. Revealed in his right side was a small golden shard, shining brightly as it twirled—showing that it was active. Kuma's face suddenly had a corner of his lip curling upwards before he grabbed it with his left hand.

With the said-golden shard in his hand, Kuma still saw that it was still active even without being inside his body. He was about to crush it in a fist but realized that it may affect him. Vegapunk wasn't even that stupid, on the contrary, he was a scheming mastermind. Kuma began to hesitate. What if he died and couldn't apologize to his people? His allies? His...

'No...' Bartholomew Kuma frowned and sighed as he placed the golden shard into his left pocket. 'I will deal with this. As long as I make sure it isn't inside my body, it will not completely control my rationality.'

Now returning his focus onto the people around him, Kuma noticed that they were blankly looking at the blood splats on the ground around him. He idly remembered that he had used his Paw Paw Fruit to induce a heavy gravity force around him, instantly crushing them into a blood puddle. Those who didn't have the mark of his Paw Paw Fruit on their bodies, would be considered as an enemy and the gravity would become so heavy for them. The mark of his Paw Paw Fruit could only be received if Kuma willingly used his right paw and gave them it, thereby allowing them to survive within the heavy-gravity paw dome. However, his right side was practically gone.

"Ah... I apologize for their death, I was only acting in defense." Bartholomew Kuma, one of the Shichibukai, apologized and nodded curtly as if showing he was really sorry. He then turned before remembering that his right side was nearly destroyed completely. He fell onto his left side.

While Kuma was busying himself with his right side, Boa Hancock looked around her. Several men were swooning over the sight of turns of her head, but very few forced themselves to ignore her while fighting their respective opponents. The corner of her lip curled upwards for a moment before she coldly said as she pulled back her right hand in a pinching gesture with her left hand aiming at a location. Where both Marines and Pirates were at.

"Rain of Affections!"

However, as she shouted out her next move, Hancock suddenly moved her arms to the sky slightly while fifty of pink arrows shot off to the sky. As soon as it reached to its highest possible, they slowly curved downwards and went towards the location Hancock originally aimed at. Those who heard her cold voice nearly fell but managed to get themselves together before looking at the raining arrows, panicking.

It was too late for them to run away, so they could only try to dodge them while protecting themselves from their respective opponents. Very few had not moved and wore a weird smile while looking at the arrows, their arms wide open as if to tell Hancock that they were willing to take the attack... or maybe they were deluded that 'their' Hancock wouldn't attack them.

"Hmph." Boa Hancock found this disgusting and would've shouted that only Ryu would she do that for. 'If only the World Government didn't focus on the Shichibukai...'

If she announced such thing, the World Government would definitely find that strange and try to investigate for the reason before declaring Amazon Lily detached from the alliance. As its queen, Hancock could only keep it inside her and hope that Ryu would not mind it... She swooned at her imagination.

~

"Hancock..." Ryu's appearance suddenly appeared before her, sparkling brightly while he walked towards her.

Hancock blushed and tried to respond. "Y-yes?!"

"I don't mind it... As long as you marry me." Ryu's peerless face donned a bright grin directed at her, causing Hancock to swoon.

"Ah~! Of course, I-I will!"

"Hancock...!" He moved his right arm to her waist, pulling her closer and leaned in to her beautiful face.

Hancock thought that they were going to have a kiss so she closed her eyes and puckered her lips...

"Boa Hancock..."

...when the voice was so suddenly different that she snapped out of it.

~

"Boa Hancock..." A white-haired man with cigar in his mouth called out with his jitte pointed at her face. Hancock never felt such annoyance for quite long time that she nearly crushed the ground she was on.

*CRACK...!*

Slight cracks appeared below her. She turned and stared at the man who called her out. It was unfortunate that she couldn't outrightly attack this Marine. "What do you want...?!"

Feeling her irritation in her tone, Smoker appeared confused but still answered.

"Why did you do that? Our soldiers were also in the range of your attack." He said, pointing at the location. At the location was several stone statues of Marines and pirates alike.

Scoffing when Hancock saw the statues, she answered while leaving to somewhere else with her snake. "So? They'll forgive me anyways... for I am the most beautiful woman in the world!"

Smoker couldn't help but snort at her back. 'What an arrogant woman. Now...'

He turned to the other Marines and sighed before he went to them, helping. He also noticed that Monkey D. Luffy was rapidly approaching the scaffold. Smoker decided that he would face him when met.

…

"ENOUGH!"

Whitebeard shook the air around him before compressing them into a dome that exploded with a wide area, blowing Mihawk and everyone else around away from him.

*HOONG~*

"Ugh!" As they flew away, the Strongest Man in the World suddenly turned towards the execution stand and began to run towards it.

It was so sudden that Fleet Admiral Sengoku nearly panicked on spot, only managing to retain his rationality before he commanded. "Garp!"

No other words were said but Vice Admiral Garp shot forward and stood feets away from Whitebeard, stopping him in his track.

"Hmph, it's you." Whitebeard scoffed. He knew of Ace's grandfather figure while he was a little boy, but found himself disliking the man for foolishly choosing Marines over family who has done no bad deeds. Piracy? Ace simply traveled, gained friends, helped people when they were around and involved, and finally, became a son of his. "People like you..."

Whitebeard pulled back his right hand that held Murakumogiri as he spoke, eliciting a defensive reaction from Garp. As his bisento start to tremble, Garp immediately knew that he was about to do real damage.

"...I dislike!" Whitebeard swung his bisento horizontally and following its path was a complete shattering of debris and spatial cracks. Garp didn't dare to take it on, so he backed off and dodged it just barely.

'What power! It's as if he's at his peak even in his old age!' Garp thought as his eyes looked at Whitebeard's domineering figure. Even back when he himself was at peak, he was only able to fend Whitebeard for a durable length. 'It seems I will have to...'

For a moment, he hesitated. Should he truly stop the man who's trying to save Ace, who was like a grandson to him? His face shadowed all over, which signaled Fleet Admiral Sengoku that he was about to make a decision... that was not aligned with their purpose.

"Garp...?!" Sengoku called. He didn't reply while dodging Whitebeard. It was at that point that the Fleet Admiral understood what he was doing.

Garp was purposely making it as if he was fighting Whitebeard 'heavily', only managing to 'barely' dodge. This was not unnoticed by Whitebeard.

"...Very well. This will have consequences, Garp..." Fleet Admiral Sengoku shook his head, but did not scorn him much before he turned to Portgas D. Ace. He was looking frail and fragile, skinny to the point that his chest revealed skin-covered rib cage. His hair was slowly becoming white as if to count how much days or minutes he had left.

Slowly, Sengoku walked to the side of the prisoner.

"You're about to be executed in the next few minutes. What are your final thoughts now?"

Fleet Admiral Sengoku asked, curious to his thoughts. However, the moment he thought of that, he felt like it was not going to be the last. He shook his head and pushed that feeling down, feeling confident in executing the man himself if needed.

Ace frowned in response. He looked around and found people dying, both Marines and pirates. This wasn't what he wanted. Even so, it was because of him that this war happened—the war between World Government and Whitebeard Pirates, a crew of a Yonko.

Just as Ace was going to open his mouth, the frozen spiraled tsunami that covered around the Marineford suddenly creaked loudly.

*CREAK*

*CRACK*

Sounds of ice breaking came next, which called forth worries at the ice coming down upon them. The Marines were even more worried because they were on the base, which would take more damage while the ice-covered bay would only take minimal damage compared to it.

Just as they thought that the ice were indeed going to crumble, it suddenly vibrated intensely before crumbling into small pieces the size of pebble.

*PSSH*

"Eh?" Some looked confused but few who had been near Garp and Whitebeard noticed that small vibrations kept ringing out of the Strongest Man in the World's Murakumogiri, going off randomly.

"Oh?" Whitebeard looked surprised for a second when he sighed. "It seems I need to hurry up."

He said before he pulled back his right fist and punched Garp, who was caught unprepared. Garp slammed into the floor and a crater appeared but it didn't seem like he was going to get up any time soon.

'Please... take him and leave.' Vice Admiral and Hero of the Marines, Garp, thought silently while he remained in the crater. Whitebeard somehow understood and ignored him as he ran towards the execution stand.

"You two, aim!" Fleet Admiral Sengoku hastily ordered the two executioners, who immediately rolled their long swords and aimed at their respective shoulders of Ace.

Ace moved his head upwards and looked at Whitebeard before he smiled weakly. "Sorry, pops."

Right then, Sengoku opened his mouth. "Execute!"

The two executioners pushed their long sword into Ace's respective shoulders, piercing his skin. But just as soon as they did it, a explosion under the execution stand occurred. Sent tumbling, Ace's frail body looked as if it would crumble into dust upon impact.

*BOOM*

Black smoke covered the scene and everyone else who were watching, held their breaths in and had their eyes wide to see what happened.

"Ace!" Several shouted out in despair, already assuming the worst. However, there were also some that still had hope that Ace would still survive...

"Gurarara!"

...after all, wasn't Whitebeard closing in? His loud and signature laugh rang, giving their side renewed expectations. If he was laughing like that, did that mean? "You sure are such a hassle to take care of, my son!"

As the black smoke cleared, Whitebeard's tall figure was crouching and looked as if he was protectively covering something or someone in his hands. Upon looking at his hands, they could see someone was in it. As soon as they registered that, they immediately assumed that it was Ace due to his monologue and common sense.

"Ace!" The Whitebeard Pirates cheered while the Marines became grim. Whitebeard stood up and turned around, his figure tall and domineering.

"Let us return to our home, do not shed any blood further now!" They agreed and immediately began to retreat while actively protecting themselves as well as their crew mates. Seeing that, Whitebeard nodded pleasingly and began to take steps toward his back up ship that had been hiding under the sea.

*...HOOONG~*

However, just as soon as he took another step, a blindingly bright golden light flashed behind him. Then a large shadow slowly covered Whitebeard in size, soon overtaking him.

"You..."

The voice, gruff and enraged, continued.

"...dare to stop us...?!"