Chapter 86: The Admirals fall

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In a devastated landscape, seemingly without end, there were two figures in front of each other completely in silence. One of them was a completely normal youth of prominent frown and reddish-brown eyes, while the other was a humanoid creature of demonic appearance.

However, the Devil was kneeling in the ground, seemingly unable to get up anymore as its legs seemed to have given up completely. Its expression was desolate and blank, seemingly lost in thought, without even minding the youth standing in front of him with a serious expression.

Finally, after several minutes of continuous stare, the Devil finally relented and looked at the Youth with a displeased expression on his face.

[𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧...? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐞...? 𝐈𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫? 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨...]

"I don't want your powers. I trained my body and mind so that I couldn't have any weakness, consuming a devil fruit, although beneficial to me by giving me special types of power that I couldn't access before, means that I also have to bear the burden of not being able to swim. Even if I can't access the powers you give, I can just replicate them by my own means... Just like any other Devil fruit... What I'm after... Is to take you out of this body"

[𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮... 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭] 

"Hmph... There's no need for that"

[𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭...? 𝐔𝐫𝐠𝐡...!!]

Suddenly, the whole existence of the devil started being compressed into one small object... A fruit.

"I can just take you with me now"

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Kizaru's POV:

Such a monster... What have I gotten myself into?

I surely would like to be on a beach having a good drink under the warm sun instead of being in this situation. But -*Sigh*- look what being an Admiral has gotten me into...

Maybe I should retire after this. I don't want to keep fighting that guy and his crew, they are complete monsters. Maybe I could work as a bounty hunter, I've heard that the best of them do much more money than what they pay me currently...

"Sakazuki... Is he okay...?"

As I finally gathered enough strength to lift my head from the ground, even with the strange weapon of sea stone attached to my back, I managed to see both of them lying on the ground unconcious.

Sakazuki actually managed to knock that monster unconscious...? I should use this chance to get reinforcements, Kuzan of preference... He shouldn't be too far away from MarineFord with what happened recently with the son of Roger...

"Ugh..."

Dizziness filled my head as I tried standing up. However, gathering all my energies, I managed to stand up and started walking away.

However, be it by chance, or because of worry, I turned to look once again at where the two of them were lying a few seconds ago just to make sure Shadow Raven hadn't woken up yet... At that moment, I saw the body of Shadow Raven slowly lift up as he grabbed something from the body of Sakazuki and placed it on top of his hand.

"A fruit...?"

I was confused at first, however, I soon noticed that although it looked like a normal fruit, it had a more ghastly appearance to it... As if it was made completely of gas... If someone were to ask me how it looked like... I could say that it was the ghost of a fruit...

Finally, something snapped inside my mind, and my eyes widened enormously.

"No... That can't be... I must be overthinking things...!"

Suddenly, the red eyes of Shadow Raven turned to look back at me and sent a powerful wave of Emperor's Haki on my way. Although I could have easily resisted something on this level, right now I was on my weakest state, so in the end, I fell on my buttocks helplessly as I watched him approach me slowly with the fruit still on top of his hand.

"Now, it's your turn..."

My eyes widened, as I could only look helplessly his hand approach me...

And soon, everything turned black.

By the moment I woke up... He was gone...

...

... And so were my powers...

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Many things happened after the events at Sabaody Archipelago.

The straw-hats were soon attacked by Bartholomew Kuma, and teleported to different locations across the sea. Even with Rayleigh there, he seemed to have understood the motives of Kuma, and did nothing to prevent it, just assuring them that he would coat their ship while they were gone.

 The Admirals Sakazuki and Borsalino, on the other hand, were soon found by marines and brought back to MarineFord. However, much to the shock of everyone in the Marine, especially to Sengoku, none of them had their Devil fruit powers anymore... They had just disappeared completely as if they never were there...

Such an event was never heard of... They all knew that the only way of taking a Devil fruit user's powers, was by killing them. However, both of them were perfectly fine, only with a few minor injuries and some ripped muscles, yet their power had completely faded.

Sengoku was able to hit them, even without the use of Haki... Which meant that their powers were indeed gone... However, who was responsible for this?

The answer came pretty fast as Sakazuki and Borsalino woke up.

"Thanatos... What are you? How could you manage to do such a thing...?!" Sengoku cursed under his breath angrily as he watched the wanted poster of his foe with hostility...

Soon, however, he sighed and placed the poster on the table once again while massaging his forehead.

"My enemy is not you... What the hell do you mean by that? You have incapacitated two of my Admirals and pillaged MarineFord three times! If you are not my enemy, then no pirate in this world is my enemy!!"

As soon as Sengoku noticed he was getting too worked up again, he calmed down and looked at a few reports while gritting his teeth.

"And it had to be exactly when a possible war against Whitebeard is on the way... Could it be that he foresaw all this? Shit... That bastard... Sakazuki and Borsalino are now unable to cope with the rank of Admiral... Although they have strength, it is nothing compared to when they were Devil fruit users... I think I will have to replace them... But who could do the job?"

Soon, he started looking across several documents that had possible candidates for becoming Admirals. None of them seemed to catch his eyes as they all seemed to lack many things he considered crucial. However, suddenly one of them made him stop.

"Asura... Disciple of Garp, and an ex-pirate hunter? He seems to have an incredibly high level of power, lacking in only a few aspects that Garp teaches him... Yes... He will do. Someone call Garp and his disciple Asura, I want to have a talk with them!"

"Yes sir!!" The marines outside the room nodded and ran to somewhere else. Soon enough, after a few minutes, Garp arrived at the room while eating some cookies.

"What is it?" Garp asked nonchalantly.

"We are about to enter to war against Whitebeard because of you grandson. How the hell are you so calm?" Annoyed by Garp's uncaring nature, Sengoku massaged his temples and asked annoyingly at him.

"Gahahahaha, why would I be worried? We have our Admirals to take care of that pirate! Oh, wait..."

"Are you doing it on purpose?"

Garp simply shrugged his shoulders and continued eating cookies carefreely.

"-*Sigh*- Where's that disciple of yours? I want to talk with him about the Admiral thing"

At that moment, Garp gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes while still munching on the cookie, seemingly angry at something.

"That brat disappeared again. He might still be a greenhorn when it comes to beating me in a fight, but somehow he always manages to evade my vigilance and disappear to who knows where"

"Hmm... is that so?" Sengoku massaged his chin and looked at the side, seemingly thinking about something.

'Could it be that he is...? No, I'm just overthinking things... Maybe I'm a bit stressed...'

"Anyway, what is it that you want to talk with him? I can't be that you are possibly considering making him an Admiral, right?" Garp turned to look once more at Sengoku and gazed at him with a raised eyebrow.

"That's exactly what I'm planning to do"

Jarron7

There it goes, here's the chapter guys. Now I'm going back to my work if you don't mind.

Make sure to stay healthy!

Bye bye