Before Momousagi lost consciousness, the image of the criminal flashed through her mind.
'Damn that red nose~ Ugh~~'
The poor Momousagi wildly cursed Buggy over a dozen times before passing out.
Alas, her injuries were too severe, and her brainwaves were nearly shutting down until she finally closed her eyes.
Witnessing this scene, Vista exclaimed in awe.
Such a powerful woman had actually fallen to the schemes of a cunning bastard.
That was Brutal! Excessive! Thrilling!
Why thrilling? Because the unconscious Momousagi remained unaware that only her lace underwear covered her vital areas.
The rest of her clothing had been utterly pulverized by the formidable power of the Chop-Chop Fruit.
Her snow-white skin was fragrant and alluring!
Seeing Momousagi defeated, Buggy sprang out from behind the ice block with a leap.
"Kuh~ Hahaha, you old hag, you've finally fallen beneath this man fingers."
"Hey, be grateful. If not for your connection with Ray, I'd have chopped every last stitch of your clothing."
Hearing Buggy's words, Vista wiped his nosebleed while giving him a thumbs-up.
"Bro, you're so reliable!"
Buggy shrugged upon hearing this.
"We're all brothers here, there is no need for formalities. You go ahead and try to break through the enemy's blockade, and I'll go free Jozu."
Vista nodded fervently, quite satisfied with this.
"Stay safe Brother."
"Just doing my part."
While Buggy and Vista were exchanging their fake camaraderie, a massive rocky fist suddenly materialized above their heads.
Chaton, whom Buggy had earmarked as his next sneak attack victim, had charged over directly.
Upon sensing Momousagi's distress, he flew into an instant rage.
Even taking a direct hit from Diamond Jozu, he rushed to Buggy and Vista's location to rescue his beloved Momousagi.
He, too, understood that with this action, he had landed himself surrounded by three powerful fighters.
The moment Buggy and Vista sensed the rocky assault approaching, they simultaneously launched their counterattacks.
A blow infused with advanced Armament Haki's crushing force and a terrifying sword slash struck Chaton's earthen form at once.
Simultaneously, behind Chaton stood a fearsome diamond giant shrouded in Armament Haki.
The collision erupted.
Even someone as powerful as Chaton couldn't emerge unscathed from such an assault.
His earth body shattered, with fragments scattering everywhere like a haze, obscuring visibility within a hundred-meter radius.
Buggy frowned at the sight.
Could their attacks have pulverized the earth chunks into dust?
In a flash, Buggy realized the truth.
'Damn it, we've been tricked!'
Activating his Observation Haki, Buggy immediately detected Chaton's presence.
The blood-soaked Chaton was already a hundred meters away, carrying Momousagi who was bleeding all over her body.
Buggy immediately gave chase.
These two were the captives he planned to use to threaten the Marines.
If he could get them in his grasp, even if Sengoku refused to compromise on a prisoner exchange, it would severely demoralize the Marines.
Unfortunately, while Buggy's plan was sound, it hinged on actually capturing these two Vice Admirals.
Now that they had such a head start, it was probably too late, because Buggy had already foreseen the incoming laser beam.
'Tch...'
Buggy twisted aside to dodge as a laser beam shot past his neck, triggering a massive explosion behind him.
Sidestepping to evade the explosion, Buggy's expression turned unusually grim.
Kizaru's appearance confirmed that his plan had indeed failed.
Why had he resorted to underhanded tactics? It was all to kidnap high-ranking naval officers to exchange for Ace.
These two Admiral candidates were the perfect targets in his mind.
If Sengoku chose to exchange Ace for Momousagi and Chaton, the next step would simply be figuring out how to help Ace escape.
If Sengoku prioritized Ace over rescuing Momousagi and Chaton, that would be excellent too.
Seeing such a decision from the government's upper echelons would demoralize the troops.
The difficulty of the assault would then be reduced.
This clever strategy was something Buggy had devised along the way, tailored to his abilities.
First, engage a Shichibukai in battle, pretending to trade blows with Doflamingo to lower the two candidate admirals' guard against him.
The next step was a series of surprise attacks—as long as his split ability touched their backs, the plan would succeed.
But he never expected that this Chaton, while dealing with Diamond Jozu, would still devote so much attention to Momousagi.
The two battlefields were a full kilometer apart, with a massive crowd of marines and pirates fighting in between!
No wonder he couldn't defeat Jozu after all this time—he must have been using over half his Observation Haki to keep an eye on Momousagi.
In the end, he even risked severe injury to rescue her.
That explosion that scattered like mist was definitely caused by Chaton's elemental self-destruction.
True love, without a doubt.
Alas, with things having reached this point, Buggy was powerless to change the outcome.
The silver lining was that the navy's two candidate admirals could no longer participate in the battle.
Three of their own had been freed up.
The downside was that standing before these three was the marine admiral, Kizaru! ...
"How terrifying, Buggy the Clown. You dodged my laser shots so effortlessly. Is that Observation Haki that sees into the future?"
Buggy feigned disdain and retorted, "Tch, what future sight? I can't do that."
As the conversation ended, Buggy let out a sigh.
'Tch, force of habit—playing the fool had become second nature to me.'
'I should've just acted arrogantly.'
But given the current situation, it was truly despair-inducing.
No more hiding—time to fight!
If the three of them coordinated well, they still stood a chance of defeating Kizaru.
In an instant, a fearsome battle erupted among the four: Admiral Kizaru vs. Buggy the Clown, Flower Sword Vista, and Diamond Jozu. ...
Seeing Kizaru enter the fray, Whitebeard furrowed his brow and made a decision.
It was time for him to join the battle.
Even if he had to fight multiple opponents, he had to act now, or there wouldn't be enough time.
No sooner said than done.
Swinging his Murakumogiri, he shattered space and unleashed a shockwave, sending another giant vice-admiral flying.
Aokiji was forced to act, leaping onto the inner wall in front of the execution platform once more.
His Haki surged at high speed, and a wave of freezing air engulfed the giant while simultaneously blocking the shockwave.
When the dust settled, Aokiji discovered that the giant vice-admiral, who should have been protected by the ice, had shattered into hundreds of frozen fragments.
Clearly, Aokiji's freezing power couldn't suppress Whitebeard's vibrations.
Although Whitebeard had charged his attack, he had only infused it with a small amount of Haki.
Whereas Aokiji, in his defense, had poured a vast amount of Haki into his offensive.
He managed to block it, but the energy expenditure was unequal.
"Arara, just as I suspected. Truly terrifying."
Having personally experienced Whitebeard's power, Aokiji's expression turned grave.
But so what? They had their own plans. ...
The moment Whitebeard unleashed a shockwave with his Murakumogiri, he leaped down from above the Moby Dick.
The world's strongest man had officially entered the fray, and his terrifying oppressive force made all the Marines feel suffocated.
Several Marine elites exchanged glances and attempted to block Whitebeard's advance, yet they couldn't even hinder him by half a step.
Facing their attacks, Whitebeard simply sidestepped or threw punches, either perfectly evading or effortlessly striking the Marines' vital points.
While executing these responses, Whitebeard never paused his forward march.
Whitebeard strode with steady steps, advancing relentlessly toward the execution platform.
Wherever he passed, countless Marines were sent flying into the sky.
This included many Marine officers who had mastered Rokushiki.
Sengoku and Akainu observed Whitebeard's reaction speed and confirmed their suspicions.
'This old man was absolutely in his prime.'
'What a monster.'
'In that case, it was time to initiate the next phase.'
'Once Whitebeard advanced another thousand meters, the annihilation operation would officially begin.'
...
Currently, 50 minutes remained until Ace's scheduled execution. ...
Simultaneously, Luffy and the others arrived at the waters 10 kilometers away from Marineford.
Seeing the 30 warships equipped with massive cannons behind them, his eyes immediately sparkled like stars.
At that moment, a woman with silver long hair, wearing a kimono and carrying a spiked club, emerged from the lead warship.
Yamato shouted toward Luffy on the Sunny's deck.
"Captain Luffy! I'm Yamato! Today, I've brought the entire Beast Pirates to assist you in saving Ace!"
Luffy glanced at Yamato, then at Chouchou beside her, shouting back in response.
"Thank you! Let's set out together! Our target—Marineford!"
"Woooooh~~~~~"
The 31,000-strong Straw Hat Grand Fleet had assembled and was ready to storm Marineford. ...
Also at the same time, Ray was flying at high speed above the clouds.
Beneath him dangled Gaban, bound by the Light whip.
The white-haired and bearded former right-hand man of the Pirate King swung back and forth through the air.
"Ray, I may be an old man—could you show me some respect?"
Ray snorted coldly upon hearing this.
'In terms of age, I could be your ancestor.'
But this remained Ray's private thought.
Outwardly, he offered a polite response: "The Red Line continent will depend on you."
"Fine, but only if you stop swinging me around. Seriously, please fly more steadily. I'm about to throw up."
"..."