Chapter 58: Oh no... not again!
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"Urgh... What in the hell happened...?"
"You woke up it seems..."
"Huh...?!"
Inside a very clean and quiet infirmary, an enormous man covered in bandages opened his eyes widely as he heard a very familiar voice coming from his side.
"Sengoku... What the hell happened...?!"
"That's what I should be asking you, Sakazuki. After all, it was you who fought against Shadow Raven, and we all need to know how did he exactly manage to defeat you"
"I fought...? Argh..." Akainu suddenly grabbed his head in pain as the memories of that day came back to his mind, making him clench his hands in fury while reminiscing the humiliating way he was defeated.
"That bastard... I will burn him alive the next time we meet... Nrgh...!"
While the pain in his head continued, Sengoku, who was watching Akainu's behavior, started explaining to him everything that had been happening during the last few weeks.
"We initially thought that you were gonna wake up eventually in just a few days after being defeated. However, unlike what all the medics of this place thought, you actually ended up being in a coma for more than one week after that incident. Many things have happened until now, first, Shadow Raven had his bounty be raised an enormous amount of money, almost reaching 2 billion bellys for managing to defeat an Admiral like you, and because of his constant assaults on MarineFord without being captured. However, although we raised his bounty, we have yet to reveal the reasons for it since we don't want the public to know that an Admiral has actually been beaten by a seemingly new pirate originated from the East Blue... Even then, we are still curious about how did he manage to beat you... We found a strange artifact attached to your back, probably made out of Sea stone. However, although we could have liked to analyze it and probably add it to our repertory of weapons, it exploded right when we took it out, leaving many medics injured and unable to move... Could you explain to us properly what happened at Arabasta?"
"...... Alright, I can't remember that much on how my fight against that bastard went... but I can recall most of the things that we should worry about the most"
Akainu struggled to talk, his body, although cured mostly, still had some repercussions from the fight against Shadow Raven, even worse than what the medics had actually believed them to be in the beginning. Thus, although he wasn't in a critical state anymore, his body was still severely damaged after receiving the strange attacks from Shadow Raven.
The conversation continued for rather a long time, Akainu explained in detail everything that happened during that fight, and although very reluctant to admit that he lost very easily to Shadow Raven, he still explained properly since he knew how much of a threat this new pirate could be to the Marine.
"So you are saying that even you with your Observation Haki were unable to feel the exact moment he arrived at that place?!" Sengoku gasped in shock after receiving such unbelievable information. After all, Observation Haki was known for not being something that could be fooled, although it could be interrupted by putting the mind of the host in chaos, it was not something that could be avoided nor fooled by any means. Thus, just hearing that someone had actually managed to pass through the detection range of the Observation Haki like it was nothing surprised him a lot.
"Yes, I had my Observation Haki activated in order to watch carefully what was happening inside the King's grave with Crocodile while I prepared to roast alive Straw-hat. I was also watching carefully my surroundings in case there was another dangerous pirate using him as bait. But before I could even notice, he was already in front of me blocking my attack with his sword..." Akainu nodded with a grim expression on his face, he was getting angry just by recalling the fight against Shadow Raven.
"Is he perhaps the user of a new type of Devil-Fruit never discovered before? A stealth-type maybe...Also, that weapon he used against you... So he also used Rokuogan to such a disturbingly High level? Was he perhaps a marine before...? I must tell some of my subordinates to look inside our data just in case someone like that actually had been part of our ranks before... And the extremely advanced technology he uses... This guy is a complete monster...!"
"He is a pirate, and like all the others, he will die by my hands the moment I see him again..." Akainu furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Sengoku's amazed expression while talking about Shadow Raven. However, at that moment he remembered something that had happened during their fight that he had overlooked completely.
"Urgh... Now that I remember properly... He said something about his name during the fight..."
"Really?!" Sengoku opened widely his eyes after hearing that.
"Thanatos, that was his name..."
Sengoku narrowed his eyes and started muttering the name Thanatos while trying to remember anything from his countless years as a Marine, and as a Fleet-Admiral. But ended up being a fruitless effort as he was sure that he had never actually heard that name before.
"Perhaps it's just a code-name? I shall investigate if there is anyone called like that within the many Kingdoms allied with the world Government later..."
As he was gonna continue talking with Akainu about the matter, suddenly the door behind him was slammed open and a marine entered with a pale face and countless sweat drops going down from his forehead.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, We are being attacked by Shadow Raven again! This time he attacked the manufacturing zone and the mineral collection zone in specific... and... he actually brought what we believe to be his real crew with him this time!"
"What?!"
Sengoku dashed out of the infirmary and moved swiftly towards the previously mentioned zones with a tense expression covering his whole face.
"Damn it... Garp had just gone out for a mission at Water 7 and he will be gone for at least a few weeks..."
He gritted his teeth in frustration and increased his speed even further.
Although a Fleet Admiral could usually just stay at his office seeing how the situation develops, the numerous successful infiltrations of Shadow Raven within the Marine's main base, MarineFord, was something that was damaging heavily the Marine reputation. And it had happened so many times that now it was something that he could not bear to watch anymore...
*Boooooom!!!*
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He landed heavily on the ground, leaving spiderweb-like cracks on the floor, and raising a small dust cloud that enveloped and hid his figure completely from the eyes of everyone standing outside of it.
"How dare you invade Marine Ford a third time Shadow Raven?! This time I will capture you myself so that you can't run away anymore!" Sengoku's voice echoed through the whole area, and soon a golden glow started coming out of his body. It wasn't long before his entire body grew enormously in size and towered over the small group of pirates looking at him.
"Oh my... Such an important figure had actually come to visit us this time... Erebus, Tyr... Why don't you guys try yourselves against a Fleet-Admiral while the rest of us continue investigating the principal reason why we came here in the first place..."
"Don't you dare try and escape like the previous time Shadow Raven!!!"
[Buddha's palm!]
An enormous amount of golden energy started accumulating on Sengoku's palm, and soon his attack was launched towards the unmoving Shadow Raven and created an enormous shockwave that damaged everything near it. However, unlike what Sengoku thought, something actually blocked his seemingly impossible-to-block attack and even forced him to retreat a few steps in order to not have his arm pulverized instantly.
"Ugh... What is this?! His attack's shockwave is even stronger than mine?!"
He then looked towards Shadow Raven with an astonished expression on his eyes and saw that Shadow Raven's arm was completely covered in a crimson-dark color with red flames coming out of it.
"To think that you actually made me use my Armament Haki... Truly worthy of being a Fleet-Admiral..."
"That Armament Haki... what is it...?" Sengoku watched in astonishment the incredible appearance of Shadow raven's armament Haki. It was completely different from any other he had seen in his entire life, and it emitted such a heavy pressure that even he felt slightly nervous about having to face such a powerful force...
"This is my own type of Armament Haki technique... It's a fusion between the Emission and Internal destruction techniques, and like your buddha's palm attack, it creates a shockwave around the struck area and pulverizes everything inside it. A very simple concept, but terrifying in fights... the internal organs and even the heart could be destroyed instantly after being struck directly from this attack, that's why I never use it"
Like a typical villain, Shadow Raven explained in detail his entire technique, and Sengoku, who heard all of Shadow Raven's explanation, widened his eyes in amazement before the seemingly enormous genius of the man in front of him.
Before he could react, Shadow Raven disappeared from his previous spot and appeared dozens of meters away while walking in the opposite direction without even looking back. However, before leaving, his metallic and ethereal voice echoed through the whole battlefield.
"As I said, Erebus and Tyr... Try yourselves against him. He will be a great opponent for you guys to evolve even further... As for you Fleet-Admiral Sengoku... Never lose sight of the real enemy... they always hide in the darkness away from everyone's prying eyes, and usually... they hide inside our own darkness"
*Caw!*
*Caw!*
*Caw!*
Shadow Raven's body was suddenly enveloped in hundreds of Black ravens, and soon, he vanished from everyone's sight.
...
In front of Sengoku, a young man wearing a mask with two faces in it started stretching his limbs in a rather calm demeanor. The left side of his mask had a Happy face painted completely blue, while the left side had the face of a demon painted completely in red.
After stretching a bit, he took out from what seemed to be his belt a small cylinder that started enlarging as soon as he touched a small button and took the shape of a very technological and sturdy staff.
From behind this young man, a man wearing a robotic mask with just two luminescent blue eyes appeared and took out a spear from a scabbard at his back. The spear was releasing electricity every once in a while, and the air around it seemed to be moving in strange directions.
The man spinning his spear for some seconds, as if to loosen up a bit, and even though he did not strike the ground even once, dozens of deep cuts appeared on the ground as if some strange force had actually struck it instead from the blade of the spear.
The Youngman looked at his companion and asked in a rather calm tone without even paying attention to Sengoku.
"You ready Tyr?"
The man called Tyr just nodded his head and prepared himself to attack before answering at the Youngman.
"Sure thing Erebus, the boss seemingly expects us to excel on this fight, so let's not disappoint him" Tyr's robotic voice echoed through the battlefield, and before any of them could even say something, Sengoku's palm struck the ground where they had been standing just seconds ago with extreme force.
However, Tyr and Erebus, who had seemingly been hit by Sengoku's pal, suddenly reappeared in front of Sengoku, and the real battle soon broke out.
The Admiral against the Pirates... Who could win?
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