"I'll come take your head myself soon, too, and make it my newest collectible."
When Yas's calm words, laden with boundless arrogance, reached the other end through the Den Den Mushi,
time seemed to freeze for a second.
Then!
"Jihahahahahahaha!"
A peal of crazed laughter, filled with fury and contempt and seemingly capable of tearing apart eardrums, erupted from the Den Den Mushi!
"Brat! Do you know who you're talking to?! The grass on the grave of the last person who dared talk to me like that is already three meters tall!"
"Give me your name! I'll come tear you and your ship to pieces myself! Jihahahahaha!"
Golden Lion Shiki's fury seemed ready to burst through the Den Den Mushi and set this entire stretch of sea ablaze!
But all he received in answer was a sharp crack.
Yas could no longer be bothered to waste words on a dead man walking and simply crushed the Den Den Mushi in his hand.
As far as he was concerned, this hunt was over.
He glanced at the briefcase in his hand. Aside from the dozen or so doses of "IQ" that had been used, it also contained detailed experimental data and manufacturing blueprints.
"Something rather interesting."
Yas casually tossed the case to Bullet, who had teleported over, and instructed him indifferently, "Give it to Brannew. Tell him to keep it safe."
"Yes, Captain Yas!"
"Head back."
Yas uttered those words. With a flash, he returned to the captain's throne aboard the Leviathan, as though that world-shattering battle had been nothing more than a boring after-dinner stroll to him.
The Leviathan slowly turned its bow. Amid the hundreds of still-unconscious members of the Golden Lion Pirates and the ravaged wreckage of the floating island, it headed toward Marineford at full speed.
Two days later.
The Fleet Admiral's Office at Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
The atmosphere was oppressively tense.
Fleet Admiral Kong, Garp the Hero, and Marine Admiral Sengoku-the three men who stood at the very pinnacle of the Marines' authority and fighting strength-were staring fixedly at an urgent battle report that had just arrived from the front lines, lying on the desk before them.
The report was simple, even somewhat brief.
Yet every word on it struck their hearts like a ten-thousand-ton hammer!
[Leviathan return voyage report] [Mission objective one: Bloodjaw Pirate Crew (bounty: 98 million) entirely annihilated. Captain Carlos erased.] [Mission objective two: "Iron Whip" Garseron, commander of the Rocks Pirates' eighth division (bounty: 130 million), completely erased along with his fleet's flagship and several hundred crew members. His subordinate Smoker, user of the Logia Smoke-Smoke Fruit, erased.] [Mission objective three: Midas Island, site of "Captain" John's treasure vault, sunk. His subordinate Gildo, user of the Gold-Gold Fruit, and all five thousand defenders annihilated.] [Encountered target: Dr. Indigo, chief officer under "Golden Lion" Shiki. Completely erased along with his ambush fleet.] [Losses: none on our side.] [Spoils: finished "IQ" doses and one complete set of technical documentation. Assorted gold and treasure.] [Reported by: Brannew, Marine Captain and deputy captain of the Leviathan.]
The office was deathly silent.
Only three increasingly heavy breaths could be heard.
Gulp.
Garp swallowed with difficulty. He glanced at his arm, still in a cast, then looked at the shocking words littering the report-"erased," "annihilated," "sunk"-and felt even his gums aching.
"That little bastard..." Garp's voice was somewhat dry. "Does he think the New World is his own backyard? How many days has he even been gone? And he's already slapped Rocks and Golden Lion's faces practically swollen?"
"That's not the issue, Garp!"
Sengoku slammed his hand on the desk. He pointed at the glaring word "erased" on the report, veins bulging on his forehead.
"'Iron Whip' Garseron! Dr. Indigo! Those were influential core officers in those two monstrous pirate crews! Not some random nobodies! How on earth did Yas do it?!"
"And 'erased,' at that!" Sengoku's eyes were filled with shock and bewilderment. "Brannew used the phrase 'completely erased from the world' in his supplementary report! What exactly does that mean?!"
"It means..."
Fleet Admiral Kong, who had remained silent all this time, slowly raised his head. His usually impassive face was now filled with shock and a deeply hidden trace of fear.
He looked out the window at the menacing, pitch-black warship slowly entering the harbor and said hoarsely,
"It means we may have created, with our own hands, a true monster even more lawless and unreasonable than Rocks and Golden Lion combined."
Just then, a knock sounded at the office door.
"Reporting, Fleet Admiral! Captain Yas has returned and is awaiting your summons!"
"Send him in." Fleet Admiral Kong took a deep breath, striving to restore his calm expression.
Soon, a messenger led Yas into the office.
He still wore that look of indifference toward everything. He could not even be bothered to salute and walked straight up to the desk.
"I brought the stuff back."
Yas casually tossed the briefcase containing the "IQ" documentation onto the desk with a dull thud.
"Anything else? If not, I'm going back to sleep."
That matter-of-fact attitude, as though he had merely gone out to buy groceries, made the corner of Sengoku's eye twitch violently.
"Yas!" Suppressing his anger, Sengoku asked in a low voice, "Is everything in the report true? You really took out Garseron and Indigo all by yourself-"
"Too weak."
Yas interrupted him without even turning his head, saying in a matter-of-fact tone,
"They didn't even qualify to make me get a little serious."
That single sentence left every question Sengoku wanted to ask stuck in his throat.
The office fell into deathly silence again.
Garp looked at Yas's far-too-young face, grinned, and suddenly burst into deafening laughter!
"Bwahahaha! Well said! Just what I'd expect from someone I had my eye on! That's how pirates should be killed!"
"Garp! Shut your mouth!" Sengoku roared.
"Enough. Both of you, stop arguing."
Fleet Admiral Kong raised a hand to stop their quarrel.
His gaze became more serious than ever before. Staring fixedly at Yas, he spoke each word distinctly.
"Yas."
"Your military achievements have already far exceeded what a captain's rank can accommodate. You could even say that your accomplishments over these past few days outshine the lifetime achievements of the vast majority of Marine vice admirals."
Fleet Admiral Kong rose and took a promotion document from his drawer. It had been prepared in advance and bore the World Government's highest seal.
"By joint decision of the World Government's Five Elders and the Fleet Admiral's Office at Marine Headquarters,"
"from this moment onward, you are no longer a Marine captain."
Fleet Admiral Kong's voice would stir an unprecedented, towering wave in this office, throughout Marineford, and across the world in the days to come.
"Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral Yas!"
"Your promotion and commissioning ceremony will be held publicly tomorrow morning in Headquarters' Central Plaza!"
"This is the Marines' highest commendation for your achievements!"
Fleet Admiral Kong looked at Yas with a complicated gaze and asked,
"Do you have anything to say?"
Before you continue