Chapter 29: The World Shakes Again
To the west of the Sabaody archipelago and deep in the grand line, a massive event unfolded.
"You must have a lot of balls tonight, Whitebeard".
"I came to play for a bit Sengoku, Guararara!~ If you're a man come out!"
Perhaps only the strongest man alive dared to come by himself to the G1 and personally challenge the strongest admiral in history within his territory.
Whitebeard had no equal.
The one in charge of a big marine warship was a man with a black tux, moustache and long-tailed beard. He had just received a report that Marie Geoise was being attacked. The one he believed to be the culprit of the whole thing stood next to him, Monkey D. Garp.
"The Monkey surname seems to be fated to have just criminals after you, Garp".
The old man looked away in shame, they received the report that the one leading the attack in Marie Geoise was none other than his son, an ex-member of the marine's secret force SWORD, Monkey D. Dragon.
Both of them knew if that man was involved, whatever was happening in Marie Geoise wasn't simple. Perhaps the vice admirals assigned this time: Kuzan, Borsalino and Momonga. Wouldn't be able to take care of it themselves.
Their suspicions were only confirmed by a man of the altitude of Whitebeard coming out to 'play'. It was nothing more than a shameless technique to buy time.
Two titans of the past had come face to face again. But Sengoku was not ready to waste time with the Yonko, not when he could afford to leave someone else.
"Take care of him, Garp... I'll go to Marie Ge-".
"I couldn't be arsed".
The man with a black tux and wrinkled hair openly refused the orders of his superior, shooting into the air and kicking it, propelling himself to the east, hoping to reach the red line in time, but it wasn't going to be that easy.
"Guarara!~ Don't change as you grow senile, Garp!".
*BOOOMMM!!*
Whitebeard punched forward, a blast that cracked the space itself and released gargantuan destruction in the direction of the Marine Hero.
Garp the Fist, wasn't called that way for no reason.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!*
The ridiculous impact between the strongest fist in the world and arguably the strongest devil fruit was evident. The waves of power were felt in the nearby islands with but a mere fist.
Garp was left unscathed and used the impact to propel himself faster towards is objective while Whitebeard groaned in displease, his objective here was precisely to stall these two and yet he failed.
By the time he turned towards Sengoku, the man had already turned into a gigantic golden buddha.
"That lazy old man, so annoying" Sengoku complained, that man wouldn't follow a single order he was given and rejected the notion of becoming an admiral every time, the spot was even vacant for him to take.
"You tell me, Sengoku... let's get this going!".
*RUMBLE!!!*
Two powerful conqueror hakis clashed, and every other marine around knew better than to get in between a battle of these two.
"Do you know why Garp is not an admiral yet, Whitebeard?"
"Because that bastard's too lazy!".
"You know him well!"
**
**
The second round between Kizaru and Veyron was on, his trick to survive, constantly flickering to the point Veyron had a hard time even seeing him. He placed a forcefield around himself and all of Kizaru's attacks would just be refracted and bent away from their path.
"I knew you were not a pushover" The light man was now wearing only his trousers with a body marred with bruises.
The beams all evaded Veyron much to his annoyance, he didn't even know how he was doing it.
'He can manipulate his oponents' bodies, can he manipulate the light too? that's impossible... he shouldn't even be able to perceive it'.
"There are a number of individuals I consider a threat in this world. You're one, Kizaru" Veyron knew this fight was a difficult one to progress. He couldn't grasp Kizaru while he was moving that fast all over the battlefield, but his light also couldn't reach him.
"Oh?~"
"Do you know what refraction is?~"
"..."
"When the light passes from a dense substance into another, an interesting phenomenon is formed. Light can be bent".
"Areee, we've got a clever one here but how does that work for you? There is no water here".
A powerful beam of light shot from Kizaru's fingers, the light of the beam magically evaded Veyron and impacted the red line much to his annoyance.
"As expected of a monkey. Do you even know how it rains when it does? this planet is almost completely made out of water, Even if the sun has already fallen there is still plenty of vapour here for me to work with, I only need to condense it faster".
"Monkey…? if beams don't work then I'll handle you myself".
Kizaru committed the same mistake again. Flickering towards Veyron yet finding himself in a completely different location altogether.
*BOOOOMMMMM!!*
The blunt side of Youbi swung against him, he had already expected that movement. Veyron coated it with armament Haki and thrashed the vice admiral who blocked just in time after recovering from the shock of having his devil fruit completely handicapped.
The vice admiral crashed against the red line, destroying a massive chunk of it yet again and falling into a defensive position.
"I always thought that you depended a lot on your fruit and look where you are now, Kizaru".
Kizaru raised from the debris, spitting blood and cracking his neck.
"This is troublesome, Veyron… you're forcing me to go back to the old days that I wanted to forget".
"...?"
*RUMBLE!*
Both of Kizaru's arms and legs got covered in purplish armament Haki. His eyes were dark and his glasses cracked.
"Who would have thought I'd have to copy your style again, teach" The vice admiral spoke to the den den mushi he had on his wrist.
"Momonga, Kuzan. I have a perpetrator here right above the red port and need backup, he's a tough one".
'Kuzan!?'
Veyron naturally recognised the name, the identity of the third admiral. Those two together were going to be a pain in the arse. He even would have preferred if it was Akainu who was sent instead of Aokiji.
Kizaru flickered, this time using the overbearing prowess of Rokushiki instead of his devil fruit.
*BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!*
His fist crashed against Youbi and Veyron managed to resist but one became twice and twice turned into ten.
"I'm not an admiral candidate… just for my devil fruit, kid!"
*BAAANGG!!!*
'So this is Kizaru!' Veyron groaned, the difference in physical strength was abysmal and even in armament Haki Kizaru was clearly superior.
"Ugh!"
He used his conqueror Haki and 4th Will to strike back and this time the admiral's smile drifted.
"Conqueror Haki, a mysterious devil fruit... you're full of surprises!" He couldn't think of a possible devil fruit that would give Veyron these many advantages. He could control gravity, fly, attract his opponents, condense vapour.
'It could be the gravity fruit but that doesn't explain how versatile it is, and how can he even master it so efficiently at such an age? Could it be… awakened?'
The more Kizaru thought about it, the more questions he had. After discarding pride he accepted that in order to take this kid down, he'd need Kuzan's help even after telling him that he wouldn't need to involve himself with the Festival of Stars.
The battle continued with Veyron stalling as much as he could getting closer and closer to the sea below. For Veyron it was like a ring to the finger, all he needed was to make some time until Fisher Tiger, Shanks and his mom did whatever they needed to do up there. He even had confirmation now that Kuzan and Momonga were still in Sabaody, possibly making their way here.
His sword sliced forth, coated in Haki but it wasn't able to completely slice through Kizaru's flesh, his armament Haki was stronger.
In order to take him down, he had a plan.
!!!
The boy's eyes gasped when he witnessed a gnashing and gruesome chilling future.
*WHOOOSH!*
An ice spear shot towards him with speeds that resembled a bullet, originating from the sea below. He grits his teeth and deviated it, it is way slower compared to Kizaru's beams. The gigantic icicles came in succession, he used Youbi to slice through them while continuing his hand-to-hand with Kizaru who would occasionally use a beam.
'Kuzan is here, things will get tricky, but my objective is to stall, not defeat them'.
A spear of ice shot from the sea straight towards his heart and Kuzan joined the battle officially, Veyron's eyes witnessed how below there was a platform of ice as far as the eyes could see. There were two men standing there: Aokiji and Momonga.
Momonga with his sword and Kuzan with his frozen arms stuck into the frozen sea.
'Let's see how you three cope with this!'.
Kuzan's presence didn't stop his plans.
*BAAANG!!*
With a fist to the jaw, he sent Kizaru flying and shot right towards the frozen sea below.
*BOOOMMM!*
The sonic booms rocked the battlefield and Kuzan saw the foe get his whole body into armament Haki.
'He's trying to pierce into the sea? but he's a devil fruit user… suicide? No'.
Armament Haki coated the ice platform and Veyron gasped, it seemed Kuzan was fast enough to know what he intended to do!
'These guys are serious bloody hell!' Even Kizaru was displaying a fighting style that he hadn't seen in the show, he didn't even know who that Zephyr or whatever was.
With no other option, he took Youbi and unleashed it.
'If only I had an apple with me'.
He sighed, Kizaru couldn't die yet or he'd lose it forever.
*RUMBLE!*
His conqueror Haki resurfaced to the maximum, coating Youbi. He couldn't use his mother's sword intent as of now, but he could try to replicate it.
*WHOOOOSHHH!!*
A single strike from his sword cut a massive hole in Aokiji's platform.
"You're not going anywhere!"
He forgot Kizaru's speed for a second. He technically teleported but that was convenient for Veyron who didn't need to pull him anymore.
*BAAANGG!!*
Their first crashed at ridiculous speeds while simultaneously falling into the frozen sea below less than a mile away.
Veyron went for a second strike and Kizaru predicted it, what he didn't predict was for his body to get pulled into Veyron's waiting claws.
"Ugh! This annoying power!"
"Brace, Kizaru!"
*RUMBLE!*
With all his strength and with speeds superior to sonic; he blasted the vice admiral's head into the armoured Haki-coated frozen sea crack that he sliced.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!*
An explosion devastated and cracked Kuzan's whole platform, obliterating it in a lot of icy chunks that floated on the sea.
Both Momonga and Kuzan watched awestruck how the invict vice admiral and admiral candidate, Kizaru, was defeated in the most brutal way.
They even doubted he was still alive.