"Make it... disappear?"
Aboard the Vanguard, Teppei repeated Yas's words blankly, unable to grasp their meaning for a moment.
The other recruits looked equally bewildered.
That was a massive sailing ship, a full size larger than their Vanguard! How could it just disappear? Was the major planning to sail it back to Marineford as a trophy?
Only Lieutenant Bullet seemed to sense something the instant he heard Yas's words. The blood drained from his dark face, and his pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints!
"No... surely not... does he mean to..."
Bullet swallowed with difficulty. He remembered the training ground in Marineford that had been split in two, and the terrifying trench that had cleaved through the foundations of Marine Headquarters!
Was that man about to use that move again?!
The instant that thought flashed through Bullet's mind!
A sudden change erupted on the deck of the Bloody Mary!
Boom!
Lightning Release Chakra ten times more violent and a hundred times more brilliant than when Yas activated his Raijin Armor erupted like a volcano that had lain dormant for hundreds of millions of years!
Dazzling azure light surged skyward from Yas in an immense pillar of lightning, as though it would punch a hole through the blue heavens!
A terrifying storm of energy swept madly outward. The entire Bloody Mary groaned beneath the overwhelming pressure, its massive hull rocking and tilting violently as though it might fall apart at any moment!
Across the sea, the raging energy forced away all the water within a hundred-meter radius of the pirate ship, forming an enormous, clearly visible depression!
"Quick! Grab the rigging! Steady the ship!"
Aboard the Vanguard, Bullet roared himself hoarse!
The mere aftershocks of Yas unleashing his presence had nearly capsized their gunboat!
Scared out of their wits, the recruits scrambled onto the deck, clutching desperately at anything secured nearby, their faces filled with utter horror!
They felt as though they were not at sea, but in the eye of a force-twelve super typhoon!
At the center of that lightning storm, all the light and energy converged and compressed at a terrifying speed upon the tips of the three fingers of Yas's slowly raised right hand!
Bzzzzzzzz!
A teeth-grating shriek rang through the air, as though space itself were being torn apart inch by inch before that intensely concentrated power!
A half-meter-long spear of blue light, formed from highly compressed lightning energy and seemingly solid, slowly took shape at Yas's fingertips!
Arcs of electricity coursed over the spear, which radiated a destructive aura capable of annihilating all things!
"Hell Stab..."
The madness and coldness in Yas's eyes turned entirely into tangible killing intent.
He aimed at the deepest part of the hold beneath his feet. His voice was quiet, yet it resounded across the entire stretch of sea like a death god pronouncing judgment from the depths of the underworld.
"Three-Finger Nukite!"
The instant the words fell, Yas drove his three joined fingers straight down into the deck beneath his feet, carrying that supremely compressed spear of lightning!
Hiss!
There was no earth-shattering crash.
The instant his fingertips touched the deck, time seemed to pause once again.
Then a sight unfolded that everyone aboard the Vanguard would remember for the rest of their lives.
Before the lightning spear, the thick, sturdy deck offered not the slightest resistance, yielding like butter beneath a hot knife!
The spear easily pierced the first-level deck, the second-level cabins, the third-level cargo hold, and the fourth-level sailors' quarters!
Utterly unstoppable, it drove straight and true through the entire hull of the Bloody Mary with a force that defied all reason!
Finally, it plunged deep into the ammunition magazine at the very bottom of the hold!
Tons of gunpowder and hundreds of cannonballs were stored there, enough to sustain a small naval battle!
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Having done all this, Yas did not even spare it another glance.
The instant the lightning spear left his hand, he lightly tapped his toes against the deck that was about to shatter. He became a streak of blue lightning, trailing a brilliant afterimage across the sea as he crossed a hundred meters in an instant and landed steadily back on the bow of the Vanguard.
The lightning around him slowly receded, and his white "Justice" coat remained spotless.
It was as though that world-destroying strike had nothing to do with him.
Everyone aboard the Vanguard was still reeling from Yas's movement, which defied all common sense, and had yet to recover.
Teppei opened his mouth wide, about to ask, "M-Major, what did you just do?"
Before he could get the question out.
An extremely muffled gurgle suddenly came from inside the Bloody Mary.
Then.
The center of the enormous pirate ship's hull abruptly bulged outward, as though something were about to burst out from within!
Blinding streaks of flame poured wildly through the gaps between the hull's planks!
At that moment, the entire ship became a giant balloon inflated to its limit!
Rumble-boom!
After one second of deathly silence came a terrifying explosion powerful enough to tear everyone's eardrums apart!
The Bloody Mary detonated completely from within!
Tons of gunpowder ignited simultaneously, and the destructive force instantly tore the massive ship into fragments that filled the sky!
The terrifying shock wave became a visible white surge of air, carrying countless burning planks and shattered pieces of hull as it swept furiously in every direction!
An enormous mushroom cloud over a hundred meters tall rose above the sea!
"Get down!"
Bullet's eyes nearly split at the corners as he hurled himself with all his strength onto Teppei, who was closest to him.
Crash!
Before the terrifying blast wave, the Vanguard was like a leaf in a gale, tossed high into the air before slamming heavily back onto the sea!
The recruits aboard were thrown every which way, their screams and cries ringing out together.
The mountainous waves raised by the explosion battered the Vanguard's hull one after another, making the steel gunboat creak with a teeth-grating sound.
An unknown stretch of time passed.
When the sea finally began to settle, when the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke was finally dispersed by the sea breeze.
The surviving recruits struggled up from the deck, all of them grimy and disheveled, and looked with lingering fear toward where the Bloody Mary had been.
There... was nothing left.
Only scattered pieces of still-burning wreckage remained on the sea, along with a massive whirlpool formed by the violent explosion.
The ship of a notorious pirate with an eighty-million bounty had simply... been erased from this sea.
Leave no one alive.
Wipe them all out.
Major Yas had carried out that order perfectly, in a way beyond the limits of their imagination.
"Gulp."
Teppei swallowed with difficulty. He gazed at the figure still standing at the bow with his hands behind his back, without so much as a crease in the hem of his coat. His eyes held nothing but awe.
This was the officer they followed.
This was the youngest major in the history of Marine Headquarters!
A... true monster!
While everyone was still immersed in the relief of surviving and the shock of Yas's godlike power, Bullet suddenly spoke.
Bracing himself against the gunwale, he stared pale-faced at the distant horizon, where a black speck was faintly visible.
"Major... look over there..." Bullet's voice carried a trace of gravity. "That should be an island. From the looks of it, it's the old base the Butcher Pirates occupied."
"That smoke drifting from the island... I'm afraid things aren't looking good there."
Before you continue