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The steel boat rocketed across the sea, a blur of motion leaving a long, shimmering wake in its path. It was less a ship and more a bullet skipping across the water.
In the distance, the Marine warships had formed a blockade, a wall of wood and steel meant to halt their escape.
"ADMIRAL KIZARU! THE THUNDER EMPEROR'S SHIP—IT IS GOING TO RAM US!" a lookout screamed into his Den Den Mushi, his spyglass fixed on the rapidly approaching vessel.
"Now, now... no need to panic," Kizaru drawled, his lips pursed in a lazy pout. The four Vice Admirals had already moved to flank him, their hands on the hilts of their swords, their faces grim.
Every cannon, every rifle on all five warships was aimed at the approaching shuttle. They waited only for the command.
"Arthur... are you too frightened to even face me?" Kizaru taunted, his voice carrying across the water. "Or are you simply too exhausted? Afraid you will make a mistake and get caught?"
He stood at the bow, his lanky frame silhouetted against the sun, his Justice coat whipping in the wind. He slowly raised a hand, extending his index finger.
A brilliant, six-pointed star of light began to coalesce at its tip.
The one weakness of the Glint-Glint Fruit: it required a moment to focus the scattered particles of light into a single, coherent beam.
"It has been seven years since we last fought, you know," Kizaru said, his voice dripping with mock nostalgia. "I have improved."
"Laser."
"FWOOSH!"
A beam of concentrated light—a spear of pure, penetrating energy—shot out from his fingertip, aimed directly at Arthur's figure lounging on the deck of the steel boat.
"If you had not, I would not have even bothered to look at you," Arthur sneered, not even pausing as he ate.
On these seas, everyone—his enemies, his subordinates—was constantly, desperately growing stronger. It was a relentless, never-ending climb toward the pinnacle.
Yet no one could keep pace with him.
"Shiryu," he said, his voice a low command. "You handle it."
He had no intention of fighting himself. Only the true titans of the world were worthy of his personal attention.
"Understood, Captain." A bloodthirsty grin spread across Shiryu's face as he slowly, almost lovingly, drew the Seven Star Sword from its sheath.
He might not be a match for the likes of Whitebeard or Kaido, but in Arthur's eyes, Shiryu—the man who had fought by his side through a hundred battles—was every bit the equal of a Marine Admiral. In his desperate bid to keep pace with his captain, Shiryu's own growth had been nothing short of meteoric.
He had not known a single defeat since the day he had lost to Hawkeye Mihawk before Roger's execution. If the two were to cross blades now, the outcome would be a crushing, one-sided victory.
He met the beam of light with a casual, almost effortless slash of his own.
"BOOM!"
The two attacks collided in a brilliant explosion of light and energy.
Then something impossible happened.
The laser beam—a force of pure, penetrating energy—was sliced cleanly in two by the sword strike. It dissipated into harmless particles of light.
The sword strike, however, continued onward, its power undiminished, a blade of pure death aimed directly at the lead warship.
"The traitorous head jailer of Impel Down... Shiryu of the Rain."
After deflecting the attack, the Marines' attention shifted from Arthur to the swordsman. To have cleaved through the attack of one of the Navy's greatest powers with a single blow—it was a feat that demanded their respect.
"It seems we will have to report to Fleet Admiral Sengoku," Kizaru said, his lazy, mocking expression unchanged, though a new gravity had entered his eyes. "Your bounty needs an update."
He was already thinking ahead. When he returned, he would have to speak with the instructors at the academy, to instill a new sense of ideological purity in the recruits.
For a talent like Shiryu to have been wasted in Impel Down, only to be recruited by a man like Arthur... it was a great loss, and a great shame, for the World Government.
"Open fire," Vice Admiral Onigumo commanded, his already small eyes narrowing to slits.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The cannons roared.
A sky full of black iron rained down upon the small steel boat.
It was useless.
One after another, flashes of light erupted from the shuttle's deck, each one a sword strike that intercepted the cannonballs in midair.
One man, one sword, against an entire fleet.
The steel boat, unscathed, cut through the waves and slammed into the lead warship.
"CRACK..."
The sound of splintering wood echoed across the sea. The steel boat, like a bullet piercing through flesh, tore a massive hole in the warship's hull.
"BOOM!"
In a matter of seconds, it had passed completely through, leaving a gaping wound in its wake, and was already a thousand meters away.
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Arthur and Shiryu had never doubted the boat's penetrating power. In the blink of an eye, they had left the Marine fleet far behind.
Yet then—
"THUNDER EMPEROR! STOP, DAMN YOU!"
A world-shaking roar echoed across the sea. Kaido, impossibly, had also outpaced the fleet and was now swimming after them.
"That damn mad dog actually followed us?" Arthur was growing sick of this. A man you could not kill, a man who stuck to you like tar.
"Shiryu. The Seastone chains."
The brig of every Marine warship was lined with Seastone. As they had passed through the ship, Shiryu, on Arthur's command, had helped himself to their entire supply.
"Clank, clank..."
A length of impossibly hard, heavy chain—dozens of meters long—was passed from Shiryu to Arthur.
A flicker of lightning enveloped his hand, creating a barrier that repelled the energy-draining power of the sea stone. He gripped the end of the chain and looked back at the swimming Kaido, a cold smile on his face.
The steel boat was far faster than Kaido. If he could get the chain around his neck, he could drag the beast with them. Even if Kaido possessed the strength to break the stone, he would not have the leverage.
By the time he could snap the chain, they would already be at Marineford.
'I do not have time to lead an invasion of Marine Headquarters right now... But an enraged dog, let off the leash... that should be a nice down payment on my grudge.'
His plan was simple. After he had found and consumed his second Devil Fruit, he would settle his scores, one by one.
Kaido, who had slaughtered his Guard on Skypiea. The Marines, who had cost him three years of his life.
"Zzzzzzzzt!"
With a flash of brilliant lightning, Arthur leaped from the boat. He crossed a thousand meters in an instant and, before Kaido could even react, snapped the Seastone chain around his neck.
He returned to the boat and secured the other end.
"Shiryu," he commanded. "Faster."
"THUNDER EMPEROR! LET ME GO, DAMN YOU!"
Kaido's furious roar was swallowed by the sea.
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