In the captain's cabin, Kane casually tossed the receiver back to its base, the deference on his face instantly vanishing.
"Admiral Sengoku's vigor remains as strong as ever."
Pushing open the heavy oak door, the characteristically damp and cold air of the North Sea rushed to meet him.
Salty, icy, and... the scent of freedom.
"Since headquarters is in such a hurry... let's speed things up a bit."
Kane walked to the railing and snapped his fingers crisply.
"Wind, rise."
Boom!
The calm sea surface suddenly erupted.
A violent airflow took shape at the stern, as if an invisible giant hand had given the warship a fierce push.
The massive inertia made the entire steel vessel emit an ear-grating metallic groan.
Inside the cabin.
Kuzan, who had been catching up on sleep, was flung straight out of his hammock. His head hit the solid wood wall panel, smashing a large hole through it.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch..."
Kuzan crawled out from the pile of wood shavings, clutching his messy curly hair. His sleep mask had slipped down to his chin, his face full of grumpiness from being woken.
"Did we hit a super-sized Sea King? Or has Germa caught up?"
Yawning, he pushed the door open just in time to see a marine stumbling past, his face pale and cheeks puffed, clearly fighting back seasickness-induced nausea.
"L-Lieutenant Commander Kuzan! Help!" the marine slurred, "The ship... the ship is about to fly!"
"Fly?"
Kuzan frowned, but before he could ask for details, he was thrown off balance again, forced to brace himself against the wall to stay upright.
This abnormal acceleration.
Dragging his lazy steps, he made his way to the deck, where he ran into Borsalino, who was holding onto his sunglasses with a stern expression.
"Yare yare~ How exaggerated~"
Borsalino stared at the sails above, stretched taut like drumheads by the wind, his tone lacking its usual slyness and carrying more inquiry.
"This wind direction and force... completely defies meteorological common sense."
From a shadowy corner, a spark died out.
Sakazuki strode out, his dark red shirt snapping sharply in the gale.
He didn't speak, his sharp, knife-like eyes fixed intently on the figure at the bow.
Kane stood atop the dragon head figurehead at the very front of the warship.
The fierce winds avoided him, yet formed two wing-like white vortices behind him.
The three exchanged glances and walked over in silent agreement.
"Kane," Sakazuki's voice was low, "This abnormal speed—is this your doing?"
"Caught already?"
Kane slowly turned around.
With the raging sea at his back, his face wore that same ever-pleasant yet irritating smile.
Instead of answering directly, he slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward.
"I wanted to get along with you all as an ordinary person, but all I got was distance..." Kane sighed, his eyes becoming profound and melancholic, "No more pretending. I'm laying my cards on the table."
Hum—!
The air abruptly trembled.
A visible azure airflow gathered and compressed frantically in his palm. The surrounding air pressure instantly dropped, causing everyone present to feel a pressure in their eardrums akin to a rapid descent in an airplane.
"This power..."
Kuzan's dead-fish eyes widened abruptly, all drowsiness gone, "A Devil Fruit?!"
"I just went to the bathroom to contemplate life and suddenly felt a bit hungry," Kane said with a straight face, spouting nonsense. "I saw a strangely shaped fruit on the sink. Thinking I shouldn't waste food, I just ate it."
"Who would leave a Devil Fruit in a bathroom?!" Kuzan couldn't help but shout in exasperation. "And what are the odds of that?!"
"This is fate, Kuzan."
Kane spoke with grave sincerity as the azure cyclone in his hand was compressed to its limit, emitting a sharp, piercing hum.
"This fruit called out to me. It told me that Justice relying solely on physical skills has its limits."
"True Justice needs wings, and even more... the force of a thunderbolt!"
Before his words faded,
He casually tossed the compressed high-pressure cyclone in his palm toward the sea beside them.
Whoosh—
The moment the cyclone left his hand, there was no deafening explosion.
But everyone present, including the passing marines on the deck, clearly saw—
In that instant, the sea "split" open.
A nearly kilometer-long vacuum cut silently appeared on the azure sea. The seawater on both sides was forcibly pushed aside by an invisible, immense force, even revealing the muddy seabed.
Only then did the split seawater react, crashing together with a thunderous roar and stirring up hundred-meter-high waves.
"..."
"Gulp."
The deck fell into dead silence, broken only by the synchronized sound of swallowing.
"Yoh~" Borsalino adjusted his sunglasses, his tone losing some of its teasing and gaining seriousness. "An invisible slash, with cutting power like that... even steel would be as fragile as paper before it, right?"
"Not just wind."
Kane's feet slowly left the ground, his entire body defying gravity as he hovered in mid-air like a feather.
His form began to blur, disintegrating into countless azure streams of light, merging with the frenzied atmosphere of the world around him.
"And this."
The originally clear sky suddenly darkened as light vanished.
Inky clouds churned and gathered frantically a kilometer overhead at an astonishing speed.
Deep within the clouds, countless purple thunder dragons roared, writhed, and released a heart-stopping aura of destruction.
Though he couldn't yet manipulate lightning with the precision of Enel, the sheer scale of this weather-altering spectacle was even more oppressive!
"Thunderclap!"
Kane's voice echoed from all directions, carrying an ethereal, almost divine quality.
Crack!
A purple lightning bolt as thick as a barrel, bearing the might of divine punishment, struck a cluster of reefs a kilometer to the left of the warship with pinpoint accuracy.
Boom!!
The reefs vaporized instantly.
The intense heat evaporated seawater, forming a dense white fog that blotted out the sky.
Immediately after, fierce winds whipped up massive waves, threatening to swallow the tiny warship.
"Damn! This got out of hand!"
Kuzan's expression changed as cold energy instantly condensed in his hands, ready to defend against the aftermath.
"Don't panic."
Kane in the air merely waved his sleeve casually.
"Cyclone Barrier."
Whoosh—
A translucent azure hurricane wall rose from nowhere, forming a massive cylindrical barrier that firmly protected the entire warship within its eye.
Despite the raging storm and flashing lightning outside, the warship at the eye of the storm remained perfectly still, steady as a mountain.
Rain began to fall.
The wind howled.
Thunder roared.
And the man hovering mid-air, clad in a Marine coat, was the sole conductor of this natural disaster.
"Wind, thunder, rain, clouds, atmospheric pressure... I am the weather, I am the storm."
Kane looked down from above, gazing at the three future Admirals who were utterly stunned, feeling secretly pleased.
This was exactly the effect he wanted!
Sakazuki watched the sky filled with lightning, his fists clenching and unclenching, a fanatical gleam flashing in his eyes.
Power!
This was the cataclysmic power sufficient to eradicate all evil and enforce Absolute Justice!
"If it's him..." The thought that had once wavered in Sakazuki's mind now became unshakably firm.
"Lord of Storms...?" Borsalino murmured to himself, dropping his usual carefree expression. "It seems lazy days are over from now on~"
"Stop daydreaming, comrades!"
Kane dispersed the thunderclouds covering the sky and landed back on the ship's bow. His body solidified, the divine expression on his face instantly vanishing, replaced by that annoying grin.
He spread his arms wide, embracing the gale.
"Since everyone knows now, I'll stop pretending."
"Hold onto the railings! We're taking off!"
Before anyone could react.
The next second, a gale ten times fiercer than before suddenly erupted!
BOOM!!!
The warship let out a pained groan, its stern as if fitted with rocket thrusters.
The tremendous acceleration sent unprepared Marines tumbling across the deck like rolling gourds. Even Sakazuki had to crouch halfway to maintain his balance.
The spray kicked up by the warship's stern formed a water wall over twenty meters high!
"Kane!! You madman!!"
Kuzan's desperate scream carried on the wind, along with his eyepatch drifting away in the gale.
"Slow down!! I'm going to be sick!!!"
"Woo-hoo!!!"
Kane stood at the bow, his hairstyle perfectly undisturbed under the storm's protection, savoring the extreme speed granted by the Storm Fruit.
"Full speed ahead! Destination—Marineford!"