Chapter 382 - 221

Chapter 221: The King's Wings vs. Admiral Kizaru!The sunny deck became a joyful playground."Everyone is so happy." Luffy grinned.Franky walked into the lawn area, wiping away tears, his mechanical arms emitting a faint sound of gears turning."Luffy, I'm sorry... For the past three months, I've been busy modifying the sunny and researching General Franky, so my training for both types of Haki has fallen far behind."He showed his arm, where a faint Armament Hakiappeared on the metallic surface, but the color was uneven and flickered in and out.Luffy sat up.He stared at the unstable black markings on Franky's arm for a few seconds, and then—"Pfft, hahaha!""Franky, you're worried about this!"Franky froze.Luffy finally stopped laughing and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes:"Technology is also a powerful strength!"He jumped up, his rubber arm stretching to pat Franky's metal shoulder, making a crisp "clank" sound.Luffy's expression became serious:"Everyone has their own path to getting stronger. Zoro relies on swords, Sanji relies on his legs, Usopp relies on sniping, Chopper relies on medical skills... You rely on technology, what's wrong with that?"He grinned, revealing white teeth:"Besides, Franky, you are currently driving the best ship in the world!""This ship itself is part of your'strength', isn't it?"Franky stared blankly at his Captain, his electronic eyes under his sunglasses flashing rapidly.Then, he suddenly raised both arms:"Super—!! You're right! A man's path doesn't need to be the same as others!""The power of technology is also a man's romance!!!"Tears gushed out again, this time tears of emotion.Just as Franky struck his signature pose, the smile on Luffy's face suddenly faded.He slowly turned toward the bow, the shadow of his straw hat covering his eyes.The laughter on the deck gradually died down.An indescribable pressure was permeating from the distant horizon.A flash of deep red quietly flickered in Luffy's eyes....Dozens of nautical miles away, the outline of the Sabaody Archipelago was still just a blurred shadow on the skyline.But a ship was cutting through the sea at an incredible speed.The Marine Science Unit's newest "Flash-class" high-speed destroyer.The ship was three hundred meters long, its streamlined silver armor reflecting cold, hard light in the sun, and the dense array of cannons on the side of the ship were all in the open state.The waves split by the bow reached ten meters high, dragging a white wake several kilometers long at the stern.This ship had no sails; its power source was several huge vortex thrusters at the bottom of the ship, which were emitting a low, thunderous hum at this moment.And standing at the very front of the bow—Was a slender yellow figure.The striped suit was impeccable, and the brown sunglasses covered his eyes.The snow-white justice cloak snapped in the sea breeze behind him like a battle flag.Marine Admiral, "Kizaru" Borsalino.He had one hand in his trouser pocket and the other resting casually on the railing of the bow.His posture was lazy, as if he were just enjoying the sea breeze.But not a single Marine soldier on the entire warship dared to relax.Everyone was tense, their eyes a mix of awe and fear."Admiral Borsalino!"The adjutant walked up quickly and saluted,"We will arrive at Sabaody Archipelago in fifteen minutes! Captain Sentomaru has sent word that the Straw Hat Pirates left the port five minutes ago, heading for the Paradise!"Kizaru slowly turned his head. Under his sunglasses, no one could see his eyes."Paradise?!"He dragged out his voice with an unreadable tone,He looked back at the distant horizon.Observation Haki spread out like an invisible radar, covering the sea area for nearly a hundred nautical miles around.The corners of Kizaru's mouth curled up slightly."Sakazuki~, he really gave the old man a difficult task!"He whispered to himself, his voice blown away by the sea breeze.The warship continued to break through the waves, its speed not slowing down in the slightest.The soldiers on the ship began to prepare for battle, the turrets rotated, and ammunition was loaded.Kizaru remained standing at the bow, motionless.Sunlight spilled onto him, and his golden suit reflected a dazzling light, making him look like a drawn sword of light.One of the only two top combat forces of the Marine Headquarters had arrived at the battlefield....The air froze in that second.Two figures stepped forward simultaneously like reflections.The sound of their footsteps overlapped into a dull thud, and two shallow dents were pressed into the deck lawn.Zoro and Sanji stood one on the left and one on the right, guarding Luffy tightly behind them.The lines of Zoro's profile were as taut as a blade."Sending an Admiral..."His voice squeezed out from between his teeth, low like grinding tectonic plates,"You think you can deal with us?"Every word was soaked in the annoyance of being underestimated.It was as if the fact that the opponent only sent one Admiral was an insult to the entire Straw Hat Pirates.Sanji didn't speak.The flame of his lighter lasted on his fingertip for three seconds before he brought it to his cigarette.During this brief delay, his eyes locked onto the golden speck of light rapidly approaching in the distant sea through the curling blue smoke."Luffy."He suddenly spoke, his voice unusually calm."Don't make a move later."This sentence was said very lightly, but it carried undeniable weight....Zoro's left hand on the hilt of his sword had knuckles turning white.Then, he drew sandai kitetsu.The blade was drawn three inches out of the scabbard."Clang—"The sound of metal friction was as sharp as the cry of a night owl.In an instant, with Zoro as the center, the light on the deck began to distort.Ink-purple mist surged out from the gap in the scabbard of the kitetsu, wrapping around his arms, shoulders, and neck.Under the cover of the mist, Zoro's right eye turned dark red, and deep in his pupil, it seemed as if the flames of hell were burning.Oni Aura.It was the ancient, fierce "resentment of the sword."Hawkeye had once warned that this cursed sword would backlash against its master, but Zoro had used three months of training to transform this backlash into his own power.—Man controls the sword, and also becomes a demon!At this moment, half of his body was submerged in the ink-purple Oni Aura, like a Shura returned from the underworld.And Sanji—His right foot stepped back slightly, the toe of his leather shoe lightly tapping the lawn."Zzz..."A faint sound of electric current, like static electricity on a summer night.It emerged from the seams of the leather shoe, as thin as a hair, but carrying a pure, azure blue color.The electric arc meandered up his trouser leg, wrapping around his calf, crossing his knee, and leaving trails of glimmer on the surface of his suit trousers.The two did not look at each other, and there was no communication.But their auras had already begun to merge.Zoro's Oni Aura spread to the left, and Sanji's electric arc spread to the right.At the center line where the two forces converged, the air made a low humming sound, and the turf was pressed flat to the ground by invisible pressure.Luffy was guarded right behind them.He looked at Zoro's back wreathed in Oni Aura, then at Sanji's silhouette with jumping electric arcs, and then—Grinned.He fell backward, his rubber body bouncing on the lawn, and he simply lay down, covering his face with his straw hat:"Got it, got it~ Then I'll leave it to you guys."...In the distant sea, the outline of the golden speck could already be seen clearly.The silhouette of the steel warship cut through the waves, and the justice cloak snapped at the bow.Kizaru stood at the bow, his eyes under his sunglasses squinting slightly.He saw the fighting spirit rising into the sky from that ship,He saw the domain where the dark green Oni Auraand blue electric arcs were intertwined,He saw the person guarded at the very back who still existed like the sun."Oh my, oh my~"He dragged out his tone,"Looks like I've been underestimated~"Light was gathering, compressing, and reshaping.When the brilliance reached its peak, a tall figure condensed and took shape from the light.The Marine cloak danced wildly in the turbulent airflow.Kizaru hovered a hundred meters in the air, looking down at the sunny floating like a leaf below.A smile hung on his face, an expression mixed with playfulness and curiosity.He slowly spread his arms.The movement was very slow, as elegant as a symphony conductor raising a baton."Yata no Kagami."Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or perhaps more golden light bullets materialized behind Kizaru simultaneously,Each one was only the size of a fist, but compressed with destructive energy like the core of the sun.They paused for a frame.Then, they poured down.The trajectory of the light bullets piercing the air left burning afterimages on the retina, dyeing the sky before dusk into a burning golden red."Don't even think about it."Zoro's figure disappeared from the deck.The force under his feet shattered the lawn within a three-meter radius, and using this recoil force, he shot into the sky like a meteor flying in reverse.He met that destructive rainstorm.Clang—!!!The jet-black blade of Shusui and the dark red blade edge of Kitetsu crossed in the ascending trajectory, and the ink-purple Oni Aura and pitch-black Armament Haki erupted from the guards of the two swords, spiraling and wrapping around Zoro's arms.The Oni Aura dragged a ten-meter-long trail behind him, and in that trail, the phantoms of thousands of swords could be heard faintly wailing.Zoro hovered in the air, his twin blades carving a perfect cross arc in front of him."Two Sword Style—"Oni Aura and Haki completely merged at this moment, and the two energies wrapping around the twin blades twisted into a spiral intertwined with dark red and pitch black.Zoro's muscles expanded, the back of his shirt tore, revealing back muscle lines as tough as a dragon's spine."Black Rope · Great Dragon Twister!!!"A massive sword aura tornado spanned between the sea and the sky.It connected to the rain of light bullets above and the boiling sea below.The surface of the tornado was densely packed with high-speed rotating mini-slashes, each one capable of shredding steel.The energy of the light bullets was forcibly torn, dispersed, and drawn into the interior of the tornado by the rotating slashes, turning into silently blooming sparks in the vacuum.One, ten, a hundred... The sword aura pushed upward with irresistible force, and wherever it passed, a path was plowed through the rain of light.The dusk was ignited.The exploding firelight spread into a burning sea of clouds around the tornado,Making Zoro's demonic figure look like a madman who had crawled out of hell and was swinging his blade at the gods.Kizaru remained hovering where he was.The light bullets of Yata no Kagami were continuously generated and fired from his side,But on the lenses of his sunglasses, at this moment, only the green-haired swordsman who was cutting through the rain of light and ascending against the sky was reflected."Scary~"He dragged his tone out even longer, the ending note carrying genuine surprise.The smile turned from mockery to a kind of interest in discovering a treasure."Supernovas, one by one, they really are monsters~"Before the words fell.Whoosh—A streak of azure lightning pierced through the burning sky without warning.A moment ago he was still on the edge of the tornado, the next moment he had broken through the interception net of light bullets, appearing—Three meters directly in front of Kizaru.Sanji's figure condensed at the end of the lightning streak.His right foot had long been charged.From the ankle to the calf, and then to the knee, every inch of muscle was compressed to the limit.Violent, explosive azure plasma wrapped around the entire right leg.The fabric of his suit trousers carbonized and scattered in the high heat, revealing the metallic-lustered skin underneath."Knight Kick!"However, the Admiral's smile did not change in the slightest.He didn't even put up a defensive posture, just raised his right leg casually, and golden light began to condense.The kicks of the two, within a thousandth of a second—Collided.Bang!!!!!With the point of collision as the center, all light bullets within a radius of five hundred meters were annihilated simultaneously.The sword aura tornado was cut in half by the shockwave.Light and lightning stalemated in the air.On one side was the eternally scorching gold like the sun.On the other side was the violent and decisive azure blue like thunder.And below, Zoro slashed through the last batch of light bullets, and all three swords were sheathed simultaneously.He landed directly on the seawater, using the aftermath of the slash to create a temporary foothold.