Chapter 48: The Dressrosa Ultimatum

Two hours earlier, aboard the Puffing Tom.

The rhythmic clacking of the sea train tracks was the only sound in our private passenger car as we laid out the map of Water 7.

Gammamon stood on the table, completely dropping his usual happy-go-lucky demeanor.

His green eyes were sharp, calculating the tactical layout.

“Walking straight into a Buster Call is a math problem we lose on paper,” the little Digimon stated, pointing a claw at the main harbor.

“They have naval supremacy and an Admiral.

We can’t fight an attrition war on their terms.

We need to bypass the fleet entirely and strike the king immediately.”

“I agree with the pipsqueak,” Perona chimed in, twirling her parasol.

“A frontal assault risks the new ship.

I’ll stay behind in the underground dock with the Sky-Rift Roc.

While you lot distract the Admiral, I’ll secure the Titan’s Glory and move it to a safe extraction point nearby.”

Gammamon nodded in approval.

“Good.

The Ferret can teleport the rest of us directly onto Aokiji’s flagship.

But Victor, even if we corner the Admiral, he won’t just let us walk away.

Do you have any world-shaking blackmail left in your vault?

Something that forces the World Government to back down?”

I leaned back, a dark grin spreading across my face.

“Donquixote Doflamingo.

The Warlord illegally took over Dressrosa using a crewmate named Sugar, whose Devil Fruit turns anyone who opposes them into living toys, erasing them from the world’s memory.

The only reason the Five Elders let him get away with it is because Doflamingo is actively blackmailing them with a massive national secret.”

Brook whistled, a hollow sound.

“That is a geopolitical nuke, Captain.”

“Exactly,” Gammamon smirked.

“We offer a trade.

We leave with our non-criminal status intact, and the secret stays buried.

But if he refuses?”

“Then negotiations are over,” Perona said, a wicked glint in her eye.

“We go loud.

We break the fleet.”

Present Time.

The Command Deck of the Marine Flagship.

(Victor’s POV)

Admiral Aokiji stood completely paralyzed, my hand resting heavily on his epaulette.

I wasn’t just standing next to him on a hardened pillar of chains, I had brought the entire nightmare with me.

Aokiji’s Observation Haki swept the deck, realizing we weren’t clustered together.

We were perfectly, strategically scattered, controlling all the high ground.

Nico Robin sat effortlessly on the upper quarterdeck railing.

Brook was perfectly balanced on the tip of the mainmast.

Crouched on the port-side riggings was the massive, obsidian Jade Tank gorilla.

Flanking the deck were the Mage unicorn and the HoHo Phoenix-Peacock, their elemental auras distorting the air.

Directly above Aokiji, clinging to the crow’s nest, was the Silken Widow-Maker spider.

And bleeding out from the shadows beneath our feet were dozens of Perona’s wailing ghosts.

“Here is the deal, Kuzan,” I said calmly, my voice carrying over the freezing wind.

“Dissolve the blockade.

Let us walk away, and I keep my bounty hunter status.

In exchange, I won’t call Big News Morgans and tell him exactly how Doflamingo stole Dressrosa, what Sugar is doing to the citizens, and how the Warlord is currently blackmailing the Five Elders.”

Aokiji’s lazy demeanor vanished.

His eyes narrowed behind his mask, the sheer weight of that classified intelligence hitting him like a physical blow.

The political fallout of that leak would tear the World Government apart.

But Aokiji was an Admiral of Navy Headquarters.

Absolute Justice did not negotiate with terrorists.

“You know too much, Beastmaster,” Aokiji whispered.

The air temperature plummeted.

In a fraction of a second, Aokiji coated his entire right arm in jagged, unbreakable ice and swung a devastating Ice Block: Partisan blade directly at my neck.

I didn’t blink.

I channeled my stored Fa-Jin, mixing the raw energy with Advanced Armament Haki, and caught the Admiral’s ice-blade with my bare hand.

BOOOM!

The resulting kinetic shockwave detonated like a bomb between us.

The sheer force cracked the colossal wooden deck beneath us, sending the fog blasting away for miles and signaling the start of the war.

“Take them down!” I roared.

Absolute chaos erupted.

Perona’s spectral swarm swept across the command deck.

Hundreds of standard Marine infantry dropped their rifles, falling to their knees in severe depression, sobbing about wanting to be reincarnated as sea slugs.

Toku Hollows attached to the cannons, detonating with massive, concussive force.

The Jade beasts unleashed hell.

The Gorilla leaped from the riggings, crashing down onto the deck of an adjacent heavy-class battleship.

It slammed its obsidian fists into the wood, activating its 10x Gravity Well.

The localized pressure was so immense the battleship’s hull instantly buckled, snapping in half and taking on water.

High above, the Unicorn and HoHo rained down a devastating crossfire of absolute zero frost and explosive fire-feathers onto the outer blockade, while the Trapper strung invisible, Haki-coated razor wires between the masts, silently dicing incoming cannonballs into metal confetti.

“Don’t let the demon child escape!” a Vice Admiral roared, drawing a massive broadsword and lunging at the quarterdeck.

Robin didn’t run.

She stood tall, her two synchronized hearts pumping a massive surge of adrenaline through her chimera biology.

With a predatory snikt, five razor-sharp panther claws extended from her hands.

She sidestepped the Vice Admiral’s heavy slash with terrifying agility.

Sprouting two extra arms on the Marine’s shoulders to lock him in place, Robin drove her claws into his chest armor.

Lethal venom pumped from her keratin blades, paralyzing the veteran officer instantly as he collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

On the main deck, Brook was a blur of motion.

A squad of elite Rear Admirals tried to flank him, but the skeleton was simply too fast.

“Hanauta Sancho: Yahazu Giri!” Brook vanished, reappearing behind the squad in a gentle crouch, tipping his top hat.

The freezing chills of the underworld erupted from his cane-sword, and the Rear Admirals fell in unison, their weapons shattered and their chests coated in frost.

But the heaviest resistance converged in the center of the deck.

Gammamon found himself surrounded.

Two of the most lethal Vice Admirals in the Marines, Momonga and the multi-armed Onigumo, drew their blades, their eyes locked on the little white Digimon.

“Let’s put the pet out of its misery,” Onigumo sneered, his hair morphing into spider-like appendages holding six sabers.

Gammamon didn’t flinch.

A vicious, feral smirk crossed his face.

He knew his base form wouldn’t pierce their high-tier Haki and Rokushiki techniques.

He reached inward, his fighting spirit igniting like a furnace.

The Digivice at my waist let out a blinding, high-pitched hum.

A pillar of crimson digital light erupted from the deck, engulfing the Vanguard.

The light shattered.

Standing in Gammamon’s place was BetelGammamon, a towering, muscular, red-skinned brawler radiating immense heat.

His base stats had just multiplied.

Momonga used Soru to vanish, appearing instantly above the Digimon with a Haki-coated downward slash.

BetelGammamon laughed.

He coated his massive fists in Advanced Armament Haki (Emission) and ignited them with explosive digital fire.

“Sol Blow!” The crimson brawler punched upward, his flaming fist colliding directly with Momonga’s blade and Onigumo’s six swords simultaneously.

The impact generated a shockwave of pure fire and Haki that pushed the veteran Vice Admirals back, their boots skidding across the splintering deck.

BetelGammamon threw his head back and let out a roaring laugh, absolutely having the time of his life as he threw himself back into the fray.

We weren’t just surviving the Buster Call.

We were dismantling it.

Word Count: 1245

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