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The video feed from the Gates of Justice played out on a massive screen in the main plaza of Marineford.

Tens of thousands of Marines watched as the two figures on the steel boat approached.

They did not turn. They did not slow. The bullet-shaped vessel was on a collision course, its destination clear: Marineford itself.

"All hands, prepare for battle!" Sengoku roared into the Den Den Mushi, his voice booming across every corner of the naval fortress. "The Thunder Emperor has come. He will not leave."

Arrogance. To attack Marineford with nothing but a single traitor at his side—it was a slap in the face to every Marine present.

"Even the Golden Lion was brought down by our combined might! The Thunder Emperor will be no exception!"

"Show this fool the fate of all pirates! Justice will be done!"

"JUSTICE WILL BE DONE!"

"JUSTICE WILL BE DONE!"

The roar of tens of thousands of voices, a single, unified cry, shook the very foundations of the island.

'Arthur,' Jessica thought, her expression a mask of calm, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. 'I have trained for seven years. I am not a liability anymore. Just you wait.'

The wind whipped at her Justice coat, a testament to the years of brutal training she had endured.

"Jessica."

A low, husky voice sounded beside her. A hand clapped her on the shoulder.

It was Commander Aurora. They had come up through the ranks together, from raw recruits to their current station.

Jessica's feelings toward her were complicated. She knew her friend's history. She knew that Aurora was the first woman Arthur had ever met after setting out to sea.

The daughter of a West Blue mafia boss, she had been rescued by Arthur after her father was killed by Capone Bege. In return, she had given him the Castle-Castle Fruit and the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, hiring him to avenge her family.

It was not that she was jealous. Yet she knew that Aurora still harbored feelings for him, that she obsessively collected every newspaper article that mentioned his name.

"Relax," Aurora said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Arthur might be strong, but a prepared Navy can face any enemy."

Her face was a calm, unreadable mask. There was no sign of anticipation, no hint of excitement at his arrival.

"Come on. Let us get to Vice Admiral Tsuru. With her and Vice Admiral Momousagi protecting us, no one can touch us."

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At the Gates of Justice, the water churned, a violent, raging torrent.

Kaido, his neck still chained, was being thrashed about by the whirlpools, unable to gain any leverage. He was completely submerged, invisible to the video snails above.

"Captain," Shiryu said, a manic grin spreading across his face. "Do we charge straight in? I have always wanted to know what it felt like when the Golden Lion attacked this place alone."

The thought of facing such overwhelming odds, of being part of such a world-shaking event—it sent a thrill of pure, unadulterated joy through him.

"Patience," Arthur said. He looked up at the camera, a contemptuous smile playing on his lips.

He spread his arms wide, and before the astonished eyes of every Marine watching, the entire steel boat was lifted from the sea.

An invisible force enveloped the vessel, and it began to rise, higher and higher, into the sky.

He was not going to ram the Gates of Justice.

He was going to fly over them.

At Marineford, every head in the plaza tilted upward.

"Look out!" Sengoku roared, his eyes wide with horror as he saw the massive, chained figure dangling from the back of the rising boat.

"AKAINU! AOKIJI! SHOOT THEM DOWN, NOW!"

Aokiji, who had been lounging lazily in a chair, pushed his sleep mask up onto his forehead and released a long, slow stretch. "Oh, my. He really is a handful."

"Ice Block: Partisan."

A wave of absolute-zero cold shot from his palm, a volley of ice spears that raced through the air toward Arthur.

"Hmph. The filth of the world dares to set foot on the sacred ground of the Navy." Akainu's disgust was palpable. His eyes could not tolerate a single speck of evil.

"Be reduced to ash. Great Eruption."

His arms transformed into magma, and he launched two massive fists of molten rock into the sky, the intense heat they generated threatening to vaporize the steel boat on contact.

The Marines on the ground watched in awe. This was the power of their Admirals.

"What an ugly sight," Arthur said from his perch in the sky, a look of pure disdain on his face. With a wave of his hand, the boat stopped, hovering in midair.

He grabbed the long chain and, with a surge of immense strength, began to swing it around and around, the colossal weight of Kaido's body at the end picking up terrifying momentum.

"A little gift for you all."

He let go.

Kaido's body—a living meteor—plummeted from the sky.

The black, iron-hard mass of him tore through the attacks of Akainu and Aokiji, shattering them into nothing.

"GET BACK! CLEAR THE IMPACT ZONE!" Sengoku screamed, his voice raw with panic, the veins in his eyes bulging.

"WHOOSH—"

The air shrieked. Yet it was too late. The dense crowd in the plaza had become a death trap.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

It was as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated in the center of the plaza. The sound alone was enough to shatter eardrums.

Hundreds of Marines who had been unable to escape were instantly crushed into a fine red paste.

The plaza itself was obliterated, a massive crater forming at the point of impact, spiderweb cracks spreading for thousands of meters in every direction. A thick cloud of dust and smoke blotted out the sky.

From his vantage point high above, Arthur looked down, his voice a cold, indifferent whisper.

"When I give you a gift... you accept it."

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"Hah... hah..."

A ragged, panting sound came from the center of the crater. It was the sound of a beast pushed to the very edge of its endurance, on the verge of a final, apocalyptic rampage.

"THUNDER EMPEROR... I AM GOING TO TEAR YOU APART!"

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

With a low, guttural roar, Kaido exploded from the dust cloud, his charge a blind, unstoppable force of nature. He swatted aside the Marines in his path, his every blow a cataclysm of pure, physical power.

Dozens, then hundreds, died in an instant.

"FALL BACK! CLEAR A PATH!" Sengoku's heart was breaking. Not since the battle with the Golden Lion had the Navy suffered such a loss.

"NO!" a voice of pure, molten rage roared. Akainu, half of his body transformed into magma, strode through the chaos, the very ground melting beneath his feet.

"They died for their cause. In the pursuit of justice."

"NO PIRATE WILL MAKE THE NAVY GIVE WAY!"

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