Chapter 281: Kizaru Enters the Fray

"My, my, quite a crowd has gathered here," Kizaru mused, his eyes scanning the surrounding battlefield as he looked back and forth between the Red Hair Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates.

"It seems I haven't arrived too late after all."

"Kizaru..." Benn Beckman shoved a cigarette into his mouth, a pistol appearing in his hand as he leveled the barrel straight at Kizaru's head. "Back during the Summit War, we didn't get a chance to throw down. How about we settle that debt today?"

"How scary..." Kizaru narrowed his eyes, a flicker of genuine shock crossing his features as he surveyed the assembled powerhouses.

"Charlotte Katakuri!"

"A bunch of truly outrageous monsters have gathered at this coordinate..."

"Kizaru!" The members of the Big Mom Pirates tensed, dropping into high-alert battle stances.

The man before them was no ordinary foe—he was a Marine Admiral, representing the absolute apex of the Navy's military power!

Yet Kizaru currently lacked his usual laid-back, leisurely composure. The iconic yellow-striped suit he wore was torn in several places, and his proud Marine "Justice" coat was nowhere to be seen, giving him a noticeably disheveled appearance.

"There's no need to be so tense, everyone. I have zero desire to pick a fight with you," Kizaru said, waving his hand casually. "From the looks of it, you're already busy beating each other up, so I won't intrude on your fun."

With those words, Kizaru instantly dissolved into a beam of blinding golden light. Just as he attempted to shoot straight up toward the summit, a thunderous gunshot echoed across the shoreline.

BANG!

A bullet struck Kizaru squarely in the shoulder. Instead of passing through his elemental frame, however, the projectile ricocheted off his skin and tumbled onto the rock below.

Forced out of his light form by the impact, Kizaru rematerialized into his physical body, his sharp gaze locking onto Beckman, whose pistol barrel was wafting a thin trail of white smoke.

"Benn Beckman!"

"Kizaru, you're not going anywhere. You're staying right here!" Beckman closed the distance at high velocity, continuously pulling the trigger as he advanced.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

A rain of high-velocity bullets cut through the air, pouring toward Kizaru in a relentless stream. Even as Kizaru attempted to dodge via elementalization, he found his movements severely constricted.

Beckman's shooting appeared rapid, but every single shot was calculated with methodical, tactical precision, gradually boxing the Admiral into a corner. Standard firearms were normally useless against a Logia Devil Fruit user, but Beckman was coating every single round with an overwhelmingly dense layer of Armament Haki, forcing Kizaru onto the defensive at every turn.

In truth, Kizaru was enduring an agonizing ordeal he couldn't articulate to anyone.

Days ago, during his routine patrol, he had been struck by a mysterious, high-velocity figure out of nowhere, sending him flying through the air for a full day and night.

To make matters worse, that trajectory had launched him in the exact opposite direction of the Holy Land. At first, he hadn't thought much of it—after all, he hadn't sustained any critical physical trauma.

The real headache began the moment he finally landed. Absurd rumors had begun spreading like wildfire across the global press network.

Outrageous claims asserting that he was Straw Hat Luffy's maternal uncle were circulating everywhere—and to his absolute disbelief, people were actually believing it!

If old man Borsalino truly possessed a connection like that, wouldn't I have been coasting through my Marine career on absolute easy mode?! With Vice Admiral Garp as my backer, I could have walked sideways through Headquarters without a single care in the world!

Kizaru treated the dispatches alleging his betrayal of the Navy with absolute disdain, fully confident that the higher-ups in Marine Headquarters would never fall for such baseless propaganda.

Big News Morgans was truly everywhere. While Kizaru was willing to brush off the treason scandal, the dispatch that followed completely left him speechless:

The Revolutionary Army had officially declared war on the World Government, and their grand fleet was already en route!

The moment he received the news, Kizaru had pushed his abilities to their absolute limit to hurry back. He utilized his Glint-Glint Fruit powers to continuously flash through dense forests, mountain ranges, and isolated islands.

He then navigated across the sea. Initially, he managed to hitch a ride aboard a commercial cargo vessel, intending to locate a local Marine garrison along the route so he could requisition a warship to accelerate his journey—and clarify his situation to Headquarters in the process.

The result? Zero personnel!

No matter how many bases or outposts he checked, there wasn't a single Marine to be found. It was only after reading the latest dispatches that he realized the World Government had mobilized every single available Navy unit across the globe for this central conflict.

The warships had all been recalled as well.

Realizing that the probability of finding a naval warship to transport him was practically zero, and with time rapidly running out, Kizaru had been forced to commandeer a small, fragile skiff to navigate the open seas.

After enduring endless hardship, he had finally reached the base of the Red Line.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Finding himself backed into a corner with zero room to retreat, Kizaru coated his entire frame in dense Armament Haki, forcefully absorbing the kinetic impact of the incoming Haki-infused bullets.

HUMMM...

Beckman's forearms surged with dense Armament Haki as he closed the distance, driving a heavy fist straight toward Kizaru's face.

"Ama no Murakumo!"

BANG!

A Haki-infused fist collided violently with a blade forged of pure light, scattering a cascade of bright sparks across the air.

"Hah!" With a sharp grunt, Beckman unleashed a surge of raw physical force, blasting Kizaru backward. In a fluid microsecond maneuver, he reloaded his pistol and leveled the barrel at the Admiral once more.

Before he could pull the trigger, however, Kizaru transformed into a beam of golden light and vanished into thin air. High above, a streak of light zipped up the sheer precipice of the Red Line at mind-boggling speed.

"Tch!" Beckman spat out his cigarette with a harsh click of his tongue, converting his frame into a residual blur as he gave chase.

He couldn't allow the Admiral to join the battle up top—with Kizaru's mobility and destructive output, his interference would inevitably create severe complications for Shanks!

"Now that those two are gone, we can resume our business!" Lucky Roux noted with a cheerful grin. Before the Big Mom Pirates could even register his intent, Roux slammed both palms flush against the ground.

ROAR... KABOOM!

The earth trembled violently beneath their boots.

A massive, gaping chasm split open directly beneath the feet of the Big Mom Pirates.

"Not good!" Panic erupted as several Charlotte siblings lost their footing, tumbling into the dark abyss. Katakuri drove his trident, Mogura, deep into the rock wall to halt his descent, using his free arm to catch his younger sister.

"Brother Katakuri..." Flampe cried out, panic written all over her face.

"Get up there first!" Katakuri's eyes flashed with a sharp crimson light as his mood sank to the absolute bottom. With a powerful, one-handed sweep, he hurled Flampe straight up out of the chasm.

In the very next heartbeat, the earth slammed shut with a heavy thud, sealing the fissure completely without leaving behind a single crack—as though the deep chasm had never existed in the first place.

Sitting alone on the smooth ground above, Flampe stared blankly ahead, feeling utterly helpless. Every single one of her brothers and sisters who had been standing beside her a microsecond ago had vanished without a trace.

Recalling Katakuri's absolute, unhesitating resolve to save her at the final moment, a strange, complex emotion welled up in her heart.

"Hmph! It's not like I asked him to save me anyway, that ugly, big-mouthed eel!" Flampe muttered under her breath, pouting as she put on a defensive, unbothered facade.

High above in the sky, Kizaru looked up at the plateau of the Red Line resting mere meters away. Spinning around mid-air, he unleashed a dense barrage of high-energy laser beams toward the approaching Beckman below.

"Yasakani no Magatama!"

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

A dazzling canopy of golden light spheres poured down like a divine storm.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The explosive display instantly drew the focus of a vast portion of the primary battlefield. The Marines locked in combat froze for a microsecond before erupting into ecstatic cheers.

Wasn't that iconic technique belonging to none other than Admiral Borsalino?!

"It's Admiral Kizaru!"

Amidst the thunderous cheers of the Navy troops, Kizaru converted his body into a golden beam of light, soaring into the heavens before landing smoothly atop the same massive stone spire where Red-Haired Shanks had stood earlier.

As his sharp gaze swept across the sprawling battlefield, his expression grew increasingly bewildered.

Yonko Red-Haired Shanks, Kaido of the Beasts, and Big Mom!!

Three sovereign Emperors of the Sea were present on a single field—and that was without factoring in the Legendary Four Brothers, who were guaranteed to step into the fray sooner or later.

To think the war had already escalated to such a catastrophic scale before the Four Brothers had even arrived...

"Admiral Kizaru, sir!" The Marines cheered frantically upon seeing his arrival.

Atop the high platform, Fleet Admiral Akainu's eyes snapped wide. Scanning the field, he grabbed the Transponder Snail loudspeaker and roared at the top of his lungs: "Kizaru! Target the airborne strike units in the sky!"

"Hm?" Kizaru raised his head in confusion, spotting numerous Revolutionary Army operatives maneuvering through the sky using specialized flight gear, wreaking havoc on the World Government's defensive artillery arrays.

"So you're the ones causing trouble up here, are you?"

Kizaru leaped into the open air, a brilliant golden light illuminating his hands. "Yasakani no Magatama..."