Chapter 342
Zaraki's warship hovered steadily above the ruined entrance to Wano, looking down upon the destruction below.
Wind poured across the deck, carrying dust and dense spray that made every breath taste of grit and seawater, while Issho maintained the enormous vessel in the sky with apparently effortless precision.
Several hundred meters behind it, Dorry and Brogy's longship remained suspended as well.
Zaraki narrowed his golden eyes and surveyed the battlefield.
The defensive works the Beasts Pirates had once taken such pride in were now meaningless heaps of shattered rock and splintered timber.
The mechanisms and observation positions surrounding the waterfall had been smashed apart, while the artillery batteries Kaido's men had installed were in even worse condition.
Not a single intact cannon barrel remained.
The surprise attack had achieved exactly what Zaraki wanted.
"Cough! Cough... ptooey!"
A violent fit of coughing came from the wreckage below.
An enormous round figure began struggling out from beneath the rubble like a giant beetle trying to right itself after being flipped onto its shell.
Queen.
The faintest smile tugged at Zaraki's mouth.
The bastard really was absurdly hard to kill. Hundreds of tons of wreckage had fallen around him, yet apparently all it had accomplished was covering him in dust and bruises.
Queen shook his enormous head, still visibly dazed from the impact. Several cigars slipped loose from his mechanical braid and fell into the rubble.
He opened his mouth, clearly preparing to unleash a stream of abuse at whichever idiot had dared cause trouble on Beasts Pirates territory.
Then he looked up.
And met Zaraki's indifferent golden eyes.
His gaze traveled along the bow of the hovering warship before settling on the black-clad figure standing beside the railing.
A rough, battered sword rested at Zaraki's side, its appearance far less dramatic than the oppressive presence surrounding its owner.
Queen knew that face.
Even if someone burned the wanted posters to ash, he would still recognize it.
"W-War Demon... Zaraki?!"
His voice shot upward several octaves.
Who's-Who, Black Maria, Sasaki, Ulti, Page One, and X Drake soon emerged from different parts of the wreckage as well.
Every one of them was filthy, battered, and dressed in torn clothing, but the moment they followed Queen's gaze and saw the warship hanging above them, embarrassment vanished from their faces.
What replaced it was naked horror.
It really was him.
The man who had killed Jack.
The monster who had fought Kaido, maimed Charlotte Linlin, broken with the World Government, and somehow continued getting stronger.
Hadn't they been complaining only moments earlier that they were stuck guarding an empty entrance while everyone important gathered on Onigashima?
How the hell was he already here?
"HEY! ZARAKI!"
Queen forced his enormous body upright and pointed furiously toward the sky, relying on sheer volume to conceal the fear in his voice.
"Do you know anything about basic manners?! You barge into somebody else's territory without even announcing yourself, then pull a cheap ambush like this!"
His expression twisted.
"Get the hell out of Wano while you still can! Once Kaido-sama hears what happened here, every fighter on Onigashima will be coming for your head!"
Zaraki stared at him for a second before laughing.
"Ambush? I'd call this visiting."
His eyes drifted across the flattened defenses.
"The doorbell wasn't working, so I knocked a little harder."
His grin became considerably less pleasant.
"As for Kaido, he's exactly who I came looking for. I brought him a gift and was wondering who I should leave it with."
Zaraki's gaze settled on Queen.
"Since one of his All-Stars happens to be standing right here, how about you accept it for him?"
Queen's tiny eyes widened.
Whatever this lunatic considered a gift probably involved separating several heads from several necks.
"You bastard...! You're declaring war on the Beasts Pirates! On Kaido-sama!"
"Declaring war?"
Zaraki shook one finger.
"No, no. That happened a long time ago."
His smile brightened.
"I'm here to take back something that belongs to my friends. If you hand over Wano, great. If you don't, we'll take it ourselves."
Behind him, Nekomamushi and Inuarashi both went still.
Queen stared at Zaraki as though he were listening to a madman.
In fairness, he probably was.
"TOBI ROPPO!"
Queen suddenly spun around.
Who's-Who and the others flinched.
"What the hell are you standing there for?! ATTACK! Hold them here until reinforcements from Onigashima arrive!"
His words were fierce.
His body was considerably more honest.
Even while shouting the order, Queen had already turned in the opposite direction and begun sprinting toward the cave leading deeper into Wano, his short legs moving with astonishing speed for someone of his size.
He had to get a message through to Kaido immediately.
Let Zaraki stand in front of Kaido and try surviving another Thunder Bagua.
Who's-Who and the others stared after the fleeing All-Star for perhaps one second before humiliation replaced shock.
"That bastard...!"
Who's-Who ground his teeth, but none of them had time to curse Queen's cowardice.
A deep boom rolled through the air behind Zaraki's warship.
Dorry and Brogy had stepped from their own longship onto enormous slabs of wreckage held aloft by Issho's gravity, bringing them forward until the two giants stood on either side of Zaraki's vessel like colossal guardian deities.
Recognition struck the Tobi Roppo immediately.
"Elbaf's warrior... Dorry the Blue Ogre!"
"And Brogy the Red Ogre!"
The giants raised their weapons.
Zaraki glanced down at the six officers below.
"Leave them breathing."
Dorry laughed.
"Gegyagyagyagya! You want prisoners?"
"Might have questions later."
Brogy's grin widened.
"Gababababa! Then we'll keep the center of the blast off them!"
The two giants raised their voices together.
"BY ZARAKI'S REQUEST—"
"WE'RE CLEARING THE ROAD!"
Their Haki erupted.
Armament Haki gathered around Dorry's enormous sword and Brogy's massive axe, compressed more tightly and efficiently than it had been during their first battle against Zaraki.
The weapons never touched.
They did not need to.
A rhythm built over a century of fighting side by side and against one another passed between the two giants as naturally as breathing.
Their voices shook the sky.
"HAKOKU—"
"SOVEREIGNTY!!"
Dorry and Brogy swung simultaneously.
The resulting force erupted into a gigantic shockwave, a monstrous fusion of sword pressure and axe force that expanded across the ruined entrance.
The Tobi Roppo reacted immediately.
Who's-Who hardened his body and threw himself aside.
Sasaki transformed as Armament Haki covered his defenses, while Black Maria, Ulti, Page One, and X Drake did everything they could to brace or escape the path of the attack.
It was nowhere near enough to stop it.
Dorry and Brogy had deliberately angled the core of Hakoku Sovereignty through the remaining fortifications rather than directly through the six officers.
Even so, the edge of the attack struck them with enough force to lift their bodies from the ground and hurl them across the shattered battlefield.
Rock walls disappeared beneath its advance, while ruined artillery positions and sections of the monitoring complex were pulverized into clouds of stone and timber.
Nekomamushi and Inuarashi stared in disbelief.
The controlled strike was still vastly more destructive than anything ordinary fighters could have produced, yet it was no indiscriminate island-erasing blast.
The giants had concentrated the attack along the defensive line and allowed the outer edge of the shockwave to batter the Tobi Roppo rather than annihilate them.
White light swallowed the battlefield.
The resulting roar was violent enough to leave Inuarashi and Nekomamushi with a high ringing inside their skulls.
The warship rocked beneath the residual force despite Issho's control, and for one brief instant Inuarashi felt another pressure spread from the blind swordsman.
Deep.
Heavy.
Gravity tightened around both allied ships and bent the worst of the blast away from them.
Then the light gradually receded.
The remaining fortifications had been carved open, leaving a deep scar across Wano's outer defenses. Within the shattered ground lay the Tobi Roppo.
Who's-Who had been driven halfway into a broken wall.
Sasaki lay beneath shattered stone, Black Maria's enormous form had collapsed near the edge of the crater, and Ulti, Page One, and X Drake were scattered across the ruins in various states of unconsciousness.
They were alive.
Barely, in several cases.
But alive.
Inuarashi swallowed as he stared from the fallen officers toward the two giants.
'These are Captain Zaraki's allies?'
Dorry and Brogy were not subordinates. They were legendary captains fighting beside him by choice, which somehow made the sight even more impressive.
His gaze shifted toward Issho.
The blind swordsman remained as calm as ever. His expression had barely changed, as though Dorry and Brogy had merely set off an unusually loud firework.
Yet Inuarashi had felt what Issho had done at the moment the attack struck.
It was nothing like the raw destructive force of Hakoku Sovereignty.
It was colder and more fundamental: gravity wrapping around the battlefield, stabilizing the ships and redirecting debris and residual force away from the people aboard them.
The weight of the world itself seemed to answer that man's sword.