Chapter 166: Testing the Waters
"Oh, my...it really is gone..." droned a more than three-meter-tall, notably slim man with prominent facial wrinkles, short and curly black hair, and a thin beard and mustache. His outfit consisted of a yellow and gold striped suit, a distinctive Marine coat that draped over his shoulders like a cape, stylish white dress shoes with golden bands, amber-tinted sunglasses, a blue-green dress shirt, and a pink tie. And, though his manner of speaking was notably slow, he was widely regarded as the fastest man in the world due to possessing the power to emit and turn into light.
"Such destructive power...and, according to the report, it was destroyed with a single attack..." remarked a tall, slender, and shapely woman with deep purple eyes and shoulder-length, somewhat curly black hair pulled back into a loose bun. A tiny mole adorned the right side of her face under her red lipsticked lips, and though she wore a Marine overcoat with pink sleeves and gold-and-pink epaulets, the rest of her outfit looked out of place as she wore a deep-cut, hot-pink top with pale pink frills over tight and incredibly short black shorts, exposing her inordinately long legs and the large spider tattooed on the outside of her left thigh. A katana with a white hilt, golden tsuba, and red sheathe adorned her left hip, so it wasn't difficult to imagine she was a capable swordswoman, given her status as a Marine Vice-Admiral.
"Power like that doesn't just appear out of thin air. It's more likely the enemy set up explosives in advance..." contended another Vice Admiral, a man with broad shoulders, an angular jawline, thin eyes, and a sharp nose. He also had a large mouth, high cheekbones, thick eyebrows, and, in place of an ordinary white Marine coat, his had a high collar and a non-regulation, leather-brown grided pattern, matching the base color of his fedora. The rest of his outfit consisted of a broad-collared blue sailor shirt, a sunny yellow haramaki, and leather-brown trousers that cut off halfway down his calves, leading into thin and hairy ankles and large feet adorned with geta-style sandals.
As the two Vice Admirals continued their exchange, the taller man, feared throughout the world as one of the three Marine Admirals, Borsalino, aka Kizaru, stared intently at the raging whirlpools that replaced the Gate of Justice. His opinion concurred with the male Vice Admiral's, but it didn't change that their quarry had destroyed one of the most enduring symbols of the World Government's power, a marvel of ancient engineering whose design and construction method had been lost to time...
'All this because some inbred apes had their feelings and pride hurt while breaking their own laws...' thought Kizaru, closing his eyes and exhaling a faint but profoundly exasperated sigh. He followed whatever order he was given without question, but that didn't mean he was fond of the Celestial Dragons or the World Government. He simply did as he was told. Life was easier that way.
"Oh, my..."
Just as his fleet finished forcing their way through the whirlpools that separated the Tarai Current from the markedly calmer seas of the Calm Belt, Kizaru and the two Vice-Admirals accompanying him, codenamed Momousagi and Chaton, raised their gazes to the sky. They expected him to appear since it was clear he was aiding the Straw Hats in rescuing Ace, but seeing Vahn materialize out of thin air before spreading his pure white and luminous angelic wings wide was a sight to behold.
"Hmm...he's pretty daring to face us over the sea like this..." remarked Kizaru, reaching up to caress his chin with his right hand. He, like many others, assumed Vahn's power was the result of consuming an unknown Devil Fruit, so all they needed to do was knock him into the sea, and that was that. Devil Fruit didn't simply lose their power when submerged; they also lost the ability to move, causing them to sink like stones.
"Shall I test his capabilities?" asked the female Vice Admiral, Momousagi, unsheathing her meito-grade sword, Konpira.