Charging an Admiral Like a Battery?

Kong froze for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"Was he some newcomer who had never shown his face before?"

Borsalino pointed at the charred corpses on the ground.

"Fleet Admiral, look at these bodies."

"No blade wounds, no gunshot wounds."

"They were all carbonized in an instant by extremely high-temperature energy."

Kong frowned and walked over.

He crouched down and inspected one of the bodies.

It was indeed as Kizaru had said.

This did not look like fire damage.

It looked more like they had been instantly pierced by some kind of high-energy beam.

"Did your lasers cause this?"

Kong looked at Kizaru suspiciously.

After all, these wounds looked far too much like the power of the Glint-Glint Fruit.

"Am I sick? Why would I kill my own people?"

Borsalino rolled his eyes.

It was somewhat disrespectful to do that before his superior, but he was genuinely frustrated right now.

"That light came from that guy's eyes."

"Two red beams."

"I saw it clearly. It was pure thermal energy, even hotter than magma."

Kong rose to his feet.

His expression became even graver.

Lasers shot from the eyes?

What kind of Devil Fruit ability was that?

A cyborg?

Or some unknown Ancient Zoan?

"Then what happened to your injuries?"

Kong pointed at Kizaru's sunken abdomen.

It was still covered in bruises.

"A Haki master?"

Borsalino gave a bitter laugh.

He recalled that brief moment of contact.

That fist.

It had been so hard that it did not feel like human bone.

"It wasn't Haki."

"Or perhaps it was some kind of Haki I have never seen before."

Borsalino chose his words carefully.

He felt a little humiliated saying it aloud, but he had to report it.

"Fleet Admiral, you may not believe this."

"I used Yasakani Sacred Jewel on him just now."

"With that density of light-bullet bombardment, even a madman like Kaido would not dare take it head-on."

Kong nodded.

The destructive power of a Logia was beyond doubt.

"And then?"

"And then..."

Borsalino took a deep breath.

"He ate my light."

The air abruptly fell silent.

Kong's eyes widened as though he were looking at an idiot.

"He ate it?"

"Did that blow scramble your brain?"

"I mean that literally."

Borsalino pointed toward the sky.

"When those lights struck him, it was like water droplets falling into a sponge."

"Not only did they fail to hurt him, they actually made him stronger."

"That feeling..."

"It was like charging a battery."

"After he finished charging, he punched me."

"That punch did not carry any Devil Fruit power. It was pure strength."

"Fast, precise, ruthless."

"My elemental transformation was nothing but a joke before him."

Kong's expression turned exceptionally ugly.

He did not believe Borsalino would lie about something this serious.

That meant—

A monster had appeared on the seas.

A monster capable of absorbing energy and physically striking a Logia user while ignoring elemental transformation.

And that monster—

Held deep hostility toward the World Government.

"Did you see his face clearly?"

Kong asked in a low voice.

As long as they had a face, they could issue a wanted poster.

No matter who this person was, the CP Organization could find him even if they had to turn the entire sea upside down.

Borsalino shook his head.

"No."

"There was a strange force field around him."

"Even light became distorted when it shone on him."

"To me, he looked like a humanoid mosaic."

"And his voice had been altered too. I couldn't make out his original tone."

Even Kong found this troublesome now.

Unknown identity.

Unknown abilities.

Unknown appearance.

There were only a few rough traits: his eyes glowed, he could fly, and he was absurdly strong.

How were they supposed to investigate that?

"Damn it!"

Kong slammed his fist into the ruined wall beside him.

The thick stone wall instantly crumbled into powder.

"How could that idiot Fisher Tiger possibly find a helper like this?"

"If someone like that gets involved with the Revolutionary Army..."

Kong did not dare continue that thought.

That rebellious son Dragon was already troublesome enough.

Now there was another unknown variable.

At that moment—

Urgent footsteps sounded in the distance.

A large group of CP0 officers in white suits came running over.

Several Celestial Dragons, their faces blackened with soot, followed behind them.

"Kong! What the hell are you good for?!"

"You actually let those lowly slaves escape!"

"And that assassin! You must capture him and slice him into a thousand pieces!"

The leading Celestial Dragon cursed while stomping his feet.

His spittle nearly sprayed onto Kong.

Kong took a deep breath.

He suppressed the disgust and killing intent in his heart.

Then he turned around, replacing it with a businesslike expression.

"Please rest assured, Saint Rosward."

"The Navy and the World Government will certainly give you an explanation."

Though he said that—

Kong's heart felt heavy.

An explanation?

What could they possibly use as an explanation?

That man who had flown away was like a ticking bomb hanging in the sky.

No one knew when he would descend again.

And when he did—

It might not be as simple as only dozens of CP0 agents dying.

Marineford, Marine Headquarters.

The fortress that symbolized Absolute Justice was as oppressive today as a volcano on the verge of eruption.

The meeting room doors were tightly shut.

Even the seagulls that usually cawed on the windowsills wisely kept quiet and flew far away.

A roundtable meeting.

Only the Navy's true upper echelon had the right to sit here.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku sat at the head of the table, his face as dark as if he had just crawled out of a coal heap.

Three teacups by his hand had already been crushed.

The pet goat beside him was chewing on a document stamped "Top Secret," savoring every bite.

"An utter disgrace!"

Sengoku slammed his palm onto the table.

The solid-wood conference table creaked under the strain as a crack spread outward from beneath his hand.

"The holy land of Mary Geoise was attacked!"

"All the slaves were released!"

"CP0 agents suffered devastating casualties, and even the bodies were burned into carbon ash!"

Sengoku's spittle flew everywhere.

Even his hat, decorated with a seagull sculpture, had been knocked crooked by his rage.

"The Five Elders called my office directly just now and cursed me out without mercy!"

"Tell me, where are we supposed to put the Navy's face now?"

The meeting room fell deathly silent.

Vice Admiral Tsuru, seated on the left, said nothing as she quietly washed a deck of cards.

As the Navy's chief strategist, she was thinking.

Thinking about the logic behind this incident, and the mysterious attacker's objective.

Akainu Sakazuki sat with a gloomy face, his peaked cap pulled low.

The cigar in his mouth flickered on and off amid curling smoke.

That was how he looked when his anger reached its peak.

"Justice cannot be trampled upon."

Akainu's voice sounded like two red-hot rocks grinding together.

"That Fish-Man Tiger deserved to die."

"That attacker deserved death even more."

"If I had been there, I would have burned every one of their bones into ash."

Aokiji Kuzan, seated opposite him, was unusually not wearing his sleep mask.

He yawned and scratched his fluffy curls.

"Ah la la, Sakazuki, what's the point of saying that now?"

"Even Borsalino suffered badly at that guy's hands."

"If you went, you might not get anything out of it either."

Akainu snorted and said nothing.

But he had to admit that Aokiji was right.

Everyone's gaze turned toward the corner of the conference room.

A tall, thin man wrapped head to toe in bandages sat there.

Kizaru Borsalino.

This Marine Admiral usually kept "How scary" on his lips, while looking down on everyone in truth.

Yet now, he looked like an injured patient who had just returned from the grave as a mummy.

He had replaced his sunglasses with a new pair, but his usual languid air had clearly diminished.

He clutched his stomach, his expression somewhat twisted.

Obviously, the aftereffects of that punch had yet to pass.

"Borsalino."

Sengoku drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart.

"Tell it again."

"I want every detail."

"What exactly was that attacker?"

Kizaru sighed.

He truly did not want to recall that scene.

It was too embarrassing.

As the user of the Glint-Glint Fruit, a man who represented the speed of light, he had been treated like a power bank and drained, then punched.

If word got out, how was he supposed to hold his head high in the New World?

"That guy..."

Kizaru pursed his lips, dragging out his words.

"How should I put it? He didn't feel human."

"Or rather, he didn't feel like a creature from this planet."

Vice Admiral Tsuru's hands paused.

"Be more specific."

"He could fly."

Kizaru raised one finger.

"Not a technique like Geppo, where you kick off the air, but actual flight."

"It was like..."

"Gravity didn't affect him."

Sengoku frowned.

The Float-Float Fruit?

That was Golden Lion's ability.

But that old bastard Golden Lion had escaped from prison and gone into hiding long ago. Besides, he could not possibly cause something like this in Mary Geoise.

"What else?"

"And his eyes."

Kizaru pointed at his sunglasses.

"They glowed."

"Red—two beams of light."

"The temperature was extremely high. When I fired my lasers at him, the heat rays from his eyes forced them straight back."

"Those unlucky CP0 agents were instantly cut in half by that move."

Akainu crushed the cigar in his hand.

If it was a heat-based attack, then it did overlap somewhat with his magma.

"The most absurd part was..." Kizaru paused, an absurd expression appearing on his face.

"He could devour light."