Silence swallowed the avenue.
Nobody moved.
Nobody seemed to breathe.
Zaraki had killed a Celestial Dragon, publicly, inside the Holy Land, in front of CP0 and representatives from across the world.
Then the screaming began.
World Nobles scattered in panic while servants tripped over one another.
Several slave mounts bolted with their riders still clinging desperately to the saddles, and kings hurried their families toward the open route as the orderly procession collapsed into chaos.
"Zaraki..."
Gion's voice came out dry.
She had gone pale.
"Do you understand what you just did?"
"Yeah."
Zaraki flicked the blood from Nozarashi.
"I took out some trash."
"You're insane!"
"Gion!"
Yamakaji caught her arm.
"Our job is the delegates!"
His expression had lost every trace of humor.
"We get them down the Red Line. Now!"
Gion clenched her teeth.
She knew he was right.
Behind Zaraki, Lucci and the other four CP0 agents shifted into formation, and the atmosphere changed immediately.
"Zaraki."
Lucci's voice was colder than before.
"You have killed a World Noble in the Holy Land."
He stepped forward.
"Drop the weapon. Submit to custody and await judgment."
Zaraki stared at him for a moment.
Then he laughed.
"Submit?"
He pointed Nozarashi toward Lucci.
"To you?"
His gaze passed over the other four masked agents.
"You five seriously think you can make me?"
One CP0 agent stepped forward, but Lucci raised an arm and stopped him.
"So you intend to resist."
"No."
Zaraki's smile disappeared.
His golden eyes sharpened as Nozarashi lowered slightly.
"I'm telling you the part you still haven't understood."
His grip tightened.
"The game starts now."
Lucci's raised hand dropped.
All five CP0 agents moved at once.
Two Rankyaku blades tore across the avenue while another agent came in low with a hardened Finger Pistol.
A fourth attacked from Zaraki's blind side as Lucci drove straight through the center of the formation.
The killing net closed.
....
The coordinated attack came from every angle at once.
The pressure alone cracked the white stone beneath Zaraki's feet as Rankyaku blades crossed through the air and hardened Finger Pistols drove toward his vital points.
His golden eyes followed the formation calmly.
They were fast, precise, and far better than the ordinary Government agents he had fought before.
They were still not fast enough.
Nozarashi moved.
CLANG—!
The first Finger Pistol struck the flat of the blade and was knocked aside.
Zaraki shifted half a step, allowing one Rankyaku to pass over his shoulder while cutting another apart with a short upward swing.
A third agent attacked from behind.
Zaraki turned just enough for the hardened fingers to scrape across his Armament Haki rather than enter his ribs, then drove an elbow backward and sent the agent skidding across the plaza.
Lucci was already inside his guard.
"Rokuogan!"
Both fists stopped just short of Zaraki's torso.
BOOM—!!
The internal shockwave struck.
Zaraki slid backward several meters, his boots gouging deep grooves through the white stone before he finally stopped. The ground behind him fractured under the force.
For the first time since the attack began, his grin widened.
'There we go. That one actually had some weight behind it.'
The CP0 agents did not celebrate.
Lucci knew better.
"Again!"
The formation closed around him a second time.
Zaraki lowered his center of gravity as dark-gold pressure crawled along Nozarashi's edge.
Then he swung.
Shhk—!
A single compressed flying slash tore through the CP0 formation.
"Tekkai!"
"Armament!"
The agents reacted immediately.
Lucci twisted clear. Another managed to deflect enough of the attack to keep it from cutting through his torso, although the impact still hurled him into a stone wall.
Two others were not as fortunate.
The slash tore through them before continuing into the empty pavement behind the formation and carving a deep line through the white stone.
Their bodies hit the ground as blood spread across Mary Geoise.
The last surviving agent staggered back beside Lucci with one arm hanging uselessly.
Zaraki remained in the center of the ruined avenue with Nozarashi held in one hand.
Slowly, he raised his head and looked past Lucci, beyond the damaged buildings, toward Pangaea Castle.
An arrogant grin spread across his face.
"Hey!"
His voice carried through the suddenly quiet avenue.
"You've watched long enough."
Zaraki rested Nozarashi against his shoulder.
"Why don't you come down yourself?"
Lucci's expression changed beneath the mask.
Zaraki continued.
"You old bastard hiding behind all these dogs. What are you waiting for? For me to finish the rest before you finally decide to stretch your legs?"
The surviving CP0 agents went still.
There were very few people in Mary Geoise whom anyone could address that way.
Silence stretched across the avenue.
Then a blur crossed it.
One moment, the space before Zaraki was empty.
The next, an elderly bald man in a white robe stood there.
Round glasses reflected the sunlight, and a sheathed sword rested at his side.
He did not need some impossible distortion of space or visible supernatural aura.
The controlled Haki and killing intent surrounding him were enough to make even Lucci instinctively fall silent.
One of the Five Elders.
Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro.
"You're loud, brat."
Nusjuro's voice was dry and cold.
"You possess power without restraint, courage without discipline, and an appetite for destruction that you mistake for freedom."
His expression barely changed.
"That is your greatest weakness."
He regarded Zaraki the way a craftsman might regard a weapon that had become too dangerous for its owner.
"And today, that defect will be corrected."
Zaraki laughed quietly and lowered Nozarashi from his shoulder, allowing the tip to hover just above the stone.
"Weakness? Correction?"
His golden eyes sharpened.
"Old man, did you misunderstand something?"
White teeth showed in his grin.
"I didn't come here to debate philosophy."
His grip tightened.
"I came here to cut people."
For the first time, something faintly resembling amusement touched Nusjuro's face.
"The ignorant know no fear."
His hand settled near his own sword.
"You think this confrontation consists only of you and me?"
Zaraki raised an eyebrow.
Nusjuro continued.
"The moment you entered Mary Geoise, every obvious route of interference was already accounted for."
His voice remained maddeningly calm.
"Marine units capable of moving quickly enough to matter have been diverted by disturbances elsewhere in the first half of the Grand Line."
Zaraki's grin faded slightly.
"And Garp?"
Nusjuro's expression barely shifted.
"An old acquaintance has been arranged to delay him. He will not reach the Holy Land in time."
Zaraki said nothing for a moment.
There were not many people alive capable of keeping Garp occupied for long.
Apparently, the Five Elders had done their homework.
"Don't look disappointed."
Nusjuro adjusted his grip on the sheath at his side.
"Don't you enjoy fighting? Don't you enjoy cutting people?"
A colder smile appeared.
"Then consider this a gesture of respect. We gathered several exceptionally troublesome pieces for you—pirates difficult to command, men and women powerful enough that even the Government normally prefers negotiation to direct confrontation."
Nusjuro paused before finally naming the institution.
"The Seven Warlords of the Sea."
Gion and Yamakaji, already retreating toward the Bondola route with the royal delegates, both stopped.
Nusjuro's smile deepened.
"Every Warlord who answered the Holy Land summons has already been brought into position."
Silence followed.
There were no longer seven occupied seats, and Nusjuro knew it.
But the Government was clearly prepared to turn whatever remained of the Warlord system, along with anyone it could still compel through that system, into another layer of the trap.
Gion felt cold.
'They're really doing it.'
Whatever pretense remained was rapidly disappearing.
Zaraki did not answer.
Then a security Den Den Mushi mounted near the shattered checkpoint suddenly began shrieking.
Purururururu—!
A guard near the observation station turned toward the live feed from Red Port, far below the summit of the Red Line.
His expression changed.
"Something just surfaced at the lower harbor!"
The image on the monitoring screen shook violently as bubbles erupted across the water outside Red Port.
One particularly large coating broke the surface.
POP—!
Seawater scattered outward as a pirate vessel emerged beneath it.
Water streamed from the sail as it opened in the wind.
Across that sail was the image of a vicious, grinning skull.
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