The news of Roger's entire crew being captured spread through the Sabaody Archipelago like a plague.
By the time Makoto's group hauled the prison cart onto the main road, both sides of the street were packed.
Pirates, bounty hunters, information brokers, merchants, even ordinary islanders, everyone was surging toward the procession.
Some came for the spectacle. Others harbored naked greed in their eyes.
"That's, that's really the Roger Pirates?!"
"See the guy in the straw hat? That's gotta be Roger!"
"Damn, and that's Gaban next to him, right? The monster with a bounty over a billion, locked in a cage like a dog..."
Whispers surged from all directions like a rising tide.
Makoto's group walked ahead and alongside the prison cart, utterly deaf to the chatter.
They looked like ancient guards escorting prisoners to execution.
Yu Ishigami led the procession, his right hand perpetually gripping his left arm, ready to transform at a moment's notice.
His gaze swept the crowd, catching every pair of suspicious eyes with surgical precision.
"Sir, third row on the left. The guy with the scar is looking for an opening."
"Bounty hunter, probably?"
Makoto sat on the prison cart with a grin.
One glance was enough to tell who the real threats were.
"Also, the guy in the hat to our right-front. Several people around him are getting restless."
"Probably about to make a move."
Makoto couldn't care less.
Yu said nothing more, but his grip didn't loosen.
Sure enough, when the prison cart reached an intersection, someone finally couldn't hold back.
"Boys, go!"
A roar erupted from the crowd.
Seven or eight bounty hunters wielding swords and guns charged from both sides. The leader, a burly man with a face full of flesh, had his eyes locked on the cage holding Gaban.
A Great Pirate with a bounty north of a billion. If they could nab him and hand him to the Marines for the reward... damn, they'd be set for life.
Set for life!
The brute raised his sword overhead, about to bring it down on the cage's chains.
Bang.
A single gunshot.
A blood hole appeared dead center on the man's forehead. He toppled backward as if struck by an invisible sledgehammer, his sword clattering to the ground.
The body hit the cobblestones, kicking up a small puff of dust.
Yu's expression didn't change.
The remaining bounty hunters froze in place, feet nailed to the ground.
"Run!"
Someone shouted first, and the rest scrambled into the crowd, vanishing in seconds.
Then Beam dove into the lawn like a dragon entering water.
A moment later, bloodcurdling screams erupted from the crowd.
The onlookers fell silent for an instant, then erupted into even greater panic.
"What, what just happened..."
"That guy's hand turned into a gun?"
"Did someone just dive into the ground? Like swimming? A Devil Fruit user?"
Beam resurfaced from the soil and reported, "Chainsaw-sama, all taken care of."
"Good work."
Makoto nodded.
The prison cart rolled on.
With that "demonstration," no one else dared to make a move for the rest of the journey.
The greedy stares hidden in the crowd had all turned to wariness and fear.
Under the watchful eyes of thousands, the procession threaded through the Sabaody Archipelago's layered streets and finally arrived at Grove 66.
This was the site of the Marines' largest base on the Sabaody Archipelago.
Also the designated location for the exchange.
The scene at Grove 66 was far more "grand" than Makoto had anticipated.
Blue-and-white Marine uniforms and black-suited World Government agents packed the area so tightly there wasn't room to breathe.
Hundreds of elite Marines stood in formation, including towering Giant tribe warriors at the back, each one a blue-and-white Marine bunker on legs.
The Sabaody Archipelago was a playground for Celestial Dragons. Naturally, the military presence here was no joke.
Among the Giants, one figure stood out above the rest.
A hulking man a full head taller than even the other Giants, with two curved horns jutting from his skull and a rugged, commanding face. He stood there like a mountain.
The current King of Elbaf, Harald.
Makoto's gaze lingered on him for a moment before moving on.
He knew.
Harald had always wanted Elbaf to become an affiliated nation of the World Government.
The World Government, in turn, had always dangled that carrot, imposing ever more unreasonable conditions, forcing Harald and all of Elbaf to serve as their attack dogs.
In the end, Harald had even let Imu brand him, sacrificing everything, and still didn't get what he wanted.
His presence here today, Makoto could guess the reason with his toes.
Ninety-nine percent chance the Five Elders had promised him: kill these people, bring back Roger, and Elbaf joins the World Government.
In the original story, they'd conned Harald the exact same way. "Kill Rocks, and Elbaf becomes an affiliated nation."
Heh.
An image flashed through Makoto's mind: in his past life, that little island nation simping desperately for America, licking boots so hard, and America still didn't give a damn.
He shifted his gaze to Kong's side.
Two Marine officers stood there. A man and a woman.
The man was tall with an afro and a square jaw. Sengoku the Buddha.
The woman was slender, sharp-featured, with dark hair in a ponytail and cool, piercing eyes. Tsuru.
Their shoulder insignia indicated they were currently only Vice Admirals.
Makoto noted that Tsuru at this stage was genuinely attractive. Not that she could compare to the women around him, of course.
As for Garp...
Makoto scanned the area but didn't spot that iconic dog-hat.
The Marines had probably considered Garp and Roger's complicated relationship and deliberately kept him off this mission to avoid complications.
That was expected.
Makoto withdrew his gaze and looked back at Kong at the front.
The current Marine Admiral. The future Commander-in-Chief of the Entire Military.
Not that Makoto fully understood the difference between "Commander-in-Chief" and "Fleet Admiral." Could the former command World Government forces too?
The two men locked eyes.
"Goods." Makoto spoke first. "Where's my stuff?"
Kong didn't answer immediately.
His gaze passed Makoto and landed on the prison cart behind him.
Inside the cage, Roger, Gaban, and the rest of the Roger Pirates' officers were a sorry sight, caked in filth and radiating an indescribable stench.
Kong's brow furrowed slightly, but he quickly composed himself.
He shot Sengoku a look.
Sengoku nodded and stepped forward, carrying two ornate chests.
"Marine Rokushiki training manual."
Sengoku opened the left chest first. Inside sat a notebook.
"Logia-type Mag-Mag Fruit."
He opened the right box. A blood-red Devil Fruit lay nestled inside. Similar in shape to the Flame-Flame Fruit, but deeper in color. One look was enough to feel the scorching heat radiating from it.
Makoto stared at the Mag-Mag Fruit but said nothing.
"And the sword?"
Yu's voice cut in from the side.
"The Shodai Kitetsu, right? That blade was part of the deal too."
As those words landed, an aged voice rang out from the ranks of World Government agents behind the Marine formation.
"For my blade, you'll need to meet an additional condition."
The agents parted in unison, clearing a path.
An elderly bald man in a dark kimono and glasses stepped forward from their midst.
In his hand, he held a tachi.
The cursed sword among cursed swords. The Shodai Kitetsu.
Chapter 145 - Come On, Let's See Who Kills Who
"Is that man..."
Someone in the crowd gasped.
"That's right! A Five Elder! I saw his face in the papers years ago!"
"No way... a Five Elder showed up in person?!"
"What's even going on?"
"Shh, keep it down! Can't you see? Those kids are trading the Roger Pirates to the Marines!"
"Kids? You call them kids? They captured the Roger Pirates! Their strength is nothing to sneeze at! You got a death wish?!"
Whispers exploded through the crowd, then quickly died down to hushed murmurs, like chickens whose necks had been grabbed.
Saint Nusjuro, Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, one of the Five Elders, the supreme authority of the World Government.
He stood before the ranks of agents, eyes narrowed, his gaze sweeping slowly over Makoto's group before settling on the young man at the front.
"Would you care to join the World Government?"
"Serve under us?"
The crowd erupted again.
An open recruitment!
Though most people here had no idea who Makoto's group was, let alone how strong they were, the fact that they'd defeated the Roger Pirates spoke for itself.
If these people joined the World Government...
Things were about to get a lot harder for pirates and bounty hunters.
Countless eyes converged on Makoto.
The World Government agents remained expressionless, but their hands were on their weapons.
Saint Nusjuro narrowed his eyes and waited.
Then...
"Heh."
Makoto laughed.
It wasn't loud.
But everyone heard it.
Then Yu laughed too.
Beam laughed.
The Fab Four, Humphry, the Gorilla Devil, the Dolphin Devil, the Rabbit Devil, one after another, they all started laughing.
"Hehehe..."
"Hahaha..."
"Ahahahahaha!"
Laughter spread through Makoto's camp like a contagion.
Each one louder than the last.
Each more brazen.
As if they'd heard the funniest joke in the world.
Saint Nusjuro's face flushed at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Under Imu's rule, perched at the apex of the World Government's pyramid for centuries, he had grown accustomed to reverence, flattery, and fear from everyone.
No one had ever dared laugh in his face like this.
Makoto finally managed to stop, wiping tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand.
He looked up and met Saint Nusjuro's gaze again.
"Looks like the deal's off."
Saint Nusjuro said nothing.
Kong said nothing.
Sengoku, Tsuru, and every Marine and agent present fell dead silent.
Makoto's smile deepened.
"I knew you motherfuckers wouldn't honor the deal."
As the words left his mouth, Makoto's gaze swept across the Marines and Government agents one more time.
Finally, it locked onto Nusjuro.
"That's fine."
"I don't mind picking up the sword from beside your corpse."
BOOM.
Two monstrous killing intents erupted in the same instant, crashing into each other like tidal waves.
The Marines raised their weapons in unison.
The World Government agents dropped into combat stances.
The air itself seemed to freeze.
Sengoku and Tsuru, standing behind Kong, felt their pupils constrict simultaneously.
No one had ever dared speak to a Five Elder like that.
When the killing intent detonated, all of Grove 66 felt like it had been plunged into an ice cellar.
The pirates, bounty hunters, and bold locals who'd followed the prison cart for a show stared wide-eyed at the standoff, hearts hammering in their throats.
"Run!"
Someone turned first, and the crowd exploded like a kicked hornets' nest.
But it was too late.
Grove 66 wasn't particularly spacious. The Marines and Government agents took up nearly half the area, and the narrow exit was already blocked by Makoto's group and the prison cart.
The spectators were squeezed into the outermost corners.
Too many people.
Hundreds surged toward the same exit at once, instantly clogging the bottleneck.
"Move! Get out of the way!"
"Don't push me! Damn it, who's pushing!"
"I don't want to die!"
Screams, curses, and wails blended into a cacophony. People in front were shoved into walls by those behind, who were in turn crushed by those further back.
Someone fell and was trampled before they could get up.
Someone tried desperately to scale the wall to escape, but their trembling hands kept slipping.
But none of that mattered to anyone.
The battle had begun.
Click.
A crisp metallic sound cut through the chaos, razor-sharp.
Yu's body began to transform.
The skin on his arms split open like something was growing from within, revealing cold metallic bone beneath.
Muscle and skeleton restructured, folded, extended. Both arms morphed into heavy machine guns in a single heartbeat.
At the center of his forehead, the skin split open, and a thick gun barrel emerged from the slit.
The Gun Fiend.
Brrrrrrt.
No preamble.
Yu raised both gun-arms, muzzles spitting fierce tongues of flame.
Armor-piercing rounds rained down like a monsoon, screaming toward the black-suited World Government agents.
Every bullet carried a shriek that tore through the air.
But that wasn't all.
Whoosh.
Makoto's right eye. His Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan spun rapidly.
The overlapping pattern of three diamonds and three rings whirled madly in his crimson iris. Black flames, as if summoned from the depths of hell, silently ignited on the surface of every single armor-piercing round.
Every bullet was sheathed in inextinguishable black fire.
Amaterasu!
In the prison cart, the Roger Pirates, still enduring the lingering pain in their asses from a month of captivity, saw those black flames and their faces changed in unison.
They recognized that technique.
Back at Malad Island, they'd watched with their own eyes as those black flames consumed everything.
That fire...
Never went out.
"We're done for," Roger murmured.
Gaban said nothing, only instinctively shrank deeper into the corner of the cage.
Damn it, that hurts!
A second later, the black bullet storm slammed into the World Government agents.
The first wave didn't even have time to react.
Armor-piercing rounds punched clean through their bodies: chests, abdomens, heads. Blood holes bloomed across their black suits. Before the blood could even spurt out, the wound edges were licked by black flames.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Screams rose and fell.
Those hit directly in vital points died on the spot. Their corpses, before even hitting the ground, were swallowed by black fire. They writhed, convulsed on the ground, and finally crumbled into charred husks.
But some were faster.
Several agents managed to dodge at the last instant: sidestepping, ducking, one even flipping midair, narrowly avoiding fatal hits.
Bullets grazed their arms, thighs, ribs, gouging deep blood troughs.
But then...
The black flames latched on.
"Damn it! Fire?!"
An agent stared at the black flame burning on his forearm, slapping at it frantically.
His palm hit the flame and instead of smothering it, his hand caught fire too.
He shoved his arm against the ground, scraping bloody trails into the cobblestones, but the black flame didn't waver.
"Water! Get me water!"
Someone lunged for a nearby fire bucket and dumped it over themselves.
The moment the water hit, there was a sharp hiss.
But the black flame kept burning.
It burned even hotter.
"Impossible..."
The agent stared at the flames consuming his body, eyes brimming with despair.
Among all the Government personnel, one individual stood out.
Nusjuro.
Standing at the vanguard, a small cluster of black flame had landed on his left shoulder.
The flame was small, barely the size of a fingernail, creeping up the fabric of his kimono.
The watching Marines gasped. That was a Five Elder!
But Nusjuro's expression didn't change at all.
He drew his sword.
Shing.
The moment the Shodai Kitetsu cleared its sheath, a bone-chilling arc of light sliced through the air.
Everyone saw a flash of silver-white, and then Nusjuro's entire left shoulder, along with the burning sleeve, separated cleanly from his body.
Thud.
The severed arm hit the ground. Not a single drop of blood flowed from the cut.
On the discarded limb, the black flame continued to burn, consuming kimono and flesh alike.
Before anyone could process the shock, new flesh began to grow.
In mere seconds.
A brand-new arm had regenerated.
Yu narrowed his eyes, staring at Nusjuro's regrown limb.
The Fab Four stopped their cackling too, exchanging uneasy glances.
A flicker of surprise crossed Beam's shark face. He leaned close to Makoto and whispered, "Chainsaw-sama, that guy..."
Makoto studied Nusjuro for a few seconds, then laughed.
"Isn't that kind of fun?"
His tone carried an almost playful lightness.
"Everyone's immortal. Let's see who kills who."
BOOM.
Gray-black energy flames erupted from Makoto's body.
Not the black flames of Amaterasu. Something deeper, denser. An energy with a metallic sheen and skeletal contours.
The energy coalesced around Makoto at breakneck speed, taking shape.
First, ribs.
Then, arms.
Finally, a head.
A skull-shaped energy head formed above the ribcage.
Susanoo: Second Stage!
A gray-black giant skeleton towered in the center of Grove 66, shielding Makoto at its core.
Makoto raised his right hand.
The Susanoo's massive arm rose with it. The gray-black energy palm slowly opened, spawning a chainsaw that howled with a deafening snarl.
"Alright then."
Makoto cracked his neck.
"Let's begin."