A shrill scream tore through the silence outside the Gates of Justice.
"Lord Black Three?"
The lazy curve of Kizaru's mouth cracked.
He adjusted his sunglasses, the gaze beneath the tinted lenses turning uncharacteristically sharp.
"Oh my... this is becoming quite a big problem."
Akainu's knuckles cracked.
A scorching aura of magma bled from his body, charring the wooden deck beneath his boots. He said nothing, but his eyes burned with a singular thought
That bastard brat... he really dared to cripple CP0.
It was a blatant declaration of war against the World Government's direct intelligence agency!
Sengoku's expression darkened.
Staring into the gloom beyond the gate, he realized he had anticipated many scenarios, but never this.
Crippling a CP0 agent right in front of the Fleet Admiral and three Admirals.
What a madman!
The scream had barely faded when three white figures erupted from the clustered warships.
Utilizing Shave, they blurred past the Marine soldiers, leaving shallow craters in the deck before skidding to a halt at the front of the fleet.
Three men in pure-white suits, each wearing a different mask.
CP0.
As expected, they had reinforcements hiding in the ranks.
A muscle ticked by Sengoku's eye.
These hounds of the World Government had infiltrated every corner of the Marines—even the Fleet Admiral's flagship wasn't spared.
The realization of being monitored and treated like a pawn made the anger in his chest nearly impossible to suppress.
"Fleet Admiral!" Vice Admiral Strawberry looked grim, his hand instinctively resting on his sword hilt.
"Should we stop them?"
Sengoku pressed his lips tight, struggling internally.
He knew he should stop the situation from escalating, but he had long grown disgusted with CP0's lawless arrogance and their blatant contempt for the Marines.
Zaraki's actions were insane, but they vented a resentment Sengoku had harbored for years.
"...Let him vent a little," Sengoku forced the words through clenched teeth.
Strawberry froze, then smiled bitterly.
"Fleet Admiral, the problem is... if we stop CP0, it means the Marines are openly shielding a criminal who attacked government officials. But if we don't..."
He didn't finish the sentence; he didn't need to.
Allowing CP0 to rush in uncontested meant admitting that World Government assassins could attack the Marines' own people on Marine territory.
Sengoku clenched his fists. It was a complete deadlock.
...
In those few seconds of hesitation, the three CP0 agents moved.
They blurred into white streaks, charging straight through the open gates of hell.
The burly leader, codenamed "Black Three," wore a tall black hat; beneath the brim, his mask revealed only a pair of sinister eyes.
"Bastard! How dare you!"
"To lay hands on the shield of the Celestial Dragons—you're asking to die!"
Furious roars echoed through the dark passage.
Like three starving tigers, they lunged at the silhouette standing in the gloom.
In their eyes, this ignorant brat had violated the world's ultimate taboo!
They would execute this lunatic with maximum cruelty!
Facing the approaching killing intent, Zaraki didn't even blink.
He tossed the unconscious agent aside and slowly drew Murasame. The blade scraped against the scabbard, releasing a faint, chilling hum.
His voice was soft, yet it easily overpowered their roars.
"Three more escape prisoners!"
A burst of blue-white lightning exploded in the dark passage as Zaraki vanished.
The vanguard CP0 agent's pupils contracted to pinpricks.
His Observation Haki screamed a warning, his mind going blank under the primal terror of being locked onto by lethal danger.
It was too fast!
His nerves couldn't send the command to his muscles in time. All he could do was watch a streak of lightning flash past his left side.
Then, everything froze.
Even the killing intent seemed severed by that single flash.
The vanguard agent froze in place, still maintaining his forward-charging posture.
Behind him, Black Three and the third agent skidded to a halt, staring at the eerie scene in uncertainty.
Click.
The soft sound of a blade returning to its sheath echoed in the corridor. Zaraki stood exactly where he had been a moment prior, as if he had never moved.
He pushed Murasame fully into its scabbard, the motion perfectly smooth and devoid of wasted effort.
Only then did a fine, red line appear around the neck of the frozen agent.
The line widened, seeping crimson. With a sharp crack, his mask split neatly down the middle.
He opened his mouth to speak, but only a wet gasp leaked from his severed windpipe.
The light faded from his eyes, replaced by endless confusion.
Thud.
His head slid from his shoulders and rolled across the ground.
The headless body collapsed a second later, a geyser of blood spraying the cold stone wall dark red.
The severed head came to a rest, its split mask revealing eyes wide with shock.
The brutal execution shattered the remaining agents' composure.
"You...!" Black Three's eyes filled with bloodshot rage beneath the brim of his hat.
His burly frame trembled.
That was a top agent of the World Government!
A loyal shield of the Celestial Dragons and he had just been casually beheaded like a chicken!
"You are digging your own grave!" Black Three rasped.
Zaraki didn't bother to look at the corpse.
He swept an indifferent gaze over the furious Black Three and his stiffened companion, treating them like pebbles on a road.
Looking past them to the open gates and the waiting warships, his voice carried clearly into the daylight.
"The Gates of Justice are a restricted area. Unauthorized personnel are forbidden from entering." He paused, the corner of his mouth curving upward.
"Anyone who trespasses will be treated as an escaped prisoner and executed on the spot!"
The sheer arrogance was staggering.
He had just murdered a government agent, only to turn around and brand the victims as fugitives.
"You bastard!" Unable to hold back, Black Three stomped the ground, cracking the stone beneath his boots.
Abandoning the speed-focused Shave, he poured all his raw power into a pure, devastating strike.
In his vision, the young Marine blurred again. Another streak of lightning.
This time, it didn't flash past; it wrapped entirely around the drawn demon blade.
Blue-white arcs of electricity danced wildly along the steel, crackling loudly and illuminating the dark passage in sharp flickers of light and shadow.
Black Three's heart clenched.
A sense of danger seized him—even stronger than what he felt during his subordinate's execution.
That lightning... something is wrong!
Before he could process the threat, Zaraki arrived, wrapped in thunder.
"Iron Body: Steel!" Black Three roared, pouring his life force into defense.
The right sleeve of his white suit burst apart.
His entire arm turned a deep black, coated in highly concentrated Armament Haki as he swung it hard to intercept the lightning slash.
He intended to use his absolute strongest defense to shatter the brat's sword.
Clang!
A deafening boom erupted in the passage, accompanied by a blinding flash.
But the metallic collision didn't last.
It was quickly replaced by a grating sizzle, like a red-hot iron driven into ice.
Black Three's rage dissolved into shock the instant they made contact.
A violent kinetic force surged from the point of impact. It didn't feel like ordinary sword pressure.
His Armament Haki blocked the physical edge, but the lightning and dark-gold Reiatsu drilled through the barrier, directly ravaging the flesh, bone, and nerves beneath.
Black Three coughed a mouthful of blood, struck as if by a siege hammer.
He flew backward, smashing into the stone wall with a heavy crash. His Haki-coated arm trembled violently, completely beyond his control.
The surface was marred by charred electrical burns, while the muscles and bones inside felt shattered inch by inch.
The piercing pain nearly pushed him into unconsciousness.
'That impact... it bypassed my defense!'
Leaning against the wall, Black Three stared at the young man who casually withdrew his blade without a single hair out of place.
'No... that's not right! There's something else mixed in with it!'
He finally understood.
This Marine was no rookie.
Whatever strange power augmented that slash, it easily crushed the defense of a CP0 agent who had spent his entire life tempering Iron Body and Haki.
Realizing this, Black Three abandoned any intention of fighting Zaraki alone.
Forcing his damaged arm to move, he screamed at the remaining agent.
"Team up! Use Finger Pistol—kill him!"
Hearing the order, the surviving agent dropped his hesitation.
Dragging himself from the wall, Black Three matched his subordinate's movement.
Driven by a mix of fury and raw fear, both men launched a synchronized assault from opposite sides.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two white figures vanished simultaneously, moving in perfect synchronization to flank Zaraki's left and right.
The air shrieked under the sudden acceleration.
Zaraki stood perfectly still, not even shifting his eyes.
His Observation Haki mapped their trajectories with absolute clarity.
He felt two sharp spikes of killing intent rapidly approaching his chest from blind angles.
It was the Six Powers assassination technique possessing the penetrating force of a bullet—Finger Pistol.
In such a narrow passage, facing a reckless pincer attack from two elite CP0 members was almost certain death.
The two figures burst from their afterimages, already within arm's reach.
Their rigid index fingers, reinforced by concentrated Armament Haki, gleamed with a cold metallic luster.
The air around their fingertips gave off faint white smoke from the sheer high-speed friction.
Two fingers capable of punching through solid steel aimed precisely at Zaraki's heart and left lung!