Chapter 294
HMMMMM—!
For a moment, it was as though someone had pressed mute on the entire harbor.
An invisible wave of Conqueror's Haki poured outward from Zaraki, heavy and merciless, crushing every mind too weak to withstand it.
The executioner still had his axe raised above Shirahoshi.
Then his body locked.
The cruelty in his eyes vanished, his pupils lost focus, and white foam spilled from his mouth as he collapsed limply beside the cage.
The axe struck the stone with a clang and rolled harmlessly away.
Then the rest followed.
Bodies began falling across the harbor in widening waves.
Fish-men who had been roaring as they charged collapsed mid-step.
Weapons slipped from numb fingers and clattered across the ground.
Entire formations folded almost simultaneously beneath Zaraki's will.
Hundreds fell.
Then thousands.
Within seconds, almost the entire rebel army had been rendered unconscious.
Only Hody and a scattering of his strongest officers remained standing, and even they were pale-faced, trembling, or struggling to keep their knees from buckling.
The battlefield that had been filled with deafening war cries moments earlier became eerily quiet.
King Neptune stood frozen.
His bloodshot eyes were stretched wide as he stared at the army that had nearly overthrown his kingdom lying unconscious across the stone.
Fukaboshi and Ryuboshi were no better.
One man had broken the backbone of the coup without drawing his sword.
"N-No..."
Hody Jones trembled violently.
Veins bulged beneath his skin as he stared at his followers sprawled across the harbor.
"My army..."
His voice shook.
"My plan...!"
Humiliation and rage burned away what little reason remained.
Hody refused to look at Zaraki.
Instead, he poured every scrap of madness into the one target still within reach.
Shirahoshi.
If he killed the princess, then he had not lost.
"DIE!"
Hody launched himself forward like a torpedo.
He was fast.
Unfortunately, Zaraki had already seen where he was going.
One short burst of raw physical speed carried Zaraki sideways into Hody's path.
To the weaker spectators it looked as though he had simply appeared there, but there was no Soru, no technique—only overwhelming acceleration.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
Hody screamed and swung his trident at Zaraki's neck with everything he had.
A thin layer of Armament Haki darkened Zaraki's skin just before impact.
CLANG—!
Hody's hands went numb.
The recoil nearly ripped the weapon from his grip.
His pupils shrank.
He had struck Zaraki directly.
And accomplished nothing.
At last, fear began drowning the madness.
"AAAAARGH!"
Hody plunged one hand into his clothes and pulled out a huge handful of red pills.
Energy Steroids.
He shoved them all into his mouth at once.
With his other hand, he slammed the switch on a remote attached to his waist.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The explosive collar around Shirahoshi's neck immediately began flashing red.
"SHIRAHOSHI!"
Neptune's heart seemed to stop.
Zaraki frowned.
Then he moved.
He reached the prison cart in a single violent burst, seized the small receiver and detonator unit mounted along the collar, and crushed the mechanism between two Armament-coated fingers before the signal could complete.
Crack!
The warning lights died.
Only after the detonator was dead did Zaraki grip the collar itself and tear its locking assembly apart.
The two halves dropped harmlessly to the floor.
Silence returned.
"MONSTER!"
Hody screamed from behind him.
The Energy Steroids had already taken effect. His muscles bulged, his frame expanded, and whatever remained of his rationality vanished.
He drove the trident toward Zaraki's back.
Armament Haki spread across the point of impact.
The weapon struck.
Its sharpened points bent.
Then snapped.
Hody stared at the broken trident in his hands.
The courage granted by the drugs disappeared.
Zaraki slowly turned around.
His golden eyes were calm.
"This farce..."
His right hand settled around the sword at his waist.
"...is over."
Shing—
A flash colder than moonlight crossed the air.
No one saw the blade itself.
Zaraki remained where he stood, then slowly slid the sword back into its sheath.
Click.
For one second, Hody remained standing.
Then a hair-thin red line appeared across his throat.
Blood surfaced.
His head slipped from his shoulders and struck the ground with a heavy thud, followed a heartbeat later by the collapse of his body.
The harbor fell silent.
Gion was the first to recover.
"Don't just stand there!"
Her voice snapped through the stunned royal guards and Marines.
"Secure the officers who are still conscious! Bind every surviving rebel before they wake up!"
Yamakaji shook himself out of his stupor and immediately began issuing orders of his own.
The royal guards moved as well.
Within moments, the few New Fish-Man Pirates who had survived Zaraki's Haki without losing consciousness were being disarmed and restrained.
Zaraki paid none of it much attention.
Hody Jones was dead.
Shirahoshi was alive.
The coup was finished.
At least, that was what everyone thought.
...
The air remained thick with the stench of blood and the damp salt of the surrounding sea.
Thousands of unconscious rebels covered the harbor in overlapping heaps while Marines and royal guards moved carefully among them, separating weapons from prisoners and checking the wounded.
Zaraki casually returned his sword to its sheath.
Click.
The quiet sound seemed to finally snap Neptune out of his stupor.
"Zaraki."
The king drew a deep breath, pressed one massive hand over his chest, and bowed solemnly.
"Thank you."
His voice was hoarse.
"Thank you for saving Shirahoshi. For saving Fish-Man Island."
He lowered himself further.
"My earlier behavior was born from fear and distrust. For the disrespect I showed you, I offer my deepest apology."
Zaraki gave him a flat glance.
He was not particularly interested in listening to an old father repent.
The immediate problem was solved. Now they could finish this assignment, deal with the prisoners, and preferably find somewhere with decent alcohol.
For some reason, he was already starting to miss the drinks Makino used to make.
Then something pricked at the edge of his Future Sight.
A brief image.
Black metal.
A hand.
His right wrist.
Zaraki's golden eyes sharpened.
Three muffled explosions erupted beneath the stone pavement.
Rock fragments blasted upward as a black figure shot from underground directly toward him.
No one else reacted in time.
Zaraki did.
He saw the attacker's hand coming and, more importantly, saw the dark cuff hidden inside it.
Sea-Prism Stone.
For the fraction of a second available to him, Zaraki made a decision.
He did not move.
Click!
The cuff snapped shut around his right wrist.
A short length of black chain attached to it immediately went taut, disappearing into the shattered pavement where a massive buried anchor block had been prepared in advance.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"PROTECT ZARAKI!"
Weapons flew from their sheaths as Marines surged forward.
Then they saw the attacker's face.
And froze.
The man was wearing the uniform of a Marine Vice Admiral.
A pair of sunglasses covered his eyes.
Half a grilled meat skewer still hung from his mouth.
"Vice Admiral... Vergo?"
Yamakaji stared.
His stomach dropped.
"Vergo?"
His voice became low.
"What are you doing here?"
"Is this some classified G-5 operation?"
For a split second, another possibility crossed his mind.
Had Sengoku arranged a hidden contingency?
But this method was far too dirty.
Vergo released Zaraki's wrist and gave him a cold smile.
"My apologies, Vice Admiral Yamakaji."
"I didn't come here to help you."
His gaze swept across the Marines, the Ryugu royal family, and the guards recovering from the rebellion.
"Hody Jones was bait."
The harbor went still.
"His resentment made him easy to use. I supplied his people with patrol schedules, access routes, and the timing they needed to sever the palace Den Den Mushi network."
Neptune's face changed.
Vergo continued.
"The coup kept every eye on Ryugu Palace exactly where I wanted it."
His gaze returned to Zaraki.
"Vander Decken was useful too. He thinks Noah is his revenge against Shirahoshi."
Vergo's smile widened.
"I only needed him to throw it."
His voice became flat.
"My real objective from the beginning was to kill you here, Zaraki."
An uproar swept through the harbor.
Zaraki looked down at the cuff around his wrist.
Pure Sea-Prism Stone.
Neptune and the princes immediately recognized it as the material that drained Devil Fruit users.
Then confusion entered their expressions.
Zaraki was still standing normally.
Still grinning.
Not even slightly weakened.
"I was wondering what kind of big shot crawled out of the ground."
Zaraki raised his eyes.
"Turns out you're just one of the Donquixote Family's house dogs."
At the mention of Doflamingo, the muscles in Vergo's face twitched.
Only once.
Then the mask returned.
"Don't misunderstand."
Vergo looked toward the cuff.
"I know perfectly well you aren't a Devil Fruit user."
His smile sharpened.
"The Seastone isn't there to drain you."
He glanced toward the buried anchor line attached to Zaraki's sword arm.
"It's there because it's hard enough that you won't casually snap it apart, and because several tons of buried ballast should make that arm considerably less convenient to use."
Zaraki tugged once.
The stone beneath his feet cracked.
The chain held.
Vergo's smile widened.
"That was never supposed to kill you by itself."
He raised one finger.
"To make absolutely certain you die here, I prepared something closer to true despair."
Then he pointed upward.
"Open your eyes."