Chapter 236

—

The people around him were frozen, so was everything else, the dust, the flying debris, even the sea. Both Amon and Kizaru were at a speed beyond any of the people outside could even imagine. They were living in a separate time. 

Amon stared at the sky, at the shining Admiral.

He had heard about the ‘surgery’ Kizaru went through before, but he lacked all the details. What was the surgery even about? What changes did it do to the man, even? The only thing he knew was: Kizaru was brought to the main castle of Mariejois in an unconscious state, almost a year ago, and when he returned, he had already gone through the aforementioned surgery. 

It's mostly a secret but the higher up Marines knew about it. That's where Amon learned about it through Hina, to begin with. 

Though he didn’t need any extra information to know the culprit behind the surgery was the great Imu-sama, at least partially, since he also heard Vegapunk was also related to this. 

After mixing the genius of Vegapunk, and whatever power Imu had, it seems Kizaru was able to get access to his fruit's full powers.

...Then again, Kizaru probably didn't get access to Pika-Pika's full powers. When he saved Kong, he didn’t move at actual light speed, because Amon did see the flash of yellow along with Kizaru’s face. Unless that was the Admiral’s tactic to lower his guard down, Amon didn’t have anything to worry about.

It’s not as if he didn't have more cards left in his sleeves. It's been a while since Amon awakened his fruit, so he got the chance to try some truly devastating attacks.

At this realisation, he smiled at the sky.

“We meet again,” Amon said towards the air. "Nice arm, by the way."

Kizaru, whose body was shining, clicked his tongue. “Che, the moment you failed to kill me the first time, we were fated to meet again, Amon. You don’t know how annoying it is carrying this large metallic arm all the time.”

That tone didn't suit him, the people familiar with him would be shocked if they saw him acting like this. This was probably the first time he got angry in this decade.

‘That arm…’ Amon stared at it. That was enough proof that Kizaru couldn’t access true light speed. Logia or not, with that metallic arm sticking to him, he would need unlimited energy to push him to light speed. 

This relieved Amon a bit, this meant he wouldn't need to use his final card here, which would erase Marineford from the map, along with most people present, other than maybe the beyond-Admiral people. 

Amon smiled. "It must be very annoying, am I right-"

He didn't finish his words and instead kicked the ground immediately, hoping to catch Kizaru off guard by his abrupt movements. 

Amon could, unlike Kizaru, access true lightning speed without his logia form. He had this power even before awakening. 

Alas, even as Amon appeared in front of him at lightning speed, trying to punch at his guts, Kizaru vanished from his spot, and in the next second, a punch hit Amon in the ribs, throwing him far into the city, crashing into a building, but no dust or debris rose in this slowed-down world.

Kizaru flashed towards him.

—★—

When Kizaru first lost to Amon 3 years ago, he wanted to get powerful enough to beat Amon anyhow. 

The problem was, Kizaru's top card was his speed, but Amon could outspeed him unless Kizaru used his Logia form. In that form, Kizaru is very close to Light Speed, the only reason he couldn't achieve the actual thing was that Logia or not, he had mass. However, he could still outspeed Amon in that form. The other problem was, in that form, he couldn't think nor see. His brain could simply not keep up with the speed. He wondered why Amon's brain could, and upon asking Vegapunk, he learned it's because of some science bullshit.

The human brain already uses electricity to think, so Amon can just boost it with his fruit, which allows him to think at the same speed that he moves at – Speed of Lightning. 

Kizaru's brain, even though he was a light logia, used electricity to think. So Kizaru somehow needed his brain to think fast enough to match his speed. Which was, as Vegapunk put it, impossible. 

...At least in his current state. 

Vegapunk then offered him an artificial brain that he used on the Pacifistas. Kizaru rejected the idea. If he puts anything that uses a vast amount of electricity in his brain, Amon can just blow it apart, even if he tries to protect it with his Haki.

But apparently, Vegapunk had more than one way. 

He didn't know why, but the government decided to help him as much as they could. Using the great resources, Vegapunk made an artificial brain, a brain that used light to work instead of electricity to send signals through the artificial neurons. The problem with that brain was, planting it to replace his current brain wouldn't guarantee his consciousness' safety, since while memory transferring is easy, consciousness transferable is not.

That was not the only problem either.

The next problem was, even if it succeeded, the artificial brain would probably melt or at least get seriously damaged when Kizaru moves at a high speed. Kizaru's light has heat in it, it can cause explosions and burn anything. He could control the heat of course, for example, he made a sword of light to fight Rayleigh, that sword didn't have any heat. But when at a speed beyond his natural, his body would start glowing, like it's doing now, and the artificial brain would heat up immediately and melt, thus killing him. 

He didn't want to agree to such an absurd idea of course. That's why he didn't go through the surgery for the first two years, but a year ago, the government suddenly said they had found ways. They took him to Mariejois, put him unconscious, and did the surgery. After he woke up, he learned what was different about this than the one Vegapunk suggested.

Apparently, instead of the metal used in the first project, the one he was implanted was made of… Poneglyph material.

It would still melt, but slowly. After all, light can get up to 15 million degrees Celsius at some point. Kizaru never got to reach that heat, quite far from that, he actually never used his true heat, since he simply couldn't. It's like how Amon was at first, even though his body was made of electricity, he couldn't use more than 250 million volts since it would hurt him, that's how it is to Kizaru.

Currently, if Vegapunk was right, he could only last 60 minutes at his relative speed.

—★—

Kizaru's punch hit him in the ribs, it even threw him in the city, but did it hurt? No, not even a little. 

His painful surgery would have been useless if it hurt. Kizaru's strong point was his speed and maybe his laser attacks, not his punches. His Big Mom's version of Tekkai, which he calls Big Tekkai, wasn't at Big Mom's level yet, but that still wouldn't be hurt with just this much. 

The next instant, Kizaru was in front of again. This time, he swung his metal arm that was shining red. Amon tried to teleport from his spot, his teleportation was still faster than the current Kizaru, but his senses weren't. Before he could move his powers to teleport, Kizaru's punch hit him in the chest. A burning feeling shrouded him, but before it could get any serious, he teleported in the air.  

The arm was indeed hot, but so was the insides of his body. It won't be burned by that much. 

Before he could think anything else, Kizaru appeared in front of him again, his face as serious as a stone. He was angry, Amon could tell.

Amongst the multiple cards in his sleeves, Amon chose the one most appropriate. Being in the city side of Marineford where none of his people was present, he was ready to make his moves.

Kizaru turned towards him, rushing to him, just as Amon crossed his arms in front of him. He took the hit head-on, which threw him far in the sky. Amon flew up while at the same time discharging electricity through everything, the sky, ground, and even the buildings within the city of Marineford. Every atom charged up, the area suddenly growing warm.

Kizaru also noticed the change.

The air was… buzzing? As if it was electrified?

Kizaru didn't heed to it, Amon must be trying something, and he couldn't let that happen. He reached out for the flying Amon and swung his arm, Amon's chest inches in front of him. His arm flew to his chest,  but Amon… vanished.

Huh?

Kizaru was fast to turn, but Amon's Conqueror's Haki coated punch hit him in the face, this time causing him to fly down on the city instead.

Kizaru's mind went blank as he tried to come up with… something.

—★—

By charging the whole area, as in, by ionizing the air, ground, and even the houses in the city of Marineford, the whole area was like a dome of electricity. As such, Amon could freely replace his position with any charged electrons, thus creating some sort of teleportation different from his usual one. The main difference was since the whole area was charged, Amon could feel any movement in the city, with his mind, and dodge any attack passively even before the attacker threw his attack forward.

It was like feeling the movement of an ant crawling down by your feet, and before it could reach your head, its target, you could dismiss it.

Similarly, Kizaru was on the ground, 100 meters below him, and even before Kizaru could move, Amon knew what attack he would use, not using his Future Sight, which would instead delay him,  but instead by reading Kizaru's muscle movements using the charged electrons around the Admiral.

Amon's body vanished from his spot before the beam of light could leave Kizaru's finger. The beam then shot towards the sky and passed through where Amon was standing just a milliseconds ago. 

Kizaru couldn't react to Amon appearing behind him and kicking at his neck, causing the Admiral to barely raise his hand at the last moment to helplessly try to block the attack. 

His metal arm bent while his natural arm's forearm snapped as he yelled in pain. Amon took this chance to attack him again, but this time Kizaru dodged it. Unless Amon teleported, he was still the slower one here. 

In his rage, Kizaru swung his metal arm at Amon, but this was again caught by the charged electrons who had conveyed this information the moment Kizaru's first muscle strand twitched. The punch went through the air, where Amon was supposed to be.

Kizaru abruptly turned behind him, but Amon wasn't there, by then, Amon was back in his previous spot. Before Kizaru could turn again, Amon unsheathed his sword, coated it with Ryo, Conqueror's Haki, and high voltage of electricity, then released it in a swing of <King's Sword>.

In the slowed-down world, Kizaru's neck turned to face Amon at a great speed, which led his own neck to reach out for the sword's side. The sword went through his neck as if butter. Blood sprayed out immediately, but Kizaru didn't scream, nor did any blood shatter to the ground. Blood floated in the air as Kizaru's body also froze, his head and torso separate.

Now that he was dead, he lost his fruit power, meaning he was just like the other humans.

By now, even a second hasn't passed. But Kizaru was light speed in the afterlife.

—★—

Seconds ago, 

Raki was delighted to see Amon jump down on Little Oars' neck and crash him into the ice. But she couldn't focus on him any longer since she had her own opponent to worry about.

"Haah…"

Standing a few steps away from Hawkeye Mihawk, she gasped for air, the twin swords in her hands trembling.

Her clothes were shrouded in cut marks, but there were no wounds. It had healed because of her Zoan Powers already. 

By now, she realised she couldn't defeat Mihawk using a sword. She pushed him back a few times but was unable to land even a single cut. It's like spraying fire into lava. Nothing changed. This, instead of using other forms of attacks, made her want to defeat Mihawk with her sword no matter what, but she also realised that won't do. Mihawk is just keeping her away from the other fights at this point. If she couldn't help her faction kill a few thousand enemies, it just won't let her sleep tonight.

So, she sheathed her sword and took a deep breath, her body slowly starting to grow in size.

Mihawk frowned at her, displeasure clear in his eyes. He was expecting her to fight like a swordsman but as her already feathery body grew and took the form of a massive feather serpent, Mihawk stared at her disapprovingly. He also sheathed his sword and just walked away. If she won't fight with a sword, it won't be fun in this war, he would rather leave. 

Raki didn't stop him, unlike how many would expect. She instead opened her mouth and released a large roar that clouded the whole area. 

People noticed her, some froze and ran to the opposite side, mistaking her for Kaido. But the people who didn't mistake her ran to her.

When she stopped roaring, her reptilian tail was already busy smashing the attackers behind her. But her mind was somewhere else. 

Her large golden eyes looked at the spot where Amon was fighting. Amon swung a sword at Kong's neck, she blinked, and the next second… Kong was on the ground, his neck severed, lying limp beside the Admiral wearing golden, and on top of the two dead bodies, Amon who was smiling a second ago, stood with a bloody sword in his hand, his breathing just a tad bit heavy.

 ...Did she miss something?

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Author’s Note: The technique where Amon changed his spot with electrons is like Law’s Shambles / Sasuke’s Rinnegon Teleportation.

Also, seen quite a bit of 'complaints' in the last chapter. People seem to forget that Amon isn't your average Emperor. Without buffing the other characters, it would be like an adult man fighting a toddler.