Akainu Targeted (Seeking Reads)

As the Summit War raged on, Captain Buggy once again took center stage.

The pirates under his command had seized a Den Den Mushi, broadcasting Buggy's image live to the world.

Furthermore, these pirates showered Buggy with exaggerated praise, turning his live broadcast into a hilarious spectacle.

"Look, that red nose—it's Buggy the Clown! How did he show up here?"

"What? Is Buggy the Clown that bold? Could he be a great pirate too?"

"What is he doing here? Is he here to rescue Fire Fist Ace as well?"

In an instant, people across the world began to imagine that Buggy was an incredibly powerful pirate.

Sengoku was so furious he could practically see smoke rising from his head, and he immediately ordered his soldiers to cut off this ridiculous broadcast.

On Luffy's side, shielded by his allies, he fought through a bloodbath, falling time and again only to rise once more through sheer, stubborn willpower.

He even encountered the Marine Admiral Kizaru, but thanks to our Kizaru being a veteran "actor," he managed to pass through the encounter with a narrow escape.

The Marine side had deployed the Pacifista legion early, raining down heavy fire upon the Whitebeard Pirates.

On the Execution Platform, Sengoku did not slacken; he picked up a Den Den Mushi and issued his command: "Initiate the Siege Wall plan."

In an instant, massive metal walls rose up inside the Harbor Plaza, forming a giant iron cage intended to trap all the invading pirates, including Whitebeard's flagship, within the harbor.

Simultaneously, countless gun ports opened along the walls, their cold muzzles aimed directly at the trapped pirates.

"Oh no, it's a trap!"

"We're surrounded!"

The pirates fell into a panic.

Once the Siege Wall closed completely, they would be like turtles in a jar, left to be slaughtered by the Marines' artillery.

Because one of Whitebeard's adopted sons, Squard, had been deceived by Akainu, Whitebeard himself was backstabbed, taking a blade straight to the chest.

As the Maelstrom Spider, Squard, drove his sword into Whitebeard's chest, his face was drenched in tears.

Time seemed to freeze in that moment.

Every pirate who witnessed this scene wore an expression of utter disbelief and confusion.

"Squard, you..."

Whitebeard's massive frame trembled slightly. He slowly turned his head to look at his tearful son, showing no sign of blame.

"Why would you do this, my son?"

Squard wept uncontrollably:

"You lied to us! You made a deal with the Marines! You're sacrificing the lives of all our subordinate pirate crews to save Ace and your own crew, aren't you?"

"Ace is the son of Roger! You want Ace to become the Pirate King!"

Just moments before, Akainu had found him and revealed the truth that Ace was Roger's son.

However, the Marines and Akainu had underestimated Whitebeard.

In their eyes, the entire Whitebeard Pirates were held together solely by Whitebeard; once he fell, severely wounded, the crew would immediately collapse, and the Marines would win without a fight.

Whitebeard, this giant with blood still flowing from his chest, suddenly straightened his posture.

He grabbed Squard by the head, and just as everyone thought he would crush the traitor's skull, he pulled Squard into an embrace.

"Squard," Whitebeard's voice echoed in the ears of every pirate and was transmitted to the world via the Den Den Mushi, "to think you would believe such foolish lies from the Marines. You are a son I cherish—this is utter stupidity."

After a thunderous and earth-shaking declaration, the Whitebeard Pirates, whose morale had hit rock bottom, instantly surged with fighting spirit.

Squard himself realized the truth, weeping endlessly in deep regret.

These words instantly dispelled the gloom and suspicion in the pirates' hearts; their Pops had never abandoned them.

Through sheer force of personality, Whitebeard brought this captain back into his fold.

Seeing the Marines act so despicably, calculating against them at every turn, Whitebeard was enraged.

He not only dispatched a giant Marine Vice Admiral in a few effortless moves, but his arm muscles bulged, and white spherical halos appeared around his fists. He slammed them into the air on both sides, unleashing the full power of his Tremor-Tremor Fruit.

He no longer aimed at specific targets, but launched an indiscriminate, violent assault against the air on both sides, the ground beneath his feet, and the Marine structures before him.

Quake! Landslide! Tsunami!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The earth was torn open into bottomless chasms, sturdy fortresses and defensive works collapsed like paper, and the seawater in the bay was blasted into the sky, only to fall back down as a torrential rain.

Space itself trembled and wailed; it was Whitebeard declaring to the entire world that even while severely wounded, he remained the strongest man alive.

Crack~

Under the continuous tremors, all of Marineford shook violently.

The Marine Headquarters' sturdy defenses began to crumble further.

Whitebeard unleashed his fruit ability to its limit, making the earth shake and the sea split, striking deep terror into the hearts of the Marines.

The full-force strike of a Yonko-level combatant made the world tremble.

Whitebeard unleashed his abilities to their fullest extent, the power of his Devil Fruit akin to the destruction of heaven and earth.

Amidst this cataclysmic tidal wave of tremors, the most violent shockwave surged forward like a massive white dragon, heading straight for the core of Harbor Plaza: the Execution Platform.

A thunderous explosion rang out, and the entire Execution Platform was swallowed by smoke.

Countless Marines were gripped with anxiety, fearing that the Execution Platform had collapsed.

However, once the smoke cleared, three figures appeared almost simultaneously directly in front of the Execution Platform.

They radiated vastly different, yet equally heart-stopping, terrifying auras.

The highest combat powers of Marine Headquarters, the three Admirals, had acted in unison.

Standing right in the center, facing that destructive shockwave head-on, was Admiral Akainu Sakazuki.

Akainu was exceptionally tall and burly, appearing particularly imposing even among the Admirals.

He wore a white Marine Admiral coat embroidered with the characters for "Justice," with a neat, deep black suit underneath and a crimson tie fastened meticulously at his collar.

He wore a Marine cap, the shadow cast by its brim perfectly obscuring part of his gaze.

His features were sharp as if chiseled by a blade, his mouth habitually downturned.

Yet, almost no one noticed that at a spot extremely close to the Execution Platform, a young man with delicate features wore a strange smile, as if some conspiracy had succeeded.

Nor did anyone imagine that Admiral Akainu Sakazuki, the sharpest spear and sturdiest shield of the Marines—the most terrifying enemy faced by the Whitebeard Pirates and all pirates in this war—was being watched by someone as if he were mere prey.

He himself had not even the slightest inkling of this fact.

Du Yang was now feeling impatient, even brimming with excitement.

To think that the Marine Admiral Akainu was currently this close to him.