91 Chapter 90: Snake Pit (1)

Dark and gloomy. Humid and unpleasant. I felt the eyes of the world's forgotten criminals, peering onto me with variety of emotions.

'Are you excited? Amused? Surprised by this event that suddenly occurred in the most still and unchanging part of the world?'

In front of me stood the tall and fit man in white suit. Covered by the mask and a white hat atop his orange-coloured hair, his overall appearance spoke 'elegance' in my perspective.

Pierro the Chief of CP0 or the former Admiral Seidohebi, 'Blaise.' That was his name. And standing in opposition to him was my filthy self—with messy hair and prisoner's garment.

<Sengoku-san. What do you think the World Government gain by accepting Blackbeard's deal? What's the merit of locking Whitey Bay down?>

On that night, I predicted that the World Government will attempt to assassinate me. Coupled with this anomaly named Marshall D. Teach, doing nothing would've meant the inevitable doom for not only me but also those close to me—and there was no way I was going to tolerate that.

<But this is the chance also. Whatever that Blackbeard may have on his mind, he can't unleash it if we were to keep him away from the Marineford. If the World Government tries to kill me secretly, while Garp-sensei is occupied with the war, then we'll use that to exploit their schemes.>

It wasn't of my expectation for Pierro to show up, and it certainly wasn't for this man to be turned out as the former Marine Admiral. In addition, being a man who defeated me and locked me up in here, it was evident that the fight wasn't going to be an easy one.

"...What exactly is justice to you?"

Adjusting his hat, my foe then asked.

"What drove you to this extent, revealing this hidden floor of the Impel Down? The criminals forgotten are now revealed to the public once more. The World Government's paid so much effort to erase them from the people's mind... and look how you made it futile."

"..."

How long has it been? For how long has it been since I arrived this world? For how long has it been since I began my career as a marine? For how long has it been since I was branded a traitor, and was chased after?

So many things happened since. I not only advanced all the way from the bottom to the nigh top in Marine, but defeated many pirates who would've inflicted greater wrongs in the future. I was reckless while doing so, and ended up in here—fated to rot until death.

"...Justice, huh."

The world was watching. I found a cold sweat running on my back. But hey, this nervousness was an emotion that I welcomed wholeheartedly. Though speaking my true self in front of the World Government wasn't an easy thing to do, my heart told me, that this was the 'right' thing to do.

"It is bold of you to assume that justice, that hypocritical and malleable concept, is the source of my motivation."

Tapping my finger against my temple, I said,

"'Justice' is the means of manipulation under the disguise of 'education.' World Government justifies the recruitment of marines by saying that marines' utmost priority is to protect the civilians, but the underlying purpose of them is to be the Government-affiliated soldiers, ready to carry out any order given like mindless dogs."

I crackled in hilarity,

"The root of the 'Amber Lead Syndrome' that I encountered in Flevance lied in the World Government's greed, thirsting after the mineral that had no use other than the cosmetic aspect. In order to hide your exploits, your loyal dog named 'Martini' Hook was sent after me—only for the result to be the opposite of your expectation."

"...Ha," Blaise, raising his hands up for a questioning gesture, snorted at that, "The civilians aren't easy to fool, dear criminal. Sprout those conspiracy theories as many times as you want, but all you're doing is to waste your energy."

"Like I said," I said, "It's up to them to decide who's in the right."

Ba-Bump.

'...Can I win?' At the final moment, a voice in my mind whispered. In response, I talked to myself,

'It isn't the matter of whether I can or not. Rather, I must do it.'

SWOOSH! Subsequently, both of us vanished at speed beyond an average folk's imagination,

BOOM—!

My outstretched fist was knocked back against the sharp and clean burst of Haki from Blaise's palm. Though my hand shed blood from the impact, I resumed my charge at Blaise with the strongest grin I could muster.

'Remember that feeling. The flow—soft yet strong. The Internal Destruction.'

CLANG—!

Blaise's extended index finger met my own,

"Shigan: Ryuotachi." / "Shigan: White Gun."

BOOOOM!

Yet another collision between the still Emission and the refined Internal Destruction. My attack was once again unable to match the vigour behind Blaise's attack, and found my whole body pushed back this time around.

"Heh—." But I snorted it off, as my feet landed right on the hard wall of stone.

Blaise then vanished once more, before suddenly appearing right above me. His leg was about to slam onto my neck, but I immediately morphed my neck into white smoke, generating a gap for Blaise's leg to pass right through. I subsequently rotated his body,

"White Blow." / "Overcoat."

BOOM!

Blaise's cloak suddenly hardened with the use of Armament Haki, and effectively blocked my strike. In this state, I asked casually,

"So, where's my Shusui?"

Blaise snorted, "Must I answer that?"

"Bwahaha, no."

We simultaneously vanished, before clashing fist-to-fist. Blaise immediately blasted the 'flowing' Armament Haki, termed 'Internal Destruction,' out onto his fist. But I, having predicted this—not by Observation Haki but his intuition alone—retracted my fist and used said pull-back as a momentum to swiftly turn.

As I did so, my left hand was holding onto one swirling mass of white smoke,

"White Ball."

Leaving my hand, the swirling ball flew at the man in white suit. He, watching such, commented,

"Truthfully speaking, it baffles me,"

His Haki-emitting fist suddenly extended out its index finger, right onto my approaching technique,

"How are you planning to match me?"

BOOM!

The powerful Shigan from Blaise's finger penetrated right through the 'White Ball.' Said white ball, losing the momentum upon the blow and dispersing all across the environment, rendered the scenery more hazy to view.

Then, the ground below me suddenly morphed into the snakes of delicately folded jackets. In an instant, they coiled around my legs tight.

"In both the aspects of Armament Haki and Observation Haki, you fall short against me. In addition, my mastery over the devil fruit much surpasses you."

I gazed at the jacket snakes impassively, not feeling any threat in regard to it. Shifting my eyes up at Blaise, I watched the man shrug,

"The last time also—you weren't capable of putting enough resistance even. Even in terms of our past ranks in Marine, I stood at the position of Admiral, while you were merely that of a Vice Admiral."

From my dark surroundings, more jacket snakes arose from the hard floor. Utilizing the 'awakened' ability of his Jacket Jacket fruit without any sign of exhaustion... an Admiral was an Admiral indeed.

Then, those slithery jacket snakes launched themselves at me simultaneously with malicious intents. With two of them still around my legs, I was facing the literal definition of 'snake pit.'

In this state, I grinned and returned Blaise's gaze with my own. I said, "Are you done hissing?"

The dispersed smoke all around, which contributed to the haziness of the air, wriggled. As the freshly generated smoke came in contact with them, the snakes of white smoke came into the existence, before coiling around the approaching jacket snakes.

'Transmutation: Black,'

Blaise's eyes narrowed, and I extorted my will onto the smoke,

'Hydra.'

BOOOM!

The gloomy and dark level brightly lightened up as the snakes of white smoke abruptly turned black before exploding magnificently. All the present snakes faded away as the room returned to that of a darkness, and,

with a dash so fast that the normal pair of eyes can't follow, Blaise appeared right in front of me.

SWOOSH! Rankyaku, followed by a Shigan. Along with the irregular movement achieved by the mix of Soru and Geppo, Blaise launched flurry of attacks at me,

'Smoke-E.'

and I countered with the gaseous movements that appeared ghastly in the eyes of spectators. My body unnaturally morphed back and forth between physical form and smoke form, and the gusts generated by Blaise's attacks were suitable enough for my body to be 'pushed' back prior to being hit.

"...How creative," Said Blaise, before his eyes revealed a red gleam.

My body suddenly lost its balance as the ground below me churned, having morphed into a rough fabric. Although I quickly adjusted my form by morphing my body into smoke, the careless elementalization in front of well-trained Haki user… simply meant greater hit box for him.

Tap. Blaise's fists came in direct contact to my smoke-state chest.

Gion, whose hands held onto the Den Den Mushi firmly, felt her hair standing up from the intensity. As I was exposed for Blaise's incoming attack, she instinctively shouted,

"SMOKER—"

"Rokuogan: Golden Roar."

BOOOOM—!

The extremely condensed blast of Haki blasted through my chest. I felt as if my heart stopped for a second, and a trail of blood slipped out of my mouth from the injury. In proximity with my back, there was a wall paved from the force generated by Blaise's sudden technique.

Gion watched in a crestfallen expression, understanding just how powerful Blaise's technique just now was.

"Hu..."

My body took few steps back to prevent itself from falling. It wobbled, and I released a deep breath full of smoke, having attained a substantial degree of injury from the former's attack just now.

Blaise silently observed my state, and my eyes were in a daze, looking up at the dark ceiling. Dusting off his hands and closing his eyes, he stated,

"It's over."

My eyes quivered. Staring into the darkness, I wasn't in a state to hear anything around me.

'...Flow. Move…'

My eyes slowly widened in wonder,

'...I can feel it.'

Before my body fell, the left foot firmly tapped against the ground and prevented such. Raising my body back up from the falling position, lowering my view, and locking eyes onto Blaise, I came to grin in delight—though I was painted with my own blood.

"...What?"

Blaise's eyes opened and revealed a puzzled gleam, surprised by the blazing will within me. Contrary to the last time where I fainted, I currently stood with a newly attained insight.

Swoo...

And at the same time, the smoke began to swirl on top of my right palm.

'White,'

For the first time, the stationary Armament Haki began to move—actively mixing with the swirling smoke. Holding this cluster of chaos, I confidently dashed at Blaise, with disregard for pains that coursed all around my body,

'Flow…!'

Blaise, not having expected my aggression, quickly dashed back—

BOOOOM!

—only to be struck right on the face by my technique. From the blow, the elegant-looking fellow was drilled into one wall, and his clown's mask was completely shattered, revealing his pain-filled expression to the world.

Gion released a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Huff… huff… bwahahaha!!" Laughing wildly, I cracked my bloody knuckles, "Get up, you piece of trash!"

Blaise, slowly raising his hand up, touched his face. Instead of the cool sensation of mask, there was a soft skin.

Looking down at still-shocked Blaise, I said,

"What do you mean it's over? We're just getting started!"

__________

G-1.

Sea erupted from the cannonballs and other robust blasts. Marines and pirates clashed out in the water, breaking ships, slashing, shooting—using all means to win the war. The sky was filled with meteors of magma, and the sea itself was boiling from the impact of them. The situation in this place was by no means, in order.

"WORORORORO!!!!!"

And under the meteorites, there was one gigantic azure dragon, whose voice echoed throughout the entire area as he freely swam in this chaos.

Kaidou of the 'Beast,' the user of Fish Fish fruit, model: Azure Dragon. He was the force to be reckoned with, and Admiral Hanazumi, currently facing off this Catastrophe with his sword, found himself shocked by how strong the former has managed to become.

"So long it has been, old fart!!!" Kaidou, instantly morphing into his human-dragon hybrid form, slammed his spiky kanabo—named Hassaikai—at Hanazumi's sword,

BOOOOOM!

and with the thundering noise, the Admiral was sent crashing onto one marine ship.

"A-AHHHHHH!!!!"

"I-It's hot!!!"

Many marines cried as the ship explode and they, having fallen, were directly exposed to the boiling water.

"But you've grown so much weaker, damn it!!!!!" Ignoring said marines, Kaidou roared at Hanazumi, "You should've retired so that I could've fought someone stronger!!!!!"

Hanazumi, frowning in a sense of humiliation, stood up from a wooden plank and held his sword upright. Though his breathing was quicker than the normal state, he seemed woundless mostly, having managed to block Kaidou's attacks skillfully.

"A-Admiral Haironezumi…" One marine in the boiling water, then asked out of desperation, "P-please, help—"

Swoosh…!

Only for his head to be cut by Hanazumi's merciless slash. Looking at the headless corpse, the Admiral remarked, "There is no place for a deadweight in this war."

Tsss…

The other marines in the sea, who were slowly being cooked to death, expressed despair from the Admiral's words.

From on the deck of one Marine Warship, another Admiral, Sakazuki or 'Akainu,' deeply frowned as he heatedly glared at Kaidou—unbothered by how his fellow marines were dying from the boiling-hot sea created by his fruit ability.

'Tch… Mythical Zoan devil fruit, huh,' Thought Sakazuki, 'Ones considered as the rarest and strongest type even among the rarely seen devil fruits of the sea. Kaidou not only mastered this fruit in variety of ways, but also possessed the incredible mastery over Haki…'

His eyes sharpened,

"…We must somehow drag him down into the sea. That's the most thorough way to immobilize that filth."

CLANG!

Right below, on one of the Beast pirates' ships, the well-known swordsman, 'Hawk Eye' Dracule Mihawk, was found clashing his tall, black sword against the dinosaur-like man's metallic arm.

"Queen the 'Plague'..." Mihawk said with distaste, "What a pity. I was looking forward to fighting that swordsman one of yours instead... hmm, perhaps I should fight that Marine Admiral instead at this point."

"Whaaattt?!!" Said Queen roared in rage, "Are you saying that I'm weaker than that stupid King?!!!!"

SWOOSH!

"...Eh?" A snot dropped from Queen's nose as a thin gash appeared on the surface of his metallic arm. Mihawk retracted his black sword—Yoru—back, and exclaimed with his eyebrow raised,

"…Oh? It didn't cut through."

"Y-you!!!" Queen cried in disbelief, "H-how come this is happening?!! It's literally my newly developed Q-metal that we're talking about here!!!"

Mihawk, not answering Queen, smiled in a newfound interest, "...Now this is quite worthwhile."

From afar, there stood one obese and hairy man. With black cloak and black captain's hat, he, Marshall D. Teach the Blackbeard, stood proudly while crushing the enemies under his hands—ones that emanated ominous wisps of pure darkness.

"K-kek..."

"…This has been completely out of my expectations." Turning and stoically gazing at the Red Line that was barely viewable by sight, Teach muttered, "Placing me in here to deal with Kaidou instead of in Marineford to serve as a bait for Whitebeard pirates... this isn't the Sengoku that I knew of."

After a sigh of disappointment, he chuckled,

"Well then, it seems that I won't get to confirm if that Caesar's poison I injected during my final visit was successful."

The battlefield was filled with booming noises and screams of pain. Magma ended up crashing onto some marine ships, setting them on fire as the result—for Sakazuki placed more care in killing the Beast pirates than preserving the marines' lives as many as possible.

"…"

Coming to grin in the end, Teach said,

"Zehahaha… I hope that you die as fast as possible, pops."