Darren’s figure descended from the sky behind them.
He had already brought Toki to safety. With an escort of Marines, she had been evacuated along with the other civilians.
After all, Toki had no combat ability—if she remained, Darren would be distracted trying to protect her.
And with a full-scale battle imminent, he couldn’t afford distractions.
At the same time, Sakazuki and Borsalino reappeared at the scene.
"Oi oi oi, you three bastards—how could you leave me like that!?"
Kuzan scowled in protest at their return.
Zephyr gave the trio a small nod before squinting up at the three pirate titans in the sky. Behind his sunglasses, a deep gravity flickered in his gaze.
"Shiki... Kaido... Charlotte Linlin..."
Shiki—the Golden Lion—was something of an old rival. Zephyr had crossed blades with him more than once. He knew just how terrifying that man’s strength was.
As for Big Mom and Kaido—while their sheer presence wasn’t quite as suffocating as Shiki’s, they were equally troublesome in different ways.
Zephyr’s eyes widened abruptly. His face twisted with confusion.
Suddenly, Charlotte Linlin leapt down from her thundercloud mount, Zeus.
In her hand, she grasped a blazing flame imbued with a sinister, humanlike smirk. Her fist, wrapped in searing fire, came crashing down—
—directly toward the massive dragon floating in the sky!
Kaido, still in his dragon form, took the full brunt of the blow. Under Big Mom’s monstrous strength, his enormous blue-scaled head snapped downward like a meteor.
His bulging eyes nearly popped from his skull.
The colossal dragon body crashed into Marineford’s earth with a thunderous roll, crushing who-knew-how-many buildings and artillery stations in its wake. Dust and rubble exploded skyward.
"Damn it!! Linlin, what the hell are you doing!?"
The dragon bellowed in fury, his eyes bloodshot with rage.
Big Mom landed gracefully, her massive blade slung over one shoulder, and barked:
"Were you trying to kill Darren just now!? I told you—he’s mine!!"
Kaido’s body rapidly shrank, shifting back into human form.
Rubbing his head, the towering man emerged from the crater with his black spiked kanabo slung over his shoulder. Snarling, he charged straight toward Big Mom.
"We both want to kill him! What’s the damn difference!? I’ll just take him out myself!!"
Big Mom rushed to meet him, roaring:
"I won’t let you kill him!!"
Their weapons crackled with black and red lightning—Conqueror’s Haki—and slammed toward each other.
Kaido’s Hassaikai and Big Mom’s horned hat-blade Napoleon clashed—
—but they never touched.
Instead, a violent burst of black-and-red energy exploded between them.
In an instant, a shockwave of wild, seething power erupted from their clash, scattering lightning in all directions. Several Marine officers staggered back, arms raised to shield their faces, eyes wide in shock.
A full-blown Conqueror’s Haki clash!!
Above, the thick black clouds were ripped apart by the force, splitting open with deep, thunderous cracks.
"What the hell are those two doing!?"
"Why are they suddenly fighting each other!?"
"Wait—they’re arguing over how to deal with Commodore Darren!?"
The Marines stood frozen in disbelief, watching Big Mom and Kaido trade blows.
Even Zephyr’s brows furrowed in visible confusion as his gaze drifted toward Darren.
Kuzan, too, was looking at Darren with a puzzled frown.
Commodore Darren, meanwhile, stood perfectly still. Eyes to nose, nose to heart—serene as if none of this chaos involved him.
Just then, more figures raced in from the rear.
"We’re here to join the fight!!"
Led by Gion and Tokikake, the Training Camp’s elite members arrived. Swords drawn, they zipped across the battlefield with Moonwalk and Soru, arriving behind the others in a blur.
Even they struggled to withstand the residual Haki waves from Big Mom and Kaido’s clash. Their faces were pale with awe and disbelief.
"So this is the power of legendary pirates..."
"They don’t even seem human."
"Kaido and Big Mom..."
They could hardly believe that such overwhelming monsters existed in this world—
—and even more unthinkable: their fellow trainee, their top-ranked peer—Darren—had already been fighting monsters like these!?
"Damn you, you crazy hag!! Why did you stop me from killing that damn bastard Darren!?"
Kaido’s furious roar snapped them out of their thoughts.
His face flushed bright red. Black hair flared wildly like a storm. His feet tore trenches into the ground as he skidded back, bracing against Big Mom’s force.
"He destroyed my home base!!"
"And this wasn’t even part of our plan! Didn’t you want to kill him too!?"
Kaido glared daggers at Big Mom.
"He even killed two of your sons!!"
Suddenly, Charlotte Linlin burst into girlish laughter—utterly unhinged.
"Who said I wanted to kill him?"
Kaido froze. "Didn’t you say ’Darren is mine’!?"
She turned her head, gaze locking onto Darren through over a thousand meters of battlefield.
Her crimson tongue ran slowly across her red lips. Her eyes sparkled with terrifying possessiveness as she giggled:
"What I meant is... I want to have him."
"I want Darren to be...
One full second of absolute silence.
Thousands of Marines, and even Kaido, let out stunned, thunderstruck screams like they’d been struck by lightning.
Kaido’s bulging eyes nearly fell out of his skull.
And in that split second of shock, the delicate balance between them shattered.
Big Mom lunged in with a snarl. Her Haki-coated fist slammed into Kaido’s gut with bone-crushing force.
Kaido’s body flew backward, crashing through over a dozen buildings before slamming into the heart of a military bastion.
Cracks spiderwebbed across its thick stone walls. Yet Kaido pulled himself out of the rubble like it was nothing, face blank with disbelief.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Up in the sky, even the Shiki looked dumbfounded.
The Marines below all slowly turned as one.
All eyes locked onto the Marine Commodore—whose mouth was twitching violently.
Darren felt every eye on him.
This was... social death.
He fought to maintain a neutral expression, forcing back the urge to curl up in a hole. In a calm, righteous tone, he declared:
"Don’t worry, everyone.
Zephyr clutched at his heart, face twisted in agony.
Gion looked like she’d walked into a blizzard.
Borsalino’s smirk deepened with interest.
Sakazuki’s gaze darkened ominously.
Kuzan stared in pure admiration. "So cool..."
Everyone else was simply speechless.
Only Tokikake looked from the voluptuous, seductive Big Mom to Darren...
...then screamed with heartbreak:
"DAMN IT!! Why do the good things never happen to me!!"