The plaza battle was unfolding in a way Garling had never imagined.
Standing behind the Holy Knights' frontline, he watched helplessly as his comrades were turned into sieves by Yu's armor-piercing rounds. Torn to shreds by the Fab Four. Chewed to bloody pulp by Beam's shark jaws.
Then the wounds healed.
Then they were torn open again.
Then they healed again.
Torn open again.
Garling's temples throbbed.
He'd been arrogant his entire life. But right now, a thread of genuine fear wound through his chest.
These people were deranged.
"AAAAAHHH!"
Another scream erupted across the plaza.
Garling snapped his head around. The Rabbit Devil was straddling a Holy Knight, both hands gripping the man's arms, tearing them off like chicken legs.
SCHLICK.
Both arms ripped free at the shoulder. Blood gushed like a fountain.
The Holy Knight's body twisted in agony. Fresh buds of flesh began sprouting from the stumps.
The Rabbit Devil tilted her head, studying the slowly regenerating limbs.
"Seems like they're growing back slower than before? Does recovery speed tie to stamina?"
She crouched down, leaning close to the Holy Knight's face with a cheerful smile. "Don't rush. Take your time. We've got all night."
For the first time, despair appeared in that Holy Knight's eyes.
Garling's fists cracked under the pressure of his grip.
He could see it.
The Libido Devil was pinning a Holy Knight to the ground, clawing open the man's chest and snapping ribs one by one. Unwrapping the body like a gift.
The Dolphin Devil had shattered a Holy Knight's internal organs with sonic blasts, then waited for them to regenerate before shattering them again.
The Gorilla Devil had shoved his fingers into a Holy Knight's mouth, pushed all the way through, and emerged from the other end. Amid the victim's screams, a human shish kebab was complete.
Beam couldn't help rolling his eyes.
He was starting to understand why his leveling speed couldn't match these four freaks.
Devils drew power from human fear. The more terrified the humans, the stronger they became.
Compared to these four, Beam was practically normal.
Garling's heartbeat raced beyond his control.
Even if their immortality had no weakness, they could still feel pain. And nobody could endure this kind of sadistic treatment!
Garling's eyes swept desperately across the battlefield, searching for anything that could turn the tide.
Then he spotted it.
At the edge of the plaza, beside the rubble of the collapsed white palace.
Makoto was standing in front of a small, chubby slave in rags.
The kid looked maybe seven or eight. Thin, but with a naturally broad frame that gave an illusion of sturdiness.
Face caked with blood and dirt. Slave shackles on both wrists and ankles.
The boy was looking up at Makoto with a complicated expression, lips moving, muttering something.
Garling's eyes lit up.
He burst from the formation, sprinting toward Makoto at full speed.
...
Yu was the first to notice Garling's movement.
"Going for a sneak attack, boss?"
Both heavy machine-gun arms leveled, barrels tracking the sprinting figure.
RATATATATATATAT!
Armor-piercing rounds poured out like rain.
Garling didn't dodge. Didn't slow down.
Bullets punched through his shoulder, his arm, his abdomen, his thigh. Wounds burst open one after another.
Pain locked his jaw tight, but he kept running at maximum speed.
Yu frowned.
Because the target wasn't Makoto. He was heading for...
SHING.
Garling's figure flashed past Makoto.
His free hand seized the chubby slave by the collar. His sword came up, blade pressed against the boy's throat.
The edge bit into tender skin. A thin line of blood seeped out.
"Don't move!"
Garling's voice carried a hysterical edge.
"Or I kill him!"
The atmosphere on the battlefield crystallized.
Yu's gun barrels went still.
Beam's jaw dropped like he'd witnessed the impossible.
The Fab Four froze mid-motion.
Every one of them turned to look at the blond Celestial Dragon. One hand gripping the chubby slave. Sword at the kid's throat. Face wearing the standard "villain" grin.
Then they all made the same expression.
The look you'd give an absolute idiot.
The Libido Devil tilted his head. "What's this guy doing?"
The Dolphin Devil: "Is something wrong with his brain?"
The Gorilla Devil scratched his head. "Why would he think a hostage trick works on the boss?"
The Rabbit Devil burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha, is he serious?"
Garling had zero awareness of how absurd this was.
He saw Makoto stop walking and assumed the threat had landed. His grin widened.
"Don't move."
Garling's voice dripped with confidence.
"Or this kid is fin..."
The words never finished.
Grey-black energy ribs materialized across Makoto's body.
Susanoo.
Not complete. Just the most basic, incomplete form.
A few ribs shielded Makoto's frame. Skeletal arms extended from the ribcage on both sides.
Bone hands opened.
A comma-shaped energy orb condensed in each palm.
Yasaka Magatama.
Garling's face drained.
No time to think. He kicked the chubby slave away, channeled Armament Haki into his sword, and raised his guard.
BOOM!
Yasaka Magatama descended.
An explosion tore through the plaza's edge. Fire roared skyward. Debris scattered. Shockwaves peeled up layer after layer of white stone pavement.
Garling was hurled backward, slamming into the ruined palace rubble, body embedding into the debris.
His sword had snapped.
Both arms charred black.
His head. Gone.
From the neck up. Nothing.
The chubby slave, Bartholomew Kuma, kicked away by Garling, had been caught in the blast's outer edge.
His round body was tossed through the air like a ragdoll, crashing to the ground and rolling several times before stopping.
Skin scorched. Clothes nearly blown to shreds. Burns and gashes covered every inch of exposed flesh.
His eyes were half-open. Pupils dilating.
"Ni... Nika..."
Kuma's lips moved. Voice barely a whisper.
He was calling that name.
The one his father had told him about. The warrior of liberation who would come dancing to save him.
Even now, in his final moments, he kept calling that name.
Makoto never looked back. Not once.
His gaze settled on Garling. He watched the blond Celestial Dragon's severed neck begin to bud with fresh tissue. The skull regenerating slowly.
The expression on Makoto's face was the same one you'd wear watching a clown perform.
It took over ten seconds.
Garling's head finally grew back.
He gasped for air. Bloodshot eyes stared at Makoto in sheer disbelief.
"...Do you have no humanity at all?"
Garling's voice trembled.
The hostage trick had worked countless times. Every single time, without fail.
The opponent would expose an opening. Some even surrendered outright, accepting whatever came.
But Makoto...
Killing both the enemy and the hostage in one blow. That was a first.
"What is wrong with these people's brains?"
The Libido Devil couldn't help but comment.
He genuinely couldn't comprehend what was going through this blond idiot's head.
They'd invaded his home, killed his people, and he thought some random slave would work as leverage?
The Libido Devil shook his head. Impossible to understand.
Could only say the man hadn't seen enough of the world.
Or didn't understand this world well enough.
In the pirate world, as long as you held a hostage, your opponents, especially those "protagonist" types, would always back down.
Kozuki Oden had danced naked for five years because Kurozumi Orochi held hostages.
And in the end, wasted a perfect pot of boiling oil for nothing.
Scopper Gaban had laid down his weapons and been counter-killed because giant children were taken hostage.
As long as you had a hostage, the other side would stop. Every time.
The ultimate trump card.
Too bad for Garling. If he'd pulled this on Oden, or Gaban, or Luffy, or Roger, it would have worked perfectly.
But against Makoto? The man would just think he was an idiot.
...
Garling hadn't fully recovered from the Yasaka Magatama blast. His thoughts were hazy. Body sluggish.
In that moment of vulnerability.
Bang.
A gunshot.
Yu, looking annoyed, raised one hand and fired.
The bullet punched into Garling's chest. Through the left side of his ribcage. A smoking hole left behind.
"Gah..."
Garling's face twisted. He scrambled backward like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, tripped over a stone, and fell flat on his ass.
The gunshot itself wasn't that painful. Yu's single round carried far less force than Makoto's Yasaka Magatama.
But after falling, Garling stared at the bullet hole in his chest.
Looking at his expression, everyone from the Fab Four to the shooter Yu paused.
After several exchanges, they'd figured out the basic rules of the Holy Knights' immortality.
The stronger the attack, the slower the recovery.
In the original story, Gaban had claimed only Conqueror's Haki could work. But in truth, that was just because Conqueror's Haki infusion packed enough raw power.
What mattered wasn't "Conqueror's Haki" itself. It was the attack's raw intensity.
As long as an attack reached a certain threshold, it could damage the Holy Knights' immortal bodies. That threshold was roughly "Yonko level."
Among Makoto's current subordinates, only Yu and the Libido Devil could reach that level.
But even so, that shouldn't have scared Garling this badly.
Yu narrowed his eyes, studying the bullet hole in Garling's chest.
Then he noticed.
The hole's position.
The left side of the ribcage.
Right over the heart.
...
SHING.
Makoto materialized in front of Garling.
His left Mangekyo Sharingan rotated slowly.
Before Garling could react, Makoto kicked him flat onto his back.
Bang.
The back of Garling's skull cracked against the stone pavement.
Makoto's foot came down on his face.
Pressed until the features deformed. Teeth grinding audibly inside his mouth.
"Don..."
Garling tried to speak, but with a boot crushing his face, all that came out was muffled noise.
Yu, Beam, the Fab Four gathered around to watch.
"Did you notice?"
Makoto asked.
Yu nodded. "When his heart was hit, his expression changed."
Beam thought for a moment. "So... their immortality's weakness is the heart?"
The Fab Four's four heads leaned in, eight eyes locked on the slowly healing bullet hole in Garling's chest.
"Humphry."
Makoto called out.
The Libido Devil's eyes blazed.
"Got it!"
He crouched down and extended his razor-sharp nails.
"Hehehehe..."
The Libido Devil let out that skin-crawling laugh as he slid his fingers into the bullet hole in Garling's chest.
Squelch.
Nails pierced flesh.
The Libido Devil's fingers rummaged inside Garling's ribcage, searching for something.
Garling's body convulsed. Mouth stretched wide to scream, but Makoto's foot pinned his face, reducing everything to strangled moans.
"Found it."
The Libido Devil's fingers hooked onto something.
A violent yank.
"AGHHH!"
Garling's body arched like a fish yanked from water.
The Libido Devil held up the extracted heart.
Not an ordinary heart.
It had a metallic sheen. Reflecting cold light under the sun.
A steel heart.
"..."
Yu leaned in for a closer look, frowning deeply.
"So if we destroy this thing," the Libido Devil guessed, "their immortality stops working?"
At those words, Garling's face went white.
His reaction confirmed everything.
"Hold onto it for now."
Makoto said.
"Huh?" Yu blinked. "Boss, shouldn't we destroy it?"
Makoto glanced down at the face under his foot. The face that was ninety-nine percent identical to Shanks'.
"We're going to be in this world for a while. If he dies, what do we play with?"
"Ohhh!"
The Libido Devil had a revelation.
"Oh! Play with!"
After stowing Garling's heart in the inventory, the Libido Devil rubbed his hands together and looked back down at the man.
His gaze roamed across Garling's face, eyes so greasy they raised goosebumps.
The Libido Devil leaned in close, studying Garling from multiple angles.
"You know, this pretty boy's not bad looking."
Garling's pupils contracted sharply.
"Boss."
The Libido Devil looked up at Makoto, his smile reaching peak sleaze. "How about we bring this one back to the ship? Let the boys take their time with him?"
At those words, Garling's entire body began shaking violently.
His heart had been ripped out. His life hung by a thread. And now this?
The Celestial Dragon who'd looked down on everyone. Who'd slaughtered slaves for sport.
Now he was the bug under someone's foot. Trembling. Tears and snot streaming.
Yu's mouth twitched. He knew the Fab Four would come up with something like this.
Makoto wrinkled his nose. "If you want to play, play here. Bringing him on the ship is too gross."
Garling couldn't speak.
In that moment, he finally understood how all those slaughtered slaves had felt in their final seconds.
...
Behind them, Bartholomew Kuma lay in the rubble. Blood-soaked. Barely alive.
His eyes were half-open. Vision fading.
But he'd seen it. The man stepping on the Celestial Dragon's face. Ripping out his heart.
"Ni... Nika..."
Kuma's lips moved. Pupils slowly dilating.
But before consciousness sank into blackness, one final thought crossed his mind.
That man wasn't Nika.
He'd killed a Celestial Dragon, yes. But he definitely wasn't Nika.