CHAPTER 91: CHAPTER 91 THE LAST BUSTER CALL THE TWO ADMIRALS JOIN FORCES

Purupuru... purupuru...

Purupuru... purupuru...

On the boundless ice field.

Even after several days the frozen sea had not melted.

Karl and Kizaru, one with a knight’s sword and the other with a blade of light, crossed swords like they were sparring, neither able to gain the upper hand.

There was no hint of fatigue on their faces. If anything they were smiling. If the news birds overhead had not been swapped out several times, no one would have believed the two of them had been fighting on this stretch of ice for nearly a week.

At that moment the Den Den Mushi on both Karl and Kizaru rang at the same time, pausing their days-long exchange.

With a blink Karl slid back, sheathed his knight’s sword, looked at Kizaru and smiled. "Looks like they’ve settled things over there."

"Seeing you so confident, you really did leave yourself plenty of back-up plans."

Kizaru let his light blade fade and pursed his lips. "Only fifteen, huh. Kids these days sure can be ruthless."

"Karl, the plan succeeded. I won big."

Karl ignored Kizaru and answered the call.

The next second the Den Den Mushi mimicked Karina’s excited face and she shouted.

"I know. We’ll talk when I’m back."

Karl nodded with a smile and hung up.

Seeing Kizaru also about to answer, Karl said with meaning, "Old man, next time we meet I’ll be your real enemy."

Whoosh—

With that, Karl turned into a bolt of lightning and vanished from Kizaru’s sight.

Kizaru did not stop him. He opened the wrist Den Den Mushi and connected the line.

"Borsalino, how is it over there?"

As soon as the call connected, Sengoku’s voice came through. "Did you injure the Dragon Knight?"

"No. You know what his abilities are, Fleet Admiral Sengoku."

"Then he should have burned through more than half his stamina by now, right?"

"Hmm... probably."

Kizaru pondered, then lied through his teeth.

In truth, after several days of gentle, health-preserving swordplay, he had not even used a third of his stamina, let alone half.

Unlike Kuzan and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the other side, who had been going at it in earnest for days.

Between Karl and Kizaru, since neither could do anything to the other, the lazy Kizaru simply held Karl in place and played along.

Once the News Coo left the sky, the two would stop fighting, blast fish out of the ice, eat, rest a while, then continue.

Naturally Kizaru was not going to tell Sengoku any of that.

Otherwise he would be inviting trouble from the ever-calculating Fleet Admiral.

Kizaru, who often got scolded by Teacher Zephyr, did not want to get chewed out by his boss as well.

Sengoku clearly did not realize Kizaru was lying.

Taking the word probably at face value, he set aside a certain plan and said plainly, "The Buster Call failed. I underestimated the enemy’s strength and hidden trump cards."

"Oh? Even with Kuzan leading, it failed?"

Having just heard Karl’s side claim a sweeping victory, Kizaru had guessed as much, but he still sounded a little surprised.

"Kuzan was tied down by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. I severely underestimated that dragon."

Sengoku continued. "Besides that, there was a Barrier-Barrier Fruit user, a Ghost-Ghost Fruit user, and someone who inherited the late Golden Lion’s Float-Float Fruit."

"I fell into their trap. I failed to link up with Kuzan for a joint Buster Call, and they used the intelligence gap to crush us. We were almost completely wiped out."

His tone grew heavy. "It’s already spread across the world."

"The Five Elders have given the order. For the sake of Mary Geoise and Marine Headquarters’ honor, we must carry out one last Buster Call."

Hearing that the Buster Call had been annihilated, Kizaru’s expression did not change. He asked, "Fleet Admiral Sengoku, what do you need me to do?"

"The warships are gone, so you and Kuzan will personally execute the Buster Call."

Sengoku’s voice was deep. "That Float-Float Fruit user should be unable now to keep the entire Gran Tesoro afloat. Otherwise the Dragon Knight and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon wouldn’t have needed to hold us off in person. They could have crushed the Buster Call with that method alone."

"So first rescue any soldiers who are still alive, then destroy Gran Tesoro with all our might."

He added a reminder. "Remember, this operation concerns the honor of Mary Geoise and Marine Headquarters. No matter what setbacks you encounter, you cannot abort it. You must complete it."

"I understand. I’ll link up with Kuzan now."

Kizaru nodded, then hung up before Sengoku could add more instructions.

Looking in the direction Karl had gone, his eyes behind the sunglasses were unreadable. He murmured, "So that’s what he meant by those words."

Next time we meet, real enemies.

So it was like that with Karl.

Before the Den Den Mushi rang, Karl and Kizaru had similar abilities and temperaments and appreciated each other like friends across generations.

After the call, even if they still appreciated one another, the next time they met they would be true enemies.

Because Karl’s identity had changed.

Up until now Karl had become a wanted Great Pirate with a bounty of one billion Berries for killing a World Noble after the Celestial Dragons coveted the Golden Bell, a deicide in the eyes of the world.

But that title Great Pirate had been in quotation marks.

Because Karl’s hatred was aimed at Mary Geoise.

In fact, if Marine Headquarters were not subordinate to Mary Geoise, one of its three great institutions, and if Mary Geoise were not their superior, the Marines might not even have put a bounty on Karl.

The people he killed all deserved to die. He had never killed an innocent or a Marine.

Therefore Kizaru had a very good impression of Karl. When they fought, he had held back like a senior testing a junior.

But now...

They had crushed a Buster Call, leaving nearly ten thousand Marines missing or dead.

Even if they had not formed a pirate crew or flown a Jolly Roger, the title of Great Pirate no longer needed quotation marks.

Those who stand against the Marines are pirates.

Even though the Buster Call had been initiated by Mary Geoise and Marine Headquarters and Karl’s side had merely countered it, that did not change his shift in status.

As a Marine Admiral, no matter how much Kizaru slacked, he was still a face of Marine Headquarters.

There would be no more holding back when they crossed paths again. It would be full power, even a battle to the death.

Positions.

"Kids these days are terrifying."

Kizaru also realized that from the moment they set out from the first half of the Grand Line, they had already fallen into Karl’s trap.

He had not expected that a fifteen-year-old could be that devious.

Shaking his head helplessly, Kizaru turned into light and disappeared above the ice field.

By the time Kizaru met up with Aokiji, it was the next day.

"Borsalino, you got the call too?"

There was no longer any trace of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on Aokiji’s battlefield.

Aokiji himself had none of his usual lazy air. He sat on a battered warship with an ugly look on his face, full of self-reproach.

Nine warships, nearly ten thousand Marines.

If they had not disembarked along the way, none of this would have happened.

As overall commander of this Buster Call, the lives and deaths of his subordinates pressed on Kuzan’s heart like a boulder, making it hard to breathe.

"Don’t blame yourself too much. We knew nothing about their intel."

Kizaru did not add to Kuzan’s guilt. He offered a line of comfort and shifted the topic. "Rather than sitting here beating yourself up, better to move. We might still save more people."

"Right. Let’s go."

Aokiji stood, and the two of them rushed toward the waters where the Buster Call had sunk.

Without an Eternal Pose, Kuzan had been afraid of taking the wrong route and wasting more time, or he would have set out alone already.

Having lost a day, Kuzan now pushed to full speed.

At full speed an admiral needs no warship. Even so, it still took them two days to reach the waters where the Buster Call had gone down.

Kizaru deliberately held back his pace; otherwise he could have made it in a day.

Arriving earlier would not help. Even with the Glint-Glint Fruit he could not save many people.

And even if he saved them he had nowhere to put them.

There was also an important mission ahead. He could not waste stamina he did not need to. All he could do was scout ahead for Kuzan, searching the surface for Marines who were still alive.

Fortunately...

Because Vice Admiral Onigumo had injured Robin, Karina and the others had been extremely cautious. Each time they only shattered a warship’s keel and then dropped a massive golden meteorite. They had not used the Flower-Flower Fruit to break the Marines’ bones to strip away their ability to fight and to save themselves after falling into the sea.

Although the warships were smashed by the golden meteorites and many were crushed into meat paste on the spot, a great number of Marines survived.

Clinging to broken planks, they drifted on the sea.

Some of the wounded died while waiting for rescue because of the cold at night and the scorching sun by day over the two days.

But because the people of this world are generally robust, soaking two days and starving two days did not mean they would all die.

Therefore, after Aokiji and Kizaru spent a day going to different parts of the sea, freezing the surface and hauling the surviving Marines up onto the ice, the casualty report for this Buster Call finally came out.

They had lost one Headquarters Vice Admiral, three Rear Admirals, over a dozen field officers, and more than four thousand seven hundred Marines.

The loss made Kuzan’s eyes go bloodshot. It was as if his old Burning Justice had returned. He was filled with killing intent toward Karl’s group.

Even Kizaru fell silent.

They then spent another day freezing the warships that had not sunk too deep and physically breaking them apart to salvage the stores and supplies before thawing them.

As overall commander, Kuzan ordered the Marines to take the wounded and head toward Branch G-5.

When the Buster Call was annihilated, the G-5 Branch in the New World had already dispatched warships to rescue.

Aokiji and Kizaru then took the Eternal Pose to Gran Tesoro from the gravely wounded Onigumo.

Two monsters who stand at the peak of the sea set off at full speed for Gran Tesoro.

Karl’s group would now face the wrath of two Marine Admirals.

And the final Buster Call.

At the same time, in the Golden City of Gran Tesoro.

While Aokiji and Kizaru were rescuing, Karl’s group returned to the Golden City and continued dismantling. The island turtle hauled Gran Tesoro far away from the previous waters.

Even with an Eternal Pose in their hands, the first would need at least a day more with the Glint-Glint Fruit to catch up, and the second about three days unless he had a warship.

"Nami, how long will it take?"

Having recovered his stamina, Karl watched Nami and the little dragons strip the city and operate with ease and asked.

"At this pace, about five days to make a whole island ship fly."

Nami answered honestly as she covered another patch of golden ground with floating power.

"Faster if you can. If you run out of energy, eat more supplements. I’ll use electricity to help you digest. Otherwise give up part of the land and we’ll tear some more off other islands later."

Karl urged for once.

"Are we really going to keep going?"

Sensing Karl’s urgency, Karina asked.

"Yes."

Karl nodded. "One more time before those two monsters make their move."

These past few days Karl had not stayed only inside the Golden City.

He knew how huge the impact of this Buster Call was and did not believe Mary Geoise and Marine Headquarters would stop easily.

Especially because the Buster Call had been wiped out, which would make ordinary people think justice had been defeated, it was even less likely they would halt.

As long as there was even a sliver of hope of destroying Gran Tesoro, the Marines would not give up, and Mary Geoise would not allow them to.

In Mary Geoise’s eyes, the Marines’ face was a small matter. Mary Geoise’s face was the real matter.

The warships were gone, so the admirals would move.

As long as Gran Tesoro was destroyed, and given that they also controlled public opinion, this battle would be written as a victory for justice.

So for days Karl had monitored Aokiji and Kizaru, eavesdropping on their conversations with his unique observation haki.

Their next actions did not escape his eyes.

Knowing that the real test was about to begin, Karl felt both excited and, rarely, a little tense.

This time the advantages and disadvantages between Karl’s group and Kizaru had reversed.

There was no longer any need to worry about the two admirals behind them. The power they could unleash together would be world-shattering.

Karl’s group, on the other hand, had to worry about the people around them and Gran Tesoro itself.

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