After leaving Enel's hospital room, Gern leaned close to Tesoro's ear and issued a few rapid, low-voiced instructions.
The moment Tesoro heard them, his expression turned incomparably grave. He nodded heavily without asking a single question.
At once, he led Toritoma, Lipo, Kuma, Hawk-Eye, and the others away at speed, as if carrying out an urgent, high-priority order.
In the blink of an eye, only Gern remained in the corridor.
He did not head for the command center.
Instead, he went alone to a relatively secluded small garden inside the base.
Lush greenery filled the space. At its center stood a simple stone table with two stone stools.
Gern sat down alone at the table—yet, uncharacteristically, he took out two teacups, calmly pouring hot tea into both.
Then he picked up the cup in front of him, took a light sip, and looked toward the empty stone stool opposite him as he spoke flatly:
"Go on. Let's hear it."
The instant his words fell—
Whoosh! Countless golden light particles condensed out of thin air above the opposite stone stool, rapidly sketching the outline of a human figure.
The next second, Borsalino—draped in a Marine admiral's coat of justice—was already sitting there with one leg crossed over the other, relaxed and unhurried.
"How truly terrifying~," Kizaru said in his usual peculiar drawl as he picked up the other cup of tea and blew gently on the steam.
"Who would've thought that one little outing would not only make Hawk-Eye Mihawk behave himself, but even bring back the Revolutionary Army's 'Tyrant' with you?
Gern-kun~ your talent for poaching people puts even me to shame~
So… have you ever considered poaching me, too?"
Kizaru tried to ease the tension with his habitual joking, probing Gern's attitude.
But Gern didn't buy it at all.
He set his teacup down and stared straight at Kizaru with icy eyes, dispensing with all pleasantries and tearing through every layer of pretense.
"Did Sengoku send you to stop me, Kizaru?"
The tone was calm—yet it carried an unquestionable demand.
Hearing Gern address him directly as "Kizaru," rather than the usual half-teasing "Senior Borsalino,"
The fingers holding Kizaru's teacup paused almost imperceptibly. The playful smile on his face faded slightly.
Just as I thought.
He knew it. In this state, Gern was truly furious. Any jokes or probing were meaningless.
So Kizaru also set down his teacup. His tone lost its flippancy, though a hint of admonition remained.
"Gern-kun, no need to put it so harshly.
The Fleet Admiral is thinking of the bigger picture, too.
After all… some things, once done, really leave no way back."
"And besides…" He paused, trying to persuade from another angle. "Is it really… necessary to go this far, Gern?"
"Necessary?" Gern let out a cold chuckle, the corner of his mouth curving into a chilling arc. "That's not a question you should be asking me."
His gaze sharpened like a blade, as if it could pierce straight through Kizaru.
"You should go ask the five sitting in Pangaea Castle at Mary Geoise. Go ask those bastards in the God's Knights!
Ask them whether they ever thought about the consequences when they made their move!"
Kizaru was momentarily choked by the undisguised killing intent and resolve in Gern's words. He sighed and shifted his approach.
"But… Marine Headquarters will never allow you to act recklessly like this.
This will trigger—"
Before he could finish, Gern cut him off, his voice turning even colder.
"Marine Headquarters?" Gern sneered. "Wasn't Enel a Marine commodore? Isn't G-10 a Marine base?
When they made their move, they didn't give a damn about Marine rules!"
Kizaru reflexively replied, "But Enel isn't he already—"
The moment the word "already" left his mouth, Kizaru's voice abruptly froze.
Because he saw it clearly.
At the instant those two words were spoken, Gern's already icy eyes erupted with a killing intent so tangible it was nearly physical!
At the same time, the fingers of Gern's right hand resting on the stone table twitched—ever so slightly.
Years of battle-honed Observation Haki and extreme reaction speed saved Kizaru.
Almost the exact moment Gern's killing intent flared—
Kizaru's body instantly dispersed into countless dazzling golden light particles, retreating backward at light speed!
It was his most instinctive response to danger.
Dozens of meters away, the light rapidly reconverged, Kizaru's figure reforming—shock still lingering on his face.
He thought he'd put enough distance between them…
Yet at the very instant his body fully solidified, an icy, bone-chilling sharpness was already pressed against the skin of his throat!
The unmistakably real edge made every hair on the back of his neck stand on end!
Kizaru's pupils shrank violently as he glanced downward in disbelief.
There it was.
The black blade wrapped in old, gray-white bandages—now fully released.
The bandages had completely dissipated, revealing a terrifying blade body: deep, abyssal black, veined with dark, crack-like patterns.
Gern looked at Kizaru out of the corner of his eye, his voice measured, each word falling like a hammer.
"You…"
"Do you think I…"
"Can't keep you here?"
"Borsalino."
For the final words, Gern no longer used his codename.
He spoke his real name.
And at this moment, that name was more terrifying than any overt threat.
Every trace of expression vanished from Kizaru's face, replaced by an unprecedented heaviness—and a flicker of sheer disbelief.
Light-speed movement… and I still couldn't completely evade it?! No—he predicted my position perfectly!
This guy's control over vibrations… has it reached such an absurd level already?!
In an instant, the air froze solid.
The temperature in the small garden seemed to plummet to the freezing point.
Kizaru's face was utterly devoid of humor now, grave beyond measure.
He could even feel the surrounding air beginning to subtly twist and tremble—countless invisible vibration particles converging in a violent frenzy.
He knew it.
Gern's words were not a joke.
If the answer he gave next failed to satisfy him, then in the very next moment—
This quiet little garden would become the life-and-death battlefield of two Marine admirals.
...
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