Chapter 52: Aftermath

...

-Smoker POV:

Goddamn it... That bastard Akainu left on his own right when we were about to disembark on Nanohana! 

Normally, I couldn't give a fuck about this matter, since it could be better if he handled Crocodile on his own rather than leaving it to Straw-hat, whose strength it's still a little uncertain.

However, considering the fact that I left and told Tashigi to do whatever she considered necessary to save this country, there was still the possibility of her trying to help the Straw-hats in order to stop Crocodile. 

And if by any chance Akainu were to see her helping the Straw-hats, there's no doubt that he could try and kill her right away for treason against the Marines!

I needed to get to Alubarna before that happened, otherwise I couldn't forgive myself for sentencing Tashigi to death just to teach her a measly lesson about the so-called justice that we Marines follow.

*Crack*

"Finally..."

After stepping over a dry branch on the sand, I managed to spot the buildings of Alubarna in the distance. There was a lot of smoke coming out of them, and I could even hear the screams of rage and pain inside it, which probably meant that the war had already started as Crocodile had planned.

"... Crap!"

It was then that I noticed a certain part of the city was enveloped in a red color, and a lot of smoke was coming out of it. Considering the degree of damage there was on that part, it was obvious that it was the work of Akainu's rampage...

The image of Tashigi having her skin melting away while crying came to my mind.

"That fucker...!"

However, before my imagination could continue exploring the worst possibilities of the situation, I managed to spot an unknown object flying at great speed towards my direction.

"An enemy?!"

As I prepared myself to enter into a fight, soon the blurry figure of the flying object became clear in my eyes.

My eyes widened to an incredible degree as I was left agape after seeing who was actually falling right into my direction.

"Akainu...?!"

*Booooooooooom!!!*

Akainu's body crashed with the hot sand of the desert, and soon a giant dust cloud rose right in the place where he landed. Not only that, but right when his body crashed in front of me, I felt some strange liquid hit my cheek.

I passed my thumb over it and looked at whatever had hit my cheek.

"...!!! Is this... Blood?!"

".... Uuuurgh...."

Akainu's groans came from inside the dust cloud, which was something I thought I could never hear in my entire life.

[White out!]

I blew the dust cloud away, using my smoke fists to create a giant gust of wind that helped me to gain a better view of Akainu's bloody look.

Hundreds of bullet marks over his body, a few ribs broken, and I could even feel that some of his organs seemed to have been destroyed completely!

"What is this...?"

On Akainu's back, there was something like a metal stake attached to it. However, when I tried to grab it  in order to take it out, I felt my whole body lose its strength.

"Sea stone?! That crocodile had actually managed to get his hands over a bit of Sea Stone?! Not only that, but he also created such a vicious weapon like this..."

"N-no...."

"Oi, are you okay?!" Smoker, who heard Akainu's muttering, looked with a frown at the horrible state in which the Admiral was.

"It was not... that bastard Crocodile... if it was him... I could have ended him in just mere seconds..."

"Then... who?"

...

"... Shadow... raven"

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One day later...

In the middle of the Marine Headquarters, Sengoku, the fleet admiral of the Marine, and also an old friend of Garp the fist, was looking at an enormous amount of papers on his desk with an exhausted look in his eyes.

After checking up some of them, he finally leaned back on his chair and exhaled up in exhaustion.

Suddenly from his side, a den den mushi started ringing, to which Sengoku frowned slightly after having his small rest get cut-off out so suddenly. However, having no choice but to pick it up in case it was some emergency, he grabbed it and accepted the incoming call.

"What is it?"

"Sengoku-sama, something terrible has happened!"

Sengoku's eyes, which were calm until now, widened in surprise after hearing the alarmed tone of his subordinate. After all, even in the worst situations that the Marine has faced, his subordinate never actually yelled in such a desperate manner.

"Admiral Sakazuki... was gravely injured and it's currently being treated by our best medics!"

"What?!"

"After receiving the testimony of Captain Smoker, who brought Sakazuki's almost dead body back to the ship in order to get treated, we determined that Admiral Sakazuki managed to find Shadow Raven in the Kingdom of Arabasta and fought him bravely. Unfortunately, it seemed to have been a very brutal fight, as the body of the Admiral has been gravely injured in a lot of places. And it's actually a miracle that none of his vital spots were damaged during the fight..."

"What about Shadow Raven? Did he manage to capture him?"

"T-that's the problem Sir, as for what Captain Smoker told us, Admiral Sakazuki was sent flying away several kilometers until he crashed in front of him, which meant that Shadow raven somehow managed to injure him severely, and launched Admiral Sakazuki in the direction of Captain Smoker. Whether it was just a coincidence, or maybe on purpose, we are not sure... All we need to do in order to understand what happened, is to wait for Admiral Sakazuki to wake up and tell us everything"

'... Dammit... he ended up being a much more dangerous opponent of what I thought... to think he could handle even Akainu... Maybe his strength is already on par with the four Yonkos!' Sengoku punched the table lightly to ventilate himself from the fury he was feeling right now, but right when he was about to hang up, his subordinate called out for him once again.

"There's another important thing, Sir!"

"What is it now...?"

"It seems like the Shichibukai Crocodile was captured a few hours after the matter with Admiral Sakazuki happened, and it seems like he had been terrorizing the Kingdom Arabasta from the Shadows with some kind of vicious plan on his hands... Luckily for us, the rookie Monkey D Luffy entered into a quarrel with Crocodile and defeated him. Which allowed our troops to capture him before he could be able to do anything. Unfortunately, we were not able to capture Straw-hat or his crewmates, as they disappeared right after the fight unfolded, so we are still looking for them..."

"I see... thank you for your hard work..."

*ka-cha*

...

*Sigh...*

"It seems like Shadow Raven is a lot more dangerous of what we thought on a beginning... his bounty will probably skyrocket now that he has defeated Sakazuki in a fight, and this is the fastest rise in a bounty that a person has had ever in history..." Sengoku massaged his eyebrows as he looked at the Bounty of Shadow raven.

He then turned to look at the four bounty posters of the current strongest people in the planet hanging on his wall... The four Yonkos. Each one of them governing over a certain part of the seas, and also the main enemies of the Marine.

[Charlotte Linlin. AKA: Big mom- 4,388,000,000 Bellys]

[Kaido. AKA: Strongest creature- 4,611,100,000 Bellys]

[Edward Newgate.  AKA: Whitebeard- 5,046,000,000 Bellys]

[Shanks. AKA: Red-Hair- 4,048,900,000]

Each of them represent his own power house, and they cannot be underestimated under any circumstance. They are so powerful, that the Marine needs to avoid conflict with these pirates, or else the casualties could be too much to bear. And since they can't attack the marine because they could end equally damaged as well, then both sides are constantly in a tense state where they let each other be, but could attack at any moment they show the slightest weakness.

It has been like that for so long, that the world has entered into a state of balance between these two forces of pirates and marines. Which also meant that the entrance of this new variable, Shadow raven, also meant a danger to this newfound balance. If he by any chance decided to work together with any of the other Yonkos to end the Marine, then that could be it. The results could be uncertain, but it could certainly bring a horrendous amount of casualties for the Marine. The only thing they could do in this situation was to wait until the moment where they could determine what was Shadow raven's objective.

But what worried Sengoku more, wasn't just the enormous strength this mysterious character had. It was also the lack of information about him and his companions that had appeared one time when he robbed a vast amount of Sea stone.

Until now, they have been able to determinate that he actually has a crew, which could also mean that there may be even more people as strong as him. Or, in the worst case, stronger than him.

'Heck, he might not even be the captain...!'

Either way, one thing was for sure.

"A fifth one has appeared"

He picked up the denden mushi on his side and started calling someone with an incredibly serious expression on his face.

"Hello? Sengoku-san?"

"Tell every high ranking official to reunite soon. We need to talk"

...

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