Chapter 295
An indescribable pressure began descending from above.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
The filtered light shining through Fish-Man Island's enormous bubble was fading beneath a colossal shadow.
Something vast was moving through the surrounding deep sea from the direction of the Fish-Man District.
Not from the surface ten thousand meters above.
It had been here all along.
Waiting.
An ancient vessel, enormous enough to dwarf the harbor and loom over a huge portion of Fish-Man Island, was being dragged inexorably toward the kingdom.
Its rotting hull was covered in moss and seaweed.
The legendary ark—Noah.
Fukaboshi's eyes went bloodshot.
"That bastard Vander Decken!"
Near the forward section of the ark, protected from the seawater inside a large coating bubble, stood the man himself.
A broadcast Den Den Mushi beside him carried his voice through the surrounding network.
"SHIRAHOSHI!"
"MY BELOVED SHIRAHOSHI!"
Vander Decken IX spread his arms.
"If you refuse to return my love, THEN I'LL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU TREASURE!"
His laughter became shrill.
"Your home! Your kingdom! Everyone you love!"
"And once Fish-Man Island has been reduced to rubble..."
His grin twisted.
"...you and I will remain together forever beneath its ruins!"
"THIS IS MY GRANDEST PROPOSAL TO YOU!"
Despair settled over the harbor.
Noah was not a cannonball or a pirate ship that could simply be shot down.
It was an ancient ark so enormous that, if it struck Fish-Man Island directly, the destruction would be catastrophic.
"Do you see it now, Zaraki?"
Vergo's voice was drenched in satisfaction.
"This is the funeral we prepared for you."
"One kingdom."
"Countless lives."
"All buried beside you."
"For the man who killed Doflamingo..."
Vergo leaned slightly forward.
"How do you like the stage?"
Zaraki did not immediately look at Noah.
His golden eyes remained on Vergo.
There was no fear in them, only pity.
"Piece of junk."
His voice was quiet.
"You spent more than a decade hiding inside the Marines as one of the Donquixote Family's highest-ranking officers."
Zaraki's tone remained almost conversational.
"All those years pretending. Scheming. Crawling around in the dark."
He looked Vergo up and down.
"And after Doflamingo died, this is what you amounted to?"
The grin on Zaraki's face widened.
"You used a bunch of angry idiots, fed an obsessive lunatic just enough information to make him useful, and now you're praying an ancient wreck falls on my head hard enough to kill me."
His eyes narrowed.
"Vergo..."
"You're not some loyal piece still carrying out Doflamingo's will."
His contempt sharpened.
"You're just garbage that idiot threw away before he died."
"THAT'S A LIE—!"
For the first time, Vergo's composure broke.
Zaraki was already done listening.
He raised his head and finally looked toward Noah.
Death.
Destruction.
The end of an entire kingdom if no one stopped it.
Not the slightest trace of hesitation appeared in his golden eyes.
His free hand settled around the hilt of Nozarashi.
...
Then Zaraki said the words that seemed to freeze everyone present.
"Then I'll cut it."
His voice was completely flat.
Neptune had only just managed to push himself upright when his enormous body froze.
Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, Manboshi, and the palace guards reacted much the same way.
Cut it?
Noah?
That enormous ark bearing down upon the kingdom?
Vergo stared at him.
Then he laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Cut it?!"
He pointed toward the black restraint attached to Zaraki's right wrist.
"Have you forgotten that your sword arm is chained to several tons of buried Seastone?"
Vergo's grin twisted.
"It may not drain you, but unless you plan on carrying the whole damn harbor with you, that arm isn't going anywhere easily!"
Before his laughter could continue, Noah's groaning descent became louder.
The ark was still homing toward Shirahoshi.
Vander Decken no longer needed to push or guide it.
He had already thrown Noah toward the target marked by his Mark-Mark Fruit, and as long as he remained conscious, the enormous vessel would continue seeking her.
"Your Majesty!"
Madame Shyarly hurried toward Neptune.
"We need to move the civilians away from the projected impact zone immediately!"
Her face was pale as she looked upward.
Then her eyes dropped toward Zaraki.
"This is not the future I saw."
Everyone nearby looked at her.
Shyarly tightened her grip around the crystal ball.
"The man in my vision wore a straw hat."
Her voice remained strained but certain.
"Whatever is happening now, this is something else."
That distinction did little to make Noah less dangerous.
Zaraki ignored the discussion.
He slowly closed his restrained right hand around Nozarashi's hilt.
Then he pulled.
BOOM—!
The pavement around the anchor point erupted upward.
He had not broken the Seastone.
He had simply ripped the massive anchor block and half the surrounding foundation out of the ground.
The short black chain still hung from his wrist, dragging broken masonry behind it.
Vergo stared.
"You..."
Zaraki rolled his shoulder.
"Heavy."
That was all.
Then something deeper stirred within him.
Dark-gold spiritual pressure rolled outward, dense enough to make the surrounding air tremble.
The people nearby could not identify what they were feeling; they only knew that the pressure around Zaraki had suddenly become far heavier than Haki alone.
His hand tightened around the sword.
From somewhere deep inside, the rough woman-like voice he alone could hear stirred with unmistakable amusement.
'Finally.'
Zaraki grinned.
"Drink, Nozarashi."
HMMMMM—!
The sealed katana changed.
The guard vanished.
The blade widened and lengthened, transforming into the massive chipped cleaver that had already tasted the blood of monsters far stronger than anyone in the harbor.
Vergo's face changed.
Neptune stared.
Gion's hand tightened around Konpira.
None of them knew what Nozarashi truly was.
They only knew that the weapon Zaraki had been carrying no longer looked remotely ordinary.
Zaraki glanced toward one of the emergency Bubble Coral stations built into the harbor.
"Oi."
A terrified attendant looked at him.
"Bubble."
The man hurriedly activated one.
A coating bubble expanded around Zaraki, sealing him inside an air-filled sphere suitable for entering the surrounding sea.
Gion immediately understood.
"You're going outside?"
"Can't swing something that big from inside the island."
Zaraki glanced at the protective membrane overhead.
"If I tear open the bubble while trying to save the place, that'd be pretty stupid."
It was, perhaps, the most sensible thing anyone had heard him say all day.
Zaraki bent his knees.
Before moving, he looked toward Gion and Yamakaji.
His eyes shifted toward Vergo.
"You two can handle the dog."
Gion drew Konpira.
"Gladly."
Yamakaji's cigar tilted upward.
"Don't take too long."
Vergo's expression darkened as the two Vice Admirals moved to cut off his escape.
Zaraki drove off the harbor floor.
The coating bubble shot upward and passed safely through Fish-Man Island's membrane into the surrounding ocean.
Only then did the true pressure of the deep sea settle around him.
Ten thousand meters beneath the surface, the water outside the bubble pressed inward with enormous force.
The Bubble Coral coating protected his body from direct exposure, but maneuvering the sphere through those currents was still nothing like moving through open air.
Zaraki looked upward.
Noah filled an enormous portion of his vision.
Inside the island below, Shirahoshi stared through the membrane with tears streaming down her face.
"Please..."
Her hands clasped tightly together.
"Please stop..."