Not long afterward, above one of Wano's coastlines, Marco continued weaving around the wooden spikes Aramaki fired at him while launching counterattacks of his own.
Thunderous impacts and collisions echoed through the sky.
The moment Aramaki spotted the shore, he stretched one hand forward and produced an enormous net of interwoven branches, coating the entire structure in Haki.
In the blink of an eye, it wrapped tightly around Marco and slammed him into the ground.
Aramaki descended after him.
The fury burning inside him had only grown stronger throughout the long chase.
During their aerial battle, his abilities had been severely restricted.
But now that his feet had touched solid ground, the coastline had become his territory.
He had already been carrying a mountain of frustration with nowhere to vent it.
He was currently undergoing the Marines' evaluation process, yet he had suddenly been reassigned—and sent to Wano, the territory of Kaido, a man he had always wanted nothing to do with.
The order had come directly from Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, so Aramaki did not dare openly disobey, but that had done nothing to lessen his resentment.
Then he encountered Marco, one of the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates.
All the frustration that had accumulated inside him immediately found an outlet.
As far as Aramaki was concerned, this entire mess was their fault.
Why had he been sent to Wano?
Because Garp had arrived first.
Why had Garp come to Wano?
Because the old man had been stationed in Whitebeard's territory, where no one could keep him under control.
And why was Garp stationed in Whitebeard's territory in the first place?
Because of that damned Warlord agreement, Fire Fist Ace, and the Whitebeard Pirates, who should have been wiped out long ago!
Now a Whitebeard Pirate with a bounty exceeding one billion Beli had delivered himself right into Aramaki's hands.
More importantly, Aramaki needed a powerful pirate to defeat so he could prove his strength and complete the Marines' evaluation.
Unless he thoroughly beat this bird-brained bastard into the ground, the anger inside him would never fade.
Aramaki pursued Marco all the way to the coast.
The instant his feet touched the beach, he unleashed the power of his Devil Fruit.
The Logia-type Woods-Woods Fruit.
Trees and branches erupted through the sand, weaving across the sky until they formed an enormous birdcage.
The branches immediately wrapped around the wings of Marco's hybrid form just as he tried to take flight.
'This is bad!'
During their earlier battle on the way to Wano, Marco had repeatedly been caught by Aramaki's branches and struck by his attacks.
He had discovered that those branches could rapidly drain nutrients from his body.
Fortunately, Marco had always broken free in time and repaired his injuries with his Flames of Regeneration.
Since then, he had carefully avoided the branches while fighting Aramaki in the air.
Unfortunately, Aramaki's abilities were remarkably similar to his own.
Neither of them seemed capable of staying dead.
One possessed the regenerative flames of the phoenix, while the other embodied the endless vitality of nature itself through the Woods-Woods Fruit.
They had already fought for a long time.
Just as Marco prepared to increase the heat of his regenerative flames and burn his way free, Aramaki summoned a dense barrier of fire-resistant trees around the cage, refusing to give him even the slightest opportunity.
But he had still underestimated Marco's strength and intelligence.
There was a huge difference in size between Marco's hybrid and human forms.
Marco immediately transformed back into a human.
His enormous wings abruptly shrank into ordinary arms, allowing him to slip free of both the restraints and the incoming attack before dropping toward the ground.
The sight instantly reignited Aramaki's fury.
Only one thought remained in his mind.
He would drain every last drop of nourishment from this pirate.
The next moment, his five fingers transformed into sharp wooden spikes and shot toward Marco inside the cage at tremendous speed.
…
"It hurts… Hahahahaha!"
Koby lay curled up inside the small boat drifting across Wano's inland sea.
Every bone in his body felt as though it had been shattered and then carelessly glued back together.
Even the faintest breath sent stabbing pain through him, and his head felt heavy and clouded.
The unnatural laughter continued spilling uncontrollably from his throat.
He truly could not endure much longer.
As his vision began to blur, Koby suddenly bit down hard and forced himself to remain conscious.
'No! I can't collapse here! I can't give up yet!'
'My dream still hasn't come true!'
'I haven't seen myself standing in the position of a Marine Admiral. I haven't personally captured all those vicious pirates!'
'How can I die silently in a place like this?'
'What does this suffering matter?'
'The viruses, the electric shocks, the horrific modification experiments—I've endured two hundred times more pain than an ordinary person ever would!'
'If I survived the hell created by a madman like Queen, what could possibly break me now?'
'The weighted training and combat drills that once made me scream under Vice Admiral Garp seem completely insignificant in comparison!'
'Once I return, even the training everyone else considers impossibly harsh will be easy for me!'
'Vice Admiral Garp will definitely be shocked. He'll clap me on the shoulder and say I've finally become worthy of being his student!'
'I'm certain that if I survive and make it back to Marine Headquarters, my strength will grow beyond recognition!'
'All the techniques and power I could never reach before will finally become mine!'
'I'll earn achievements no one else can match, surpass every Marine from my generation, and rise through the ranks one step at a time!'
'I'll capture more of the world's most dangerous pirates and make the entire sea remember my name!'
'I want to live!'
'I have to live! I'll capture every evildoer in the world! I'll become a true Marine Admiral!'
'I will… I absolutely will escape this hell!'
The flame inside Koby's heart blazed fiercely.
Through sheer determination, he forced the agony into the background and slowly pushed himself upright.
He held his breath and strained to identify the sounds of battle around him.
The moment he determined the direction, however, all strength suddenly left his body.
Koby fell forward and struck the control panel face-first, unable to squeeze out even enough strength to rise again.
His ruined body could not be sustained by willpower alone.
The fact that his obsession had kept him alive until now was already a miracle.
But as he fell, his elbow slammed directly onto the acceleration control.
The boat's engine roared to life.
It tore through the waves at full speed, racing toward the sounds of battle.
Through Koby's blurred vision, a distant figure gradually became clearer.
He could not see the iconic coat bearing the word Justice, but the man's white-and-blue clothing was unmistakably a Marine uniform.
Burning tears poured from the corners of Koby's eyes, mingling with the crazed laughter he could not suppress.
His voice trembled as he used the last of his strength to cry out,
"Thank goodness… I'm almost there…"
"I'm finally going to see Vice Admiral Garp… Hahaha… Hahahaha!"
His joyful shout had barely faded into the wind when the speeding boat crashed violently into the rocks along the shore.
The tremendous impact hurled Koby high into the air.
He sailed directly over Aramaki's head and fell squarely into the middle of the battlefield between him and Marco.
Aramaki's mind was filled entirely with the desire to drain Marco dry.
His attack had already been driven to its limit, launched with brutal speed and without the slightest restraint.
By the time he noticed Koby entering the path of his attack, it was far too late to stop.
Squelch!
Five wet impacts sounded in rapid succession.
The sharp wooden spikes tore straight through Koby's body.
He went rigid.
The joyful, tear-streaked smile remained frozen across his face as he slowly lowered his eyes in disbelief.
Dark purple blood poured along the grain of the wooden spikes, soaking through his clothes.
His bladder emptied instantly.
Bone-deep agony flooded his body, but because of the SMILE Fruit, broken laughter continued bubbling helplessly from his throat.
Overwhelming fear and despair ripped him from the highest point of hope and hurled him into the deepest abyss.
He had endured torture beyond hell itself.
He had gambled everything and raced toward salvation.
But the Marine standing before him was not the teacher he had longed to see!