In the plaza, Luffy and Ivankov gradually closed in on the Execution Platform under cover from the Whitebeard Pirates.
"Straw Hat Boy! Just keep charging straight ahead!"
With that, Ivankov stopped.
Luffy simply answered, "Yeah!" and kept charging ahead without a single question.
"It's our turn to take the stage. You haven't fully recovered yet, and I'm sorry to push you, but we need your strength now."
Ivankov seemed to be talking to himself.
"No problem, Ivan. Don't worry."
A figure in a yellow-and-white robe emerged from his afro, still holding a glass of red wine.
His entrance had a distinctly fourth-dimensional feel. It was Ivankov's deputy, Inazuma.
"Little Crab!?"
Luffy stared in surprise at Inazuma as he ran past him.
Inazuma's arms transformed into enormous scissors. The blades sliced into the ground, cutting through the stone slabs as though they were cloth.
As he ran, he pulled up a long strip of stone a little wider than a person.
He tossed the strip upward, forming a ramp-a stone bridge stretching from the ground to the Execution Platform.
"You made a ladder! That's amazing!!"
Luffy charged toward the stone bridge.
The Marines tried to stop him, but the Whitebeard Pirates kept them firmly pinned down. Ivankov and Inazuma guarded the foot of the bridge as well.
Seeing Luffy charging up toward him, Ace's pupils trembled, his expression so complicated it practically became a pie chart.
"I'm coming-Ace!"
For the first time since arriving at Marine Headquarters, Luffy smiled.
-Bang!
A figure burst through the bridge, blocking his path.
Luffy's laughter cut off abruptly.
The man making his entrance was the Navy Hero, the true master of "Divine Departure may dodge, but I won't," the Pirate King's lifelong nemesis, the nuclear-fist sage, the sun of the East Blue, the shadow looming