Chapter 255
The sea breeze carried the smell of smoke and blood across the water as the two larger ships faced one another.
Aboard Snack's vessel, several pirates had lost the swagger they displayed only minutes earlier.
Zaraki had cut apart another ship directly in front of them without bothering to raise his voice, and the casualness of the act unsettled them more than any shouted threat would have.
One thickset pirate edged closer to Snack.
"Lord Snack, we should find out why he's here before this gets worse. Mama's tea party is tomorrow, and there's no reason to turn this into a full battle if he's only passing through."
Another crewman quickly agreed.
"He's the War Demon. The stories clearly weren't exaggerated."
"SHUT UP!"
Snack's roar silenced the deck.
His face had gone dark with anger.
"You're in Mama's sphere of influence, and one Marine is enough to make all of you forget whose flag you sail under?"
There was more behind the fury than territorial pride. Snack's reputation inside the Charlotte Family had taken enough blows already, and allowing Zaraki to humiliate him in front of his own men would only deepen them.
He turned back toward the Oni Slayer.
"War Demon Zaraki! You think killing a few worthless pirates gives you the right to challenge the Big Mom Pirates?"
Zaraki looked at him.
"Those were your guests?"
Snack's jaw tightened.
"They were under Mama's protection."
"Then she should pick better ones."
Several Marines aboard the Oni Slayer failed to hide their reactions.
The senior captain stepped closer.
"Zaraki, our mission is still Kalles, and Vice Admiral Gion has missed two check-ins."
"I know."
Zaraki's voice was quiet enough that only the Marines near him heard it.
Then he looked past Snack's ship toward the northern horizon.
"The timing is wrong."
The captain frowned.
"What?"
"Those pirates fired a signal after I hit them, but his ship was already close enough to arrive almost immediately. He didn't come because they called."
The captain's expression changed.
Zaraki continued.
"He was already waiting near our route."
A chill ran through the Marine officer.
Gion's missing launch.
The Big Mom ship waiting near the northern approach.
The apparently random pirates who had provoked the Oni Slayer.
Taken separately, each could be coincidence.
Together, they were not.
Snack saw them speaking and sneered.
"Finished whispering?"
Zaraki looked back at him.
"Yeah."
A faint smile returned.
"Explaining things is tedious, so let's make this simple. You take one swing at me, I take one swing at you, and whoever can't stand afterward loses the argument."
For a moment, even Snack seemed unsure whether he had heard correctly.
Then humiliation replaced confusion.
"You arrogant bastard."
He yanked an enormous serrated blade from behind him.
The weapon was taller than a man, its edge lined with vicious backward-facing teeth and darkened by years of use.
The senior captain immediately reached for his own weapon.
"Zaraki—"
"Stay back."
Snack swung the serrated blade behind him with both hands, muscles bunching beneath his clothes.
Then he hurled it.
The weapon spun through the air like an enormous saw, shrieking as it crossed the gap between the ships with enough force to punch through a warship's upper hull.
Zaraki remained where he was.
The wind from the spinning blade whipped his hair around his face.
Then his eyes narrowed.
Something had been tied behind the weapon.
A black lacquered sheath.
Gold cherry blossoms traced along the surface.
A familiar cord wrapped around the throat.
Konpira.
...
Zaraki recognized the sheath before the weapon reached him.
Armament Haki darkened his right hand, and instead of grabbing the serrated edge bare-skinned, he caught the spinning weapon along the reinforced flat just behind the teeth.
BOOM—!
The impact sent a heavy vibration through the deck beneath his boots, but his arm barely shifted.
The serrated blade stopped.
Silence spread across both ships.
Snack's expression changed.
He knew exactly how much force he had put into the throw, and Zaraki had stopped it with one hand.
Zaraki paid no attention to the reaction.
His eyes were fixed on the black sheath tied behind the weapon.
He pulled the cord free and held the sheath closer.
There was no mistake.
Konpira's distinctive gold cherry-blossom pattern ran along the lacquer, and the reinforced mouth carried the small Marine inspection mark Gion's equipment had picked up at Headquarters after Sabaody.
The Oni Slayer's senior captain went pale.
"That's Vice Admiral Gion's."
Snack's confidence returned the moment he saw the recognition.
"So you do know it."
Zaraki looked at him.
Snack spread his arms.
"Your Vice Admiral is alive. Mama's people picked up her little reconnaissance group not long after they left your ship, and she is currently being taken toward Whole Cake Island."
Every Marine within earshot went still.
The senior captain drew his sword.
"You captured a Marine Vice Admiral during an official mission?"
Snack laughed.
"Captured? She entered waters protected by Mama and was invited aboard."
"No one believes that."
"I don't need you to."
Snack's grin became uglier.
"What matters is that she's alive as long as Zaraki cooperates. Mama has invited him to the tea party. If he accepts, Vice Admiral Gion remains perfectly safe."
He paused deliberately.
"And if he refuses, then perhaps Mama decides an Admiral candidate is worth keeping."
The senior captain's face darkened.
"Do you understand what you're threatening? Abducting a Marine Vice Admiral is not something Headquarters will ignore."
Snack snorted.
"Headquarters can complain as much as it likes. Kaido is moving, Whitebeard still controls half the routes that matter, and your Fleet Admiral is busy answering to the people above him. Do you really think the Marines want an all-out war with Mama today?"
The argument was deliberately provocative, and it overstated how safe the Big Mom Pirates would be from retaliation, but it was not entirely empty. Marine Headquarters could not simply send its entire force into Emperor territory without considering the consequences.
That hesitation was exactly what Snack had been told to exploit.
The senior captain's hand tightened around his sword.
Zaraki still had not spoken.
He continued examining Konpira's sheath while the pieces settled into place.
Gion's reconnaissance route.
The missing signal.
The pirate flare.
Snack already waiting nearby.
This was not simply Big Mom taking advantage of an opportunity.
Someone had arranged the opportunity.
The Government trap at Kalles had not been abandoned when the Oni Slayer avoided the central harbor.
It had changed shape.
Snack mistook Zaraki's silence for uncertainty.
"Well, War Demon?"
He spread his hands.
"Are you coming to Whole Cake Island, or do we find out how much your Marines really value one Vice Admiral?"
Zaraki finally lifted his eyes.
"If Gion's alive, I'll bring her back."
Snack's grin widened.
"Then—"
"But you're not coming with me."
The grin stopped.
Zaraki tucked Konpira's sheath securely through the belt at his side instead of throwing away the only proof that Gion had been taken.
Snack frowned.
"What?"
"Using someone else as leverage is dull enough. Standing here and talking about it for this long made it worse."
His right hand tightened around Snack's serrated weapon.
Metal groaned.
Thin fractures spread through the reinforced blade.
Snack's pupils contracted.
Zaraki bent the weapon until the damaged steel finally split with a harsh crack, then tossed the broken pieces onto the deck beside him.
Only after that did his left hand settle on Nozarashi's hilt.
The sword remained sealed.
There was no supernatural change in the weather and no mystical sound everyone on the sea could hear, but the shift in Zaraki himself was enough.
The Marines nearest him stopped moving, while the pirates across the water instinctively quieted as his killing intent settled over the confrontation.
Snack's anger faltered.
For the first time since the Oni Slayer appeared, instinct overrode pride.
He had expected the hostage to restrain Zaraki.
Instead, all he had done was give the War Demon a destination after he killed the man standing in his way.
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator