Marine Headquarters, Marineford. Chief of Staff's Office.
The afternoon sunlight came through the blinds and fell across the desk. Dust drifted in the air.
When the urgent male voice came through the phone, Vice Admiral Tsuru's hand stopped over the documents.
"Kane?"
Tsuru knew the name. Kane was Aiden's adjutant, and he had built a good record at Headquarters. He knew how to handle people, reports, and sudden trouble without losing his head.
When she first heard that he had volunteered to follow Aiden to the dangerous and unpredictable G-5 Branch in the New World, Tsuru had been surprised. It was not an easy post, and it was not a safe choice. But Kane had still gone. Because of that, she respected his judgment even more.
Recently, she had heard that he had obtained a rare Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit. At this rate, he had a real future in the Marines.
If Kane sounded this shaken, something serious had happened.
Tsuru closed the document in front of her. Her voice stayed steady.
"Catch your breath first," Tsuru said.
"Speak slowly. What exactly happened?"
On the other end of the phone, Kane took a shaky breath.
He swallowed hard and forced the words out. Then he repeated the news he had just heard from Moria—news no one at Headquarters would be able to ignore.
From Aiden attacking Wano alone.
To him wiping out the Beasts Pirates, then turning his body into lightning and crushing Kaido's Azure Dragon form.
And finally...
Under the watch of Kaido and Moria, without any warning.
That man simply vanished.
He completely disappeared... from this world.
"..."
The office went silent.
Tsuru stayed in the same position. Her face barely changed, but her fingers tightened around the cup in her hand.
Erased?
Disappeared?
If someone else said this, she would think it was crazy talk. But Kane was Aiden's most loyal adjutant, and Moria was an experienced Warlord of the Sea...
If Kane and Moria both said the same thing, she could not dismiss it.
Crack.
A faint crack came from the cup.
Thin cracks spread across the fine bone china teacup in Tsuru's hand.
Boiling hot tea spilled through her fingers and dripped onto the documents on the desk. It spread into a brown stain and burned her fingers red.
She did not react.
"Disappeared..."
Tsuru muttered the word, her voice finally no longer calm.
She slowly put down the shattered teacup, letting the pieces scatter on the desk.
She knew that the kid who always gave her a headache, who always caused trouble, yet repeatedly created miracles and was seen by her as the future backbone of the Marines...
Was probably in real danger this time.
"Kane."
Tsuru's voice became calm again, but her burned fingers still shook slightly.
"Stay where you are."
"Even Kaido couldn't make him disappear without leaving anything behind."
"I will head there as soon as possible."
Click.
The call with the G-6 Branch disconnected.
Tsuru's fingers almost instinctively reached for the rotary dial again, preparing to call Sengoku's office line.
Along with the mechanical turning sound, she spun it twice.
Puru...
But as her finger prepared to dial the third turn, it stopped over the dial.
Tsuru stared at the receiver in her hand.
Calling Sengoku didn't seem to be the best option. Rather than wasting time explaining everything to Sengoku first, she needed to move now.
Thinking of this, Tsuru pressed her finger on the hang-up button, cutting off the call before it went through.
Then she took a deep breath. Her fingers moved quickly over the same dial, skillfully calling another private number.
...
Grand Line, a certain sea area.
Boom! Boom!
A Marine battleship had cornered a pirate crew with a bounty over a hundred million.
It was less a battle than Gion keeping them alive long enough for the recruits to train.
On the deck, Gion didn't even draw her sword. She stood with one hand in her pocket, lightly waving her fingers with the other.
Konpira moved through the air under her control, drawing streaks of pink light. It sliced the masts on the enemy pirate ship to pieces and cut around the pirates, pinning them to the deck until they could not lift their heads. They could only crouch there and wait.
Ever since she ate the Float-Float Fruit that Aiden gave her, her control had become much sharper. Something like the "Skull Crusher" Coster Pirates escaping from her hands in the past would never happen again.
If it weren't to train the recruits under her command right now, she could have dropped the enemy ship into the sea or sent Konpira through every pirate on board.
Puru puru puru...
The private Transponder Snail in her coat suddenly rang.
Gion answered casually, her voice softer when she heard Tsuru. "Hello? Tsuru? How do you have time to call me today? I'm dealing with some pirates over here. If this is just a chat, I'll call you back later."
"Gion."
On the other end of the phone, Tsuru's voice was lower than usual.
"Put down what you're doing for now. I have something to tell you."
"Huh?"
Gion heard the change in Tsuru's voice. She raised her fingers, and Konpira stopped in midair.
"What's wrong? Why so serious? Did something major happen at Headquarters again? Or is it..."
Gion almost smiled. "Did that bastard Aiden cause trouble again?"
To her, only news about Aiden was worth being contacted so seriously. But no matter how much trouble Aiden caused, she believed that man had the ability to handle it.
"He didn't cause trouble."
Tsuru paused before answering.
"The G-6 Branch just sent a message."
"Aiden... has gone missing in Wano."
"Wano?"
Gion stopped moving.
"When did that bastard go there? Isn't he supposed to be building a base on Hachinosu?"
"It's because King the Conflagration from the Beasts Pirates attacked Hachinosu earlier," Tsuru said.
"To eliminate the threat for good, Aiden took Moria a few days ago and went straight to Onigashima to settle things with Kaido."
"Ha!"
Hearing this, Gion let out a breath of relief. Then she couldn't help but laugh.
"I knew it. With his temper, Kaido would definitely pay for messing with him."
"So what happened? Did he beat Kaido up?"
"As for going missing..."
Gion waved her hand. She did not sound worried yet. She even began controlling Konpira again, planning to continue holding down the enemy pirates.
"Tsuru, you're too nervous. That guy definitely thought things were a hassle after the fight, or didn't want to write a report, so he found a place to hide and slack off, right?"
"Don't worry. Once he's done having fun out there, he'll come back naturally. A small thing like this isn't worth you..."
"This time is different," Tsuru cut her off.
"It was on Onigashima. He disappeared right in front of Moria and Kaido's eyes."
"According to Moria's report, Aiden had already defeated Kaido. But the moment the battle ended, without any warning..."
"He just vanished out of thin air."
"No body. No lightning. No Haki. Nothing Moria could sense."
"It's like... he was completely erased from this world."
"..."
Gion stopped smiling.
The sea breeze moved through her hair, but she did not react.
"Erased...?"
Gion's voice came out rough. She gripped the receiver harder, but her fingers still began to tremble.
"This joke isn't funny at all."
"That's Aiden..."
"Even I don't want to believe it," Tsuru said. She sounded tired.
"If he was just slacking off, he wouldn't leave such a huge mess behind. Even if he were injured, he wouldn't lose contact completely like this."
"Gion, we have to prepare for the worst."
Prepare for... the worst?
Gion stopped breathing for a moment.
The confidence she had been holding onto cracked.
If he won, why did he vanish?
If Kaido didn't die, then where did Aiden go?
"A trick..."
Gion lowered her head. Her long hair hid her face, making it impossible to see her expression. Her voice came out low through clenched teeth.
"It has to be a trick..."
"They couldn't win head-on... so they used some dirty trick?"
"I knew it... that bastard is always so careless..."
"Vice... Vice Admiral?"
The adjutant below noticed the change first. The deck went quiet. The recruits stopped moving without realizing it, and every Marine nearby looked at Gion.
Hum—!!!
Right as his words fell, Konpira rang sharply.
The blade shook in the air as Gion's fingers tightened around the receiver.
In an instant, it turned into a pink blur and cut through the air.
Boom————!!!!
A slash hundreds of meters long tore across the sea.
The enemy pirate ship, along with the dozens of pirates on board, didn't even have time to scream.
The hull split apart. Broken wood, bodies, and seawater burst outward.
The ship broke apart, and the sea below opened in a long white cut.
The waves were sliced open cleanly, revealing the deep seabed.
Gulp...
The Marines on the battleship turned pale.
No one spoke.
Right after.
The Transponder Snail crackled. Tsuru heard a sonic boom, then Gion's voice through the noise:
"I'll be right there."
...
Half an hour later.
Marine Headquarters, Chief of Staff's Office.
The heavy wooden doors of the office were smashed open by brute force. Gion rushed in without even waiting for the guards to salute. Her stray hairs were soaked in sweat, sticking messily to her cheeks. Her eyes, usually bright and expressive, were completely bloodshot right now.
"Vice Admiral Tsuru! What exactly happened?!"
Tsuru looked at her junior, who looked like she had not stopped moving since the call, and sighed. She briefly explained the situation.
"I already told you everything I know over the Transponder Snail. Right now, we need to get to the G-6 Branch and confirm what happened there."
Tsuru stood up and pointed at the sea chart. "Right now, whether we take the Fish-Man Island route or the elevator at Mary Geoise, it will take too much time. We can't wait that long."
"That's why I called you back urgently. Gion, we need your power to fly directly over the Red Line. We have to reach the G-6 Branch as fast as possible and find out exactly what happened!"
"Alright!"
Gion didn't hesitate. She grabbed Tsuru and walked straight to the port.
Marineford, Military Port 1.
The port was busy. A heavy steel battleship, loaded with ammo and fresh water, was preparing to leave port for a routine patrol mission.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Is that Vice Admiral Gion? And Vice Admiral Tsuru?!"
The port's Rear Admiral looked at Gion and Tsuru coming straight toward the ship. Before he could even ask...
"Everyone off the ship! Right now!"
Gion shouted sharply. The soldiers saw her face and scrambled off the ship.
Immediately, Gion jumped up and stood in the most visible spot at the bow of the ship. She slammed one hand heavily onto the thick hull.
The battleship shuddered as Gion's power spread through the hull.
Rumble—
The soldiers stared as the steel battleship weighing thousands of tons rose from the water, sending waves splashing over the port.
Once Vice Admiral Tsuru stood firm, a boom rolled across the port, and the battleship tore straight through the clouds. It flew toward the New World at full speed.
...
Half a day later.
New World, above the G-6 Branch.
A massive shadow covered the entire island. The steel battleship came down through the clouds, stopped above the port, and slammed down heavily.
Gion walked off the ship without saying a word. The Marines at the port moved out of her way.
Inside the meeting room.
Issho, Jinbe, Kane, and a grim-faced Moria had been waiting for a long time.
"Tell me the details. What exactly happened?"
Gion did not exchange a single pleasantry. Ever since she entered the meeting room, her hand stayed pressed on Konpira's hilt. Her bloodshot eyes stayed on Moria.
Moria took a deep breath and repeated the scene from that day once again:
...
"In the end, right at that moment, Lord Aiden's body started blinking! It flashed a few times, and then... he just vanished out of nowhere!"
"It's true! I swear!!"
"Vanished out of nowhere?"
Gion scoffed. Her hand tightened around Konpira.
"There is no such thing as vanishing out of nowhere in this world!"
"Since he disappeared in Wano, Kaido must be involved."
Vice Admiral Tsuru kept staring silently at the sea chart. She went over Moria's words again. None of it gave her an answer. If the report gave them no answer, they had to question the only other witness.
She tightened the cape over her shoulders.
"Going to Wano to take a look will be more useful than any deduction."
She slowly looked up, her expression hard. "Jinbe stays at the base. Issho, Kane, and Gion, you are coming with me to Wano. We need to hear what Kaido has to say."
...
Wano, ruins of the Flower Capital.
A week had passed since the battle.
The once prosperous capital was now a field of burned stone and ash.
In the center of the ruins.
Glug... glug...
Kaido sat alone on the highest piece of debris. He gripped a bowl of alcohol in his hand, chugging hard liquor into his mouth.
At this moment, he no longer looked like the man called the Strongest Creature.
Not only had the cross-shaped scar left by Oden not fully healed, but he had also gained several new sword wounds left by Aiden. After Aiden's lightning had smashed him into the ground, his wounds had closed, but his breathing was uneven, and every movement pulled at the cuts Aiden had left.
But the pain in his body was easier to bear than the memory of kneeling.
In the first few days, he had actually felt lucky because of Aiden's sudden disappearance. But that relief did not last. Each day, the memory of begging Aiden for his life became harder to bear.
He kept seeing that moment again—the moment he knelt on the ground and threw away his dignity just to survive.
"I... actually begged for mercy," Kaido muttered in self-mockery. He took another hard drink but choked and started coughing violently.
"You killed all my subordinates, destroyed my ambitions, and in the end, you tossed my life to the side like trash... and just disappeared!"
His breathing grew fast and heavy. The bowl in his hand creaked under his immense grip until it finally snapped and turned into dust.
"What is this? Charity?!"
Kaido suddenly stood up and shouted at the empty sky:
"Aiden!! You bastard... kill me!! Come back here and kill me!!!"
Kaido's roar echoed through the ruins, desolate and furious.
However.
The one who answered him was not Aiden.
Rumble—!!!
Right after Kaido finished shouting, the shadow of a massive battleship swallowed the ruins.
Kaido suddenly looked up.
He saw a massive Marine battleship burst through the clouds. Wind from its descent scattered dust and loose stones across the ruins as it hovered exactly fifty meters above his head.
"Kaido!!!!"
Gion looked down from above. She pointed her sword at Kaido below, her voice low and rough:
"Hand Aiden... over!!!"
Kaido froze.
He looked at the Marines above him, all with their weapons ready. He was stunned at first, but then his face twisted with anger.
"Ha?! Hand him over?!"
Kaido pointed at his own nose, laughing in disbelief:
"I want to find him too!! That bastard suddenly disappeared on his own! What the hell does it have to do with me!!"
"You dare lie!!!"
Gion's eyes were bloodshot. To her, it sounded like another lie.
"You must have used some trick to hide him!!"
Gion kept her eyes on the massive figure. Her grip tightened until the hilt shook. Her fingers trembled around the weapon.
"Last chance, Kaido."
Gion's voice was hoarse:
"Hand him over. Or tell me what trick you used to hide him."
"I've said it ten thousand times!!!"
Veins popped out on Kaido's forehead. A frustrated roar came from his throat:
"He vanished out of nowhere right in front of my eyes!! Where do you expect me to conjure up a living person for you?!"
"Still lying!!!"
To Gion, these words were not just a clumsy cover-up. He was mocking her. How could someone as strong as Aiden just vanish into thin air?
"It seems you won't accept reality until you're staring at your own grave."
Tsuru pushed up her glasses. As Chief of Staff, Tsuru did not believe in convenient accidents. She only believed in results.
"There's no need to waste words on him."
"Do it. Restrain Kaido first."
Issho leaped down from the bow first.
As he fell, Issho drew the blade from his cane.
He swung the cane sword downward.
Boom!!!
A purple wave spread from the blade and slammed into the ruins. The ground buckled under Kaido's feet.
The broken ground around Kaido cracked and sank.
"Urgh..."
Below, Kaido, who was about to fight back, felt his shoulders drop and his knees bend under the weight.
His massive body was forced to bend at the knees, his feet sinking deeply into the dirt.
"You think this level of gravity... can keep me down?!"
Kaido roared. Veins popped out all over his body, and Armament Haki erupted. The ground cracked under his feet, but he still forced himself upright. His kanabo, Hassaikai, rose in his hand, wrapped in black and red lightning, ready to swing at Issho in the air.
"Don't underestimate the Marines, Kaido."
Tsuru appeared at Kaido's side.
At some point, Vice Admiral Tsuru had used Moonwalk to close the distance before Kaido could turn.
Tsuru moved faster than Kaido expected. By the time Kaido noticed her, her hands were already on his arm.
Tsuru pressed both hands against Kaido's arm and scrubbed across his Haki-coated muscles.
Bzzzz—
The hardness in Kaido's body began to loosen.
Kaido's body, hard enough to take cannon fire, softened the moment Tsuru touched it. His skin and muscles folded like wet cloth under her hands.
Even his Armament Haki weakened, losing the hardness that protected him.
"What... what the hell is this?!"
Kaido's arm sagged. His fingers loosened around Hassaikai. His body could no longer exert any force, and Hassaikai clattered to the ground because his arms had turned soft.
Gravity held his legs in place while Tsuru's hands stripped the hardness from his body.
Kaido tried to lift his arm again, but it dropped uselessly.
"We're not done yet!!"
High in the sky, Gion had already moved above him.
She stepped through the air using the fruit's power. Each step changed her angle, and the wind around the ruins pulled behind her as she dropped.
Whoosh—!!
Gion dropped from above with Konpira drawn.
Her famous sword Konpira turned pitch black from the infusion of Armament Haki. A pale pink slash followed the blade as it cut through the air.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Gion cut around Kaido before he could move.
She aimed every cut at the wounds Aiden had left on him, opening Kaido's unhealed wounds again.
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
Kaido screamed.
He tried to fight back, but Issho's gravity dragged his knees back down. He tried to defend, but Tsuru's power made it impossible for him to harden his body. He tried to dodge, but each time he shifted his weight, another slash cut into him.
If it were Kaido at his peak, he might have been able to put up a desperate fight. But right now, heavily injured and facing Tsuru, Issho, and Gion while he could barely stand, he could not reach Hassaikai. He could not harden his body. He could not get his knees off the ground.
The beating lasted for hours.
The ruins split under Issho's gravity. Kaido's old wounds opened again and again. Blood ran down his chest and soaked into the broken stone. He tried to reach Hassaikai more than once, but every time his fingers moved, Tsuru's power left his arm limp, and Gion's blade cut into another wound.
By the end, Kaido could no longer lift his arms. His massive body crashed to the ground, pinned down firmly by Issho's gravity.
Gion dropped from the sky and stepped on Kaido's chest. The tip of Konpira pierced the skin of his throat.
"Release your power!!"
Gion's eyes were red and her voice trembled:
"Let Aiden out!!"
"Cough, cough... pfft..."
Kaido spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with bits of internal organs. He stared at Gion, bleeding and unable to understand why she still did not believe him.
"I... cough, cough... I'm telling the truth!!!"
"He really just vanished on his own... It has nothing to do with me!!!"
"If I knew where he was, I'd drag him back myself!!!"
At that point, Kaido had no reason left to lie.
Kaido was beaten, bleeding, and trapped. There was no point in lying anymore. There was only rage, pain, and confusion on his face.
Tsuru and Issho went quiet. By now, even they could see it.
But Gion didn't believe it.
Or rather, she didn't dare to believe it.
If Kaido was telling the truth, if Aiden truly vanished into thin air, it meant she didn't even have a direction to look for him.
Then there would be nowhere left to search.
"No... it has to be a Devil Fruit power..."
Gion muttered to herself. Her breathing grew uneven. Her grip tightened again.
"Just like other Devil Fruits..."
"Once the user dies... the power is undone!!"
"As long as I kill you... even if you locked him in another dimension, he will definitely come out!!"
It was the only answer she could still hold onto.
"What?!" Kaido went still. "You crazy bitch..."
"Die!!!"
Gion didn't give Kaido any chance to explain.
She gripped her weapon with both hands. She poured Armament Haki into the blade without holding anything back, and the air around Konpira shook.
She swung.
Slash—!!!
For a moment, no one moved.
Kaido's head flew into the air, blood spraying behind it.
Blood fell across Gion's Justice coat.
She didn't look at Kaido's corpse. Instead, she immediately looked around the ruins, searching.
"Come out..."
"Kaido is dead... the power should be undone..."
"Aiden... come out!!"
However.
Aside from the howling wind, broken stone, and ash, nothing happened.
...
Ding~
[Criminal: "King of the Beasts" Kaido]
[Overall Rating: SS9]
[Status: Executed]
[Evil Index: 217,790]
[Execution Participation Rate: 41%]
[Optional Rewards]: 6 options available (Only partial optional rewards provided due to insufficient execution participation rate)
[Bucket List]: (Can be activated)
Aiden had been unconscious for an unknown amount of time. When the system prompt rang in his mind, he slowly opened his eyes.
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