Zephyr's gaze sharpened."You really insist on this path? If you refuse to release the Celestial Dragon, I will act. Otherwise, once Sengoku arrives and takes you in, you will die."
He had already heard from Kong that the Admiral was racing this way.If Sengoku made the arrest, the outcome would be very different.
The Marines finally exhaled when they saw the former Admiral."Instructor Zephyr, what should we do?"
"Everyone stand down. This is between me and him. No Marine is to interfere."
"Yes, sir."
"Rakuya, I do not want to fight you."
"I already beat him. There is no way back. Which means you have to fight me."
"Is that truly the only way?"
"Come."
Rakuya flicked his wrist. The Celestial Dragon drifted aside like a trussed pig, and Rakuya faced Zephyr squarely.
"Shave."
Zephyr's anxious eyes hardened. One word fell, and his figure vanished.
"Shave, is it?"
Rakuya recognized the Navy Six Style footwork, a burst of rapid steps that created explosive recoil to move at high speed.
"Finger Pistol."
A knife of wind kissed the back of Rakuya's neck. He did not hesitate.
"Repulsion Field."
The ground around him cracked in a spiderweb. A transparent wall of force bloomed behind him.
Zephyr's silhouette flickered into view. His extended finger trembled an inch from Rakuya's spine, pinned by an invisible pressure.
"So this is your ability."
Zephyr's heart sank. When they first met on the Calm Belt, the kid had simply reached out and something terrifying happened. Now the pieces fit. This power was an overwhelming rejection of the world itself.
"Yes."
"If this is all you have, then surrender. You cannot escape the Navy's hand."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Shave."
Zephyr vanished again.
"Armament Haki, Hardening."
His right leg turned iron-black.
"Tempest Kick."
He dropped upside down in a perfect arc, a cleaving crescent aimed at Rakuya's head, Haki crackling along his shin.
The blackened leg froze in midair. Not even a half inch forward.
"Sorry. Your Armament Haki does nothing to me."
"What?"
Zephyr's eyes went wide. Even hardened Haki could not pierce that repulsive shell.
"Dark Hound."
"Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
Two voices overlapped in the same breath. One was a gravelly snarl. The other was a lazy drawl that made the air itself turn yellow-white.
Rakuya's instincts roared.
"Repulsion Storm."
A raging, invisible vortex spun to life around him, a tight cyclone of force that howled like an unseen hurricane.
Boom.
Something incandescent slammed into the storm and skidded off in a rain of photons. The light condensed back into a human shape wearing mirrored shades and a perpetual slouch.
Borsalino, Admiral Kizaru, tilted his head, hands in his pockets.
"My my. To stop my light-speed kick. What kind of ability is that, hm?"
The air grew hotter. Far off, magma bubbled like a living thing.
Sakazuki had arrived
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