Meanwhile, aboard the Navy's main fleet, Sengoku's expression was terrifyingly grim. The officers around him remained silent, each with their head lowered and a grim look on their face.
By now, they had received word that two warships had gone missing. The Vivre Cards of the two Vice Admirals were also steadily burning away, until they disappeared completely. Both Vice Admirals were dead. What about the six thousand Marines who had been with them?
"Rona and ** [sic] had both sacrificed their lives, and it's only been fifteen minutes." Sengoku gritted his teeth and slammed his palm down on the table. A deep handprint appeared in its surface.
"Sengoku, stay calm," Vice Admiral Tsuru reminded him from beside him. She was shocked by the losses too, but the more critical the moment, the more important it was to remain calm.
Sengoku's face flushed red. He took a deep breath, struggling to steady himself. "Three Vice Admirals and ten thousand Marines, and they only lasted twenty minutes before they were all wiped out. Did Whitebeard do this himself? Or did the Whitebeard Pirates throw everything they had at them?"
"This is the Navy's greatest loss in a single engagement in more than a decade. They failed to buy us any time. It's as if we put the meat right in front of them and let them eat it." It was a humiliating slap in the face. Three warships led by Vice Admirals had faced the Whitebeard Pirates at full strength. It was easy to imagine how helpless they had been—and how pointless their deaths.
"Whatever the case, our plan must have been exposed. The Whitebeard Pirates found out, which is why this happened." Tsuru sighed. "We don't know where things went wrong, but now we have to face a question: do we still attack the Whitebeard Pirates? They're already prepared, and with Whitebeard's abilities, it'll be difficult even to get close."
At a time like this, only Tsuru could speak to Sengoku this way.
"We fight. We have to!" Sengoku answered decisively. "We made a grand show of mobilizing, only to return without a single victory and with such heavy losses. The Navy would become a laughingstock."
Just as Sengoku had said, they had to fight. "But have the other nine warships return to G1 Branch. Otherwise, they'll become Whitebeard's targets and die for nothing." Even at a time like this, Sengoku didn't throw caution aside and seek revenge at any cost. Instead, he calmly assessed the situation and tried to minimize needless casualties. Tsuru nodded with approval. "I'll inform Headquarters of your decision."
Tsuru's wisdom was not to be underestimated. Sengoku was the commander of the war, while Tsuru served as his advisor and aide. She also acted as a check on him, preventing him from making irrational decisions.
"Tell Sengoku that Headquarters approves his decision. The Navy must demonstrate its strength." At Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral Kong issued the order. He had planned the operation himself, so the loss of the three warships was ultimately his responsibility. He suppressed his anger. Their campaign had gotten off to a disastrous start. Who had leaked the plan?
"Investigate everything. Everyone who knew the details of this operation must be investigated." The exposure of the operation had cost the Navy dearly, and Kong believed there had been a leak from within. But he never imagined the real problem had been Teach, whose Observation Haki had reached such a refined level that he had overheard their conversation.
"Easy... that stings." Teach sucked in a sharp breath as alcohol poured over his wound. The pain was intense and searing—an exquisite agony.
The war was about to begin, so Teach couldn't hide away and recover. He applied a specially prepared ointment. Medicinal herbs were highly developed in this world. Perhaps because of the world's customs, people were often injured out at sea, so all kinds of powerful wound medicines had been developed. With Teach's astonishing vitality, his wound had already scabbed over. The medicines would help it heal, but an injury this serious still required at least a few days of rest.
The ship's doctor was used to treating injuries like this. He skillfully stitched up the wound, applied ointment, and wrapped it in bandages. In just a few minutes, Teach was back outside. It still hurt, but it didn't hinder his movements at all.
The timing was perfect. In the distance, a massive warship was approaching. His crewmates watched it intently, ready for battle.
It wasn't the fleet they had expected. There was only one warship. "Looks like the Navy knows what Pops can do. The rest of the warships must have turned back," one of the pirates said with a laugh.
The warship drew closer and finally stopped a hundred meters from the Moby Dick.
"Gurararara! Sengoku, it's been a long time. I've been waiting here for you for ages!" Whitebeard stood at the bow, holding Murakumogiri, and laughed loudly.
"Hmph!" Sengoku said nothing. The two stared at each other. Suddenly, Whitebeard's eyes narrowed, and at the same time, both sides unleashed their overwhelming auras. Boom! Arcs of lightning appeared in the air. It was a clash of Conqueror's Haki. The sea began to churn, the waves surging as the air currents rushed violently toward each other. It was as if the sea and sky had been split in two—no, as if they were two different worlds. The currents surged toward the enemy, the air itself pushed against them, and the sky seemed to split apart.
Teach braced himself against the wall and stared wide-eyed at the scene. Compared with these two men, who stood at the summit of the world, his own Conqueror's Haki was pitifully weak. But now he had a goal. One day, he would reach their level—or even surpass them. Teach believed it.
He understood, though, that he was still building his strength. He hadn't truly come into his own yet.
Sengoku's Conqueror's Haki was terrifying too. Their clash was nearly evenly matched. This was the "justice that ruled the world" he stood for.
The clash of Conqueror's Haki continued, and Sengoku's Haki gradually began to falter under Whitebeard's pressure. Bound by his position in the Navy and the restrictions imposed by the World Government, how could his Conqueror's Haki compare to Whitebeard's?
But a battle between the strong wasn't decided by Conqueror's Haki. The clash lasted only half a minute, but to the Marines and pirates present, it felt like a century. The mental pressure was agonizing, though it had little effect on the strongest fighters.
As if by tacit agreement, the two stopped at the same time. Admiral Sengoku revealed his power. His body grew larger and turned golden, until he looked like a colossal Buddha.
This was the Mythical Zoan: Human-Human Fruit: Great Buddha Form. It gave him terrifying defensive power and let him unleash devastating shockwaves.
Maintaining his Great Buddha Form, Sengoku thrust out a massive palm. Terrifying power gathered in its center. Whitebeard set Murakumogiri aside, raised his right hand, and spread his legs. He bent his right arm back, clenched his fist, and a silvery-white transparent sphere appeared around it, compressing the power of vibration to its absolute limit.
"Great Buddha Impact!" "Quake Punch!" Sengoku and Whitebeard shouted together.
The world lost its color. A powerful shockwave burst from the Buddha's body and collided midway between the two ships with the oncoming force of Whitebeard's quake.
The light was so bright they couldn't open their eyes. Everyone grabbed onto something to steady themselves. The pirate ship rocked violently, tilting over the sea. Their ears rang as though they were about to burst.
To witness a clash between the strongest in the world at such close range—"That's terrifying!" Once they had recovered, they looked ahead. The sea had sunk into a hemispherical hollow a hundred meters across, carved out by the attack.
"Gurararara!" Whitebeard laughed. He stamped his right foot down and threw another "Quake Punch."
"Boys, we're pulling back. We're done playing with them," Whitebeard said with a laugh.
"Right, Pops!" At his command, the crew sprang into action and returned to their posts. The Moby Dick turned around and sailed away.
Sengoku launched another Great Buddha Impact, canceling out Whitebeard's Quake Punch. Then the sea level began to rise. "This is bad—it's a tsunami!" In a matter of moments, a hundred-meter-high tsunami had formed and was rushing toward the warship, blotting out the sky. Faced with such a natural disaster, they could only feel how small they were.
"He launched an attack like that? How terrifying." Borsalino, usually so carefree, grew serious. As a Devil Fruit user, he had a natural reverence for the sea, especially in the face of a tsunami this powerful. Still, he wasn't worried for himself. With his abilities, he could evade it easily—but what about everyone else?
"What do we do? The warship will be crushed!"
"Are we going to die at sea?"
"Don't worry. Admiral Sengoku is here!" Seeing the Marines' morale begin to waver, Vice Admiral Tsuru spoke up. Human strength was no match for a natural disaster. Aside from monsters like those two, how could anyone not be afraid? She understood how they felt.
"Great Buddha Impact!" Sengoku faced the tsunami without changing his expression. Boom! Seen from afar, the gigantic wave was blasted in two, leaving a circular opening in the middle, punched through by Sengoku himself.
"Great! We're saved!" The Marines, who had narrowly escaped death, smiled with relief.
"Full speed ahead! Pursue them! Don't let the Whitebeard Pirates get away!" Sengoku shouted.
When they looked closely, the Whitebeard Pirates had already fled, sailing farther and farther away. Sengoku still had all his anger bottled up. How could he let the Whitebeard Pirates escape just like that? If the Navy didn't demonstrate its strength, how could it save face after suffering such enormous losses?
Three days later, Sengoku's warship was still pursuing the Whitebeard Pirates' Moby Dick.
The various forces of the New World had already turned their attention to the Whitebeard Pirates and the Navy. They learned the details of the operation and what had happened in the battle, and the Navy's losses were laid bare.
After discovering the Whitebeard Pirates' whereabouts, the Navy had sent three warships and three Vice Admirals to stall them while G1 Branch advanced at full speed, launching a lightning strike before anyone could react.
Had the operation succeeded, the Whitebeard Pirates might not have been wiped out, but they would have suffered devastating losses. The consequences would have changed the balance of power across the entire New World.
But there was no doubt that it had failed. The Whitebeard Pirates had always been relatively accommodating toward the Navy. They didn't go out of their way to provoke them. When they encountered Navy forces, they either fled or let their subordinates get some practice. Whitebeard himself never joined the fight. Killing a Vice Admiral would mean making an enemy of the Navy for good.
But once the operation was exposed, the Whitebeard Pirates had no reason to hold back. If the Navy had its sights on them, why show restraint? Before Sengoku arrived, they had wiped out all three warships sent to buy time. The news enraged Fleet Admiral Kong, who purged the Navy's ranks. Sure enough, several spies were caught.
The various forces of the New World mocked the Navy. Its reputation in the New World plummeted, and the Navy branches were attacked by pirates far more often.
Behind the scenes, however, they trained more spies and worked hard to infiltrate the Navy. If the Whitebeard Pirates hadn't learned of the operation, they would have kept acting as they always did, and the outcome was easy to imagine. With those sons fighting the Navy, Whitebeard would have held back and wouldn't have dared unleash the full power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit. Sengoku would have kept him occupied, leaving the rest of his sons unable to stand against the Navy's main fleet.
This had undoubtedly served as a warning to them. They increased their efforts in intelligence warfare, sending a flood of spies into the Navy and leaving its ranks in chaos.
The clash in which the three Vice Admirals died had happened so suddenly that no reporters were present, and Teach had remained undiscovered. A few photographs of Whitebeard's clash with Sengoku later surfaced.
Compared with the clash between two of the world's strongest fighters, the deaths of the three Vice Admirals were completely overlooked.
Meanwhile, out at sea, "Meteor Volcano!" Magma rained from the sky like meteors, shooting toward the Whitebeard Pirates' Moby Dick. "Yasakani no Magatama!" Borsalino crossed his hands before his chest and fired a stream of light beams—hundreds, even thousands of them. "Ice Bird." A giant bird formed from ice charged straight at them.
The Whitebeard Pirates had their own powerful fighters leap forward to block the attacks. Sengoku's warship kept pursuing the Moby Dick, and the two sides clashed from time to time. Several times, the pirates managed to shake them off, only for the Navy to catch up again before long.
Overall, the Navy was on the offensive, while the Whitebeard Pirates were defending.
Teach hid in a corner, avoiding the fight. He could leave this sort of thing to his crewmates. Two swords hung from his waist, along with two pistols. They were lead-shot pistols whose bullets inflicted tremendous pain. In the original story, they had appeared in Doflamingo's hands, where they had been used to kill his father and younger brother.
One was gold and the other silver. They were a pair of high-grade pistols, finely made and excellent to hold. Supposedly, they had been taken from a nobleman.
Teach had liked them as soon as he saw them. A crewmate who used a sword had wanted Teach's spoils—the Famous Sword: Purgatory—so Teach had traded it to him for the pistols. Teach had no shortage of swords now: the Famous Sword: Purgatory and Famous Sword: Thunder Fang, both of the twenty-one Great Grade Blades, as well as the Sword of Kingship, which was in no way inferior to the other two.
Teach was surprised to discover that the Famous Sword: Thunder Fang he had stolen was also a Great Grade Blade. After looking into it, he confirmed it was one of the twenty-one Great Grade Blades.
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