The path toward the Moby Dick was a scarred trench of shattered frost and splintered wood. Tenjin advanced with an explosive, unrelenting momentum, his boots fracturing the ice with every stride as the Dead Wood fibers coiled violently around his limbs. The fodder pirates who attempted to form a wall against him were scattered like loose autumn leaves, crushed beneath the sheer physical weight of his hyper-accelerated rage. He was a runaway train, his gaze locked entirely on the massive figure of Whitebeard in the distance.
Suddenly, a flash of pale violet and white cut through the gray smoke of the plaza, dropping gracefully into his direct line of advance.
Izo, the 16th Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, stood perfectly poised amidst the chaos. His traditional kimono fluttered elegantly in the freezing wind, his long dark hair swept back in a flawless geisha style. Without a single trace of hesitation, he raised his twin flintlock pistols, the polished steel barrels gleaming under the pale Marineford sun as they pointed straight at Tenjin's chest.
"Hold your horses, brat," Izo spoke smoothly, his voice carrying a calm, melodic cadence that stood in stark contrast to the roaring battlefield around them. He tilted his head slightly, a faint, knowing smirk playing on his painted lips. "I know Pops explicitly invited you over for a little chat. But as a commander of this crew, I can't just let a hostile Marine captain waltz up to our father without checking his credentials first. You'll have to get through me."
Tenjin skidded to a halt, his boots grinding against the ice as dark green steam hissed from his shoulders. The reveal of his bloodline had stripped away every ounce of his usual childlike playfulness; his jaw was set tight, and a dark, suffocating anger rolled off him in waves.
"I don't have time for a dress-up party right now!" Tenjin shouted, his voice bursting with volatile, hyperactive energy. "Get out of my way, or I'll split you into kindling!"
"Let's see you try," Izo replied cleanly.
BANG! BANG!
The twin flintlocks barked in perfect unison. Two lead bullets tore through the atmosphere, ripping across the short distance between them with lethal accuracy.
Tenjin didn't even attempt to dodge. He lunged forward, throwing his left arm outward as it rapidly expanded into a thick shield of dense, black timber.
SPLINTER!
The bullets struck the center of the wooden shield, burying themselves deep into the compressed fibers. Tenjin expected the impact to carry the crushing weight of high-grade Armament Haki. The kind of piercing power that would shatter his Logia core, but the wood merely cracked. There was no black coating on the lead, no invisible armor pressure crushing his technique.
'He isn't using Haki,' Tenjin thought, his internal instincts flashing with a brief moment of irritation. 'What is this guy playing at? Is everyone today trying to underestimate me?'
Before Tenjin could process the thought, Izo moved. Despite wearing a restrictive, traditional kimono, his footwork was immaculate. He spun on his heel, his robes swirling in a wide, graceful circle as he executed a high-speed combat dance. He re-aligned his flintlocks in a fraction of a second, unleashing a rapid, rhythmic cadence of gunfire that synchronized perfectly with his movements.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A wall of lead descended upon Tenjin. Operating on pure, furious reflex, Tenjin dissolved his lower torso into a sprawling network of thick, flexible roots that anchored deep into the ice, while his upper body transformed into a massive, hollow tree trunk. The bullets tore cleanly through the wood, leaving perfectly round holes that instantly filled with fresh green sap, but the damage was completely negated by his Logia properties.
"Wood Gatling!" Tenjin roared, utilizing the openings in his trunk to launch a counteroffensive.
Dozens of sharp, spear-like wooden branches shot out from his body like a volley of ballista bolts, targeting Izo from multiple angles.
Izo didn't flinch. He danced backward across the slippery ice, his movements possessing the fluid grace of a seasoned kabuki performer. He flipped over a rising root, spun beneath a horizontal branch, and fired his flintlocks mid-air. Every single shot he fired wasn't aimed at Tenjin's body, but rather at the joints and pivoting points of the incoming wooden spears. The lead bullets struck the exact structural weak points of the timber, snapping the branches in half and altering their trajectories so they crashed harmlessly into the frozen ground around him.
Tenjin materialized fully from the main trunk, dropping down onto the ice with a wild, competitive spark igniting in his eyes, though his teeth remained clenched in anger. He leaped into the air, the spinning flower on his back propelling him forward like a rocket. "But let's see how you handle a forest in your face!"
He drew his right arm back, the wood expanding exponentially until it became a colossal, multi-layered log the size of a shipping container. "Giga Timber Crush!"
He brought the massive wooden construct down with descending, cataclysmic force.
Izo looked up at the towering shadow of the descending log. His expression remained entirely placid, almost detached. He calmly spun both of his flintlocks around his fingers, catching the handles flawlessly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. He didn't load specialized ammunition; he didn't call upon his spiritual armor. He simply waited until the absolute final millisecond before the impact.
BANG!
A singular, perfectly placed shot struck the exact epicenter of the descending log's grain. The kinetic force of the ordinary bullet, combined with Izo's profound understanding of structural physics, caused a massive, longitudinal fracture to tear through the entire length of the giant log. The wood split cleanly in half, passing on either side of Izo's shoulders without a single splinter touching his garments.
Tenjin dropped through the center of the split log, his fist reverting to human form as he aimed a lightning-fast left hook straight at Izo's jaw.
Izo ducked beneath the strike with millimeter precision, the wind of the punch ruffling his hair. Utilizing the momentum of his duck, Izo drove the butt of his left flintlock heavily into Tenjin's ribs. Because it lacked Haki, the solid steel handle passed straight through Tenjin's body, turning the section into loose green leaves and steam.
Taking advantage of the proximity, Izo pressed the barrel of his right flintlock directly against the back of Tenjin's neck.
The battlefield seemed to freeze for a brief second. Tenjin stood perfectly still, the leaves around his neck rustling gently against the cold steel of the gun. He knew that if Izo willed it, a single burst of Armament Haki infused into a point-blank shot would tear his head off.
But the hammer of the flintlock never clicked.
"You have an extraordinary amount of raw power, kid," Izo said softly, his voice echoing close to Tenjin's ear. He slowly lowered the weapon, stepping back a few paces and spinning the pistols back into the holsters hidden beneath his sash. The sharp, defensive posture he had maintained throughout the fight dissolved completely. "Your Logia control is fascinating, and your instincts are sharp. But you're fighting with an open heart. Your anger is making your movements predictable."
Not far from the clash, Boa Hancock stood on a fractured plateau of ice, her hands clenched into trembling fists as her eyes flashed with absolute fury. Seeing another pirate stand in the way of her beloved Tenjin made her blood boil.
"How dare that flamboyant insect hold a gun to my Tenjin!" Hancock hissed, her aura flare-up causing several nearby Marines to pass out from sheer pressure. She took a step forward, her leg tensing as she prepared to leap into the fray and obliterate Izo. "I will turn him to stone and shatter him into a thousand pieces!"
Before she could take another step, a massive, black-bladed sword descended from the sky, its tip embedding itself deeply into the ice directly in front of her path.
Hancock skidded to a halt, her eyes snapping upward to meet the cold, hawk-like gaze of Dracule Mihawk. The World's Strongest Swordsman stood perfectly calm, his hands resting on the crossguard of Yoru.
"Move aside, Hawk-Eye!" Hancock commanded, her voice dripping with venom. "Unless you wish to be crushed alongside him!"
"Calm yourself, Pirate Empress," Mihawk spoke, his deep voice slicing through her rage with absolute serenity. He didn't even glance toward the fight, his eyes fixed entirely on Hancock. "Look closely at the boy. Yuzuki is consumed by an immense, personal fury right now. His anger has nothing to do with this war, and it certainly has nothing to do with you."
Hancock blinked, her breath hitching. "What do you mean?"
"He is fighting to clear his path, and he wants no interference," Mihawk explained coldly. "If you step into that conflict right now, if you try to fight his battles for him while he is in this state... it will not earn you his gratitude. It will only end up making the Marine hate you for treating him like a child."
The words struck Hancock like a physical blow. The thought alone, the mere mental image of Tenjin looking at her with eyes full of hatred and disgust scared the absolute hell out of her. Her face went completely pale, her knees trembling slightly as she clutched her cheeks in absolute horror.
'Tenjin... hating me?' Hancock thought, her mind spiraling into a desperate panic. 'No! Anything but that! I could bear the execution of the entire world, but I could never survive his hatred!'
She immediately abandoned any thought of attacking Izo, stepping back from Mihawk's blade as she tried to calm her racing heart. As she looked away to distract herself, her eyes scanned the wider chaos of the plaza.
A hundred yards away, a thick cloud of white smoke was swirling violently. In the center of the vapor, Straw Hat Luffy was struggling desperately, his rubber limbs being pinned down by the sea-prism stone jutte of Vice Admiral Smoker. Luffy gasped for air, completely unable to use his Devil Fruit powers as the weapon pressed against his neck.
Hancock's eyes widened. 'Luffy! My dear friend is in danger!'
Seeing a way to vent her lingering frustration without upsetting her beloved, Hancock burst into motion. She lunged off the ice plateau, her long dress billowing as she ran at full speed toward the smoke cloud to save her close friend.
Back at the base of the Moby Dick, Tenjin reformed his neck fully, turning around slowly to look at the 16th Division Commander. The green steam around his shoulders slowed to a gentle drift, but the deep, burning anger in his eyes hadn't receded a single fraction. He stared at Izo, his eyebrows furrowing. "You... you were completely holding back the entire time. You didn't use Haki once. Why?"
Izo let out a soft, amused chuckle, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked toward the ship. "Like I said, Pops wanted to talk to you. If I had used everything I had, I might have accidentally broken you before you could get your answers. Consider this a pass."
He stepped to the side, completely clearing the path and gesturing toward the massive flagship where Whitebeard stood waiting.
"Go on, Yuzuki," Izo said smoothly, using Tenjin's personal name with a respectful, calm nod. "The old man doesn't like to be kept waiting. Go find out what a real family looks like."
Tenjin stared at him for a long, silent moment, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles creaked. The fury regarding his lineage was still burning fiercely inside him, refusing to die down. He didn't want a pass, and he didn't want a lecture on family from a pirate.
"I didn't ask for your pity, dress-guy," Tenjin muttered coldly, his voice dripping with an unyielding bitterness.
Without another word, Tenjin lunged forward, his boots clearing the remaining distance as he vaulted over the final obstacles, his path completely clear as he approached the base of the world's strongest ship, ready to confront the Emperor head-on.
---
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