Navy Headquarters

Marineford, Navy Headquarters.

The midday sun fell across the white fortress's plaza, setting the coats of justice ablaze with light.

At the harbor, the Kuja Pirates' ship had just come to a stop. The enormous serpent coiled alongside it drew looks of awe and curiosity from the Navy soldiers.

Empress Boa Hancock descended the gangplank slowly, surrounded by Kuja Tribe warriors. The hem of her red cheongsam fluttered in the breeze.

She held her chin slightly raised and ignored the saluting Navy soldiers around her.

"Your Majesty, the other Shichibukai are waiting in the conference room."

A Navy captain hurried forward and saluted respectfully.

Hancock gave a faint "Mm" and headed toward the headquarters building.

Her entourage swept toward the building behind her.

Navy soldiers along the way snapped to attention and saluted.

Yet their eyes were drawn irresistibly to the Empress's stunning face.

Meanwhile, outside the Fleet Admiral's Office.

Vice Admiral Momonga had not followed the Empress into the conference room. After escorting her there, he had turned back toward the Fleet Admiral's Office.

He stopped at the door and said quietly to the messenger stationed there:

"I have urgent military intelligence. I need to see Fleet Admiral Sengoku at once."

The messenger recognized the veteran vice admiral. Not daring to delay, he hurried inside to report.

A moment later, a side door opened, and Sengoku's adjutant came out. He nodded to Vice Admiral Momonga.

"Vice Admiral, the Fleet Admiral will see you."

Sengoku's office was not large. Apart from a desk and a sofa, it had no other furniture.

Nor was Sengoku alone in it.

By the window stood Tsuru, the Navy's chief strategist. Her shrewd gaze settled on Momonga through her glasses.

On the sofa in the corner, a tall figure wearing a dog-head cap was dozing with his head tilted to one side.

It was Vice Admiral Garp, the Navy hero.

To escape tedious paperwork, he often slipped into Sengoku's office to sleep. Now he was snoring softly.

Sengoku sat behind a tidy desk. The word "Justice" behind him stood out sharply in the light filtering through the blinds.

Several documents lay spread across the desk. He had plainly been working before Momonga arrived.

But now his attention was fixed entirely on the pale vice admiral before him.

"The Empress has gone too far!"

At the sight of Momonga's weakness, Sengoku's expression darkened further.

With the World Government backing them, the Shichibukai were arrogant and overbearing. They showed the Navy no respect at all.

Every time Navy personnel went to escort one of them, they ended up either toyed with or badly injured.

Sengoku had had about enough.

"It wasn't the Empress," Vice Admiral Momonga answered honestly. "It was a boy. He defeated me without the slightest difficulty."

"What did you say?"

Sengoku set down his pen and leaned forward. Beneath his Fleet Admiral's cap, his brows drew tight.

"You were defeated? By a boy?"

His voice remained steady, but disbelief colored it.

Momonga was a veteran Navy vice admiral who had fought in countless major battles.

His strength, experience, and composure made him a pillar of the Navy.

For him to say he had been defeated without the slightest difficulty meant his opponent was at least as strong as a Shichibukai.

Possibly stronger.

Vice Admiral Momonga immediately gave a detailed account of his encounter with the Uchiha Clan.

"Four days ago, I was ordered to Kuja Island to deliver the mandatory summons to Empress Boa Hancock. About five nautical miles from the island, our fleet was intercepted."

"The one who stopped us called himself Uchiha Itachi. He looked thirteen or fourteen, with black hair and black eyes. He wore a high-collared black robe marked with a Gunbai crest."

Momonga's description was precise and brief. "He stood alone on the sea."

"On the sea?" Staff Officer Tsuru repeated softly, her eyes narrowing.

"Yes. It wasn't the elemental transformation or visible special ability you might expect from a Devil Fruit user. He stood directly on the Grand Line as though it were solid ground."

Momonga made no attempt to hide anything out of shame at losing to a boy.

"Rear Admiral Shark tried to negotiate. He asked the boy to identify himself and clear the route. The boy attacked immediately."

The office fell silent. Even Garp's snores seemed to grow quieter.

"I've never seen anyone attack the way he did."

Momonga frowned, trying to describe the scene as faithfully as he could.

"Before Rear Admiral Shark even reached him, he lost consciousness and fell into the sea."

"It wasn't anything like Conqueror's Haki. I sensed nothing unusual at the time," Vice Admiral Momonga added.

"Then he boarded the ship. I drew my sword and attacked, and he breathed an enormous, searing fire dragon from his mouth."

"If I remember correctly, Fire Fist Ace ate the Flame-Flame Fruit, didn't he?" Tsuru suddenly interrupted.

"Yes, Vice Admiral Tsuru. The boy seemed to have a fire-based ability, but it wasn't the Flame-Flame Fruit."

Momonga had seen someone else at the docks produce the same fire dragon. He had long since ruled out the possibility that the boy had eaten the Flame-Flame Fruit.

"His fire and swordsmanship were formidable enough, but he had another, more unusual ability."

"An unusual ability?"

"It seemed to be a technique activated through his eyes.

The instant I met his gaze, my consciousness was dragged into a strange space.

There, I was bound to a cross and endured seventy-two hours of blades piercing my body.

But according to the soldiers aboard the warship, only an instant passed."

"A mental attack?" Tsuru's frown deepened.

No wonder Momonga had looked so weak and battered despite having no visible injuries.

So it was a mental attack?

An ability that could instantly rob a vice admiral of his fighting strength was almost beyond belief.

Mental attacks were not unheard of in the Pirate World.

Tsuru herself, for one, was a user of the Wash-Wash Fruit.

Its power could cleanse a target's mind.

After being washed and hung out to dry by her ability, a person's wicked thoughts weakened and their malice faded.

Though it was not a damaging mental attack, it could change a target's malicious intent at its root, leaving a once-hostile opponent without the desire to do evil.

It was a terrifying ability in its own right.

"Hypnosis?" Sengoku asked gravely.

"Far more frightening than any hypnosis we know of." Momonga shook his head.

"It wasn't simple hypnosis. One glance was enough to trap me.

The torment acted directly on my mind, my senses, and even my perception of time.

When I broke free, my body had no injuries, but my mind was close to collapse. Armament Haki offered no defense at all."

He paused, then added with difficulty:

"I could tell he didn't seem to intend to kill me. Otherwise, I doubt I'd be standing here."

Sengoku and Tsuru exchanged a glance.

Devil Fruits capable of mental attacks were nothing new. But a fruit powerful enough to do this—and to bypass a vice admiral's Armament Haki—

They had never heard of one before.