Chapter 10: Akainu Is Exhausted

"Such combat power?" Admiral Sengoku wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his expression grave as he stared at the Straw Hat in the center of the plaza—steam swirling around him like an auspicious cloud, the undisputed focal point of the battlefield. "What on earth happened in these past ten days?"

It was completely at odds with what the intelligence reports had described.

He had read the relevant report from ten days ago about Sabaody Archipelago, and if it weren't for Kuma's strange behavior, the Straw Hat crew would have been arrested and imprisoned by the Marines.

Even with Kuma's help, the entire Straw Hat pirate crew combined would amount to nothing more than a group of somewhat troublesome pirates at best—they couldn't possibly have held out against an Admiral for this long.

When he read the report, he had already guessed that Kizaru, that old fox, had been going easy on them to avoid offending Garp.

Even Warring States was tacitly allowing this matter to happen.

If both grandsons were captured and beheaded, he truly didn't think Garp would still be bound by the Marines' sense of justice and duty.

Precisely because he understood this old friend of his, he did not pursue why Kizaru had failed to catch anyone last time he went to handle the incident of the World Nobles being beaten.

Now they were practically dancing on Garp's bottom line.

But the matter had to be considered separately.

Even he, the Navy's strategist, found the current situation absurdly theatrical.

"Luffy???"

Garp and Ace both wore stunned expressions, their eyes bulging and mouths hanging wide open. If Luffy's earlier performance had been surprising, now their jaws were nearly dropping to the floor.

"Hey, hey, hey, no way, rookies."

The all-controlling smile that Doflamingo had worn on his face since the war began vanished, his expression turning solemn.

This meant his plans might encounter unexpected variables.

And Gecko Moria, who harvests shadows, saw the scene from moments ago and was so startled that the scissors in his hand came to a halt.

Does he still want to go find the Straw Hat for revenge?

Boa Hancock beamed, her eyes overflowing with love, gazing tenderly toward Luffy.

"Smoker-san, the Straw Hat can already send an Admiral flying now."

Tashigi muttered to herself while carrying the still-unconscious Smoker on her back.

So it seemed that Smoker-san being taken down in one hit wasn't entirely unacceptable.

Probably only Smoker himself couldn't accept it...

And the reporters eating melon on the sidelines and the pirates watching the livestream were instantly stunned, exchanging glances and involuntarily swallowing hard—this thing is called a Supernova just like us?

Su Lin shook his head. If he had swapped places with Luffy, he might have raked in a fortune in points from this wave.

What a pity.

The Mad Monk Ur downed a cup of wine: "Monkey D. Luffy, just ten days ago he was getting beaten so badly by Kizaru he couldn't fight back, just like the rest of us."

Jewelry Bonney wiped away her tears, pulling herself out of the emotions brought on by seeing Kuma's figure moments ago, and was just about to channel her feelings into appetite and eat meat heartily—when she saw this scene, the meat in her hand dropped onto the table.

"That's ridiculous."

And somewhere out at sea, Kid was staring blankly at the screen.

"STRAW—HAT—LITTLE—BRAT—！！！！"

Akainu's furious roar echoed across the entire plaza. Everyone could feel the volcanic fury erupting from within him as his fist transformed into burning magma and lunged toward Luffy.

CLANG—

Akainu was intercepted by a kick from Ma Erke.

A blue-flaming claw mark was left on his burning right hand.

"Ma Erke!"

"Nice one! Ace's little brother." Ma Erke grinned. "Go on, we'll handle things here."

In the gap left by everyone's surprise, Ma Erke used the aerial superiority granted by his Devil Fruit to easily break into the battlefield.

Ma Erke looked at the grim-faced Akainu:

"Looks like the tables have turned now. It's not nice to bully a rookie so aggressively."

"Wouldn't you say so, Akainu?"

What answered him was Haki and scorching magma.

"Heh."

Ma Erke scoffed, calmly manifesting twin wings of blue flame to dodge the attack.

Sengoku's brows knitted tightly together.

Borsalino had been sent flying and hadn't returned yet. Luffy's punch was impressive, but it was impossible to take down Borsalino.

That guy wouldn't have clocked out early, would he?

No, Borsalino may be lazy normally, but he knows the gravity of the situation at a critical moment like this.

Looking at the Den Den Mushi in Sengoku's hand that couldn't reach Kizaru, Garp felt somewhat helpless.

Told him long ago he should retire. Now he's so worried his hair's gone white, yet he still dyes it every day. Tsk tsk.

He immediately felt a chill run down his spine under Sengoku's cold stare.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Garp turned his head and pretended to be dumb, picking his nose.

"It's been ages since I've seen Luffy!"

Sengoku turned his head away and said no more. In truth, he too was aware that Garp wouldn't have the time, and shouldn't be helping his other grandson on principle in this matter.

Now one Admiral was unreachable, and two were tied down and unable to pull free.

Hmm?

"Kuzan, what are you doing? Stop tangling with those ordinary pirates!" Sengoku commanded from the platform.

"Understood."

Aokiji's feet emitted freezing air, freezing the pirates ahead, before he charged toward Whitebeard's direction.

"Hey! Kuzan, what are you doing?!" Sengoku sensed something was wrong—that wasn't what he meant at all.

"His target is Dad—stop him!" The pirates of the Whitebeard Pirates rushed to block the path.

"Leave it to me!" Diamond Jozu unleashed a speed that didn't match his massive frame, shattering Aokiji with a single punch.

Moments later, a mass of ice gathered together and reformed into Aokiji.

Elementalization.

"This is bad, Mr. Sengoku." A thin trickle of blood ran down Aokiji's head as he spoke helplessly.

"I told you to go stop the Straw Hat kid!!!" Sengoku shouted in exasperation.

What the hell are you and Borsalino doing?!

The path ahead of Straw Hat Luffy was not without enemies to block him.

Even though Luffy had displayed ferocious strength, the marines still mustered their courage and surged toward him.

However, even the vice admirals who had prepared themselves—including the user of the Spot-Bellied Dog fruit—

—could only last a few exchanges against Luffy.

Something is very wrong here—Straw Hat's strength.

A person's rate of growth has a limit, no matter how outstanding the talent.

The speed of this metamorphosis is simply like—

—a caterpillar skipping the pupa stage and turning straight into a butterfly.

Swish—a sharp sword qi came slashing from the side.

The Observation Haki in his mind had already predicted the strike.

Luffy stopped his feet and looked to the left.

That sword qi grazed past him and slashed forward, all the way to the massive ice wall in the distance.

Everything in its path—and the ice wall itself—shattered into ice shards.

"Hawk-Eyes." Luffy wore a Serious Expression—even now he did not dare underestimate Hawk-Eyes.

"Impressive, Straw Hat." Hawk-Eyes raised his black blade and asked, somewhat puzzled: "How did you do it?"

"How did I do what! Don't try to stop me from saving Ace!" Luffy replied.

"Hmph."

Hawk-Eyes Mihawk swung another slash.

In the instant Luffy dodged, he accelerated forward.

In less than a few short seconds, the two had already clashed dozens of times.

Hawk-Eyes Mihawk calmly evaded Luffy's fists, and even amid the exchange, swung out with several more slashes.

"Observation Haki."

The black blade and the fist—now the color of black iron—clashed, but did not directly collide; instead they stopped at an extremely close distance, leaving a small vacuum. The surrounding ice surface cracked, and waves of force burst out from where the two fought, blowing away a number of nearby pirates and marines.

"Armament Haki."

"Not bad."

Hawk-Eyes Mihawk had already confirmed, in their brief exchange, that Straw Hat Luffy's current strength deserved to be taken seriously from here on.

Fighting spirit began to well up.

Luffy turned and, from a sandstorm sweeping down from the sky, plucked out a person.

"Straw Hat?" Buggy, who had been caught up in the battle between Crocodile and Doflamingo, was still dizzy and disoriented in the storm a second ago.

"Rubber·JET Substitute Scapegoat!"