Luffy and his crew immediately bid farewell to the long-anticipated land of Elbaf. With Vivi now in extreme danger, they could not afford to waste a single second.
The moment Sabo stepped onto the Going Guard once more, a wave of melancholy washed over him. The last time he had been aboard this ship was two years ago, right before the Summit War.
In truth, he had been fully prepared to fly to the rescue on his own, and would have already done so had Drake and the others not suddenly materialized.
Relying on his fire wings, he could soar through the air at incredible speed. However, doing so was far from simple. Merely shaping the wings and keeping them stable required an immense amount of concentration. If he had to travel vast distances for an extended period, it would have presented numerous problems.
But now, with the Going Guard at his disposal, all of those obstacles vanished. He no longer had to push his body to such exhausting limits.
Inside the ship, the main lounge was completely packed. This was the absolute first time the Going Guard had carried so many passengers. Because speed was their absolute priority, they had temporarily left the Thousand Sunny behind in Elbaf.
Between the Straw Hat Pirates and Sabo, there were eleven people in total. Meanwhile, the Dragon Flag Pirates currently numbered only six, and Aokiji was missing from their ranks. To this day, they still had no idea where Aokiji had gone, as there had been zero word from him.
The Straw Hats were witnessing the advanced technology of the Going Guard for the first time, and they couldn't help but marvel at everything they saw. This was especially true for Chopper, Franky, and Usopp.
Sanji was deeply intrigued by the ship's automated galley function. Though the food it produced was merely decent, the way it created meals out of thin air was truly mind-boggling.
Chopper and Usopp were having a blast playing with the ship's smaller sub-vessels. Meanwhile, the moment Zoro discovered the training room, he ducked inside immediately and flatly refused to come out.
All the while, Drake kept his consciousness connected to the system, as he needed to exchange a massive amount of points for energy crystals to fuel their journey.
While Drake and his crew were racing across the sea, Marine Headquarters was on the verge of an absolute breakdown.
Fleet Admiral Akainu was in a towering rage. The two Admirals had returned completely empty-handed, and both of them bore visible, bleeding injuries.
This sight struck pure terror into the hearts of the surrounding Marines. Exactly what manner of catastrophe had transpired for two of the Navy's ultimate combat assets to crawl back in such a thoroughly battered state?
Furthermore, someone near the Fleet Admiral's office had overheard the two Admirals actively recusing themselves from the campaign. Everyone knew exactly what that assignment entailed: neutralizing the Revolutionary Army.
The Fleet Admiral had thrown a massive fit over it. As the situation stood, three Admirals had been deployed, yet not a single piece of good news had been brought back. And this was after three Admirals had taken the field!
"Get out! Get the hell out of my sight!" Akainu roared, his face twisted with pure fury as he pointed a trembling finger at the door, glaring at Admirals Fujitora and Ryokugyu.
The two Admirals did not hesitate, turning on their heels and walking straight out of the room.
SLAM!
Akainu gritted his teeth so hard they groaned, bringing his palm down in a brutal, crushing strike against his desk.
The lower-ranking Marines in the room violently flinched. While the Admirals might have the clout to defy the Fleet Admiral's authority, they certainly didn't. Every single one of them stood perfectly silent, frozen in fear.
"All of you, dismiss yourselves," Akainu muttered, waving his hand dismissively without even glancing at them.
The officers scrambled out of the room in absolute haste. Under these terrifying parameters, none of them dared to linger for a second longer.
Standing alone by the window, Akainu stared out at the distant horizon, fully aware that the geopolitical landscape was spiraling out of control.
He already had a very clear idea of what the two Admirals had encountered. There were exceptionally few powerhouses on the sea capable of wounding a Marine Admiral, let alone when two of them were operating as a synchronized unit. Even a Yonko lacked that caliber of combat mass.
Unless... they had faced two Emperors simultaneously!
"The Legendary Four Brothers... sooner or later, I will personally throw every last one of you into Impel Down!" Akainu ground out, his fists compressing tightly as he swept his arm in a fierce arc.
With two Admirals now out of the equation, Admiral Kizaru was left to single-handedly anchor the entire operation.
At this exact juncture, Akainu suddenly realized that the most reliable asset in the entire Navy was still his old partner, Kizaru.
The moment Akainu became Fleet Admiral, Aokiji had flatly severed his ties and defected from the Navy, placing them on completely opposing sides. Meanwhile, the two newly appointed Admirals continually bucked his authority. Take Fujitora, for instance; during his very first major deployment, the man had delivered a humiliating blow to the Navy's prestige.
His public kneeling in Dressrosa had completely dragged the honor of Marine Headquarters through the dirt. And the moment Akainu tried to reprimand him, the man had openly bickered with him.
And now, this latest disaster.
Sigh. What a nightmare.
In the end, he still had to rely on his old comrade, Kizaru.
Up to this point, almost every piece of telemetry transmitted by Kizaru from the front lines had been an absolute success. He had cleanly intercepted the Revolutionary Army's reinforcement fleets that were scrambling to support Sabo, and had even briefly traded balanced blows with their Supreme Commander, Dragon.
This continuous string of milestones finally allowed Akainu to see who his true, capable right-hand man was.
"Borsalino... in the end, it always comes down to you."
Meanwhile, the Going Guard continuously utilized its spatial warp function and rapidly closed the distance. Soon, a Marine battleship materialized directly ahead, cutting leisurely through the waves.
Because they were still a vast distance away, Usopp kept his spyglass locked onto the warship, his eyes unblinking as he monitored the deck layout.
The battleship evidently hadn't detected their presence yet; everything aboard seemed perfectly normal. On the main deck, the broken frame of the former Warlord, Bartholomew Kuma, sat bound in heavy layers of massive iron chains.
During their approach, Sabo kept up a steady stream of communication with Lindbergh. Their method of contact didn't rely on standard transponder snails; rather, they used a specialized, microscopic communication device Lindbergh had engineered. It rested seamlessly inside the ear, completely silent and invisible.
According to the data Lindbergh transmitted, the captured resistance members were currently locked inside a single holding cell beneath the deck.
Only two assets were missing from that room: Vivi and Kuma.
They had already verified Kuma's coordinate on the open deck, but Vivi's precise location remained entirely unmapped.
CLAP!
Luffy brought his palms together with a resounding snap, preparing to launch an immediate assault.
"Hold your vector, Luffy. We have yet to verify Vivi's exact coordinate. Launching a reckless strike right now could compromise her safety," Sabo warned, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder to freeze his movement.
"Tch... fine," Luffy grumbled, ultimately yielding to the logic.
"Let my vanguard handle the reconnaissance. I'll go chart the layout," Drake stated, pushing himself up from his seat.
In the next microsecond, his physical vessel vanished from the room.
When he materialized again, his boots were already planted silently aboard the Marine battleship. Kuma's position on the deck required zero confirmation, so within the span of a single breath, Drake seamlessly warped into the ship's interior. The baseline Marine soldiers patrolling the corridors failed to register a single fraction of an anomaly.
Peering into the initial compartment along the passageway, he mapped a group of Marines sharing a relaxed laugh. A casual glance sundered any probability of the target being there, and Drake instantly warped away.
That room was completely devoid of the asset he was hunting.
After systematically checking several alternative cabins, Drake cleanly located the specific cell holding the group they were looking for. Inside were the two Division Commanders of the Revolutionary Army and Bonney.
As for the remaining Division Commander, the giant Morley, his profile was completely missing from the ship. It made sense; attempting to incarcerate a giant of his proportions inside a standard battleship would present severe structural difficulties.
According to the intelligence logs, Morley had successfully cleared the dragnet. He was not among the captured assets.