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"GURARARARA!"
Whitebeard's Murakumogiri and Jin's Shusui clashed without touching, the space between them erupting in a blinding flash of lightning and sparks.
The resulting shockwave was a terrifying, multi-layered tsunami of force that shattered the very air around them, sending spiderweb cracks across the void.
Countless pirates and Marines were knocked unconscious.
Law, Marco, and the others braced themselves, their eyes fixed on the two figures silhouetted against the mountains.
Between them, a clash of wills, a torrent of raw power like a thousand stampeding armies, threatened to deafen them all.
Pops!
Marco was stunned.
He hadn't seen a sight like this in a long time. Not since the old days, when Pops used to clash with Roger.
After Roger's death, Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom had each carved out their own territories, maintaining a tacit understanding.
Emperors did not meet.
The Marines and the World Government had accepted this new world order, at least until Shanks had burst onto the scene a few years ago.
But even then, the understanding had held.
While the rest of the world was in turmoil, caught up in the frenzy for the One Piece, the top tier of the New World had remained strangely "calm."
And now, that calm was about to be shattered by the arrival of this one man.
Watching the scene unfold, Marco had to admit that Deuce had been right. This was a young man who could stand against a Yonko.
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"He blocked it!" Wilson's eyes burned with intensity. "He's not losing ground!"
"Incredible... that king!" Doma's eyes were wide with a mixture of surprise and excitement.
'As expected of the man who defeated Doflamingo...' Vergo's mind was in turmoil.
The clash of Conqueror's Haki was so intense that only those at the Vice Admiral level or higher, those with an iron will, could remain conscious.
"That king... he's incredible," one of the few remaining Marine Rear Admirals breathed, his voice filled with awe. "He blocked Whitebeard's attack!"
The sight sent a surge of adrenaline through them.
The Marines might have been filled with corruption, but every single person who had joined had, at one point, dreamed of upholding "justice."
But as they had climbed the ranks, they had seen the darkness. They had seen "justice" tarnished, and they had been powerless to stop it. And so, they had drifted, their dreams, their passion, their sense of justice slowly eroding away.
But in this one moment, watching that figure, fearless, confident, unyielding, standing against one of the Four Emperors of the New World...
The courage they had lost seemed to flood back into them.
"Hey! We can't let the Marines be shamed! We'll defeat Whitebeard today!"
"That's right! We are the Marines!"
"For the 'justice' we carry on our backs!"
"Come on, you pirates!"
They formed a line, standing firm against the remaining Whitebeard commanders, their eyes burning with a fierce determination.
Wyper glanced at them. After seeing what the Commodore had done, he had thought they were all the same as Enel and his ilk. But now, he saw that there were warriors among them, men who had simply lost their way.
"Hey! Get out of the way!" Blamenco, though stout, was surprisingly agile. He swung his massive mallet, twice his own size, and leaped, bringing it crashing down on Wyper.
"You're the ones in the way," Wyper countered, meeting the attack head-on. He was a warrior of the same mold as Zoro, a demon in battle.
The brief lull was over. The fighting resumed, more intense than ever.
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A terrifying amount of energy and Haki was gathering between Jin's and Whitebeard's blades. The pressure was immense.
The ground and the ships beneath them began to crack.
If that energy were to be unleashed, the entire island would be destroyed in an instant.
Neither Jin nor Whitebeard wanted that.
Finally, as the pressure reached its peak, they both swung their blades upward, releasing the pent-up energy into the sky.
A beam of pure Haki, like a bolt of lightning, split the black sky in two.
A deafening roar, like the roaring of the sea, like the cracking of the earth, shook the very foundations of the world.
But that was only the beginning. After releasing the energy, Jin and Whitebeard clashed again.
This time, without the Conqueror's Haki, their blades met, the sound of steel on steel ringing out.
Jin was relentless, matching the "giant" before him blow for blow.
The wind howled, whipping the sea into a frenzy.
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Far out at sea, a massive warship sailed against the storm.
At its prow was a terrifying, six-horned creature. Hundreds of cannon ports lined its sides.
Kaido stood at the prow. King was at the helm.
The sails had been furled. Jack and the other crewmen were rowing with massive oars.
A bolt of lightning streaked across the night sky.
Kaido watched. "So it's started. That's Whitebeard's Haki. And that other one... unfamiliar, confident, intense... is that the king?"
Earlier that day, Doflamingo had contacted him. The king who had defeated Hanafuda had come to the New World.
Hanafuda's death had been a blow to Kaido. He had lost a brother, and a valuable subordinate who collected Devil Fruits for him.
And, being the warmonger he was, how could he not come?
"Hey! That ship... it's Red-Hair!" the lookout suddenly shouted.
RED-HAIR?
Kaido turned. In the distance, another ship was sailing against the wind, just as they were.
"Kaido?"
"That's Kaido's ship!"
Yasopp had spotted them before they had spotted Red-Hair.
"Kaido?" Shanks said, surprised. "What's he doing out here? Shouldn't he be in Wano? He got here fast."
"No," Benn Beckman said. "It's more than a day's journey from Wano to here. He must have already been in the area. And you know these guys... they don't exactly play by the rules."
Of the Four Emperors, Kaido's crew was the most diverse, a motley collection of thugs and ruffians. He didn't have a clear "ideology"; he attracted followers with his raw power. The other three Emperors were more "pure," each with their own set of beliefs.
The Beasts Pirates were, by far, the worst-managed of the Yonko crews. From the All-Stars to the grunts, it was a chaotic mess. Kaido had been occupying Wano for twenty years. If he'd had even a shred of managerial talent, it wouldn't be in the state it was now.
"A battle like this..." Shanks said, looking at the lightning flashing in the distance. "No matter who wins or loses, if they're both weakened, a third party could come in and clean up. It's too late. Change of plans. We're going to stop Kaido from getting any closer."
For now, Shanks' role in the New World was similar to Roger's in the early days: a disrupter.
Whoever was the strongest, he would challenge them. Whoever threatened the balance, he would stop them.
Why?
Simple. Shanks had bet everything on the "new era." He was waiting for that boy.
Until then, he and the Five Elders had a similar goal: to maintain the status quo in the New World as much as possible.
He had come to stop the fight between Whitebeard and Jin. But now, he had to stop Kaido from taking advantage of the situation.
The two Yonko ships drew closer in the stormy darkness.
Shanks, like Kaido, stood at the prow of his ship, his hand on the hilt of his sword. His voice cut through the howling wind.
"KAIDO! GIVE ME SOME FACE!"
Face?
Kaido ignored him. He hefted his kanabo and, without a word, unleashed a Thunder Bagua in Shanks' direction.
He was no longer the boy who had been sent flying by Rocks. He was a veteran of a hundred battles, confident, strong, untamable.
Shanks drew his sword and countered with a slash of his own, the two attacks of Haki colliding in mid-air.
Then, "Fire the cannons!"
The two ships erupted in a barrage of cannon fire.
Kaido leaped from the prow of his ship, his massive figure radiating an oppressive aura as he charged.
Shanks, his named sword Gryphon in hand, strode forward and leaped, soaring across the sea.
"ROARING THUNDER BAGUA!"
"DIVINE DEPARTURE!"
The two emperors swung their weapons, and the world seemed to tremble.
A naval battle between two of the Four Emperors had erupted.
It was chaos.
On the same night, three emperors were at war.
Intelligence agents who were monitoring the situation quickly spread the news.
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